Woohoo!

So, after a suspenseful wait, I found out I will be working at the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) in Prevention. One of my top choices! Yay! I'll let you know more as I find out what I'll be doing, but these are some of the programs I think I will be working on.

PS I just checked out our website and this was recently posted - all the Fellows on the steps of City Hall after our orientation tour. Don't we look like grown-ups? Sorta...

Off to bed to rest up for the first day of real work!

The big day

Tomorrow is the big day! We're presenting our scavenger hunt findings and then...da dum, placements! I'm nervous...

Momentous occasions

So, two momentous occasions have passed by, unmarked. The first, payday! I officially recieved my first check from the great city of New York. That was an exciting moment, and one that came none too soon. The second occasion: the end of interviews! In all, including group, follow ups and individuals, I did 38 interviews. Holy moly. The scariness of ranking my placement choices is over as well, as I turned in my list on Monday. I did a lot of second-guessing, but in the end you just have to turn it in and let it go. We find out our placements on Thursday.

Speaking of interviews, the article I posted last week about Ayn Rand came in handy shortly thereafter. In an interview the next day, I was asked, "What three people, living or dead, past or present, fictional or real, would you choose to have dinner with and why?" Whew, what a question to answer on the spur of the moment! I chose 1. One of my great-grandparents on my dad's side, because the family tree gets pretty shaky pretty quickly, and I would like to know more about where they came from and who they were. Then, since I had just read that article, I invited Ayn Rand and was able to talk intelligently with the interviewers about her life and books. They, incidently, had also read the article, and it turns out one of the interviewers greatly admired her. Point for me! Lastly, I invited Sr. Mary Galeone, my supervisor from last year, because she has the ability to communicate with all different walks of people. I don't need my dinner party to have lots of awkward silences, which I think would be the case with my great-grandfather, Ayn Rand and me sitting around the table...

Incidently, if the dinner was held at the apartment, we would have a table to sit around. Maren, Erika and I took the free shuttle bus to Ikea in New Jersey last Saturday to get a dining room table and chairs. I've never been to Ikea, so that experience was fun, but getting our dining room set home on the shuttle bus and subway was a nightmare. Each time I move something in New York I think it is the worst experience ever, but each time it is trumped by the next. It took us almost five hours to get home, and my arms are still sore! Moral of the story: I am never moving ANYTHING ever again.

This week, the Fellows have been divided into teams for a Scavenger Hunt across the five boroughs. So, just when we thought we were done running around the city, we begin anew. Today was fun though, I got to see parts of the Bronx I had never been to, even after working there for a whole year. On the way home, I had my first real celebrity spotting. They were filming the Sex and the City movie at a Starbucks near Astor Place; you could see Sarah Jessica Parker through the window and she also stepped out for a second with what I think was her kid. I'm not sure if it counts as a real celebrity spotting if they are actually filming, but still, it's the closest I've got so I'm going to count it.

That's all for now,

Work, play and sleep

A photo tour. I finally busted out Ryan's old digital camara that he graciously lent me after the untimely demise of my own. It may weigh ten pounds, but it gets the job done! :-) Here's a quick photo tour of my life thus far...

This is the municipal building, where I work for the time being. Our office is on the 24th floor and has an amazing view. You can't really see the statue at the top, but it is a woman holding a five-point crown (representing the five boroughs) called 'Civic Fame.' I think it's the second largest statue in the city. Sometime I'll get a good picture, but today I was on the way to interview and had to run...
The view from the office!
Back in the hood: The Brooklyn Museum of Art. This is only two blocks from our apartment!
The main Brooklyn Library. Only four blocks away!
Grand Army Plaza. This is the other side of the plaza from the library, and in between is the entrance to Prospect Park. This monument I think is to comemorate the Civil War, but for some reason there is a bust of JFK too. I should find out what's up with that... On Saturdays, there is a farmer's market in the plaza, but I haven't gotten a chance to go yet.
The front entrance to my apartment building. It's called the 'Mille Plaza'...that's how you can tell it's a classy place...

Run the Rock, and other adventures

Saturday morning I participated in a road race, or sorts. I did the Nike Run the Rock event, which involves running 69 flights of stairs to the top of the Rockefeller Center. It sounds nuts, I know, but it was so much fun! I've never done a stair race before, so I was extremely nervous. I was afraid everyone would be super-serious and in shape, neither of which I am at the moment.It wasn't really at all like I expected; I traveled upward at more like a fast, steady walk. Most of the other people I talked with were doing it for the first time. They started us off in heats of about 15 people. It was strange to be lined up at a starting line and facing a wall of stairs right in front of you. I didn't stop for water at the halfway point, so I ended up completely alone for the second half of the climb. Despite being in a closed stairwell, I still had the absurd thought that maybe I had wandered off course...

