On the Hill

So… I am sitting here at my “office hours” for my TAing position in Finance and pretty bored so I thought I’d write a quick entry. The office hours are quite bland this first week since not many students need serious help or tutoring yet. Operative word – yet. Finance is a pretty difficult class for most AEM students and definitely was the most challenging class I had taken at that point within the AEM major. To give you a general idea – there is a 400 page course packet that each student is reponsible for intricately understanding, a 600 some odd page textbook which test questions are drawn from (so it is imperative to know that as well), a two hour long section each week which goes over new types of problems (so section is quite important to attend), and then in case you needed more study materials there is an optional review manual with additional problems. However, with all that said, it is still a quite manageable class as long as you stay on top of the workload. I tend to find that this is the case with most Cornell classes…

But, there are some exceptions. Like my derivatives and risk management class. Although the first lecture today was quite easy to follow along in, I am not going to lie – I am a bit scared. There is quite a few grad students who are just begining to study financial engineering so that is always a bit disconcerting. I mean, I have taken classes in the Johnson Graduate School of Management, and I am sure the class will end up being not that bad but the first week jitters always do seem to set in.

Other than classes, not much to report about the week. As always, my Tuesday was pretty rough, and not at all aided by a Finance TA meeting from 8:15-9:45 PM. I was pretty burned out when I got back to Cook St. which was unfortunate since the guys I live with were all hanging out and planning on going out that night. I got back to Cook St. after my meeting, plopped down in one of our broken La-z-boys and focused in on what was on TV. House of Wax. If you havent seen this movie, don’t. All I can say is that I will never stick any of my extremities through an air vent since there is always the possibility that someone will have wire cutters waiting on the other side…

Today was Wednesday, which means I wore my uniform to classes all day (each branch of ROTC wears their uniforms on different days). It was cool wearing the new digital pattern cammies (see the photo section) but I would’ve traded them for a pair of shorts. The weirdest thing about the weather up here right now is that it is overcast almost every single day but muggier than anywhere I have ever been so everyone still sweats just walking up and down the hills to class. Oh, Ithaca…

On Friday night all the guys I live with on Cook St. were hanging out and we were discussing the fact that we were already starting to get a little bored with the social scene in Collegetown and on our street. So, we made the decision to trek into the virtual unknown and explore the social scene in downtown Ithaca… Now, downtown Ithaca is not a place Cornell students venture to often other than to go shopping, etc. This is because downtown Ithaca is where Ithaca College students primarily reside and socialize and although there is no rivalry or hostility between the two schools for whatever reason we rarely interact. They typically spend their evenings at the establishments on the “commons” and we spend our time in Collegetown. So we sought to break down that barrier and spend a night down on the commons. No one in the house wanted to spend money on a cab ride so we walked all the way down the treacherous Buffalo St. (this is quite a walk if you are familiar with Cornell). What we didn’t realize before getting all the way down to the commons was that Ithaca College was not yet in session and it was completely empty. Woops. With little time left to salvage in the night, we again decided that we did not want to pay for a cab and foolishly started to walk UP Buffalo St. Three of us started, and only two finished the walk in less than twenty minutes. An unnamed roommate of mine was seen finally limping back to Cook St. some thirty minutes later literally drenched from head to foot in sweat. Due to the failure of our idea, it might be a long time before we again march down Buffalo St. but I do recommend it to others – the commons can be a pretty fun place.

In other news, Friday was my second day of classes. Now, I usually try to schedule my classes so that I don’t have any on Fridays, but this year I wasn’t able to get that lucky. I had my section (a section meets in addition to your lecture each week and serves to break down the class into smaller discussion groups in order to review the material presented that week in lecture) for Contemporary Controversies in the Global Economy and since it is primarily a writing class we actually spent some time free-writing about whether the government should allow a market for new born babies. After we each wrote a response we took turns reading them out loud and arguing our points. It was a pretty good section and I think that I will really enjoy this class.

