Cali

Oh how I miss In N Out!!!! And my puppy :)
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Hello cold

Time for the knee length down jacket...22 this morning with a wind chill that made it feel like 9!!!
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Happy Holidays

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Happy Thanksgiving

I have been extremely busy the past month with finishing midterms and then getting ready for finals. My mom came to spend a long weekend, which was so much fun and I was able to show her around this city I now call home. We went to all the tourist places and a few local places I like. It was great to see her, and I was sad when she had to leave. I am in the midst of finals, 2.5 weeks left of school and 6 LONG papers to write before I get a break. I am not looking forward to the next few weeks, but am trying to focus on my trip home for Christmas. My internship is getting more demanding too, I am now in charge of a lunch group with 5 trouble-causing 4th graders and then still see my 4 children individually. We are also raising money for the schools annual holiday drive so that the children can get not only toys, but also the necessary warm clothes that some of their parents can not afford to buy. This last month I have started to make some new friends and hang out with them on the weekends when I do not have school or work, but will more than likely not see any of them until I come back from California because the next few weeks I will be lucky to get a good nights sleep with these papers.

I was here for Thanksgiving which was a little weird, first time without the family. My friend Karianne from back home actually came out and spent the week here to go to a information session for a doctoral program she is applying to in NYC, and she spent Thanksgiving with me. It was nice to have a familiar face and not be alone on Thanksgiving. I cooked us a turkey (my first one ever) and a few other "thanksgiving day side dishes" and we had our own little Thanksgiving. Not much new here in NY, it's starting to get cooler and all the leaves have fallen off the trees now, it was so pretty to actually have a fall and see leaves change color this year! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and I will write again after finals are over!

bye for now <3

Halloween

Cop, White and Orange Tiger :)

Midterms!!

Sorry I haven't written for a while. Midterms took all my free time. I am in 4 classes and an internship, so over the last 2 weeks I have had 4 papers due, which doesn't sound that bad but the amount of time that was needed for research and interviews and prepping for the paper and then actually writing it was so much more time consuming than expected. I am defiantly hitting that brick wall of not caring right now, usually happens around midterms for me, but I will be back running full force next week since I do not have any papers due next week. I do have another one in 2 weeks and then finals are only 5 weeks away! I can't believe that I am almost done with my first semester of graduate school! My internship is going great, I really enjoy it and working with the kids, I read for classes on the subway ride there and back and am getting busier and busier during the day there. I am now seeing 3 kids individually and am working with the problem children in a 2nd grade class every day that I am there. I bring them over to a table so they get more one on one attention. We are also putting together a presentation for parents to help them decide the best middle school for their children. I pretty much do not have much free time besides that. I did go out for Halloween this past weekend and dressed up as a cop. It was so packed and crazy in NYC, people just walking in the middle of the streets because the sidewalks were so full that the group I went out with all ended up coming home really early so I didn't get to enjoy the whole night like I had thought, but I still had a great time. I babysat for a family 3 weeks ago, for their 3 month old and I may actually start working for them on a more regular basis, they called today and asked what my weekly schedule looked like and would like to set something up with me. That would be great to get some extra cash flow because the loan money is going quickly, even though I don't feel like I spend often, this city is just so expensive. That's about it here from NYC I've been posting new pics on: http://picasaweb.google.com/cmwright121 More to come early next week! My mom is coming into town for a long weekend tomorrow and I am excited to show her around the city I now call home!

bye for now <3

Fall

Sand art in Union Square and the view of the fall colors from my room
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It must be fall

The ice rink at Rockefeller center opened today! So excited to see an outdoor ice rink!!
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Internship

So I have lived out here in NYC for almost 2 months now. I know my way around the city pretty well and can get to most places in Manhattan by walking or taking the subway. I go out adventuring and exploring alot, but because of my budget I do alot of looking and not much of the fun stuff. This is the city full of massive amounts of restaurants, and everyone is always wanting to go out to dinner or brunch. I unfortunately can't do that often because I still haven't been able to find a part time job. I do go out however sometimes and just don't eat and just enjoy the company. I can't decide if I will actually get a part time job because I am thinking I will not have enough time or energy to work after classes or my internship. I am finally starting to make some friends which is really nice, and have met a few great people in classes that I will hopefully hang out with soon. School is overwhelming, I am finally learning how to mange my time and not read ALL the readings assigned. Second year students tried to tell us it is impossible, and I am realizing now that they are right. I pick and choose which readings to do and may have to do a bit more when midterms come around. Luckily midterms and finals are only papers, so I don't have to study for any tests at all. Midterms are in 2 weeks, half way done with my first semester in 2 weeks! So crazy, time is going by quickly.

