HELLO! i’ve been meaning to write/edit this post for…..basically the whole semester, and although this is later than i had planned, here it is! i wanted to give you all a look into my life at barnard/going to college in nyc, so i hope you all enjoy! of course, this is only one person’s experience, but hopefully you can get an idea of what my life is like :))
this was honestly kind of a weird week since it was the week right after thanksgiving break and also the last full week of classes (!). it was a pretty busy but fun week overall though!
sunday, december 1
so sad…. i can’t believe it’s already the last day of thanksgiving break. today i went to church as usual, then grabbed lunch with a friend at jin ramen! we saw the first snow of the season while eating lunch, then grabbed ice cream (because it’s never too cold for ice cream!) before heading back to campus to do some homework. i finally studied in butler for basically the first time ever — shocking because butler is THE iconic columbia student library haha. the verdict: butler isn’t as terrible as i thought it would be (no one had a breakdown or went crazy, thankfully), but it’s definitely my new LEAST favorite place to study, and i will not be going back for a long time. it was pretty hard to focus as well, which was my fault, not butler’s, but i managed to get a bit of work done before meeting with a friend for dinner at jj’s, one of columbia’s dining halls. i totally forgot to take a picture of the very sad and unappetizing foods (e.g., fake chinese food) that were offered today. i have to say, this was one of my least enjoyable dining hall experiences — not only was it ridiculously crowded, but there were very few food options. after dinner, i had a rehearsal for orchesis (the dance group i’m in), because we’re having our performance this friday ahhh!!! basically, this means that this week is going to be rough, since it’s the last full week of classes as well as tech week for the show 😬😬 so… wish me luck!
monday, december 2
today i went to paris baguette to pick up the cake i had ordered for my friend’s birthday, and i was immediately greeted by the lovely (aka not very lovely at all) new york rain. thankfully, it quickly turned into snow, which is just so much more fun! i had lunch with two of my close friends at one of the dining halls, and we all got sushi bowls — probably one of my favorite things to eat at school! after lunch, we all headed off to the library/to our classes, but not before taking a moment to enjoy the snow :))
i’m currently at work (aka waiting for people to do psych experiments on computers), but i’m heading over to my friend’s place afterwards to celebrate her birthday! it’s supposed to be a surprise party, but we’ll see how things go…
reporting back: we actually managed to pull off the surprise! with a lot of lying, we managed to catch her totally off guard, and we had a cute little party with cake, snacks, and lots of friends 🙂
unfortunately, i had to run off to do tech stuff for orchesis pretty early, so i couldn’t stay at the party too long. tech went relatively well — we were finalizing our lighting/spacing, but i feel like i won’t be able to remember all the spacing we did…. i also grabbed dinner with a few friends who are also in orchesis, and i finally got to try halal cart food for literally the first time and wasn’t disappointed at all (lots of firsts this week haha)! i’m a really picky eater so i didn’t get the iconic white sauce that everyone gets with halal food (meanwhile, the guy in front of us: “drench it in sauce. add twice the amount that you think is normal.”), but i’ll definitely have to try it next time! after all the tech stuff had finished, i went home and got ready for bed. i was super tired so i went to bed around 10pm…. yes i’m a literally a grandma haha. unfortunately i didn’t sleep too well, so i woke up still feeling really tired.
tuesday, december 3
it’s currently tuesday morning and i’m at the info desk (my other part time job). at a friend’s recommendation, i stopped by a different halal cart the grab coffee before work, and it is delicious! i like my coffee with a lot of milk and sugar, and they do it perfectly. i’ve been running around a bit for work, and thankfully also managed to do a bit of homework/studying. hopefully the last two hours of my shift will also be relatively productive!
work ended up being okay/decently productive, and i grabbed lunch at a dining hall afterwards before heading to class. thankfully, one of my classes got cancelled so i was able to grab dinner with friends in the evening! i normally have four back-to-back classes on tuesdays/thursdays, so it was really nice to have a relatively chill day. after dinner, i had to run to another rehearsal for orchesis — we did two runs of the entire show, which was a bit tiring and also frustrating, since i felt like i kept making mistakes. i also watched the recordings from rehearsal after i got home, and i looked way more awkward than i thought i was :’) i feel like i need to practice a lot more, which is a bit worrying since we only have a few days until the show…. hopefully wednesday’s dress rehearsal is a bit better.
