Entry tags:
New York, New York, what a wonderful town...
I'm back in New York! School starts tomorrow, God help me, but I'm looking forward to it.
So, I woke up this morning to my roommate coming into the room speaking Hebrew and with her friend from Israel (who was her host sister for the year Abby was studying the Torah there, and has been visiting for a month). She'd been at Niagara Falls the day before, so she wasn't around when I moved in, and had sent me a text message saying she was staying somewhere downtown for the night instead of coming back to the dorm, so it wasn't a surprise. I was then treated to the sight of them running around getting all their stuff together to meet Abby's mom and catching her friend's plane, all while speaking very fast Hebrew and being adorable. :) It was a good way to start the day.
Yesterday saw me packing through the night before, because I woke up late on Saturday, having not started any actual packing yet, then had a haircut at noon. The haircut is great, btw, and she straightened it, so it looks totally different from normal, but very cool. It makes me want to buy a CHI. Anyway, then Katie and I went to see Lawrence of Arabia at the Paramount (restored, director's cut, in 70mm--AWESOME). I've never seen the movie before, and seeing it that way was just indelible. I think we should lobby to bring back 70mm, because it's incredible, especially for a movie like this. And aesthetic elements aside, the movie itself is wonderful, albeit heart-breaking. When talking to our mom afterwards, Katie and I actually ran out of superlatives to praise it with. Glorious as it was, it also was four hours long, which cut a good chunk out of packing time. We should have gone to the Friday showing, but instead got sucked into the SG1 top five fan favorites marathon (missed the first ep, but--Lost City, with Jessica Stein as Weir! 1969, which I'd never seen! Window of Opportunity, which is hands-down one of my top three SG1 episodes! Yay!). Oops... Anyway, I took a two-hour catnap at around 2 and then packed like a madwoman, and was still scurrying around when we had to leave. I'm having a lot of things shipped, needless to say. Sigh. You'd think packing to go home at the beginning of the summer would have taught me, but you would be wrong.
The flight was fine, and I finally made myself finish the book of Annie Proulx short stories (Close Range, a gift from my first-year roommate Emily). The book is wonderful, it was just that the very last story is "Brokeback Mountain," and the first time I tried to read it I burst into tears a paragraph in, so I've been hesitant to pick it up again. I'm glad I did; it was beautiful, despite the sadness. The weather here is glorious--72 degrees F, at least 20-25 degrees cooler than Texas. I had a sort of shady moment right after getting my bags; this guy came up to me and asked me if I needed a taxi. I was surprised, but said sure. I started getting a little paranoid when he didn't go to the yellow cab stand, but instead turned towards the parking lot. He also didn't look like a typical cab driver--fedora, kinda snappy duds, nice earpiece. I really didn't feel comfortable going into a parking lot alone with this guy and all my luggage, so I told him I'd prefer to take a yellow cab. He showed me a card, but it was just black print on a white card, which wasn't really reassuring. I think I offended him, but I didn't feel comfortable with it and I've learned to trust my instincts, even though it meant lugging my bags all by myself back to the cab stand. I also didn't see him head back inside to find a new passenger, though, so I think I may have made the right decision.
The ride to Barnard was nice--quiet for the most part, cool wind blowing in the window, looking at the city. We passed a block party in Harlem, and I asked the driver, Joseph, what it was, and got him to talk a little about himself, where he's from (Liberia), why he came to New York (he loves that there's always people around, things happening, etc.). And then Barnard! I had a fun time lugging everything around and getting it to my room, getting a key, renting a cart, returning the key, returning the cart only to realize I'd forgotten the cart (yeah, I felt brilliant), and so on. I'd meant to meet up with Leigh and get the stuff she'd picked up from storage for me, but I couldn't get a hold of her (she called me later, around 12:15am, to tell me she'd been out). I actually wasn't tired, which surprised me. I ended up unpacking both my giant bags and arranging things how I wanted--exciting evening, I know. :) I like our room; it's a double, but pretty big, with high ceilings and these weird slopes and things all over because we're the top floor. We have an actual closet, which is cool, and lots of storage. You can get onto the roof from one our windows, and I know Abby's really excited about that.
