New York, I Love You (again)

Here is the video of the amazing event described in the last post. Be sure to pay attention to seconds 18-20!

http://improveverywhere.com/2010/10/18/mp3-experiment-seven-bonus-footage/

New York, I Love You

Every moment another story begins. - Tagline from New York, I Love You (photo above by Chad Nicholson, www.improveverywhere.com).

This photo was taken from a roof near Bryant Park where I gathered with 4,000 New Yorkers yesterday to celebrate Steve's birthday. Steve is one of the key players in the group 'Improv Anywhere.' This is the group that does an annual Mp3 Experiment in which everyone involved downloads an Mp3, meets in a particular area of NYC and follows the directions in the download.

This event started in retail stores in the mid-40's and ended up at Bryant Park where we celebrated Steve's birthday by playing a series of games such as speed walking, drawing sketches of a stranger, drawing the world map by switching with 7 people for each continent (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/fountainb/5045508645/in/set-72157625082681288/), creating words and phrases from the 2 letters each person brought and dressing each others as mummies and then dancing. There was also a gift exchange and a massive rendition of 'Happy Birthday.'

I read about Improv Everywhere (www.improveverywhere.com) a few years back through 'This American Life' and always wanted to participate in an event. It was just as fun as it looks. (Checkout the website for photos.)

Today I ran my first 10K on Governor's Island. A little island about 4 minutes away from the financial district in NYC. We went three loops around the island and at the top of every loop was a perfect view of Lady Liberty. It was an amazing race with beautiful views.

On the boat over to the island.

Welcome!

Triumphant finish after 1hr 7min.

Our amazing group of friends who killed the race.

Back home to eat breakfast pizza and take a long and beautiful nap.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I'm just exactly where I want to be.- from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

It is good to be back in NYC after a great Spring Break. However, Spring Break was also wonderful. I had the chance to go to an Indian Reservation in South Dakota and visit Lakota Solar Energy Enterprises. I was doing a site review for my internship. I saw the production of these solar heaters and also how they are used. Basically cold air is taken into one pipe, warmed in the panel, and pumped back into the house. This can reduce the money a family spends on energy by 20%. Pretty amazing. This project was totally in line with what I'm studying in two of my classes right now and it was fantastic to see sustainable technologies in a real-world way, making a real-world difference. I feel so lucky to have these opportunities and see how classwork and on-the-ground implementation are right in line with each other.





This week I got a message with some quotes about New York by famous folk who lived here and I think they do great justice to the city.

“Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather.” – Tom Wolfe

“I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, ‘There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.” – Robert Deniro

“I miss New York. I still love how people talk to you on the street – just assault you and tell you what they think of your jacket.” – Madonna

“When its 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When its 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.” - Neil Simon

“At night… the streets become rhythmical perspectives of glowing dotted lines, reflections hung upon them in the streets as the wistaria hangs its violet racemes on its trellis. The buildings are shimmering verticality, a gossamer veil, a festive scene-prop hanging there against the black sky to dazzle, entertain, amaze.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

“You come to New York to find the ambiance that will evoke your best. You do not necessarily know precisely what that might be, but you come to New York to discover it.” – Dr. James Hillman

“New York is a galaxy of adventure at once elegant, exciting and bizarre. It’s a city that moves so fast, it takes energy just to stand still.” – Barbara Walters

The International

This is a game that rewards patience and balance. You must think like a man of action and act like a man of thought. - from The International

Below is the text of a story that I wrote about International House for the SIPA newspaper. Enoy!:

A Week in the Life of an International House Resident
- Rebecca Burton, MIA - EPD

Chances are pretty good that you know a SIPA classmate living at International House – or IHouse as we affectionately call it. With about 50 SIPA students living here, we make up roughly 5% of the IHouse population and SIPA crowd alike. Most of our fellow students are very curious about IHouse and we are often asked, with some measure of doubt, whether or not we like living here. Why would we choose to go back to dorm-style living that so many equate with the undergraduate freshman experience? I think traveling through a week in the life of IHouse might shed some light on why we accept to share communal bathrooms and live in rooms slightly larger than shoe-boxes.

Residents can start the week off with salsa lessons in the pub on Mondays. On Tuesdays there is likely to be an ice cream social, a professional development event or a roundtable discussion about a critical global issue. Residents meet in the main lounge for ballroom dancing on Wednesdays, or they may opt to head to the gym for floor hockey. Language Exchange Night falls on Thursday, a chance to join a language table and practice your skills in the dining hall. Friday nights bring out the biggest crowd with Cultural Hours. These monthly events are planned, written and performed by residents to share dance, poetry, song, and other traditions from their countries. On Saturdays, study lounges fill up as students catch up on work or participate in the IHouse tutoring program for local elementary and high school students.

