Graduation/Going Away Party!

I'm a little behind in sharing these pictures from August. Marianne, thank you so much for taking this wonderful pictures. Thank you also to everyone who came! It was wonderful to celebrate with all of you!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

I have the movie "When Harry Met Sally" on my mind today (I hope you've all seen it--if not go rent it now!) Anyway, there's a scene that takes place in Central Park on a beautiful fall day when the leaves are golden and crisp.

Today is a day just like that.

The sun is shining with blue skies peaking out between the leaves that have just started to turn and drop to the ground. The temperature is mild--in the mid 50s so I'm bundled up in a thick warm sweater. Now all I need is a hot apple cider!

Homework calls....Happy Autumn!

Oscar is so Photogenic

Alex took another great picture of Oscar on top of the scratching post looking very alert.

Hiatus Ended....Fall in NYC

Hello dear family and friends!

Well, I'm back in the land of cyberspace now that midterms are over. It's been far too long since my last update and a lot has happened this fall that I should tell you about!

School
Classes at NYU are great so far but I can't believe that I'm half-way through my first semester already!! The time just flew by. Like I've mentioned before, I am taking 3 classes this semester which may not sound like much but since they are each worth 4 credits I am at a full load and very busy! The hardest and most time-consuming class I have is History and Theory of Museums with Professor Trask. Unlike some of my professors who are current or former museum professionals, Professor Trask is an intellectual and scholar through and through. He is very serious and demanding and frankly, rather intimidating. However, I appreciate his high expectations and demanding workload since I know I am becoming a better student and writer every week. At this point, I am very nervous though since I just turned in my first substantive midterm paper to him on Friday. I don't know if I've ever been so anxious when submitting an assignment. My other struggle with Professor Trask is that he gives almost NO positive feedback or encouragement--he just keeps pushing for "more analysis," "articulate and thoughtful participation," and "deeply critical reading." Two weeks ago he said at the end of class, "most of you are finally moving in the right direction with your analysis, but we have a long way to go." After that I didn't know whether I was more proud or petrified/intimidated--the rest of the class just sat there with wide eyes and sweaty palms. The good thing about his class is that I'm not shy about participating in class discussion and asking questions when I'm confused.

Ok, so enough about History and Theory. My other 2 classes? In sum--they're good but thankfully not as time-consuming or intense as Trask's class, but still very interesting.

Free Time
Living in NYC provides many opportunities for just about every person and every interest group. For me, this means that I've been able to see some wonderful concerts! Earlier this month I heard Haydn's "Creation" at Carnegie Hall and in September I went to the New York Philharmonic's opening season concert of Mahler's Symphony 3 at Avery Fisher Hall! For both concerts I was thrilled to be able to get student tickets for $15 each for great seats! I have tickets for quite a few other concerts throughout the year including concerts by MN Orch., Chicago Symphony Orch., Philadelphia Orch., and quite a few other New York Phil. concerts. I'm so excited about all of them and can't believe that I can get such cheap tickets! On Halloween I am going to hear Emanuel Ax play Beethoven with the New York Phil. and my seat is 4th row center!!

Um Ya Ya!!
So I knew there were other Oles living in NY but I had no idea how many! Two weeks ago I attended my first St. Olaf Alumni event at an art gallery owned by a 1992 graduate. I expected that Ben Baker (a fellow 2009 Ole also at NYU) would be the only person I knew and that everyone else would be older alums but boy was I wrong! Not only did I see people I knew (or recognized) but there were over a dozen recent alums and in total there were over 100 people there! We had an amazing time and now I have made friends with a groups of Ole who all graduated between 2006 and 2008 who are all living, working and going to school in NYC. What a find! I couldn't believe my luck!

