35 Fifth Ave., #50510/30, Saturday; 4:40 PM
Fordham U. Library
I'm sitting at a PC for the first time in I don't even know how long. It is weird.Last night was the Rubin Halloween movie night, and so we all congregated in the second floor lounge for pizza and scary films. Well, the scariness quotient wasn't too high, seeing as the films we watched were Scream and The Ring, but it was enjoyable and laid-back anyway. None of you should ever watch Scream, because it is the dumbest, grossest, bloodiest movie I can imagine. The Ring, though, was amazingly awesome. I didn't find it particularly frightening, but the cinematography was thoroughly awesome and strangely beautiful. The lighting, the directing, the casting -- superb and rather enthralling all around. So I present you with a mathematical model of my current preferences:
Two evenings ago I had the great experience of eating a falafel-pita bread sandwich. They're very popular here, but it's taken me until now to finally get one. Why now? Because they were free at a Family Guy marathon on the second floor. The event was actually entitled "Schmooze with Jews," because the Jewish student group sponsored it. Schmoozing with the Jews was fun: Family Guy, I discovered almost immediately, is stupid -- but the food was splendid. Also, the people here all refer to a "falafel-in-pita-bread sandwich" as simply a "falafel," which is nonsensical because falafel is actually ground-up garbanzo beans and to say "I ate a falafel" is kind of goofy when one thinks about it. But you have to learn to speak these people's language, I guess.
In which Lindsay rocks the vote
10/28, Thursday; 3:00 PM
Bobst Library
This morning I realized that I really, really need to get out my vote. After all, Election Day is just five days away, and there is no mail on Sundays, so really four days away. I was gratified to get out of Russian fifty minutes early because I am a speedy taker of tests. As I exited my classroom and headed back to Rubin, I decided it was time to get serious -- and thus began the quest for a public notary.I had heard that there could be a public notary in the Office of the Registrar, and furthermore that his/her services would probably be free to NYU students. I decided to try this option first, for I am the most frugal person I know. I talked to a very nice person at the Office who, unfortunately, was neither a Minnesotan nor a public notary. And so I proceeded to Plan B: head up Broadway towards the Washington Mutual bank on 13th St. in the hopes that they would have a free public notary for customers. Plan C, incidentally, was to sit in Washington Square Park and ask everyone who walked by if they were from Minnesota, so I was really banking on success at WaMu. (Ha! Ha! Banking!)
Upon arriving at WaMu, I discovered that there was indeed a public notary, and his name was Eric. He needed to see a state ID, though, and I'd fallen out of the habit of carrying my, erm, driver's permit with me because all I usually need is my NYU ID and occasionally my Metrocard. There's not much use for a Minnesota ID in New York, unless you need to deal with government matters. This was a government matter. So I told Eric I'd be back in a flash and purposefully strode back to Rubin to acquire my permit.
From there everything proceeded according to plan. I forked over $2 to Eric for his stamping services that did not turn out to be free after all (thanks, WaMu) and deposited the huge envelope in a mail recepticle. I figure voting is probably worth the monetary cost. Consider it a testament to my desire to oust Bush from Washington: I paid a sum of money equal to the cost of a falafel sandwich on MacDougal Street to send in my single vote which probably won't be counted anyway, all because I believe there is still hope for this country. See how patriotic?
And if Kerry wins Minnesota by a single vote, you all have my (two dollars) + (perseverance) + (walkin' shoes) to thank. The ball is in your court!
This was a tangent, but suffice it to say I can't wait for election night, because watching precinct results roll in is perhaps my favorite event that occurs every four years (that and the Summer Olympics, of course).
On a more meterological note: it's warm here, man, definitely short-sleeve weather (54° according to weather.com, and sunny). In spite of this fact, most people are bundled in hats, scarves, gloves, coats... it's really quite ridiculous, and not just because I proudly hail from the northernmost state of the contiguous 48. These folks like to pretend they're tough and all, but the truth is that New York City's collective epidermis is a soft, pink/brown radiator of heat. How's that for poetic imagery?
10/27, Wednesday; 10:45 PM
Rubin 505
Observations from today:Also, I configured the iBook to type in Russian, so now I can put Russian in my AIM away messages, word documents, etc. However, the keys do not remotely match up with their English-alphabet sound counterparts nor their look-alikes. So the "Q" on my QWERTY is actually the Russian "Y" sound, which looks like this: Й, and the Russian "F," which looks like a lot like the Greek phi (and exactly like this: ф), can be typed by depressing the key marked "A." Por que?!
But today was still great because I found this headline in the Onion: "Republicans Encourage Minorities to Get Out and Vote on November 3."
And, well, in related happiness: I almost died tonight of laughing too hard when I found The Onion's 2004 Election Guide.
