A Rainy Cruise with the Cohort

Today is our last Tuesday in New York, our last day in the East Coast. This is the home stretch; three more days, final assignments and papers are going to be due and then we're done. I can't say that I'm not happy to go home because I'm very excited to hug my dad, sleep in my own bed, and play with my dogs; I'm just sad that this whole adventure will be over. I have been having the time of my life and I wouldn't give this up for anything. I suppose the only time I'll relive any experience remotely like this would be if I came back to the East Coast, or New York more specifically, in a year for school.

Today, before meeting with my cohort, nothing of significance occurred, just class as usual. In lecture Professor Mesznik discussed how before the economic crash, leading up to it and possibly causing it, banks would borrow short and lend long. This means that if banks were to borrow money they would borrow it for short amounts of time with new interest rates each time. When they lent money, they would lend it out for longer periods of time with higher, fixed interest rates. This way that the banks would play with money and make it appear if they have large amounts of revenue was very high in risk. Along with this, the banks would also sell off mortgages which diversified and increased the debt.

In lecture, Professor Mesznik made several interesting points regarding risk. Risk is often seen as the bad guy, you usually try to avoid risk. Imagine a world free of risk. I wouldn't want to live in a risk-free world. Risk is opportunity, without risk, everything would already be planned out. Everyone would already know everything that was going to happen-ever. Risk can sometimes result in negative events but risk is opportunity, it is what uncertainty is made of. Risk allows us to grow and make our own mistakes and discoveries. Risk is neither positive nor negative, it is just a way of life that, without it would not be very pleasant at all. 

Today, instead of meeting Mrs.L and the cohort at 4:15 PM on campus, the cohort met at the Subway at 4:30 PM to meet Mrs.L at 42nd and Broadway at 5:00 PM. We made it right on time. From there we took the bus to Pier 83.  From here we took a site seeing boat ride cruise that would go by the Statue of Liberty! But before this, we had about an hour or so of time to kill. We walked a little ways to O'Hurley's (I am pretty sure this is the name.) outdoor restaurant. The food was pretty good and all of the waiters had Irish (maybe?) accents. I loved the free and comfortable atmosphere; it was very relaxing to just sit there, hold simple conversation, and sip lemonade with my cohort. It's times like these where we feel like a whole cohort, a makeshift family, rather than a group of students and a chaperone on a trip.

At roughly 6:30 PM we headed over to the boat. Anmol, Bryan, and I sat together on the upper deck-the part of the upper deck that was covered. Overall, I really enjoyed the cruise. Not only was the view of the city and the Statue of Liberty amazing and breathtaking, spending the evening hanging out with Anmol and Bryan was really fun. It was nice sitting there, enjoying the breeze, hearing all the info presented by the cruise, and talking with my cohort members.

Bryan, Anmol, and I on the cruise

The weather could have been better. It was overcast most of the entire time. There was a healthy breeze but that's probably just because we were on a moving boat. When we left the river, the air seemed to become thicker and foggier. Twice during the cruise it rained but it never got cold. We were under the roof so we didn't get as wet as we could have which is nice. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are much smaller than I pictured them. They always look bigger in the movies but so did Grand Central Station. Regardless of their size, seeing them in person was astonishing. Just like the Greek vases at the Met, being able to see something in person that I have only previously seen on TV and in the movies is breathtaking.

The Statue of Liberty!

The new World Trade Center at its full height.

All in all, today was a very fun, productive, and enjoyable day; memories were made.