A bit late for Halloween, but...

...it seemed like a sin to not talk about it, considering that it's my favorite holiday and an incredibly fun time to be in NYC. The parade was swamped, so it was kind of useless to head down to that side of town, but it was an incredible night to people watch. Especially dressed as the most bad ass skeleton on the streets. Even though I miss trick-or-treating back home, it's hard to not have fun on Halloween in the city.

Unfortunately, 18 credits, a part time job (in the honors lounge, though!) and a day off don't mix quite well, and I spent all of Sunday and most of Monday catching up reading and work. I'm still not caught up entirely. So it goes.

I spent the majority of my one class today - English 389.55, Jane Austen - vehemently defending Fanny Price, the heroine of Mansfield Park. This girl in my class (who I'm pretty sure despises me now) was arguing that she's boring and prissy, and I argued that introversion doesn't equate to dullness, and that Fanny Price has the most interiority and is the most relatable and realistic of all of the Austen heroines. Perhaps I'm just defending her because I totally relate to her. Something to consider...

Also, I saw Ricky Gervais do stand up at Hunter last night - absolutely hysterical (and for the Hunter-subsidized price of $10!) His taste is far cruder than mine, but it was a great way to step outside myself for an hour. It was totally refreshing. Hunter entertainment is generally pretty solid, actually. I'm excited to see a friend of mine perform in Curse of the Starving Class, which runs this week and next. All of the shows I've seen here so far have been impressive, to say the least. And the student productions are free! Hooray for poverty friendly entertainment!

Not much else going on, other than an immense amount of reading for this week and next; Austen's Emma, Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Morrison's Beloved. It's all enjoyable, at least.

-Katharine

Good Evening

Hey everyone, just got back to my dorm from a full day--

To start off I woke up at a great time today.. 12pm (gotta love those late class days). I got ready for school, and headed to my 2:10pm CHC class. I'm a sophomore so I'm taking Science and Technology of New York. Really interesting class, lot of statistics about the city, and apparently what some scientist guy thinks the city will look like in 400 years (the most recent thing we've discussed... I don't believe what he hypothesized at all). Then after that ended at 3:25, I rushed out (I was starving) and wolfed down a halal chicken 'n rice platter from of the stands before my Anthropology exam at 3:45. Aced that bad boy.

Afterwards, I took a nice walk uptown, to 96th street, visited my parents, and then came back to the dorms, where I sit now, writing to you all. Pretty amazing how that works out, huh?

Now, I'm gonna do some work, get ready for my Law, Politics and Morality of Same Sex Marriage course tomorrow, (I'm into the Law thing, planning on intellectual property law, probably-- I'm also taking Constitutional Law on Mondays). Then I'll probably hang out with some people at the dorms, and then cap the night off with a little guitar? maybe? I don't know we'll see, haha.

Well, catch you guys soon.

Julian

It's Monday!

Another morning in New York City... 8 a.m. bio recitation today, 9-12 bio lab, and then a German midterm - thus begins another week at Macaulay Hunter. By the way, the Hunter German department is excellent, and the language is really easy and fun. Bio lab.. a bit pedantic but hey, you do learn some useful skills. Plus there's something fun and reminiscent of kid's chemistry kits about doing the "experiments."

Yesterday I went to an Honors Seminar Sophomore common event - Macaulay is always trying to foster cross campus activity at the lovely Macaulay brownstone on the upper West side. Since this semester's seminar is on Science and Technology in New York City, the common events are short guest lectures from various scientists. This one was with an astrophysicist from the Museum of Natural History and was fascinating and fun - we got to hear about intergalactic collisions and multiple infinities from someone who actually discovers these things! Macaulay really works hard to make their common events good and this time they definitely succeeded. And my extreme nerdiness may have also contributed to the fun of it... But I can definitely vouch for the fact that MHC Hunter is quite nerd-friendly.

And so it's off to class for me. Happy Monday!