movie star=me

I went to FHE tonight at an apartment shared by a few people in the ward. I got there too late for the lesson, but two cool things happened: 1) I ate an ice-cream bar, and 2) We got to watch the filming of a tv show from the roof of their building. The TV people had sort of taken over their whole street and set up lights and camaras and everything. Someone said it was some popular new show about the irish mob.

Also, I just found out that the author of Rough Stone Rolling, Richard Bushman, will be teaching an institute class here this semester. I'm not sure if I'll have time to go very often, but I will definitely try.

today I rode the subway...

and it was amazing. not for the reasons that the subway is usually amazing, but because today, as I was waiting for the train to start moving, a 3 person mariachi band came on the train and serenaded us the whole way. I'm not sure how often this happens around here, but I thought it was great. They were pretty good too. It's especially funny to me though because I spent a good deal of time saturday working on an assignment about a law prohibiting subway performances.

Anyway, everything is good here, and sorry I haven't written much this week. I've been reading a lot. We had a tornado warning a few days ago. That's basically it.

a few more school pictures

So, just a few more pictures of campus to make a point. All the buildings on campus have these beautiful columns and are made of brick and stone to give you that feeling of being in some old established academic fortress. It's really nice.This is Kent Hall, named after the first law professor on campus. It was the law building for decades and as you can see adheres to column theme. But then they decided that it would make a better financial aid office, so now it is where I go to pick up my student loan checks.

This is the new law school building. It's right next to the fancy old campus, but you can tell its not the same thing. It's nice, but in a modern sort of way that doesn't have the same feeling as the old campus.
This is a statue on the side of the building. I'm told that it depicts Hercules wrestling Pegasus, but that's probably a matter of interpretation. if you come visit we can stare at it together and try to figure it out.

pictures of campus

Here are some pictures of the undergraduate campus (which is nicer and more blogable than the law school). Lots of nice old building with columns. When I saw the statue in the last picture I couldn't help but think, "oh no, not Aslan!"

neighborhood sights

Church doens't start until pretty late here, so I went out this morning and took some pictures of the neighborhood.

This is the intersection where my street hits the main road. I found out that the huge building a few blocks down is the Riverside church. It's really beautiful when you get up close. I got to listen to their bells playing church songs while I walked around this morning. I also found out that they have inside the originals of three paintings by Heinrich Hoffman that should be very familiar to anyone who's spent time in LDS church buildings (Christ and the Young Rich Man, Christ in Gethsemane, and Christ in the Temple). Dad, if you're reading this, these are some of the paintings we looked at in the reception room after the temple open house.
This place is about 10 feet up the street and makes delicious Italian Sandwiches. They deserve a post of their own. The blue awning that says "unisex" isn't referring to the sandwiches but to the hair salon next door (i think).
This is where I sometimes go to buy groceries. It's hard not to get claustrophic in between the isles in there. It does have a sort of cramped, overpriced, understocked, big city corner grocery store thing going on though.
I'm not sure what this building is, but I like it.


more to come a little later.

Smile

When I flew out to school this week I had my first encounter with Jet Blue. I had heard of them before and was pretty eager to check them out. They have their phone calls routed through the homes of Utah families, so if you call to make a reservation chances are that you're speaking to an LDS lady who's watching a couple of kids while she enters your information onto her computer. It's a pretty cool idea since it gives the employees the chance to work partime and still be with their kids. Policy considerations aside, I had also heard that their planes are nice and comfortable. This was absolutely true. If you had told me that I was riding first class I would have believed you. They have a tv with 36 channels on the back of every chair. The chairs are soft leather and are far enough apart that you're not cramped. Also the service was very good as far as frequently offering me ginger ales and waters and all that. they gave out snacks that were not your normal airline stuff. I had a bag of those fancy terra chips that you buy at trader joes. And to top it all off they have an easy frequent flyer program that gives you a free flight roughly every 4 times you takea big round trip flight, so hopefully i will get one by the end of the year and use it to take a trip to aruba or something. 

my apartment, part 2

The rest of my place is small enough to show in just a couple of pictures





It's pretty comfy and suprisingly good for reading (as long as I don't let blogging about my apartment distract me).

If you're reading this, chances are that I'd like to have you come visit. I You should probably do that. Jet Blue is having a special that ends today (you just have to buy tickets today to fly before some time in november).


ok that's all for now. 

apartment pictures

Here are some more pictures for you.

This is my building. My room is on the right corner just above the light colored outcropping.
This is a lobby we have downstairs. I don't know what it's for, but all in all I think I'm for it.

This is the view a few steps into my entryway/kitchen. If you were to turn to the right you would also see the door to the bathroom. On the wall there is the coolest thing in the apartment which is the video intercom system that lets me see three different locations in the building as well as talk to visitors at the front door before letting them in.

This is the view from one of my windows. The school is located just above harlem, meaning that if you walk one block east, you get to a park and a big cliff, at the bottom of which is harlem. The rest of the city is off to the right. If you're looking at a map, the very top of central park is just to the right of this view.














to be continued... 

Life in Sparta

It turns out that even though my apartment is small, I will probably never be able to fill it. Of course I didn't bring much with me and I'm not much of an interior decorator, so the walls being blank and drawers empty is natural, but given the fact that there's a grocery store a block away and that I am normally an excellent eater the kitchen seems a little off.


Here's a complete list of everything that's in there:
1 Box of Stoned Wheat Thins crackers
1 Box of cereal
1 Can of hot chocolate mix (which is useless until they put my microwave in later this week)
1 gallon of milk
1 loaf of bread
1 pint of Ben and Jerry's




I know you're supposed to put something else in your freezer, but I don't know what



I'm considering getting penut butter to go with the bread.




I had some beef jerkey that brought with me, but I ate that yesterday. I know I just moved in, but still, I can't think of anything else that I will ever need. Any suggestions?

My Street and other things

I'm made it to school allright. This is the view when you look down my street. I actually have no clue what that big building is, but I plan on investigating later tonight.

The apartment itself is pretty nice, but very small. It's much cleaner and newer than the other apartments that I've seen. Once I get around to putting away all the things I've unpacked and make my bed I will take pictures and post them.

As far as school goes, we've basically just been eating free food for the last two days. It's nice because it means I'm saving on groceries, but I'd really like for school to just hurry up and start. I'll probably regret saying that by 11:00 tomarrow morning when school actually does start, or maybe even by this afternoon when I'm doing the reading to get ready for it. I'll write more as I think of it and please let me know if there's anything specific you want me to write about. 

game time

allright, now this blog is about to have a purpose. I'm pretty much done packing up my things and am mostly mentally prepared to start school. I'm flying out tomarrow afternoon and starting my orientation on Monday. Just how soon all this is hit me a moment ago when I received my first reading assignment in an email. I'll probably have a lot to say from here on out, so you as a reader should think about what your level of commitment to this blog will be. To my friends who I haven't been able to see before leaving: goodbye for now, and I'm sure I'll miss you so please keep in touch. If you're a family member, please send me something nice in the mail or better yet come visit me and help me earn frequent flyer miles so I can get free plane tickets. everyone, please keep in touch. see you sometime soon I hope.

point reyes

I went out to point reyes the other day and it turns out that it is really beautiful there. There was also a snake.