Bouncing off of what Kaitlyn said...

I went home for Easter after an amazing spring break in England and Ireland, opened my closet, and got rid of half of my possessions. I realized that I've evolved in the almost 2 years I've been in New York City, and I really don't need a box of incense, or an Edward Scissorhands sweatshirt. (My Pokemon games are staying right where they are though, until I get an apartment, at which point they'll find a new nook in a new closet.)

Buried on one of my shelves was a Franklin & Marshall course catalog that I'd taken when I visited and, admittedly, fell in love with the school. I remember poring over the pages as a high school senior, waiting for my acceptance letters, dreaming of living in Lancaster and taking English courses at F&M. (I had no idea whether or not I'd actually get into Macaulay, considering how few are accepted.) Well, acceptance letters came, and, even with a merit scholarship of a whopping $7000, Franklin and Marshall was totally unaffordable. I didn't mind so much; my excitement over my acceptance to Macaulay at Hunter totally trumped whatever sadness I had about F&M, but I wasn't quite ready to recycle the course catalog for whatever reason. So, into the closet it went.

When I dug the catalog out on Monday, I felt like I was 17 again. The heavy, navy blue stock and the embossed gold crest made me giddy, and I leafed through the pages once more. What I found, though, was that I had made the right choice in coming to Hunter.

Since coming here, I've taken half a dozen advanced literature courses and four writing workshops, and I have tons more options available. I will not be bored over the next two years - Hunter's faculty and course diversity will allow me to study, in depth, any time period or genre I could imagine. The English offerings in the Franklin and Marshall catalog took up two or so pages - maybe 30 courses? Maybe? And forget about my German studies. The German department there is minuscule, and while I could have majored in German, I'd have blown through every course offered by Junior year.

So, as everyone is making their decisions over the next month, I suggest they forget names for a second and take a look at the courses that each of the schools offers. You might be shocked to find that the best education doesn't necessarily lie where you think it does.

Textbook lost and found

Yesterday I had an interesting first experience - I somehow managed to completely lose one of my textbooks. Like many college students, I'm in the habit of carrying large, heavy books around with me pretty much at all times. Yesterday the book of choice was a big green one aptly, if un-creatively, titled "Chemistry," and apparently it objected to my constant highlighting, marking, post-it-ing, and other abuse, because somewhere in the course of my day it completely jumped ship.

It all started while I was waiting to meet my research mentor, a psychology professor at NYU, down in NYU territory. He was a bit late so naturally I occupied myself studying. When he arrived we headed off to get lunch at a nearby deli, sat outside some big fancy looking NYU building for our meeting, and an hour or so later I headed off back to Hunter. The whole thing seemed entirely straightforward, except that when I got on the train and went to get my chem book out of my backpack to resume my studying, it suddenly occurred to me that the book had actually not been in my backpack. A quick check confirmed that indeed, I was chemistry-book-less. Hrm...

Since I had another class at Hunter I continued uptown, then as soon as my last class let out last night I hurried back down to the NYU, which thankfully is in the same direction as my house. There was no textbook outside the big fancy building... But, returning to the deli across the street, I found it there waiting for me - "with a pen inside," as the cashier who had been holding it for me pointed out - sitting right by the counter where I had inadvertently abandoned it several hours before. Crisis averted!

Clearly, this is the danger of hyper-active studying...

New Jersey Disappears

On Monday, coming home from Legal Aid, I looked down the street and saw that either A) New Jersey was dissolving and wafting over to Manhattan in a misty cloud of its component molecules, or B) there was a lot of fog on the Hudson. Either way, I took pretty pictures:

View from Gansevoort St:


Ooh Spooky!


You'll notice the fog is very clumpy and localized-like (mostly around the piers in the distance):


Oh no, it's spreading! Not only has Jersey City just about sunk all the way, but one of our piers has dissolved, leaving behind only these rotting wood pilings!


The Village, foggy-style:


Christopher St Pier:


Oh wow, do I always look this serious?