Slope Day
Dylan Scott writes:
One of the major advantages of studying “abroad” at CIW as opposed to going to France or Australia is that Ithaca is just a car ride or short flight away. No matter how much fun you’re having in DC, as a CIW student, the need to make plans for Slope Day is always in the back of your mind.
You only get four Slope Days at Cornell and I wasn’t going to take any chances, so I booked my flight to Syracuse back in March. Even at CIW, a few hundred miles from campus, you could feel the anticipation as Friday May 3rd approached.
I woke up bright and early Thursday to catch my flight, arriving in Ithaca just in time for an afternoon BBQ on our back deck. Excited as I was to see friends and catch up, I resisted the temptation to stay out late and crash early in order to be fully rested for the day ahead.
No alarm was necessary on Slope Day; the shouts of excited friends sprinting down the stairs was enough to jolt me out of bed at 8 a.m. The festivities began shortly thereafter and the band started playing on the back deck around 9:30. Before I knew it, it’s time to head to the slope.
As my friends and I approached the massive line (why was there such a long line?) to enter the slope, I spotted a friend from Cornell in Washington wearing his CIW tank top and rudely cut the line to go say hi. The slope is always kind of a blur; running into friends from freshman year, navigating that orange maze to get a beer, realizing you forgot to put on sunscreen and are much paler than you thought.
When the concert died down I headed toward my house to take a long nap, but along the way I run into another CIW friend who rallied me to go to Rulloff’s instead. At the bar, we reminisced about fun times at CIW, agreeing that we’ll have many more good times in DC when we land jobs as lobbyists after graduation. After finishing my drink, I made my way home to recover from another great Slope Day.
Really liked the story as a whole, but the “festivities” prior to the slope seem a bit hazy.
[ED NOTE: I think the details are quite sufficient, thanks.]
This is adorable.