Hooray! New York! I'm glad to be back, and can't wait to see everybody here! *dances off*
So, I woke up this morning to my roommate coming into the room speaking Hebrew and with her friend from Israel (who was her host sister for the year Abby was studying the Torah there, and has been visiting for a month). She'd been at Niagara Falls the day before, so she wasn't around when I moved in, and had sent me a text message saying she was staying somewhere downtown for the night instead of coming back to the dorm, so it wasn't a surprise. I was then treated to the sight of them running around getting all their stuff together to meet Abby's mom and catching her friend's plane, all while speaking very fast Hebrew and being adorable. :) It was a good way to start the day.
Yesterday saw me packing through the night before, because I woke up late on Saturday, having not started any actual packing yet, then had a haircut at noon. The haircut is great, btw, and she straightened it, so it looks totally different from normal, but very cool. It makes me want to buy a CHI. Anyway, then Katie and I went to see Lawrence of Arabia at the Paramount (restored, director's cut, in 70mm--AWESOME). I've never seen the movie before, and seeing it that way was just indelible. I think we should lobby to bring back 70mm, because it's incredible, especially for a movie like this. And aesthetic elements aside, the movie itself is wonderful, albeit heart-breaking. When talking to our mom afterwards, Katie and I actually ran out of superlatives to praise it with. Glorious as it was, it also was four hours long, which cut a good chunk out of packing time. We should have gone to the Friday showing, but instead got sucked into the SG1 top five fan favorites marathon (missed the first ep, but--Lost City, with Jessica Stein as Weir! 1969, which I'd never seen! Window of Opportunity, which is hands-down one of my top three SG1 episodes! Yay!). Oops... Anyway, I took a two-hour catnap at around 2 and then packed like a madwoman, and was still scurrying around when we had to leave. I'm having a lot of things shipped, needless to say. Sigh. You'd think packing to go home at the beginning of the summer would have taught me, but you would be wrong.
The flight was fine, and I finally made myself finish the book of Annie Proulx short stories (Close Range, a gift from my first-year roommate Emily). The book is wonderful, it was just that the very last story is "Brokeback Mountain," and the first time I tried to read it I burst into tears a paragraph in, so I've been hesitant to pick it up again. I'm glad I did; it was beautiful, despite the sadness. The weather here is glorious--72 degrees F, at least 20-25 degrees cooler than Texas. I had a sort of shady moment right after getting my bags; this guy came up to me and asked me if I needed a taxi. I was surprised, but said sure. I started getting a little paranoid when he didn't go to the yellow cab stand, but instead turned towards the parking lot. He also didn't look like a typical cab driver--fedora, kinda snappy duds, nice earpiece. I really didn't feel comfortable going into a parking lot alone with this guy and all my luggage, so I told him I'd prefer to take a yellow cab. He showed me a card, but it was just black print on a white card, which wasn't really reassuring. I think I offended him, but I didn't feel comfortable with it and I've learned to trust my instincts, even though it meant lugging my bags all by myself back to the cab stand. I also didn't see him head back inside to find a new passenger, though, so I think I may have made the right decision.
The ride to Barnard was nice--quiet for the most part, cool wind blowing in the window, looking at the city. We passed a block party in Harlem, and I asked the driver, Joseph, what it was, and got him to talk a little about himself, where he's from (Liberia), why he came to New York (he loves that there's always people around, things happening, etc.). And then Barnard! I had a fun time lugging everything around and getting it to my room, getting a key, renting a cart, returning the key, returning the cart only to realize I'd forgotten the cart (yeah, I felt brilliant), and so on. I'd meant to meet up with Leigh and get the stuff she'd picked up from storage for me, but I couldn't get a hold of her (she called me later, around 12:15am, to tell me she'd been out). I actually wasn't tired, which surprised me. I ended up unpacking both my giant bags and arranging things how I wanted--exciting evening, I know. :) I like our room; it's a double, but pretty big, with high ceilings and these weird slopes and things all over because we're the top floor. We have an actual closet, which is cool, and lots of storage. You can get onto the roof from one our windows, and I know Abby's really excited about that.
Hooray! New York! I'm glad to be back, and can't wait to see everybody here! *dances off*