Sunday Supper is a bi-semester event that allows residents to don formal attire and sit down in the great hall for a meal together. At the last Sunday Supper I sat next to a journalist from Finland who recounted her adventures in travel journalism before we both fell quiet to list to the evening's speaker, Sophie Delauney – the Executive Director of Doctors Without Borders, USA. Following Delauney's words, there were performances by concert pianists from Israel, Romania, and Canada and an opera singer from the Czech Repulic. The evening didn't end with those performances, however. Residents were invited to continue festivities in the pub for Sunday evening jazz nights where there were special performances in honor of Black History Month.

Of course beyond the formal programming, residents are interacting and learning from each other all the time. I still remember the first floor party I attended here when I entered into an hour-long discussion about US race relations with a finance major from England and a teacher from Missouri (North Americans make up 30% of the population here). A few weeks later I engaged in an impromptu dinner discussion about stem cell research with a biology major from France and a political scientist from Italy. Following a Sunday night movie, I chatted about the director's techniques with a medical researcher from Ghana and a social worker from Venezuela.

In the end, living at IHouse offers many of the things that so many of us love about SIPA – a chance to study with and learn from some of the brightest people from around the world.

Nightmare Before Christmas

"I'm a master of fright, and a demon of light, and I'll scare you right out of your pants. To a guy in Kentucky I'm Mister Unlucky and I'm know throughout England and France. And since I am dead, I can take off my head to recite Shakespearean quotations. No animal or man can SCREAM like I can with the fury of my recitations."
- from Nightmare Before Christmas

This quote seemed ever so appropriate, especially if it were sung by all of my midterm assignments in a lovely chorus of fright. Never fear though, I have finally emerged successful and alive from those three weeks in the loony bin. As most of my time between the last post and this were filled with study, I thought I would at least share what each paper was about:

If this does not interest you, please scroll down to the Halloween pictures which are far more interesting. If these topics are especially interesting to you, I will gladly send you copies. Please send a prepaid envelope with a few twenties inside and I'm sure we can come to an arrangement.

International Relations: I wrote about the perpetual peace that can come through proliferation of nuclear weapons. (If more states have them the more careful everyone will be when waging war because destruction would be imminent.)

Introduction to International Development: We should not adopt a plan to put microchips in the cattle of Lesotho because it is a costly product based on incorrect assumptions about the local population.

Management: Though Sweden's Student Financial Aid System has functioned well, it can be advanced through staff surveys, a streamlining of application systems and avoidance of taking on adult education monitoring.

Economics: Consumer Theory, Elasticity, Marginal Rate of Substitution, Opportunity Cost, Tangency Condition, Indifference Curves ... let me know if this is not enough for you.

Swahili: Ninasoma sana sana na ninapenda masomo yangu.

Are you still with me?
Well, the coolest thing that has happened since the last post was the Halloween Parade in the Village followed by the Danger Party in Brooklyn.

The parade is on the list of 100 Things to Do Before You Die. It is definitely an event. It is a participatory parade, so anyone can just enter in at the beginning and walk in it. We saw a few people we knew after we'd been watching for an hour, so we joined them for the last two blocks. There was so much energy and so many incredible costumes.

The Danger Party was crazy and amazing. It was held in two warehouses in Brooklyn. There were several dance floors in each, live music, fire dancers, people playing Twister on other people dressed up as twister, and a huge room with an old silent movie playing and a girl who was acting out her own movie in front of that. It was hard to capture on camera because it was generally dark throughout, but trust me when I say that it was pure NYC.






Things are still going so well here. The weather is stunning and activities are plentiful. On the line-up for this week is a Net Impact Conference at Cornell, Chocolate Festival in Brooklyn, and a Discussion about the Great War in the Congo. Hope all is well with you wherever you may be!

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?"
- from Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Since my last post I have officially started school, which more or less explains my long absence here on the blog. In an ode to school, I decided to sum up the past three weeks with
Becky's Back to School ABC's:

A: Anne - The name of a Turkish guy I just met. Fascinating guy, but my guess is that making sure people spell his name Anne with and 'e' is not the priority.

B: Bill Clinton at the Security Council - I attended a meeting of the UN Security Council on September 9th as Clinton gave a report on his work in Haiti. The gist of his speech? "We must do something, because we can."

C: Cinema Fellow - Here at International House we have a variety of programs (tutoring for children from Harlem, round table discussions, language exchange) all run by fellows. Lucky for me the Cinema Fellow position was open when I arrived and I just received an email that I was selected for the part! Basically I will choose a film to be shown every Sunday evening. Get ready for Dhoom 2 IHouse!

D: Development - In SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs) every student must choose one of six concentrations. I have settled on Economic and Political Development. As such, that brings me to my first of five classes - Introduction to International Development.

E: Economics - My second class which is also synonymous with dread/anxiety/discomfort/etc. for many SIPA students. However, as challenging as this class may be, it is also pushing me way out of my intellectual comfort zone which is always a good thing in grad school.

F: France's Foreign Minister - Today I attended a discussion with Bernard Kouchner, the co-founder of Doctors Without Borders and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of France (Hillary Clinton's counterpart). It was fascinating to see such a powerful politician up close. The gist of his message? "My dear American friends, do not forget that Europe exists."

