Tonight, at the Ivy League Connection’s orientation, we received an itinerary and confirmed all our travel plans. The Presidential Powers students got a great overview of the course from Yueming, who took the course last year. I was also excited to hear what I should expect (and prepare for) in New York City.
The course “American Presidential Powers At Home and Abroad: From George Washington to Barack Obama” sounds like a lot of fun. Not only is the course taught by a Columbia University political science professor, has a relatively few amount of students and is structured as a discussion based course, it also begins at 10 AM In the morning, the students will be sitting in a seminar style circle discussing past and present American presidents. We eat lunch for about 2 hours than we work at the campus library until 4 PM researching our topic for the research paper. That also means after 4 PM, we are free to explore (certain sections of ) New York – with a partner and our chaperone’s permission, of course.
I learned a lot of new things at orientation. I had no idea that the Presidential Powers students are expected to choose our (preliminary) topic for the big research paper on the first day of class. I also learned that Columbia has air conditioned dorms, which is wonderfully reassuring given the intense heat during the summer.
There is no denying that New York is one of the most exciting cities in the world. There are going to be so many activities to participate in that I highly doubt I will be able to do everything I want. I am definitely looking forward to watching a Broadway show, our college tours, Times Square and so much more. But one of the most important milestones for me is the 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2' premiere that will take place on July 15 – the last day of class and our last night in the dorms. I sincerely hope that somehow we will be able to attend the midnight showing and the premier will end our ILC journey in NYC.
Tonight was the last time I met with the entire Columbia group before we arrive on Wednesday, June 22 to begin our journey and I cannot wait.
Beilul,
ReplyDeleteIt seems that for many of our ILCers going to New York is all about seeing movie premieres. A couple of years ago it was Batman: The Dark Night.
Last year some of our people got up super early to see Lady Gaga on The Today Show (or something like that).
That old school--Columbia--it's still there isn't it?