Diane’s World

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Hello world.

Wow.
Is it really Friday?

Well let’s see if I can fill you in with what is going on.

We had another day of Tony Carnes, but he wasn’t as mean. I did get a good pictures of him in action, laughing at a paper:

Here is a picture of a poor student who is being ripped apart:

I love the expression on her face.

And here is Jason in the same class, wondering what the heck I’m doing taking pictures in middle of a lecture:

and here is Amy on my other side, the exact same class:

Anyways I’m over that. I realized in the end it was more of a power trip than an actual reflection of our talents.

Then we had another person come in Wednesday who writes for the Wall Street Journal (apparently I can’t tell you the name so sucks to be you). He taught us how to write a business article.

It was pretty much the most boring thing I’ve ever done. An earning’s report. zzz.

Thursday was our first day of teaching with Russell Pulliam. He’s ok… gave us lots of homework on top of McCandlish’s homework.

And we didn’t get out of class till five.

And we had a letter to the editor due at 8:00pm.

And I had to still go out into the city and find a new yorker local to interview.

Amy and I didn’t get around to doing that until 11:00.

So I put on some jeans and a t-shirt, and we headed the 5 minute walk to Times Square. I was armed with my brand new digital audio recorder that I have just recently invested in. (It’s the greatest thing ever)

When we got there, I remembered that the whole world in NY dresses up nice, so I said “Man I feel so underdressed. I’m in my Iowa clothes…”

The guy in front of me randomnly turned around (he was wearing a blue collared shirt and khakis) and said, “You don’t think this is overdressed, do you?”

He had two other friends and I ended up interviewing them. We spent 2 hours chatting about so many random things from intellegent design to Fitzgerald and the Great Gastby.

I got home around 12:30, and pulled an ALL-NIGHTER with Amy and Jason. Not a joke - not one wink of sleep. I had that paper to write, and I think it turned out ok. I would post it but I know you wouldn’t be interested.

Here are some interesting pictures of that night:

At 6:00 in the morning, me and Amy went to some park where Goodmorning America was filming the Dixie Chicks. Yes I saw the Dixie chicks today.

I also was on television. I appeared in the Weather part of the news - if you looked closely enough you would’ve seen me.  I’ll be signing autographs later.

So yup, there they are. Woot. (I was probably the less enthusiastic person in the crowd when it came to seeing the dixie chicks. What’s with the chick in the middle’s sunglasses/hair-do?

Thier stage presence is less than impressive. They need to learn how to move.

Well I’m in class right now, and I am desperately trying to stay awake. It is more difficult than I would ever imagine.

Just for fun I have some earlier fun pictures, most not taken by me:

A few of us in Time’s Square

In front of Madison Square Gardens

Us weilding our cooking utensils. I have no clue what Amy is doing, and Jessica just looks dangerous.

Similar roommate pictures, just different.

Jessica, Amy and I in front of the Flat Iron building

“Twins”

Jason being the pimp we all know he is.

Amy and I on an escalator in the Largest Store in the World (Macy’s!)

Well I’m out for now. I plan to go straight to bed tonight after classes get out (today we get out really early at 4!… thank goodness because I keep on randomnly falling asleept…)

See y’all later.

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Hey Y’all. I hear that a lot. Y’all.

Ok quick recap of this weekend:

Woke up saturday, then ate breakfast, then went back to bed. I know. It’s incredible.

Walked with Jessica and Amy to Soho. Amy got sick. Poor Amy.

Went to Trader Joes. Got food. Yummy food.

Went home. Pretended to read Ernie Pyle’s “This is your war” for about 6 hours. Interrupted a few times by the guys of 12C10 (Jason, David, Max) who heard we had coffee. Our room always has a huge pot of coffee.

I’m so addicted to coffee. I think I’m up 6 cups a day.

Then Amy decided to pump up her resume and get a few new skills. Today she was working on her interpretive dancing. She is so cool: here are the pictures:

(She was in middle of falling down in this picture… I’m such a good photographer.)

I have a lot more photos - but they are all on facebook if you want to explore Amy’s talents some more.

At 3am, we went to walgreens and got ice cream. Jess, Amy, Jason and I ate it with forks on the floor.

Sunday we had every intention to go to church. New York is too big though, and we ended up downloading an online sermon that Amy was going crazy over.

Read more Ernie Pyle…

then at 1 am, Jason, Amy and I took a walk down 5th avenue to see the brand new, really cool Apple Store!!!! This is the highlight of my life. I have pictures!

Us in front of the MAC store, all excited to go in.

Amy in front of the really awesome Mac store.

The stairs down…

Jason and one of the macs I drooled over.

After we were done with the MAC store we started walking back (around 2 am in the morning). Amy is obsessed with trying to look local, and locals in New York never obey the traffic crossing signs. So we were crossing, and all the sudden this police car stops and starts watching us.

Then we noticed that all the bums like to sleep on church steps, but St. Patrick’s church HAD NO BUMS! So we added a few.  (When we took this picture, the whole time the Cop was following us and watching us. Huh.)

So that is our trip to the Macintosh store, early Monday morning.

Monday was another INTENSE day. Our first speaker was John McCandlish Phillips,  a former New York Times reporter - one of the most famous ones. He’s so adorable. He’s tall, thin, and old… but so nice! He spent the first 10 minutes making fun of himself.

Dr. Case said about him: “You think he’s gonna die.”

McCandlish himself said: “When I was in Grade school, I was the kid that when I turned sideways I was marked absent” (because he is so thin)

Also he said his motto for life is “Eat like a pig, look like a malnourished gazelle”

He’s a very good teacher.

