Today I took a day trip to New York City to meet my Parisian friend, A. who was in town for vacation. Online dating notwithstanding, A. is the only person I have gotten to know online before meeting IRL. We first bonded on LiveJournal because we were both studying chemistry (she is a chemical engineer), because I was studying French and she <i>is</i> French, and because we shared a love of the same TV shows.
We decided to check out the American Museum of Natural History. I used to go there fairly often when I was a kid, but a lot of things are different than I remember. The dinosaurs and prehistoric animals area is much improved, based on my vague memories. But on the other hand, is it just me or is the blue whale hanging from the ceiling in the Oceans exhibit not the same one that was there twenty years ago? I kind of miss the old one — it never gave me the impression that it was diving toward the floor in order to suck me into its baleen.
One thing that hasn’t changed in the Ocean exhibit is “the squid and the whale” as referenced in that movie with Jeff Daniels. That exhibit looks exactly the same as it did when I was a little kid, and it still freaks me out just as much! Something about how dark it is in there makes me feel like the diorama goes on forever. Looking at it gives me the same sense of vertigo that I felt when I was snorkeling in the real ocean in the deep water where I couldn’t see the bottom. I get creepy chills just thinking about it! (The real ocean, not the exhibit. It is only a diorama after all!).
Another section that hasn’t changed is my favorite exhibit: the minerals and gems. In fact, from the looks of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t changed since the seventies! I have always loved rocks better than animals. In the third grade I did a science project where I took photos of all the minerals in the exhibit that struck my fancy and my parents had them developed into slides. Does anyone even remember slides? This was in the days before PowerPoint! For my project I presented the slides with blurb that I had researched and written about each mineral. At the time I thought I wanted to be a geologist, but I think I compromised pretty well by studying materials science and crystal structure. I get to learn about rocks and chemicals at the same time!
For Science! 