Tag Archives: New York

SUNY Oswego, Goodbye

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“It’ll go by so fast, trust me,” a past exchange student told me back in April. It was a throw-away comment, a cliche – something I heard so often that I didn’t really know how to interpret. I clearly didn’t take their comment sincerely enough.

My experience of traveling exponentially faster through time began from thanksgiving. Typical of the diversity found in Queens, the thanksgiving dinner spent with my dorm-room neighbour was a delicious mix of Puerto Rican-Italian-American. Vegging out in front of the football was the only way to comfortably digest.

Black Friday shopping with my other neighbour in White Plains, partying in Manhattan and amazing Thai food in Park Slope tied up this week-long pre-break before finals week.

Dreaded finals week. I guess I was aimlessly wandering around the few weeks before because I wasn’t anywhere near ready. This is when people you normally see out no longer venture any further than their room or the library.

“I’ll have it all done by Wednesday,” I promised myself. I just needed one more essay done by Friday, the last day of college. The final 24 hours of my semester went a little something like this:

  • Friday 16th December, 10:34am – Return from a hungover breakfast to finish my film theory paper, due by midday.
  • 12:05pm – Out of breath and sick to my stomach from running to submit my paper, I’m feeling elated. One final workout at the gym before it closes, then lunch.
  • 2:47pm – The five cups of coffee are still working, but not enough to counter my procrastination of packing my bags. I decide my time is best spent with some friends I may not ever see again.
  • 7:30pm – A farewell supper at the Red Sun. Seared Ahi tuna with a cold soba noodle and beetroot salad. Ommegang Rare Vos to wash it down. Yes.
  • 9:48pm-2:18am – The bars.
  • Saturday 17th December, 2:42am-? – Crazy antics with the people I’ve grown to love in my residence hall.
  • 8:32am – Gladly woken after just a couple of hours of sleep, my room is a mess and I haven’t packed a single thing. We have to get out by 10am.
  • 10:18am – I’m checked out, somehow. After breakfast, the few of us who still remain say our final goodbyes. Emotion is raw but we manage to stem most of it off with promises that we’ll see each other again. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil. An overdue trip to Europe. An imminent professional life in New York for myself someday.

What you get out of the exchange experience comes down to how much you put in. Thanks to my friends, professors and fellow exchange students at SUNY Oswego, I’m wholeheartedly satisfied with my semester abroad.

Occupy Wall Street

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So what I’m not American and yeah, I do not suffer from a lot of the problems the Occupy Wall Street protesters are fighting against. That did not stop me recently from checking it out for myself.

After failing to leech a sleeping bag off one of the brave souls participating in Occupy Oswego, I turned to my dorm room neighbor who surprisingly had a pretty hardcore sleeping bag.

Something warm to sleep in paired with experience of spending nights out in much more unsavoury surroundings, gave me the gusto to follow through with the crazy plan.

I will admit, there was a bit of procrastination initially. Myself and two friends I drove down with were quite comfortable sipping on a few brews in an Irish pub in Jackson Heights. We could not have been further away from the goings on downtown. Eventually we stirred up the muster to bunker down in Zuccotti Park.

Arriving on the scene was somewhat surreal. It was pretty quiet in the early hours of the morning but there was still activity about. We all stood and gazed for a while at the eastern entrance to the park, resembling a concrete office square more than a comfortable grassy space.

It was organized chaos. Sleeping bags and people’s belongings were strewn everywhere but zones were designated for protest information and medical needs. A thoughtfully written poster outlining the behaviour expected of each person residing in the park captured the collective good nature of the group.

Despite a few seedy people wandering around, there was a general sense of safety and acceptance in the camp. Protesters were jamming out on the violin and flute, food vendors were making business and the police seemed pretty at ease as well.

Waking up to people clambering over me with my head resting inches away form a pigeon was not as bad as I thought. Thanks to the amount of cardboard given out, I slept solidly through till 8:30 a.m.

There was also a plentiful breakfast laid out for everyone. For a suggested small donation, coffee, juice, cereal, fruit and pastries were on offer. It was much better than a lot of mid-range hotels if you ask me.

It is a testament to how well organized as well as dedicated the varied group of protesters were. These two twenty-somethings had been there for over two weeks. There were a lot more people who looked as though they had been there longer. Hopefully they will work something out for the fast approaching winter.

  

Midweek Manhattan

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Initially I thought I had suffered minimally from the effects of Hurricane Irene. But I didn’t project the rescheduled NY Red Bulls – LA Galaxy game would be on a Tuesday night, conflicting with a Wednesday class I couldn’t miss. With cheap return flights from Syracuse in hand, I made it just about possible to fit in a midweek trip to Manhattan. Here’s a guide of how to most efficiently spend 20 hours in New York CIty.

1) Arm yourself with plenty of reading material for the multiple commutes on planes and subways. Luckily my readings for that week only consisted of a paperback and the editorial in the New York Times.

2) Ride the E Train from Jamaica Center nearby JFK Airport. I swear to God, it was quicker on this express line to get to midtown than it does from Upper Manhattan.

3) Try and stay somewhere below 59th Street. This is where personal preference comes in to play. I opted to stay the night in Chinatown for $55. The downtown location is super good for sightseeing, bordering the quaint streets of Little Italy. I could finally get a decent haircut and some quality coffee. However, the “hotel” was not so great for sleeping. Who would’ve thought a 4×8 feet box with an opened wire cage ceiling, shared on a floor with 40 other plasterboard boxes, was not going to provide a restful slumber?

4) Throw away any concerns of having an eight-hour sleep. Four hours is sufficient. I don’t know if it was the espresso I had dangerously late in the day, the snoring man sleeping inches away from me or the paranoia of not having a charged cell phone to set an alarm so I could wake up in time to catch my flight. But my body clock decided 4am was a good time to get up. It did happen to be the perfect opportunity though to catch the sunrise off the Brooklyn Bridge and witness NYC start the day, Occupy Wall Street protesters permitting.

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Getting Into It

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Nearly five weeks have zipped by at SUNY Oswego and I’ve established that over here it’s very much a work-hard/play-hard mentality.

Comparing my current study to back home, there’s definitely more readings. There’s more classroom hours, more books and more assessable credit opportunities. There aren’t as many 3000 word assignments but the mini theses and pop quizzes keep you on your toes.

Learning the ins and outs of the American political system and making sure I spell certain words with a “zee” has also been tough. Luckily I’ve got all 468 pages of the Associated Press style book to familiarize myself with… Yippee!

Something I’m greatly enjoying getting used to though is having the New York TImes delivered to my own labeled cubby hole (pigeon hole for those back home).

However, it’s funny thinking of activities I’d do in my own downtime. This concept has slowly transformed into something else. As a result of being five minutes away from my classes, the gym and a dining hall, I’m always “doing” something.

There’s also the 6 a-side intramural soccer games, the extracurricular essays and the five hours community service I have to do to prevent being kicked out of my dorm. I don’t remember signing up for that!

Do I feel like a beer or eight after all of that? Heck yeah I do! Don’t worry, there’s plenty of opportunity to for that. According to Newsweek, SUNY Oswego is the nation’s 25th best party school.

It definitely has something to do with everyone living on-campus or within very close proximity to the college. In most of Australia’s universities (located in major cities), 30% – 60% of the time you might show up for your lecture, then face the inner-city public transport commute home. Here, socializing with fellow students is a daily occurrence. Wherever you are you’ll bump into someone you know, in the library, at lunch or at a party.

In a snapshot, this has been college life so far.