Then, as a complete contrast, we got another teacher: Tony Carnes. Wow. I’ve never seen such an arrogant meanie.

Our assigment was to have two partners (my group was me, Jason and Amy). We were assigned a religious place in Manhattan, and had 3.5 hours to make a 5 picture portolio of the place,  a 600 word essay, interview 4 people, and research this religion.

We had the Orthodox Jews.

Crazy. I did some of the  interviews and the photojournalism. Here are the pictures I came up with:

This is Tony Carnes:
 

We all came back all stressed out because we had NO time to do this assignment. He then put our papers and pictures on an overhead and COMPLETELY TEAR THEM UP (not literally). Every single person came out of that room feeling like a worthless piece of crap.

He called marry a communnist “Trotsky”.

Said my pictures were “nonesense”

Jason and Amy made this:

(That’s my little pony btw. Her name is Jade)

And that sign is no over statement.
I would go on longer, but  I’m tired of thinking about him.

After we had that class, our class had to get out so we all went for ice cream.

Our class really bonded over this guy.

Ok New topic. Here’s Max, he’s cool:
 

Yeah. Hi Max.

Anyways…

I went to bed early (meaning 11:30).

I woke up this morning and was about to shower, but we had a little visitor in our room - a big fat cockroach that made a home in Victoria’s washcloth.

It was 6:45. We decided to call Jason to have him take care of it, because none of us wanted to get near it. It was exciting, believe me.

Well I better start listening better to the speaker. Carnes comes back in an hour. Lets see if I live through this.

The song that I quoted up top is my song for this trip - the acoustic Ben Gibbard version of “why you’d want to live here.” Woah. Good song.

Love Y’ALL

Diane

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Thursday was a good day.

We had our last class with Nancy Pearcey, and we chose our topics for the 2000-3000 word paper we have to write.

I chose the topic of a Christian’s view of postmodern art.

She told me she is currently writing a book on the topic. She is eager to find out what I write.

Maybe I’ll get mentioned in her book… maybe? (Crossing my fingers right now…)

Later that day, two of my roommates and I along with three of the guys went to starbucks. We were planning to study, but we ended up chatting.

I’ve never had so many intellegent conversations in my life. The students here are very intellegent and our conversations are full of substance. I’m loving it.

Friday our class was with Mira Lowe, a recruiter for Newsday. She taught us how to write a resume, cover letter, and how to answer interview questions.

Our assigment was to actually create our resume. She liked mine.

That night we had a huge group of people, but eventually me, my two roommates, alison and Jason ended up breaking off and finding a diner.

Then we went to KB toystore, where Jason and I bought a My Little Pony (personal Joke).

And we walked through times square, trying to look local. We are doing a good job of it.

Then Jason, Max and Alison came by late at night and had Coffee and hot chocolate.

The city has too many people.

I miss Iowa where you can see a horizon line.

But New York is going well.

Want pictures?

We get four to six free newspapers every day. These guys didn’t pose for this newspaper (this is in our room when we had everybody over for dinner)

Party in my room! It went very well.

Me reading the newspaper on my favorite window sill. It’s so fun to listen to Simon and Garfunkel while reading the New York times and watching people walk down the street. Nothing beats that feeling.

This is in a HUGE KB toys store - there is a merry-go-round, and one of the cars is my little ponies. Jason and I have a personal joke about my little ponies, so we had to get a picture

(rachel, Jason is a sober version of Drew G. - I am NOT kidding.)

Well that’s all for now. We are about to head out to Soho and the grocery store.

Tonight it looks like we might to go a Julliard’s recital (free!)

And I have so much homework. But it’s fun homework - a few essays and a really good book.

Mom feel free to call me whenever.

Postal Service needs to make more music. They are quality stuff.

Love you all! Diane

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Yes, I have my camera connected, thanks to my new friend, Adam.

Sorry it’s sideways. Grey building is my school (empire state building), brick building is my apartment building (Herald Towers). Yes, I am that cool.

Yes I’m in jeans for the first time this trip. And these are the coolest chairs I decided. I am in the world’s largest store.

Time Square - Advertising Capital of the world. Someday I will have an advertisement here that I created and sold for billions of dollars, just you wait.

Me and my roommates. WE are all in our pajamas with no make-up and ready to sleep we all pretty much look nasty. Anyways, from left to right is Jessica, Victoria, Amy and ME!

OK: Now the part you’ve all been waiting for: our bachelorette pad. It’s pretty sweet and probably would be around $1,500-2,000 a month to rent. Here it is:

The Bathroom. Ha, I shouldn’t have started with this one, but it’s pretty sweet.

Our bedroom. The bed on the bottom left is mine.

Our well equipped kitchen. (The window shows one of the busier streets of New York)

My favorite room - our living/study room. The window sills are the best place to sit and read a book, watching the cars and people go by, and getting half of a suntan.

We had everybody over for dinner -that went so well! All but three people showed up- and they had a good excuse (they got cheap tickets to a broadway show.) Everybody enjoyed it and said we set a high standard for the next time someone hosts a dinner. I really enjoy some of the people that go to this institute.

Well I’m waking up early for coffee with two of my roommates. Things are going well, I love Nancy Pearcey more and more every day.

ALSO!!!
Here are some in-class pictures of the day that Hendrik Hertzberg (speech writer for Jimmy Carter) came and told us that our God is a narcisistic Hitler in the sky. Nice.
HERE (Mom you would be interested in this)

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