I FINALLY got my internship (2 weeks late) on Wednesday. After a long battle with the internship office they finally found me a placement at a elementary school up in the Bronx. Today was my first day and I am exhausted. The experience was overwhelming and it will continue to be like that for the first 2-3 weeks. Today I just observed different classes and was to keep an eye on certain students and interact with the all the students keeping in mind the ones I was to pay more attention to. I will do this for a while and ultimately I will have 5-6 students I see individually a week for therapy, and then will run a few group therapy sessions. They mainly use play therapy and behavioral therapy with the children. I am so excited and nervous to start the therapy sessions, but I happy where I have been placed for my internship since ultimately I want to work with children. Although I'm in this great city I am spending most of my time doing school work and am not able to enjoy all the great things it has to offer, but I am trying to allow myself a day off from school a week to get out and go exploring.

It is fall and wow it is cold! I am not going to survive winter!!! I guess they said that these are abnormally low tempatures that we have had for this time of year the past few days, but it was about the tempature that our "winter" in California. I wore a sweater and a jacket and wished I owned gloves to wear because my hands got cold. I need to go to TJ Maxx or somewhere to get some winter clothing, and soon because I think cold weather will be here sooner than I thought!

Ok bed time for me, I can't believe how much my first day at my internship drained me.

bye for now <3

Never get tired of the view from my roof.....color of the Empire State Building changes depending on the holiday or celebration :)
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First week of school

Well I had my first week of school this week. I am going to class Wednesdays and Thursdays. I have one morning class and one afternoon/evening class both days so I am hoping that the library will become my best friend and I can pass my time by doing the readings that I have that are not online or in my books but in reserve in the library. I am enrolled in 5 classes, but only meet for 4 classes because the 5th class is my internship. Class itself seems like it will be interesting. Class is only once a week for 2 hours and it seems like the first half hour or so will be lecture and the rest will be class or group discussions. It seems much more hands on than undergraduate where you just copy down what the teacher says during lecture. There are no tests in my graduate program (at least not in the classes I'm in) I have a midterm and final in each class but they are papers. I have weekly reflection papers about racism and ethnic issues and then a few papers I have to do about my internship. I am in Practice I (which is the class that ties in lecture with our internship, I have a adviser that will come visit me at my placement and we discuss each others placement each week. Anything from a certain situation that we didn't know what to do in, to a good experience we had.) Then I have Human Behavior in the Social Environment I (I'm not sure exactly what we will be learning, but I'm thinking it is just learning about human behavior and development.) Next I have Ethno-cultural Issues in Social Work (which is dealing with minorities, and all different ethnic issues past and present in the social work field) and my last class is Social Welfare Programs and Policies I (which we look at all different kinds of policies and learn how no matter what field of social work you go into, policies will effect you and what you are able to do)
So far I have found class interesting, but outside of class is where the majority of the work comes from. We have 3-4 reading per class per week. I have spent about 9 hours reading so far and I will spend another I would guess 3-5 tomorrow finishing the rest of the reading at the library! It's a big change since I didn't even open some of my books in undergrad, but since we have weekly discussions I actually have to know whats going on and can't rely on the professor to actually lecture on it. I still haven't found out where my placement is, but I start my internship next Monday, Sept 21. I will be working Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday....we have to do 21 hr/week. We have daily verbatim journals we have to do to give to our supervisor which can get a bit lengthy, but I am so excited to start my placement and get to start working with people. I guess starting our first week we will be doing therapy with our clients, either group, family, or individual depending on the setting at our placement. I am also attempting to get a part time job as a babysitter in the evenings because I do not have enough loan money to live in NYC for the semester without some kind of part time job. That's about all that is going on over here, just school and more school. Need to learn how to network, I guess that is a huge thing in the social work field. I met a couple people in my classes but I'm not sure if I will ever see them outside of class, I will have to talk to them more to see what I think. I did finally meet my next door neighbors yesterday and we went out with them which was fun. I am slowly meeting people, which is nice, but soon I wont have anytime to do anything with any of these people I am meeting. Well back to reading!
<3 bye for now

