Here we are

Well, it has been quite some time since last I updated this blog. For the few of you that do read it, I'm sorry it has been so long.

A lot has happened since last I wrote. Midterm came and went. I'm doing well in most of my classes, though there are a few that could use some greater dedication. We are nearly to Spring 2011 registration time, which is an exciting thing as well as a kind of scary thing. I hope to get the classes that I want, though I suppose we'll see.

It has actually been a difficult couple of weeks. I have had some major ups and downs as I attempt to navigate my way through life here in NYC. I continue to make some great new friends through my church, which has been great, but I have yet to find that really solid community that I enjoyed and grew from while I was at home. With time, I'm sure it will come.

I sleep very little...it has come to the point where three hours of sleep is a lot for me. I don't know how I feel about it, but there really is not a lot I can do about it. It will just have to be that way for a little while. School has got me working a lot on homework. I suppose that's a good thing, but I feel really overwhelmed sometimes.

Financially, I'm having some troubles. Despite having a really strict budget, supplies for my classes are quite a lot, so it is difficult to manage that on top of buying food and everything else. I'm looking for a job right now, so hopefully everything will work out until I can go home on winter break and regroup.

I had a minor meltdown on Thursday night. I lost something very valuable to me in a cab and it was as though that was the cherry on top of a horrible week. I then stayed up all night finishing a project for class on Friday. I just feel so pathetic these days...

I've been really considering what I'm doing here. Why did I decide to come all the way out here? Here I am...broke, no free time, doing projects in school that seem completely pointless, competing with hundreds of other kids all vying for the same mediocre jobs. Or at least, that's how it feels sometimes. I know God has me here for something, but right now it's hard to see that. At times, I think very fondly of just going home and working at the coffee shop where it's safe and small. But I know I can't do that...even if I do crash and burn miserably in New York, I can never go home. There is nothing there for me.

I had a dream once...a big dream. I guess in my mind I figured it would be easy. I thought that all I had to do was come to New York, step off the plane, and the life I imagined would just fall into my lap. I'm now realizing that is not in fact the case. There's a long road ahead of me before I reach my goals. Challenges, failures, and obstacles are only a part of that road. I need to embrace them and learn from them. I'm not a person who usually finishes things I start, but I'm gonna finish this one. Whether I succeed or not, I'm certainly going to try.

Besides, I've only been here three months...it'd be silly to give up now.

Anyway, enough boring talk. I have a barbecue to attend this evening, so that should be a lot of fun.

Till soon...

MIDTERM!

Wow...can you guys believe that it is now officially the middle of the semester? It's kind of hard ot believe that it's already so far into the year. However, I've only actually been here in New York City for two months, which is kind of depressing. But oh well...I shouldn't wish for time to move faster...it already feels like we're blasting through.

I'm trying to think of all of the things that have happened in the past few weeks....a lot has happened actually. I've been getting more and more plugged in at church and I'm making some great new friends, which is exciting. I'm definitely starting to feel like part of a community now as opposed to an island. I'm also falling more and more in love with the city, which is exciting. There is such a vibrancy and life here that is hard to replicate.

I do miss home a lot though. I miss being able to just take off and drive into the mountains whenever I want to, but it's alright. It's sometimes hard to remember that there is an actual world outside of Manhattan. It has more than enough to keep me occupied, it seems. Though I haven't really had much of an opportunity to explore, which I'm sad for, I have gotten to do some fun things.

I've had some visits from friends that I know from Noah's, which has been cool. It's nice to hang out with people I've known for a while.

It is definitely finally getting colder here, which is good and bad. It's good in the sense that I'm used to cold weather, being from Colorado of course. However, there is the small factor that I hate winter, so oh well. Plus, I'm told that the cold here is brutal, unlike anywhere else. We'll see...

Other than that, not a whole lot to report. I've been trying to keep up with school, so that has taken up most of my time and effort. It has been a bit of challenge at time, but I feel like I've been managing alright. However, today I'm pretty sure that I failed an art history test, which was really bad. I have to get the grade up by the end of the semester in order to keep my scholarship. But I only have a B, so it's not like it's the end of the world.

Yeah...so I'm off to an art history lecture. See you all later...

Weekend update...

So, I am well aware that it has been quite a while since I last updated the blog. This is mostly because I have neither had time, nor the memory skills to remember to do so. However, here I am with a small amount of free time, so here we go.

