Slept in until 9 today, the sofa bed wasn't too bad. A few springs here and there, but I've had much worse. Took advantage of the free continental breakfast in the lobby, then we went down to Washington Square, home of the center of New York University. It was a good 30 degrees, with wind gusts above 30, so the walk through the city was a bit brisk; far from blocking the wind, the buildings create a wind tunnel. Sooo cold!

Follow along on the interactive map! NYU is centered around Washington Square Park in Greenwitch Village, Manhattan. There is no defined "campus," only a loose cluster of buildings, all of which have purple flags out front with the NYU emblem. THe tour started at the Himmel Student Center, where we joined 100 other people in an hour long information session about the university's programs, majors, requirements, admissions, etc.
Some highlights of the NYU visit include:

Readily avalable internships

A bad mascot: The Fighting Violet (Students prefer to use the "Bobcat", which is actually short for "BOBst CATalog", the library search system.)

NYC Culture and surrounding events

$42,000 tuition, including room and board

Accepts 4's and 5's on AP tests

Average SAT 1300 - 1450

28% Freshman Acceptance rate

Politically active campus

Famous alumni frequently help on campus, including Adam Sandler and Spike Lee

On-campus housing gaurenteed every year, each room has a private bathroom.

After the information session, we took a tour of the campus including the library (A giant, rust colored building with many miles of books), a residence hall, the arts & sciences building, and the business school. After the tour, we ate at a restaraunt on campus suggested by our student tour guide. We visited the bookstore, found a good chemistry guide with all the stuff I need to know (hopefully) to pass the AP test.

Overall impression of NYU: Interesting visit. I don't think I'm really the big-city type, NYC is great, but it'd be old after a week, and I'd go insane without some open space to myself where I can think. The buildings seem nice, but there doesn't seem to be a large emphasis on engineering, or computer science. The music programs sound good, especially music technology and the other music - related things. The residence halls are great, private bathrooms too, but I dunno, I don't think it's for me. I'll have the pictures up and linked to sometime within a week of when I get back.

In the afternoon, we headed down to the WTC site. There isn't a whole lot to see down there, it looks like a giant construction site. Still, it was nice to see how the area is recovering. Walked from there to Wall Street, there weren't any tours of the stock exchange running, but I saw the NYSE and the other large buildings of the financial district, as well as the monument where George Washington took his oath of office.

We walked to the waterfront and took the Staten Island Ferry out into the harbor. We had great views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, as well as South Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. The Statue of Liberty has been closed since September 11th, it's supposed to reopen this summer. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but maybe that was just my perspective from the boat. We got off on Staten Island, then we got back on and went back to Manhattan. We took the subway up to Macy's, near Times Square. Heh... amusing side note... we were on the "local" train that makes every stop, the express train was on the track next to us. Ours leaves, mom says "well, we'll just catch it at the next station." Blank silence. My dad and I laugh. Express trains go for 2 or 3 stations without stopping. I'm sure that would have been even better if ya had been there, but oh well.

Went through Macy's, then we walked back to the hotel. Stopped at a street vendor for a pretzel and at a souvinier shop on the way. (Some of you may see things from there, ya never know.) Relaxed at the hotel for a bit, then we went out to a really great sushi place 6 or 7 blocks south of the hotel, Sushi Samba. We got a sushi platter with all kinds of sushi, sooo good. Yum. I guess my mom doesn't like sushi, but my dad does, so maybe we'll try and find somewhere in Portland / Vancouver that has some. Any suggestions? Well, I should go, I have to leave the hotel at 6:00 tomorrow to catch an 8:30 flight to Ithaca, NY, about an hour by plane from NYC, it's a college town with Ithaca and Cornell colleges. Not sure if I'll have internet access there, so I'll keep the journal and upload it when I get a chance. Have fun in the warm sun, its still cold here!

I have occasional AIM access, and I have my phone. Send me a text message any time, or call me if ya wanna, but just don't call after 7 PM (that's 10:00 here) because I'm probably not awake. Although, I see that it is after that time right now. Night!