I got a train up to 74th Street and wandered over to Central Park, where eventually I located the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Spent a pleasant two and a quarter hours taking in Roman sculptures and European masterpieces, including the requisite van Goghs, Manets, Monets, and Seurats (including a study for La Grande Jette, which I will hopefully be seeing tomorrow).

I left with an hour to spare, which I thought would be plenty of time, but surprisingly I only just got to the South Street Seaport in time for my entrance to the Bodies exhibition. South Street Seaport is a rather hip collection of bars and boutiques leading down to the riverside, which would probably be a lot more fun to visit if I was over 21 and wasn’t by myself.

Anyway, Bodies was in an upstairs series of galleries, and was an illuminating, if rather disturbing, experience. Facing these dead bodies, preserved in all their finery, is not immediately repulsive. In fact, it’s more beautiful than anything. But occasionally, when you’re up close and you see the whites of their eyes, or their teeth, or the other side of their face, one is reminded of that old They Might Be Giants ditty:

Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part
that wonders what the part that isn’t thinking isn’t thinking of
Should you worry when the skullhead is in front of you,
Or is it worse because it’s always waiting
Where your eyes don’t go?

Be very, very pleased that you will hopefully never come across a teratoma, incidentally. Skin. Hair. Teeth. Growing in a hairy, teeth-covered lump inside you. Eeuch. Finally, perhaps the most harrowing section contains a number of preserved foetuses, a section which carries a warning and can be bypassed. Seeing a tiny infant, the size of your hand, curled up in a ball with its eyes closed, eternally paused at 24 weeks…

On a lighter note, I unexpectedly bought $17 of Chinese food, and unsurprisingly don’t feel too good now.

So, farewell, New York. Although I’ll see you in a week or so. You were very rude and obnoxious. I think my initial wish to live here was a little hasty. Still, you are undeniably the most exciting city on Earth.