A Private University in the Public Service

I don't believe that I am in the most traditional of universities, but it suits me extremely well. The transition has been excellent. The days are busy with orientations and a mass of loosely school sponsored events and non-school sponsored events. My not being eighteen is really annoying already, however. There are a lot of fun things that only eighteen-year-olds can go to. Tear. Ah well. To de-tangent, and to touch back on what I was saying about tradition or the lack there of, New York University seems to retain only flux as the years move on. It's kind of a pride thing, I guess.

My roommate, Eric , and I get along really well. We've spent a lot of time together not because we're scared and have no other friends, but because we seem to make a very personable, approachable pair. It's sort of fun because everyone is so desperate for friends that they'll just pop in a stranger's room with know pretense for being there. Eric and I have made really good friends with some people we met yesterday at a party and we've already gone shopping, and gone to a movie, and eaten like four meals with them. It's like an accelerator machine for friendships is turned way up. Oh, and so many smart, funny, and socially aware people to choose from. I love the admissions department and its role as a filter for people I don't like. It's been two days and I already feel like I made the perfect choice in this university. The sort of people I get along with are the only people here.

I guess the best way to describe this massive community is the words of the president or whatever of the university. He described it as a "multitude of microchasms within a greater community...a university in and of the city." I kind of like that, but he also said a lot of lame things like demanding that we freely hug and challenging us to call him (he is listed in the phone book) directly if we need anything. There are like 5,000 freshman alone, so I can only imagine how many prank calls he's brought down upon himself this evening.

The biggest difficulty in the transistion is shaking off the hateful, self-deprecating attitude I had about high school. I'm so used to going to school in a place that I felt had low standards that I'm finding it awkward to feel good about the school I'm in. A lot of people have expressed the same general concerns. I'm sure it'll pass. The school goes to a lot of effort (as I'm sure all schools do) to express just how great it is and how amazing we are for getting in. The program I'm in is even more exclusive than I thought, according to the statistics they read off to us, but, you know, that's what they want me to think (see what I meant about the cynicism?).

What is a great deal of fun for conversation-lovers like myself is that you can't just go grab something to eat without it turning into a two hour conversation. That's all I did all day -- eat and talk to people. I literally went straight from breakfast with some people we met at the Tisch party to lunch with some other people because the breakfast took too long.

I walk a lot. It's about twenty minutes from my apartment to the hub of activity and I make the trip several times a day. It's pleasant. I hope to explore the city more in the next few days, but so far my travel has been confined to a ten or fifteen block radius. Our kitchen currently contains silverware and Snapple, but that's good enough for the present.

I'm looking forward to the beginning of classes. I don't have anything I have to do until six tomorrow, but I didn't have anyting I had to do today, either -- yet there is still no chance of boredom. There is always new place to eat or a new street to go down or some activity to do (not even mentioning the innmuerable errands). The only limits in this respect that I'l face, I believe, is the limitations of my wallet. I should get a job at some point to supplement the income, but it'd be annoying if it cut into my freetime to excessively. I think I'm going to ride on the money I have for a few weeks and see how and where I can fit work into my school schedule at some later date.

To end with, I heard an ironic little bit of information today. Apparently this university was originally founded as a source of higher education for the middle class when colleges and universities only serviced the wealthy and elite. Now it is ranked number one for students complaining about the cost and lack of financial aid. Like I said, this university is all about change.