in the heights book errors- Page 2

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:01pm

I just thought that she was asleep.

Anakela: Yeah, also I don't get why she changed her mind just because Usnavi asked her. Earlier she said she didn't want to be a supporter of Vanessa's mother's habit.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:04pm

I thought the idea there was that she wouldn't give Vanessa money for her current apartment because she would be supporting Vanessa's mother, whereas if she cosigns Vanessa's new lease, she'll be helping Vanessa get out of that environment with her mother, which is sort of the opposite of supporting her habit.

[EnWashingtonHeights]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:04pm

Well Usnavi got a lot of money from Abeaula (SP?) so maybe he could have gave a substantial AMT to Danela
Updated On: 12/17/08 at 05:04 PM

[Anakela]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:04pm

The 3am flight has always bothered me. The lyric is "Nina flew in at 3am last night"...Aren't her parents a little worried about her wherabouts? If she got into NYC at 3am, by the time they are singing that song it has to be earliest in my estimation 7 am, so where has she been for four hours?

*shrug* I just figured she was sleeping it off in her parents' apartment all morning, and that's why she's not part of the morning commute of In the Heights, and we don't see her until just before Breathe ("Nina Rosario, what is up?" "Jet lag, I haven't slept all night...")

Have I mentioned that I kinda love this thread? :)

(edit to quote what I was responding to.)
Updated On: 12/17/08 at 05:04 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:07pm

Me too. We should make one for Legally Blonde; that show's book has holes a mile long.

I thought that earlier Vanessa did ask Daniela for help with her lease, though. But I don't have a copy of the script or anything so I'd have to check that.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:08pm

If she says she hasn't slept, why would you assume that she is asleep?

It's a grammar issue: "I haven't slept" means "I still have not gotten any sleep." If she had said "I hadn't slept all night," that could mean "I didn't sleep all night, so I slept all morning."

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:13pm

Or she tried to sleep but couldn't fall asleep due to jet lag, yet still stayed in bed.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:16pm

That could work, I suppose.

[Anakela]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:25pm

threadjack-

We should make one for Legally Blonde; that show's book has holes a mile long.

why do I get the feeling that y'all would commiserate with me over things like the calendar showing Thanksgiving on the wrong day, and Elle's door opening on the wrong side and such? love it.

/threadjack

I understand Daniela's cosigning, (as versus giving money that Vanessa's mother would probably just drink away or something), but my thing is just with (most) NY apartments your guarantor has to have an income of 80 times your monthly rent, and with rents in the West Village, is Daniela's cosigning going to be enough to get Vanessa into a place?

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:35pm

I never thought about it because, not living in NYC, I don't know how much it costs to live in that area. But if it's as expensive as you say, yeah, I can see the problem.

And, haha, I certainly would! I have sooooo many grievances about LB, like why is Emmett a TA if he's a licensed lawyer, and why does Kate know all of the Harvard Law entrance statistics by heart.

Updated On: 12/17/08 at 05:35 PM

[jordangirl]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 5:37pm

I've been in and out all day so just now catching up. Most things have been covered, but...

- would Kevin's bank even have been *open* on the 3rd of July, for him to be able to sell his building?

Unless that's a Sunday (or Saturday for some banks), why wouldn't it be? It's the 4th that they're closed on.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:18pm

"How is Vanessa able to cut hair when she's only 19 years old?"

I may be wrong, but is there really an age minimum on who can get their cosmetic license to cut hair...? Nineteen actually seems like a reasonable age to me, and I actually know of people from where I grew up who were licensed to cut hair by a young age.

Also, regarding the question on why can't Nina just go to a cheaper university...I did not see the musical, but didn't she go to Stamford for a while? I mean, Stamford is a pretty prestigious college and that is why she chose to play it by ear and struggle to pay for Stamford. A lot of people will choose to go to the nationally renowned university over a cheaper not-so-great alternative. Just a thought.

[insertclevernamehere]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:22pm

I always wondered why Nina didn't go to a school closer to home like Colombia or even Harvard.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:32pm

Well, did she get in those first of all? Maybe she wanted to go across the country. I wouldn't say Nina's choice of school is as big of a plot hole as people think.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:43pm

See, I understand her going to Stanford at first because she had a scholarship. However, once she lost the scholarship, why not transfer to a cheaper university? I mean, if she wants to stay in CA, both UCLA and UC Irvine are good schools and charge less for tuition.