wednesday, december 4
i started off the day like any other day — tired. i got ready for class and ate breakfast before heading to the last session of my least favorite class this semester. the class itself (major texts of east asia) isn’t bad; the assignments were just really difficult for me, so it wasn’t the most pleasurable experience. thankfully, though, it’s over! (at least until the oral exam…… which is going to be REALLY fun…….)
after class, i met up with a friend to catch up over lunch, then headed to my korean class. i considered going home and taking a nap, but i came to the library instead, where i managed to study a bit for my stats final tomorrow (yikes). i feel like the final won’t be too bad; the content of the class has been very manageable for me, so i’m not too worried. i might do a bit more review for stats, and i’m going to try to squeeze in a bit of extra practice before tonight’s rehearsal.
the rest of wednesday was fine, and rehearsal went a lot better than it did on tuesday (thankfully!!), so i feel a lot better about the show now. i also went to jj’s after rehearsal with some orchesis friends, and we talked and shared pancakes, chicken tenders, fries, etc, which was really nice :))
thursday, december 5
ahhh i have my first final of the semester today!! thankfully, my day started off pretty slowly. i went to a therapy session (which was basically me just talking about my family and feeling frustrated for 45 minutes…) before grabbing some groceries and making lunch with my roommate — always a high point of my week!
my stats final ended up being totally fine, and the last two classes for dance and psych were a bit emotional; i’ll definitely miss those classes, the professors, and my classmates (especially for modern 1)! after all my classes, i went to the weekly gathering for my christian fellowship and hung out with friends, which was a really nice way to end the last full week of classes.
friday, december 6
today, i woke up early to make pancakes with my friend (a weekly tradition)! we ended up having lunch together as well before i went to work at the psych labl. after work, i grabbed dinner with a friend i haven’t seen in a while, and we cooked noodles and gyoza at my place and caught up!
our call time for orchesis was 6:30, and even though i felt nervous, i think the shows went well! it was honestly super fun, and i’m so glad i didn’t let my fears prevent me from auditioning this semester. i’m definitely planning to continue with orchesis for the rest of my four years at barnard, and i can’t wait to see how i’ll improve! i know i still have a long way to go, but i also feel like i’m a lot better (or at least more confident and comfortable) than i was half a year ago, which is really really cool. i’m so thankful that i’ve been able to find a group like orchesis that is so approachable and not intimidating :)) also thankful to all my friends who came to support me and even got me flowers (my first time getting flowers 🥺😭)!!
saturday, december 7
in the morning, i woke up feeling tired but had a meeting with the leadership team of my christian fellowship. we had bagels (side note: egg bagels are officially my favorite kind of bagel) which was really nice, and i went back to my dorm afterwards to make a bit of food for lunch. my roommate and i had planned to do a mini photoshoot in the afternoon, since i’m trying to practice portrait photography, but she took forever deciding what to wear (very typical of her and very amusing for me hahaha). it was super super cold in the park, but i think we got some really cute pictures!
i did my laundry after we got back, then ate instant ramen (oops) before going to meet some friends to work on a group presentation. we had to write a skit in korean, and working with them actually turned out to be more fun than i had expected. we finished pretty late, so i went home and got some rest.
this concludes a week in my life at barnard! this was definitely a busy week, although thankfully i didn’t have too much classwork assigned. finals are coming up, so things are about to get stressful, but i’m thankful that i was able to enjoy this week and find time to spend with friends. i hope i’ll be able to blog more soon, but until then, wishing you all a happy december, and good luck to everyone who has finals!
…oops this ending note is very outdated now hahaha, but sending you all wishes for peace and rest during the holiday season <3 and if anyone is applying to barnard this year, good luck!!
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