April 6, 2008
As of two days ago, I have two months left in the U.S. This means I have less than two months until the end of the semester. I am incredibly behind in my course work, and one aspect is my Social Justice writing exercise. The thing is, I am not required to write about any particular topic. I just need to write. However, life has been so crazy lately that by the time I am ready to sit and start writing, I am so exhausted that sleep is a much better option. I keep telling myself, “oh, I’ll just write it tomorrow.” My writing topic list is now far too long and I must begin the actual process of writing and make small progress. First thing first, I must recap on my spring break trip to New York and Boston with my sister.
Boston
I have never been to Boston, so this trip was full of touristy things. But even then, we managed to avoid 80% of the touristy things. If it were up to me, I’d just stroll around town and never visit a single historic site. It’s difficult to find great interest in historic sites when you’ve traveled through Europe and even great big castles begin to seem boring. To Sherry’s insistence, we visited the Bunker Hill monument, walked part of the Freedom Trail and visited the U.S.S. Constitution. Thankfully, the day was really nice. Sunny sky and all; we had a nice stroll. The ally leading up to Bunker Hill monument was lined with historic houses and big trees that made wonderful backdrops for photos.
Boston is a lovely city with a diverse and young population. The purpose of our trip was for Sherry to do some school visits. In Boston, we visited Boston University and Northeastern. The weather during the Northeastern tour was less than stellar. The rain was falling all day. On top of that, since it was a weekend tour, the group was unusually large. Those factors gave us a negative perception of the school. We didn’t explore the city too much before we decided to hit up North Boston for some Italian food. After wondering through the city, we ended at Quincy Market and was amazed at the selection of food in this indoor space. We went a little crazy; did a little shopping as the weather lightened up. Meanwhile, we visited the ticket booth and spontaneously purchased tickets for “Menopause: the musical”.
Now, what a poor choice that was. The show was entertaining enough, but certainly not for the price that we paid. The show was basically about four fifty-something ladies complaining about having to compete with the twentysomethings. Unfortunately, Sherry and I were probably the only twentysomethings in the audience. While the show was pretty funny, it was also somewhat frightening. It gave me this fear of becoming old. At the same time though, it’s a dramatic depiction of that life change. Quite obnoxious, really.
Post the show, Sherry and I wandered through Chinatown and hit up the Taiwanese “café”, which turned out to be a phenomenal restaurant full of our childhood favorites. We ate so much between the two of us. The server must thought there was something severely wrong with us!
Post-great food, we adopted the tactic of “following the crowd”. Since we were both too busy prior to the trip to do any research, we had no idea where the “hot spots” were. So, off we went wandering the street and if there were crowds going a particular way, we followed. That strategy actually worked surprisingly well. We ended back at the Quincy Market area. The night is much different from the day. Before walking too long, we discovered some bar with live music and wasn’t’ charging cover. This was the weekend of the St. Patrick’s Day celebration and people were nuts! We had only intended on staying for a short while at the bar. The band playing was quite good. Before you know it though, these guys were buying us drinks. Matt, who had recently moved to Boston from Texas, was conversing away. Long story short, we made a new friend in Boston, he gave us money for taxi because we missed the last T, but we couldn’t find a taxi so walked home and pocketed the $20! The next day, we had planned on meeting up with him and his friends for the parade, but the parade was far too crowded. It was a good time to see what the hype was about. Honestly though, the parade itself was average, the crowd was more entertaining than anything. I find great muse in the fact people need to use random “holidays” as excuse to get crazy and drink. Don’t people do that on a regular basis anyway?
Anyhow, we ditched the parade scene soon after the parade ended and wandered around town a bit longer and went to Cambridge. I got into a really strange mood the minute we arrived at the Harvard vicinity. There it was, a school I had longed to attend since the age of 10. I made it there at last, but not at all in the capacity I had hoped for. It’s difficult to describe this sense of disappointment and many “if I can do it over…” regrets. I know those thoughts were futile, but necessary. My ambitions were refueled, and I had the kind of motivation that hasn’t existed in nearly a decade.
We walked through the Harvard campus. It’s grand and austere, as you would imagine a place like Harvard would be. However, it was lacking certain liveliness. Compare to its ancestor of Cambridge and Yale, Harvard lacked something. I can’t describe what that something is, unfortunately.
