edit.

-ke

Where to start….

London is a really charming city. Sometimes I feel so comfortable around here I forget I’m in another country!
However I can’t get use to how dead the streets get at night unlike NY. Sometimes I feel like I’m walking through a hollywood set, the streets are narrow, there’s no people around and everything looks old yet.. clean..
OH and the streets are two way, city blocks are not in gridline 90 degrees so I get terribly lost in the swurving nonsensical streets, nobody flashes their blinkers, and J walking is a must have skill here.

And sometimes I feel like I get (sounds cheesy) lost in another era, there are so many buildings, churches, and hotels that date back to the 1600s. I honestly get overwhelmed and spooked out, until of course, I pass by a Mcdonalds and Pizza Hut and remember I’m still in the wonderful 21st century.

All my professors speak so eloquently, they make me feel like I speak like a thug on the streets with my NY accent.
And I won’t post up dorm pictures since they’re littered all over facebook. lol
But yeah, it’s the first year NYU kids aren’t living in a rented condo. NYU bought these new buildings around Bedford Square, which is located in a nice neighborhood. However, things are too new around here.. literally when I first came there were still painters and decorators everywhere! The dishes/cups/pots all still had their pricetag on and the people on the floor above us didn’t even have running water! Our water is a bit on and off too but we are getting free rent for now. Not complaining.

Oh and fish and chips are iite.

And the eggs cost more than the chicken here.

Don’t get me started with asian food. ): disappointing.

Oh and I’m starting to get suspicious of London following in china footsteps. Some of these buisnesses seem like a rip off of the American brands..

As much as I love this place.. I always feel NY’s charm can never be replaced. I miss it so muchhh. And my darling lilo. Oh the sadness. ):

Oh and if you are bored…really bored..

http://www.twitter.com/mykani I’m posting up weird/interesting things I see in London everyday~

Cheers

The campus and surrounding neighborhood views here are phenomenal, with beautiful gardens and lakes inside and outside buildings that just blow my breath away. It takes me about 20 minutes to walk from my dorm room to the actual building where I take my classes (I don’t start until Thursday). Many people travel by bike here, so I picked up a pretty rad little bike that’s  red with a red lock and a red little basket.

For the next three weeks, I will be working at a company called Levitron from Monday to Wednesday. I had an interview and a tour of the company on Monday  and it wasn’t too bad. Levitron is an engineering company, who sells many electronics to Home Depot. A few classmates and I will be there to help teach some workers to speak and communicate in English. We will have to be living at Levitrons factory dorms since it’s about a 2 hour travel one way between university campus and the company.  Should be an interesting experience since the dorms are Chinese style where each room has two bunk beds, and the showers, sinks and the toilet (which is a hole in the floor) are both outside shared with other rooms.

I currently have an interview curfew, so I can’t write too much this time around. I’ll try to post pictures and more at least once every two weeks if not more.

Miss you guys.

[I’ll be updating on 16 degrees a lot of more since I can’t access Facebook here in China yet.]

But yeah, I read the posts posted by a few of you before and I’m just inspired to shed some things I’ve learned in college.

1) You are responsible for our your own college experience.

As a commuter, this definately hit home hard. I had to consciously join clubs/events and put myself out there in order to meet people. It was totally worth it, the whole 2 hours of commuting back and forth haha </3 nts: get  a car. D: But yeah, one thing good about commuting is that it really helped me avoid unnecessary social distractions which I’m happy about after I got my final grades

2) I can now officially be on time for anything. Thank you Mr.Ertman’s 8am Con west lectures.

3) NY street signs make sense to me now.

4) Never buy food anywhere near the nyu campus or otherwise be prepared for some major cash burning. (With the exception for the falafel and bagel carts, god bless them.)

5) I now have the ability to spot a gay man 10 blocks away.

What a cute dog. (:

6) NYU consists of three populations : the nerds, the preps, and the koreans.

8D

7) (From friends who dorm)  On the housing application, where the question asks whether you are a liberal or conservative, it really means if you want your roomate to be straight or gay.

Yeah… I’ll try to come up with more stuff but I need to sleep early. I’m jogging in the morning with debbie… one of the extremely overdue new years resolutions I made hahah

