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.

Ad Fin

Goodbye, Room 4244.

Today I was first awakened by voices at five, which I took to be my roommate checking out. However, I went back to sleep without even opening my eyes, so we'll never know for sure. I got up for real at eight to do last-day chores like taking the garbage and recycling out, vacuuming, stripping the bed, etc., and had time for a quick final breakfast in RPCC before I went down to be officially checked out. One of the North Balch RCAs came to my room, looked for new damage, ensured that my keys were in the appropriate envelope to be handed in, and escorted me to the elevator with my luggage. 

Soon Mr. Chan-Law picked me up, and once all of the Freedom and Justice cohort had been collected we went to the airport to check our suitcases. I'd added my textbooks into my suitcase as well as the four mugs I bought, so it was a relief to see that the weight was fifty pounds exactly. 

With our suitcases taken care of, we went back to campus to pick up Katelyn and Jun from their graduation ceremony, and then went to eat lunch at the Statler. I had lentil soup, which was delicious, followed by a mixed green salad, which was equally so. We decided against dessert at the hotel, and instead walked to the Dairy Bar for our last Cornell ice cream. My vanilla with large chocolate and cherry bits was fantastic. 

After the Dairy Bar, we went to the airport, checked Katelyn and Jun's luggage, passed through security, and eventually boarded our tiny plane. For the duration of the hour-long flight to Philadelphia, I used my jacket to tie my head against the back of the seat. My cohort was amused, but I slept without getting a crick in my neck. 

Goodbye, Ithaca.

In Philadelphia we had an hour and a half before our flight to SFO, so we went and stood in long lines at the food court for an early dinner. I had a six-inch flatbread Subway sandwich with a cheese omelette inside, which was on the salty side but otherwise not bad. 

photo cred: Katelyn

Our flight started boarding rather later than was expected, but eventually we were seated and ready to go. I had an aisle seat on the left side of the plane, with Sue on my left and Katelyn with the window seat. For the first piece of the flight, we three worked industriously on the post mortem evaluation of Don's. Eventually my laptop died, and I turned to reading for a while, then games on my itouch, then listening to music, then attempted sleep. It was a boring six hours, to say the least. 

Once we finally arrived, we met our families in the baggage claim. My mom, dad, and one of my sisters came for me (my brother had an injury and my other sister was making us a cake). It was lovely to see them, although by then all I could think about was getting home, blogging, and sleeping. The drive home was long, but it was fun to get there and pull out the souvenirs I'd bought them. I regained some energy, but by the time we'd finished eating cake, it was almost three in the morning in Cornell time, and I was quite ready to bang out a blog and then hit the hay. 

Back to My Own Bed

Today I managed to wake up at 7:00 despite the fact that I fell asleep at 1:00 AM last night. I didn't need to be up that early since my check out time wasn't until 9:45 but I thought I'd get up just to have an early start. I did my last-minute packing, took a shower, finished cleaning my side of the room and even helped my roommate out before here check-out at 8:00. 

Saying good-bye to Morgan :(

Packing on the way home is a struggle since there are a lot of small things we have to make sure to pack, like toiletries, underwear, and perhaps small electronics. However, I managed to pack everything and my bags were set by the time I checked out. I said my good-byes to friends that I saw on the way out then Kevin and I loaded our things onto the car then went to check in our bags, along with Natalie and Sue.

By the time we had come back, Katelyn and Jun had finished their graduation ceremony so we all went to the Statler Hotel to eat lunch. I can definitely say that although the hotel isn't necessarily the nicest on the outside, on the inside is perhaps the most beautiful hotel I have ever been to. I took a picture of the lobby with the camera but sadly a penny got stuck in my memory card drive and it is not reading my memory card anymore, so I'll have to see if I can fix it. I'm glad I took pictures with my phone today as well, though!

For lunch, I started off with Moroccan lentils (even though the restaurant was Italian) and they reminded me of my dad's. Eating those lentils made me miss home a bit but at the same time I was happy because they tasted really good. For my main entree I had crespelles (Italian crepes) filled with quinoa and beans. Although they were lacking in flavor, I greatly enjoyed the crespelles and would definitely have them again. For desert, we went to the Cornell Dairy Barn and each of us had our own ice cream. We walked far to get there, but it was worth it!

Crespelles with tomatoes and watercress.

Once we had finished our ice cream, we made our way to the airport. We had already checked in so all that was left was security. We had about 45 minutes of spare time once we were in the security gate, so I took advantage and charged my electronics. A lot of Summer College students were on this flight to Philadelphia, including Katelyn's roommate Elizabeth and friend Alli. Elizabeth was going to transfer to Boston but Alli would be with us until San Francisco.

