Monday, March 3, 2014

New York City 2012: The Wishful Student at Columbia University

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Ever since the movie, The Bucket List, there's never been a week that I haven't seen someone post/tweet/upload anything related to his or her own personal "bucket list".  I guess we all have our aspirations before we, well, kick the bucket.  Like most of my friends, one of the major things on my list is to really travel and see the world.  Apart from the generic, I have this specific travel goal and that is to visit all eight Ivy League schools in the US.  This is a real goal of mine, not something fabricated impromptu as a result of being at the right place at the right time.

I've always been fascinated of the Ivies since I was in high school and dreaming of where I would like to go to college had I been rich enough, smart enough, and active enough in community service and some other worthy advocacy. Anyway, enough about my sob story.  Just to give a brief background, there are eight Ivy League schools in the US and fortunately for me, they are all in the East Coast.  They've been called as such originally because of an athletic conference formed by the said private schools but the term came to be accepted as with reference to academic excellence and selective admissions.  

With no further ado, the eight Ivy League schools, and the same eight items on my specific "Bucket List", are: Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Cornell, Dartmouth, and.........

Columbia University, New York City, New York!

If you've read my prior posts, you'll remember that I was roaming the streets of Manhattan like there was no tomorrow.  But then, I made sure to leave enough time for me to visit the first "scratch off" opportunity on my list.  Believe me, I am not exaggerating when I say that I was filled with too much giddiness.  If I only knew their Alma Mater song, I would have sung it.

But no, I wasn't an alumna, I was merely a visitor in this open campus.


Unfortunately, I cannot really go inside the buildings.  On a brighter note, however, I was free to look around the outside and take as many pictures as I wanted.

The stand-out building for me is the University Library.  It looks so imposing yet comforting at the same time.  Good thing I wasn't able to go inside or else I'd just drool all over the precious book collections that maybe date back centuries ago.


That's me wishing that I had the right to call Columbia my Alma Mater. Sob!


With my back to the library, this was the whole line of my sight.  Or my camera's, that is.  I paused for a minute just to imagine what it would be like if I were an actual student, a back pack and all, crossing the grounds to hurry to my next class.



I also wondered where the dorms were.



So I guess I wasn't the only tourist in the grounds.



Oh well, enough self-pity.  One more photo then a kiss farewell.


The neighborhood is just so... colonial, for lack of a better word.  I love every corner of it.
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Just a parting shot of the back view of the main buildings. 


Goodbye, Columbia, my Ivy League #1.

For tourists, this is one less popular New York City attraction that I think is worth a visit.  I took a quick cab ride from Central Park West Avenue.  Here's the address: 116th St and Broadway, New York

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