Just an average Saturday.

My pulse beats to “The Violet Hour” by the Civil Wars -- new favorite band thanks to a music-savvy friend who is much more hip than I am.

Guess where I am? My favorite East Village coffee shop, B Cup Café. (if you know me, then you knew that already. Where else would I be?)

Since i've been irresponsibly neglecting my blog for the past year, will start with a quick 30-second posting on life's happenings. I moved back to the Village in August - best decision i could've made. Was drowning in Finance folks living downtown. If I had to overhear one more conversation in an elevator beginning with "dude, gotta tell you about this sweet deal we closed today..." I might have had to beat someone over the head with my blackberry. I'm back where I belong amongst the East Village crazies. In fact... stepped over a homeless man rolling around near Avenue A to get here today.

Quick side note: don't you just love how un-phased city children are by just about anything? "Mom, what's for dinner?" ***cut to naked homeless man mooning everyone*** "ummmmm not sure yet, honey." ***child skirts to other side of Mom to avoid twirling, spitting woman*** "I want hot dogs!"

... What percentage end up in therapy by age 30?!

Other updates - work is going well. Getting great PR / marketing / Communications experience on a project for an industry i never expected to tap into. Also managing projects myself, acting more "strategically," etc. All in all... long hours, but good times.

Starting NYU Stern for my MBA in T-60 days. Will be getting educated during evenings twice a week. Here's hoping I will Iearn something useful! Will meet some interesting new people at the very least. Not sure I remember how to study either (did I ever know how to study?)

(have been seduced by B Cup's music and have given up on my own playlist. How can you turn down a live version of "Layla" followed by Dust in the Wind?)

So that's life. Work. School. Village.

More interestingly (I hope), i recently took a trip to Peru. I'll start with a clip from a frantic email I sent to the family on Day 10:

So tonight we are staying with a Peruvian family in a small town called Puno. Tourism comprises most of their economy. Tour groups (including ours) visit the town to see Lake Titikaka, the highest lake in the world. We are 4000 meters high. I've been drinking muna tea to avoid further altitude sickness! We toured the floating islands earlier... tiny little islands made of mud and straw. A few families live on each. They have their own gov't and elect a president each year (though I can't imagine he has much power since there are probably only about 5 eligible men on each island). We took photos in traditional dress and I bought a few things.

We then met our family.. Satornino picked us up from the boat and his wife Julia served us lunch. Some sort of potato soup, followed by rice with vegetables, cheese and coca (plant that Coca Cola and cocaine are made from). I did tell Neil I had reached my limit at lunch - we are in nowheresville with extremely underprivileged people, we can hardly communicate (they speak Quechua, language of the Incas) and we are eating foreign food 3 times a day while asking each other "what do you think this one is" and batting away flies. I haven't had to go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground.. But close to it. We've met these two couples who have had nearly the same itinerary as us so we've become friends - Brian says he's proud of me for being a city girl willing to come on a trip like this!

We will spend the night in their guest room (I'm becoming pretty good at making myself look presentable without a proper shower) and then continue down the lake with our tour group tomorrow.

... and that's pretty much how it went. Absolutely incredible trip and an amazing experience, but not something I'd feel compelled to do again. We worked with a tour company that planned our full itinerary (it's pretty necessary for this kind of trip), so had a jam-packed schedule of traveling and touring each day. Most of the towns we visited were touristy because they were home base for travelers who then left during the day to explore. Machu Picchu was amazing (obviously). Learned lots about the history of the Incas, but more interestingly, learned how present-day Peruvians live (outside of Lima, of course). It's not so different from how they lived during the time of the Incas (1400s-1500s). 40% illiteracy, 70% below the poverty line in mountainous areas. Unfortunately, Spanish language and culture were imposed on the Quechuans (the correct name for the Incas. Inca actually means King in Quechuan) in the 1500s when the Spanish explored and conquered Peru. Quechuan culture only survives by being passed down from generation to generation in the home.

Trips like this really put things in perspective for me. People who have so little and work so hard are happy because they have their health and their family. It's a nice refresher sometimes of what is really important in life. But that's obvious! I'm in it for the food. :)

Full photo album to come (it's in the post from London). Stay tuned.

Spring Fling!

I can't believe I haven't written in almost a month! Have been working working working. BUT, I have been lucky enough to get Sunday off. So you know what the means! I can sleep in after my Senior Formal!

Now I know what you're thinking... Kristin? Actually going to her senior formal? There's no way. BUT, I've decided... why not be in college for one last weekend? And it's at the Hilton, so how cheesy can it be? Plus, free food and free drinks... what could beat that?! And get to spend some much needed relaxation and letting loose time with Andy, Lisa and Lyda.

I'm going to go for a run today before the rain hits. I tried kickboxing for the first time last week... great in concept, but I chose the wrong place. Sort of sketchy. I won't be going back.

.......

