Cornell and Beyond

Once upon a time, there was a frenzied college student who wanted to go home…

The entirety of the undergraduate population moving out of Cornell in the span of 2 weeks  = Chaos

Students throw out anything that doesn’t fit into their luggage, car, or rental truck as the case may be.  Lots of this “stuff” is perfectly perfect: bookcases, speakers, printers, bedding, clothes.   Pots, pans, baskets, posters, vases, shampoo.  You name it, a student somewhere was probably throwing it out.  And yet, with the start of school in the fall these same students inevitably wipe out the stockrooms of Target/Wal-mart/K-mart of the very same items they threw away when they left just a few months earlier. 

Some ingenious Cornell student realized that this system is pretty stupid.  So they brought Dump and Run, a larger organization, to the Cornell campus.  On move out in the spring, students can donate their stuff to Dump and Run instead of abandoning it on street corners.  Then when students come back in the fall, there is a humungous garage sale on North Campus that literally has every back to school necessity you could ever come up with. Even toilet cleaner! So when I say everything, I mean everything.  Whether you need a sofa or shoe polish Dump and Run is the place to get it.  Everything’s dirt cheap and the profits go to charity.  So it’s a win-win-win situation for everyone involved.  (Except perhaps for the sanity of those who are part of the opening hours frenzy.) 

I got into Dump and Run when it first opened, thanks to one particularly overzealous, slightly obsessed, garage sale connoisseur who happens to be a friend of mine.  (Who gets up at 7 AM for a garage sale? Who?)  There were two lines we could choose to get into, the outdoor line and the indoor line.  There seemed to be a plethora of furniture in the outdoor line, but the indoor line would lead me to electronics. 

I was in severe inner turmoil as I pondered which line I would follow.  At first I got into the outdoor line.  Then, in a last minute decision, I changed my mind and joined the indoor line.  And what a decision that was. I walked out of Dump and Run with a perfectly good, albeit slightly discolored pair of Altec inmotion ipod speakers for $6 (retail: $150) and an ipod charger for just $1. (retail: $30)Yowsers! Best bargain of my life. (Who in their right mind would throw that stuff away? I suppose I shouldn’t ask questions as I did indeed reap the glorious benefits.) And the yellow discoloration (probably from sitting in the window all day) actually lends it some character.  I thought I was a good bargain shopper but that day has put all my other bargains to shame. 

melon & brie crostini – if this is being an adult I might like it

Food in Ithaca is ‘gorges’, and I recently discovered the crème de la crème of the dining experience here.

I do not presume to be a food critic, but as an avid and long-time eater, I feel more than justified in regaling my delectable dinner at “Just a Taste” in the Commons.

Just a Taste is a tapas restaurant, which means they feature meals composed entirely of hor’s doeuvres.  And what delicious little plates they are.  My friend and I shared a melon & brie crostini which was out of this world.  Brie melted to perfection, fresh melon and crusty little bread slices.  I could go for one right now and it’s 10 in the morning!  Our friends got the duck and salmon, and they looked equally as appetizing. 

With everyone’s newly minted 21ness, we also ordered ‘wine flights,’ which was basically just a wine tasting.  We got the Loire Valley Flight and the Other White Flight and they both had some very exquisite wines. I can’t wait for my WINES class this Fall so that I can properly describe them (e.g. soft hints of vanilla with a sturdy oak character), but for now I’ll just say they were all yummy.

And if all this weren’t enough, we topped off the night with a soft, rich, moist chocolate soufflé.  Words can not describe it.  Let’s just say we polished it off in 5 minutes.

And so goes my dining experience.  It’s certainly not an every night sort of affair (It comes close to breaking the bank of any college student budget) but I know I’ll return there soon again.  Perhaps to try the Big Red Flight and their buttermilk panacotta.  Sigh.   

new look for a new year

enjoy

Hooray!

Cornell is currently in limbo. Most of the summer college/sports camp/summer class people have left, and enthusiastic parents and jaded teenagers have taken over, usually with confused looks and a big campus map spread in front of them. Some of them look like they’ve done this a million times and it makes me a little glad that I only visited two schools when I applied to college. (And Cornell wasn’t one of them!) Even with the plethora of would-be applicants and backwards-walking, fast-talking tour guides, Ithaca still seems sadly empty. Although I will say it’s nice not to wait in line at Statler just for a salad.

On the other hand, school is starting in less than 2 weeks and by next Monday Ithaca will reawaken from what I call the “summer slumber.” The streets of Collegetown will fill once more, and the lines will stretch long and far behind the Southwestern Salad Station.

You know you’re a bit of nerd when you go into the campus bookstore and get excited at the rows and rows of new textbooks. Go ahead, laugh, but I haven’t taken a class at Cornell in over 8 months and by golly I’ve missed it!

But undoubtedly the best thing about school starting up again is that all my friends are slowly trickling back into Ithaca. I love walking down the street and stopping every five minutes to catch up with an old friend. And soon, old friends will be all over the place!

Hooray for Back to School!

guess where?

Bahamas? Jamaica? Cancun? California?

NO!  I told you it’s fun to be in Ithaca in the summer!