The South for all its bad and good

I’ll be the first to admit that the South has its faults. However, coming back to visit during Winter Break, just like every homecoming, reminds me that there are things I really love about this place, too.

Throughout my teenage years in a small rural town in Tennessee, I refused to identify myself as a Southerner. Growing up as a child, I wasn’t usually identifiable as one anyhow, and perhaps that’s how it started. My family came from the Midwest and moved to Tennessee when I was 4. The fact that I was already talking when we moved meant that I was less likely to pick up a Southern drawl. Furthermore, this combined with the confusion from the local dialect (or maybe it was unrelated?) meant that I had a speech impediment growing up. I took speech therapy classes for years in order to correct it, and that basically left me with a pretty neutral, unidentifiable accent. The lack of an accent on its own was enough to send red flags for most people that I ‘wasn’t from around here’. Our family still identified as being pretty Midwestern, too. That also set us apart from neighborhood kids who called us Yankees and made constant references to the Civil War (I kid you not). I tried to explain that, to the best of my 10 year old knowledge, Minnesota didn’t fight in the Civil War, but this didn’t seem to make a difference. I ended up feeling like I wasn’t ‘Southern’ since it’s what everyone told me.

As a teenager I began to identify ‘Southern-ness’ with fundamentalist religion and conservative ideology – particularly neo-conservative ideology. It also, in my mind, brought with it an excessive amount of bigotry and racism. An incident in which a high school coach referred to Muslims as ‘towel-heads’ was all it took to cement my decision. As soon as I could, I was getting away from this place. It seemed to me that everything I’d ever been taught about equality and Civil Rights and loving people was a whole lot of hypocrisy. I hated most things that could be associated with Southern culture, too. Hunting, muddin’, paintball, Southern food, religion, etc.

In college I didn’t worry myself too much with these thoughts. Though I stayed in Tennessee for college, I remained in my educated, liberal ‘bubble’ at a great college with great friends. I went on living my life with people who shared my beliefs and values and understood my discontent. A number of these people still love Tennessee, especially the mountains. I didn’t put much thought into it, however, until I moved to Japan. In Japan, people focus a lot on the region they came from. Hokkaido is famous for this, people in Osaka are like this.. regional heritage is huge part of conversation, and people take a lot of pride in it. When people asked me about Tennessee, I found myself remembering all of the things that were unique and special about it. I had loved the 4 years I spent in college in Appalachia and recounted stories of wildlife, the great outdoors, etc. I taught my elementary school students how to cook fried okra. I played country music in my classroom and told students about Elvis and Johnny Cash. I even introduced them to Charlie Daniels.

This visit reminds me that there are things that I miss. The South is really rich in culture, and the culture is certainly unique and untouched in many ways. Nashville is an amazing city with a well-known Country Music scene, but also a blooming Indie scene with some amazing musicians (Kings of Leon and Jack White call Nashville home). Quentin Tarantino’s East Tennessee upbringing comes out when he shows a bunch of good ole’ boys kicking ass in his recent film Inglorious Bastards. Eating Southern cooking since I’ve been back: fried dill pickles, fried green tomatoes, okra, cornbread, collard greens, squash, boudin all remind me of the South’s unique history and the influence of it on food. The South isn’t without its faults. The rich musical history and cuisine are both heavily influenced by African Americans whose ancestors came to the South as slaves. I still feel that there is a long way to go down here regarding Civil Rights. People will be polite and politically correct publicly because they are aware of the reprimands they face otherwise, but behind closed doors people still say things like, “Can you believe that girl at church is dating a black boy?”. They’re quiet about that, but quite open and feelings toward homosexuality, since that isn’t protected across the board yet. It’s upsetting and frustrating because I love this place and I love the people, but there seems to be so little understanding and open-mindedness, or so I thought. In living abroad, visiting other countries, and living in other states, I’ve learned tha discrimination is widespread everywhere, thought it may be more discreet or directed toward different groups. I don’t think the South is necessarily worse.. but it saddens me everywhere that this kind of thing happens.

Things I’ve had to work on when I visit here include trying not to be judgemental and being open-minded, especially if I accuse others of not being so. I have to be careful not to judge people too fast just because they’re religious, Republican, or Southern, because some people WILL surprise you. Being here and going on long drives through mountains or farm land makes me appreciate how different this is from the city. People really are friendly, even to strangers, and Southern manners are an important lifeskill. People have a strong sense of family and look out for each other. Relationships and marriages tend to be more ‘old fashioned’ but I’m not the type of person who minds occasional chivalry, despite the stern disapproval of many of my modern feminist female friends. I don’t think that makes me any less of a feminist. The bottom line is, I lived 20 years of my life (more or less) in the South, and if I’m going to call anywhere ‘home’, this must be it. Love it or hate it, I have to claim it. I’m just trying now to see every side of it.

