Cornell and Beyond

on with the show

Before I begin, let me just thank those who have commented on my posts for their candid feedback. I truly appreciate it, and will try to keep in mind what was said.

That being said, on with the blogging.

I suppose that in the first full week of classes, I can not escape without the required “back in the action” entry. And that is certainly a correct description. Barely a week of classes has gone by, and already the school work, work-work, and extracurriculars make it seem as if there are not enough hours in the day. But you quickly get used to that here at Cornell.

Classes:

I’ve been lucky this semester, because I love all my profs. They are what can make or break any class, and thus very determinant about your experience with a subject. A really good prof can make anything exciting with enough enthusiasm, even the life cycle of a fruit fly. Really! Genomes, protein folding, T.S. Eliot, here I come! *You may want to monitor my enthusiasm in this respect. A month into the semester, when I’m inundated with prelims, papers, quizzes and due dates, I may be singing a different tune *

Work & Play:

This semester I’ll be working about 20 hours a week, which is a whole lot for a student. The reason for this in particular is twofold:

1) Because I will be studying abroad in the spring, I need to meet the requirements for reapplication to Tradition in one semester, which amounts to about 250 hours of work in one semester instead of two, among other things.

2) Studying abroad, particularly in Europe, is not, and I emphasize, not, cheap. I’m thus trying to save up some money. You know, for the fish and chips.

Anyway, it hasn’t been too bad, and it’s actually not that different from my work schedule last semester, so I’m sure I will survive. As for the play, it’s a little sad to say that Orientation week left me all played out. I can only take so many TV watching marathons and scenic walks through Collegetown in the rain before I’m yearning to hit the library. As long as I don’t have to walk in the rain to get there!

*a small disclaimer*

Hello out there:

The blogs have been launched! Cornell has given it a fair share of publicity on the home page, and the Cornell Daily Sun featured an article on it. Pretty cool, but not without bringing out the naysayers; point in case -the president of facebook- who gives a rather scathing critique.

Why would anyone outside their circle of close friends be interested in following them? Why is the university spending money on this?

Touch

the cornell brand

At the kick-off meeting for my phonathon job, we were lucky enough to have the new VP of Alumni Affairs and Development pay us a visit. He gave a short little speech to the group, and then opened up the floor to questions.

The best one posed, and one I often ask myself at that was as follows:

“What do you think the Cornell brand is?”

By this I think the questioner was asking:

“What makes the Cornellian distinct?”

The gist of the answer:

Hard-working, open-minded, kind, doesn’t take everything too seriously, some unique quality that is very hard to define

I agree with this, but the word that struck me particularly was “unique”. It’s a generic word, often misused and abused, but in this case, I think it’s a perfect descriptor. After living in Ithaca for almost 2 years, I can’t help but get the feeling that there is some internal common characteristic shared by the members of the Cornell community. If I had to specify this ubiquitous quality, I would define it as -refusal.

Refusal to submit to other’s generalizations: Once you get to know any Cornellian, you will realize there is more to them than may meet the eye. Much more.

Refusal to ignore their path: People here know what they want, and if they don’t they soon figure it out.

Refusal to do less than one’s best: Whether you’re a Hotelie or a ChemE, you are always working hard and entirely focused on your goal at hand.

While this may seem like wide-eyed praise, don’t get me wrong. Cornellians have their faults also. It’s just that the pluses are what make Cornell so endearing. In my opinion anyway : )

housing, already??

School hasn’t even started and yet my friends and I have already been confronted with a dilemma that every single Cornellian will face at one point in their careers: where are we going to live next year?

I know it seems a little ridiculous that you would need to start thinking about things like this so soon, but to be honest, the scramble for Collegetown necessitates consideration way way way in advance!

While the lottery for on-campus housing doesn’t start until spring semester, many students choose to sign leases as early as September of the preceding year. Thus, if you are considering living in off-campus housing, you need to start thinking about it pretty early if you expect to have a run on the competition.

I’ve lived in the dorms every year I’ve been here, and it’s been pretty sweet. My first year my dorm was arranged suite-style, so I only had to share a bathroom with 5 other people, which is nicer than some dorms. My second year, I lived in one of the brand smacking new dorms that is a part of the West Campus Initiative. Let’s just say study rooms, a dining hall, and tv lounges were only an elevator ride away. If I had really wanted, I could never leave the comforts of that building! (Except for classes, maybe.)

This year I am living in a dorm that was built as temporary housing over 50 years ago. (Notice something wrong with that statement?) Actually, they will be tearing down this building during winter break and moving all the residents in it to a brand new dorm, another one that is part of that West Campus Initiative. It’s actually not too bad at all, and the hall setup is really conducive to socializing, although to be honest I haven’t been around too much.

The reason for that is that I have a lot of friends who have off-campus housing, and I’ve been spending a lot of time at their places. It’s very nice to be in Collegetown: you’re seconds away from tons of food options, lots of friends with houses nearby, and in my opinion it’s a little bit more relaxing than living in the dorms.

That said, while I have enjoyed my last couple of years in the dorms, I’m looking forward to living off-campus senior year…I’ll make sure to keep you updated on the Search.

back in the 607

I’m back in Ithaca, and very glad to be back at that.

I thought that I would be living the easy life coming back so early before classes, but actually my Orientation Leader training has kept me pretty occupied. 3 days of training, which actually was not so bad. We had “large group” and “small group” meetings so that kept us walking back and forth from one to another. I’ve probably seen 8+ “instructive skits” about how to be a good OL so that kept me on their wavelength, for the most part .

Yesterday was Move In Day for the freshies, and as an OL you need to help out for a couple of hours there. I was stationed in Balch, which was convenient since I had been in that dorm exactly one time before this. It was really sad when I had my cart and was just wandering around the floor looking for the elevators. (It’s confusing, OK?) Anyway, it wasn’t that bad, but it was very very very hot. On the plus side, it wasn’t raining, which I can’t say about today.

I came back to my dorm room absolutely drained and not at all eager about trudging back up to North Campus in couple of hours for my first OL meeting. And it didn’t help that once I did go back to collect my freshies, one of them had decided not to come to Cornell and another was nowhere to be found. One frantic call to a friend later led me to believe that I had made no mistake and there would be no sad freshmen waiting in their room for hours for me.

As summer winds down…

Hello again!

Well, I can barely believe it but it’s already August! The summer went by like –POOF!

I’m still in Colorado, and it’s geting to be crunch time with my ant research.