NY ♥ NY

Despite my many attempts to post throughout orientation week, I could neither find the time nor remain conscious enough to write coherently. Orientation ended yesterday and I’m currently back at my internship, exhausted (still) from the past week of nonstop 8am-2am work days. The sleep-deprivation was worth it, though. Things went smoothly, the Orientation Leaders all bonded, and the freshmen orientees successfully registered for courses in an important step toward adjusting to college. Some highlights…

Training involved a good amount of arts & crafts work – painting and coloring welcome signs, making our own shirts, incorporating Disney tunes into our skit/musical, dancing spontaneously, etc. Once training was over, we went to the American Museum of Natural History. We watched a space show in the Museum’s Hayden Planetarium before roaming some dinosaur exhibits. Between reminiscing about my favorite childhood dinosaur (brontosaurus, for the record), rediscovering my former dreams of becoming an astronomist and/or geologist, and shamelessly acting like every fossil-animal I walked past, I became increasingly aware of my silly-happy-childishness. In many ways, orientation training reinforced my belief that I’m actually just a child at heart. [Granted, my birthday is on Leap Year Day (i.e. February 29) and I'm technically only five years old.] I wrote in my first blog post that NYC fosters independence and responsibility. And it’s true, I feel more like an adult with every day I spend here. It’s just nice to remember that there are plenty of ways to return to childhood. NYC = an urban playground?

On Tuesday night, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge both ways (which I’d actually never done before – surprising, I know). Our destination: Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, where the group bought ice cream and enjoyed the waterfront view together. There were leg-stretches and icebreaker games involved, haha. The whole trip was so beautiful and peaceful, especially on the trek back to Manhattan. It’s something I plan to do on a regular basis from now on. Maybe it’s a tourist-y hobby, but I believe many New Yorkers (like myself) originally came here from elsewhere; that is, we enjoy tourist sites because they remind us of the compelling charm and intense excitement that attracted us to the city in the first place.

When Orientation was over, I felt a bit lost – I could hardly imagine living in Brooklyn again and returning to life as it was a week ago. Let’s just say I was sufficiently, err, disoriented.

(Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, from NYMag, photo by Robert K. Chin)