Update

Just a few observations about NY... First of all, in Rachel's neighborhood, people really do play music loudly into the street. I definitely heard "At last" blasting through the houses on one of my days there. Rachel's landlord, who is adorable (in an old man way), played jazz in his car while he fixed it or washed it in the driveway. And, perhaps less iconic, the next door neighbors had a BBQ that filled Rachel's living room with the smell of burnt hamburgers and the sounds of hip-hop and Michael Jackson. It was nice.

That said, without a tour guide, NY is sort of harder to explore than I thought. I'm on the Upper West Side, which I kind of like, even though it's not super hip, and I haven't ventured off Broadway yet. Part of that is that I have no time. Our schedule today was as follows:

Breakfast 8:30
Lecture 9-12
Lunch 12-1
Buying a notepad to take notes in/checking email 1-2
Lecture 2-4
Buying an iced tea and a bunch of coat hangers 4-4:30
Checking email 4:30-5:15
Dinner 5:15-6
Checking email 5:15-7:15
Lecture 7:30-9

So it doesn't leave a lot for daytime exploration. This Friday we get a "free afternoon" - which means no 7:30 class. I'm going to do some major research (right after I finish writing this) about where to go. I want to go back to the Met, and the MoMA, and I want to go to the Whitney. And a lot of places. But our breaks are so short that we can't really go anywhere besides, say, down the street, and most of what is around here is restaurants, which, cute as they are, are expensive and I've got my meals Mon-Fri paid for, baby. So it's frustrating to be here in the middle of this awesome city with so much to do, and yet... no. I have to sit in lecture.

Really, though, I want to figure out WHERE I AM. I have stared at maps of New York for forever, but I have realized that flying and subways totally disorient you. Basically, I think north is south and east is west, and in NY you kind of need to figure out which is which. The park I've seen a street down is NOT Morningside Park, but actually Riverside Park. It's completely flipflopped and I'm on the completely wrong side of the campus from where I thought I was. I need to turn the map around or something. I hate the disorientation that comes with not driving places - you need like a week to let your inner equilibrium sort out compass directions before you can function.

At any rate, I don't want to indicate that sitting in lecture is bad. I have been so bombarded with interesting information today, it seems like I've been in this course for much longer than a day.

More soon. Now - to figure out what museum days are free!!