10/26, Tuesday; 9:10 PM
Rubin 505
Today I saved $18.95 by walking 43 blocks to the West 53rd Street NYPL Branch library and acquiring a volume of Darwin's writings edited by a chap named Appleman. Hopefully these texts are better this time around, because when I read The Origin of Species in ninth grade mostly in order to annoy Ms. G (as my brother Zach affectionately calls her), I found the book impressive but loooong. I think we're just reading part of it, though, so hallelujah!Then, naturally, came the obligatory 43-block return hike, made slightly longer by the fact that I chose to take Park Avenue (two blocks east of Fifth) downtown. Fifth Avenue never changes, and I wanted a change. But in happy, happy news, I exchanged a dollar bill for a mango from a street vendor on Park Ave in the vicinity of the East 30s. I saw them going for $1.50 and $1.25 on Broadway and Fifth Avenue, but I guess prices drop as you head East or something. Heh heh. I had been holding out for $1 mangoes for a long time, actually.
The weather was beautiful, but I keep hearing about autumn in New England and Minnesota and I remember that I'm essentially existing in a bubble here in this city. The leaves here haven't even turned color yet, they're all still green ...which supports my theory that all trees in New York City are fake anyway.
I have become an A minus magnet. I keep acquiring A minuses, like on my Greek & Roman Epics midterm today and on my German Music paper. The Greek/Roman midterm was interesting indeed. After it ended I thought I could have aced it, but then I checked the Iliad text and discovered, much to my chagrin, that I had performed a three-way scramble of Ajax, Antilochus and Eumalus in one of my essays. Oh well. But I think my saving grace was that I used epithets in my essays, like "Antilochus the son of Nestor." (I remain inordinately proud of that one.)
I'm preparing my Spring 2005 schedule, because I will be registering on November 19. I want to take these classes:
However, these are not such good choices simply because ALL these classes are in the afternoon! What does a girl need to do to get morning classes? I'm indignant, to say the least. I don't want to wait until 12:30 every day for class -- but it might happen. I guess maybe I can be employed in the morning, if I get hired by then. Why was it so much easier to find a job in Minnesota?
In the most important news: my birthday shall occur in a fortnight!
10/25, Monday; 5:45 PM
Rubin 505
Today was a release, because my ConWest exam is over. I was consumed by it for approximately the past 24 hours, even to the point of setting my alarm really early this morning and hitting the books for about five hours before class. It all turned out fine, though, and I think I did well. It helps that I loved the readings. Also, I had five choices for the "essay" part, and so I was able to write about the awesome metaphysics of the Gospel of John. There are awesome things at work there. I'll write about it sometime but not now, because I want to not think about ConWest for a little while.I think I'm becoming ridiculously dependent on Ben Folds music. Also, I completely rely on the whims of some girl up in Rubin 1010 because she has the best Ben Folds iTunes library, but she's not always connected to the network. I tried to find her in person so I could take her music, but I failed. I will persevere though.
I'm also in the process of finding a willing Minnesotan to be my absentee ballot witness. According to the Facebook, I am the only Minnesotan in Rubin Hall! But I put up a post on LiveJournal, and if that fails there's always the "Minnesotans Who Don't Speak Like They Do in Fargo" group on the Facebook. So I think I will find someone. To be honest, I don't really think my vote will end up being counted anyway, because that's the American way, but I will do my part anyway.
Tonight I might witness an amusing debate between the College Democrats and the College Republicans. Sometimes, like now, I love watching partisan people get all mad at each other.
10/24, Sunday; 7:30 PM
Rubin 505
At last -- I set foot inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Why I haven't made it to the Met in the past two months or in my three prior visits to this city, I'm not sure, but I'm glad I finally got there. I wanted to get up this morning at a decent hour, make some oatmeal and finish some homework before meeting Mom at 10:30, but I was awakened from my slumber by a shrill telephone ring at 10:45. Oops. I hate oversleeping. It worked out though. We also saw the delightfully tacky Trump Tower.At the Met I was happy to find many very awesome paintings: The Death of Socrates by J-L David, lots of ballerinas by Degas, water lilies and haystacks and cathedrals by Monet, some Vermeers (!) and Rembrandts, and many many more. I had kind of forgotten how much I love art museums. I WILL BE BACK. Also, Vermeer's paintings were much smaller than I expected, but very beautiful anyway.
Unfortunately, though, my mother and I never got around to filling out my absentee ballot. Yes, I am capable of voting by myself, but I need a witness. So now I need to find another Minnesotan in the next fourteen hours or so in order to ensure that my vote will cancel out my Grandma Viv's, much like a particle and an antiparticle meeting in the cold, dark vacuum of space and obliterating each another in a flash of energy.
I need to review a lot of lit tonight. I also should take out the violin, but that might not happen. To completely change the subject: I've been finding out that a LOT of my friends have Xanga blogs and it's kind of cool. Okay, I'm out. It's Plato/Sophocles/Bible/Augustine time.