It took me 13 minutes and 23 seconds to make it to the top, and the view as you stopped onto the observation was worth every second of it! Finishing to the Empire State building staring at you and a bird's eye view of Central Park was definitely one of a kind. I felt like I had conquered the entire city in just 13 minutes. Also, the post-race party was sponsored by the Rainbow Room, the really fancy restaurant on the 65th floor of the Rockefeller Center. Apparently they are known for greeting their guests with Bellinis (some sort of drink. I'd never heard of it before, but it was explained to me by a woman who worked in the Rockefeller Center who decided to do the race...). For us, they modified the ritual with a guy in a tux handing out water bottles as you crossed the finish line, and later, Gatorade served in champagne glasses. There was also a huge spread of fresh fruit, bagels, pastries and jelly beans (not sure about the significance of the jelly beans...). It was lots of fun, although I didn't know a single other person. It would have been nice to share the view and moment with someone else, but I made a few new friends.

On Sunday I went to Coney Island with some of my fellow Fellows. The Fellows divide into an interesting mix of people who are new to New York City, people who have lived in New York City but haven't gone to all the classic NYC hotspots, and people from the city who are NYC experts. I think that will make outings fun, because some people are new and others know what they're doing. I, of course, fall somewhere in between. Luckily, this group is almost as frugal (although not quite) as my volunteers, so I think my free and dirt cheap experiences from last year will be useful. Anyway, we met at the boardwalk, ate a lot of fried food and hotdogs, stuck our toes in the water and even rode the ferris wheel! Which was genuinely scary, by the way. Anyway, fun outing and it was nice to see everyone in normal clothes. Business attire is still no fun...

The WonderWheel at Coney Island. Apparently it was built in 1920 and was declared an official NYC landmark in the 1980s.

Atlas Shrugged

This was an interesting article in the NYTimes about Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Also interesting: NYTimes online has a link to post articles on your blog.

Sept. 11

Today was Sept. 11 and since I work in lower Manhattan, there were reminders everywhere. My entire building took two moments of silence this morning, and in them, you could hear strains of bagpipes floating up 24 floors from the Police Plaza outside.

Rememberances aside, life bustled on as usual in the city. I had four interviews today (one of which involved dodging through a block-long protest of 9-11 conspiracy theorists to avoid being late) and so far, I've gotten excited about 5 or so of the positions. We have one more day of group interviews, then start the individuals and follow-ups, which should be more intense, since they'll just be one-on-one. We've been inundated with information about city functions and programs. I think I'm very impressed with the Bloomberg administration, although of course I've only heard from its proponents. It seems like he has taken on some of the city's most pressing issues and is making real efforts to combat things like homelessness, poverty, small business development and other such issues. Of course, my roommate Erika, who is a teaching fellow at a school in Brooklyn, sees the downside of his take on education, so there are two sides to every story, I suppose.

Oh, and speaking of interesting things happening on the way to interviews, this made half of us miss almost a complete interview. And we didn't even get to see or ride the cool train. Too bad...

Oh and one more thing: today we got a huge rainstorm and I got to watch it roll in from the 24th floor. It was raining so hard that first the river disappeared, the the far tower of the Brooklyn Bridge, and eventually the whole bridge was enveloped by sheets of pouring and rain and it looked like the world outside the plaza had completely disappeared. It was weird, but beautiful, and watching rain come from the sky and and continue to fall 24 more stories was a dizzying experience.

Anyway, sorry to wax poetic about the weather. Now, it's time for bed once again. Buenas noches,

Weekend in review

I'd say the first day of interviews went well. My very first one of the day was one my first choice positions, and remained so after the interview. Unfortunately, over 2/3 of the Fellows attended as well, so I'm sure many of them are just as excited. Luckily we have a billion more days of interviews left. It was tough to get from one to another on time, since the appointments were half an hour apart, most of the supervisors ran over their time allotment, and none of us really knew where we were going. By the end of this, I will know lower Manhattan like the back of my hand, however. It's a nice introduction to a part of the city I didn't spend much time in last year. There's no better way to get to know an area than walking it (and getting lost in it...and found again.)