Getting ice cream at the Dairy Bar.

The flight to Philadelphia was nice, especially because I had no one sitting next to me and I managed to fall asleep for pretty much the whole ride. Once we got to Philadelphia, we directly went to our next gate and I was in charge of the bags while everyone got Subway. I ordered a foot-long but was surprised to see that it was very thin, and didn't fill me up as much as I thought I would. It got me full, but it was strange that I could eat a whole foot-long in one sitting.

After eating, it was time to board the plane to San Francisco (finally!). We all got on and everyone sat down in their seats. All of the cohort sat in one row together, except for me, but I didn't mind because I had a window seat. The woman sitting next to me was a bit grumpy at first because the man sitting next to her kept moving her stuff but then she put on her headphones and watched Chinese shows for the rest of the flight. She couldn't stop giggling and I couldn't help but watch along with her every once in a while, even though I couldn't hear or understand what was going on.

Our small plane to Philadelphia.

The flight was about 5 hours long and I actually didn't get tired, but by the end of the flight I had gotten a bit antsy and needed to get out of the plane. When the pilot finally announced that we were descending, I could not be more happy. 

On our way to San Francisco.

As soon as we landed, I hopped out of my seat, grabbed my backpack and carry-on, then raced off of the plane (safely). When we had all gotten off of the plane, we went straight to the baggage claim. My mom and brother were already waiting for me and it was so nice to finally see them. After about 20 minutes, I got my luggage and it was time to go home. I could not be happier to see my family :) 

Farewell to Cornell

The Risley Trio (L to R): Nora, Ying, and Me

Three weeks ago, I walked into Cornell with mixed feelings. I was excited for my class and to learn something new, but at the same time, I was nervous for finding my way through campus and making new friends. Now that Summer College is over, it's rather disappointing to leave everything behind. Luckily, the memories and connections I've made will always travel with me. Since I'm back home, I'm definitely missing Cornell, but now, (after practically living on my own for three weeks) I can go home with increased confidence and maturity.

Because all of us were parting ways really soon, my roommate Ying, my floor-mate Nora, and I went for our last breakfast together. I finally got to try out the waffle machine and I made my own waffles for breakfast! After taking pictures with my dorm friends and others I've met through class, it was time to head to the airport once I completed check-out in my room.

Though I was extremely nervous since I thought my luggage would weigh more than 50 pounds, it turned out to be alright. In fact, my check-in baggage was only 44.5 pounds. An achievement indeed.

The scrumptious sandwich 

After dropping off our check-in baggage at the airport, we went to the Statler Hotel for lunch. This certainly had to be the day with the best food. Being a vegetarian, it can be quite hard to order food as the options are limited. Today however, I ordered a mixed greens salad. And every piece of lettuce was coated with the perfectly crafted dressing. This was hands-down the best salad I've had on this trip. For my entree, I decided to go with my vegetable trend and stuck with an avocado sandwich. I ordered this sandwich as it brought me back home. My mom would make me this sandwich for lunch at times and tasting this in Ithaca made me feel quite excited to go back home.

The delicious salad

The orange cream float

A selfie on the flight

For dessert, my cohort was extremely determined to try out Dairy Bar (a Cornell factory that makes its own ice cream) So we walked and walked in the humid Cornell weather until we finally arrived at a building which had a milk bottle statue in the front. I ordered the orange cream float. Basically, it is only vanilla ice cream with orange soda. But this is my all time favorite. And if you know me well, then it is quite apparent that I love anything orange-related.

After the rather long time traveling, I was finally able to see my parents. And trust me, this was way more special than discovering the orange cream float at Dairy Bar. It was just so amazing to see the priceless smiles on their faces again. And what can I say, I'm happy to be home.

Time Would Found an End for Any Person in Any Study

The one and only Professor Kramnick and I.

I didn't really sleep that well last night, despite it already being test time right around the bend. I could even say that I didn't get any sleep because my body felt so thrashed. Either way, while walking to Professor Kramnick's last school day, I met up with Selvyn, a fellow classmate and conversed with him about final we were about to take today. He and I were both nervous and confident about the final at the same time.

As for the final itself, the ambiance was very relaxed and calm as everyone was ready to finish with their academics at Cornell. It's not because no one liked the learning experience, it was just the idea of completing it, picking up your certificate, taking a selfie with Professor Kramnick and saying that you finished a literal undergraduate course at Cornell for credits is awesome. The final in my opinion was not bad at all. The questions were ridiculously easy (if you studied), although the time constraint for some (like myself) was killer. It was a 2 hour, + 10 minute beforehand planning and reading section. After the 2 hours of testing that flew by like a summer breeze we all began to get anxious. Why were we becoming so anxious? Well simply said, it's because so many of us are restless when idle.