10/23, Saturday; 9:45 PM
Rubin 505
Mom and I have been walking in this city like you wouldn't believe. Yesterday night we ate Thai food at Lemongrass Grill (awesome restaurant on University Place) and then walked up Lexington to the East 50s, over a few avenues to Rockefeller Center and back on Fifth. Today we ate NYU dining hall food at Hayden Hall (Rubin was closed today, dang it) and then walked down through Old New York to the Staten Island Ferry, and then back to the Village. Tomorrow we will see either a museum or Fort Tryon Park, or maybe both, and then eat Indian food on Lexington Avenue or $2 falafel sandwiches at Mamoun's on MacDougal Street. We've been having a grand time.I headed over to LaGuardia Airport way over in Queens yesterday after my violin lesson to meet her. The public transportation was really slow, mostly due to the dang Q33 bus. I'm not such a good bus passenger, which is slightly ironic considering I rode the school bus up until graduation, but what do you know? I greatly prefer the subways. Buses tend to take forever, because this is New York City, and they are also kind of unreliable. But I got there eventually, and it was all good.
Mom is staying in a NYU-run hotel that is part of a dormitory, so really a dorm room. She has roommates; they are grad students. Ha ha! I have no roommates tonight, because they both decided to go home this weekend. Isn't it a little strange that my mom has roommates while I do not? The location of her "dorm" is pretty sweet, though: it's about a block away from the Hudson River. I felt like a West Village machine as I strode purposefully back to Fifth Avenue after dropping her off last night and this night too. I know my way around, man, and it's nice.
Much as I would like to just sit around, listen to Ben Folds or Shostakovich (or both), and mess around on the internets, I should probably get to work. I have three midterms next week. But how do you study for literature tests anyway? I've always wondered this.
Also, the music of Beethoven is really where it's at for me now. Re-discovery is wonderful.
10/21, Thursday; really late at night
Rubin 505
My mother will awake in approximately three hours and begin her journey towards New York City. Hooray!Today I had some goood classes, patronized the NYPL, and was complimented on my street rat chic fashion. Ha ha. It's true: my very nice neighbor Amy told me that my style was cool. I was wearing a bandanna, a large flannel shirt that once belonged to a man, and blue pants that I "tailored" myself. An aside: why have I recounted my outfits on this website twice in two days? Oh well. My point is: I may dress like a homeless person, but apparently I can do it with style.
10/20, Wednesday; 7:47 PM
Rubin 505
They finally turned on the heat in NYU buildings. This sounds like it would be a positive thing, but the truth is I liked it better before. Rubin 505 is constantly like a sauna now, and whenever my roommates are out I prop open the windows for a brief respite from the HEAT. In fact, all three of us are in the room now and the top windows are still open, so I conclude that they haven't noticed my handiwork yet. Mwah ha ha, I laugh mischievously.My mom is coming to visit this weekend, which will be really really excellent. We are going out to eat one day and so I need to find an Indian food place, because I think I'll be in the mood for Indian food.
I went for another of those long walks this evening as the sunlight dimmed and millions of incandescent lamps began to light up this city. The sun sets early these days. I walked around that most elitist of parks, Gramercy, and then up Lexington Avenue (which blossoms out of Gramercy Park much like Fifth Avenue begins at Washington Square), my new favorite avenue for walking. I had a full view of the Chrysler Building! I do believe that the Chrysler Building is the most beautiful of all skyscrapers after dark. Also, I was gratified to find an entire street consisting of about seven Indian restaurants and cafes all in a row.
It's not even that cold here yet, but most people I saw tonight were bundled in hats, scarves and parkas (!). My walk ended up lasting about 90 minutes ("dang," you think, but this has become totally normal for me), and I wore a long sleeved shirt, cargo pants and moccasins. I love being from Minnesota. I would have given New Yorkers a little more credit, though.
I found the Russian book section of the NYPL again and scanned the jumble of Cyrillic characters for names I recognized. I expected to find Pushkin or Tolstoy or some Russian dude, but I ended up finding... Kurt Vonnegut! No joke! The books was Slaughterhouse-Five, too. I was proud to be able to translate that. This is what it looks like po-Russkie: Бойня Номер Пять (Boinya Nomer Piat). Kurt's name becomes Курт Воннегут. If you've read this book, you'll remember the constant ramming-home of the phrase "so it goes," used whenever someone dies. Which is rather frequently. I found it in this text too: такие дела (takiye dayla).
Tonight will be fun because no matter what happens in this baseball game, half the people I know will be miserable tomorrow. You see, the people I know are pretty much evenly divided into diehard Yankees fans and diehard Sox fans. My friend Susanna (who, like me, wonders what her life would be like if she followed pro sports) remarked this afternoon that the DFL-GOP divide in this country pales in comparison to the Sox-Yankees divide in this city. It's true, and quite amusing.
10/18, Monday; 11:00 PM
Rubin 505
PANDEMONIUM IN THE HALLWAY! There are crazy Boston fans and even crazier Yankees fans in this place. This could get brutal.It's vintage lae241 time. I like this layout more, and it translates better to Explorer, which most of you use anyway. So why not bring it back?
