The Wisdom of Crowds

I visited MoMA last Saturday with my friend.  MoMA made me think about the definition of art.  Many works were too artistic for us to understand.  We talked about what were the criteria for good work.  Who decide whether a work is good or not?  We couldn’t figure that out.

I saw very famous pictures that I saw in my school textbooks.

“Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” by Pablo Picasso

“I and the Village” by Marc Chagall

These two works were my favorite ones.  Of course, there were more famous works very closely.  We talked about how much we would have to work to compensate for any valuable art we might happen to damaged.  I remember the Met tragedy last month; a woman damaged a Pablo Picasso work accidentally.

An article about the tragedy: Woman’s tear in Picasso slashes value by $65M

If you visit New York, you can see many famous works directly and easily.  There are so many museums in the city.  I am sure you will be surprised to have this precious opportunity.

I skated at Central Park last Friday.  Central Park’s ice rink was less crowded than Bryan Park.  I think there was only one tourist (me); the skate rink was for New Yorkers.  It was a wonderful experience in NYC.  After skating there, my legs hurt and I became hungry.  I realized that skating burns a lot of calories.

I went to an American Barbecue restaurant in Harlem last Thursday.  The restaurant name was “Dinosaur Barbecue”

It’s a completely American place.  I thought this place looked like a traditional American movie.  I was the only Asian person in the restaurant; other customers were white and black Americans.  I could understand the reason why there were filled with only American, because the dishes were completely American ones.  I didn’t know almost all their names.

You should have a guide to introduce you to American culture.  If you don’t know any good guide, you can’t go this kind of place by yourself.  I went there with my American friend, so I could enjoy their dishes fully.

There are uncountable restaurants in New York City, you can enjoy many countries cuisines.  In spite of this variety, it seems difficult to visit unknown cuisine restaurants because you don’t know them.  You need to have a good guide to enjoy them.  Your friends who are from different cultures may help you.

I went to a Ramen restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar last Wednesday.  American people run the restaurant, so it seemed different from Japanese ramen restaurants.  The atmosphere was stylish, and women who worked there were very cute.  Ramen restaurants are usually cheap and reasonable places in Japan, but they are unusual and expensive places in the U.S.

The taste of Ramen was soy-source based; it was good.  Though American chef cooked it, the ramen tasted the same as the ones in Japan.  There were also soft-boiled egg and dried seaweed, I was wondering whether they were acceptable for American people.

The price was…around 20 bucks for one ramen.  Can you believe it?  One ramen costs around 20 dollars in New York City.  Japanese cuisine is unusual in the U.S, so it’s expensive.  I know it.

I saw two Americans eating noodles with ketchup, I’ve never seen anyone who adds ketchup to noodles in Japan, I also found there were ketchup bottles on every table.  Americans tried to use chopsticks, I noticed half of them couldn’t use it well.  I thought that Japanese Ramen culture has took hold in the U.S.