Life in New York

A few of you have been asking me to write about 'life' in New York, as well as just documenting the MBA student experience at Columbia. One must appreciate that 'life' as an MBA student is a very, very time consuming endeavour. A colleague of mine was commenting this week that, for him, the MBA is essentially lifestyle choice - instead of being paid to work 50 hours a week, we're paying to study closer to 80 hours a week and giving up virtually all our free time. Surviving the MBA requires skills in time management, prioritisation, and sacrifice - it's very difficult to find/make the time to do anything else ... but we try. In my both my first and second terms in Melbourne I found the time to travel interstate on three separate weekends. The Columbia MBA is definitely a notch higher in terms of intensity, but I am an exchange student after all and all I need to do here is pass my subjects (rather than striving for that magical mark of 80% which generates an H1 at MBS). In theory, I should relax a bit and ensure that I enjoy the New York experience.
So, what have I been up to since I arrived in New York three weeks ago? The short answer is: not as much as I was hoping to do. As far as the 'tourist' experience goes, I've revisited Times Square and the Guggenheim. I've attempted, on two occassions, to allocated a full afternoon to visit the Museum of Modern Art (temporarily located in Queens). I've caught up for dinner and a couple of beers at Washington Square with one of the MBS students studying at Stern. And I've been for the occassional walk/run in Central Park. In short - I'm not experiencing the tourist side of New York to the extent that I expected. It's amazing how much one can cram into a visit to a city when they've got the full day everyday available to them. I've had two short tourist visits to New York in the past, so I've been to most of the major museums, been to the observation decks at the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center (RIP), and taken the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty. There are a few other 'typical' New York attractions that I'd like to visit, but they may have to wait until I'm either hosting visitors from out of town, or until I've finished my studies for the term. In the meantime, I'm definitely having the 'living' experience in New York, and I'll do my best to find the time to write about it.