And yep, NYU isn’t bad as I thought it would be ..With the exception of no dorm life BUT studying abroad would sorta kinda make up for it.

~~~Toodles

Allison

Other than being luckily placed in an air-conditioned job area, I also love love research. It’s about pesticides & most of you probably don’t want to hear the details so I’ll spare you the boring chemical aspects about it. It does have to do with the environment though! The professor I work with is really nice and sometimes lets me off early if the machines aren’t working.I’m really excited to see how far we can go but also frustrated because we’re only on step one and it’s been week. I appreciate all those nobel prize winners out there in the world.

Lastly,

I AM NOT IN THE WOODS. I got the bite from sitting on a bench on campus like any of you other people would. As displayed below, I got a hideous spider bite. Yes, it looks like a fucking cough drop/jelly bean growing out of my leg. I was bitten by a spider and I have NO IDEA what happened. It just swelled up and I can’t look at it. It’s so naaasttty. I have like 5 other bites that are red and swelling up like crazy but not like that awful tumor. The black line is what the doctor drew when I went to the ER. She told me to come back if the redness passes the line/the thing turns black, but I don’t think it will so I’ll be fine. Hopefully.

Hope you are all enjoying your wonderful summers wherever you are! (:

What did I learn from my first year of college? The feeling of losing someone. I never had someone really close to me die or leave me before. And, I am still connected to all of you guys through texts, aim, and facebook. So being away from New York doesn’t count. I realized that a lot of the people I am meeting, after they graduate, I will probably never see them in my life again. They will have to go serve the military, go back to their home country, well actually,…basically any where not short driving distance from New York City. I shouldn’t be thinking about it since its pretty depressing. But I guess you can say it’s part of life, so cherish every moment.

WTF am I doing? I’m still in Florida and taking Summer A&B classes while working on campus.  I also changed my major to Safety Science but I will be minoring in Air Traffic Management! Still going to be an Air Traffic Controller! (hopefully!) which means I’ll graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Safety Science. How kickass is that? I recently went to a shooting range!

Yeah… didn’t do so well. I am sure a ton of them did not even hit the paper. That’s about it, besides me slowlyyyy getting a bit darker every day. I am so going to get skin cancer.

Please update what you guys are doing, cause I haven’t had the time to talk to anyone on AIM!

Have a great summer & don’t forget sunscreen.

Toodles <3

Love Story meets Viva la Vida by Jon Schmidt < listen while you read

____________________

I cannot believe our first year is over. To be honest, I haven’t had much time over the past weeks to really think about it. So right now, I’m going to try to type out what’s in my mind and to share some updates with you guys.

Change?

This school year has certainly been one of many changes. For some of us, it is adjusting to a completely new environment. For others, it is a brand new social circle with different habits and lifestyles, even some questionable ones. We are thrust into a different habitat, forced to make new friends and decisions for ourselves. How did this ever happen? When did we get old? I’m not going to lament over that but it is amazing how far we have come.  It has taken me more time than usual to adjust, to adapt and to acclimate to this. What I have realized is that it is worth it in the end. Not only does it make us more independent but also it bridges us toward our next step in life.

This change has also allowed us to reinvent ourselves. Not to say your old self was not good enough but this moment in life has given us an excellent opportunity to take initiative. Maybe you might not even notice your progress, maybe your change came with growing older. Either way, I believe all of us in some ways even minuscule, have changed. We could be influence by our friends, the people we associate ourselves with. For me my roommate (bio chem major) have made me more studious. I have accepted that parts of life will admit nothing less than hard work and that responsibility only falls on me. That is the result of my setbacks in high school but also the drive for my future.

I must say Geneseo really grew on me, the wonderful people I have met, the friendly atmosphere, and the beautiful natural setting. Sometimes I rather marvel at how lucky I am to meet those who helped me become a better person. Along the way we have stumble and tumble along, but I would not regret attending Geneseo and college in general.

Summer 10’

Nothing new, I probably travel before summer ends but otherwise I will be working at the museum and just chilling out. I did not want to or really needed to take classes. Come out when you got time! We all need to catch up.

A bit ahead

Back in Feb, I committed to applying for transfer to Cornell. Looking back, I applied for reasons for more than just academics. I was still adjusting to the social environment and academics. I was unsatisfied with what I had; I thought I had seen all Geneseo could offer. I thought a small school (4000) people would be perfect for me but it was not. With budget cuts across SUNYs, I thought my education would also be shortcoming. As I was packing, I realized it was only a speed bump in my road, a brief scare and play of emotions. I have bonded with the right people and my classes were all going right. As for budget cuts, it was out of my control and the college has dipped into its bank account. Life was all right.

The Dean of admissions eventually called me and explained that they didn’t have enough space so they were offering a deferred spring 2011 transfer option. They said I would be finishing all my gen eds that would apply to the industrial labor relations degree. To be honest I have mixed feelings. I mean its Cornell, and I would be pursuing a major that I am very excited about. I decided not to tell my parents since I want to make a personal decision and not be pressure into transferring. I will think this over during the summer but as for now, options are opened.

I know not everybody blogs anymore because some of us have moved on with our lives. I do not blame you nor do I want to persuade you to blog. I know how busy college can get, one minute you are having pizza at 1 am and then the next, a presentation about recent macroeconomic policies of the government. Nevertheless, thank you to those who continue to check the site. I think I check at least once per day. I rambled enough.

Besides, I am almost landing in JFK. Good luck to everyone pursuing your endeavors in the summer sun!

• all the best

Ke

P.S During my last geography class, the professor told us a concluding story for the course. It was about a former student he had 10 years ago whose 8 year old sister was diagnosed and later
passed away from Leukemia. He said we were all fortunate enough to live this far and experience life. And when he said that, I realized my situation pales in comparison to what that little girl must have undergone or missed. I feel whatever happens in life, I am lucky enough to be myself and able to live life to the fullest.

GMH

I dont know why it comes out blue …… buti guess if we can have a Big Red Dog named Clifford… what the heck why not a blue one