This weekend was a good one for me. I actually went on a men's retreat with my church to Pennsylvania. It was really good to get out of the city for a while and I feel like I have made some friends at the church, which is nice. I think it's kind of hard sometimes when you're the new guy to figure out where you stand and what your role is in a church community, but it was a good time of fellowship and I think it was a good decision to go.

I had very god intentions of taking some photos, but sadly, that did not occur. It was beautiful, however. It was no Colorado, of course, but it made a commendable effort. The trees are barely starting to turn, which is exciting. I'm glad fall is on the way, but the bitter cold of winter right behind it is not quite as pleasant of an idea. Oh well...all of my winter clothing is coming tomorrow, so I shall be prepared.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I'm still trying to establish a good sleep pattern. School has my typical schedule all messed up. I find myself going to bed in the early hours of the morning due to the homework load most nights of the week. I'm pretty sure time management is the most important thing, but as a chronic procrastinator, it's difficult to figure out.

Today I have to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art again for art history. I do love the museum a lot, but today I'm in more of a sleeping kind of mood. Oh well...after church tonight, I can come home and sleep. I just feel very tired and uninspired today. I also have to go view a couple of art installations for class that are happening on 14th street, so that should be interesting.

Oh, and I just want to take a second to thank you for reading this. I know the number isn't huge, but apparently some people read this fairly regularly. I certainly appreciate it and hope that you find it interesting. It's nice to know people care.

Until next time...

P.S. If you are one of the study hall peeps (*cough* josette *cough*) who find this entertaining, I say hello.

New space...

Well, my roommate and suitemates are all gone, so I thought that I would go ahead and take some pictures of my new room and such. It's awesome. Case in point:

HUGE ceilings and tons of open space...bamboo floors are cool too:

TONS of storage and desk space:

A bigger kitchen with more counter/cooking space:

...and the absurdly long hallway that we can't explain. Seriously, none of us know what to do with it. Yes, it is literally in our room:

So yeah...it's awesome. Plus, it's in the Financial District, which I love the most.

Fall has officially come to New York City. It is actually getting cold, which is quite nice considering that I come from a place where it is winter for 10 months out of the year. I get to start breaking out my winter clothing. Excited.

Well, I need to go take care of some assignments before bed. Thanks for reading!

Changes...

Hello everyone. So, I'm so sorry for leaving you in the dark. In fact, right now I'm a little bit pressed for time. (very sleepy) This will be a short update.

Well, I am now officially a resident of the Financial District. I am a few blocks from the World Trade Center site. Kinda cool...

I love it down here. It's nice and quiet and I have a lot of older students living around me in the building. This part of the city shuts down on the weekend, so it's quite nice. The only challenge is that I have a slightly longer commute via subway, but I really don't mind. It's actually less walking than I had in the other building. So yeah...I'm loving.

Also, my new room/suite mates are fantastic. They are all grad students, so they're very respectful and mature...qualities that were very lacking in my other building's residents, to say the least. So, it's fantastic. My room is HUGE and has tons of storage space. It's a much more comfortable space to be in. I love it so much.

Plus, the BEST part is that I'm now literally right around the corner from Kristie and Liz. I love it so much. I'm also a lot closer to a lot of my friends from church, which is great.

So yeah...I'll try to do some pictures and other fun stuff later on. I just wanted to let you all know I haven't died.

Longer update later. Peace out..

Wow...been a while

Hey guys. Sorry for the serious lag in updates in the past few days/weeks. To say I've had a lot of work is a gross understatement. I have had so much work to do in the last couple of days that I've barely slept. It's been crazy. But I need to not complain. There are a lot of freshmen who have it a lot worse than I do, so I suppose I should be thankful for that.

Not a lot to update on. The trees are sort of starting to turn colors here. (as in, I saw three leaves that were yellow. It's a slow process) It has been cool, but today it was hot again, which was a little bit frustrating, but oh well. I hear it's crazy hot back home, which is odd to me.

You know, I have come to realize that I may be a little bit too cut off from the outside world. You would think that living in New York City would make one constantly stay informed on things, but actually the exact opposite is the case. It turns out that when you don't have TV or a newspaper subscription, the world outside the immediate Manhattan island is actually quite a mystery. Case in point: a tornado happened in Queens. I had no idea. It's sketchy.