On Sunday I went grocery shopping at Wegman’s which truly holds a special place in the hearts of most Cornellians. Wegman’s is much more that a grocery store, it is literally a destination that brings joy into many people’s lives each visit they take. The reason Wegman’s is so acclaimed is that first of all it is open 24 hours a day which is key for those all-nighter study sessions. Second, Wegman’s has the market caf

So Orientation week was not quite what I remember it being when I was a freshman. I think that it has been more of a gradual progression from crazy, crowded block parties in Collegetown to the tame gatherings of residents that took place this year. Regardless of the fact that I didn’t get a chance to meet many freshmen, I still had a pretty good time. The other guys in my house: Russell, Nick, Zeke, Jason, Cody, and Zaks all were around for the majority of the week and we had a really good time just hanging out, catching up, and for some of us – getting to know each other better. We weren’t all best friends coming into this year, a good number of us are from Massachusetts but we are really an eclectic group of individuals all from different social backgrounds at Cornell. So, most of the days were spent hanging out on our front porch cracking jokes and getting to know most of the neighbors on Cook St. many of who are also seniors and were doing pretty much the same thing as us (relaxing, and hanging out in their front yards). We had a nice stereo system set up on the front porch but that was soon nixed after the Ithaca Police informed us that it was “too loud” and that anything that could be heard from 25 feet away was a noise violation (can’t almost anything be heard from 25 feet???). Either way, we had a great time with or without the music. The bars in Collegetown are obviously a big draw for the over 21 crowd (seniors) so those were quite crowded most nights with the threat of classes the following day not yet set in.

Finally, orientation week did come to a close and we all came to grips with the fact that our senior year, our last year at Cornell, was about to begin. After one last hurrah on Wednesday night it was time for the dreaded first day of classes. And what a day it was… My first day of classes went from 10:10 AM until 4:10 PM (this is quite a long day at Cornell). Oh – so my schedule for this semester:

AEM 421 – Derivatives and Risk Management

AEM 423 – Contemporary Topics in Applied Finance

AEM 424 – Management Strategy

AEM 200 – Contemporary Controversies in the Global Economy

AEM 241 – Marketing Plan Development

And Teaching Assistant for AEM 324 – Finance

This tallies up to only 16 credits actually, even though it is a fair amount of class time. 15 credits is the average amount to take each semester in order to graduate on time at Cornell without coming in with any Advanced Placement credits. However, if you chose your classes wisely it is quite manageable to carry a 20 credit course load. I am looking to relax a bit this year though and take courses that interest me since after this semester I will have completed all of my major requirements and only need about another 5 credits to graduate. I am pretty excited about most of my classes I had AEM 200, 423, 424, and 324 today. Being a teaching assistant in finance will be a pretty big deal – it was quite a process going through applying for the position (interviews, application forms, etc.) and as a result there is quite a lot expect from us 10 TAs (the class is over 400 students!). So, I think I will have my work cut out for me this semester.

I guess that is all for now, right now I am catching up on the episode of Laguna Beach that aired last night and then we are heading over to Glenwood Pines for dinner. The Pines, as it is called, is a local burger joint that boasts (accurately) to have the best burger in Ithaca. It is a pretty popular place among Cornell students and should be a pretty good time.

So this was the first year that I have been an active member of the support staff for the NROTC orientation week. It was a long week and pretty tiring but actually quite rewarding and I am glad that I had the opportunity to finally take part in it. I really felt like I was giving a little back to the unit (Cornell NROTC) and I think that if I had some small part in making the new fourth class’ (freshmen) experience better then it was a success on my part. Most days consisted of waking up at 5:15 AM and meeting at the unit (Barton Hall) before heading over to Schoellkopf field (the football field) for PT (physical training). PT was not very physically demanding after getting back from Officer Candidates School, but it was quite a challenge for most of the fourth class. Typically we would start by warming up with stretching exercises and then calisthenics called the “daily 7.” After that we would go on runs, either for a mile and a half around campus or Indian runs for twenty minutes in the stadium. On the final day, Friday, we all ran up and down Libe slope, which was probably the most physically demanding thing we did all week.

