The Silk Road

[ceebeegee]

So, I got my Columbia ID the other day, yay! Very exciting strolling across the campus and picking up Columbia newspapers. They had an option for new students where you could upload your own picture as long as it was head-on, in color and showed your shoulders. I thought about uploading some of my yellow bikini pictures...

I've been looking at this new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History--The Silk Road. It's about the system of routes between Europe and the near and far East traveled by merchants (mostly), statesman, explorers, etc. Marco Polo went to Asia via the Silk Road. I'm especially interested because the bubonic plague entered the European continent via the Silk Road, and some of the cities along the Road were the first hit, like Caffa and Genoa.

We have this image of late-medieval Europe as being so isolated and insular, and certainly it was compared to the High Middle Ages, when the Crusades were in full swing. By the 1300s Europe was slouching towards a Malthusian disaster that came riiiight on schedule. But even against that terrible background...merchants were still making the arduous overland journey to Damascus and Baghdad, to Samarkand, to unnamed Asian cities that glittered in the distance, eager to share their riches.

Anyway, I was gloomily checking out the suggested AMNH admission price--$16, which frankly is a lot for one exhibit, for me anyway. I is po right now. And I'm not even sure if the Silk Road exhibit is extra. Then it occurred to me--the suggested student price is $12!

Comments

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

Clara, I'm sure you know that a suggested admission is just that, a suggestion. There's nothing wrong with paying a dollar or two. Health care should be affordable and so should culture.

But yes, Silk Road does require an extra charge. From the museum's web site: Should you wish to pay less than the suggested Museum admission and attend a special exhibition, IMAX film, or Hayden Planetarium Space Show, you may do so by purchasing tickets at any admissions desk at the Museum and by adding $20 per adult, $11 per child, and $16.50 per senior or student to the amount you wish to pay for general admission.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Hmm. So the extra fee for exhibitions is not suggested, it's a set fee?

I know it's a suggestion, but I dread that dirty look, as Nicholas says below. Still, I am a po' student right now, I guess I can get past my squeamishness.

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

I've never received a dirty look for paying a dollar or two at a suggested admission museum. Anyone who would do that is not representing their institution correctly.

[nswakko15.livejournal.com]

You can pay them a dollar. They will give you a dirty look and treat you like a piece of pond scum. But still...dollar.

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

Where has that happened to you? I go to suggested admission museums all the time and sometimes a dollar is what I can afford. I've never noticed anyone being rude to me for that.

[nswakko15.livejournal.com]

both the museum of Natural History and the museum of art.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Jeez, you'd think they'd be happy someone is supporting their museum any way they can. It's not as though your presence on the facilities incurs that much expense.

Anyway, glad to know the "suggested" fee is deliberately set a little high. I won't feel so bad about paying less.

[nswakko15.livejournal.com]

eh, it's just people with attitudes. they're everywhere.