The Gatehouse Garden on the corner of 119th Street and Amsterdam Avenue sticks out amid the apartments and campus buildings that surround it—a vibrant community space and green oasis. The garden’s plant beds and red brick paths wind around its namesake: the 19th century Old Croton Aqueduct gatehouse sitting at the center of the lot. A squat granite building covered in foliage, it more resembles a quaint country cottage or medieval fortress than a part of modern Morningside Heights. Now surrounded by plants and chickens, this unassuming structure was once part of New York City’s first water system, a 41-mile-long aqueduct bringing clean water from upstate to New York City.

I visited Morningside Park for the second time in mid-June—one year after I moved into my apartment two blocks away.

I lasted an admirable half hour before I gave in and finally asked, “How many credits did you say that you’re taking?”