After PT, I typically went home and was able to take a shower and change out of my PT shirt and shorts and into my cammies, which were my uniform for each day. I would normally go back to the unit and help out where I was needed whether that be cooking meals for the fourth class or standing watch of the unit while the fourth class was in academic periods of instruction. On Thursday I gave the fourth class an official campus tour and let them loosen up a bit before I turned them back over to their squad leaders and platoon sergeant (who do most of the yelling at them). In general, orientation week had calmed down a lot since when I went through it. This is mostly due to the natural changeover of officer and enlisted staff at the unit and our newer staff has revamped the program quite a bit. When I went through orientation week most of the things we did were run by the upperclassmen and they were given pretty free reign to essentially haze us. Although I don’t think that what I went through was necessarily a bad thing – hazing, of sorts, takes place in the military and serves a purpose – but it probably does not belong at this level of training (i.e. first exposure to military life for most of them). Our new orientation week has much less yelling, and everything we have the fourth class do serves some sort of purpose. They get a full eight hours of sleep a night and in general there is just a lot less stress placed on them. That is not to say what the fourth class just went through is easy, many of them struggled through most of the week and all of them should feel proud that they completed something harder than most civilians will ever be exposed to.

The fourth class graduate on Friday morning and then the entire unit comes together at Cass Park in downtown Ithaca and we have a barbeque. It gives everyone a chance to relax and for the fourth class to see that all of the people who had been yelling at them all week were actually just normal college students and probably their friends in the future. A lot of them had questions for me since they were quite confused about what my rank was (I was the only midshipman who wore the new MARPAT “digi-cams” with my name and US Marines embroidered on them – for reference, see my picture page) and I explained that midshipmen that have completed OCS have the privilege of wearing that uniform at the unit during their senior year. After the barbeque I got a cell phone call from some guys at Psi U who informed me to take out some money since they had just rented a stretch Hummer limo which we were going to be taking to Syracuse to pick up a fellow fraternity brother, Robby, from the airport. At this point, my brain immediately registered that temporarily my military life would be turned off for a week and Cornell orientation week was about to begin…

Cornell orientation week is undisputedly one of the best weeks of college. There is no work to do since classes have not yet started and most students come back for the entire week to relax and catch up with their friends. In addition, this is a great week for freshmen since they have just arrived on campus and it really gives them a chance to get to know each other and experience the social life of Cornell right away. Typically, the place to be during the week is Collegetown and what happens is that all of the upperclassmen who rent houses open them up and let the freshmen socialize and congregate on their lawns, porches, etc. I hesitate to compare it to Mardi Gras but it is an interesting phenomenon to see literally thousands of people crammed into the houses lining College Avenue. As the week just started last night and I went to sleep right after returning from Syracuse (I hadn’t taken a nap and been awake since 5 AM!) I will right more about the festivities as the week progresses.

A little more about Syracuse though… So, I start walking over to the house after the barbeque and hear the pleasant sound of a group of Psi U guys shouting my name from none other than the fine establishment that is CollegeTown Bagels. It was a beautiful afternoon, perfect for relaxing at “CTB,” and we hung out for a couple hours having some food and drink while catching up with the guys who had just gotten into town that afternoon. Finally, we got a phone call that the Hummer was waiting outside Psi U and that we needed to walk back and prepare to embark. The Hummer was pretty amazing – strobe lights, sodas on ice, plasma TVs, etc. The best part was that no one had told Robby we were coming to pick him up, in fact we had informed him that a brother who was not even in our entourage was driving to meet him. You can imagine his surprise when 16 guys roll up in a limo with the limo driver holding a sign out the window with his name on it. Robby is an emotional guy and I am convinced a saw at least one tear slip out as we pulled up. After picking him up, we grabbed dinner at the Carousel Mall and probably the highlight of the evening was a couple asking me, “Why are you guys all dress in t-shirts, blazers, and mesh lacrosse shorts? Did you all lose a bet or are you a members of a sports team?” To which I replied, “Neither, we are in a fraternity.” The male member of the couple laughed and said, “That was my guess.”

It was a pretty fun evening and if it is any indication of what is to come this week and hopefully all next year I am sure this will be an entertaining year and thus an entertaining blog.

