The words my mother never wanted to hear.

"I went downtown, on the subway, by myself. I love this city."

I told my mom that after I returned to the 116th St. stop for the 1 train from my mid-day excursion to the Apple Store. I took the train to Columbus Circle, which is an amazing sight to walk out from under, then traversed the width of Central Park along 59th St. to the corner of 5th Avenue and walked into and then beneath the huge glass cube. The kind lady at the store guided me along my purchase of a white MacBook (with accompanying free 2G iPod nano!) and the requisite software, and then I made the return trip. All of this happened in time for lunch at noon.

You may be asking yourself, How so? Because our morning session only lasted an hour and a half. This thing really is not living up to my expectations so far, but hey, it's New York, Fucking New York, and I'm getting over my fear (sorry mom and dad, that I broke my promise. But sooner or later I will be hitting up Times Square, at night, by myself. So brace yourself). Anyway, I can't say that this course isn't interesting, but there's not much of it; we listen to a guest speaker for an hour or two, then we have three hours (or more) of downtime until the next one. I know things will pick up when we get to the week-long workshops, and I really shouldn't be complaining. After all, it's more time to watch the World Cup.

Oh, the Rec center isn't nearly as good as the one at KU, there was still lukewarm water in the shower this morning, and the meals here are really hit or miss. But Riverside Park, just two blocks away, is amazing; I'm thinking I may take an early run Saturday morning, and then go down to Chelsea or the Village to spend the day walking about. This may turn out alright.