Like I said, Stanford won't do her much good if her GPA is so low because she's too busy working to study.

Updated On: 12/17/08 at 06:43 PM

[insertclevernamehere]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:45pm

Haha, obviously if you get into a school like Stanford, you just go, no questions asked. But going to college in a different part of the country is expensive. I'm from Boston but go to college in Chicago, and I have to work more hours in order to take care of living expensives compared to my high school friends who stayed in Boston. That's why I wondered why she didn't just go to one of the amazing schools nearby.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:56pm

While yes, it would have made sense, think about Nina and how she views herself. How everyone in the neighborhood sees her. She talks (well, sings) about the expectations she felt they had for her. That can be powerful ~ feeling like others expect you to be this big hero who's succeeding all the time. The thought of coming back and letting everyone down (or feeling like you are) was probably as terrifying as anything Nina had ever felt, and it was just easier to keep up the lie until she couldn't anymore.

[theminutepast]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:15pm

I'm so glad I found this thread! I had a lot of questions, too. Nina says her scholarship only covered a portion of tuition. She would have seen her financial aid and known exactly how much the scholarship would cover before leaving for Stanford. I find it difficult to believe that an intelligent girl like Nina who is the first to go to college from her family wouldn't analyze the in's and out's of her financial aid before leaving.

After seeing the show, I wondered why Nina and her parents didn't take out loans to cover the remaining amount. The majority of students take out a loan to cover expenses. The only answer I came up with was that maybe her parents have poor credit (because their business is failing), and so she wasn't able to obtain loans or enough loans to cover all the expenses. Private loans for people with no existing credit have horrifying interest rates of up to 18 percent.

I also assumed Nina was asleep, but for the sake of clarity they should change that line where she says she wasn't sleeping.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:20pm

ina says her scholarship only covered a portion of tuition. She would have seen her financial aid and known exactly how much the scholarship would cover before leaving for Stanford. I find it difficult to believe that an intelligent girl like Nina who is the first to go to college from her family wouldn't analyze the in's and out's of her financial aid before leaving.

I find it hard to believe she wouldn't have been able to do the math, but it's not so hard to believe that a young girl who is about to be the first in her family to go to college, (and a very prestigious university at that), might be willing to overlook that.

[theminutepast]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:29pm

My boyfriend is a first generation student who came from a low-income family. Whenever financial aid application and award season came around, he always was panicking over whether he would have enough to cover tuition. Maybe Nina is just immature and didn't do the math, but I would be surprised. It says she applied to "every scholarship" so she must have been aware of financial aid issues. Anyway, my two cents.

Updated On: 12/17/08 at 07:29 PM

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:35pm

I get what you're saying. I didn't make my point too clearly. What I was thinking is that she may have been... overly optimistic. She could have thought that the scholarship and one job would cover it,a dn then gotten in over her head when she got there.

[theminutepast]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:37pm

Oh, yeah. I think that's what the book suggests happened.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:45pm

Agreed. And a lot of people underestimate the cost of books, supplies, and just life in general even if you don't party all the time.

As far as financial aid, since Kevin owned the business, that would figure into the assets and could make her ineligible for some standard financial aid. It happens more than you know. The cut off for exclusions is not THAT high. Primary reason I've said if I ever win the lottery (like a big one, not something small) I want to set up a trust at my alma mater for students who are in situations like that ~ they fall in between the margins for receiving financial aid and may not qualify for the tip top scholarships.

Updated On: 12/17/08 at 07:45 PM

[theminutepast]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:47pm

So even a struggling business is considered an asset?

The financial aid system is a mess. My college bases all my financial aid off my stepfather's income, someone who's never given me a dime in my life. There are a lot of students who fall through the cracks.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:52pm

I don't know all the ins and outs, but it could be. Depends on what all they ask for. My parents dealt with filling out all those forms. I do know that my second year was very tight financially because we moved and even though every bit of the money my parents got off the sale of our old house went directly into the purchase of our new one, it was counted as income and totally screwed me over.

There definitely are a lot of students who fall in the financial aid cracks. It's definitely very sad.