So Thursday was my last day of work at Ameriprise. After some tearful goodbyes to the folks at the office I hopped in my car and drove back to Brooklyn that evening. Got lost pretty bad on the way and the 2 and half hour trip turned into a four hour trip. Finally arrived and hit the sack soon after to rest up for my big weekend.

Friday morning I got on the subway and made my way over to JFK with plenty of time to spare for security (following warnings of three hour long waits due to the London terrorist plots). What I saw at the airport was pretty bizarre – longer lines than I have ever seen before at the check-in but shorter lines than I have ever seen at security. I was actually able to bypass the long lines by checking in with skycab outside, so that was nice. Since I had so much time to kill I sat down to lunch at Chilis in the terminal and read a little bit of the book I am currently reading, Gates of Fire (great book by the way – about the Spartans stand at Thermopylae against a much larger invading force of Persians). After that I got on the plane napped for about 30 minutes and then watched Thank you for Smoking on the little TV in the back of the headrest that allows you to get On-Demand movies for a simple swipe of the credit card. The movie was hilarious – if you haven’t seen it, see it. I got into Fort Lauderdale at about 4:30 PM and my buddies Ricky and Jon (both in Psi U with me) were waiting for me at the baggage claim.

It is quite hard to accurately portray through writing the craziness and fun that ensued for the next two days since nothing really notable even happened. We arrived at Ricky’s grandparents’ condo shortly after they picked me up and immediately started joking around, catching up on how are summers had been, and watching TV. The last member of our weekend festivities, Carlo, showed up about an hour later. He also is in Psi U, but transferred to Harvard last semester. We ordered a few pizzas and just sort of hung out for the rest of the evening. Apparently my buddy Jon had taken up a recent interest in cooking and baking and was dead set on us trying some crazy cookie recipe he had found. I do have to admit that they weren’t half bad either.

We woke up pretty early on Saturday since we had gone to sleep early the night before. We had breakfast at a local place called the Floridian which is I think where we started noticing the absurdity in how full time Florida residents dress. We joked that a typical Florida wardrobe probably consisted of twenty sleeveless shirts on hangars and then another twenty Hawaiian print shirts for the “nice occasions”. We also saw quite a few Bentleys on the way to breakfast which is when we started calling things “baller”, which would be a common theme for the entire trip. The baller reference is from a recent Chappelle’s show skit in which he mocks MTV cribs. Again if you haven’t seen it, see it. For the rest of the day on Saturday we walked down the main strip in Fort Lauderdale and hung out on the beach. When we got back to the condo we decided it would be interesting to see if we could launch a water balloon from our 17th story condo all the way across the street and try to land it in a pool at another hotel (which did not have any guests in it, in case you were wondering). We had one of those balloon sling shots and after a few attempts we realized it was futile since each balloon was exploding before it left the balcony. That evening we actually ended up getting separated from each other and Carlo and I ate at a restaurant pretty far down on the strip. The restaurant was pretty good, they had live music and some locals even came out to do some freestyle breakdancing across the street. Carlo decided it would be “baller” to order a $80 bottle of champagne, and it was, until the check came… The rest of the night was pretty fun, we went out to this trendy, somewhat sketchy night club which was interesting to say the least and then called it a night and went back to the condo. Throughout the evening we were very inquisitive of the other patrons we ran into, I think we all just wanted to soak in as much of the Fort Lauderdale culture as possible. Before going to sleep we also watched DMX: Soul of a Man which provided some unintentional high comedy for us – this is not a series I would say deserves TiVoing, but it is fun to run into while flipping the channels if you are bored.

Sunday I woke up quite early to catch my 9 A.M. flight. The flight again was pretty relaxing, no issues at security either. I got back to Brooklyn around two or so in the afternoon, packed up all my stuff, and drove to Ithaca. I am back now doing orientation week for the incoming Naval ROTC freshmen. I will update this in a few days to let you know how it is going.