I feel so studious and academic today. And all the time, really. I'll talk about that in the next paragraph but first I want to share what I hope will become my new Monday routine. I woke up early today to go running and I ended up by the NYU Medical Center (which I didn't even really know existed) around the East 30s in the First or Second Avenue area. It's a nice place, man, but not so hot for running, because it's busy and there are no unbroken paths. I wanted to find Gramercy Park, the only private park in the city, even though I'd only be able to gaze woefully through its attractive yet impenetrable wrought-iron fence at the lucky souls who have keys to the thing, but I did not succeed. Another time, perhaps. The West Village is still the best place for running.
I then worked on Russkie stuff for a long, long time, read a lot of the Odyssey and completed my German Musik paper. I like Russkie-yazik (the Russian language) very much. It's pretty awesome. We have progressed to adverbs. Suddenly I can speak so expressively! And if I knew the Russian word for "expressive," I could twist that sentence into some proper Russkie-grammatik and tell any Muscovite the same thing. My vocabulary is still terribly meager.
Professor Ulfers continued his tradition of giving exceptionally awesome lectures on Mondays by delivering an exceptionally awesome lecture today. It was really, really interesting. It was mainly about the Gospel of John. I might recount some of it at a later time, but I am kind of ConWest-ed out now. Suffice it to say I enjoyed today's classes very much.
Orchestra was better than usual, too. We played movements one and four of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, referred to by my violin professor as "Tchaik Five." If I didn't feel somewhat unqualified to speak about Pyotr Ilich in such a familiar manner, I'd call it as such too, because it makes me laugh.
Speaking of Russian fellows like Pyotr, I discovered something interesting on the internets the other day. I always thought that "Dostoyevsky," as in Fyodor the Russian author, was pronounced like "das-toy-ev-ski." In fact, according to its proper Cyrillic spelling, it's slightly different: "das-ta-YEV-ski." That Y is in there for a reason. And thus I have already discovered a practical application to learning Russian.
10/17, Sunday; 2:00 PM
Rubin 2nd Floor "Study Lounge"
My legs are burnt out. This is because I ran in a 5k Fun Run early this a.m. It was a nice deal because it was totally free for me, being through NYU, and it entailed a 3.1 mile jog through beautiful Van Cordtlant Park in the Bronx, free bus transportation both ways, a shirt and tons of food. I like Van Cordtlant Park because it puts on a good facade of being nautral, though the cynic in me assumes it's probably totally landscaped like every other park in this city. But it is the biggest park in New York City, or so I've heard. It was hilly, too, and two minutes after the run began I started to feel the effects of losing a pint of blood one week ago. I felt exactly like I did at my last Fun Run, a.k.a. the Tornado Trail Mix in May -- one week prior to which I had also lost many oxygen-carrying red blood cells. I have converted to the belief that history repeats itself.Why am I in the study lounge and not Rubin 505? There's a good answer to that. I was down here about a half hour ago trying to read Homer and St. Augustine but failing miserably because focusing is inexplicably difficult this afternoon. So I decided to knock out this German Musik paper I need to write before Tuesday. I headed back upstairs; my tired legs protested as I re-acquired gravitational potential energy. As I exited the stairwell on the fifth floor, I heard the strains of Celine Dion music. Ha ha!, I thought, because Celine Dion music is hilarious. As I approached Rubin 505 the music became louder, not quieter, and a feeling of apprehension began to gnaw at my stomach. Yup. I entered the room and everything became clear: Celine Dion was, in fact, blasting from my room. So I got the iBook and came back down to the relatively silent oasis of this study lounge. I still plan to get going on the paper, but I'll talk about myself some more before turning my thoughts to Weber.
On the bus ride to Van Cordtlant, I had an awesome view. This is because I boarded the bus early and got a window seat while the getting was good. We went up First Avenue to the Bronx, and then back on Second Avenue after the race. This route passed many prominent landmarks I'd not seen before, most notably the United Nations Plaza and the Trump Tower. Closer to NYU -- about the 12th-18th St. range, I think -- I spotted Cyrillic characters on buildings but we passed too quickly for me to read them. So I'll have to return and check this area out. Little Russia?
Tonight I think I'm going out to eat, because it happens to be Dina's friend Divyan's birthday and he is bringing a group to a nearby Thai place. I'm tagging along, I guess. It should be good; I have become a fan of Thai food.
10/15, Friday; 10:10 PM
Rubin 505
I'm not super talkative at this moment, but I don't want to get out of the swing of updating and miss a ton of stuff. Today I walked for a solid 2.5 hours straight and it was great -- but I can't distinctly remember all of it. I guess I was kind of in a dream-like state, because two and a half hours is a long time to hike. However, I never got burnt-out and in fact I could have gone much further -- except it began to rain and I became really wet and kind of cold.On today's excursion I went to Central Park, up to about 69th St., and then back on Fifth again. I love Central Park even though I know it's ridiculously fake. It's attractively fake, though. On my way back I stopped at the NYPL for just a few minutes because it was there, and also to check out the Russian books (russkiye knigi -- I'm not in the mood to hunt and peck with Cyrillic ASCII codes) and re-assess my literacy. I can pronounce words, if not translate them. I'm a slow, slow reader though.