So just when I thought things couldn't get any better, I was invited to a fall pumpkin carving party hosted by 2 young Oles, Kelly & Sean, last weekend! It was great! Ben and I met down by Union Square, bought 2 pumpkins, and then road in the subway lugging them with us! We got a few curious looks, but mostly people didn't seem to think it was out of the ordinary especially since people carry far stranger things on the trains! Anyway, we had a wonderful time eating fall foods, drinking apple cider and reminiscing about fall on the hill in Northfield. After eating, Kelly, our brilliant hostess, had us push all the furniture to the sides of the room and spread 2 huge disposable plastic tarps on the floor, making the perfect place for messy pumpkin carving. Here's a picture of my happy jack-o-lantern in my kitchen:

Fall in NYC
What kind of South Dakotan, or Midwesterner for that matter, would I be if I didn't tell you about the weather?! Interestingly enough, NY weather is strange and equally as noteworthy as the reports I've heard from some of you in MN & SD about early frosts, October snow showers, and weeks of cloudy days. Here's what I've learned about NY weather so far:

1. Weather here is schizophrenic and completely unreliable. For example, today is an absolutely perfect fall day with sunny skies, a high of 60 and a low of 44. Yesterday, on the other hand, was cold and rainy ALL day long with a high of 50, though it felt colder because of the rain. Thursday was the oddest day of all because it was sunny with a high of 73!!

2. New Yorkers don't know how to dress for the weather. Though they do know to carry their unbrellas with then everywhere, just in case, they seem a little misguided in the area of cold weather attire. In late September when it the temperature dropped into the low 60s from the hot humid days I've written about before, New Yorkers immediately got out their furry Ugg boots, wool coats, and knit hats. I, on the other hand, put on a sweatshirt or sweater and was fine. I was still wearing sandals and was getting looks. I couldn't believe it!!! How could they need so many layers when it's only 59 and partly cloudy?!?! What in the world are they going to wear when it actually gets cold--say, anywhere below 40??

3. Conclusion: Perhaps New Yorkers were not raised, as I was, by avid followers of The Weather Channel and weather.com. Maybe they just wake up in the morning and put on whatever strikes their fancy. I have no idea. I've stopped trying to understand.

Kittens
Oscar and Dorian are cuter than cute and I absolutely love having them around. They are now around four and a half months old and at least twice the size of when we got them in late August. I haven't written a detailed account of the chaos surrounding their health, but I will summarize by saying that they both had upper respiratory infections, ear infections, eye infections, and possibly worms when we got them. How terrible!!! I was so angry with the cat ladies we got them from who gave us so much trouble but promised that the kittens were healthy and had been to the vet. So now, hundreds of dollars and many ear drops, eye drops, and oral meds. later, Oscar and Dorian are healthy. One of Dorian's ears still needs special cleanings and drops on a regular basis, but other than that, they are growing and healthy. Here are a few pictures of them from the last week (note how much they both like sleeping on or under my quilts!):



If you're still reading this, thanks for hanging in there with me for a rather long update. I'm going to take a few pictures this afternoon of the fall colors around my neighborhood so I'll upload those soon! I hope you're all having a lovely fall. I miss you all a great deal. You're welcome to visit anytime!

Much Love,
~Maren

This is where I live....

The management company who owns Peter Cooper Village & Stuy Town, my apartment development, is in major financial trouble and is expected to default on HUGE loans in the next few months. Yippy. We don't know exactly how that will effect us, but here is that latest news plaguing my management company, Tishman Speyer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/nyregion/23stuytown.html

MIDTERMS

I'm dreadfully behind on this blog. Last week I had two midterm projects/papers due. This week I have my last midterm paper due. It's the scary, super-hard History & Theory class that I will write about more after turning in the paper.

Look for an update this weekend after I recover from midterms.

Alex took this great picture of Oscar.

The Kittens are Growing...

Neal and Oscar getting to know each other. Neal has never had any pets before so this is a new experience for him!

Oscar hiding in one of his favorite paper bags.

Brotherly love.

Academic Reflections

I've been thinking about the anxiety of beginning a new school year and have discovered that it's not the first day of class that I worry about--it's the second.

Today was my second day of History & Theory class. Ugh.

On the first day of class, students appear and are presented with a syllabus (which can be intimidating) and the professor generally gives an introduction to the course. This is easy. All you have to do is show up and listen. Nothing is required of you. The second day, however, is anxiety-ridden because we've just spent the last week pouring over our readings in isolation and now must come to class prepared to discus lofty ideals on complex theory. We were also required to write a brief (2 page) analysis of our 6 readings to turn in to the professor. It was so hard to write just two pages when attempting to analyze hundreds of pages of theory. I hate turning in that first assignment because I have very little idea what the professor wants or how he will be evaluating our work. Hopefully he will provide useful feedback.

