Home, sweet, home!

This morning, I could not believe I was leaving Cornell. This whole experience happened so quickly. Granted, I was homesick up until I returned home, but I still had an amazing time over the past four weeks and a part of me didn't want it to end. 

My RCA, Bella, & I

At 7:30 AM I prepared for the rest of the day. My check-out was schedule for 8:50 AM and I had to get ready for graduation and vacuum my room before then.  I packed up all of my belongings and checked my room over and over again to see if I was forgetting anything. I even attempted to do my makeup and once again... I failed. Anyways, I slipped on my dress, said farewells to my roommate and my room (I get emotionally attached to inanimate objects) and started off to the building where my class is. 

As I've said, I was chosen to speak on behalf of my class to attendants of graduation. I started feeling a little nervous, but before long we were shuffling in to the auditorium to the tune of Pomp and Circumstances. After three other group speakers/presentations, it was my friend, Tasha and I's turn. I've attached a clip of our skit here rather than try to explain it to you: 

My wonderful professors & I

Cornell ice cream!

Lunch at  the Statler Hotel

I'm honored to have been chosen. To me, being asked to speak at graduation is recognition of my dedication. Plus, I got to be myself: charming and hilarious... On a more serious note, our TAs put together a short video collage covering the past three weeks. It made me tear up a bit because the class went by so fast and I'm going to miss all of my new friends! After Mark quoted a "famous dead philosopher" and said a few last words, I took pictures with everyone--even with my professors. As sad I was to be leaving, I was ready to go home. My cohort ate our last meal together at Banfi in the Statler Hotel. I order salmon with quinoa. It was delicious. We usually get dessert after our meals, so we went searching for the Cornell Dairy Bar. We did not expect it to be so far away, but it was worth it. The ice cream was good. It was the best ice cream I've had on this trip besides RPCC's soft serve ice cream. We walked back to the car and off we went to the airport. 

Alli & I after graduation

At the airport I ran into my roommate and Alli. We all had the same flight to Philadelphia. Alli and I found out we actually had two flights together, the flight to Philadelphia and the flight to SFO. The plane ride was terrible--for me anyways. There was a lot of turbulence and it didn't help that the flight attendant looked scared to death. I figured her job was to keep us calm. She just made me paranoid. 

We made it to Philadelphia in one piece. I said my last goodbye to Elizabeth. Then my cohort and I (including our honorary cohort member, Alli) went to terminal B5. Mr. Chan-Law told us we could buy food to go, so I got Subway. I bought a Starbucks Cool Lime Refresher, too. While I was in line at Starbucks a woman came up to me. Her English wasn't very good, but I figured out that she wanted to borrow my phone. Surprisingly, when she was calling, she spoke fluent French. I've never actually met a French person before, so that was cool. 

Home, here I come...

We finally boarded the plane around 6:00 PM eastern time, but we didn't take off for about 30 minutes. On the flight, Sue, Natalie, and I filled out our questionnaire for ILC. I got to about question 50, but they reached question 80. Anyway, my computer battery was running low, so I had to stop being productive, unfortunately. We chatted for a few hours. We were rudely told to be quiet at one point. After that we decided to try to sleep. I unfortunately did not succeed. Instead, I completed a sudoku puzzle. 

Finally, at 9:15 PM we landed at SFO. I was greeted my family, dressed in A's gear from head to toe. I missed them so much. It was such a relief to see them! Then I was pleasantly surprised to find my boyfriend come around the corner with, not one, but two dozen roses. They were beautiful! We left the airport exuberant, ready for some celebratory dessert, but as we drove home, we were rear-ended. Thankfully, no one was hurt. It was a small jolt, but it was enough to shake me up a bit. What a welcome home...

After dishing out souvenirs and stopping for a quick late night snack, I settled back into my house. I was greeted by my two dogs, who seem to remember me. I'm exhausted. All I can say is, I am finally home...home, sweet, home.