I've been communicating with my Minnesota friends much more than usual and it makes me happy. Part of this is due to the Facebook's opening at the Us of WI and MN, so hooray for the interconnectedness of the Internet world. Or, as George W. Bush would say, the "internets." Also I have been speaking by telephone, which is hugely more personal than AIM but more difficult to schedule. For example: as I talked with my good Minnesota friend Michael yesterday eve, I ultimately (and unbeknownst to him) ended up crawling under my desk and huddling up against my wall in order to lower the considerable background noise n Rubin 505 (my two roommates and three of their friends talking excitedly + two computers playing two different kinds of music). They mocked me, of course, but I can take it! I'm not complaining; that's dorm life. I was also happy to recieve a great e-mail from awesome Jeremiah in Tallahassee, and I have had more than a couple excellent AIM chats with hilarious cousin Kelsey in Madison, MN. So the point of this long paragraph is: communicating with Minnesotans is a good thing!
This weekend I will compose a paper on Act III of Weber's opera Freishutz. I am not sure how it will turn out, so this will be an enlightening few days. I have recently been stricken with a desire to read Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, upon which Tchaikovsky's lovely opera is based, and my awesome Russian professor invited me to borrow her English translation. Huzzah! I actually find it kind of hard to believe that I've never read any Pushkin, so this will be good.
In music-listening news: the majestic, triumphant conclusion to the Finale from Sibelius' Second Symphony makes me impossibly happy, as does Hovhaness' Psalm & Fugue. When I hear this music I automatically remember in real time Mr. Halstenson conducting it, and I suddenly wish I could have all that orchestra stuff back. Man, what an experience! I don't think I'll ever be able to divorce this music from Anoka in my mind, but why would I want to?
And now a rhetorical but (unfortunately) non-hypothetical question: just how does one conduct oneself when the two people with whom one is chatting both recieve cell phone calls at the same time? Jeez.
10/13, Wednesday
11:20 PM
Reaction to the Third Debate
Ha! Ha! Ha!Is there anything else to say? Well, I have never seen W. perform quite this badly in public. I wish the election were tomorrow.
Also, I got free Thai food at the debate-party I attended. The whole experience officially made my day, and hopefully my election-year....
17:30
Rubin 505
My Russkie class has just begun verbs. Yes, we somehow made it through six weeks of classes with only adjectives, nouns and pronouns! It wasn't so hard -- Russian is different in that it sometimes just doesn't bother with verbs. For example, there is no present-tense "to be" (German "sein"; Italian "essere") in Russian. Regarding this fact: I'm curious as to how Hamlet's overquoted speech "to be or not to be..." would translate into Russian, ha!But needless to say, verb conjugation is a joy, and for some reason I find verbs much easier to remember than nouns. Russian is pretty awesome. I'm getting closer to literacy!
I'm also attempting to learn Italiano through the free, noncredit Speaking Freely program, because of my approaching Florentine (?) adventure in January '05. It's hard to juggle two brand-new languages, but the situation is improving; Italian class is extremely laid-back and basic, anyway. I can now conjugate verbs in four languages, but irregular verbs give me trouble in Russkie and Italiano. And my meager German is slipping away! I sincerely wish I were bilingual. To be honest, I'm part of a small minority here at NYU who can speak only English.
I was thinking about the future and I might actually head abroad to Prague for a semester as early as Fall 2005. I was going to wait until junior or senior year, like most people do, but there are a lot of advantages to going earlier. So I'll have to begin some Speaking Freely Czech as soon as possible! As soon as Florence is over, I'll get on that.
The NYU community is really different from the Anoka community, as evidenced by the fact that we all inquire about one another's ethnic backgrounds. I'm not kidding: it's a really common and generally non-offensive question here. Someone even asked me my ethnicity was yesterday, and this is something that would never happen back home. I guess they don't get so many Swedish people in these parts! I realized a few days ago that I genuinely miss Minnesota, though, and I think I will always think of myself as a Minnesotan. I love it here, of course, and I'm learning so much, but I also harbor some anticipation for Christmas break, when I'll come home at last.
10/11, Monday, 8:50 PM
Rubin 505
Cool Philosophical Entry
Such an awesome ConWest lecture today. Professor Ulfers, a smart and amusing German fellow, discussed Plato's Symposium -- essentially a dialogue (about love) among a few thoughtful yet slightly intoxicated Greeks. The part everyone remembers about the Symposium is the speech by Aristophanes, in which he lays out an interesting idea about love: all people were originally paired into one entity, but the gods decided that these two-headed, four-legged creatures were becoming too powerful. So the gods split up the people and thus we are actually half-persons, searching for our other halves. It's a beautiful, if strange, discourse.Do you see a similarity to Genesis? I didn't at first, but now it's perfectly obvious: both stories postulate that humans were part of a united, perfect system, but took a Fall and became incomplete. However, there is always the possibility of redemption, and so people will always strive to re-attain that original perfection. I thought this insight was amazing.