So, as always, I had a great time going home and seeing all my friends from grade school and high school. This was the second weekend I have been back and probably the last time I will be able to this summer. On Friday I left work and picked up my Mom and my brothers who had taken the train from Brooklyn down to Poughkeepsie. We got in the car and drove all the way to Boston and made good enough time that I was able to get dropped off right in Brighton and meet up with some of my best friends: Bob, Matt, Jeff, and then later a different Matt, Derek, and Chris. The house that I met them at actually belongs to a group of 6 guys from BC High that went on to go to Boston College and happen to all live together. Although none of them came into the city that night with us they are close enough with us that they allow us to use the house to stay over at if we want to go out in the city. After I got there at around 10:30 we hung out for awhile at the house, watched some TV, played a few games, and then headed out to Cleveland Circle to a bar called Cityside. It was a pretty good time, we actually ran into a few other people we knew from high school and some girls that went to the Catholic girls school that was sort of our unofficial sister school. It also happened to be Matt’s birthday the night before so we celebrated that as well.

Saturday we woke up late, hung around for a little bit at the house and then made the drive back to Scituate. We stopped on the way at a place called Crow Point Pizzeria in Hingham that has far and away the best buffalo chicken calzone I have ever eaten. We dropped Bob off at his house on Hingham harbor and then I met up with my Mom to do some back to school shopping. After that I actually met up with my Dad, who has my brothers for the week (the purpose of my Mom making the trip to Boston) and we ate at one of my favorite restaurants, Joe’s American Bar and Grill in Hanover. I went back to Scituate and got dropped off at Jeff’s house which is where I usually stay when I am back home. We hung out for awhile with Jeff’s dad who proudly displayed his newly installed twin kegerator and Harpoon beers that he had on tap (http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/). After hanging out for a bit we met back up with Matt, Bob, Derek, and the other Matt along with a couple other kids from high school – Chris, John, Eric, and Dan. We all went out to TKO Malley’s a pretty popular local restaurant and bar (http://www.eattkomalleys.com). It was a beautiful night and we sat outside on the patio right on Scituate Harbor. We ran into quite a few Scituate people who went to Scituate High instead of BC High, but who we knew from middle and grade school. At one point, myself, Derek, and one of the Matts decided to leave TK’s and head over to a place called Pier 44 which used to be one of the nicer restaurants in town but had, to everyone’s surprise, been recently converted into a dance club. We had heard that a lot of people our age enjoyed the place (nicknamed “Club 44″) so we thought it would be a good idea to head over there for the end of the night. When we got there we realized that the huge group of 50’s aged adults who had been celebrating their high school reunion had invaded the club and taken over the dance floor. Suffice it to say it was not quite the scene we were looking for and we made an early exit. After getting back to Jeff’s house we turned on the hot tub, relaxed, told funny stories from high school, and then went to sleep. All in all, it was a great night and a perfect way to cap off my summer.

On Sunday I woke up, hung out for awhile with Jeff doing something that Jeff and his friends from college actually coined but all of us have adopted, “perching”. Perching is an activity only performed on Saturdays or Sundays and usually lasts from the late morning/early afternoon into sometimes the evening. To sufficiently be perched, one must be in a very comfortable location (lazy boys are great for this) and have full access to a television which is typically tuned into Sportscenter or cheesy old movies on TNT. So Jeff and I perched for quite awhile until my Mom finally showed up at his house and we drove back to Brooklyn. That evening we ate at a restaurant in my Mom’s neighborhood Park Slope, called Two Boots (http://www.twobootsbrooklyn.com/) which after only one meal already parallels Maxie’s Supper Club in Ithaca as my favorite Cajun cuisine.

That’s all for now, I probably will not update during this final week at work unless something monumental happens but I am sure I will have some good stories to tell after my “last hurrah of the summer” trip to Fort Lauderdale this coming weekend…

So, the tour of the winery on Friday was a pretty good time. Two of the three other interns came and we basically toured the winery, learned how the wine was made through each step of the process, and then sat down to a Tuscan lunch of antipasto and cold cuts on Italian bread. Of course the beverage of choice during the lunch was wine – mostly red wine, Syrah and blends of Syrah and Zinfandel. It was the first time I really enjoyed red wine and that was a good thing since there was plenty to go around. We had a few bottles to go with lunch and then got caught in a terrible rain storm so we didn’t want to drive home and the only answer for a way to kill the time was to uncork another bottle…