9/11, seven years later

At the request of my mother I have decided to finally begin writing in my blog again after a not-so-brief break...

My new job is near city hall and when I exited the C train at Chambers street this morning it was strange to look back and see the gaping hole that still remains in lower Manhattan. If I had been there at that exact time seven years ago I would have seen a plane fly over my head and crash into the WTC (I was a little late for work today;), I would have been evacuated from my office and seen huge clouds of debris pushing through the streets... a pretty scary thought. I said good morning to a woman in my office and she said "no, not this morning." I didn't go to the site today because I feel so far removed from what happened and there are so many around me that would like to forget but cannot. Despite the books, pictures, videos, reports and even the gaping hole, it is still quite unbelievable to me.

Is February already half over?

Wow, it has been a while since I've written!

Usually I just try to survive the winter, but this year's weather has been pretty nice as NY winters go. It was such a beautiful day today-- almost 60 degrees. I found that I could walk outside and look around at all the pretty parts of the city I never see because I'm rushing to get out of the cold.

My friend Preeti and I went to the Chelsea Market, which contains too many wonderful shops to name (but i'll try): bakeries, italian and spice markets, flower shops, a dairy, chocolate, tea, wine, and coffee shops. All (or most) of the Food Network shows are also filmed on the top floors of the Chelsea Market building, which apparently used to be a huge oreo cookie factory (which I wouldn't have minded visiting either;). Chelsea is directly south of me about 100 blocks- on the west side of manhattan and is full of art galleries in converted warehouses, beautiful old apartment buildings with unique architecture, and a huge variety bars and restaurants that are quiet during the day. Preeti and I visited Billy's Bakery in our continuing search for delicious cupcakes around the city and I was so full from visiting the Chelsea Market that I decided to get a cupcake and their famous bananna cake with cream cheese frosting-- to go.

Today has been a good day:) I'm currently pretending I don't have any schoolwork to do and listening to the Rent soundtrack. I finally got to see the show last weekend when my friends Rachael and Jen visited. We had so much fun! Thanks girls;)

Other recent events include:
- Took the Presidential Management Fellows Test- if I do well I'll be named a fellow and invited to participate in special hiring status with the Federal Government. If not, I will for sure not be moving to Washington DC.
- An article I submitted to the student journal was chosen for publication. Yay! But unfortunately tons of work to edit and add research to my paper...

Otherwise I am still enjoying my classes and internship this semester and, though this is all a lot of work, I really look forward to knowing where I'll be headed in June. If I can just get through February I have a trip to Colorado and a trip to Paris to look forward to in March:)

I'll keep you posted...

Yay! I’m home.

It was a long last week working full time at Palladia- but at least I didn’t have any schoolwork to do:) It became that that time of year again… peanut butter was my only source of protein and I was getting my veggies via toppings on NY thin-slice pizza. The weather was low 30’s and raining so that is never fun.

I got a chance to see the Atonement with some friends on Monday—it was a good movie but definitely awkward and creepy at times—and very sad. The filming was really interesting though, and for that I recommend it.

Now I’m just trying to sleep off my cold and enjoying the fam. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtWjJm3btmZD

Well, since I last wrote I've had some good and bad times...

Good: My mom visiting, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade, having a delicious Thanksgiving potluck with my friends (thankfully, one of my friends is an amazing cook but she is also a vegetarian so I was forced to use my excellent turkey-cooking skills-- and my phone to call my mommy quite a few times), and having another friend, Ryan Chambers, visit.

Pics: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtWjJm3btmY0

Bad: Cold and Finals

It has gotten colder quicker this year, which is never fun. The snow has been really nice though, just little flakes that make me feel like I'm in the middle of a snowglobe.

Finals have been a bit brutal and I have 2 presentations and a 15 pg paper to go, but since I had three finals last week I'm feeling like the rest should be fine.

I have to work full time at Palladia the week after finals and then I'm back to Cali on the 21st. Yay!