Also, we discussed the metaphysical ideas inherent in Plato and similar-minded texts (including Genesis); namely, that there exist two "realms": the corporeal, which is a derevitave and inferior state, and the the "meta," the spiritual/ideal realm, which is immortal and perfect. Geometry is the example Prof. Ulfers used to illustrate this ideal realm, and he was right... incidentally, the transcendent perfection of mathematics is one reason I find the subject so interesting. Qualities from the superior meta realm never need to go down to the physical, corporeal realm. This is why perfect ideals, such as beauty or justice, are virtually inattainable here in this world. However, the professor said, some texts allow entities from the meta realm to descend down to the inferior corporeal realm... and this is exactly what happens at the beginning of the Gospel of John (our next text), when "the word becomes flesh." There are so many connections here, it's crazy.
10/10, Sunday; 9:15 PM
Rubin 505
A lot happened again. For example, on Friday I lost almost a pint of blood. Fortunately, this was not because of stepping on glass again but rather because NYU hosted a blood drive. Besides the pleasant experience of doing a good deed, I was very gratified to give blood for two reasons: 1) I bled out a unit in six minutes flat, which is pretty awesome; and 2) I got a ton of free snacks. Things are strange, though, because after losing a considerable number of red blood cells I went running on Saturday and rollerblading today... yet I didn't feel anemic at all. So I'm not sure what is up, but whatever, I'm liking it. Also, I learned that my hemoglobin count (13.7gm/100ml) is still good, even though I have not consumed animal flesh for over nine months. It IS possible. But I still should credit the awesome iron-level genes I inherited from my mother.Apparently Uma Thurman was filming something on 11th St., less than a block away from my residence. I strolled past slowly, but didn't see her. However, Dina saw Ethan Hawke. She was happy.
Later on Friday evening, I was able to see the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for free at an Anthropology Department screening. I guess they have these every week. Anyway, the movie was fantastically directed and wierdly beautiful, and I need to see it again because I missed the first fifteen minutes (I was eating free food at my OutReach reunion -- can't pass that up!). This film made me ponder life and love, and I liked the ideas it brought out.
Then, of course, it was time to watch some goofballs argue about ideas and issues on national television again. I must say, Friday's debate was the best of the three so far. I think Bush and Kerry are better to watch than Cheney and Edwards, because the latter two can't resist childish attacks. Kerry is a pretty awesome debater, to be honest. I think he won, but perhaps not as decisively as he did last week. My favorite part was when Bush lept off his chair and cried petulantly, "You have to let me respond to this!!" Also, I liked that Kerry kept calling the mod Charlie. It was almost as cute as when Bush kept referring to President Putin as Vladimir in the first debate.
On Saturday I had the joyful experience of seeing Wagner's Die Walküre at the Metropolitan Opera. The matinee was to begin at 12:30 PM, so I headed out of Rubin en route to the nearest subway station at about 11:45. This was late and I knew it, but I hoped for the best. When I arrived at 66th St. and Lincoln Center, my intended stop, I realized that I didn't know where to go. Which building to enter? Which door to use? Ah! But then, as I speed-walked along the subway track hoping I was heading in the right direction, who did I spy strolling just ahead of me but my NYU-friend John! Seeing him in the subway station wasn't all that coincidental, seeing as how he was also heading to the opera, but I was still glad he was there, because apparently he knows his way around the Lincoln Center pretty well. We found our seats; I was in row I (that's the letter I, not the Roman numeral) in the "Family Circle," which turned out to be the second to last row in the whole theater. But there are no Bad seats in the Metropolitan Opera House.
Wagner wrote this thing in German, of course, and I know ein bissen Deutsch, but obviously not enough to comprehend a Romantic opera. Die Walküre has three acts. The first act was exactly one hour long, and then curtain swooshed shut and the house lights came on for an intermission. At this point the girl sitting next to me, an NYU studio art major/cellist named Laura, happened to glance at her program and gasped with surprise: the show was scheduled to go until 5:30! This, my friends, was no joke: it turned out to be a five-hour opera. Five hours of non-understanding. I got through acts one and two and knew vaguely what was going on, because I had read the program and some synopses of the plot prior to the show, but I didn't know everything. Then I glanced down at the back of the seat in front of me and noticed, much to my joy and surprise, that there was a small, conveniently illuminated screen that showed English translations of the German words. Huzzah! For this reason, the third act made infinitely more sense to me than the first two. And I learned a valuable lesson about visiting the opera.
Also, the tenor who played the character of Siegmund was none other than Placido Domingo, ridiulously famous opera star. He, Luciano Pavarotti and some other dude make up the "three tenors." The truth is, I wish I knew more about opera, because I miss things when I'm ignorant... but it was cool anyway.