So today after class I rewarded myself by taking a break from school work. For most people this would involve watching TV or taking a nap (and I will do those things at some point), but today I took time to organize my planner and to re-pot my herbs!

How do people garden in NYC? On the kitchen floor of course! I was able to find a tiny bag of potting soil and used a soup spoon as a spade.

The kittens were so curious--especially Oscar.

My newly potted plants (basil, mint, and aloe vera!) They have grown SO much over the last month!

The view out my kitchen window. My building looks just like the ones you see here. A small park is in the middle where you see trees.

A Week of Firsts

Wednesday was the first day of school for the New York City Public School District (I overheard a little girl in my neighborhood eagerly shout "You know why I have this backpack? I went to Kindergarten!" Wouldn't Mom have loved hearing that?)

This week was the first week back on the hill for my many friends still at St. Olaf!

Tuesday was Judge Sonia Sotomayor's first day in her new Supreme Court robes as she attended her investiture ceremony (isn't it interesting that her fancy collar given to her by Judge Ginsberg made headlines? No one cares what the men wore!)

AND....Wednesday was my first day of class at NYU!

So yes, it's been an important week of "firsts" for me. It's been too long since I last blogged so I have a lot of news to share...

I am taking 3 classes this semester and so far I am very excited about the subjects, but rather intimidated by the work load. My first class was History and Theory of Museums. This class will be the most work because of the heavy reading requirements, weekly museum visits to be done on your own time, maintaining detailed museum observation journals, and weekly essays analyzing the reading's arguments. The second year students have said that it is the hardest class of the program. My second class is Museum Exhibition and Collections and my last class is Conservation in Contemporary Culture. My professor for Conservation is a very interesting man who used to work at the Getty in L.A. but now works 4 days a week as a conservator at the Museum of Modern Art! I am overwhelmed by the many interesting, important, and well-connected people that I am meeting and being taught by. It is quite thrilling.

In other, less academic news, I am missing you all! Adjusting to a new city with SO many new people is a challenge, but it gets better everyday. I have tried to attend as many of the welcome receptions and events as possible even though they are terribly awkward. I'm glad I did this because I have met many wonderful Masters and Phd. students this way.

Earlier this week my friend Laura (from St. Olaf) came to stay for a few days while she had a few interviews in the city. She, like many of my St. Olaf peers, is still searching for a job in this depressed job market. I was thrilled to have my first real visitor and be able to show her around my neighborhood. Laura is applying for arts administration positions at music organizations so we spent one day exploring the Lincoln Center and surrounding neighborhood on the West Side of Central Park. We had a great time together and it was wonderful to see a familiar face and talk to someone who knows me and St. Olaf. That being said, I would LOVE to have more visitors!

The kittens are doing well. Unfortunately, they came to us with "cat colds" which evidently is very common of young cats from shelters and such. They are both on antibiotics and so I hope that they are better soon. Dorian was the worst with terrible sneezing, wheezing, and trouble breathing. Oscar has had a milder form of the cold, but still sneezes occasionally. I was glad to find a nice vet in our neighborhood who was really wonderful and even saw us on a Sunday! Oscar continues to be a very loud kitten with very high pitched meowing that is almost a whining squeal. It's hard to describe, but at 7:30 a.m. when he is hungy it is unmistakable.

Last week I auditioned for NYU's choirs and was happy to learn that I was accepted into their Madrigal Singers. It is a small mixed ensemble of older undergraduate students and gradate students that performs a wide variety of a capella music. I have not been in such a small group since high school so it will certainly be different, but I am happy to be able to continue singing . I am hoping that it will be a healthy break from the stress of classwork and an opportunity to meet new friends.

While I still have more I would like to tell you, I need to start my reading assignments for next week! I hope to write again soon. Please keep me updated on how you are doing this fall. I really appreciate hearing from each of you. I've heard that the comment feature of the blog isn't working well--I don't know why this is, but if it doesn't work please just send me an email. I would love to hear from you!