So yeah....I suppose I'll have to start reading the New York Times online so I can have the semblance of a balanced and well-informed adult.

I went to the metropolitan museum of art again today for class. I really love it there...it's so peaceful and when one is surrounded by art, it becomes the best therapy for a very stressed day. It's nice.

I also got the chance to hang out with Derek and Greg down in the financial district last night, which is awesome. We ended up going over to Brooklyn with Greg's girlfriend Tracey and went to this tiny little restaurant on Front Street that was very good. It was their Harry Potter book club night, so I basically just sat there and didn't really contribute, but it was really nice to get away from people not from the school for at least one night. I get kind of claustrophobic in my dorm sometimes.

Tomorrow I'm going to the beach for the afternoon while it's still partially nice outside. It's supposed to be warm and sunny, so let's hope.

It has also come to my attention that I should probably start being better about taking pictures. But here's the thing peeps....when I take my camera out into the city, you know what I end up looking like? A tourist. Yes, that's right. That's when people start to think that I don't live here, and believe it or not, you actually do get treated very differently. It's strange. However, I feel that I have put in my time and been initiated enough to call myself a New Yorker. Why, I've even gained a solid understanding of the subway and use it often. You'd all be so proud. But at any rate, I will do my best to take more pictures for you guys.

So yeah...I suppose I should go try to find something to eat. Thanks for reading!

SUCCESS!!!!

So, you know how I suck at drawing? And you know how I have no formal art training? Well...I've had a really hard time in drawing class because I've never done the human figure before, and we've been doing a LOT of human figure drawing. Plus, the class is six hours long every time it meets, so it takes a lot out of me. HOWEVER, today I had the pleasure of receiving positive feedback from my teacher in Drawing Studio! She actually used the words "excellent eye" and "incredible improvement" and "beautiful line". It was so cool...very encouraging.

So anyway, we've been using a live model for the past few weeks and today was no exception. Below are some of my new and improved gesture drawings! So proud...

Worst. Day.

This all actually happened yesterday, but the video just posted. Sorry...

Untitled from Shawn Martin on Vimeo.

Monday Madness...

Untitled from Shawn Martin on Vimeo.

Video Update 2 from Shawn Martin on Vimeo.

FOUND!

Okay. You guys, this morning I was so incredibly sad because I LOST my Melanzana sweatshirt. I thought I'd never see it again. BUT, I went to my very favorite go to restaurant this evening for dinner, and the minute I walked in, the owner holds up a finger, goes behind the counter, and pulls out my beloved Melanzana. Words CANNOT express my joy. Plus, the fact that I'm in there enough for him to recognize me instantly made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, I was so happy, I had to share it with all of you.

Paddle faster...I hear banjos

Okay. You guys. This took SO many tries to get it to work. I personally love the video post idea, but let me know your thoughts. Here's the test vid so you can kind of see what it's gonna be like. I'll also do text posts still as well, obviously.

So. Peeps...

Hey guys. So, I know it's kind of early for an update already, but I had to tell you about this day. First, you should all know that I had a grand total of 3.5 hours of sleep last night due to the fact that I had to prepare for a drawing quiz this morning. Also, I fell asleep last night with my ipod on accident, so my alarm didn't go off this morning. I awoke an hour later than I normally do, and we all know how that goes. Drawing class is six hours long, by the way. We have class from 9 AM to 3 PM with an hour lunch break. LONG class you guys. All on our feet, drawing the entire time. It's nuts. Throw in minimal sleep and two blueberry muffins, and I was a mess. However, I made it through class and took a nap.

However, the real fun was this evening. Maddie and I met one of my good friends Kristie, whom I know through Noah's Ark, and Brett (also Noah's) down in the financial district at around six thirty. We then packed a picnic-esque dinner and took the subway over to this awesome park right next to the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side of the harbour. The park is right next to the water and has incredible views of the bridge and downtown manhattan. We ate a nice leisurely dinner and played some frisbee (in a park with real, live, lawn-like grass. Couldn't believe it) before walking back to Manhattan over the bridge. It was such an incredible evening...

You guys, I think it finally hit me tonight how awesome it is to live in New York City. I've been so caught up in school that I've failed to see the incredible beauty that exists here. There is SO much to do and see and to experience and tonight gave me the push to finally go discover things. I'm so excited to share all of this with you as I progress...

