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This is the part where I talk about myself: where I come from, what I do, where I want to go and whether or not I like grape-flavoring in my foods. (I don't.)

I'm short but I wish I was taller. I have glasses, and I like them--they make me look smart. I dye my bangs fire-engine red. Last semester it was pink. Before that it was blue. I have crooked teeth because I knocked my braces off in a swimming pool accident when I was 13.

I'm currently an interdisciplinary arts major from a private Liberal Arts school in Southern California. It sounds nice, but in reality, "Interdisciplinary" just means "gets bored easily": photography, illustration, cartoons, painting, and in my spare time, short stories and blogging. I find I don't like to get tied down in anything. Having the freedom to pick up a project, lay it down and turn to another is something I prize. Eventually I get stuff done.

I came out to NYC to get out of the house. Having spent the last several years in California, going to highschool and college there, things were too comfortable. I had developed my own not-on-the-menu drink at Starbucks. Before I knew it, I'd be carrying a purse poodle and become an expert on self-tanning.

Worse still, my education felt stale: I knew what my professors wanted from me, I knew what kind of work impressed my peers and I did that. No challenge from outside, no challenge from the inside. I needed a breath of fresh air and a serious butt-kick. So I applied to an NYC study program, hopped on a plane and just like that, things were cold, windy, uncomfortable and anything but stale. I couldn't be happier. Or colder. I'm from California after all, anything less than 65 is frigid.

Now until the middle of May I get to live in NYC, eat in NYC, sleep in NYC and absorb as much of it into my memory as possible. Eventually I will go home and hopefully start fresh. But until then, I get to be The Traveling Eyeball: walking blogger spy extraordinare.