So, at approximately 2:00 in the morning on Wednesday, I finally made it back to Ithaca. The time I spent in New York City was great, but definitely made me appreciate my life in Ithaca. Life was insanely busy for the few days that I was there (and on my way down and back). The road trip down was entertaining-- as road trips always seem to be, particularly when you are in a car with four other people, two of whom you have never met. One of the girls had a gps system, which we used to get down to the city. It was great until we reached downtown Manhattan, and would have about three possible right turns, and all the tom tom would tell us was "turn right." As the navigator, leading us down broadway, past madison square garden, it was quite the adventure-- and traffic nightmare on a saturday night.
Eventually we made it to Brooklyn, where I was staying, conveniently in a building that had a subway stop in the basement, so travel was no problem. Saturday night I walked four blocks to the nearest Chipotle, and thoroughly enjoyed the first fajita I had eaten since December. I spent the rest of the night just chilling, as my other friends were all heading to a burlesque show, and I didn't really feel like joining in.
On Sunday I had the chance to spend the afternoon with a friend of mine from childhood who is in grad school in manhattan. We went to go see a play on Broadway that she had gotten student rush tickets to. If any of you ever have the opportunity to see it, I would highly recommend it. The fun/funny part was that we had front row seats, and there were several times when David Morse and Cieran Hinds were literally less than 18 inches away from me. This was followed by dinner at a fun little French restaurant, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
As far as the school aspect of the trip, we spent the day on Monday at the United Nations-- getting a tour and meeting with several different departments about the work they do, and how to get involved. While it was fun to be in the UN, it was a little disappointing, as they pointed out that unless you work for some obscure country, odds are slim to none that you will ever get the chance to work for the UN, as hiring is done by examining which member countries are under-represented, and allowing these people to take the qualifying exam which allows them to be interviewed for jobs. Clearly, the US doesn't have a problem of under-representation.
Monday night was a social networking event of hors-d'oeuvres and drinks. While I made a decent effort, networking is really not my thing. And, unfortunately, most of the people that I met were involved in fields that didn't have much connection to what I am interested in-- most of them were finance people.
Tuesday was spent at the Cornell Club, meeting with various panels of people representing different businesses and groups in the non-profit, public, and private sector. I made some potential interactions here-- which theoretically could lead to some internship possibilities for the summer (which is mandatory for my degree). They would be located in nyc though, which would mean I would be several hours away all summer. But, we will see.
Per road trip usual, our car broke down on Tuesday night around 9 or 10 pm outside of Scranton, PA. We ran out of gas because the gas line went bad and leaked half of a tank while we were driving down the interstate. My friend who was driving (and the owner of the car) is an international student who got his license in August (which I hadn't found out until after we were in the city), and had no idea what to do when encountering car problems. Fortunately, we got it all worked out with AAA, who towed the car all the way to Ithaca (about 100 miles away-- way to go AAA plus!).
I was supposed to the head down to Newark about 36 hours later-- but that simply didn't happen. Given the level of exhaustion I was reaching, I opted out of the trip for the chance to get caught up on my work, as I have two midterms this next week. Good times.
--brianna
