Today was a really good day, I think (besides a quick scare where I left my notebook in the cafeteria with my five page paper in it, and once I realized this class was in ten minutes-- but it's okay because the professors are always fifteen minutes late anyway) and was truly just another temperate, rainy Wednesday in New York. My favorite class is on Wednesdays, Urban Social Photography. I got into the class as a mistake, really-- I originally wanted to be enrolled in East Asian Studies but was placed in the sociology/photography course instead. Eventually, after hearing about many of my theater friends in the East Asian studies class who had mountains of paperwork due each time, and enjoying every sociology class more and more each time, I came to understand this happenstance as a sort of divine intervention. My professors, two handsome middle-aged scholars both with small beards and glasses (and both named Roger, incidentally; one is a sociologist and one a photographer) are amazing and seem to love every student.
Anyway, the classroom is on the fifteenth floor, and has huge windows facing uptown and what I think might be the Empire State building, far away. The windows are usually cracked open about a foot or so on nice days so we can enjoy the breeze as we watch photography slides or engage in a sociological discussion. There is a platform outside the window which I believe to be the roof- or at least, I call it the roof; it's a space with walking room and a ledge outside these windows. And I've always, always, had the desire to climb out one of those classroom windows and stand on the roof.
Anyway, today, I did. It was a rainy day so there was a pool of water accumulated directly beneath the windowsill, but once I stepped over that there was plenty of room to walk around and take in the marvelous city skyline. I did this twice, actually; once before the professors walked in the room and once after class was over.
Once almost all the other students had filed out to catch the elevator, I told Roger (the photographer) I was going onto the roof again, and after a pause (I had already swung everything except a leg outside) he said, "You know, I wanna see what that looks like too." So he clambered out after me, and remarked on how fifteen stories isn't actually that great of a height, but I didn't care, I just wanted to take some cool pictures of the city from a semi-high rooftop.
Peace and love ;)
3 comments:
Wow! Is that platform a fire escape?
What is the building with the pointy top and light? Can you see midtown from there?
It's only a fire escape if you count leaping off the side as an escape route! There's no stairway or anything from there. It's just an almost useless little platform from that one side of the building.
Maybe it was put there so that curious creative folk like yourself could take neat pictures.
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