walking around the city every day, i see countless white children being pushed in strollers. i have yet to see one of those strollers being pushed by a white woman.
all the children i've seen thus far are taken care of by their black, asian, or latina nannies. such an interesting phenomenon...
of course, i think the mixing is beautiful. i love to see a little blond-haired, blue-eyed toddler holding the hand of an asian lady, or two black ladies speaking haitian french to each other while they push little red-heads in strollers.
i find myself hoping, for their sake, that these children will grow up appreciating the cultural exposure they've been handed, that they'll be better people for it, and that maybe they'll pick up a foreign language along the way...
things a woman shall be entitled to while menstruating:
§ 1 - excused absences from work, school, or other comittments (at her discretion)
§ 2 - extensions on assignments due at work or school during the course of menstruation (1 week minimum for extension)
§ 3 - unrestricted quantity and variety of food, drink, and dessert (at her discretion)
§ 4 - unlimited free body massages from trained professionals
§ 5 - free access to baths and saunas in top-rated health and fitness facilities
§ 6 - free over-the-counter analgesics and free feminine hygeine products
§ 7 - free 24-hour housecleaning and cooking services
§ 8 - sympathy from strangers
§ 9 - exceptional courtesy from men
§ 10 - chocolate (at her discretion)*
* § 10 shall be construed as separate from, and in addition to, § 3
my mom started text messaging today. guess the 21st century is officially here.
some of you may remember an entry from long ago (see january 21 here), one from my blog infancy, in which i discussed my great love for and my adamant belief in the utility of the word "smurf" and all its derivations.
you might've thought smurf had faded into obsolescence since then... i was beginning to think that myself. until yesterday...
so i'm in criminal law class, and we're discussing the criminal prosecution of an individual who had "structured" his monetary transactions... basically, he had a $100,000 debt to pay at a casino, but if he paid cash directly to them, they'd have to report it, and if he got a money order from a bank for more than $10,000 at a time, they'd have to report it. so, he made a series of deposits for less than $10,000 at various banks, and then turned all the money orders into the casino at once. pretty clever, but he got caught and prosecuted anyway.
all of this is seeming pretty run of the mill until, in the course of the class discussion, my professor says, "by the way, for those of you who don't know, this is known to those in the business as 'smurfing.'"
wha?!?! illegally structuring transacations is smurfing?!
"yes," he proceeds, "the image is one of all these little blue guys going around to different banks with small sums of money... and they all seem like harmless little things, but the overall effect is pretty sneaky, and you can prosecute it. so that's what the cognizanti call it--smurfing."
beautiful. just beautiful.
why, pray tell, do all the NYU freshmen walk around wearing shirts that say "NYU class of 2009?"
i mean, why would anyone wanna advertise the fact that he or she is a college freshman? when i was a freshman, i didn't share that piece of information until asked, and i appreciated it when people would often mistake me for a junior or a senior.
i'm fairly certain that not i, nor anyone i knew, would've elected to wear our freshmen status on our t-shirts, for fear of removing all doub that we were, indeed, awkward, clueless kids... i would think that fear would be even more pronounced in the heart of a teeming metropolis full of high-powered cosmopolitan people. but no, the NYU freshmen seem quite undeterred by all of that. they're fresh out of high school and proud of it... interesting, no?
100 eager
first year law students, typing
so furiously...
all at the same time,
all the laptops in concert,
it sounds like the rain
my first birthday as a blogger. it had its ups and downs, of course--partially due to some logistical fiascos that were eventually resolved (thank God), partially due to other things, like law school sucking the fun out of any given day. but we won't dwell on that.
suffice it to say that i feel very loved in this world. and that's such a good thing. i'm so grateful for it. so grateful.
also, i went to my first feast in new york tonight! (that's right, i'm a feast baby). it was sooooo nice. :) i feel so spiritually refreshed and centered. and after a week of law school and dealing with the mental repercussions of yet another massive natural disaster and all its implications, i definitely needed some food for the soul... and some perspective.
i think something about connecting with the sacred writings in a community setting brings such a different texture to daily spirituality, and it can be so supportive and strengthening. also, i already knew several people who were there tonight and i got to reconnect with them--seriously, the bahai world is so small. and, of course, i got to connect for the first time with plenty of other cool people. i feel very connected, in addition to revived. :) it was just altogether an awesome experience--and that's just more to be grateful for.
oh wow. i guess it just clicked right now, as i was writing. gratitude--that's the best birthday present.
so i went to the grocery store on 5th avenue near my place the other day. i thought i'd have to sell one of my internal organs on the black market just to pay for my groceries, but that's not the point...
the point is that there was no sour cream whatsoever, there was only one (count it--one) kind of salsa and it didn't even look good, and then there was the crowning madness:
me: "hi. do y'all have tortillas?"
employee: "yeah, right there" (confidently pointing at corn chips)
me: "ummmm, no, tortillas--you know, flat bread?"
employee: "oh, maybe aisle 1? bread's on aisle 1"
there were no tortillas--no flour tortillas, no corn tortillas. there was just one package of "healthy whole-grain wraps."
you're kidding, right?
hmmmm... don't even know where to start.
week 1 of law school is over. (insert praise and thanksgiving to God from several languages, religions, and cultures here). now, i have several comments to make and many reflections to share.
however, i don't want to sound whiny about all of this (though that's really inevitable, isn't it?). so in the interest of sounding somewhat mature and adult about this whole experience, i'll cram all my thoughts and feelings into matter-of-fact bullet points. that way, it'll all seem like impartial observation. so yeah, consider this an unbiased, impersonal perspective on the realities of new york, law school, and new york university law school...
