From Beantown to the Big Apple

The good thing about living on your own somewhere is that you are free to do whatever you please. For me, this meant acting upon a random desire to go to New York over the weekend and hopping on an early-morning Chinatown bus on Friday.
For someone who always looked at $350 tickets to one of my favorite cities with a certain longing, spending fifteen bucks on a crummy old Fung-Wah felt like heaven.

I arrived in New York Chinatown roughly four hours later and made my way to the Subway in the pouring rain to stop over at Colin's "Skypad" (a beautiful hideout on the tenth floor of an Upper East Side apartment building) for lunch. Plans to wander around fell through due to the water pouring from the sky, but I caught up on homework instead and then met my Aussie friend Jo and her man James for some soup dumplings and a good chat in Chinatown before heading out to Yonkers, NY to spend the night at their funky basement studio.

The weather luckily cleared up and allowed for a boat ride, a hot "dawg" and some live music in Central Park the next day, followed by a 65-block walk through Manhattan with Sascha. I had the honor of being Sascha's first official visitor since his move to NYC a year ago, and got a tour of his Noho neighborhood and a peek at some of the work he did at art school last year.

We met up with Colin again for dinner at Perbacco in the Village before I crashed on a cozy mattress on the floor of Sascha's room.

Sunday we did 8 a.m. Mass at St. Vincent Ferrer and had a nice brunch at Pandora's before I headed back down to Chinatown with Sascha and caught the 12 o'clock bus back to Boston.

No Empire State Building, no Times Square, none of the usual touristy stuff - but I have the feeling that I drank in more New York spirit than during any of my previous visits.

That Apple, I just love it.

My picture-taking discipline was a bit on the weak side this time (for example, not a single graphic record of my reunion with Jo), but here is a selection.

Some NYC architecture

Colin on The Lake in Central Park (Can you believe this is New York City??)

Mag in the row boat (the only women workin' the oars on the entire lake!)

Sascha and his apartment on Bleecker Street

A Riddle for the Weekend

It's a piece of fruit.
It is large.
I am going there for the weekend.

Any guesses?

Excited ... see you on the flip side!

Germ ridden

Last week, they put up hand sanitizers all over campus. I guess they were trying to prevent us from getting sick by making us rub a strange-smelling liquid onto our hands. Well, it didn't work ... I caught a cold.
My nose is runny, my eyes water, and I cough, but the nicest bit is my 1-800 number sex hotline voice that causes classmates to turn and stare whenever I make a comment in class. Which, being the chatterbox that I am, happens quite frequently.

Apart from that, college life is good. I am working away on my freshman 15, stuffing myself with carbs and fatty foods at the cafeteria every day. Don't get me wrong, I try to avoid them - but the choice of foods seems to diminish by the day. I hit my limits yesterday when I tried to have maccaroni & cheese for brunch. Don't try that.
My bold plans to join both the Women's Rugby team and the Jukido Jiujitsu self-defense class were postponed for the lack of energy and proper clothing. Once I feel better and buy running shoes, I"ll need to find a new excuse.

Classes never cease to surprise me. After having worked on a case involving 3M in my Corporate Entrepreneurship course, the prof pulled out a phone from underneath her desk today in the middle of class and actually called up one of the executives we had read about so we could ask him questions.
I have more homework than ever before and spend pretty much the entire day reading cases and articles, coming up with business ideas (wait till my new handbag organizer hits the market) and plowing through pages of Thomas Hobbes in old English.
Sound nerdy? I suppose so, but I love it.

Tomorrow my long-lost World Vision Youth Ambassador friend and talented jazz singer Jo Lawry will visit me on campus and spend the night. I haven't seen her since the summer of 2000, so I am very excited.
Alright, time for lunch. Burgers, burritos and chocolate muffins, here I come.

Sights and sounds

The first week has been very eventful. Pub Night at Roger's (the campus pub), a Joshua Tree concert and one of the famous Knight Parties, named after the Knight Auditorium where it is held, demonstrated the reality of the American alcohol policy. Coming from a country where the consumption of wine and beer is legal at age sixteen, it really takes a while to get used to the procedures:

1) Show your passport to the scary-looking cop at the door
2) Receive a plastic bracelet indicating that you are of legal drinking age
3) Proceed to the designated drinking area, get a beer
4) Sip it quietly while watching the jealous faces of those who are denied entrance into the Halls of Glory, unable to decide whether to feel stupid or special
5) DO NOT (!!!) leave the designated area with your beer cup, or else you will be dragged back by your collar.

Hmm.
Apart from these college activities, we explored Boston despite the rainy and cold weather on Saturday, ate some lobster and fudge (not together, I must add) and walked part of the Freedom Trail.

Fun on and around campus

Exploring Boston

The academically most impressive experience of the week was a meeting with Prof. Taylor, who specializes in entrepreneurship, specifically social entrepreneurship. Not only did she take time to talk to me for more than an hour, she was also genuinely interested in my thoughts and made a huge effort to go through ideas and options for my thesis with me. In Austria, no professor talks to you for such a long time, unless they have a personal interest. I am seeing the benefits of American education.