G: Getting Groovy on a Ship - SIPA is known for its great parties and last Friday was no exception. We celebrated our second successful week at school with a boat party. It was pretty fantastic to dance to Lady Gaga while passing by Lady Liberty.

H: Hockey - After ten hours of classes and studying yesterday, I decided to take a break and play a little floor hockey at IHouse. After scoring two goals and working up a sweat I left relaxed and with a sweet bruise on my chin from getting whacked with the ball. My friend Karoline thought that I hadn't wiped food off of my chin when she saw me today. Nice. Hopefully the folks at the Career Fair tomorrow won't think the same thing.

I: International Politics, Conceptual Foundations of - This is my third class. For those of you who want to talk about Hobbes, Kant, Waltz, or Jervis this is the class for you. Also very cool is that Jeff Sachs will be our guest lecturer in two weeks!

J: Jina langu Becky (see "S")

K: Kristof, Nicholas - On Monday night he came to SIPA to speak about the new book he just co-authored called Half the Sky. It was wonderful to see him live. The gist of his talk? "The best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women and girls."

L: Late nights - Just in case anyone was afraid that I might not fully enjoy New York, never fear. This night owl has found her place in the city that never sleeps. It really is amazing to be on a full train at 3:00am on the weekend. So many people going so many places.

M: Management - This it the title of my fourth class. I'll let you use your imagination on this one.

N: Net Impact - The name of my favorite SIPA club. It is all about using business to enhance development - corporate social responsibility and all that jazz.

O: Overwhelmed - This is the best word to describe my feeling in these first four weeks. However, it is definitely used in the best sense of the word. Overwhelmed by the opportunties, overwhelmed by the amount of work (though good because that is the reason to be here), and overwhelmed by the caliber of all of my peers at SIPA and IHouse. Would be pretty disheartening to be underwhelmed in any of these areas, I think.

P: Parks of New York City - Can I just say that Central Park is one of the most beautiful and fascinating places I've ever been? So many people out in wide open green spaces just doing their own thing (whether that be frisbee acrobatics or walking around in a bikini).

Q: Q* - I don't know if Q will ever mean anything else other than "quantity" to me anymore. (See "E")

R: Rafiki - As most of you know, this means "friend" in English. I don't think this blog entry would be complete without me saying that I miss all of my family and friends back home. Here is a big round of cyber hugs from me to you.

S: Swahili - My fifth, final and favorite class. My teacher is from Kenya and she is marvelous. She is sharp, funny, demanding, respectful and bright. I'm learning so much.

T: Trekking - Every walk here is a feast for the senses - a people-watching-paradise.

U: Uzbekistan - Just one of the many countries that my classmates/housemates call home.

V: Very - In case it hasn't come through yet, I'm very happy here.

W: West Side Story - I went to see the Broadway production of this show on Tuesday. The choreography, strength of the dancers, and set were spectacular. The performances by Maria and Anita was gorgeous. Also, half of the show was in Spanish which added a very cool flavor to the whole thing.

X: X Marks the Spot - NYC/Columbia/International House are all the right places at the right time.

Y: Yes and You - Yes, I would love to hear from any of you that feel inclined to drop a line or text.

Z: Zzzzz. I've done it again and stayed up until 3:00am. Time for some shut eye!

Chocolat

Listen, here's what I think. I think that we can't go around... measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think... we've got to measure goodness by what we *embrace*, what we create... and who we include.
-from Chocolat

Tonight was a chocolate tour organized by the International House. We wandered all over midtown sampling cupcakes at Crumbs and Magnolia and finally ended up at Max Brenner chocolate. A place with things like chocolate soup and marshmellow pizza on the menu. Decadence, pure decadence.

Throughout the night and all of the walking I met several incredible people from the IHouse:
mechanical engineer from the Netherlands
postdoc in anthropology from Boston
public policy major from Pakistan
former businessman now studying social development from Maryland
law student from Trinidad
former high school teacher from Minnesota
student in public policy from Ecuador
science and policy major from Louisiana
artist from Costa Rica
financial engineer from China/Japan/Seattle
journalist from San Francisco
teacher from China
former marine now studying English from West Virginia

And they are all under 30. So many incredible people. Not sure which was better, my '80s chocolate shake' (served in a very cool glass with a metal straw - see above) or multiple stimulating conversations. I'm going to go with the latter.

A Room With a View

The northern view out of my window - looking up towards Harlem.

I don't care what I see outside. My vision is within! Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!
- from A Room With a View

My friend Dallin said it best when describing this adventure:
"I feel like I'm watching a movie that I know I'm gonna love."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Can't wait to see which characters walk onto the set and how the plot line unfolds. Something tells me it will be a comedy, thriller, drama, romance, action, and documentary all wrapped into one. There may even be a few sections with subtitles.

I invite you to sit back, relax and enjoy the two-year show.

The southern view out of my window.

Looking down from eleven floors up.

Top of the building from the previous picture/view from my bed.

The view straight out of my window.