Collard Greens

Also, a great resource on Southern Literature: http://www.oxfordamerican.org/

High Five New York!

Bwah-ha-ha-ha. Most of this is near campus, too!

My unplanned addiction to technology and why it is New York’s fault.

So if I thought I was connected before, New York has really done a number on me. Tech literacy is a MUST in this city and in gaduate school. I can’t claim to be tech-savy in that I don’t know the inneroworkings of most things on my computer and require help from friends if any behind-the-scenes adjusting needs to take place. However, knowledge of all the user-friendly programs out there is a complete must. It’s amazing to me how much technology I use on a daily basis and what is out there, so I’m compiling a list here of the things I use most.

• Bobst is tech savy! Bobst is my school’s library, which has all of the obvious online databases, a well as a few extra sevices. Aside from spending so much time there, having Bobst programmed into my cell and on my ‘friend’ list makes me feel liek we’re old buddies. Students can text message the library to ask for help finding a source. I have done it before when I was having trouble accessing an electronic version of a Harper’s article, and they replied back in about 2 minutes! The same service is also available on messenger and in an online chat screen from the library webpage. In adition to this, you can also have a text sent to your phone with the call number for a book, once you find it in the online catalogue. In a huge library with over 10 floors, it sure makes things easier.
• NYU Home. This is our online center for.. well.. EVERYTHING! Everything for the school is managed here from club activities, to e-mail, to bursar information, to class assignments. It’s insanely well organized, in my opinion, and is far superior to the system I had in undergrad. It’s very streamlined.
• Zotero….. Zotero has changed my life! It helps you to organize sources, create bibliographies online and in word, tag sources and put them in folders, take notes on them… basically anything you could every want to do, in HALF the time. You can tell it if you want to use Chicago style, MLA, APA or whatever kind of citations and you can use it to insert them into your work as you go along. It’s hard to explain it without seeing it, so search for some screenshots.
• Itunes/Ipod Touch.. Aside from the little white earbuds proving to be an excellent way to avoid talking to stangers on the subway, I use this for absolutely everything… I have a Japanese kanji dictionary, a regular dictionary, podcasts ranging from my school’s official podcast to BBC to This American Life to LSAT Logic to The New Yorker.. I have at least 12 podcasts that I can choose from if I’m not in a music mood during my commute or when I’m walking around. Also on my ipod I have uploaded subway maps and route listings, and I have HopStop (a guide for subway directions) and Not For Tourists guide to the city on my ipod. I’m so dependent on it that it’s not even funny.

That’s just a list of what I have used TODAY alone. It’s really quite crazy…. I’m also learning Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop at the moment in order to be able to better create posters for [future] conferences. It’s crazy to think that I have itunes for organizing my music, Zotero for organizing my work, and Facebook fo organizing my friends/social life. It’s a fast-paced world out there.. I could certainly get into the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, but I’ll leave that for you all to ponder. Maybe I’ll write on that later on down the road.

More posts later, but for now:

This is why New York is so much fun. I’m trying to get involved with Improv Everywhere. Yay for culture-jamming.

What I put myself through for a falafel. Plus, Bohemian Beer Garden, and Salsa Dancing.

This week has been a whirlwind of activity, and I think it’s only going to get crazier. I love it though. Let me start first by talking about what happened to me last night… I had spent a productive day in the library and was headed home when my friend Brian called me up to come meet him in Sunnyside, in Queens, for some drinks. I was in Manhattan, but I was headed out anyway, so I told him, sure, I’d be there. I was in Washington Square not TOO FAR from the station.. how long could it possibly take. There was just one problem… I really wanted to get a Baba Ghanouj sandwich and this wonderful place called Mamoun’s. I thought I knew how to get there, so I walked down Astor place, but I didn’t see it close by, so I just settled for another falafel place that didn’t have a baba ghanouj sandwich but did have a pretty decent falafel with some bizarre pickles and decent hot sauce. I walked up one side of the street, crossed over, went in and got my falafel, then walked out and back the way I came. However, since I had crossed over the street, when I walked back, the street actually split and I ended up on a different street. I noticed when things didn’t look familiar anymore and I had walked for a while without finding the subway. So.. I figured it must have split off, and I could nly be about a block to the right of where I should have been.. so I started walking… but with no luck. I have no idea where I ended up or how I got so turned around, but I had to call Brian and tell him not only that I wouldn’t be able to make it.. but that in all of my falafel bliss I had gotten myself lost. Luckily he helped me get situated and got me to a station where I could get to Sunnyside, still. SO, I went down into the station only to learn that due to work on the line, no trains were running UPTOWN… which means I couldn’t get to Queens from there… Soooooo… I had to walk a loooong way back to my original station and gave up and headed home. Brian sent me a text telling me to get off at his stop and we could still hang out, but I got it too late and was already home. Soooo, instead, we decide to hang out in MY neighborhood and went to the Bohemian Beer Hall! We were among just a handful of guests left that late at night, but it was fun. It’s an outdoor beer garden and apparently in the summer they have stands out there where you can get sausage or whatever the hell you want and they project old Czech and Slovak movies on the walls. I really want to check that out next summer because it sounds SO like my neighborhood, and so unique!

What else is new… I signed up to take conversation classes in Japanese and French. I’m looking forward to that getting started because it’s just something I’m doing for fun (no grades on this), and I REALLY need to keep up with Japanese before I forget all of it. Also, today, I signed up for Salsa and Mambo on 2 dance classes! I have some experience with salsa dancing already, but Mamba on 2 is a totally new thing for me! It’s Afro-Caribbean-based and completely unique to New York! The description said, “Students will learn musicality, styling, mambo shines, Cuban motion, single and double turns, simple and advanced footwork patterns in a high intensity cardio format.” Sounds great to me! I’m really looking forward to that because it’s totally new.. plus I LOVE dancing. I’ve been pretty shy in general since moving up here, but hopefully getting back into that will get me out of my shell a bit AND help me to meet some new people!

Here’s a video of New York Style Mambo on 2:

see also:

How awesome is that!

Anyway, I guess I should get back to work… Definitely staying plenty busy!

From my reading on consumerism

I fully intend to take a study break and write a blog later on, but for now I HAD TO share this. This is from a book I am reading by Zygmunt Bauman called Consuming Life. He is quoting Joseph Brodsky, who described a life based only in consumption as follows:

You’ll be bored with your work, your spouses, your lovers, the view from your window, the furniture or wallpaper in your room, your thoughts, yourselves. Accordingly, you’ll try to devise ways of escape. Apart from self-gratifying gadgets mentioned before, you may take up changing jobs, residence, company, country, climate, you may take up promiscuity, alcohol, travel, cooking lessons, drugs, psychoanalysis… In fact, you may lump all these together, and for a while that may work. Until the day, of course, when you wake up in your bedroom amid a new family and a different wallpaper, in a different state and climate, with a heap of bills from your travel agent and your shrink, yet with the same stale feeling toward the light of day pouring through your window…

1. Bauman, Zygmunt, Consuming Life (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009). 
   

I love my work…. More later… now back to reading.

Sept. 11th in NY

The city is rainy and gray today. Feels like it’s crying. Feels like being an outsider on my first Sept. 11th in NY. It’s like I showed up at a wake I wasn’t invited to.

Today I walked down to a local bakery and chatted w/ the shop owner at a fruit stand. I was just thinking about how much I love this city and love being here. There were police everywhere, just walking the streets in yellow rain coats. I didn’t think anything of it until I remembered what day it was. I wonder if having them present and EVERYWHERE today is to help people feel safer? It’s been raining and melancholy outside all morning. It’s chilly and gray. I realized that everyone around me is grieving, and though Sept. 11th affected me, as an American, I know it is different for New Yorkers. On Sept. 11th, I was a high school student and an announcement came over the intercom for the classes to turn on the news. We saw the 2nd place hit live, I believe. I remember being shocked… Then there was the pentagon and the plane crash in the field. I felt safe because I was in Tennessee. It seemed to me that we couldn’t have been a target… but I still fell asleep watching the news that evening. I think I was glued to the coverage from the time I came home from school until I went to bed. I think it was because I just didn’t know when it was going to stop. More and more things kept happening… but I still felt safe in my small town bubble.

Today, I thought about what it would have been like to be HERE when it happened. I’ve thought about this a few times on the subway, actually, several times when I take my train home from campus. Sometimes I read the signs on the trains that read ‘Although emergency evacuations are rare, we want our customers to be prepared,” and lays out the evacuation plans. I wondered what it would be like to be coming home when the planes hit. I’m sure the subways were evacuated. I’m sure people panicked. I remember hearing that no one’s cellphone was working b/c SO many people were trying to make calls to check on friends and family. I don’t ever have any reason to go out to the WTC site, and I don’t know anyone who goes out there much, but I know that being in this city it would be terrifying not knowing if that was the only site that had been hit or what was next. I am confident that I could have seen it from the roof of my building. I imagine I probably would have exited the subway and walked home (I doubt the trains kept running, but I could be wrong). I probably would have watched from my roof for a while, knowing that I wouldn’t be more or less safe by doing that. I’d probably follow the coverage or talk to people in the street about what they knew. So far, in my experience, New Yorkers do talk to each other a lot when something strange or out of the ordinary happens. I was on the train once here and all the lights went out when we were in a tunnel. People were talking to each other to see if anyone knew anything. I’m sure people would have been meeting at the corner news stand or fruit stand or coffee shop trying to get information since other access to information would be limited. People would have to rely on their neighbors and neighborhoods for support when they were unable to reach friends and family. In my neighborhood, I think that woul have offered SOME comfort. The people here are extremely ‘neighborly’ in every sense of the word, despite all their differences.

I’m not going down to Ground Zero this evening.. just seems like it will be crowded and a lot of tourists. But I will definitely look for the lights, which should show up pretty well with all the clouds tonight. I’m sure I can see it easily when I cross the bridge into Brooklyn later this evening when I go to hang out there. I never gave much thought to September 11th anniversaries before moving here. The only people who got worked up about it in TN were people who would call anyone who wasn’t worked up unpatriotic and a terrorist. But now, being here, yeah… I feel sad. I love this city, and I feel bad for this city.

What? I’ve been here a week, and I haven’t posted?? Craziness :)

So I figured it was time that I post something. So far I’ve been extremely busy, and I’m loving it here. It’ll be hard for me to sum up EVERYTHING I’ve done this week – but it’s all been really great. I’ve had a chance to meet up with quite a few friends and to make some new friends, as well. I guess I’ll just break this post down into categories as far as things that have been going on.

School

I’ve had a looooot of meetings with my department, and I can see that I have a lot of work ahead of me – but I love what I’m doing. I had one assignment already (mind you, classes haven’t started yet but we already have homework . The assignment is for a course on political propaganda and requires me to answer the following questions in essay form:

How can you account for your political and social views? What political figures or thinkers have influenced you the most? How has your family or education or religion influenced your political views – or have they? What major events (political or otherwise), books, or other media products have helped form the political “you”? Why are you in this class and what do you hope to get out of it?

It’s a really interesting topic, but it’s very hard to write about in only 3 pages – especially if I get into social theorists who have influenced me.

I’m also excited about an event that is going on at The New School.  Apparently the students from my department get notified of or invited to a lot of events both at The New School and at Columbia (we also get to use their libraries – which is awesome!) I can’t claim to know much about this person, but it certainly sounds like something I’ll be into. Franco Bifo is going to be speaking there, and though I don’t know a lot about him, the description on the page about him and in the e-mail sounded great to me:

Franco Berardi Bifo is a contemporary writer, media-theorist and media-activist. Founder of the magazine A/traverso (1975-1981), he was part of the staff of Radio Alice, the first free pirate radio station in Italy (1976-1978). Like other intellectuals involved in the political movement of Autonomia in Italy during the 1970’s, he fled to Paris, where he worked with Felix Guattari in the field of schizoanalysis. He has been a contributor to several magazines and newspapers, and author of Mutazione e Ciberpunk (Genoa, 1993), Cibernauti (Rome, 1994), Felix (Rome, 2001, London 2009) and Generacion Postalfa (Buenos Aires 2007). His new book Soul@Work, published by Semiotext(e) will be in bookstores at the end of the year 2009. He is teaching social history of communication at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, and is the co-founder of the e-zine rekombinant.org and of the telestreet network. His talk focuses on the concept of recomposition, drawing on the work of Deleuze and Guattari to examine how social production and communication are related to capitalism.

I’m really excited about all of the different lectures that will be taking place and will give me a chance to learn more about my field.

And, on a totally unrelated note… I found out during our graduate student tour that when we graduate, they light up the Empire State Building in our school colors. How cool is that?!?!

