Author: Alice Wang

Today’s date is March 5, 2016. We are going on our first trip to Astoria today. It’s a bit cold for early spring, as the temperature is only 43 degrees Fahrenheit. The weather was mostly clear and sunny. It’s my first time to Astoria for reasons other than orthodontist visits. During the trip there I quickly realized the convenient location of the neighborhood. It is accessible from Brooklyn and Manhattan because it is the last stop for the Q and N trains. We did not take the train to the last stop, however, as we got off at 30th avenue and started our expedition.

From first glance, the neighborhood didn’t seem that much different from other residential parts of neighborhoods in Queens. The restaurants, supermarkets, and discount stores could easily be found in areas such as Rego Park and Elmhurst. The restaurants I initially saw were mostly Chinese, Italian, and Thai. As we walked down further, we encountered a park/playground known as Athens Square. The first thing I noticed there was the Greek flag next to the American flag. I have always been told that Astoria was a mostly Greek community; this is the first time that I witnessed it myself. In the park, there were statues of Greek philosophers such as Sophocles, Aristotle and Socrates. There was also a statue of Greek goddess Athena. The statues were presumably made of bronze and were very cold to touch due to the cold weather. There were also structures that resemble ruins of ancient Greek architecture. Behind it was a playground that resembles most of NYC public parks. The bathrooms in the park were not open. There were young kids playing on the facilities of the playground.

Next to Athens Square was PS 17Q David Henry Thoreau School. First thing that caught my eye was the various murals on the exterior of the building. There was one that said “welcome to Queens” in the center. The overall theme for the murals was passports to different countries. I saw drawings representing countries in every continent of the world. We took many pictures of this school. Since it’s an elementary school, I think the reason for all of these murals is to promote diversity and acceptance of other cultures at an young age. This shows the open-mindedness of residents of Astoria, at least on a surface level.

After visiting the school, we continued walking into the residential area. I noticed many stores, regardless of its purpose, has “Astoria” in its name. Just from today alone, I saw stores like Astoria pharmacy, Astoria bank, Astoria pediatric center, Astoria funeral home, Astoria accident & injury treatment center, Astoria good, Astoria wireless, and Astoria brewhouse. The inclusion of the neighborhood name in its local stores show that the residents are very proud of this name and want to show it. This gives an overall sense of well-being and contentedness of local residents.
We later went to a restaurant called Duzan because of Melissa’s love for falafels. I cannot tell the difference between different qualities of falafels because of my lack of experience. I’m not quite sure what I expected but I did like the taste of it. This trip was quite enjoyable overall and we look forward to exploring a different area on our next excursion.