Our discussion group with Vijay wearing shades, center left.

When the testing time allotted expired, we all went to Professor Kramnick for pictures. I specifically saved my special "philosoraptor" shirt for this very occasion. He asked me what my shirt was and I responded by saying, "It's a very popular meme" and he said, "Oh, I had to learn about those the hard way", how he had to learn about them the hard way is beyond me. We began to talk about the Bay Area and he said he would be visiting around the dates of March 4th/5th, he said "Bring word to Charles Ramsey that if he asks again, I wouldn't mind speaking in your district again." I told him alright "I will bring word", and he remarked "Yes bring word." A funny thing was that he remembers our school, and specifically the "orange columns", which are actually drainage systems attached to our building columns. Overall, he seemed very delighted.

Last meal at Trillium, it was fried fish, a REALLY GOOD BUTTER BISCUIT, chips, and cream of corn.

P.K. was not the only one to take a photo with, Vijay our TA also had that right of passage. What initially everyone wanted was a selfie with him--but then he suggested a giant group photo (or someone did) and everyone seemed in accordance with that. We all went to the courtyard entrance of Goldwin Smith Hall and took a picture next to the sitting statue of Andrew Dickinson White. Right after that, we all went to have lunch at Trillium one last time. Vijay amazingly was willing to join a table of us students for lunch (he never sits with students), perhaps it was because we had an empty seat and Trillium for the most part had none, or maybe just wanted to say one last goodbye to his students. Either way, we had interesting conversations about how on many subjects. These subjects included sports, about the latest Lebron James headliner and the World Cup. We also talked about what was Vijay planning on doing in the future (he wasn't very specific--but that was mainly because he was unsure), but options included being a lecturer, finding some sort of job at D.C., working elsewhere than Ithaca and even going for law school if all else fails. Other than that we also talked about video games, where we were all from and even politics.

After a rather long time at Trillium, Vijay bid us all a very brief and sad goodbye (knowing that we were probably to never see him again), but then he said we all had the approving consent of him to be able to friend him on Facebook. The remaining three of us Jason, Selvyn and I all walked back to Mary Donlon to drop off all of our school items in order to play pool at the RPCC lounge. I'm not an extremely good player at pool, but once I get the rhythm I begin to make rather excellent shots (don't doubt me on this even though I only play the sport around 5 times a year). Right after that, we went back to Donlon again and I was invited to play basketball, but first had to iron a dress shirt to wear for dinner today and I took a nap that was a bit too long and ended up not playing basketball with the rest of the floor.

Pool with Selvyn and Jason

Fast-forward to the restaurant, "The Heights", it was one of those hidden "gems" in Ithaca that serves fantastic food that is broadly American with touches of different cultural influences on some items. I ordered the mixed greens salad after filling up on various appetizers, and later on the whopping house cut steak. I could never imagine that so much meat could be on one plate, in a sense it was delicious with its citrus marinade that was comparable to barbecue--but not really, and the meat itself was very tender except "well done" on some parts when I asked for "medium well". In the other sense, it felt immoral (philosophy) and almost disgusting to eat so much meat in one sitting. I didn't finish my neanderthal proportion. Having consumed so much, there was literally no space for dessert, so I just watched everyone eat their over-sized cake proportions and creme brulee until Carla was kind enough to ask that I sample her dessert--I could only take one bite because my stomach was around the brink of maximum capacity.

As for the ride back "home", some of us went to the talent show and others went back to the dorms. I was an eye-turner coming out of the building and back being dressed so elegantly, I liked that feeling. A lot of people even asked, what's the occasion and responding "dinner", and then receiving the questions "OOOOOOO with who" and then saying "one last supper with the cohort" was a good feeling.

The entire building was still very lively and awake. My lounge had a lot of people from other buildings and floors to begin with. I decided to start packing and by the time I got back to the lobby, there was a good portion of the kids from class including Lisa, Jason, Morgan, Greg, Carla and of course all the floor mates who I endured so many card games and games of RISK with that it's literally pointless to start talking about it. It was really sad, exchanging goodbyes with everyone and knowing that it's a very good possibility that this may be the last time we ever see them again. Then again, that's where social media comes into play and on top of that we all exchange numbers and emails.

Mixed greens salad.

The House Cut Steak with a baked potato, truly worthy for any caveman.