On a somewhat somber note, a cool thing happens here in the city nearing September 11. Two massive beams of light shine straight up into the night in the space where the twin towers once stood, in order to commemorate the date. You can see them from everywhere on Manhattan and it really is a beautiful and humbling thing to see. It is evident that this city still bears a scar from 2001. I am interested to see the feel of the city on the day itself.

But anyway guys, I'm loving writing this blog. It is so nice to get my thoughts down and solidified. Thanks to all who follow it...

NOTE: I recently realized that I have a webcam in my laptop, so I may start recording video supplements for things in order to save some typing when I'm especially busy. Some posts will be in video form. Be excited.

Also, I'm going to begin posting some photos of the work we've been doing in class so you all can get a sense of what my school life is like.

Thanks for reading!

Weekend update...

Well everyone, I officially made it through the first week of classes. It was insane. I have some incredibly difficult and work intensive courses. I'm genuinely excited, however. I think it will be very good for me to be challenged and pushed during this semester. I have a lot of homework to be doing actually, but I needed to catch up on come correspondence lags, so here we are.

Speaking of homework, I feel the need to explain precisely what "homework" means at this school. I'm not referring to writing essays and reading and filling out sheets and such. No, that would be too simple. Instead, it's a combination of that plus such things as building 3d wire models of shoes and organic objects, doing still life drawings using only contour lines, making accurate plates of the front and side view of the female human figure, photographing man-made objects emphasizing positive and negative space to be transferred to a pattern, preparing a presentation on an artist or designer, and transferring designs into Adobe Illustrator. In week number one. In other words, it could get ugly later on in the semester. But oh well...I did sign up for this after all. It's actually quite a bit of fun, but it just takes some careful time management skills and willingness to do the work. I should be fine.

Oh, on a VERY positive note, the temperature finally dropped today. It is a very comfortable temperature and even could be called "crisp" outside. Much better than the 90 degrees and up that has been prevalent for the past couple of weeks. Fall is indeed on its way.

So, I thought I would share some fun facts about a typical day in the life of Shawn here. Here is my schedule on any given school day (times are approximate):

7:00 AM Arise and shower, in preparation for another fun filled day.

7:30 AM Prepare my breakfast of eggs and toast, with orange juice when I remember to buy it.

8:00-8:15 AM Out the door I go in order to walk the 5 or six blocks to class, depending on what day it is.

8:16 AM Descend 6 flights of stairs to avoid elevator waits.

8:18-8:44 AM Walk from 318 East 15th Street to 55 West 13th Street for my first class.

8:45 AM Climb 8 flights of stairs in order to avoid the elevator lines.

9:00 AM Class begins. (Oh, and another fun fact. If you're tardy for class even by one or two minutes, more than three times in a semester, you automatically fail the course. No questions asked. Yikes.)

11:40 AM Class dismisses.

11:50 AM Having rapidly acquired a sandwich and fruit from the cafe, climb 8 flights of stairs in another building to (you guessed it) avoid elevator lines.

12:00 PM Class begins. *cheer* *cheer*

2:40 PM Class dismisses. Time to run to my next course...

3:00 PM Final class of the day begins. (almost there)

5:40 PM Blessed freedom ensues! Time to find dinner of some variety.

6:00 PM I begin my walk home and leisurely stroll through union square during rush hour. So relaxing. (gag)

6:15 PM-1:00 AM Homework, social time, computer catch-up, napping, musical therapy (we have pianos in the basement for the music students), and general relaxation.

Now then, this is actually only accurate for two days on my schedule. But the idea is still there. I do spend a lot of time in transit walking places and trying to find rooms and climbing stairs. ((which, by the way, mini rant: If this is a design school (which it is), and they should have their game together (which they do), and if there are 14 gazillion students all attempting to get to classes at the same times on 11 different floors (which there are), then should not the solution have been to create more elevators, to install faster elevators, or to widen the stairwells to more than two feet? I daresay it should. Fail, Parsons. Fail.))

ANYWHO, I don't mind the schedule at all. It's enjoyable to be busy, actually. I also have one day where classes don't even begin till 3 PM, so that provides some R&R.

Oh, I took some pics for a project that I thought I'd share with you all...