Much love,
~Maren

Oscar & Dorian

I named him Oscar! (Magellan was too long I think)

Alex named his cat Dorian.

Here is Oscar sitting on my laptop and staring at the desk lamp.

The brothers playing together on their first night with us (Alex is sitting with them).

I have KITTENS!

This is my new kitten! We adopted him and his brother today! (The story of the adoption is quite long and involved so I will have to write about that later.) He squeaks a lot and makes tons of noise when he wants attention (which is all the time). He also follows me around where ever I go.

Alex's cat has curled ears which is rare I guess. He doesn't have a name yet. Any ideas?

Here's my cat sleeping on my lap after a very busy day of exploring our apartment. He even followed me into the kitchen while I unloaded the dishwasher and climbed inside when I wasn't looking. He is very adventurous and bold so we are thinking of naming him Magellan. Do you like it? Do you have any other good ideas?

Here they are sleeping together in their cage before we adopted them.

Pictures!!

The door of my room with my great new bookcase.

My dresser (isn't the lamp beautiful?!)

My desk and bed.

The living room. It's very messy right now while we are trying to organize and settle in. We still need to hang things on the walls and decorate a little.

And finally, the kitchen! I took this picture right after making dinner tonight so it's a little messy, but I love this kitchen. (See my herbs in the windowsill?)

I love this life.

Life in New York continues to be wonderful and exciting. I am, perhaps, still floating along in the honeymoon phase of life here where everything is fresh, adventurous, and note-worthy. I hope this feeling lasts for quite a while...

So what's new? EVERYTHING. I finally have the new couch in the living room...it's wonderful. We are gradually getting settled in together as roommates and I am enjoying the casual and friendly atmosphere Alex and Neal provide.

Earlier this week I took a little trip down to Norfolk, Virginia to visit my friend Cory. He just moved there and is getting ready to start teaching middle-school Latin (God bless him). We had absolutely beautiful weather and spent time exploring Norfolk by going to the beach, walking around downtown, visiting the National Naval Museum, touring the USS Wisconsin, and visiting the Chrysler Art Museum. It was great! We also went out to eat and had our first experience learning how to crack open and eat fresh crabs with bibs and all and spent an evening cooking fresh fajitas in his new apartment.

Now that I am back in New York, Alex and I are getting serious about adopting kittens. Today I found a great little pet shop called Petopia where I bought all the necessary cat supplies I need. The great thing about Petopia is that they have free delivery. It would have been impossible for me to get a litter box, litter, scratching post, pet carrier, and toys back the 11 blocks back to my apartment and they delivered it within an hour of my purchasing it in the store!

Last night was really exciting because I got to meet some of my classmates! Our department has a student organization that hosts social and special events and last night was our first get-together! We met at the Bryant Park Cafe which is right behind the New York Public Library. It was one of those terribly awkward experiences (similar to St. Olaf playfair except at a bar) where no one knows anyone else and the introductions take forever. From what I can tell, almost all of the students are female which could create an interesting dynamic--hopefully it won't be catty.

Anyway, my big goal for this weekend is to adopt the kittens. Then I'll worry about working on my quilting and getting ready for school.

I miss you all a great deal and appreciated hearing from so many of you. Take care.

Love,
~Maren

It's HOT!

I wasn't lying about how hot it is here. According to weather.com it's 90 degrees but feels like 99 degrees. Lovely.

Week One Overview

Well, it's been almost one week since I arrived in New York with my luggage cramped with clothes and shoes and so far everything is great! All of the furniture for my room is assembled (and looking beautiful) and the kitchen is almost completely stocked with the essentials. Dad left early yesterday morning but I got to see my aunt Kathi last night for dinner because she was in town for business. Today is the first day that I won't see a family member and I have to say that feels strange.

I know that many of you have asked if I have any pictures of my new apartment. I will upload pictures soon once I get my new computer that will be able to handle picture files much better than my laptop now. My laptop I used while at St. Olaf is dying a slow death and is very sluggish right now. I'm hoping to get my new Macbook Pro by Friday!