I will be in California from December 21st through January 13th so I look forward to seeing you all!:)

Until then, I hope to enjoy all the pretty NYC Christmas decorations and maybe go skating in central park- hopefully during some of that snowglobe snow:)

Fall Update:)

So…. it has been a while since my last entry. Sorry about that! These last few months have been a whirlwind, but I guess I can’t expect my last year of grad school to be laid back.

School has been really interesting so far this year. My concentrations are Social Enterprise Administration (combining SW and business models, learning management and HR techniques for human service organizations, and finding creative and innovative solutions to social problems) and World of Work (examining how work affects the lives of individuals and using work and organizational design as a method of enhancing the lives of individuals and society as a whole)

Until two weeks ago I had five classes because I was required to take a 7-week clinical course. Needless to say, I am glad to be back to a normal full load of classes.

I am loving my field placement at Palladia Inc., a non-profit in East Harlem that focuses mainly on housing and homelessness, substance abuse, and domestic violence services. Currently we are working on a grant that would allow us to begin a preventative program to stabilize people at risk of becoming homeless. I enjoy the program planning and development department because I am able to be creative and apply much of what I’ve learned in school and because everyone in our department have really gone out of their way to teach me the field—which includes: grant writing, budgeting, program evaluation, grant tracking, strategic planning, organizational development/quality and more. I’ve still got a lot to learn!

Harlem Connect is the caucus (such a weird word) I am co-chairing this year. It has been a great experience but a lot of work to recruit members, create events, and fundraise. The purpose of the caucus is to open dialogue and build community ties between Columbia students and Harlem residents. We do fun events (like eating soul food and going to jazz bars) educational events, and community service. A big issue in New York City right now is that Columbia is buying a huge chunk of West Harlem and pretty much bulldozing everything to make way for a new, modern campus. While this has its positive sides for Columbia students and for the community, the way Columbia has gone about its planning (using eminent domain) has caused a lot of trouble in the community. We are holding a panel next week so that students can educate themselves on the different perspectives of the expansion issue. Because we have representatives from the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, the University, the community and the school of social work, this event has taken a ton of planning—it all happens Tues. the 13th so please pray it goes well!:)

Amidst all of this craziness I had been hoping to get more involved in my church (originsnyc.com) this year. However, I think I have to accept in some ways that its not the time for be to take on more activities and that God is using all I’m learning and thinking about at school to help me grow. As always, I enjoy the Sunday services and have been able to connect with people who are such an encouragement during this busy busy time. God has been teaching me more about loving the people around me every day, rather than going only to church to serve and love people.

Thankfully, I’ve also been able to have some fun despite all of the above schoolwork. In late September John and I went to Coney Island for the first time. Unfortunately it was raining, but we still felt we were able to see it in all its carnival glory. Rumor is that they are closing Coney Island permanently to make way for beachfront housing so we thought we’d check it out before it is gone! We gobbled down hotdogs and cheese fries at the original Nathan’s hotdog shop (since 1898), ate some cotton candy on the boardwalk, and played some ski-ball.

In October my roommate Jenny was able to get cheap tickets to The Lion King through her work. It was a fun show, though I will say that the unbelievably creative costumes were the best part (I liked the music from the movie better). The fact that the actors took on so many mannerisms of the animals they were supposed to be was really fascinating as well. It was great to be able to experience a show I have heard so much about!

A few Saturdays ago, some friends and I rented a car and took off to upstate NY to see the fall leaves and go apple picking. It was great to breath in some fresh air, see all the pretty fall colors, and come home with a HUGE bag of apples. I will not be purchasing apples for a while, I got so sick of them;) But, they were gorgeous apples and tasted so much better than anything I could get at the store.

My good friend and former roommate Kate visited me about a week ago. We had a lot of fun catching up and seeing the sights! She braved the statue of liberty, Ellis Island, and 5th Ave. alone because I was at field, but we were able to cover quite a bit of NYC while she was here. Lunch in little Italy, shopping in China town, jazz in Harlem, seeing central park in all its fall glory, cupcakes and pizza on the upper west side, walking the Brooklyn bridge and the ritzy neighborhood of Brooklyn heights… to name a few of our activities.

