Jan 22nd, 2013 - POD

            The day started at 8:30AM where we met at the Church Center for an introduction to “Person of the Day.” This just means that every day, someone will be in charge of introducing speakers, making sure the room is ready for the day, thanking speakers, etc. Then we had an introduction to the program overall, where we all shared our stories of why we are so interested in studying cities. I talked about coming from suburbia USA and how people only live there to be close to NYC. I also talked about going to a school like Lehigh where we are in this bubble of affluence and surrounded by so much poverty. Everyone had amazing stories to share, and the faculty shared their stories as well.

            Then we broke for lunch, and a few of us went to the Amish Market. It’s a supermarket and a restaurant, and there was a really nice buffet with tons of salad, fruit, meat, and pretty much anything else you would ever want to eat. It was delicious. Then we went back to the Church Center and got an overview of why the Church Center is such a historic building. It was started by the United Methodist Church and has been a meeting place of many different organizations affiliated with the United Nations. We even got a list of the organizations that were meeting in the building this week.

            Then we had a very very long run down of the rules and regulations from the Dean of Students of IHP. He was funny and charming, and we all got a lot out of it. The rest of the day (from about 4:30 on) was ours to do whatever we wanted. We decided to go to the East Village and go to the bookstore Stand. Then a bunch of us (aka 16 of us) went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. This was as authentic as you could get being outside of Japan, so we had a fun “cultural experience” right here in NYC. Then everyone from our program met up and we went to a free comedy club, which was so much fun!!