My first full weekend here has been pretty productive. On Friday night, Maren, Erika and I ate at an Indian restaurant in our neighborhood. It felt weird to be sitting in a restaurant like a normal person with the two of them, since we are so used to being volunteers with no disposable income. It was fun! Mm, and tasty... That's one of the things I am looking forward to about not being a volunteer. I'm certainly not going to go crazy or anything, but New York is famous for good cuisine and hopefully I can take advantage of that from time to time. Sunday night I met Naomi, a friend from Westerville, at a restaurant in Park Slope (our affluent and brown-stoned western neighbor) for crepes, and it was also tasty.

Saturday morning, I resumed the road race streak to complete number six of the required nine to qualify for the 2008 marathon. Getting closer! I spent the rest of the day doing things in the neighbhorhood: I walked to the main Brooklyn library (which is huge and majestic and only five blocks from my apartment!) to get a card (I'm now a card carrying member of all five boroughs...), bought a router (internet in my room, coming soon!), went to the hardware store, and finished setting up my room (there was no time during the week; I was sooooo tired after each day). So there you have it. Nothing terribly exciting, but I'm excited nonetheless. Oh, and we managed to get a couch! A dingy couch we found on Craigslist from a sketchy Argentine named 'Fabio,' but a couch nonetheless. We paid $60 for the thing, plus delivery, so the price was right, and it can always be spruced up with a cover. Our living room is finally becoming a common room, with a TV stand, coffee table, kitchen table (sort of - we're using a plastic 'garden table' and wheel in our desk chairs when we want to eat a meal together...) and some lamps. We're well on our way...

Btw, I'm still basically camara-less although I am dying to put up pictures of the neighbhorhood, so hopefully I can get something figured out soon. Photos make life much more interesting.

And our internet is up and running! This this rambling post with many parenthesi. But now, bedtime! Big day with five more group interviews tomorrow.

Have a good one,

So, the last two days have been much more interesting than the first, although we continued to sit through our fair share of strange lectures, such as what larceny is and how not to commit it, what not to bring through security (they confiscate at least one pair of handcuffs a week...) and how to sign up for 401ks. We've also had some interesting info sessions on things like the city charter and the structure of NYC government. Oh, and today we got to take a tour of City Hall! That was exciting. We got to see the 'bullpen' where the mayor works (he shares his office with his entire staff, and shares a cubicle in the middle of things), although I felt like a third-grader on a field trip, and the "Blue Room" where the televised press conferences are held. We even briefly shared the plaza in front of the City Hall with the mayor as he posed for a picture with some people in hardhats.

BTW, working in politics is not going to be good for me with the whole problem recognizing people thing. I have a feeling I'm going to end up embarrassing myself when I don't recognize someone I should...

Anyway, we had to read the list of over 60 potential placements and pick out at least our top 20. For those placements with many interested Fellows, they schedule group interviews, which seem to be more like info sessions, and then some Fellows will follow up if they are still interested. Tomorrow starts the group interview process, which I think will be a good way to ease into the interviews. It seems we will all be running around like crazy from interview to interview. Unfortunately, I can't say too much about the potential positions, but there are some that sound really cool. I was at least somewhat interested in about half of them, but narrowed my list down to 23. Of those, there are about 5 that I am super excited about. Part of the point of the program is to get a lot of interview experience and exposure to the different city agencies and people, so they encourage us to do as many as we can. To start things off, I have three tomorrow.

In the meantime, I will leave you with some fun facts I've learned about New York City in the past few days:

• In the 1840s, herds of pigs roamed Wall Street to consume debris as part of the city's early sanitation efforts
• Speaking of Wall Street, it is so named because it was built in place of the original Dutch wall, built for protection, that was torn down to allow northern expansion
  
• NYC has 12,75o miles of sidewalk (enough to stretch halfway around the world) and 6,400 miles of streets
  

Day One

I'm a suit and briefcase during subway rush hour - weird. Spent the day filling out a ton of paperwork, learning how to do timesheets, getting finger printed, etc. The view from the 24th floor office is amazing - lower Manhattan and across the Brooklyn Bridge. Fellow Fellows seem nice - went out to lunch with a few, and we ate in the park by City Hall. Most exciting part of the day: getting the packet of potential placements! 1.5 inches thick though, I'd better get reading!

And we're back

I'm back! I officially moved into my new apartment yesterday, with the very generous help of my parents who drove a full minivan all the way from Ohio (and more, but that's a long story). The apartment is starting to look great, (although my room is still a disaster) but more importantly, it seems to have passed the parental approval test. More details to come, but I don't have internet yet so it might be a few days. My program starts Tuesday so wish me luck!

Happy Labor Day; enjoy the long weekend.