Grrrrr ...

Apparently, the publishing service didn't update the blog in the order that I put the posts in, so they're a little bit mixed up. The Overview post was meant to be at the top, followed by Highlights, Classes, and NYC Life. The posts may make a bit more sense if read in that order, but the content is all there, so it isn't a huge deal.

Going forward, the posts should just be in order as I put them up, although it may be awhile until the next update, I've got a pair of midterms in two math classes (Calculus III and Macro) coming up on the same day ... *sigh*

Why don't departments coordinate things like this better?? Or do they just hate us??

Overview

Since most of my readers will be other college students from back home (at least initially), I’m going to populate this with some info so people aren’t staring at a blank page. Now that the blog is up and running, I’ll try to update it on a more regular basis. A lot has happened as I sit down to think about it, so I’ll have to condense things a bit. But for now, here’s the distilled version, the ‘story so far’ …
Also, I am planning to put some pictures up, Blogger actually has some kind of associated program to do it fairly smoothly, but I don't have time to figure it out tonight. So stay tuned ...
One important note: GS = General Studies, the program that I am in. GS is Columbia’s school for non-traditional or returning students.

Highlights

So far, the highlights for me have been the guest speakers. One of the best parts about being here in the City are the luminaries who are willing & able to stop by, where they simply wouldn’t be willing or able if you were in college say in Kansas.
Kang Chol-Hwan is a survivor of the prison camps of North Korea who has written an account of his 10 years there called ‘The Aquariums of Pyongyang’. The human rights situation in North Korea is something that has been close to me ever since I did a report on it for a Sociology class, and I’ve followed events there since; I was familiar with the book already, though I hadn’t read it. Mr. Kang came to speak here at the school back in September, and it was truly an amazing time. I got to meet him afterwards, shake hands, and get my book signed. Extraordinarily powerful.
Most people I think who follow international politics know who Kofi Annan is. He came here last week to address the school following the latest UN summit, and it was a privilege to get to hear him speak. He’s a very thoughtful, articulate, intentional man who cares deeply about the work he is involved in. It is true that he is a bureaucrat, but I feel much of the mud that has been slung towards him and the UN by the media in the last few months has been unfair. Certainly there were some abuses with the Oil for Food program, and to hold him responsible given that it happened on his watch is valid, but to malign the man’s character is overreaching and misguided.
Some people might know who Professor Jeffrey Sachs is, and some might not. In brief, he is an Economics professor who has done outstanding work both in research and in advising to the governments of Eastern Europe after the fall of communism there. He’s now deeply involved in Africa, and he actually teaches here at Columbia (he was at Harvard for a long time). He gave a private lecture to the GS students which was really outstanding. He’s a gifted teacher and also extremely sharp, good at articulating vision, and really just a pleasure to dialog with. It’s easy sometimes to get bogged down in Calculus problems, but his talk reminded me of some of the core reasons why I became involved in Economics in the first place …
Oddly enough, Gates was here last week, but the talk he gave wasn’t public, only open to students in the Engineering school. From what I heard though, he spent a lot of time hawking Microsoft’s upcoming product offerings. Nothing like a little bit of pre-release marketing …

Classes

It’s the most obvious thing people would want to know about, right? Here’s the basics:
I’m taking four classes here this semester, which is a normal to lighter side load (many students take 5 or 6). I have Calculus III, Chinese, Intermediate Macroeconomics, and University Writing, which is a course all incoming GS students are required to take. Classes only meet twice a week for an hour to hour fifteen or so, except for Chinese which meets daily M-Thu. I don’t have any classes on Fridays. So you’d think you have all this time right? Well … not exactly. The main difference between classes at BCC and classes here, (and I mean no disrespect to BCC in saying this of course) is that every class here will force you to think. So the homework takes MUCH more time, because you actually have to have a good grip on the material and on what you’re doing. You can’t just regurgitate definitions from the textbook sidebars or play matching games with scenarios 1 through 4. You actually have to know what’s going on, and be able to articulate it.
As for my specific classes, Calc III I am only taking because it’s required for some of the later econ classes. Our teacher is a young Chinese guy from MIT I think, who really is very decent. He’s an awesome mathematician, really knows his stuff, and his tests are challenging but fair. He doesn’t make us do proofs, which from what I hear is VERY unusual, but I’m very glad for it, because I hate proofs. I spend more time on this class than any other, and I’ll be glad once it’s over and I don’t have to take any more formal math.
Chinese is, for me right now, extremely easy, because I’ve had it before, and because I had a very good Chinese teacher back home. (Ni3 hao3, Wang2 Lao3shi1!!) Our teacher here is new this semester, and she’s fair, and interesting to talk to outside of class, but I don’t care for class itself that much, for a couple of reasons. I’d rather just spend the time practicing on my own.
Macro was really great in the beginning, but has gotten a bit boring lately. Our professor is hilarious, he’s a very interesting guy from Spain originally, very smart and a good presenter as well. He also has a passion for Africa, but lately the models have been getting a bit more involved than I personally find very useful.
University Writing I was dreading, because I hate writing classes, but our instructor is awesome; I’m actually really enjoying the class. He’s a young guy, a grad student in the English department, but he’s really solid; I think he will be a significant writer one day, and he will always be an asset to any class he teaches in the future.
There’s of course much more that I could say, but that’s the basic rundown …

NYC: Campus Life, City Life

Columbia has a beautiful campus; it’s one of the first things that attracted me to the school. The classrooms have a very old world, east coast feel to them, and they all still have old-school style blackboards, you know, the ones that take chalk. I was really surprised by this at first.
The social scene is really pretty cool. Most of the people I’ve met here are great, and this GS class in particular is very good. It is a bit funny of course because there is some gap between us, who are almost all over 25, and the ‘little college kids’ who are coming straight out of high school. I’m not a member of a frat (I don’t think any of the GS’ers are), and I don’t go out drinking too often, too much homework to do. I’m not one of those people who can function on 3 hours of sleep a night. But there’s plenty to do here in this city that never sleeps (it’s true, BTW), and they have a fair number of events that are really pretty solid here on and around campus.
As for the city, I have to talk about it first in terms of The Bubble. The Bubble, aka Morningside Heights, aka Columbiaville, is an area from about 122nd down to 110th, and about 10 blocks wide. The campus itself is here (between 116 and 114), and the school owns a lot of the real estate surrounding it. The Bubble is … a bit different than much of the rest of NYC. We have the lowest crime rate here of any neighborhood other than Wall Street. Almost everything is geared around the college. And while that’s wonderful, you have to go a bit outside that zone to really experience the city properly.
Which regrettably, I haven’t done much of; not for lack of wanting, but see earlier comment about too much homework. I wanted to focus on getting a good feel for my classes first, so I’ve spent a lot of time just working in the 9 weeks I’ve been here. But from what I have seen, this is a great city. Very different from Seattle, to be sure. But it’s awesome, it’s really starting to grow on me already. There is a kind of vitality here, an energy that’s hard to describe exactly, but it gets into you, gets under your skin. Who knows, maybe it’s something in the water. :)
I’ll be sure to post out more as I get out into the city and experience it more fully, but this should provide people with at least a snapshot idea.

Opening

*tap tap tap* Hello?? Is this thing on??

*SQUEAL!!*

Ahem ... I'd like to begin by thanking the Academy ...