Williamstown, Massachusetts

Thompson Memorial Chapel

The motel in the middle of nowhere

This weekend, I went to Williamstown for a wedding because the bride and groom met there while attending Williams College. I actually didn't do too much exploring, since I went for that express purpose, but it is a typical small, New England town. I wonder how many businesses there exist solely because of the presence of Williams College.

I made a very stupid mistake of booking a hotel that was 2 miles from the city center. In New York 2 miles is nothing, but Williamstown has no public transportation, so we had to call a cab for everything. Williamstown basically has 3 restaurants. There is a small street, Spring st., which comprises what people call "the downtown area." On that street, there is a Thai place, an Indian place, a deli, and a Vietnamese place. Sometimes I miss nature, and like the quiet peace of small places like this, but one glance at Spring st. and I knew that I would go crazy if I spent more than a month here. Sometimes I wonder if travelling has left me with location ADD--I always feel a need to explore something new, and the thought of knowing a place so well that there could never be anything new to discover makes me feel claustrophobic. Ironic that Williamstown, with its wide open spaces and fresh air would leave me feeling more trapped than New York City with its tiny, dingy apartments and crowded walkways.

The wedding of course, was beautifully done. Some drums or a rock band was playing next door, which was a bit distracting. I tried really hard not to get emotional, but when the bride's father started crying I ended up doing so too...and ruined my eye make up for the rest of the day (I had gone through the trouble of putting on fake lashes for the occasion, and they became completely unglued), but oh well. It was a Catholic ceremony, which I have never seen before. I think it would be interesting to see weddings in different countries, since I'm sure they vary a lot. In particular, the wedding food was amazing. I completely broke my attempt to be a vegetarian to eat prime rib and cheddar and apple stuffed chicken. On a side note, the gnocchi was amazing, and I normally hate gnocchi.

The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

So now back to the US!

When I say New York City, I mean Manhattan. The other boroughs are practically other cities to me. Going to Queens is a day trip. Going to Brooklyn as well. As for the Bronx, I haven't thought of a reason to go there (I went once to the zoo), and I've never been to Staten Island (no reason to go either). This year however, one of my best friends moved to Brooklyn, so I've visited more often.

I went to the Brooklyn Museum, which has 5 floors and some interesting exhibits. Some paintings were just stupid, like a painting of a bathroom sign (the female figure that marks women's restrooms). One painting was enormous, perhaps 8 feet tall, and it was just a yellow dot on a red background (or maybe a red dot on a yellow background). I guess I'm not a professional artist, but isn't that a waste of such a big canvas? I mean, couldn't that be demonstrated on something smaller? There were some really amazing pieces as well--my favorite was of Niagara falls. There were also some beautiful pieces of stained glass.

Unlike a lot of the other art museums I've been to, this museum had some quirky exhibits, like a bunch of skateboards, or rooms from different time periods, or collections of weirdly designed furniture. That was pretty cool. The first floor has a lot of ancient artwork from Egypt, China, India, Cambodia and Thailand. They had some Islamic art too, and a room with mummies. There was a special room devoted to "feminist art," which had artistic depictions of the vaginas of famous women, such as Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, and Hillary Clinton, etc.

Apparently once a month there are also parties in the museum, so perhaps I will go check that out.

Aside from the museum, there is a nice farmer's market (where most things are vegan and organic). I bought a walnut pudding bread--it was just okay.