Bronx Zoo

Our Valentine's day turned to be quite animal. We hopped on the train number 2 and travelled until East Tremont Ave/West Farms Square and walked a bit to get to the Bronx Zoo gate. Winter had made many of the animals go inside and out of reach but we still saw plenty. Like for example the tree kangaroos, who stayed in the tropical "Jungle World" space.

Seeing these little creatures play around brought some memories to E. When she was a kid, her favorite, a very touching movie told a story of an otter (Eurasian or European, I don't know). The otter's Latin name is Lutra lutra, isn't that just wonderfully onomatopoetic? Anyway, she discovered that this playful, water-living animal is probably her favorite of all.


There was also a tapir. But as you may notice from the atmosphere of the photo, it seemed lonely. Or bored. Or maybe it was only resting. There's always the moral problem of visiting the zoos: is it really necessary to gather those animals here where they don't belong just for us to look at and bother them?

At least many of them get to be in a group, like these ebony langurs which were very concentrated in each other.


The black panther looked very royal. But wait a minute, aren't there two panthers resting in this picture?


The Hog-nosed (also known as Pig-nosed) turtle was pretty much worth of it's name.

As we got out from the tropical jungle imitation, we found the most photogenic animals. The Californian sea lions were to be fed, and they tried to catch our attention. It wasn't difficult since they were living in a pool in the middle of the park ad they came showing themselves on the boarder of the pool. Pretty characteristic animals, wouldn't you say?



He's the big guy in the pool.

Oh there was some monkeyface audience as well...


When the feeders came, the sea lions had to do a bunch of tricks. Like getting the frisbee and bringing it back. Fish for the price. Almost every time they got their bodies up there easily.


Just could you give me some more fish?


The tiger was beautiful. But one of the animals that didn't make the impression of a happy animal, going around the same path in it's cage.


The same with the Polar bear. It seemed that its lunchtime was approaching, which maybe gives an explination why walk from door to door.


The little monkeys seemed ok, though. This cotton-top tamarin was one of the only monkeys we could capture in a picture since we didn't want to use flash while taking the pictures. The monkeys were running and jumping and playing with each other.


As the last but not the least of this series, here's a picture of an animal that looks so proud. The snow leopard, one of the animals that probably didn't mind the chilly circumstances.

A few Manhattan’s peculiarities:

• In the subway: You should not be surprise by seeing an eighty years old lady, a few months old baby in his stroller or a teenager in a school uniform in the train at 2AM. The evident difference in the statistic of passengers according to the moment of the day known from other cites do not apply to NYC subway. At any time during the day and night you can meet there as well young and old, busy and bored, hurrying up to work or coming back from parties. It’s a real population focus of the “city that newer sleeps”, of course apart from those who use only cabs or private chauffeurs. My favorite observation in the tube is a mass use of the I-pods or other similar items. Always at least half of my co-passengers (not only the youngest ones) entertain themselves with games, music, videos release be their gadgets. The funny thing is that usually they start to swing or even move according to rhythm delivered by their earphones. So in one wagon you can have a quite big group of people, each of them swaying in own rhythm, and unconsciously reacting all-together to the motion of the train. Sometimes it truly looks like a well designed choreography. And it offers my preferred game of guessing who is listening to what.
• It is rare to notice drunken people on the streets. They are of course but they don’t stand out. By walking around it’s hard to say where are the parting spots – the groups of tired party-goers are not very visible, even in Greenwich Village or East Village. Well, maybe beside of the cabs’ concentration near the hottest places.
• The same is with the smokers. The cigarettes are not as exposed as in stores in Europe; it’s the candies that you can find by the cash box. It’s so rarely that I notice the cigarettes smoke on the street that usually it takes me a while to recognize it form the canalization, the garbage, the traffic or the other people smells. And even there is a ban for smoking in the restaurants and the pubs; there are no smoking groups by the doors; even though it’s not so cold here.

L.

The Snow Day

We had belived that now there will be only the spring. We had remarqued the firsts buds and the yellow blossom of forsythia. And then, one day, it had come. It started during the night. When we woke up there was this strange calmness and silence in the air. When we opened the curtains everything was covered by the thick sheet of a white. And this white was still comming down in its fairytale motion.

When I got out with the camera I heard the female voice from the white car: hi sweety! why wouldn't you take a photo of my big ass taking this big white ass out from the snow, ha?

It become sure that our way to Columbia campus that day will be a bit different...
At the campus we dicovered that snow in NYC means not only fun but also a disaster. The mayor of the city announced "The Snow Day" and closed all the public institutions, including schools, universites, libraries and so on. And everyone got a day off because of the snow...Unfortunately the snow started to melt so quickly... The white tourned in to the usually, and that was the real disaster...