Here is part of the park across the street from my building:

Here's another view in the park, with the cathedral where my church meets in the background:

The view out my window at night. Notice the Empire State Building casually in the background:

And finally, a random shot of the construction on my street. Fun.

Okay, well I really ought to get back to work. It's been fun updating all of you! Missing you immensely. Until next time...

Wacked-out wednesday wordage

Okay peeps...here's the thing. CRAZY cool things happened today. Like, God is phenomenal. Not allowed to post about it here, but hit me up if you want to know. (and you do.)

ANYWHO...

Awesome day today you guys. I have the most amazing professors and classes...I think I'm going to gain a lot here.

It occurred to me recently that many of you don't know anything about where I'm going, so this post is going to address that issue.

First things first, I'm going to a university called The New School University, which is a collective of several schools or colleges (seven, I believe). The university has actually been very influential, both here in New York and around the world. It's music school is on a level with Juilliard and its design school is one of the leading design schools in the world.

Which brings us to my school. I attend Parsons the New School for Design which, as I said, is one of the leading design schools in the world. Some of the most famous alumni are people such as Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Normal Rockwell, Alexander Wang, and Tom Ford. (if you have no idea who those people are, not to worry...I didn't either). All of that to say, it's a pretty uppity up school, with uppity up students and uppity up teachers.

Now then, that leads us to the program itself. I am in Foundation year, which is the program that all freshmen who pursue design or art degrees must go through. This is school wide, which means that there are around 700 of us foundation kids. The courses we do are things like drawing, 3d and 2d design, art history and such.

Here is where it gets interesting. This foundation program is the most difficult and advanced program of its kind in the country. It has a serious reputation for being extraordinarily challenging. So much so that out of the 700 freshmen, if historical statistics hold true again, 30-40% of them will either drop out by the end of the first semester or by the end of the year. Stressful? Yes indeed. This is due to the fact that the work and intensity load is absolutely huge and very, very taxing. You have to be seriously dedicated to your field and driven to succeed in order to make it here. Will I do it? Excellent question...I'll get back to you.

So, I suppose that about covers it. If you have any other questions, feel free to holla at me.

Some fun facts:

• The New School has the highest percentage of international students of any university or college in the country. Crazy...
• Central park, here on Manhattan, is larger than the entire principality of Monaco.
• Only about 75% of the downtown area is built on natural land. The remaining 25% is built on landfills created for that purpose.
• Broadway is one of the longest continuous streets in the world. Its actual name is Highway 9. (boring right?)
• In New York City, around 26,000 people live in each square mile. Think about it for a second.
• New Yorkers have an average commute of 47 minutes to work/school each day.
• The Federal Reserve on Wall Street has vaults 80 feet beneath it that hold 25% of the world's gold bullion.
• On each weekday, 4.9 MILLION people ride the subway system in New York City.
• As of the most recent information 8, 363,710 people live in New York City. (!!!)

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little walk through some fun facts. Until next time...I love you all.

Rough the waters...

Okay peeps...tough day today. Probably my worst day since being in the city. It has very little to do with the city itself, though being a round millions of people who couldn't give a rat's backside about any of the others does get a little bit grating sometimes. I love New York City and I'm thriving on the energy that it gives.

HOWEVER. It has come to my attention, most unfortunately, that I have apparently not been very good at making friends here. I'm not exactly sure why that is. Perhaps it is due to my need to feel safe or secure, or my fear of being judged for my personality, but for whatever reason, to people in my dorm especially, I have a reputation for being very mean, uninterested, and completely dissociated from everyone else. Like, I'm really not kidding. It's something people actually discuss behind my back, which doesn't really bother me in and of itself, but it bugs me that I am giving this vibe off and I don't even realize it.

Alex (roommate) and I discussed it for a brief period of time this evening (it was actually quite heated) but he brought up some good points. First, I apparently completely lack confidence of any kind. This is difficult for me to hear, because I USED to think I had quite a bit of confidence and self-esteem. I USED to think I came across as a stable and confident, self-assured guy, but apparently, that is not the case here at all. Second, I have a reputation for being mean to people. Now, those of you who know me well are aware that I can be really mean if I want to be. However, let's face it that the reality is that I intend to be, in those situations. Here though, I haven't been around people enough to be giving this vibe. In fact, I thought I was being quite polite and nice to people, trying to introduce myself, trying to be friendly, but it isn't coming across that way at all. Third, I apparently have no personality. Those people that don't think I'm a complete self-absorbed jerk think that I'm dull and lame. I'm sick of it, quite frankly, but it's hard to know how to fix it. Alex seems to be just FULL of wisdom on this matter, but quite frankly I take most of what he says with a grain of salt.

