OUSA at Manhattan College

Won Park Koi folded for Marcee while he was vending

After a 7 year dry spell, I finally made my return to NYC for this year's Convention. 

 1st year at the new location, Manhattan College.

I left LAX on a redeye flight Thursday evening and arrived at La Guardia Friday early morning.  Taxied my way to the College without a hitch.

I shared a suite with Won Park and his mom, Maria; and Marcee Raffel.

It was great to see familiar faces, including those I've only known through the magic of the internet and social media.  My one lament is not having the time and opportunity to sit and fold or even chat with everyone there. 

Much of my time was spent on the 4th floor, vending.  Doing that ended up paying for about half the cost of my trip.  I shared a table with Won, who now sells origami jewelry- cranes that he folds himself and has cast into silver and gold. 

I did an hour of volunteer public teaching on Saturday and Sunday.  I didn't do much filming; but you can see a few clips of what I did capture, here:

 If I didn't have to spend time vending, I think I would have enjoyed signing up for more hours teaching to the general public.

I was delighted that the mom of one of my gymnasts and her older sister, who happened to be in NY, came by to visit and see the origami exhibits.

 The campus is nice; but the distance in walking from housing to the Commons to classes was hard on those older and with physical challenges.  Some of the complaints were legitimate grievances; others just have to do with 1st year growing pains in a new location; and personally I think some other griping is just that people love to gripe- there's a natural aversion to change.

I could actually dine on the dorm food all day.  But that's just me.  I have no accounting for taste, when it comes to food.

I only taught one class, which was on Saturday.  The model was Angel Blanco's self-closing box.  It was also selected for a live class, broadcast feed. 

I did not sign up for any classes; nor did I really learn anything new, aside from Arlene teaching me Mancini's Vertigo while hanging out on the 4th floor. 

I have a couple of gymnasts who are into owls and wanted to learn Won Park's barn owl.  He did not bring his crease pattern for it; but stayed up Saturday night to fold me a barn owl 3.0:

Won Park barn owl 3.0

My trip was pretty short and I took a redeye flight out of NY early Monday.  I stayed up all night.  Took a taxi to La Guardia which dropped me off at Terminal B, American Airlines.  This is because when I flew in from LAX, American Airlines and US Airways was combined.  I thought it was a combined merger.  I was wrong.  I needed to be at Terminal C for US Airways.  Well, La Guardia is pretty well closed down that early in the morning, with shuttles only coming alive after 4am.  So I hauled it by foot to Terminal B.  I was told it was a 10-15 minute walk; but that was an overexaggeration. 

Then I had another wait, this time in line for TSA check-in to open up.  Aside from having my hands swiped 3 different times and minor TSA hold-up (good job, agents!), everything went pretty smoothly.  But it just reaffirms my aversion to travel in general, in the post 9/11 era. 

I went practically straight from LAX to work on Monday. 

Photos are here.