New York Mega-post #1

"...If I can make it there,
I'll make it anywhere.
It's up to you,
New York, New York!!"

New York City, capitalism's home town, Columbia University heartland, and the major victim of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America.

After the two day journey from the adrenaline-orientated, fun-filled, scenic retreat that is Queenstown, New Zealand, I arrived in New York in the middle of the night (2:00am on Friday morning) disorientated and completely exhausted, and checked in to the most basic of hotels, West End Studios, for a few hours sleep. For $150 (Australian) a night, I had my own little broom closet, complete with creaky bed, barely working fridge, and a run-down sink that offered only cold water, despite having taps labelled both 'C' and 'H', and a 'color' TV with about 50 home shopping channels. (apologies for the partial nudity on the sink link)

Getting set up

My dorm room is surprising large by New York standards. For US$2300 for the entire term, I have a room over 4m by 4m in size, with nearly-new floorboards, a cupboard, twin-sized bed, basic office desk, and drawers. All my electricity and heating is also included. I'm just one block from the University, and I have cafes, restaurants, bars, and supermarkets all within a minute's walk of my front door. On a negative side, I have to use a shared bathroom and kitchen, both of which are rather unappealing. (The photos that I've linked to were taken within a few minutes of my arrival. I'll post some more photos when I'm more established)

I've had to go shopping for basics like sheets, pillows, laundry basket, etc, and I've also set up a fixed-line phone and a pre-paid mobile. Can you believe it costs me US$1.70/min to call Australia from my mobile?! Ridiculous considering there are calling cards available with rates are low as US4.3c/min which you can use from payphones. One of the interesting features of US mobiles (sorry, 'cell phones') is that users must pay to receive calls as well as make calls. As such, deals are advertised in terms of 'airtime minutes' (i.e. total time 'on the air').

Tennis

I also went out to the US Open on Sunday evening, but, alas, it was a complete washout. As a consolation, I get a free ticket to the same session again next year (now there's an incentive to get that job in New York post-graduation ;-)

But what about the b-school?

Well, it's a 'holiday weekend' here in the States, which means that things don't really start until Tuesday. There's a careers orientation session on Tuesday, and then classes start on Wednesday. My 3rd round bid for Building and Managing Brands was successful, so the list of subjects in the left-hand column are now confirmed. In anticipation of the new semester, I've changing the background colour for my weblog header to Columbia Business School navy blue, and I've adopted a new temporary title for the weblog, Melbourne MBA in New York.