My loving gangs from Bates: Svitlana from Ukraine, Marta from Slovakia, Saify from Pakistan, Binit from Nepal, Shawna-Kaye from Jamaica and me.

I met them on those first days at Bates, and we have remained good friends throughout all those Maine winters and human dramas...

In fact, looking back, I feel like I have integrated them into my selfness. With Marta it was crazy adventures: the streets of New York, overnight at Mcdonald, and of course, Kingston, Jamaica. From her I picked up the zest for music and for life.

With Saify I had countless conversation about love. Saif is so full of love that he needed to spill it over. And Shawna with her screeching laugh. Shawna taught me how to dance, crack jokes and appreciate black men. Missing from the picture is Kristofer Johnsson from Sweden, pale, sarcastic, easily freaked out about small things yet funny and reliable as a man is capable of. We had a pact: when I am 40, if we are both still single, we'll get married. The pact, however, is gravely endangered as I found out from facebook that miss Shawna and my future husband are regularly exchanging secret messages. Hmmm :D

"Friends are the family you choose," said the taxi driver from one of them midnight drive home from NERA. I never really appreciate that truth until New York. "You know why they always say 'New York, New York'?", continued the taxi man, "Because everything here is double: you pay double the price, you have double the fun, you are surrounded by double the people but you feel double the loneliness."

So I learned 2 things: appreciate your friends, and, listen to your taxi driver.

New York, New York...