Catching Up

So I'm pretty bad at keeping up with this, but I will try and sum up the past couple of weeks.

school. homework. school.

Yup, that's pretty much it! My courses are pretty intense, but I like them for the most part. On Mondays I have law, and my prof is one of the lawyers for the new york times. He is pretty hilarious and goes on tangents for ages. He also often rejects people's questions by saying "that is a good question, but I'm not going to answer it..moving on....". Tuesdays I have a class called Storied New York, which is basically a class in the form of a book club. We read famous and not so famous works featuring new york, and talk about writing styles in both fiction and non fiction. My prof for that class, Suketu Mehta, is a pulitzer prize finalist and just generally sweet man. He has a degree in fiction writing and it's nice to not be so focused on journalism for one class and more on actual story telling. My Thursday class is a whopping 6 hours and it is Writing and Reporting with my crazy prof Mary Quigley, or Quigs as we like to call her. She is super nice in person, very new yorky both in accent and attitude, but man oh man is she a hard marker. She is taking the "break you down to build you up" approach, which is hard, but I think i'm starting to crack her. Slowly but surely I will get my grade up to an A lol. That is my goal for december, but I don't know if that will happen. So between those three classes and all of the outside of class work, I have no time for anything!

This past weekend, though, was Columbus day, which is apparently a big deal here because I got monday and tuesday off. So, with that extra time, I went to the MET, which was awesome! A lot of the exhibits I wanted to see were closed though, so I'll have to go back another day. Also, I learned that if you go to the MET alone, you will get hit on. Apparently, that's where NYC singles hang out on a holiday monday, who knew? All I wanted to do was look at some Monets and greek sculptures, but every time I turned a corner I had another man following me and trying to talk to me. GO AWAY. Next time I will have to bring someone with me. Lesson learned.

I've been bonding with classmates too these past couple of weeks, starting at a party in Brooklyn held by one of my classmates Philip. Most people were there and I met a norwegian man who lived in vancouver for 9 years. We spent the majority of the night bonding over our nostalgia for Canada. Lots of birthdays and things as well these past weeks, and also coming up, so there will be lots going on! Also, I'm trying to get a group of people together to go see the Jets play the Rangers at Madison Square Garden in a few weeks; I want to go so bad! Must get tickets.

I also had my first NYC chinese food. I don't know why but I feel it is important to mention. It was not bad, but apparently breaded veal is only a winnipeg chinese food thing? anyone know about this? My fortune in my cookie read, "never quit!"...not so much a fortune as an encouraging statement, but i'll take it. Fortune cookies come free with food here, my friend was weirded out that we often pay .25 cents for ours. "Oh winnipeg..." she said. That seems to be a catch phrase in the making when speaking to me. People often make fun of my "accent", and someone asked me if we have Halloween in Canada. I don't think my eyes could have rolled any harder. By my multimedia prof, I am referred to as "hey canada". I have a feeling the novelty will not wear off any time soon. Though, if you get a chance, you should listen to the NPR show "This American Life"'s canada episode. It's pretty great, and funny, and poignant. It's on my Facebook somewhere if you want to listen.

Last night, there was a Manitoba Music even in the lower east side. It was so oddly appropriate that I had to attend! Turns out it was more of a networking/ny media thing, but there was no cover so I was in like flinn. Basically, it was 4 hours of some of my fave winnipeg artists singing songs and talking about Winnipeg and how great it is. Yay! Also, there was free cheese and bread. I was able to talk to a couple of them after, and it actually really helped my homesickness. Exactly what I needed! I spoke with JP Hoe, a local winnipeg singer/songwriter for a long while, and he was just so sweet! In typical Winnipeg fashion, he asked how I was getting home and if I would be okay on my own. Though to be fair, the other day while I was wheeling home my old lady shopping caddy, which was very full and heavy, several dudes helped me up and down the subway stairs, often full out carrying it for me, so I have no complaints with the chivalrous nature of new york city men.

Speaking of homesickness, Emily is coming next week! That will be excellent. Broadway here we come! I'm sure there will be many updates after that.

So there! updates! take that. I will try to be better at this, but no promises. Also I will try and post some picture of my apartment sooner rather than later! Hope you all had a lovely thanksgiving and email me or something! fill me in on your lives! I MISS YOU! XO

Title Track: Great Bloomers