Hello everyone! My name is Angelika and I currently reside in Brooklyn. I was born in Western Ukraine (by the border with Hungary) and my family moved to the United States 10 years ago. As a result, I am fluent in both Ukrainian and Russian languages. Moreover, I speak Spanish on a proficient level. 

At City College I am looking forward to major in International Journalism with a minor in Spanish, yet I still have time to decide what it is that I definitely enjoy doing. As of now, I know that I certainly enjoy learning foreign languages. In fact, I am studying French at CCNY right now. I also love traveling and hope that as a journalist, traveling and languages will further aid me to succeed. My dream profession would be at BBC or perhaps The New Yorker. 

Whiteface Mountain Peak, Lake Placid

Aside from college, I am a passionate skier. I’ve conquered all the highest peaks on the Eastern Coast and will hopefully acquaint myself with Salt Lake City, British Columbia and European peaks soon as well. Skiing is one of my absolutely favorite things ever because it makes me feel completely free. I have complete control over where I roam, with only a bit help from nature. When I ski I tend to completely shut off my brain and rather feel what I am doing. Skiing provides me with great adrenaline and makes me feel as if in a single moment I have everything that I can possibly need and desire. I am clearly in great anticipation of winter already and cannot wait for another snowy season. Anyhow, if you haven’t tried skiing or snowboarding, I greatly suggest that you do!

In addition, I also practice yoga and absolutely love to dive! 

In general, I am super curious to learn about other cultures and explore whatever has been previously unknown to me. I am currently very interested in Spanish and Latin American culture. I find it absolutely fascinating to the point that my playlist are now almost entirely Spanish and that many of the movies that I watch are Spanish as well. In fact, I absolutely adore Spain and plan to Study Abroad there for at least one semester. Further, I hope to live in Spain one day or perhaps somewhere in Europe. 

I do love NYC and anticipate to discover new elements of New Year in the following course! 

Here is a song that always puts me in a good mood:

Why hello there!

My name is Christopher Man-Kat Pun. Yes, you read correctly, my name is Christopher. You can call me Chris or simply, Pun. But perhaps you’re more curious about my middle name and my last name. Your English speaking tendencies are probably making you pronounce my middle name like Man-Cat, and I don’t blame you, however in Cantonese it’s actually pronounced Mun-Keet. So, no, I’m sorry to say that unfortunately I’m not Catwoman’s protégé and I don’t have a superhero double-life.
Also, please don’t ask me if I know any good puns. I honestly don’t know that many!

~What does a clock do when it’s hungry? It goes back FOUR SECONDS. HA.
Well, that pun leads into my ever increasing love for food. While living in New York these past 18 years, I have developed an ever growing appetite for all things that is great food. As we speak, I continue to roam the earth in search of all kinds of amazing food from different cuisines across the world. (Although, the only country out of the U.S. that I’ve been to is Canada…) But nonetheless, the search goes on!

~I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got over it. 🙂
Second to my love for food, I have an innate passion for sports and video games. I love to play soccer, tennis, volleyball, and frisbee the most, among a couple of other sports. The video games that I currently enjoy playing are                                                       League of Legends, and CS:GO.

Also, most people don’t know that I secretly enjoy both dancing (choreographed hip-hop and such) and singing. Sorry, I don’t have a pun for this.
In high school I was a part of a Filipino dance group for 2 years and I experienced a ton of cultural arts specifically through dance and music via my school’s International Culture Club.

Well, to sum myself up, I guess I’d say I’m a pretty down-to-earth kind of guy.
Most people think of me as the guy who’s calm, chill, and reliable. I like to think of myself as a pretty simple guy, but with a hint of mystery that will always make you curious and keep you guessing since I often enjoy being adventurous and trying new things. 🙂

Well that’s about it. I look forward to getting to know you all and experiencing NYC with you guys! I also hope we all are able to rise to the challenge of getting to know each other more and more throughout the next four years, because well, frankly, no pun in ten did. Ha. ha. ha. 🙂
Don’t worry, that’s most likely the last pun you’ll ever hear from me ever again.

~C. Pun signing out!