All in all, Boston is a great city. I am not sure I would ever want to live there. The public transport, the T, is a disaster. I’ve never seen a subway that has such poor design. I’ve navigated through many European cities’ subway system without any trouble, but I spent more time than I care to admit aggravated and lost on the Boston T. Even New York’s subway is sub par to the European counterpart. You would think a city like New York would have stellar public transportation, but now. It’s obnoxious. The stations apart from ones in Time Square and Upper East Side are dirty and gross. There is no indication how long the next train will arrive. How do New Yorkers ever get anywhere on time? To get from East to West side is the biggest pain ever. The more I spend time in New York, the less I like the city.
That rant begins the recap of my stay in New York City. New York was colder than I had hoped. Since Sherry and I both have been to the city, we avoided touristy activities. Walking through streets of New York do not give me the great sense of freedom that cities like London, Vienna or even Boston provides. Few things in New York still maintain the historical façade. Most things are so new and well, boring.
The few highlights in New York were meeting two gorgeous Swiss bankers, visiting Fordham’s campus and the meeting at Columbia. The bankers lived in our uber-sketchy hostel. They were a groups of finance students from Switzerland on a “Networking New York” trip. The uber gorgeous Urus, works at UBS in Bier. He was telling me how I would be so qualified to get a job in Geneva, etc. He gave me his card and every form of contact. Hilarious. I love staying at hostels. In Boston, we met a great lady from Australia who was backpacking through the U.S. and will be moving to London afterwards. We also met a sweet Brazilian girl who was spending her summer vacation working in Vermont. She had me convinced that I should learn Portuguese and move to Brazil when I am ready to conquer South America! Haha.
The day when we visited the two Fordham campuses, the rain would not stop falling. Since Fordham was also on spring break, the campus was pretty dead. First, we visited the Lincoln Center campus and weren’t all that impressed, then took the “Ran Van” and went to the Bronx campus. That one was really pretty and has your typical campus feel. The rain actually added certain charm to it. On the way back to the city though, a girl from the Lincoln center campus raved about the Manhattan location and graciously gave Sherry a tour of the Lincoln Center building. Quite funny. I am envious of my sister for having such great options. Only if I can do it over, but would I really want to? I suppose I have made the most out of what little I had.
I visited Columbia University during our last day. The information session went well. While I think I still prefer the program at John Hopkins that emphasizes more on the economics and language training, I got great application information from this meeting. The admissions guy suggested that I work for another year or two after the Peace Corps service. One because most students have 3-5 years of professional experience upon entering the program, and extra experience would give me better chance. Another is the ability to have a more solid recommendation from a current employer. I had thought about that idea before, but was always afraid of the lag time between PC and finding work. However, now I have more reasons to put graduate school on hold. That, and it’s much more financially sensible to work for a while. We shall see. I am comfortable with that idea, and I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulder knowing I don’t need to worry about applying to grad school while in Africa! Another comforting thing is that the information session made me feel that I really do have a great chance gaining admission to these programs. The business school finance and economic trainings are actually an advantage when applying to these programs since quantitative training is such an emphasis. The fact that I didn’t score so well on the verbal section of the GRE also is less of a concern now. Working for another year or two also gives me time to take more classes in mathematics or brush up on economics. So, all in all, a beneficial meeting!
On top of it all, I had the chance to have dinner with Laura! We had delicious Ethiopian food! I would’ve never thought Laura and I would become such close friends. But because of our “abnormal” choice for post-graduation plans, we share that in common and are able to relate when our friends from college can’t. She is wrapping up her two years of TFA service and is looking to work for one more year before attending law school. I can’t say enough how wonderful to have friends you know are lifelong contacts and can inspire and motivate.
I suppose this concludes the spring break highlight. I must admit even a trip to the East Coast remind me of the possibility out there in the world. It’s sickly easy to fall into a trap when living in St. Louis. The ease to forget the great things life in this world has to offer is scary. More reasons for me to leave, ASAP! For the same reasons, I hope Sherry ends up at a school in the East Coast. She will be expose to such different ideals, and grow in such different ways.
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indifferent
calm
accomplished
amused
crazy
bouncy
