Cello Again...

Well hello!
Sorry I skipped a day of blogging yesterday, I was exhausted last night after class.

Yesterday was a big day. I got up really early and got to Starbuck's around 6:30am to finish up my reading before my first class. I ordered my drink and grabbed a table with two chairs next to a window. I'm glad I had my coffee early in the morning--I thought it might be bad form to show up to my Corporate Social Responsibility course with a Starbuck's in hand.
I opened up my articles and started reading, and the more I absorbed, the more excited I became about starting class. I read about corporate social responsibility models, human rights models for philanthropy, the International Declaration of Human Rights, and all sorts of opinion pieces about the role of human rights in business. After a while, an man who looked about thirty asked if he could share my table. The small coffee shop had gotten pretty crowded by 7:30, so I didn't mind. We both continued working for a while, and then he asked me what I was reading. "Oh, CSR?" he said after glancing over at the stack in front of me. "That's interesting. Are you a student?" This line of questioning continued for a while until he started talking about himself instead. He told me that he worked in culinary education and had done some work at Western Culinary in Portland. We had a nice conversation, and I asked him a little about the food industry and if it was really like what I watched on the Food Network. After a while, he got up to leave and left me with his business card. "If you need someone to show you around the city," he said, "shoot me an email." Although he was nice, I don't see that happening. Something tells me that he wasn't exactly interested in business.

My Human Rights class was incredible. We talked about many current issues and debates in both the business world and the world of NGOs, and we watched a film about the UNOCAL gas pipeline in Thailand which has been "patrolled" by the Burmese military for years and has resulted in the torture, expulsion, and death of many Thai villagers. It was both moving and infuriating, which to me, is the mark of a great movie. I met a girl named Sam who is a senior at Columbia, and after talking for a bit, she invited me to her house-warming party this weekend in Brooklyn. I plan on going and bringing Valerie. At the very least, it would be great to see a new part of New York. Sam and I quickly figured out that we were two of three undergrad students in the course, and the rest were grad students. The other undergrad is named Ben, and although he's from New York, he goes to school in Scotland. We walked out of class together and exchanged numbers, so hopefully we'll do something together soon.

Later that night, I had Anthropology, and again, I found myself in a room full of graduate students. I didn't really make any friends in that class. The professor aimed to speak about gender, language, and culture in that class period, but only got through gender in three hours. Let's just say she's rather verbose. The material was interesting though, and I guess I just need to come to class well-rested as to avoid the uncontrollable urge to nap.

This morning, I took the subway (with three transfers!) down to the Whitney Museum to meet Casey (the guy from UCLA). I met him outside, and we went in to the museum together. After waiting in a long line at the admission window, we got to the front and realized that Columbia students get in free! We walked past some disgruntled paying customers and took the elevator all the way to the top. I read aloud from the guidebook that the Whitney collection was gathered by a woman interested in contemporary artworks that were too "edgy" for traditional museums. The guidebook was certainly on-point. The art WAS edgy. We walked through rooms of audio-visual displays, neon lights, ladders that lead to nowhere, toilet seat covers, and large pillow representations of food like BLT sandwiches and huge ice cream cones turned upside down. WHATEVER. After about an hour, we both capitulated and headed back outside where we laughed about a lot of the strange things we'd seen and attempted to appreciate. Still wanting a satisfying artistic experience, we headed down into the subway again and rode a few more stops to 53rd and Lexington. We walked a few blocks to the MoMa, and discovered that admission was, again, free for Columbia students. Here, we saw Cezanne, Picasso, Van Gogh, Raushenburg, Johns, Rothko, Magritte, and Miro. It was incredible. I found myself remembering back to just a few months earlier when I had stood in front of these same paintings with my parents. It's interesting that when you see something for a second time, you realize that it's been there all along, without you. I thought about how many people see those exhibits everyday, while I've been a world away in Oregon. Even though I had been just a few months before, it felt like such a different experience this time--being on my own.

Casey had to get going to meet with Housing after a little bit, and he told me that he's flying home to L.A. tomorrow. I guess his class got canceled and it's too late for him to sign up for another, so he's going home after only four days in the city. I was disappointed because we had had so much fun together, and if that were me, I would do EVERYTHING to try and stay. He just seemed so apathetic about it--like it didn't even really matter to him. I didn't really understand that mentality. Regardless, we said goodbye, and I headed upstairs to the Salvador Dali exhibit which was new. I loved seeing all his surrealist art, prints, and films. I spent about an hour looking at everything, and then had a salad at the snooty but beautiful cafe in the museum.

I've noticed that I've already started to become so much more self-reliant. At Oregon, I was around people all the time. I would have class with friends, study with friends, and come home to my roommates, so there was very little time that I actually spent completely alone. Here, I spend most of my day by myself, and although it was disconcerting at first, I've started to get used to it. It's nice to have time on your own, and I've realized that even if I don't make a cadre of friends here for the next few weeks (even though I'm sure I will), I can befriend this amazing city and this new self that I am starting to discover.

Peace and love,
Rachel