Grand Central Centennial

Sorry to interrupt my New York Transit Museum posts, but this is related, so it’s okay.

As you can probably guess from the title of this post, Grand Central is 100 years old this year! The celebration was two weeks ago on February 1. I was lucky enough to have the chance to spend a good five hours there! And for the first time, I filmed my day instead of photographing it. My friend Emily and I just started our own YouTube channel. I’ll talk more about it in a future post, but the name of the channel is acityaffair. (It’s still “under construction.”) We focus on cities, life, and the city life. I will also be documenting my study abroad experience on this channel as well and I am so excited! I hope you follow us~

To inaugurate our channel, I have uploaded our first video: my day partaking in the Grand Central Centennial event. Here is the video:

For the centennial, there were speeches, performances, giveaways, and my favorite: 1913-priced items. How cool is that?! Here is a list of the events and deals of that day: http://www.grandcentralterminal.com/centennial/event.cfm?eventid=2145403540.

Now, a detailed breakdown of my day:

I was supposed to meet up with my friends at 9:30, however, I got stuck in the subway for at least 30 minutes longer than I intended :( All the crazy delays! But by some crazy chance, when I exited the station, I bumped into two of my friends right away. Going up the stairs to the terminal, I saw a crazy long line that from the turnstiles up to a store. What was it for? The $2 silk scarves from TOTO. I took one glance and then thought, maybe I should forgo this deal. And I did…for the time being. Then by chance, I bumped into two of my friends and we just wandered around the terminal. Fact: This was actually my first time in Grand Central. I’ve never had a reason to go through the terminal before so it was a very odd thing that I was celebrating the centennial of a place I’ve never been to…

We wandered for a while and then ended up in the Main Concourse. This was where the stage events were happening. Wow was it crowded here. And the acoustics were pretty bad. You could only hear anything if you were really close to the stage. What a shame. However, I did enjoy looking at the constellation ceiling. It is absolutely marvelous and probably my favorite part of Grand Central.

We wandered some more – as in, we walked around the whole terminal until we decided to go into the Grand Central Market. This place smells so good! Really. All the spices created a most wonderful aroma. It’s so crowded here because of how narrow the market is. I tagged onto a line with my friends for a piece of fudge from Li-lac Chocolates. It was 25 cents, 27 including tax. I still haven’t finished it to this day. I don’t really like fudge, but I just bought it to buy it. While we were on line, the guy behind the spices section was trying to keep us entertained. He would ask us to tell him a joke. One girl was targeted and she delivered. I laughed because her joke was one of the jokes that are so bad, they’re funny. But because of this, the guy caught me and said, “You must have a joke, right? I know you have a joke. C’mon. Tell us!” I was really pressed because the only joke I could think of at the moment was “Why was the mushroom the life of the party? Because he’s a fun-guy (fungi).” And there was no way I was going to repeat that joke. Haha. So I kept telling him “no” until he left me alone. Phew. Dignity saved!

After this, my friends had to leave to class so I just wandered around hoping to bump into my other friend who I could not find. Eventually, I ended up on the TOTO line. I waited for over an hour because, yes, I have no life. At least I made some friends on the line. Besides, I was waiting for another friend to meet up with me in the terminal so I was productively waiting for her. I did bump into my other friend while on this line, but since she had been in the terminal way before me, she was ready to leave so I didn’t get to hang out with her. :( She showed me the scarves she got from TOTO and some were really cute, but when I got to go into the store, they only had three options, all the same design just in different color schemes. :( They were nice, but totally not my style. I just bought all three, gave one to my friend (who didn’t get a chance to stand on line) and the other two to my mom. The sales associate would only bring out a couple designs at a time. You could only choose from whatever was in front of you. Then, when the scarves would run out, they would bring out more of either the same or different designs.The reason why this line was so long was because they only let about 3 people in at a time. There were police officers standing in front of the store, keeping the line in order.

Afterwards, I walked around the terminal, going through places multiple times. I stumbled upon a line and just jumped on it. I did this several times. As a result, I came home with five luggage tags, two bookmarks, three granola bars, and two bags of trail mix. The granola bar did not taste good and I still haven’t tried the trail mix. I’m not a big fan of trail mix. I also got a vintage train whistle and two samples of cologne from Jo Malone. The bag and case for the samples is so cute! At some point, I also ended up with a regular-sized financier at one of the centennial tables. (These taste like Madelines.) But I didn’t realize that I had this financier so I stood on line at the actual store, Financier Patisserie, to get one. I ended up buying a cup of coffee for 5 cents (although I don’t drink coffee. I gave it to my friend when she came later.) that came with a mini financier.

Funny story: I texted my friend to tell her that I got her a cup of coffee and to tell her to call me when she gets her. She replied right away that she was standing on a line for something she didn’t even know. When she described her location, I realized that she was standing on the line right across from me. How coincidental.

One of my favorite bits of the day was going Ciao Bella for gelato/sorbet. It was a dime a scoop, but the employees actually filled up the cups until they were full. And they were all so nice, especially for that many people hounding them all day. Kudos to them! The first time (yes, I went a second time and yes, it is one per customer), I got mango sorbet. It was delicious! I didn’t realize that there were flavors of gelato that I might actually like. All I saw was green tea and Tahitian vanilla. So I chose a sorbet. Although the cup looked small, it was a lot more filling than I expected. The line looked really intimidating when I first got on, but it went by really quickly. About seven minutes, I believe. The second time I went, it was because I went on line with my friend who came afterwards. That time, I got cookie dough gelato. It was also amazing~ I really like the texture of gelato. When I go to Italy, I am going to eat gelato every day. Hehe.

At the new exhibition, Grand By Design, there were these “Ask Me” boxes featuring real-life employees. This was really cool. You press one of the question buttons and they answer. It’s always strange to see a virtual re-imagining of people. It kind of reminds me of the Doctor Who episode, Silence in the Library, where the help kiosks were statues with moving human faces. I didn’t get a good look at the exhibition, but I hope to be back some time soon.

I walked around the terminal maybe 20 times. No exaggeration.

Some other notes: there were shoe shines for 10 cents. I passed by two stores doing the shoe shines and it really looked like old times. Men were just sitting on these big comfy chairs, reading the newspaper while getting their shoes shined. I also got quite a big bag of french fries from Tri Tip Grill for 11 cents, including tax. I was surprised by how many french fries they actually give you. It took me a considerable amount of time to finish them and they were yummy~ Lastly, one of my wishes for the day came true: I wanted to coincidentally bump into a friend or at least someone I know. And I did! I bumped into a friend from high school. Yes! Goal accomplished!

Overall, I had a fantastic day. Although I didn’t even get half of the things on the list of giveaways and 1913 deals, I am quite proud of my collection. There were some cool things that I missed, but oh well. I had to go to a club meeting afterwards and I did not have the energy or time to continue walking around for another three or so hours. Grand Central is an amazing place so visit if you ever have the chance. It is a true masterpiece. Also, events celebrating the centennial continue throughout the year. Check out this website for more information: http://www.grandcentralterminal.com

Lastly, here are some other photos of the beautiful architecture at the terminal: