Getting Back to New York

Monday June 9th

So I went to the airport shortly after I left you guys on Monday. It turned out my flight was canceled so I had to wait for another 3 hours for the next flight out, meaning I didn't get back to Columbia until 11:30.

For those of you who don't know I don't actually have housing in New York, so I have just been kind of mooching off friends and moving from one room to the next sleeping on an air mattress. So the first night back I stayed with my friend Ariel. She is my closest friend here at Columbia and one of the few girls that I know who is staying the summer. I spend most of my time with her and tell her everything. I don't know what I am going to do next year when we are living in different buildings across campus from eachother. She appreciated me staying with her because she had an exciting/overwhelming weekend when this guy Eric visiting her, and had a lot to talk about. I tried to give her my wise advice but I think the whole guy situation will take a couple of more sessions.

Tuesday June 10th

I had to wake up early (5:30) to meet up with some friends. We all met through the film festival and are known as the food commitee. We rented a Zipcar and were driving to Jersey to go sky diving. We drove for 2 1/2 hours to south Jersey listening to a mixed CD that this guy B made consisting of various love songs such as Boys2Men – I’ll Make Love To You, Marvin Gaye – Lets Get It On, Atlantic Star – Love Me Down, and Blackstreet – No Diggity. It made for an interesting ride. B is a really interesting guy. I know him through the film festival the I will be running next year. He is one of the co-founders. He graduated this past spring but I hope to and expect to stay in touch with him. He is one of the most physically fit people I know, meaning he can do such things as pushups where he claps behind his back and pushups on just his thumbs. He also has created a non profit which is centered around the idea of Joy. He makes paper decorations with the words "you are my joy" on them and posts them on people's doors. He also hands out stickers with the same phrase, and tags places around Columbia, hoping that people will see them and it will put a smile on their face. He also does such crazy things as swim the across the Hudson river to Jersey, and walk the subway track. He is also the person who brought us all together and organized the skydiving adventure, even though he has already gone skydiving before.

We attempted to go sky diving the previous weekend but because of weather conditions they made us sit and wait for 3 hours before they told us we could do it. This time we were luckier and were the first people to be taken up. It was the first time for four of us. We all jumped tandem to an instructor, from 13,000 feet above the ground. It was an amazing time. Nothing like anything you could expect. On girl, V, almost passed out during the parachute part, but after some rest on the ground and some water she was fine. V is the freshman of our group. I feel bad because I feel like the guys put a lot of pressure on her to do things. Not necessarily bad things, just stuff like telling us what the names of her middle school rock band were, and coming to hang out with us, but still it is pressure. She is cool about it though and a really nice girl.

Afterwards we hung out by a pool for a little, (we also have on our list of things to do this summer to teach V how to swim, but she was not interested in getting in) until we got bored and decided to stop by K's house. K is in my year. She is a very open and pretty Asian American girl who used to date P. She lives in Maryland so it was not much of a drive. She is leaving for the summer to go to London and work for a film studio, so we were happy to get to spend the time with her. We jumped on her trampoline for a while, and got to play with her dogs. I'm trying to convince them all to come to my house next, and meet my dogs. I showed them some pictures of Charlie, but after everything they have heard about my family they say they aren't surprised at all that I would have that kind of animal.

I decided to go for an early dinner at this Moroccan place in Delaware called Casablanca. It was really good food, a 7 course meal for $20. The meat was really tender, and I learned at dinner that apparently you can eat the bones of chickens and such as well. After dinner we all said goodbye to K as she headed back home, and the rest of us drove back through Jersey to New York. Along the way we dropped off V because she had to fly to California the following day for a family vacation.

The two guys and I then drove back to the city and I dropped one off at Columbia, P, and one off at his apartment downtown, B. I then had to return the car to the garage where we rented it. Unfortunately, by this time it was 1:30 and the garage door was closed. I found a place to park and walked to the garage knocking on the door, and calling their phone. The guy on the phone kept hanging up on me, and the third time I realized it was because he doesn't speak English. Luckily, he was still nice enough to open the door for me so I could finally return the car.

By this time it was around 2 AM and I needed to find a place to stay. I decided to stay uptown at Columbia with P. He had a paper to write for his class the next day anyway, so I was able to even sleep in his bed. P is a good friend of mine. He is one of the few guys who actually stayed and helped me through everything when it came to organizing the film festival. He and I are also in the process of trying to organize a catering company on campus, so we have slaved away in the kitchen together many a times, and have spent long nights trying to work out logistics.

Wednesday June 11th

I slept in today which was nice after the previous day. I got up and showered in time to have lunch with my friend Lucius. We went to a deli around the corner. and the proceeded to Riverside park where we spent the afternoon just sitting around and talking. Lucius is a political science major, and a really passionate guy. He is working at a law firm in Queens this summer. He is the kind of guy who reads a lot, but when he reads he reads text books and books titled, "Politics in Society". Despite his interestes, at the park our conversation mainly focused on what sex he would prefer his child to be and whether his parents seperation made him more skeptical about love and marriage.


I'll keep you posted on any more news (exciting or not)

-the nanny