CULTURE

CULTURE@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by DANA SUN

The culture editors’ guide to on-campus etiquette

ALEXANDRA CHAN | WSN

Washington Square Park is the center of both NYU and the surrounding Greenwich Village neighborhood. There is a certain culture of etiquette that new students should abide by when out in New York City.

By CULTURE DESK

Hello, NYU students! Congratulations to those of you who are new here, and welcome back to our returning students. We recognize that some of you have never stepped foot on campus before this semester, while others are back from a rather long hiatus. In any case, we could all use a primer on how to act at NYU, and we hope all y’all find our guide useful.

Transportation

New York is known for its infamous subway system. It’s great for daytime use, but expect to wait 20 minutes with the rats and roaches if you’re out past midnight. Don’t be afraid of the buses — they’re often cleaner and quieter than the subway — and take the crosstown buses if you don’t want to walk across the avenues. Yellow taxis are cheaper than Ubers and Lyfts, and we recommend taking them late at night instead of public transportation. If you prefer using your phone to get a ride, the Drivers Cooperative offers a driver-owned ride-hailing app. If you’re planning to take public transportation, leave 20 minutes earlier in case of delays. If you have to walk or take the subway, Citymapper is superior to Google Maps. Citi Bikes are fun because you’re busy trying not to get hit. It’s a great way to see the city; Hudson River Greenway has a long and scenic bike path, and Central Park has wide paths perfect for exploring.

Attire

College is a great place to rebrand yourself. Lots of people dress up the first few weeks of school. Believe me, I’ve tried. But it’s OK to pull up to class with sweatpants, especially at 8 a.m., despite the pressure to show off in the big city. Speaking of rebranding, shopping for second-hand clothing is a great way to ball on a budget. Buffalo Exchange and L Train Vintage are not the only thrift shops in the city. In fact, they’re not even thrift shops. Our personal favorites, though, are The Attic NY, Crossroads Trading Co., Beacon’s Closet and 2nd STREET USA. When washing your newly thrifted clothes in your dorm, keep a close eye on them. Make sure no one takes your drying time. It would be a pain in the butt, especially when it’s the middle of the semester, and it’s 3 a.m. and you’re burnt out. Oh, also, NYU is no longer using Campus Cash. Instead, download the app Hercules CP Mobile to input cash, and select your washer and dryer.

Believe us, we’ve tried.

Dining

We’re lucky to have three on-campus coffee shops, but they are not all created equal. Dunkin’ in New York sucks in general, Peet’s Coffee is OK and Starbucks is the most reliable. As such, Starbucks is popular. If you’re ordering Starbucks before a 9:30 a.m. class, please take one for the team and place your order before 9:15 a.m.. When we all order at 9:15 a.m., we all end up late. Starbucks is also a good place to spend extra Dining Dollars on non-food items like mugs.

In terms of cheap food, dollar pizza, halal cart meals and baconegg-and-cheeses are your new best friends. Joe’s Pizza is overrated and literally 300% more expensive than 2 Bros. — if you can get a slice for $1, why pay $3? Finally, if you have extra meal swipes, you can use an app called NYU Share Meals to donate them to students experiencing food insecurity.

IT

It is common to have non-Stern classes in the basement of the main Stern building on West 4th Street, and this comes with two dangers. First, that building is called Tisch Hall, not to be confused with Tisch School of the Arts around the corner on Broadway. Second, you cannot print in Tisch Hall without a Stern email, so print your assignments before rushing to recitation. Speaking of rushing to print things, the closest printer to 194 Mercer Street is in the library on the top floor of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Bobst is another great resource for students. They boast tech workshops like Research 101: Back to School Basics — which helps you navigate NYU Libraries’ online environment — and Introduction to Git and Github, as well as a huge suite of software resources like Microsoft Suite, video and editing software Final Cut Pro, and data services and analytics tools like MATLAB and Tableau.

Washington Square

Washington Square Park is an essential part of the NYU experience. There’s also free entertainment in every corner for an outdoor moment. That’s that for daytime, but you can’t walk through it when it’s past midnight; the park is closed. And for the millionth time: Don’t walk under the arch or you won’t graduate on time!

For those of you with classes in the Silver building, we kindly advise you to suck it up and take the stairs, especially if your recitation is just a flight away. The elevators are generally packed, and waiting on them will make you late for your expensive elite education.

Curriculum

Heed your adviser’s words and just do your core requirements. Don’t be that senior.

Parks and recreation

Central Park is amazing, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Hudson River Park and Inwood Hill Park are great for pretending you’re in a real park with trees and stuff, while Tompkins Square Park has more of a WSP vibe. We also encourage you to explore outside of Manhattan. Touristy ways to do this include walking across the Brooklyn Bridge (note that it’s deceptively long and breezy) and taking the Staten Island Ferry for a free view of the Statue of Liberty. Enjoy your time off campus, and always carry $20 in cash just in case.

Read this before you kill your succulents

By ALEX TEY

Deputy Managing Editor

Succulents are beautiful plants. From the otherworldly Lapidaria margaretae to the humble aloe, they’re popular for their fascinating leaf patterns, stunning blossoms and charming personalities. Who wouldn’t want one for their dorm or apartment?

They’re also not as indifferent to mistreatment as their reputation lead you to believe. If you keep buying cute succulents at the grocery store that were grown in a sunnier state only for them to repeatedly die on you, you might need to change your approach. Here’s how to do it right.

Light

These are desert plants, not studio apartment plants.