Learning and experiencing at CUSC has truly been a once in a life time thing, that literally cannot be repeated in any shape or form. Whether it be the academics with P.K. or Mark and Reneta McCarthy or, socializing at the parties commissioned by the RCA's, making bonds with an pool of people that you will definitely never forget--it's incredible that this even exists and we're all fortunate to have this opportunity. Sorry about the late blog, I honestly fell asleep on the blog because it was so early in the morning (the lack of sleep accumulating within the past 26 days creept up behind me), and I was awake to say goodbye to the people who were leaving the building at such early hours. It was inevitable, but there would ultimately be and end to this portion of summer.

The End of Kamp Kramnick

This morning I awoke at seven, unfortunately, because the girls next door were playing music. I stayed in bed until half past eight, then got up, got dressed, and went to RPCC for breakfast. I had potatoes, oatmeal, and coffee with several classmates and Sue, and at nine twenty we walked down to the lecture hall. There we were given ten minutes with the sheet of question choices to plan our essays, and then handed our little blue books and our two hours started. I spent the first hour writing the most complicated essay about Plato, Locke, and Marx's alternate views about how to change to a more ideal government, then spent twenty minutes each on two shorter essays, then twenty minutes on the identification questions. Although I was working at a rather rushed pace, I was on track with the prescribed time for each section within a minute or two, and my answers were complete if not brilliant. I won't know how I did on this final exam or on the final essay until they are mailed with my class grade to my house. 

After the final, we were handed the certificates saying we'd finished Summer College, since there was no building available for us to have a proper graduation. We took photos with Professor Kramnick and Vijay, and the headed to the Trillium for our last iffy lunch there. My grilled cheese and Pepsi were nice enough, but the pudding parfait that followed was not. 

After lunch, Sue and I walked to the bookstore so that I could buy a couple more postcards. Jun came in before Sue left, so I stayed with Jun while she shopped and then we walked back to North Balch. There I started packing. At five-thirty, we walked up to RPCC for ice cream, using the dinner swipe on our IDs because we'd be going out to eat later. I had raspberry and it was delicious. I continued packing in my room until about six-fifty, since I was already dressed up for the last day of class, and then went back to the RPCC lobby to meet Mr. Chan-Law and go to dinner. 

Our cohort ate at The Heights, a small but posh restaurants only a few minutes away. I had asparagus in some sort of delicious sauce for an appetizer, and a Caesar salad for the main course. Dessert was a huge slice of chocolate cake, which looked rather nicer than it tasted, and vanilla ice cream, adorned with a few blueberries and strawberries. I was seated next to Mr. Chan-Law, who ordered such a big steak plate that he continued working on it rather than have dessert. 

Once back in North Balch, I continued packing and was totally done by twelve-thirty. My roommate is scheduled to leave at five in the morning, and so I may or may not be awakened by a room inspection at that time. My own inspection is scheduled for nine-thirty, so I can sleep in a bit. 

It is a hard thought to absorb that our course here is finished, and that by this time tomorrow the entire trip will be too. 

It's Been Real, Cornell

Today I woke up at 7:00, since I thought I'd do a little extra studying for my final. My class didn't start until 10:00 today but I wanted to cram as much knowledge into my head as possible so I could get a good grade on my final exam. After studying, I went to get breakfast at 9:00 only to see that most of the food was gone, so I opted for a muffin and some coffee. 

I rushed to class so I could get there as early as possible and get a few last conversations in with friends before our exam. The exam started at 10:10 and ended at 12:10. I knew most of the material but I'm still doubtful about whether or not I'll get an excellent grade or not. All I know is that I put my whole mind into that test and hope to do well.

After the final exam, we ate our final lunch at Trilium. I had a delicious salad today and after a while, we all went back to our dorms. I spent the rest of the evening packing until dinnertime.

For dinner, the cohort ate at a restaurant called The Heights. It's a small restaurant located not too far from the Cornell campus. For the first time, I tried escargot and I must say it was quite good. My main entree was just a few shrimps since I had filled up on the delicious appetizers. Those were very good as well, and for dessert I had chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. The cake wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bad either. 

Escargot and a crab cake.

Chocolate cake with vanilla cake.

When we returned from The Heights, I visited Sue's hall and I actually fell in love with it. Paintings and murals covered the walls and it had sort of eeriness to it that I greatly appreciated. Also, Sue had a room in the corner which meant she and her roommate had a lot of space in their room.

Once I had finished touring Sue's hall, I went back to Donlon to hang out with friends a bit. We all said our goodbyes and it was quite sad. Although I formed great relationships with my friends, I was the most close with a girl named Morgan from New York. We both have a weird sense of humor and like to sing songs at the top of our lungs while dancing strangely. She promised she would say goodbye tomorrow but I'm glad we said our goodbyes today just in case.

I have loved my time here at Cornell, but I must say it will be nice to sleep in my bed tomorrow night. Goodnight!