Hi everyone! My name is Jillian, but most people call me Jill. I have lived in New York for my entire life, born and raised in Queens, and I just graduated from Townsend Harris High School. I may not have grown up in “the city”, but since my mom works in Downtown Manhattan, I fell in love with this borough before I did with my own. As a kid, I would often take the subway with my mom to the law firm she manages on Wall Street and admire the tall buildings and well-dressed people. I made it a personal goal of mine to spend as much time exploring the rest of this place as I could, until I really knew every single nook and cranny of it.

Fast forward over ten years and I am finally getting to live out that dream as a regular commuter into Manhattan to study Computer Engineering at City College. I love the idea of technology development and my dream job is to eventually start my own business with the software that I hope to create. I’m studying Computer Engineering here as a way to achieve that.

People who are familiar with either my last name (Panagakos) or my thick, dark, curly hair usually realize pretty quickly that I’m Greek. However, what most people don’t realize is that I’m only half! The other half is Irish, Scottish, Polish, German, and a bit of French Canadian. To make things easy for everyone, though, I usually say that I’m Greekrish, an even mix of Greek and Irish. In fact, when I was younger, I used to tell everyone that I was half Greek and half McCann, hoping that they would understand exactly what I meant when I described myself by my mother’s maiden name. They usually didn’t.

These particular ethnicities may clue you in on my gigantic family. I have a younger brother, and seven first cousins. Of course, though, in a Greekrish family, you are just as close with your second cousins and third cousins once removed as you are with your own siblings. Family is incredibly important to me. I try to find family everywhere I go, from my own blood relatives, to my neighbors, to the people I train with in Tae Kwon Do.

Me with just a fraction of all my cousins.

If you want to get to know me, the first thing you need to know is that I have been training in the martial arts for almost ten years. I have earned my second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do (hopefully to earn my third degree this coming June!) and my red belt in nunchaku do. On the weekends I’m an instructor and I am passionate about working with the students in the school to learn the art, and watching many of them grow up. One of my students, who I first started teaching almost 6 years ago, recently earned his black belt and joined me in the ranks of instructors. I was just as proud of him when he was promoted as I was of myself when I earned my own.

I hope that you enjoyed a glimpse into who I am, and I can’t wait to meet all of you! I love to make new friends, so I’ll probably be talking your ear off about some of the music, TV shows, or restaurants that I obsess over in no time 🙂

A photo of myself being presented with my black belt by my instructor and my family from 2009.

Hello. My name is Daniel Seo. I was born in Busan, Korea and immigrated to United States in 2004. Assimilating in this country was not too difficult for me and I was able to get along with other students without any problems. I initially lived in Flushing, but moved to Whitestone when I entered high school.

I attended Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, BELL Academy for middle school, and The Bronx High School of Science for high school. I am a type of student who only tries on subjects that I like and does not like to explore new subjects. I love mathematics because it seems to make perfect sense to me and the fact that it has an answer makes me feel certain and secure. However, I am sure that this class will break many ices for me and explore the arts, which I am not too familiar with.

My main hobby is basketball. I have been playing for 9 years now and I played in team sports and during my high school years, I used to just go to the gym and play until late at night and come home. I love to listen to music such as R&B, hip hop, rap, Korean pop, etc.

In terms of Daniel as a person, my personality changes based on the environment that I am in. In a classroom, I try to be more open-minded and socialize with others more, however when I am at home, I am very quite and like to be alone in my room. Also, I am a night-person. In other words, I love to hang out with my friends late at night and I purposely take a long walk home instead of taking the bus because it is really soothing and calms me down a lot.

Anyways, I am excited to see what this class has to offer and I would be delighted to explore the new types of arts that I have not encountered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIT0sFBEm2w

Sup everyone.

My name is Tony, as you can see, but I’ve been given many nicknames. These names include, Tony the Pony. Tony the Tiger, Tony Macaroni, and Chu Chu Train. Those who’ve known me for a while call me Chu Chu Train and I think it describes me perfectly. I am described as being really loud and destructive. I think throughout the year you guys will come to realize that.

I am from Oakland Gardens in Queens, but now I am at the Towers. For those who are at the Towers, you guys probably have already seen me around as one of the “pros” at Ping Pong or one of the loudest guys in the lobby whenever I’m in the lobby.