Post-run update: I tripped and scraped up my knees. Right before formal. Perfect timing, as usual. Almost as good as the time I broke my leg before moving out of a country.

The End of the End

Two posts in one day? It must be finals (procrastination) time. Two final exams until I am officially done with school... forever. Well, for a few years. I'll be a real person in the real world now.

Big news: just bought a new MacBook Pro and the new Office 2008 for Mac. Super excited.

I'm watching "It's a Wonderful Life." What could be better?! Jimmy Stuart, chocolate chip cookies and red wine.

I can't wait to head home for Christmas... every time I pass the trees being sold on the street (or a drunken Santa wandering around) I can't wait to spend time with the family and catch up with friends at home. We're starting a new tradition this year... Christmas in Manhattan. How modern. As long as there's ham and the smell of pine trees, I'm all set.

Can't wait for my long-awaited trip to London. Catching up with friends, eating meat pies, and meeting friendly and interesting people as is always the case at the pub. And I am infinitely excited to bum around Dublin with Kay. A city with old-world charm, a beautiful, natural landscape, AND casual, flannel-shirt appropriate social scene? Yes, please.

But more than anything I'm looking forward to a new chapter in my life. Beginning in February, I'll be working full time, which is more than just having a more regular daily schedule. No more breaks from normal life without having to take vacation time. No more Wednesday afternoons off to hit the gym. And no more casual attire.

But, more importantly, I think I'll have more control over the direction my life takes. I'm not progressing toward one goal (getting a degree) with thousands of other people all heading toward the same thing. It's up to me now to carve out my future. To take on particular projects, to enter a new social circle, to recognize the impact that small decisions along the way will have on where my life goes. It's exciting. Scary, too, but more exciting.

On that note, time to get dressed and head to the bar. Professor Tom's tonight.

College for real.

I'm at Cornell right now finishing up a caramel apple... just got back from the Ithaca apple festival. Had breakfast at College Town Bagels this morning with about a million Cornell kids. Catching an afternoon movie, heading to dinner and hitting up the college bars tonight. I think this is what real College feels like... especially because of the gorgeous (gorges) fall weather.

Cornell is beautiful - quaint, picturesque, clean and green. All of the apartments / restaurants / bars are around the block from one another and within walking distance to campus. And there is a Wegman's... so it's pretty much a perfect town. Cornell has got me thinking... would I have been better off at a real college? As my lovely friend at Wagner astutely pointed out, NYU is basically a commuter school. Even if you live on campus, there is not actually a campus or a community and few people (myself included) partake in any on campus events or clubs. It's sort of like going to work or commuting to university... you only head down to campus to spend an hour and a half in a classroom and then go home, like you would in an office building where you work. I always thought I liked that. But now I'm not so sure. I'll admit it definitely leaves room for NYU students to have extensive lives outside of college... i.e. few people that go to school elsewhere could have the type of job I have now while they study. But is that reason enough to forego having a college town?

I've noticed up here that students really have the opportunity to grow and advance in a slightly less intimidating setting before facing the harsh realities of the real world. In the hotel school at Cornell, for instance, the students speak with CEOs of companies and wealthy alumni to plan a massive gala at the hotel... a full weekend of parties and events planned and executed by a massive team of "hotellies" (hotel school students). Definitely a huge undertaking, but it's sort of inbetween the real world and college... mistakes are acceptable because it is on a college campus and it's a great learning experience. Why don't we have anything like that at NYU?

Or maybe we do but I just don't know about it. NYU is the type of school where you get out of it what you've put in. But there are so many distractions in NYC that I haven't bothered to put much into it. I've put effort into the firm and into the city in general - just trying to take advantage of all it has to offer (like the upcoming Great Gatsby party at the Met to celebrate the opening of the New American wing!). Maybe it's my own fault for not trying to get more out of my school, but I think part of the appeal of NYU and part of the intent is that students have the opportunity to branch out and pursue their own interests while at school. I'm just not sure whether I see that as a drawback or an asset.

I was joking with my sis and roommates about how we never seem to make any friends in class. I was half kidding, but it's sort of true. Everyone at NYU is very independent. And whether pretentious, shy, or just trying to make it seem like they have more important things to worry about as a defense mechanism, no one really socializes in class. Everyone has their ipods in or is addicted to their laptops, so there isn't too much room to make friends. People tend to hang with whoever they live with at the time. Totally not so here in upstate NY. In both Binghamton and Cornell there are so many different ways to branch out and meet new people. The sororities, fraternities, bar scene... all are conducive to socializing. And if you're in a small school within Cornell (unlike College of Arts and Science at NYU), it's the opportunity to become close with students in class since you'll be with them for all four years. Same rings true of Wagner's P.A. program and any small program anywhere. I think NYU (and I) would benefit from having a niche within the massive CAS. It's so easy to fall through the cracks.

Anyway, off to the movie. Big thumbs up for Cornell (and Binghamton!).

And driving to the supermarket makes me feel so suburban.