New York

Hi there all you blog-followers....all...5 of you?
Sorry I haven't had time to update this but I haven't exactly had much access to a computer. So Monday (the 19th) I arrived at International House in Harlem for orientation. International House is where grad students from all over NYC live and where we're living and going to classes right now. I met all the kids and the faculty/other adult persons as well. Ken Kruchemeyer and Barbara Kenect are both the directors of IHP as well as teachers sometimes. Diya, Meika, and Jos are our other teachers who will be traveling with us. Nik'hit is our Trustees Fellow, meaning he's done the program before and is now traveling with us to ensure that we always have someone to talk to and help smooth things between us and any problems we have. We all played some games, ate some dinner, and first day was done.
Tuesday we had two guest speakers, one who spoke about the economic crisis and another who writes for the New York Times about the various neighborhoods in the city.
Wednesday we had agency visits to urban planning centered non-profit organizations. The one I visited is called the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS). It's a non-profit that does projects that make the city a better place for residents as well as having annual awards to recognize those individuals that are also doing this. Actually, a lot of these projects are really cool. MAS was put on the map in the 1970s when they saved Grand Central from being torn down by the makers of Penn Station who were worried their profits were in danger. Currently MAS is working to revamp Coney Island and make it the world's best amusement park again. Coney Island has the largest public transportation center in the nation and it barely goes to use since people no longer go there. They also do a lot of educational outreach. After agency visits everyone went to Ken and Barbara's apartment in midtown where they cooked us dinner and general merriment ensued. Then everyone booked it back to I House to watch Top Chef and Lost!
Thursday was a lot of boring mandatory kind of things. We had our first "orientation vignette" which is basically when the teachers talk to us about things like safety, drugs and alcohol, offending other people's cultures, etc. Then we had "group norms" which is where we as a group decided how we should deal with other groups as a group (inter-group norms), deal with ourselves as a group (inner-group norms), how we as a group would deal with faculty, and how we would deal with ourselves personally. As I say, boring. We also had a workshop on communication and diversity which actually isn't as boring as it sounds.
Friday we had presentations on the agencies we had visited which were fairly amusing since we were required to present them in a fun way. I had my first Culture and Society class with Diya and my first Urban Development and Sustainable Environments class with Ken. Another orientation vignette about drugs and alcohol where we were told that "if you're caught with drugs abroad, there's nothing IHP or the consulate can do". Alright, scared enough.

Now I'm in the city hanging out with my friend Lisa since we have the weekend off. Sunday is the alumae/i dinner. Next week is neighborhood day where we visit various neighborhoods in the city and study them and what they can tell us. There will be more classes next week and more orientation vignettes. And there's lots of homework! But from what I can tell, this program is no different than college in that everyone STILL doesn't do any of the readings. Except me. So that's all for now, sorry if this blog is boring. I've never done a blog before...any suggestions?