Speaking of which, my hobbies include Table Tennis, handball, exploring (basically walking around to wherever), debating, and gaming. I was such a big gamer. I played Boarderlands 2, Dota 2, Soldier Front 2, Castle Crashers, Rogue Legacy, League of Legends, Payday 2 and much more. I’m such a fan of PC games. Consoles really aren’t my cup of coffee. Only thing I have to say about console games is that Super Smash Brother’s Melee is the bomb. Those of you who know what is, you know what I mean.

There is really nothing else to say that can be put on paper. I really do hope to meet you guys in person so I can literally meet you guys.

As for now, here are some songs:

What’s up guys? I’m Shahrouk (That’s SHA-ROOK). First off, some basic facts about me: I’m Bengali. I came to the US 4-5 years ago. I’ve lived in Queens ever since and attended John Adams High School there. Now I’m here. There’s really not too much to say about me so I’ll try to keep it short.

My passion lies in mathematics and physics. I’ve been in love with math ever since I first started doing algebra. There is something about the consistency of mathematical laws, whether doing simple arithmetic or doing advanced calculus that appeals to me. Now, about physics: I believe that physics is the key to understanding the universe that we live in. The cosmos, how we came about and whether we’ll ever leave our little slice of the galaxy: all of these things interest me endlessly. These subjects fueled my desire to become an engineer, to be a part of humanity’s galactic future.

My other interests lie mainly in the areas of video games. I absolutely love well-written video game series (Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, anyone?) and believe that they are as worthy of being called true art as any painting or museum piece. Another great thing about gaming is the amazing music that you come across embedded in these games. Two such amazing, heartstring-tugging tracks are included in this post.

Now you might be thinking: This guy is the epitome of a couch potato. You’d be right!! But I do have one great passion in physical activity and that’s playing tennis. I joined the team in my junior year of high school and love playing the sport ever since. It’s not only fun, but a great stress reliever as well.

So that’s enough about me. I look forward to getting to know all of you better through the course of the semester ! 😀

Hi everyone! I’m Chloe Chai and I love tea. Not really, but I feel obligated to because I have been asked countless times if I’ve tried the Starbucks drink (Chai Tea Latte), cause y’know my last name is Chai and its CHAI tea. I have and it’s really good.

Anyways, I grew up in Flushing, Queens where you can buy extremely cheap and delicious, that’s very important, food right off the sidewalk. There are also plenty of bubble tea places so you can always get your fill. If you’ve never tried bubble tea and don’t know what it is, bubble tea is a popular Asian drink that consists of two parts. The first is the liquid; this could be anything from juice to tea, but the key trait is that it has to be sweet. The second part, and the most important, is the bubbles, or tapioca balls. Tapioca balls are starchy, chewy, soft, delicious and also sweet and when you put these two components together you make the Queen of all drinks, the bubble tea. If you are a first timer at a bubble/boba/pearl tea place you might be overwhelmed with all the different liquids you can choose from, but the best is always the original. So I would recommend the milk tea.

Another fun fact: the Queen of all drinks originated in my native country Taiwan! So there might be a bit of a bias here. Just a little.

My parents were born in Taiwan and so my sisters and I grew up swimming in Taiwanese culture, since my parents really only enjoyed Taiwanese food and only spoke mandarin. Thanks to my parents, I am fluent in speaking, writing, and reading traditional Chinese characters from all the years spent slaving away at a Chinese school.

As you can probably tell, I quite enjoy food and am always open to trying different delicacies, so if you have any recommendations, please do share!

Aside from my interest in food, I enjoy playing sports and if you can find the little hint I put in the previous paragraph, I am swimmer, a trackie, and a volleyball player. I am a Biochemistry major, and although I truly enjoy the sciences my high school has cultivated in me an enjoyment for the humanities.

Speaking of high school, I graduated from Townsend Harris, a relatively small humanities high school located in the outskirts of Flushing, Queens. Our graduating class was 283 students, or 283 family members, so this transition to a larger school like City College has been quite an experience. There are over 12,000 undergraduates and it is hard to believe that when I’m walking through campus, I will most likely not see the same faces again.

This post is getting out of hand, so Ill just end it here. I am really looking forward to exploring this city with you all!