With Love From New York

i write this in a mild state of shock – a direct effect of the sudden imposed revamping of my linguistic hard-wiring. i used to think that if i ever moved to the US or the UK, i would be able to quickly and smoothly adapt to the local lingo, owing to the fact that i read a lot and talk often to friends of both countries, but after four days here, i find that i have been grossly presumptuous about my adapting capabilities. it’s not as easy as reminding yourself to say ‘kleenex’ everytime you want tissue; instead, it is about being totally cautious about what multiple names any given item may have, and then running through your head what would be the American name for it. here, it is ‘elevator’, never ‘lift’. those nametags you hang around your neck during orientation or events? it’s called a badge. ‘faucet’, not ‘tap’. and like, no sentence is complete without throwing in the word ‘like’ as a precursor to like, your articulation of ideas. i observe and soak up these idiosyncrasies with intrigue and bright eyes. yet at the back of my head, i still miss saying, ‘what lah you!’.

so it’s my fourth day here in New York and i must say that things are getting very exciting. i was so tired for the first couple of days because it was non-stop speed-socializing on top of all the unpacking and settling down, and it was hard to even get a moment of alone time because everyone here is so chatty and eager to make friends. dorm room doors here are mostly left often, so people can walk in and out as they please, looking at your books and eating your cookies or whatever. that’s fine by me, but i must admit that my room door has been mostly closed, simply because i still need my me-time to do my own stuff without having to make small talk every now and then. small talk is easy, i know, but believe me it gets so exhausting when you have to repeat the same stuff about yourself every 5 minutes.

however, listening to (probably repeated every 5 minutes too) stuff about my new schoolmates is a whole different thing altogether. i absolutely love it. there are so many different kinds of people here, all of whom are extremely bright and talented individuals with the most diverse hobbies and backgrounds. i met this girl who’s a contortionist on rope – basically a gymnast who does all sorts of stunts on a rope suspended high off the floor. she showed me pictures of some of her performances and i was totally awestruck at how unique her hobby was. then there’s this guy who builds robots in his free time, and he once built a small machine that would run off on wheels with his alarm clock every time the alarm goes off, just so that he would have to get out of bed and hunt it down, awakening himself in the process. damn cool right? and there are many others with equally interesting stories. mine sound bleak in comparison, but the odd thing is, everytime i talk about myself, the focal point of the conversation always falls on malaysian politics.

almost everyone i’ve spoken to knows about malaysia and our politics. the first few times it happened, i was so fascinated, because i was expecting to say things like, ‘oh we’re north of singapore’. of course, Anwar is the most well-known topic among them, and one guy even knew about the Permatang Pauh win. the best part was when i was explaining the social contract to someone, and i used the word ‘indigenous’ in place of bumiputera.. and the girl sitting next to her piped up and told her friend, “oh the term is ‘bumis’” :O words fail me. i feel an urge to go read up on Venezuelan politics now.

thanks to everyone who’s emailed or MSNed me to ask how things are, or left me supportive comments on my blog. i’ve been good. tired, like i said, but very good. i’ve been settling down well. when i first got here, my aunt came to pick me up at JFK armed with this huge box of stuff that i really needed, like voltage converters, adapters, snacks, water bottles, mug, tissue kleenex and vitamins. then she took me to buy furniture and things for my dorm room. and yesterday she called me to ask if i wanted a rice cooker or a water boiler! she truly is an angel :D and then of course, Martian came here with me to help ease the transition and to give me extra luggage allowance!!! he’s staying at a nearby hotel and checking out museums while i’m at school, but he’s gonna be leaving soon :( i feel very thankful that he came with me though. i feel less lonely and homesick knowing that he’s just a few blocks away from me, and of course it’s so good to be able to spend some more time with him.

and speaking of luggage allowance, i really wish i had brought more stuff because i had something like an additional 20kgs that i didn’t use. should have brought Pooch, more shoes, more photos and more bags :( i really miss Pooch! (he’s this stuffed dog that Martian bought me, btw)

and while i dont have my American phone number yet (soon, soon! i decided on AT&T), what i do have is my mailing address! so if any of you guys wanna drop me a postcard or a letter, which i would really really love, the address is :

Su Ann Lim
5771 Lerner Hall
2920 Broadway
New York, NY 10027-8358
United States of America

i’m thinking i’m going to get my mom to courier Pooch to me :D along with lots of Maggi. dining hall food is balls. i’ve been eating nothing but apples and pretzels since i got here :( oh but yesterday Martian took me to Little Italy for pasta so that was good. and just to give you guys a gauge of how truly expensive NYC cabs are, a 20-minute ride from my college to Little Italy cost us 22 dollars, inclusive of a 2 dollar tip. that’s an RM 75 cab ride!!! oh the trauma! we swore never to take another cab in NYC again :\ the subway is cool but still a bit foreign to me, which is why i got lost coming back from Times Square. wuwuwu!

and uncharacteristically, i dont actually have any photos of my college! hahaha! i just realized that myself. have been so busy running around that i totally forgot to take pictures. but i will take many in due time. for now, i will just have to show you the only photo i have, which is a snapshot of one page from the used copy of The Iliad i bought from my school’s bookstore. the former owner basically annotated the pages with his own contemporary interpretation of the verses:

oh and i am changing the timestamp on my blog to NY time! i’m exactly 12 hours behind you guys, and it’s almost 7pm now, which means it’s time for a quick dinner before the next orientation event.

sigh. i miss lots of things already.

101 comments August 28th, 2008