On the "downside", I think I've found out where our housing and tuition money is going. Last week's "What's up Wednesday" was advertised as "Make Your Own Fishtank Night". I didn't go, but a couple of hundred freshmen did. The college gave away free goldfish, tanks, and all the gadgets that go with them. Now that is what I call an efficient use of my money. It made a tank full of Nemos very happy this week.

In-spired and ex-cited

Where do I start? So much has happened in the past few days that no matter how hard I try, this post will be endless. Therefore, similar to the Dining Hall on campus, I'll display a selection of the finest bits and pieces.

1) Orientation. A giant BBQ party, talks on self-esteem, alcohol abuse and eating disorders, a wild boat cruise in Boston Harbor with spectacular views of the skyline, Visa Info sessions (I thought America wasn't bureaucratic ... I was WRONG.), lunches with faculty and staff, Bingo organized by the Panhellenic Council (Kappa Kappa Gamma, Sigma Epsilon Chi and all those girls that wear big Greek letters on the front of their sweaters).

2) Freshmen. I sat next to five of them on the shuttle bus to Boston Harbor. Conversation topics ranged from pressing international issues ("What language do they speak in Austria?") to a genuine interest in my person ("You're 24!?!? Do you have an ID? Can you buy us alcohol??"). Their favorite and most frequently used four-letter word definitely began with F. By the time we left the bus, I had developed an almost maternal connection.

3) Food. I love burgers. I love pizza. I L-O-V-E chocolate chip cookies. It is a real act of self-discipline to squeeze in the occasional plate of salad and helping of fruit to avoid the infamous "freshman 15" (or exchange 15, in my case). Anyone care to bet that I will still fit into my jeans by the time I leave? If I do, you owe me a double bacon cheeseburger.

4) Classes. Definitely more challenging, but also a whole lot more interesting than anything I have taken back home. In Negotiations today, we were deep into our first negotiations exercise 5 minutes after entering the classroom. I sold a $15,000 piece of land for $19,500 and was really proud until I found out that the lowest anyone else went was $22,000. Dang. I have a lot to learn.

5) People. Smiles, waves and individuals with an incredible memory for names impress me every day. Coming from a country where it is almost rude to start a conversation with someone you don't know, it takes a little effort to get used to introducing myself to people I stand next to in the cafeteria line, but I am really enjoying it. Where else could you say that you've met about 60 people in your first 4 days?? Professors take you out for dinner ("The first one who sends me an e-mail can pick a nice restaurant downtown and take three friends."), peer mentors who stop by Target to get you a pillow and search friends' basements for blankets, bus drivers who recognize you 30 minutes later and still know where you were going ... that's America. Or at least the little part I am priviledged to know.

6) Wellesley. A main street with a convenience store, a hair and nail studio, a pizza place, a cafe, a wholefoods store, a gas station and a fire department, a twenty-minute walk from campus. (The mere fact that us Europeans walk resulted in surprised looks from car-crazy fellow students and friendly waves from a family watching us across their picket fence.) Also, Wellesley is a dry town - you cannot buy alcohol there, and if you really want a glass of wine with your pizza, you can bring your own bottle. Nice, huh?

7) Dorm rooms. I am amazed at the amount of furniture and gadgets people manage to stuff into their tiny dorm rooms. I've seen plasma TV screens, gigantic stereo systems, couches, queen sized beds, to say the least. Compared to the U-Haul trucks regular students arrived in, my two 70-pound suitcases suddenly seem ridiculously small.

As a friend told me today, welcome to America.

On a lighter note: Girls, how much time do you spend on your hair?

Orientation in graphics

Babson begins

I have arrived. A long flight, a stopover in Heathrow, and a two-hour wait at Immigration made it a little tough, but then I was warmly welcomed by Stew and Toshi the cat at their Boston home and spent the night on a comfortable futon bed.
On Saturday morning, my two big heavy suitcases and I embarked on yet another Odyssey to Babson College, which took me two hours instead of 45 minutes. I am now a proud resident of Putney Hall (or Putney "Hole" as I like to call it), a slightly run-down and dark dorm, but nevertheless a fun place to be. Wonderful Jen gave us a ride to the Mall today and counceled us through the seemingly endless variety of products (how on earth are you supposed to make a quick decision about laundry detergent when you've got 30 different types??), and now all I am missing is a warm blanket to get me through the surprisingly cold autumn nights.

I'm stuffed with bagels, burgers and brownies, I was called "honey" at least four times today by total strangers, I had sushi at the College President's house last night and watched students parade flags down the aisle of Staake Gymnasium today, accompanied by loud trumpet music. People wear flip flops in any weather, all the cool kids wear Babson apparel, and the size of the cars in the student parking lot exceeds that of any car in the entire country of Austria.
I am truly in America, and I love it.

There is so much more to say, but the jetlag and the prospect of another busy orientation day tomorrow are keeping me from going into detail. I'll be back with more, but for now, I leave you with images of the miraculous transformation of my dorm room.

My dorm room 5 minutes after my arrival

... and a few hours later.

The sky said goodbye

The sky on my last night at the Mill.

Oh yes, my life's a trip.

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller

The breathtaking, beautiful whirlwind that is my life continues. As I try to keep up with it, I have moved my webhome in favor of comments without passwords and free photo uploads.
Drop by and let me know how you are doing.