My Neighborhood

I’m just going to go ahead and say that I love Astoria and Queens, so far. It isn’t an expensive or necessarily ‘pretty’ area, but it’s very clean and very safe with a lot of young people and young families. This is by far the most diverse neighborhood I have ever lived in in my life. I’m almost willing to bet that if you randomly picked out 20 people from my neighborhood, you’d have 20 different nationalities. I easily hear 4-5 different languages being spoken just on my way to the train station. We also have the BEST food.. lots of Greek and Middle Eastern restaurants. One street here has at least 10 hookah bars on it. Everyone also seems to get along well. There does seem to be a very strong sense of community here and people are extremely friendly. I went to order a mattress from a local shop owner who was a very sweet, older, Middle Eastern man. He asked if I had any friends in the neighborhood since I was new to New York ,and I said, “I have a few,” to which he replied, “Well, now you have one more! Come by anytime!” I thought it was really nice. The shops are amazing.. I can get really great olives, cheeses, or HUGE containers of imported olive oil from Greece and Spain on ANY street corner store. There is also a wonderful European coffee store that sells any kind of espresso from anywhere that you could ever want to buy – which is good news for me since I brought my percolator for making espresso and also my Turkish coffee stove-top cooking thing. There are also a few great Dim Sum places around here that I’ll need to check out. I had never had Dim Sum before hitting up a great place in Chinatown – but I will be looking to try others now that I know how great it is.

Getting Out

Well, I haven’t done any sight-seeing, much to the dismay of many of my friends/family back in Tennessee. But I’m in no rush. I’m going to be here for a while! I needed to get settled in with school and my apartment, first off. Luckily, I have gotten to go out a bit in Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn with friends I knew from before, friends I have made since I’ve been here, and my roommate. I definitely don’t feel lonely or isolated, and it seems to be pretty easy to get to know people. So far, a lot of my friends have invited me out with groups of people, which has allowed me to meet new people. I’ve been to a few restaurants, bars, and next weekend I may be going to an izakaya (Japanese-style bar, which is a whole other type of thing and a little hard to explain.. but apparently the izakaya here are very authentic!). I’m looking forward to getting to know more people in my program. We’ve actually had quite a few outings with the program already, but it’s still a little awkward because people don’t know what to talk about beyond, “Soooo.. when are you taking core seminar?” and other random small-talk.  But I think everyone will start to warm up to everyone else in time.

Ok, now back to working on my essay. I’m not complaining though! I like thinking about this topic, it’s a beautiful day, I have the window open with a great view of the street below, and I’m about to pour myself a bowl of Muesli that I bought at the European coffee store and make some espresso. What better way is there to start a day??

<3 Everyone and come visit me!!

Annnnd now for some pictures of the move and my place:

The suitcases I got to haul around... yay...

My bedroom!

Bedroom + posters (a few designed by Mr. Newman!)

Desk/work area. I'll probably get a bigger desk eventually.

Working hard?

Living room. No furniture, yet.

Kitchen. Gas stove <3.

Bathroom

My street!

My neighborhood - view from my window!

Courtyard view from our livingroom.

View from the roof.

Another rooftop view.

And I want to try to end every entry with a song, now.

Listening to:

Dream – Priscilla Ahn

A very hectic last week…

First, I have to say that I’m really sorry to anyone I’ve had to cancel on in the past week. For anyone who has moved out of the country or really far away, you know how this goes. Everyone starts coming out of the woodwork the WEEK before I have to go. I am not complaining.. and I’m really happy to see everyone. I just feel really sad and frustrated and like I am letting everyone down. It’s a lot of added pressure. This happened when I moved to Japan too. People always think, “Oh my god this is the last time we’re going to see each other EVER.” It isn’t that I don’t want to see everyone, but I can’t see everyone twice and I can’t drink anymore. I feel like it’s just another quick pull off the band-aid goodbye, and I dont want that.. but the goodbyes started, and were supposed to start last week. I made time to see EVERYONE once, and I didn’t feel like it was fair for me to see some groups of friends twice and some not at all. I can’t complain.. I love everyone lots… I just have to pack, and see EVERYONE. Some people I haven’t even seen in nearly a decade, but it DOES matter to me to see everyone regardless. I’ve tried inviting out mixed groups of people so I can see everyone, but it doesn’t work. My friends from different groups don’t really mingle, and then they all still want to hang out alone just one last time, after that.  So this has been my week:

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2 weeks ago:

lunches, dinners, and a b-day party. good times.