* it is safe to say, with no exaggeration, that i did more preparation for class in these past 3 days of law school than i ever did in even the most academically intense weeks of my college career.
* if you thought people couldn't get more drunk than they do in college, you'd be wrong. law students are more alcohol-obsessed than any group i've ever encountered in my life. and they're proud of it. two precious utterances i've heard this past week: 1 - "among professionals, alcoholism is highest among lawyers. and that starts in law school, so go ahead and get started with us." 2 - (from a 2L) "i was wasted 5 nights a week my first semester of law school." ummmm, wow. i wonder if all these organizations and mixers can give me some kind of compensation for all of their free alcohol that i'm not drinking...? maybe some free chocolate...
* i've never known my study-time estimates to be so inaccurate. i used to think i knew how long it takes me to read something, outline something, or take notes on something. and perhaps i did know at some point. but i don't know anymore. now, whatever time estimate i make i must necessarily double in order to actually have enough time to get anything done.
* if you think a law school professor would know how to pronounce the word "conjure," you'd be wrong (sounded more like con-JOOR, and he said he had to look the word up, and he also provided the class with a definition of a "conjurer"). nice, huh? kinda gives me hope. :)
* on a college campus scattered throughout lower manhattan, access to school buildings is restricted to enrolled students. makes sense: safer, more orderly, etc. this safety and orderliness, however, comes at a price. security guards who want to see *photo* school IDs (even when the school building that issues them hasn't yet opened) not only have the usual misplaced feeling of authority that security guards often do, but they're also new yorkers with attitudes. hence, they aren't exactly the welcoming committee during your first days in a big city and it's not exactly pleasant or comforting to experience them during the beginning of the 3 most hellish years of your life. one of these days, i'm just gonna say "you do realize that you don't *actually* have any power, and that in the grand scheme of the world, you and your little assumed "sphere of authority" amount to nothing? so why not just be nice?"
* my roommate rocks. (insert more praise and thanksgiving here).
* there are tons of persians here. there are tons of jews here. there are tons of persian jews here. hence, upon getting a quick look at me or hearing that i'm persian, people throw me into one of their mental boxes pretty quickly. interesting, since most of my life, the general public has met comments like "i'm persian" with blank stares. these days, those comments are met with "oh, my roommate is a persian jew. want me to set you up?"
* anyone ever heard of the book 1L? it's about this guy's hellish first year of law school at harvard. apparently, one of the first-year civil procedure professors at NYU this year is a visiting professor from harvard law school. he told his 1L's on the first day of class that he was the evil professor in the book 1L. nice.
* i've never felt so clueless in class in my life. from what i hear, this gets better over time. but for now... wow. i just don't have the train of thought or relevant commentary or novel ideas to offer. and that is really a new thing for me. i was lucky enough to get through the first week of class without being called on, but i doubt that'll last long. so i'm gonna have to acquire some knowledge and understanding soon, before i embarass myself...
* there are 12 unversity of texas at austin alums in this year's 1L class. (hook 'em horns!!!) actually, it's crazy how many texas people there are here. i live in the dorms and my next door neighbor and the neighbor across the hall are both from texas. such a coincidence. and i keep meeting more texas people in my classes and at different functions. glad to know we actually are everywhere. :)
* everyone in new york really does have a new york accent--it's quite cute. also, everyone here always looks so put-together. i think, generally, people are in much better shape and they're always better dressed--it's such a departure from texas, which is one of the fattest states in the country, and which is home to plenty of people going to the grocery store in oversized sweats. that just doesn't happen here. people walk around the city rockin' trendy clothes, dropping r's when they speak, and looking ready to kick your ass if you mess with them.
* schlepping around my laptop, 2 casebooks, and 3 supplementary textbooks for a few consecutive classes will, indeed, make my back and shoulders hurt.
* i'm a new york city resident. wow. of course... i love chicago. i've loved living there for the past year. but after a week here, chicago seems like a small, clean, manageable city by comparison. this place is madness. and yet... i love it. and i'm quickly falling in love with greenwich village, which is the neighborhood i live in. i still can't believe i'm a new york city resident, though. when i find myself saying that, i feel like a much cooler person than i actually am. :)
* NYU is great. security guards aside, the actual faculty and staff of this place are so helpful and nice and pleasant to be around. and there are so many awesome students, too. i'm really loving meeting people and feeling the sense of community here. today i had lunch at an ethiopian place in the village with some kids from my section. we were an ethnically, linguistically, geographically, and intellectually diverse group, and we had such a good time. i'm really charmed by this place. it has so much to offer. for instance, if you're ever looking for a fast-talking, hard-ass criminal law professor with a brooklyn accent, this is the place to find one.