Home Again

Greatly enjoyed my East Coast visit. I'll very, very briefly summarize some highlights of the trip here (I'm leaving out all the juicy stuff so you have to contact me..hee hee...).

Boston:

The trip there only took 17ish hours, so it was a little shorter than a trip to the moon. It was great seeing Chris before he becomes a full-fledged American refugee in Europe. On Monday, I went to the Harvard admissions office. They arranged a class visit, lunch with a prof, and a campus tour for a few admits who were there. All of it was good, except for lunch. While I'm always a fan of free food, this was just weird b/c the prof (who was married) spent the entire time ogling and talking to one female student. Everyone felt uncomfortable. We later dubbed him "the lecherous professor."

Later that day, I met with a professor who studies some areas that I want to research. She was awesome, and I really enjoyed the visit. On Tuesday, I wandered around Cambridge. I got lost at one point, making me sweaty and embarassed when I showed up 30 min. late for a meeting with a current student. Oh well. In total, I walked over 9 miles that day.

New York:

Took the Amtrak back down to NYC on Wednesday morning. The scenery was sooooo beautiful, though it felt weird that none of the trees had leaves in April. I hear they get leaves around May. The weather was perfect, and people kept pointing out how strange it was. A student at Columbia gave me a campus tour. He was really nice, really patient with my lack of preparation, and from California (so he could relate to my East Coast concerns). Met with Conchita, who was nice enough to let me stay with her. We had fun at dinner, and then we went to the Southeast Asian Law Student Association (SALSA) Game Night. Suffice it to say, I don't think law students should play board games. They kept making up new rules and everyone was a wee bit competitive. But my team won Cranium, and that's all that matters. =)

On Wednesday, we ate breakfast at Tom's Diner (like on Seinfeld). The people there are so rude, it's actually funny. I really enjoyed it. Then I was gonna catch the subway down to NYU. But the downtown trains weren't running, so I decided to walk from 112th Street to 42nd Street. Yup, 70 blocks. It was fun, and I enjoyed seeing the city. At 42nd Street, I hopped on the subway and went over to NYU (which is in Greenwich Village). I saw a guy who looked exactly like Orlando Bloom, but he spoke Spanish. Hot. So eventually, I headed back to 42nd Street to catch my bus to the airport. I decided I might as well walk it too (only around 30 blocks).

So I went to the airport, flew home, yadda, yadda, yadda (maybe I picked that up in NYC). Oh, one cool flying story: turns out that the guy sitting next to me on the plane from New York to Minneapolis yesterday is friends with someone I worked with in Arkansas! Small world.


Conclusions
I liked both Harvard and Columbia. NYU is just a little too urban for my taste--I like having some semblance of a campus. I really appreciated all the hospitality I received. I don't much like travelling by myself. Connecticut has some lovely coastlines. Both Boston and New York accents are delicious. Airport food isn't. On a plane, it's all a matter of luck whether you sit near cool people or not. Packing all your things in one bag for a 5 day trip can cause some back pain. But it's still so much better than checking luggage. And it's really, really good to be home.