Kurse

German Bab -- This class singularly responsible for my much improved sleeping habits. Not only do I have 9 am class every single day, but I have 8 am section on Monday mornings. Yay for sleeping early! More than half the class is grad/business/law students, many of whom can already read German, and somehow it didn't quite register with my brain until now that an intensive language course would be intense. Despite feeling stupid most of the time, I still really enjoy it.

Freshman Seminar: The Book from Gutenburg to the Internet -- A seminar. With Darnton. Fucking fantastic. It seems like a lot more work (readings, presentations, 20 pg research paper) than my last seminar, though I'm sure it will be worth it.

Econ 1011b - Does no one in the econ department speak English? One professor is Eastern European, and I can't decide whether he's a big Belorussian teddy bear or ex-KGD operative. The other is French, daffy in a particularly Parisian way. I can imagine him running around l'école Normale Superiore gesticulating wildly and shouting, "Les économiques! Les économiques!" His accent is so thick that I actually understand him better if I think about what he says in French rather than English. Apparently, they also don't really talk to each other because they have no idea what the other one is doing. Grrr. My TF is....just no. All he does is copy the lecture notes or the textbook on the blackboard. I still haven't quite figured out why I'm taking this class - as a badge of honor?

MCB 80 - I hope this class is easy. I hope this class is easy. I hope this class is easy. I hope this class is easy. Yet something tells me neurobiology will not be easy.

Gosh are we full of ourselves.

From The Harvard Crimson, February 8, 2008. "Clinton, McCain Carry Primaries." Front page, lead story.

Super Tuesday was not kind to Harvard graduates.

The presidential ambitions of former Mass. Gov. and dual Harvard degree holder Mitt Romney were hanging by a thread early this morning after his chief rival for the Republican nomination, Senator John McCain of Arizona, racked up big wins in nominating contests on both coasts.

In the race for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York edged Illinois Senator and Law School alumnus Barack Obama in the crucial northeastern states of New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, while also capturing the biggest prize of all: California.

(Meta)physics

"Fate is less a force of nature than a Rube Goldberg device, an endless chain of tricky coincidences whose final result is utterly beyond prediction."

January 2008 Playlist

A collection of songs I especially like this past month. The order is arbitrary, determined only by the date I first became addicted to a particular song.

A Complete List of New York Activites in Incomplete Sentences

Tues, Jan 22
-Took the Greyhound bus from South Station. Got 25 cent rings from rest stop vending machine. Mine was pretty spiffy. Arrived in Port Authority. Got to NYU.
-Had surprisingly good, cheap sushi. I'm torn between whether the sushi restaurant had the best or worst marketing scheme ever. Basically, there were two price columns on the menu - "regular" and 50% off. Except the sushi was always 50% off...so it was the regular price.

Wed, Jan 23
-Went to Strand bookstore.
-Ate at Hayden (sp?), NYU's amazing all-organic, locally grown foods dining hall. AMAZING!
-Canal Street - Went crazy about scarves but only bought two pashminas. Followed shady shopkeepers through hidden back doors and cramped rooms to look at designer knockoffs. Decided I had horrible taste in purses and should just not buy anything.
-"Pretty ladies. Fake ID?"
-Watched a Strasberg production of The Glass Menagerie - AMAZING!

Thu, Jan 24
-Shopping in the East Village (?): Magnolia's Bakery for cupcakes, matching quintuplet Marc Jacob's sentences that say I Love You when you spin them.
-Screaming Mimi's vintage shop. $60 belts -- that's all I have to say.
-Walking about East Village being very very cold.
-Ate at Lucky Cheng's, a drag Chinese restaurant. It was $40 (ewww) and the food was bad. So bad it made be throw up. (See below). The erotic cakes were not erotic at all. The drag queens were sexy .
-Threw up on the cab ride in a Marc Jacobs paper bag.
-Rent at the Nederlander. Felt queasy the whole time. Blergh.
-Went back to NYU to collect stuff. Threw up again.
-Arrived at San Carlos Hotel -- boootiful hotel room. Threw up again in the middle of the night to celebrate.

Fri, Jan 25
-Read The Blind Assassin as the rest of the gang hit up Canal Street. Ogled their purchases when they returned. Fell in love with Margaret Atwood. Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan should just get together and make literary metababies.
-MOMA. love love. Bought colored-flame candles. Wished I could have seen more.
-$2.50 falafel as a Greek cafe/hookah joint. The guy making our sandwiches was charmingly flirtatious and the falafel was the tastiest I've had. Definitely the meal with the highest yumminess to dollar ratio.
-Max Brenner's: Chocolate by the Bald Man. I don't care if this place is a tourist trap okay? I don't care if we had to wait nearly 40 min for a table. I don't care that the chocolate wasn't even that great. The fondue was that cool.

Sat, Jan 26
-Raped my bank account.
-Lincoln Center. Browsed the Hansel and Gretel exhibit while taking an obscene number of obscene pictures. Counted the number of Jewish names in Lincoln Center's benefactors. (A lot.) Found Carl Pforzheimer -- yes our Pforzheimer!
-New York City Ballet - Four by Four. A perfectly chose quartet of ballet pieces: one Balachine, one meditative modern ballet, one featuring only male dancers, and one comedic musical about sailors picking up girls at a bar. Even the fourth ring tickets were great, and we were on the fourth floor balcony.
-Central Park
-Alice's Tea Cup. Yummy scones that come with fresh cream and jam. Yummy tea. Yummy decor. Not so yummy albacore sandwich.

Sun, Jan 27
-The Met - saw the Egyptian temple, the Costume Institute (fashion may be frivolous but couture is definitely art!), clock exhibit....
-Jamba Juice
-Bus ride hoooooome.