Nature at its Best

Today had a much more relaxed start as opposed to yesterday and all of last week. After showering in the shared bathroom facilities, we headed for lunch at 10:30 AM. I feel like dorm food is already getting boring and it's only the start. I will have to cope with this before I get to go home and enjoy some of my mom's fantastic food.

My roommate Ying and I headed to the Cornell Bookstore only to realize that it's closed on Sundays. However, we had absolutely no regrets because we were able to tour Central Campus during this time. We got ourselves more accustomed to the environment around us as this is the place we'll be staying for three weeks. We walked by huge buildings surrounded by trees and grass. Just across the bookstore, there it stood. It was magnificent both in size and quality. Known as the symbol of Cornell, the Clock Tower boasted a loud noise to reassure its existence.

On our way.

Finally! You guys meet my roommate!

The beauty of the campus is just not portrayed properly through words or pictures. You have to come here to experience it. Luscious grass, swaying trees, fidgety squirrels, archaic buildings. Wow. I simply can't ask for more. While I was in awe of the campus's beauty, I realized that this campus is located primarily on a hill and therefore, it is quite isolated. Though the campus itself is quite far from major cities, the community here is as close-knit as it possibly gets. The staff, students, and faculty are so courteous and respectful of everyone surrounding them. In fact, Cornell University reminds me of a speech I read during my history class. It was a "City on a Hill" by John Winthrop, colonial governor of early Massachusetts. In that speech, Winthrop mentions that Massachusetts should remain a perfect model city, a city everyone may look up to. Similarly, Cornell is that city Winthrop describes. I've only spent two days here and I'm already loving it. It's as perfect as it can get and with such great people encompassing this university, of course it's a model community!

I managed to take many pictures of Central Campus. Feel free to indulge yourself in the beauty of the campus through this Google Slideshow.

Following this adventure around campus, we headed to the scavenger hunt that was planned for us. The term scavenger hunt was definitely misleading. It simply was a two hour event planned to get to know each other. We first played had a tournament of Rock, Papers, Scissors and I'm happy to say that I won this tournament! This was really funny because I generally never win Rock, Paper, Scissors. I guess Ithaca has some magic. Other games we played was tentacle tag and Assassin, which is a kind of silent tag. Then, we formed two circles. A larger circle formed around a smaller circle. We would introduce ourselves to the person standing in front of us and the outer circle would rotate and we would discuss a new question every time.
Some of the questions given to us to discuss included...
- What is your favorite animal, movie?
- What program will you be taking?
- How did you spend your previous summer?
- What colleges are you looking into?
Out of all the activities, this was the most fun because just within a few minutes, I had traveled around the world. I met people from Argentina, the Caribbeans, Hong Kong, and Australia. I've never seen such a diverse place and if I had stayed in Hercules, CA, then I surely wouldn't have received this exposure.

Risleyites from L to R: Ying, me, Nora

After eating dinner, we headed to the activities fair located in the same building as our dining hall. For a campus as large as Cornell's, I would've expected more activities to enroll in during the summer. However, though the quantity of activities was small, it will do for three weeks. Some activities they offered include crochet, talent show, leadership, yearbook, etc. I signed up for yoga as it had caught my eye in recent times. Something is just so inviting about yoga. I don't know if it's whether the peace of the mind that it offers or the less strenuous work out. Nonetheless, I signed up and I can't wait to try something new.

It wasn't as crowded as expected.

Tomorrow will be the first day of class and I seriously can't wait to go. But until then, it's a goodbye and don't forget to check out tomorrow's blog to find out how my first day of class was.