i heart ny?

so new york.


being in new york kind of feels like being in a poisoned candy store. or possibly Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. the immense range of everything at your fingertips calling out to you to touch me, taste me, love me but you're not exactly sure if you should because for some inexplicable reason it feels like that candy might bite right back. for the most part, i love it. i'm scared shitless, but i love it.

the exact same analogy goes for Columbia, by the way. except i might be a tad more frightened of it than i am of the City. being a lowly freshman, i have already missed out on the chances to get into the classes I really wanted to take this semester, PLUS my assigned Lit Hum and University Writing sections both clash with at least four classes I could possibly take, so while everyone's got six or seven classes on their registration sheet I have a measly three. I am scouting out everything from Astronomy to pilates to Environmental Science to Music in an attempt to fill up the gaping holes in my schedule but luck has remained a stranger to me so far. :'( maybe i should become an astronomer instead

Columbia itself is only so frightening because it is so awesome, though. my dad, who as a few of you might know is (actually was!) the biggest pro-LSE/UK education person ever due to his being on the LSE alumni committee and taking obscene amounts of pride in it, is now a convert. he told my mom, "LSE just cannot possibly compare!" (as if this is how he felt all along of course) while we were walking around campus one day and after the convocation ceremony SO MANY TIMES that the novelty actually began to wear off after a while. my parents are basically infatuated with my university, and i can see why. and that also makes me glad, because it's nice to have parents who are letting you go be who you want to be with their blessings for a change. (:



the first few days i arrived it was rainy and blustery but the sun has come back recently and it is absolutely glorious. ♥ the skies are so blue (much, much prettier than grey, icky London) and i'm just glad i don't sunburn. Hyounju and I walk around the Upper West Side every day, occasionally venturing downtown to hit Korea Town or Times Square or, in yesterday's case, NYU and West Village. there's always so much to discover and i don't think it's just because we're still practically tourists in the big city - the city just seems like one of those places you could live in nearly your whole life and still not know like the back of your hand. there is so much of the quaint and cultural, glitzy and gritty, that you just don't know where to begin, and there is never an end in sight. (unless you ride the subway till where it turns around, and from what i hear from Barney Stinson of How I Met Your Mother, you do not want to see where the subway turns around.)

I've already seen Mamma Mia for the second time on Broadway (the first time i saw it was six years ago, my first time in new york, the time i fell head over heels in love with the city and vowed to return to study here one day but at NYU since i didn't know of Columbia's existence back then COUGHCOUGH), entrance to the Met for Columbians is free, Central Park is a few blocks away, Times Square is a ten-minute ride away on the subway. i live on the same floor as a Bulgarian boy who loves anime, a Cuban girl who (very strangely resembles Shameen) grew up in America, an Indian girl who grew up in Thailand, an Asian-American boy who has a passion for brewing tea, an Irish musician, a Hispanic straight boy who loves to sing and dance, an African-American semi-professional astronomer, a Romanian physicist who speaks like he stepped out of West Side Story, and thirty-one other amazingly talented and equally diverse young adults. the wealth of opportunity and breadth of diversity just astounds me every single day, and all i know is that i have yet to inwardly roll my eyes or think something caustic about the intellect of anyone i have spoken to so far, and i have spoken to a lot of people. you just cannot possibly get a more incredible environment for learning than this. and trust me, having had the unusual opportunity to be a freshman at another university in Australia for six months - I know.

coming here was pretty tough on the relationship part of my life. long-distance is a bitch as we all know, and going to university for the first time is a huge transition and immensely exciting experience, as we all know. meeting so many people (and I have to admit, the people here weren't as unattractive as urban legends made them out to be) was pretty distracting at first...which i guess we were both expecting. but nearly losing him one day made me realize how petty these distractions can sometimes be. yes, the prospect of newness does lend glitz and glamour and a rose-tinted looking glass to every person you meet, but none of that can ever hope to replace something much more real. i nearly made a humongous mistake my first few days here, and all i can say is i'm glad i didn't. i miss the tangibility of what we used to have...but at the same time, it is still tangible, just in a very different way. in a very think-about-that-one-person-every-second-of-every-day way. in a straddle-two-different-timezones and let's-just-sleep-less-so-we-can-talk-more kind of way. after the incident i actually feel more grounded in this relationship now than i used to be, which can only be a good thing. oh god. i miss my boyfriend so much though. i can't wait to see him again. :'((((((((


anyway, pictures are all on my facebook. (: yes i will attempt to take some with me in them.....sooner or later. :D