Success

Today’s morning class began with some advice from Doc Z. She recommended that all students that apply to Columbia be sure that they loved the core curriculum, which is essentially, the most distinctive aspect of Columbia University. Today, I also learned about the “debt ceiling” and how this cap on government spending is being discussed on Capital Hill right now.

After Doc Z’s lecture, we had a couple of minutes to discuss our current president, Barack Obama in the context of the our assigned reading, which was a couple of articles about the president, and chapters of the Jonathan Atler book, The Audacity of Hope. Personally, I thought the book was fabulous. Atler’s account of Obama’s first year in office is very entertaining and I would highly recommend it. Class ended 15 minutes early to give us time to complete a student questionnaire about the Columbia University High School Summer Program.

Immediately after class, Eric, Milani and I went to the Guggenheim Museum – and got there early enough to actually look at the exhibit. The collection on display was titled Marking Infinity by Japanese artist Lee Ufan. The artist juxtaposed rocks and stones that are irregular in shape with steel and other man made materials. Overall, I am glad I went to see one museum in New York City. There is so much culture in these museums that I would have regretted not going. That being said, I don’t think I understood the message of the art. I have known for a while that I am not artistically inclined, and this visit cemented that notion.

The coolest part of the exhibit, to me, was the money room. It was literally a room covered from wall to wall with one dollar bills. It was magnificent.