Last Saturday I was able to see Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point and Blink) speak at Teacher’s College. It was great to hear him speak because his books are so interesting and he is a very quirky guy. He is a great connector of ideas because he is extremely intelligent in several fields (the man must read for five hours a day!) but he manages to explain simply how concepts connect using relevant cultural examples. Malcolm spoke about creativity and how our culture only rewards the type of creativity that fits with instant gratification and fully formed ideas (gave the example of The Eagles- smash hit right away) rather than rewarding creativity that is formed more steadily and improved over time (Fleetwood Mac took 10 years to put out a hit album). Apparently this subject is what his next book will be about.

Last night John and I managed to win the rush raffle and get two front and center seats to Wicked, the musical, for $26 each:):) We were so happy. It was an amazing show and a really clever story. I also loved the detail and creativity of the costumes and the music was unbelievable—so basically I loved everything about it. I’m sure it helped that we were in the front row and could see every expression of the actors faces and every detail of their costumes…. what a fun night!

This weekend my mom is visiting and I am so excited to see her and show her what I’ve been up to this past year (and almost a half- wow!).

On a sad note, it was in the 30’s today- not a good sign for this California girl:( I miss you all along with the CA weather but I guess I’ll survive another winter;)

Below is a link to pictures from this fall, enjoy!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtWjJm3btmYl (let me know if the link doesn't work)

This article is about one of my professors this semester. He is from Uganda and does development work there. Feel free to take a look if you are interested. It is really fascinating hearing his examples in class.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/socpol/socpol09121.php

Hi!

In typical New York City fashion so much has happened since I got here. A synopsis:

I arrived to find seven people staying in my apartment, two friends from Paris who I told at the beginning of the summer that it would be fine to visit in late August, my subleaser, whose new lease did not start until the first, a friend of ours, whose apartment fell through the day before she moved from California to New York, and my two (patient and kind) roommates, Jenny and Kerry.

My flight got in in the evening on Sunday and I began work as an orientation leader at 8am Monday- without a schedule (the program was not very organized). I ran around Columbia and New York with my orientation group and my french guests all week- which was a blast. I was all over the place, downtown, uptown, the east and west village, a cruise around the NY harbor, soul food in Harlem. Needless to say, I was definitely ready to get some sleep and unpack my bags by Friday. Everyone was out by Saturday evening after which I promptly got sick and lost my voice for three days:( Not fun for a talker.

So I began school last week disorganized and unhealthy. Note to self: not a good plan. I was a bit overwhelmed because of work I've been doing for a caucus (glorified name for club) I will co-lead this year. The caucus is called Harlem Connect (harlemconnect.blogspot.com) and is dedicated to bridging the gap and improving the relationship between Columbia and the Harlem Community. We've had a couple really successful events and a couple mishaps but overall a lot of first year students are showing interest so I am excited.

Classes are good but will be BUSY this year. I'm taking Program Planning and Evaluation, Macro Community Practice, Social Work and the Workplace, Human Resource Management, and Social Work Practice with Children. My internship, which starts next week (already??), is at a great non-profit organization in East Harlem. I will be doing program planning and evaluation as well as grant writing (http://www.palladiainc.org/).

This weekend I went to Shakespeare in the Park on Friday. It was amazing. The cast performed A Midsummer Night's Dream really well (I wasn't impressed with the movie). I think the best part was the huge amphitheatre in central park overlooking Turtle Pond and Belvadere Castle- a perfect backdrop. Later in the weekend John and I had a relaxing picnic in central park (MUST take advantage of the good weather). On Sunday, Harlem Connect gave a walking tour of West Harlem for interested students. We had a good group and I felt like the tour made students more comfortable and aware in the neighborhood. We later made to it Amy Ruth's Soul Food for some delicious honey dipped fried chicken, sweet potatoes, and mac and cheese:)

That is it from me. School tomorrow. I love and miss all of you that I can't be with while I'm in NYC.