NYC Day 1: In the Cold, Cold Night

It's been a slow second day in NYC, with me deliberately trailing my friend as he moves about Columbia settling his pre-graduation stuff. I'm not adventerous enough to dash into town alone just yet; I want to ease into the place before doing so.



As such, nothing much to report today: just went for some Masters' projects screenings, had a no-frills Mexican dinner and went for the Columbia grad school of journalism's yearbook party. The projects that were screened were admittedly very slick, with all the stylistic set-pieces of American investigative journalism. I'm very impressed that an 8-month Masters course could churn out such quality work: it makes me ponder over why NUS' classes remain so lame despite their Western aspirations. Are our people just inherently not up to it?



Having not seen the big city yet, it's still hard to believe I'm in America. The bars feel like any of those in Singapore which happen to have a lot of ang mors. When walking around the suburbs at night, I catch myself thinking "I'll just hang around here till the last bus home...d'oh!!"

The thing that does let me know I'm here, though, is the weather. This is my first time in a temperate zone during spring, so it's the first time I'm experiencing nightime temperatures of around ten degrees. It's lovely; I can't begin to describe it. It's so different from Singapore where you go indoors to get out of the heat; here it's actually the other way round.

I should be sleeping much earlier than this but I've just had to settle some urgent matters pertaining to my job applications back in Singapore. I didn't come all the way here to have to do this, but life often doesn't wait for individuals...