Introduction
This post marks the final week without classes, since they will start on September 5. I am not completely sure which classes I will take, so that will be something for the next post! Now I would like to tell you a bit about the first welcome events at Columbia, a day trip I made to Boston and a visit to my uncle in Greensboro, North Carolina.
SEAS Welcome Day
On August 25 the big welcome day for all graduate students of the School of Engineering and Applied Science held place. This marked my first day at Columbia as a student, and sadly it required a very early morning. At 08.00 am, I arrived at 114th Street, the start of the Columbia campus, where there was already a two blocks long line for the welcome event. This wasn’t even the line I was supposed to be in! Apparently there are so many graduate students, they had to split the presentations over two auditoriums. The line I had to wait in was sadly also two blocks long, from 116th up until 118th Street. However, the long wait was certainly worth it, since we received a free lunch, our ID and a backpack after the presentations in the morning. Most importantly, this was the first opportunity to meet some people in the electrical engineering department! The presentations started with a fun music quiz, played by one person from each department on stage, here’s what that looked like:
The welcome day presentations only took two hours, since most practical presentations about the university, academic honesty and sexual misconduct had to be completed online, prior to welcome day. All those videos had already taken me multiple hours.
Day Trip to Boston
As I still had a lot of free time this week, I decided it was a good opportunity to visit Boston, where my other cousin is working. Therefore, I took the infamous Amtrak train for a day trip! In the morning, I chose for the Acela high speed train, which in fact is only about 30 minutes faster than the regular Northeast Corridor train over a trip of almost four hours. Sadly I suffered a stereotypical Amtrak delay of about half an hour.
During the day I walked around Boston to see the famous sights from the time of the American Revolution, which mostly started in Boston. The Boston Tea Party and Boston Massacre are considered fundamental to the American independence. I also went to visit Harvard and MIT, to see what Columbia’s competition looks like. Honestly, I can say that the Columbia campus looked the nicest to me.
An easy way of visiting Boston is to follow the Freedom Trail, which is a red line on the ground connecting all the touristic sites. Certainly a very convenient way to sight see! Here’s a sneak peek of the city:
I also had lunch with my cousin, since she had to work that day, but it was certainly very nice to see her again. In the evening, I took the Northeast Regional back to New York Penn Station and since we arrived about ten minutes early, this was actually faster than the high speed train in the morning!
Quiet Days
The other days of the week were a little quieter. I filled my days by calling my parents and some friends who are planning a visit, having a run in the Riverside Park or taking the train to Midtown Manhattan to do some further sightseeing ore do some errands. Here’s a peak of what Times Square looks like in the evening:
Electrical Engineering Orientation
On August 31, it was time for the orientation event of the department of Electrical Engineering. The day started with some presentations again and of course we received a free lunch. I was also happy to get a department t-shirt, which is very nice, it shows the New York skyline. In the afternoon, we had a first taste of what life would be like here, since we had the opportunity to visit the laboratories of the department. These were very interesting visits and the doctoral students gave some very educational explanations of their work. I am already looking forward to the first classes! This is me at the engineering school:
Trip to North Carolina
However, the year here starts right after Labor Day, which means we get a first long weekend! Since my uncle lives in North Carolina, I decided this was the perfect time to pay him a visit. It was a very nice to be able to spend some time with him. We watched the Formula 1 race, the new Top Gun: Maverick and since the weather was amazing, we worked a bit in his garden. It was very nice to enjoy nature a bit after living in a city as busy as New York. Next picture shows the surroundings of the area:
Alright, that was the last week of vacation for me. As I am writing this, I already completed my first day of classes, but I’ll keep that story for the next post. See you around!