Laundry On Sundaes

So I’ve been back in the Big Apple for 2 weeks now, though for some reason summer already feel so far away. The weather had been incredibly hot and humid for most of the past 2 weeks, and I’ve had to endure a lot of a sticky thighs on wooden chairs, mosquito bites, and stuffy dorms. But I’ve also tried to take advantage of the last bits of summer, for example, by going to Coney Island for the first time last Friday! The weather was gorgeous, and I was definitely craving some beach, so Yufei and I took the subway all the way down there.

I had no idea this was where the International Hot Dog Eating Contest takes place!

We pretty much just lied on the beach for a couple of hours, which was awesome.

But apart from being at the beach, that kind of heat was really quite uncomfortable. So I’m very excited that finally today, for the first time since I got back in the city, I was able to wear jeans! It was still beautiful outside, but the air was crisp and cool, perfect for an after lunch walk in Riverside Park followed by sun bathing on Columbia’s South Lawn (which, impressively, has been open the whole week!), and a visit to the Wallach Art Gallery right here on campus. I’d been wanting to check it out forever now, and right now they have this really interesting exhibit on Square Word Calligraphy, where Chinese artist Xu Bing “has devised a method of writing English words in rectangular arrangements which resemble Chinese characters.” So it basically looks like this:

Can you read it? It says “square word” and “Xu Bing” in the signature. Pretty cool right?

School-wise, things have been going alright. Classes are manageable as of now, though I’d rather not be taking 5 at the moment. My dorm is pretty nice – will post some photos as soon as it’s completely cleaned up and decorated.

In other news, I now have a Polaroid camera! Thanks to Yufei :) It’s so much fun!