Saturday, June 26, 2010

Big Red Welcomes Us With Open Arms

Big Red Welcomes Us With Open Arms

Today was the day that everyone has been waiting for. We finally made it to Cornell and it is great. But I’ll get into details about the campus and our experience later in the blog. Right now, our morning deserves some attention. Yesterday we had to wait in the lobby before we could begin our trip to Rochester. We waited for Chris and Andrew Gonzales and gave them a hard time about it, just for fun. Today it was my room’s turn. Andrew Woo and I stayed up late (until about 1:30 AM) writing our blogs so we were pretty tired by the time we finally turned in. This did not help us the next morning. For one thing, our alarm did not even go off, so we slept in (to say the least). All I know is that I was awakened by Andrew (Gonzales) and he was right in front of my face wanting to know why I was still in bed. It was 8:30 and we were supposed to be at breakfast by 8:00. We dressed and packed our suitcases in a panic. We didn’t want to get in trouble for being half an hour late. Luckily we didn’t because it was only breakfast. Only our pride was hurt. We ate breakfast and then hit the road.

Our trip to Ithaca seemed to last an eternity. Maybe it was because of my anticipation for arriving or just how tired I was, but the car ride almost seemed as long as the ride from Hartford to Syracuse (which as you remember took four hours). Anyway, I had to ride through a desolate land of farming, gas stations and occasional fast food stops as I thought about what the campus would look like. I had been told by Doug Mitarotunda (I could be spelling that wrong and I apologize if I am) that as you enter a certain radius of Cornell, the light would change and that things would become dazzlingly beautiful. Unfortunately, today was extremely overcast and there was not much light at all. Regardless, the campus came into full view and I was blown away.

We pulled into the parking lot in front of Mary Donlon residential hall and unpacked the car. We then checked in and went up to our respective rooms. My roommate had not shown up yet (and still hasn’t) so I put my luggage in my closet and immediately opened my windows and put my fan on full blast. I went down to see Andrew Woo and I met his roommate Greg. This was the most time I spent in the dorm the entire day. We went to a late lunch as a group (the seven of us) and we met a lot of new people, such as Ben and Katy. They are both in the Freedom and Justice Course as well. We also met a F&J’er named Antony. He is from Hong Kong and he spoke Cantonese with Dyana. It was quite interesting.

After that we attended a welcoming ceremony in a gigantic lecture hall. There were over a thousand people there, including parents and students. We were led out to meet Professor Kramnick after the orientation was complete. He gave us an introduction in what we would cover in the course and when we would cover it. Professor Kramnick reminds me of a teacher I had in middle school (Mr. Stelle) because he is informative, but seems like he has a good sense of humor. It was fun meeting him after the introduction.

Afterwards we (Beilul, the Andrews, Chris and I) went to dinner and, soon after, began a mini-tour of one section of the campus. We didn’t feel like waiting in the seemingly endless line to get ice cream so we decided to take advantage of the situation. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me at the time (just like the rest of the day). I would have loved to snap pictures of the campus. The campus is enormous and I look forward to exploring it over the coming weeks.

The night was pretty boring after that. We had to attend an RCA meeting on our floors and go over rules. That lasted for an hour and a half! It was so boring! Finally it ended and I was able to begin typing this blog. Today was a great day and I really think the next three weeks are going to be great. I can’t wait to start class on Monday. Until tomorrow, I’m signing off.

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