I am also excited because I bought a couch last night! I found it on Craigslist and saw it in person last night. It is from Room & Board (less than a year old!) but the woman who owns it is moving to Washington D.C. to get married to her fiance who already has a fully furnished home. It was a great deal and I'm hoping to have it moved on Friday. Right now we only have a few plastic Ikea chairs to sit on in the living room so this couch is much needed!

I've also had lots of fun exploring the NY subway and bus system. I really enjoy the freedom of being able to get almost anywhere on public transit and the people-watching is great! New Yorkers are such interesting people with amazingly diverse looks and interests. New York has got to be one of the greatest people-watching cities ever.

Since NYU orientation and classes don't start until September, I am hoping to travel to Virginia next week to visit my St. Olaf friend Cory who just moved there last week. He will be a Latin teacher in Norfolk and is one of my best friends. Plane tickets to Richmond are so cheap right now so it's a great time to visit him!

I'm also getting very anxious and excited about adopting a cat or kitten! I'll keep you posted...

(I also got my first piece of mail yesterday from Marianne Larsen which was awfully exciting!)

Lazy Summer Saturday

So you know how in movies sweaty hot women are supposed to be sexy? They're LYING

Needless to say, it's a hot and muggy day in New York, though that hasn't stopped me from enjoying myself. This morning I showed Dad the NYU neighborhood/Washington Square Park. We went to the bookstore and he bought an "NYU Dad" window sticker for his car! We were both so excited.

Afterwords I went up to Union Square to the Greenmarket. It's a huge farmer's market and little arts festival they hold every Saturday. It was terribly crowded with people buying flowers, fresh produce, and all kinds of fresh baked & canned goods. I bought some little plants and herbs that I am going to try and grow in the windowsills in our apartment. Now all I need is some cute little pots to put them in!

I have arrived!

Hello my dear family and friends,

Welcome to my brand new blog all about my life in New York! I've never written a blog before so if this is your first time reading a blog it's new for both of us. I really enjoyed writing emails to all of you in my first years at St. Olaf and I'd like to continue to write about my experiences here so that I can share them with you.

First of order of business: Where do I live? Many of you have asked for my mailing address so here it is...(This is a small P.O box in the lobby of my building)

Maren Lankford
511 East 20th Street 7F
New York, NY 10010

If you have anything to send that is larger than a card or letter, perhaps a fresh batch of cookies, send it to this address where I can receive packages:

Maren Lankford
c/o Oval Concierge
276 First Avenue
New York, NY 10009

My email address at marenlankford@gmail.com is still what I will be using while I am here. I don't know how long I will be using my St. Olaf address (lankford@stolaf.edu) so take that one out of your address books! I also have a new NYU email address!!!! It is mdl377@nyu.edu. You can reach me there too!

That takes care of business I suppose.

So far, life here is great. I couldn't ask for more. My apartment is wonderful and BIG and my roommates are very very nice. Alex will be a graduate student in September too. He will be studying photography. He is an artsy Russian guy who moved to the U.S. 15 years ago with his family and has lived in NYC ever since. On my first night here he volunteered to help me assemble my dresser which I appreciated SO much. It took us over 2 hours and Neal, my other roommate came to help too! Neal is a Jewish guy from Tennessee who went to NYU for his undergrad. He is currently some kind of political campaign organizer for the Democratic Party in NY. I don't quite understand everything about his job yet, but his interests are very similar to Carmen's (my St. Olaf friend and roommate) so I like him already!

I spent all of yesterday assembling furniture in my room. It's hard work, but now I have almost everything put together. Dad is busy going to museums during the day (surprise, surprise) and so we had dinner together at a little Italian place by his hotel last night and will have dinner together again tonight.

Anyway, that's all the news I have for now. I don't exactly know what I'm going to do today because I am waiting for more boxes to arrive so I can unpack more of my things. Maybe I'll organize the kitchen in the mean time.

Please tell other family and friends about my blog so that they can keep up with me too. I really appreciate all the support and thoughtful messages I've already received from some of you. I miss you all a great deal and hope that this blog can help keep us connected!

Much love from the Big Apple,
~Maren