50 Camouflaged Hotel Brands

As I walk back to my dorm to discard my backpack and walk towards RPCC to have dinner, I felt like I've been here for so long. I snapped back into reality when Natalie called me out in the group of people hovering over the Mongolian Grill. Geez, I guess being in class for eight hours does make you fall into you unconscious mind for a second. Well, today's class ended with me realizing that 70% of all hotels in America is affiliated with a brand of some sort.

Today started with me waking up at 7:30AM. My phone decided to turn off in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and so the alarm that was suppose to go off at 6:30AM was disabled. My roommate's alarm rang at 7:20AM and that was what woke me up. I was frantically brushing my teeth (thank god there's a sink in my room) and grabbing whatever was on top of my suitcase pile to wear. I knew a day like this would come, but I never knew that this tragic situation would exhibit on the second day of class. I think I broke my previous record for getting ready within a period of time. Last time it was catching a flight that had five minutes left for passengers to board. This time I got ready in three minutes and was rushing to the RPCC to grab some breakfast. I knew breakfast should take more time than checking my outfit because:

1) I love food.

2) Not eating breakfast makes my brain unfunctional.

3) Going to Reneta and Mark's course with a useless brain is probably not a good idea.

After finishing my fifteen minute breakfast, I was glad to see Katelyn and Emma still finishing their breakfast. Once I got my scrambled eggs and chocolate danish, I headed over towards them and sat down to attack my food within fifteen minutes. All went well with devouring everyone on my plate. At 8:00AM, Emma and I walked together to our class. Now I was on schedule with full eight hours of sleep and a few minutes to spare, although I hope next time this won't happen again.

Once the clock struck eight-thirty, Mark immediately starts his unique way of taking role; by groups. My group was present and when the professor called out Group 3A, four hands shot up in the air willingly. The first three hours of lecture let me familiarize myself with what Word 2013 has to offer excluding the basic cut, copy, and paste techniques. We orally pledged that we shall never be Microsoft's female dog ever again. I thought that was the weirdest pledge I've ever done in my life. But hey, it released class tension and before I knew it, it was lunchtime. Our professors previously mentioned that you must communicate within your group and to enforce that, they will send TA's to our dining hall and observe if we were, in fact, sitting alongside our teammates. I thought that was really creepy. Why would you spy on us even during lunchtime? But after thinking about it for some time, I realize this was the most effective way for us as a group to get together and discuss class related topics. 

After the first lunch with my group, we were directed to the lab to receive instructions on how to physically create a memo from scratch. I enraptured by the random texts that popped up when I typed, "=rand(4,3)" on a blank document. At two, Mark was done with his lecture for Word 2013, so we once again headed back to the large lecture room and started discussing about hotel brands and its affiliations. I who can count with my fingers, how many hotels I've been to, was completely lost when the Powerpoint presentation reached the fifty major brands. Everyone was responding with the correct brand affiliation as Reneta points to the logo with her flaming red lazor. I think I'm one of the few that have not stayed in hotels on par with Four Seasons. While everyone was excited about naming those corporations, I was busy jotting down notes so next time I'll be included in the excitement.

Mandatory study hall hours are from four to six, so between the end of the lecture and the start of the study hall, I went to find a high caffeine drink. But thirty minutes passed by so fast that I just had enough time to find the building. Our group was once again called for role and all four hands shot up exhaustingly. We put the finishing touches on our group norms memo sheet and turned it in to Clayton (one of the many TA's). By the time we finished with most of our assignments, it was six and everyone was hurrying outside to eat dinner at RPCC. I was also in a hurry to go because today was Carla's birthday! Mr. Chan-Law had a mini surprise for Carla at 6:30PM so everyone was instructed to be there. When Carla came back to the table with her food, there was an ice cream cake next to where she sat. Our cohort was snapping photos of her celebrating her 17th birthday at Cornell.

Carla with her ice-cream birthday cake!

This laborious day comes to an end when I check in at eleven. But before that, I have been working diligently and quietly with Natalie at our dorm hall's Unit One study lounge. I was too lonely in my room and Natalie's neighbor was being disruptive so we ventured out to find a peaceful working environment. Natalie and I stopped by the Unit Two study lounge but only to find twenty people laughing and giggling there so we took ourselves one floor down and arrived at the air conditioned Unit One study lounge. This feels great to be working on our classes with someone. We aren't necessarily talking as we type our blogs, but the feeling of someone being next to you is nice. I think I will do this more often if Natalie likes the environment we're working in right now. I mean, I like it!

Myself and Natalie posing...weirdly.