Central Park

Went to Central Park the other day, people are laying out soaking up the sun in the middle of the park! Then found this cute lake that you can rent rowboats and ride around the lake! I'm gunna go back hopefully sometime soon and rent a boat!! Also, uploaded more pics to my picasa account :)
<3
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First few weeks

Here is my link to where I will be uploading pictures for everyone who doesn't have a facebook. The pictures will also be on facebook for those who do have it. http://picasaweb.google.com/cmwright121

I will try and update my pictures frequently so you all can see what is going on in the city! :) I have been here for 2.5 weeks now and still am loving it. I have been to Central Park, went to the Statue of Liberty. Walked the Brooklyn bridge, then had to figure out how to get home from Brooklyn. And went to Time Square the other night. My roommates are great and we have so many similarities, yet so many difference that I think we will all learn and grow from each other. We start school in a week and a half, the 9th of September is my first day. I am starting to get a little worried about it, but I know that everything will be ok. It's just the anticipation of whats to come, the unknown. I received a call earlier this week from my advisor who told me she would be calling me back this up coming week to fill me in more about my placement for my internship, I am eager to find out where I will be working for the next year. I am finally starting to get used to this not having my car thing. I have walked between 2-6 miles a day since getting here and my body is starting to understand that this is what I will be doing. My feet on the other hand, well I need to buy some new better suited for walking shoes, so I can get less blisters in a day. The weather is defiantly different here, it's rained a few times already and is suppose to rain all weekend, a thing I rarely saw in California. I also will soon have to start shopping for a winter wardrobe, I have never had to live in the cold and I guess it will come sooner than I expected it would. As now I'm just waiting for school to start to get into a routine of life, I know that this sleeping in til noon, staying out late, and wandering the city and sightseeing all day will soon come to a stop, so I am trying to get as much of it done now before reality starts up again. Well I'm off to school to print out my list of books I have to buy, all 16 of them :( And there may be more once I start class and get the actual syllabus from my teachers :(
<3 bye for now

My Apartment in the East Village :)

Here is a video of my place, there is commentary but it's hard to here. I will update later this week again...so excited to get the internet finally working at my place :) yay!!

Here are some pics from NYC

So in order, my view from the roof of my apt, I can see the Empire State building, then the fountain people were cooling off in, and then the view from my roof at night.
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The move

hi everyone, Just wanted to update real quick about how life is going in the big apple. Most of you I have either talked to or have facebook and have seen the pics/status updates. I am living in the East Village in Manhattan and have been here for 4 days now. I do not have internet so I am sitting in a internet cafe as I type this....It is defiantly a different way of life out here. I will be getting into great shape fairly quickly. I have walked about a mile or more each day since being here. I wandered over to Union Square, down Houston St., and over to Washington Square Park, and all over most of the Village. There is people out ALL the time, and lots of places are open 24 hours a day. It has been really hot and muggy, so walking everywhere is not fun in the heat either. My plan is to go up to Central Park this week and maybe out to the Statue of Liberty. I have started to get used to the neighborhood and kinda know my way around. I have been to the grocery store twice and still need to go back again, because I can't carry enough food at one time. The store is about 2 blocks away, so not too far. Yesterday I went over to Washington Square Park, which is the center of my campus. It only took about 15 mins, so I will be walking to and from school once school starts. On my way there I past 3 street fairs, and once at the park saw people sun bathing in the grass and jumping in the huge fountain to cool off. There is so much new and different things to take in here. I still have unpacking to do, and once I finish I am going to take a video of my place and post it on here for everyone to see the tiny apartment, which I guess for NYC is actually big, that I live in. I get internet on Thursday, so I will update again next weekend with more info about what I've been up to.
Bye for now <3

Hello

I thought that it was so much easier to just update this whenever I had a chance in Europe than remembering to send emails, I decided that I would start one for my adventures in New York City. I will be updating this whenever I get a chance about life in the big apple, how New York University is, and how graduate school is treating me. I will be starting my first semester as a graduate student for Social Work on September 8th and will be going to school 2 days a week. I then will be starting my internship on September 21st at a location I have yet to be informed about, and will be working there 3 days a week. I am not sure between school and my internship how much free time I will have, but I am planning on updating this as often as I can with info about everything back east. I will also post pictures and videos on here occasionally. You may always comment on the blog here or email me with questions, concerns, or just a quick hello. :) I am looking forward to the new experiences that will cross my path in the next few years.