Of NYC: Part II

My first full day in NYC, I woke up to a beautiful sun-filled day. Actually, I was woken up periodically by giant trucks going up the hill right beside my window all night, but I stoically ignored them. So anyways, the day was beautiful, which meant that of course I forgot my camera battery in the charger and had to take photos with my iPod the entire day. The next day, when I did bring the battery, it was rainy and wet. Of course.

Now I always get qutie nervous before these visits/interviews - although by now, I should know that it's basically them trying to sell you the place, and not you trying to sell yourself to them. But I was nervous. That was partially put to rest by the giant spread of muffins and bagels they had for us for breakfast. Ya know how carbs are just the solution to everything? Yup, I really tested that out that weekend.

It was beautiful though and the campus tour left me satisfied that this is a place I would like to inhabit for the next (oh god!) five years. The interviews ... well, they're always exhausting. There's the constant on-edge feeling because you have to have a topic for conversation, and there's the smiling and the mad scrambling when everyone inevitably asks you 'do you have any questions?' and you've already asked them all when talking to the previous group of people. I'm not an extrovert either, so I can't spend endless unbroken hours talking with other people - I need my space and some quiet time, and that was obviously not going to happen.

In between the interviews and the dinner, I did however manage to sneak in some me-time in Morningside Park, of which I was well-pleased.

So with my exercise for the day done (whoo, 20 minutes of walking! Go me!), I headed back to carb-load at the official department dinner. It was at an Italian restaurant and I would wager that about 100% of our food was carb-y in some way. But oh so delicious. Plus the wine was flowing (and you know me, I can't say no to free wine) ... which meant I had to be extra vigilant about what was coming out of my mouth. Very difficult situation when on one side of me sat a cute French guy and on the other side, my potential research supervisor. Uh oh.