However, I think he makes some good points. He does bring up the fact (very bluntly) that I immediately make a very bad first impression on people, which is something I MUST work on. He also made the good point that I haven't really tried to make friends with people from the school, which is true. I've been somewhat stuck on trying to stand apart and trying to not be pulled into their lifestyle that I've completely forgotten my entire goal in coming here, which was to show them that Christians can be just as effective and successful (whatever that means) in this industry as anyone else. It was a good slap in the face to hear that I have completely separated myself from my peers here, which is not a good thing. We are called to be salt and light IN the world, not outside of it. I think that is exactly what Jesus was talking about when He said, you must be in the world but not of it. In other words, and how this translates to my personal situation is, I MUST be engaged in the lives of the people around me. Up till now, I have tried so hard to be separated from them, which has not helped matters at all. In order to effect any kind of change, and in order to pursue my career and my calling to the best of my ability, I must be able to see people from all walks of life, all lifestyles, all facets of diversity, and love them as Christ loves them. I need to visualize others as children of God, created in His image and made in His likeness. Only then will I be able to make any kind of impact whatsoever.

Well, I'm tired and I have class early tomorrow, so I shall bid you all good night. I hope the above made sense, but it's kind of hard to nail all of this down into cohesive thoughts sometimes. Thank you for reading!

Things to pray for:

• Continue to pray for the development of a Bible study. It is in the works, and looks like God is working there.
• Pray for my attitude while adjusting to everything new and different. Pray for God's guidance in making friends and connecting with the people here at school.
• Pray for dedication and perseverance as classes start. This is a very tough program.
• Finally, pray for the people of NYC and the Christians here who are working to make an impact. It's a city very lost, but also very valuable and I feel there is much to be gained.

Ciao

So...

Hey guys...coming to you pretty late tonight. I can't sleep. I've laid here for about two hours trying, and I still can't. I absolutely must get into a solid sleep habit here soon, or I'm going to die. Also, my roommates seem to think it's fun to have tons and tons of people here in our suite during the late hours of the night/early morning, which is fine, but I just don't really know how that's going to work later on in the year. Usually, I just close my door and try to block out the noise, but then they get upset with me because I'm not being social, when all I want to do is go to sleep at a respectable hour of night. I need to get some good sleep before school starts so I'll have a good habit built up. I need to start strong...word on campus is that the Foundation fine arts year here at parsons is the most difficult of its kind in the world. I'm excited, but somewhat worried for some of our more...shall we say "party inclined" members of our class. Oh well...we shall see.

Okay, can we talk about today for just a second? I wasted most of the morning sleeping because of, you guessed it: a late night gathering of random people in our suite. *sigh* BUT, after having lunch with my roomies and their parents, it was back to the room to hang out and relax for the day. Spent some time with a friend from home also, which was a lot of fun. HOWEVER, the big highlight of the day was definitely the fact that I went to church this evening at a church called Apostles NYC that meets in a huge historic episcopal cathedral across the park from my building. I cannot even explain to you how much I loved the service. The message was so perfectly tuned to my needs here at school and I felt so welcome. The time of worship spoke to my heart as well. The glorious space of the cathedral was so incredible...I can see why churches in the "way back when" periods built such magnificent buildings. They are so inspiring. It was nice to be able to take communion at my first church service in New York also. It just felt like such an awesome way to consecrate this new chapter in my life properly.

OH OH OH, and you all must know that I have already found my very favorite restaurant. You know, the kind where you walk in and say "the usual" to a large, friendly, and pleasantly in your face Italian man and he knows exactly what you want? Yes. I've found it, and I'm so happy. And you know what else? It is SO cheap for a HUGE amount of delicious food AND they deliver. Heaven? I daresay. Right around the corner...I love it.

Not a whole lot else...I'm getting appropriately sleepy, so I suppose I should try to sleep some more.

