Columbia University!

So this past weekend was pretty brutal in terms of packing and moving out of my Philadelphia apartment.  It was really hot out and it's just so much harder packing when you have furniture and kitchen stuff.  It's not fun like moving into a dorm is, when all you have to do is bring clothes and school supplies.  And to make it even worse, the elevators in my building randomly stopped working both days we were moving out -- and since I'm on the 6th floor, it was impossible to move heavy stuff without them.  So we eventually got everything together -- in 1 rented UHaul truck and our minivan.  On Monday we drove from NJ to NYC; it wasn't too bad, but we had to wait awhile on the George Washington Bridge because of traffic.  We got here around 9, and I went to the housing office to get my keys -- they herded you back into a conference room in groups of 10, and gave you a stack of papers you had to sign.  They had a PowerPoint presentation of a photo of each form, telling you where you had to sign.  I was impressed, it made it very efficient.  But of course I got stuck with international students and people with wives and children, all of which require special forms and stuff.

So my apartment building is basically a brownstone.  It's pretty small, only 6 floors, with 4 apartments on each floor.  We had to hire 2 moving guys to move my coach and bed and stuff, because the elevator is the tiniest one I've ever seen -- the opening is actually only 20 inches wide.  My apartment is pretty nice, it has new hardwood floors, and the living room is at least double the size of the one in my Philly apartment. My bedroom is a tad bigger as well, so I can fit my desk in it, which is nice. The only tough things are sharing the common space in the bathroom and kitchen -- I'm not used to only having half a medicine cabinet, and half the fridge, and half the kitchen cabinets.

Our apartment is ungodly hot, since we're on the top floor and it's like 97 degrees out.  The first day we met a girl in the hardware store on my corner, and she looked familiar, but I didn't say anything.  She had an extra air conditioner that she was offering to us for cheap. And when my parents went to go pick it up, it turns out I knew her from Princeton! Small world.  Anyway, because in NYC if you install the air conditioner wrong, it could fall many stories down, they require you to get a professional person to install it.  So I had no idea who to contact, so for the first couple of days I was sitting here in the heat with an AC unit literally sitting right in front of me, but no way to use it.  Eventually I found some people and they installed it yesterday, and it's made my life so much better.  When it's that hot, it's almost impossible to even think straight, I would basically just sit in my room and not be able to move, because the heat would make me feel so tired and sluggish.

Anyway, that's a little bit about the move out of Philly and my apartment.  More to come on orientation : )