Friday (I think it was Friday??)

Coffee with a professor/mentor who is very important to me. good times.

Drinks with a) mixed bag college friends b) friends I have met this year. good times.

Saturday:

Made dinner and had drinks with friends I hadn’t seen in 7 years!! Got to meet their kids. good times.

Sunday:

I honestly do not remember Sunday. I know I hung out w/ my roommate.. I think I had drinks with someone? I’m so sorry.. I can’t remember at the moment. I feel like a jerk.

Monday:

Lunch w/ an old friend from back before jr. high school, but it had to be canceled.

Dinner with a college friend who couldn’t make it out Friday. Good times.

Tuesday:

Dinner and catching up with a friend from back before jr. high who has been living in Austria for the past two years and is only in the COUNTRY a few more weeks before moving to Barcelona. I hadn’t seen this person since we met up when I was in Germany. Good times.

Drinks with a friend I saw Monday, but I had to cancel. (I’m realllly sorry!)

Today:

Lunch w/ an old friend, but it had to be canceled again.

Lunch w/ my roommate since I haven’t even had a chance to say bye to this person who has helped me with every detail of this move and life and everything else from getting boxes for me to helping me carry them to the post office and mail them to shipping my books up to me after I move.

Dinner with someone I would go so far as to say was my BEST friend in Jr. High/ High school, but I’ve been a crappy friend post-high school and haven’t kept in touch like I should. She had a second child, and I didn’t even know about it until just now. I feel like a big jerk.

Tomorrow:

Mailing the rest of my stuff and doing all the packing I’ve barely had time to do between seeing everyone.

Dinner with my parents… the people who raised me and stuff.

Friday:

Flight to New York City!

———————————————————–

I really hate this. I hate feeling like I am picking and choosing and having to prioritize my friends.. But I’ve tried to spend time with everyone and feel split in a million directions. I tried to start saying my goodbyes long before it was time to go. I’ve tried to double up on get-togethers and have mini goodbye parties but it’s always weird b/c it’s hard to invite non-high school friends out w/ high school friends b/c we only talk about high school stuff, non-college friends out w/ college friends b/c we only talk about stuff from college, traveling friends w/ non-traveling friends b/c we only talk about travel, and work/Knoxville friends w/ non-work/Knoxville friends b/c we only talk about our friends/life in Knoxville. I’ve had to cancel on several people altogether, not because I didn’t want to see them… but b/c our schedules just never matched up. I didn’t want to have a big goodbye party right before I go b/c it would have had to be a weekday and people would still want to get together after that and I do not want to drink before my flight. I made that mistake the LAST time I flew to New York and was cradling a bottle of Evian and feeling like death the whole time.

On top of all of this I still have a pretty bad sinus infection, am on antibiotics, I honestly CANNOT drink.. I went to bed super early last night and might have even had a fever. I also haven’t even come close to being finished packing or even doing my laundry b/c I’ve also had errands to run in town, packages to send out, tickets to check on, airports to call, bank accounts to close (they don’t have branches for my previous bank in NY), parents to e-mail directions to since they’re coming up from Alabama to visit me, addresses to change with EVERYONE, Grad school forms, information, registration, vaccination records and the works to send in…. I’ve been booked, double-booked, triple-booked.. I’m trying.

I’m really sorry if anyone feels left out or let down or like they didn’t get a proper goodbye. Anyone who moves away knows how this goes… And folks, this isn’t forever! Come visit me!!! Seriously… free place to stay in NYC!! Also I WILL be back sometime.. not sure when yet, but it will happen.

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In other news: I did get in to the course I was trying to get into in my MA program. This is the course you couldn’t just register for.. I had to write an essay, and I did all of this research and background reading to prepare for it. It’s mostly PhD students in there and the person teaching it is a BIG DEAL in my field. That news made my day today.

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I love everybody. I really really do. Not a single one of you matters more to me than anyone else and I love you all for all for a million different reasons and for the support and friendship you have given me. and I have really really really tried. Please keep in touch and PUH-LEEEEASE visit! I’m not EVEN joking.

Quick mini-post!

Check out this interesting, short article about NYC subways.

From the article:

“Recently given an advance copy of the official 2008 subway passenger counts, I found myself wondering — what would it take in terms of auto facilities to replace the morning rush hour carrying capacity of the NYC subway?“

I thought it was pretty interesting to think about.