Thursday, July 24, 2008

Love at First Sight


More High School Life in Central Pa.
Love at first sight
Posted by jessscv, July 24, 2008 11:41AM

I journeyed to New York City Tuesday to visit Columbia University, the school I used to dream about attending, mainly because it's in New York (and I heart NY) and it was the birthplace of the Beat Generation literary movement. Located in Morningside Heights, the quaintest part of New York I have ever seen (and not in Harlem, as my parents brilliantly deduced), Columbia's campus is beautiful, a gated, tree-lined piece of collegiate heaven far from the chaos of Times Square. However, I decided about ten seconds into the information session that Columbia is not the school of my dreams, and I absolutely do not have the brain capacity required to matriculate (or maybe its because I'm a middle class white girl that earns better-than-decent grades and participates in a few activities--much too ordinary for the Ivy League). It took me about ten seconds to realize that Columbia is not for me (i.e. an acceptance letter is a pure pipe dream), and it took me about five to figure out that the real school of dreams sits (literally) right across the street. Ah, Barnard College, a small, reasonably selective liberal arts college for woman located a skip and a jump across Broadway from Columbia. Barnard is smaller and solely focused on undergraduates, but it is also affiliated with Columbia, so Barnard students can take classes there without dealing with Columbia's madness (swimming tests, core curriculum, getting accepted). Basically, anything a Columbia student can do, a Barnard student can do. Well, they're all women, so there's a few things...

Yes, it was love at first sight. As soon as I stepped onto Barnard's campus, I knew that I wanted to spend four years there. Until Tuesday, I was convinced that I couldn't walk onto a campus and say, "Yep, this is the place," but I did. Crazy right? The only downside was I had to sit through an hour of facts and propaganda about Columbia, and then I had to take a sleep-inducing tour of the sidewalks. Sure it was a waste of time, but it led me to Barnard, the love of my collegiate life; wasting time often does that.


Do not be discourage for what I am about to reveal to you.

Morningside Heights is an integral part of WestSide (West) Harlem.

West Harlem is constituted of 3 historical neighborhoods which streches from West 110th Street north to West 155th Street and from a line that meanders on the east from Manahttan Avenue, Mornignside Avenue, St. Nicholas, Bradhurst Avenue then at West 145th Street one block west to Edgcombe Avenue, western boundary is the Hudson River.

Morningside Heights covers from W 110th to W 122nd.
Manhattanville from W 122nd to West 135th
Hamilton Heights from W 135th to W 155th

West Harlem is not only one of the most diverse population, is is linguistically diverse as well with Spanish, (all 25 kinds) and French (from Cajun, Canadian, to Haitian Kreyole and West African) and of course most people speak all sort of English (from the different British, to various American to Ebonics and Pidgin).

It is also one of the safest places in New York City that makes it one of the safest in the country.

Black Harlem is Central Harlem and it goes from the eastern border of WH to 5th Avenue.
East Harlem aka Spanish Harlem goes from 5th Avenue to the East River.

Like most out-of-towners you hear the word "Harlem" and immediately either think of the Black spiritual capital - Central Harlem aka Harlem or think of a decaying slum populated by druggies, crackheads and unwashed bipeds. WRONG on all counts.

Barnard and Columbia as well as many other fine institutions of higher learning are located in West Harlem mostly in Morningside Heights but soon Columbia will begin working on developing their West Manhattanville Campus from West 125th to West 134th from Broadway to 12th Avenue.

The West Harlem Piers located on the Hudson end of 125th are almost ready to be opened and 12th Avenue is becoming a destination for good restaurants and dancing.

As far as the propaganda of Columbia, believe only half of what you see and none of what you hear from them.
Welcome to our neighborhoods

Jord Reyes-Montblanc


Love at first sightPennLive.com - Harrisburg,PA,USALocated in Morningside Heights, the quaintest part of New York I have ever seen (and not in Harlem, as my parents brilliantly deduced), Columbia's campus is ...

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