Hello, all! My name is Justin Roach. Up until this point, I have lived my entire life in a town called Wantagh, in Nassau County, on Long Island. I have one younger sister and a Shih Tzu named Harry. I currently reside in The Towers. From a young age, I have long been fascinated with New York City, and over the years I set out to become as familiar with the Long Island Rail Road and the NYC Subway as I could so I would know how to get places faster. When I visited City College for the first time, I felt that it was the perfect blend of campus and city for me.

My major is Political Science and my intention is to attend law school after receiving my bachelor’s degree. Everything about the law has always intrigued me and I feel it is the perfect profession for me. I put forward a great effort to keep up on politics, including national, state, and local affairs. I have passionate political views but I always do my best to listen to what people who disagree with me have to say. In high school, I focused that passion toward Model Congress, the best club I ever participated in.

Immediately after a Model Congress competition; the medal is my individual award, the big gavel is my school’s championship trophy.

Some of the largest impacts on my life came from my experiences through Boy Scouting. There are some moments that I will never forget and lessons learned that will stay with me forever. I have worked a few summers at my Scout camp, Onteora Scout Reservation, as a counselor. This past summer I was promoted to a supervisor position. In July, I attained the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest honor that a Boy Scout can achieve.

On my spare time, I enjoy getting together with friends and/or playing video games. However, I never seem to have that much spare time. My music taste is different from that of most people my age. I do enjoy some modern music, but my absolute favorite genre is classic rock. My two favorite bands are The Beatles and The Who. This is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs of all time:

My name is Adrian Horczak. My parents came to the United States of America from Poland. Then, fortunately, they gave birth to me! I can speak, read, and write in Polish, and I go to Poland during the summer sometimes to visit my extended family. This year, I also went to summer camp in Poland and it was great! I went to water parks, hiking trails, and dance parties, which were awesome. They played Polish music which was great for dancing. Here are some songs I like to listen to (the first one is my favorite):

I have always lived in New York City, and I like living here. There is so much to do in this city that I decided to stay in New York when I go to college, rather than going away. I also am comfortable riding the subways and buses everywhere because I can do work in a subway while I go to my destination. However, I suggest that no one writes in a bus because it will be very sloppy. I am majoring in civil engineering, so I feel happy by walking or riding the subway across a bridge in New York City. Where else do you see a boon of huge suspension bridges right next to each other? There are a lot of free activities I like to do in New York City. They include going to libraries, parades, sponsored events, and beaches. Also, if I go upstate, I can go hiking for free (in Europe you have to pay).

Although I enjoy spending time in the city, I enjoy country related sports, such as skiing, kayaking, and hiking. My favorite activity to do is alpine (downhill) skiing. I like to go on adventures and skiing helps me do just that. I like to go to different ski areas to enjoy the views from the mountains and get to know the unique terrain. I like to ski in glades (between trees) because there are nice views of nature and the terrain is often challenging. Although there are signs posted saying that I should not go alone, I go alone because no one in my family likes challenging terrain like me. I go on every trail, my brother and parents stick with the easy trails. In addition to challenging myself, I enjoy skiing down very quickly because I know that I am making myself move faster than the fastest man in the world. I feel so awesome. After skiing all day, I sleep well because my body exerted so much energy. Unfortunately, I am seldom able to explore every trail in a ski area because there is not enough snow, so I hope that there is a surfeit of snow this year. In addition to alpine skiing, soon I want to try Nordic (cross country) skiing, which is also free sometimes in upstate New York.

One of my less active hobbies is building a city out of Lego bricks. I have bought many Lego sets, and I have built a small city in my basement. I try to do what I can to make the most of my space, like building an underground (under the table, really) train station, and making my trains travel up to, and near the ceiling. However, I stopped expanding my city because I used up all of the space I could have in the basement.

I am attending college now to learn more about the world. Not only do I want to improve my math and science skills, but I also want to learn about other cultures by reading about them and studying abroad. I also want help to find a great job that I will be happy with. More than that, I want to gain more knowledge about New York City, and of course, make great friends.

My name is Lucius.
The name given to me at birth by my parents is Jin Won. However, I had to make a new name because my name often confused people with that of my brother (Jiwon). In order to prevent the confusion, I opened up the Bible to random page and picked out the first name that I saw, which was Lucius.

I like to doodle on my notes while my professor is not looking. I think I am very talented at doodling only if the class is extremely boring.

I used to enjoy acting in school plays, and almost all my middle school/high school career is embedded with musicals and plays.

Currently, I tell people that I plan to major in “undecided.” People do not understand this joke.

My family lives in 14th century and therefore is very unknowledgeable concerning technology.

I like to commute and I enjoy riding subway. I hope I have a pleasant, fun year.

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!

One of my closest friends, my Japanese teacher, and me on Graduation Day!

你好! That means “hello” in Chinese, pronounced as “ni hao.” My name is Christopher Chong, and I would like to introduce myself to everyone. Probably the most unique thing I can bring to our table is that I was born in British Hong Kong. Why do I say British? Well I was born on June 28th 1996, 1 year and 3 days before the return of Hong Kong back to China, and so at the time I was born I am technically a British subject. I even had a BNO (British National Overseas) passport when I was born! However, I don’t consider myself British, but rather, I am Chinese. I have lived the first 9 years of my life in Hong Kong, being raised with Cantonese as my primary language, with Mandarin and English as close second languages.I am fluent in all three languages, so if you want to learn how to say anything in Cantonese and Mandarin, I’ll be glad to help!

Airplanes!!

I came to New York when I was 9 years old, and I have reside in Long Island since then, in a town called Valley Stream, about 15 mins east of JFK Airport. The transition is hard to describe, but I eventually got use to it. I attended Valley Stream Central High School for my last 3 years of high school, and graduated as the valedictorian of my class. Giving a speech in front of some 2000 people is quite tough, but I made it.

My Japanese host family and host students!!

I currently reside in The Towers, where I have made lots of new friends and hope to meet many more. I am a Physics major, which was primarily inspired by my AP Physics teacher as well as Dr. Michio Kaku, who teaches here at CCNY! How exciting is that! Hopefully I get to be in a class that he teaches. Although I am a physics major, I aspire to become a commercial pilot, and since I was young I had a interest in airplanes. I had motion sickness on airplanes before, but I have learned over the years to somehow suppress that, and I really want to fly airplanes! I love dealing with the instruments and the challenge to navigate an aircraft, plus I love traveling. To name a few, I have traveled to Hong Kong (obviously), Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou in China, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Yokohama in Japan, Seoul in South Korea, etc. Other stuff that I like to do include playing piano, swimming, badminton, tennis, trying all sorts of new food. I like listening to K-pop music, and watching Asian TV shows.

The Fifth Solvay Conference, 1927 (Basically a bunch of scientist and physics professors)

Well, that’s me. Feel free to ask me anything!

Howdy, fellow Macaulay kids. I’m sure by the title you know my name is Anthony Cacchione. As I’m sure everyone learned in class, I am from Philadelphia. However, I was actually born in St. Louis, Missouri, so I am very new to this “big city” atmosphere.  I am looking forward to the adventures of New York. I’m hoping this class can help me explore the city. I am an economics major, which isn’t all that interesting or exciting. My main passion is baseball. I will be playing for the CCNY team as a Left-handed pitcher, so be sure to go to some of our games this Spring. I also have a small baseball blog at http://baseballstooges.com/ for any baseball fans out there. Looking forward to the next four years getting to know everyone.