Things to pray for:

• Peace about my surroundings and new environment. A lot has changed.
• A heart of love for the people around me. There are some wonderful and incredibly gifted people at this school, but many need some unconditional love.
• Those at Apostles who are working hard to minister to a very lost city. It is a huge job...
• Finally, and most importantly, there is as of yet no Christian organization at the New School, which is the university of which Parsons is a part. I am planning to begin a bible study group here in my dorm, though I am unsure if there are other Christians here or not. Pray that God will lead me to some, so that we can find a common bond. Also, in order to become an organization directly recognized by the school (which would give us meeting space, a small budget, a certain number of copies per month, and much more exposure), so pray that God would provide the means for that.

However, so many things to be thankful for! God is truly good...

http://www.apostlesnyc.com/ (check them out)

Small update...

Well, here we are on day three in the city. I must say, I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that it has not been as difficult of a transition as I had expected it to be. I am loving the city a lot. The area I am in is beautiful, with lots of trees and very nice people. It hasn't been terribly crowded, though the heat has become a bit of a nuisance. I'm not used to so much humidity. However, it has been very enjoyable so far. I stopped in the farmer's market on the way to school today and bought a couple of apples for my breakfast, which was a lot of fun. I think I'm going to enjoy this city.

My roommates are cool...there is Alex and I in one room, and three other guys in a room next door and we all share a kitchen. I don't see them much. I'm pretty sure the other three think I hate them though, so that could be a bit of a problem.

I think it's because when I get into new situations where i have to meet a whole lot of people in a short amount of time, I get kind of clammed up and I don't like to talk or introduce myself. (Truth be told, I miss all of my friends back home immensely, but I suppose this is all just a part of the whole college thing) Oh well. One lives and one learns.

So, in case you're curious, I took some pictures today. The first is my half of the dorm room. There is also a closet that you can't see. The second is the view out our window...it's really nice to see some natural green. It's a nice neighborhood, which is cool.

So, something that has been on my heart for the last few days is a need for Christian friends. It's incredibly difficult to find them here and I'm just asking God to lead me to some quality friends, especially here in my dorm. It seems that most people care more about partying and such than about anything else. I think it could get very hard to deal with. I'm going to go to church tomorrow, so hopefully that will help me meet some great people.

Also, pray for a job...I'm gonna need some part time work while I'm here. I applied at the American Eagle store in Union Square today, and that seems like a very promising option, so pray for that.

Anyway, I need to go take a nap before our next meeting, so I'd better head. Thanks for reading!

Well here we are...

Hey hey peeps. So, here we are...finally in good old New York City. For those of you who are curious (and for those who are not) it is SO hot here. Oh, hot WITH humidity. Fun stuff. I miss Colorado already.

Today has been an intense set of affairs. To begin with, it was an extraordinarily early morning with next to no sleep. Went to the airport early, drove through rush hour, found my bags to be each two pounds overweight, argued with a ticket lady from Frontier Airlines (I hereby publicly apologize, whoever you are, for my irritability. It was not your fault), thought I had missed my flight and subsequently dashed through the airport only to find that my watch was one hour fast, ate a crumbly (and entirely too expensive) muffin that was not very good, boarded a flight with a weeping baby, sat next to a very nice man who slept on my shoulder most of the way, engaged a taxi cab to Manhattan (the driver of which was not only very friendly, but extraordinarily efficient, and lastly lugged all five pieces (and about 260 lbs total) of my luggage up four flights of stairs. A good first day in New York, I would say.

Though, to be fair, there were actually a great many good things about today as well. I'm just too tired, cranky, and headachy to remember them all.

Oh wait...I'm here in one piece (and not mugged--you know who you are). That is a good thing. Above is a photo. I did not take it. I simply added it to make this page more aesthetically pleasing.

Well, I'm going on a walk . Update tomorrow.

Beginnings

So, this begins a new chapter in my life. As of today (13 minutes in, to be exact) I am no longer a high school student. I will be on to new things and hopefully some rad adventures. I look forward to taking you all along for the ride...bumpy and smooth. For those of you who are wondering, I am off to New York City and Parsons School of Design to pursue architectural/interior design. Obviously, it will be quite different from my past 18 years...in fact, I feel that is an understatement of a magnitude I can't even begin to realize. I'm excited however...God made us to be adventurous and passionate. Well, off to bed. Buckle in peeps...we're in it for the long haul. As a side note, I will do my best to update at LEAST once a week. I hope it will be more though...after all, one can only put so much into one post.