Succulents, broadly speaking, need a lot of light. More light than you can likely provide, in fact. If you’re stuck in a tiny dorm room or New York City bedroom with just one window that doesn’t even face south, don’t bother — your succs will suffer.

When plants don’t get enough light, they undergo a process called etiolation. Etiolating succulents shrink their leaves and stretch out their stems, which become elongated and feeble, in search of light. Neither of these things is good for the plant and more or less defeats the visual appeal of keeping succulents anyway.

You probably bought an Echeveria because you thought the rosette was so colorful and cute, right? It’s not going to look so cute when its stem is straining for light that it’ll never reach and its vibrant leaves fade to a feeble, pale green because you did the botanical equivalent of raising a Samoyed in Arizona.

Growing healthy light-hungry succulents in this climate typically requires grow lights. If you decide to fully commit and buy some, I respect your dedication — just don’t blame me if the Resource Center finds that package suspicious. I recommend just getting plants that don’t need as much light as, say, a Lithops.

Watering

Yes, succulents do need water. No, not that much water.

By far the most common way to kill a succulent is by overwatering it. Succulents are very sensitive to excessive watering, as they’re susceptible to root rot. When there’s too much water in the soil, whether from overwatering or insufficient drainage, the plant decays from the roots up. It’s often too late to save it by the time you notice.

Don’t water your succulents like you would for your other houseplants. Depending on the species and climate, succulents like to be watered from once every two weeks to once every two months. You can ask your plant if it wants water by gently squishing a leaf between two fingers. The leaves are where succulents store water, so if the leaves squish, it means the leaves aren’t full of water and the plant will want water soon.

It’s very easy to kill a succulent by overwatering it, and it’s very difficult to kill one from underwatering it. Err on the side of caution and don’t water your succulents all the time just so you can feel like you can take care of something in your life.

On the other hand, it’s a common misconception that succulents don’t need to be watered. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people saying that they just mist their succulents with a spray bottle because they don’t want to overwater them. Yes, overwatering kills succulents, but lightly dusting the plant in a fine mist that evaporates in five minutes doesn’t do them a whole lot of good either.

It doesn’t mist in the Sonoran Desert. It just doesn’t. It’s really dry for a long time, and then there’s a torrential rainstorm. Simulate that for your succulent by watering it deeply every few weeks — soak all of the soil in the pot, and let it drain fully. You do have drainage holes, right?

Planting

You had better have drainage.

You cannot grow a succulent in a completely sealed pot. Don’t even think about a glass jar, and that terrarium is a death trap.

And no, you cannot put charcoal or rocks at the bottom for drainage. Think about that for just a second. No matter what you have down there, there is no movement if the water is not going to be draining to anywhere.

If you have drainage holes, those kinds of substrates will help the water drain out of them better. But without anywhere for the water to flow through, it doesn’t matter what you have at the bottom of your pot — rocks, gravel, charcoal, excuses, whatever — it’s not going to change the fact that the water has nowhere to go.

Once you’re cured of terrarium fever, you can start thinking about the soil you’ll grow your succulents in. Let’s set down that political compass quiz and look at the soil triangle instead.

Like the political compass, the left side of the soil triangle is the good one. Clay and silt retain water well. You want a sandier soil where relatively little water is retained by relatively small amounts of organic matter. Succulents want coarse soil that drains quickly and doesn’t hold a lot of water.

You want coarse dirt with not a lot of organic matter and a lot of inorganic matter — less beautiful dense brown soil, more gritty substrates like fine gravel and bark shavings. You wouldn’t keep a freshwater fish in a saltwater aquarium, so don’t try to raise a desert plant in a tropical environment.

Store-bought succulent mix is usually fine. Try to pick one that’s as coarse as possible, though, since they’re usually a little on the wetter side.

Recommendations

Now that I’ve intimidated you into thinking that you need a Ph.D. in botany and a government-issued license to buy any kind of succulent, here are a few forgiving options that are forgiving to beginners.

Jade plant

Crassula ovata

These are more or less indestructible. They tolerate less careful watering than most succulents and do just fine with suboptimal light. The leaves do turn pretty shades of red and orange with full sun, but they don’t mind partial shade. I have heard of one that survived in a closed closet for months. They also multiply — larger jades will self-prune, dropping clusters of leaves that can be propagated into another jade plant. Stick the stem in some soil, water it occasionally and let the meristem cells do the rest of the work of putting out roots.

The jade plant’s cousins in the genus Crassula are some of my personal favorites — check out Crassula tetragona, C. perforata and C. capitella.

String of pearls

Senecio rowleyanus

This is a unique succulent that produces dangling vines of green orbs. Old, well-cared-for specimens come to resemble a botanical bead curtain. They’re healthiest with more sun, but they can do well on a windowsill. In a hanging planter, they can be a striking accent for a window alcove.

Aloe vera

Aloe vera

Who could forget aloe vera? They’re resilient, elegant and their leaves are just so juicy. Though they prefer more sun, they tolerate lower light well and are forgiving when it comes to watering. You can even harvest the leaves off of a larger plant for the gel’s health benefits.

With patience and care, an aloe will occasionally send up a flower stalk, typically in summer. Watching an aloe gradually put forth a stem and seeing the buds unfold into gorgeous red blossoms will make you feel like a proud plant parent.

Succulents aren’t as easy to take care of as you might have been led to believe, but they’re also not that easy to kill. If you do manage to kill one, remember: It’s just a plant. They’re not sentient. It’s not a big deal if you accidentally kill one. I won’t judge you — at least not to your face.

Contact Alex Tey at atey@nyunews.com