Today I went rollerblading. I packed a picnic lunch that included Muenster cheese, acquired surreptitiously and skillfully at my OutReach dinner. I packed my blades in a backpack and strolled down Bank Street (and the Russian words that came to mind on this walk were "красивая американская улица," a.k.a. "a beautiful American street" -- obviously, my class has been focusing on adjectives and nationality words lately!) to the Hudson River. I strapped on my blades and headed uptown on the almost-unbroken bike/blade/ped path that runs the whole length of Manhattan. Once I reached the West 70s, I turned east to head towards Central Park. I ate my lunch while sitting on a boulder and tourist-watching, and then meandered over to Strawberry Fields, the living memorial to John Lennon. It was a grand time. When I headed back to the Village on the bike path, I was gratified to find that Manhattan is actually at an incline and the whole path was very slightly downhill as I headed south. Which explained why the going was surprisingly slow on the way up.
10/7, Thursday; 4 PM
Rubin 505
I acquired some great Russian opera music: Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Or, as Russians would write, Евгений Онегин (Yevgeny Onegin). Tee hee, I love that.I have suffered from an uncomfortable headache for the past three or so hours. I can't explain it, but I hope it goes away soon, because there is much work to be done tonight. I need to do laundry as soon as possible, for one thing. Bow down to me: I lasted three and a half weeks without doing a load of laundry! Hooray for saved dollars! (Laundry is not free at NYU. Bah!)
Also, I'm really proud of myself because I cooked ramen noodles in my coffee maker the other day. For all you doubters: it CAN be done. And now I need never miss a meal, because while a flex-dollar NYU deli sandwich may cost about $5, a packet of ramen costs only 59¢, even here in expensive New York City and at an overpriced flex-dollar meal plan grocery store! (Not that I've been missing meals, mind you, but I'll need to do something when the dining halls close for Thanksgiving.)
10/6, Wednesday; 5:15 PM
Education Bldg., 35 West 4th St.
Well, last night's debate was sorely disappointing. I was not impressed with the way either candidate performed, though, if pressed, I'd name Cheney as the winner. The whole situation just rubbed me the wrong way, though. Edwards kept interrupting, Cheney kept spewing ad hominem attacks, and the moderator didn't do such a great job either. It was too hardball, also. They both came off as really, really childish. Eh.This morning I wanted to get up early and go running, but I slept in instead. So I tossed on my St. Olaf College sweatshirt and went for a walk through the West Village, and I got sort of lost. It's disorienting, man. I was on Christopher Street, which is the same as West 9th St., and I stopped to admire a small triangular park on the three-way intersection of West 4th, Christopher and Grove Streets. Then I took Grove away from the park and hooked a left onto Waverly Place, which would take me further away -- or so I thought. I followed Waverly and the next street I came to was... Christopher St. What up!? I couldn't for the life of me figure out how this same street could be both behind me and ahead of me. Then I saw the triangular park, just a half-block away. I had completely turned myself around without knowing it. It was kind of disconcerting. But then something really funny happened. I was walking back, minding my own business, and I encountered a middle-aged man heading in the opposite direction. As we passed one another, he uttered, "Min-n-n-neso-o-o-ta" in a low and raspy voice and kept walking without altering his stride. He saw my sweatshirt, I guess. Ha! What to make of a strange situation like that? Just laugh, I say.
Several hours, a change of clothes, and two classes later, I strolled through Washington Square contemplating an intellectually stimulating ConWest lecture I'd just heard about Plato and his Symposium. I tried to button up my secondhand flannel shirt, for it was kind of cold outside. I quickly discovered that this task was impossible, because I had donned my shirt inside out and had been wearing it as such for the past three hours. Ha! Ha! Then a man sitting behind a chess table offered me a game, but I did not accept. You have to be good to have your "own" table in Washington Square. Also, I am too tightfisted with my cash to gamble at chess.
Today I acquired a $5 ticket for Wagner's Die Walküre at the Metropolitan Opera this Saturday. Yes! I love the Scholars program.
Ten-four, Monday
4 PM
I woke up this a.m. later than I had hoped, but still sort of early (9 o'clock) and made myself Dunn Bros. coffee (yeeeah Anoka!) and instant oatmeal. The taste and texture of my oatmeal suddenly made me remember all the Nordic ski trips of days past, and those are very happy memories. This morning's batch was Regular Flavor, which is vastly superior to all the overly sugared kinds, but still can't come close to touching the awesomeness of Quick Oats. Considering that Rubin 505 doesn't have a microwave but does have two coffee makers, though, I'll take what I can get. Hey, do any of you know if ramen noodles can be cooked in a coffee maker? Or, do you have ideas of other foods that could be prepared with not-quite-boiling water? I'm tempted to experiment with Mr. Coffee's capabilities and limits.Yesterday as I pounded away at the iBook's keypad, Dina looked at me funny and then informed me that I never use my pinky fingers to type. By golly, she's right. I try to use them now, because I want to hit 100 wpm and I need maximum efficiency. Well, I concede that 100 wpm is pretty ambitious, but I do remember the glory days in fifth grade when my hunting-and-pecking classmates playing Spellevator or something in Ramsey Elementary's computer lab would sneak envious glances at my flashing fingers. All thanks to Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, of course. I think my fourth fingers have become unnaturally strong to compensate for my disused pinkies, but I could be imagining things. Hmm.
