My trip to Roosevelt Island

Ever since I got here, I've been hearing different things about where the upperclassmen live and how cool it is. So needless to say I've been pretty curious about what makes it so great. Well when my group and I in our first year mentoring class got assigned to go and explore Roosevelt Island I was pretty excited!

I had a vision of what it might look like before I left, I pictured it as a place much like Manhattan, with lots of buildings and skyscrapers and being very busy with lots of people. When I stepped off the subway and came out of the station I was surprised. It was so open, I felt like I had not only taken the subway out of the upper east side, but completely out of New York City. What I took to be the middle of the island is very quaint and cute. It reminded me of being home in on of the little towns that surround mine, which I think is why I like being there so much. It only has a couple little restaurants and shops but in the middle is this patch of green that is completely open with tons of flowers and a little fountain. It seems way too quiet and serene to be only across the river from Manhattan, but it is such a nice escape from the craziness.

We decided to go explore the island, and I was thinking that this island was huge so I was sort of dreading walking the entire thing. After walking a little ways out of the center of "town" we came out underneath the Queensboro Bridge, which was absolutely beautiful from where we were standing. Being on that island, you see the buildings, bridges, and sights we see everyday from here on Manhattan but it just is so much prettier without all the distractions around. It was so nice to be able to walk around the edge of the island, right along the water. At this point I realized why people enjoyed coming here so much, it's such a calming, relaxing escape.

Then we came to the hospital, after walking about 5 minutes and still being not even halfway down the campus I was amazed at the size of the hospital. Near the end of the campus we saw lots of old, decrepit looking buildings which honestly were pretty scary looking. The first thing that came to mind was that it looked like an abandoned insane asylum. There were bars on the windows and all over the walls, and just the way the buildings looked from the outside it was very eerie.

When we finally got by the hospital it was pretty clear that we had gotten into the "bad" part of Roosevelt because we started to realize this island wasn't all cute, nice little neighborhoods. That just like everywhere else, there were definitely some bad parts to this community.

Overall, I truly loved being at Roosevelt Island, the feeling of being in a little town away from the city was what won me over. I would love to live in the dorms there next year because it seems like such an amazing place to live. Anyone who wants to just get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and get some fresh air should definitely go to Roosevelt Island, I loved it and I'm sure that you would too.