Okay, the main reason I updated was so I could type "ten-four." Tonight I have orchestra, which is enjoyable yet strangely exhausting. Presently I need to read some of the Odyssey and memorize several Russian adjectives.
h1>10/3, Sunday
5:15 PMToday is an Arbeitstag für mich. I have been working a lot, and I have more to do after this, but there are many hours left. Also, I don't have class till 12:30 tomorrow, huzzah!
This morning I took another run through the West Village. I remember a month ago when I got here I was really excited to go swimming all the time, because it's relaxing and almost meditative for me, but I've discovered that running is a vastly superior form of exercise here in this place. This is because when I swim I see chlorinated water and a tiled pool bottom, whereas when I run I see people interacting with one another, and beautiful streets, and the river, and row houses, and street vendors. So running > swimming, I think.
My good friend Grace from Anoka came to visit yesterday evening, which was really awesome. We sipped tea and discussed life in Washington Square Park. When it came time for her to head back to the Bronx, Taina offered her considerable subway-system-wisdom on how best to reach Lincoln Center (where Grace could hitch a bus ride back home). The best way, apparently, was from the subway station on 14th St. and Seventh Avenue -- not a long ways from NYU or anything, but definitely a few blocks. So we walked over there, and after Grace descended into the station I had the interesting experience of walking through New York City alone at 1:30 AM as I headed back to Rubin. It was actually really, really cool. I stuck to busy streets like 14th, of course, and Fifth Avenue is about the safest place in the whole city. And in my humble opinion, my "purposeful walk," a.k.a. my don't-mess-with-me stride, is good. Especially considering where I come from!
Speaking of my Midwestern roots, I can't imagine how I forgot to mention this the other day, but at Friday's open-mic one of the performers was a rapper who was probably an NYU freshman. He was also a Minnesotan, and I laughed aloud when he rapped that he was from "Minneap." He busted out some rhymes about Hennepin Avenue and, predictably, Jesse Ventura, and my Minnesota pride soared. It was awesome, and hilarious. When he finished, I gleefully raised my hands in a one-person Wave and cried, "Minnesota!" and we bonded from afar.
Click here to see a response paper I wrote about the Problem of Evil as depicted in two Biblical books. I thought you all might be interested to read it. Read the disclaimer too, please. I don't want anyone to misunderstand.
10/2, Saturday
5:00 PM
Bobst Library
Today I slept in until 11:02 AM. One possible explanation for this anomaly is the fact that I've been waking before 9:00 every day for a long time, thereby netting myself apporoximately 6-7 hours of sleep per night. Isn't that sufficient, though? I'm not sure, but I do know that my sleeping/eating schedule is completely out of whack right now. I have until Tuesday and my 9:30 Greek & Roman Epic class to rectify this situation.Last night was grand -- after a decent open mic night at Faye's (at which I learned that I greatly prefer plain brewed coffee to overpriced, excessively milky lattes), Susanna, Dina, Shea and I went walking around the MacDougal-Bleecker area because that place is hopping every night, but especially on Fridays. Dina kept stopping to buy food and tea (Saint's Alp Teahouse is on Bleecker and Sullivan). We looked at Tibetan clothing/craft stores, which are superb and susprisingly numerous in this area. We checked out some poster stores, contemplated buying falafels but decided to do that another time, ducked into the law school courtyard on Washington Square South just because we could, and then cut through the park on the way back to Rubin. Of course, who did we see but... the hippie band! Hooray! We didn't stay long, though, because we were all kind of wiped out.
Today there is a huge street fair/book celebration in and around Washington Square Park. Dina and I headed over this afternoon to check it out, and we acquired lots of free stuff. Also, we spun a wheel of fortune three times each in valiant attempts to win a free MP3 player. We never succeeded, but Dina did win a t-shirt. I was gratified to see two very famous people: Jamie Lee Curtis and Art Spiegelman. I wanted to meet Art, because I think Maus 1 and 2 are downright amazing, but his security guard wouldn't admit me unless I purchased his new book. Oh well.
I finally registered myself as a Minnesota voter and requested my absentee ballot. Why did it take me so long? I'm not sure, but now at least I can be secure in the knowledge that my vote will nullify Grandma Viv's, much like when a particle and an antiparticle meet in the cold, dark vacuum of space and obliterate each other in a flash of energy.
Now I would like to express my deep and abiding love for Apple products. I'm having a ball right now typing not on the iBook but rather on one of those hemisphere-base, flat-screen display iMacs (a G4, maybe?) at Bobst. Don't get me wrong, I love the iBook, but it's raining outside and I wasn't going to carry it around. Also, the other day I had the pleasure of using a PowerMac G5 at the NYU computer lab with free printing (huzzah!) at 35 West 4th St. I am somewhat of a geek in that I use my iPod not only for music, but also as a huge portable hard drive (20 GB, come on!) for files to be printed at free NYU computer labs. This is because I do not own a printer. My system works seamlessly and perfectly, and I love my Mac and every other Mac that exists. So please throw your hands in the air in honor of Apple.