Author Archives: Alice

Ithaca’s Premier Farmers Market

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Who knew we had such a renowned farmer’s market right here at Ithaca? I went on this trip simply as a study break, but I ended up having more fun than I had imagined. The food, the music, the people! It was all so pleasant that I lost track of time and I didn’t want to leave.

My first stop was the Swamp Road Baskets! I looking at the baskets with my friend, and I remember gasping at the price because a small basket was $165. We were both surprised and wondered what kind of person would pay that much for a simple basket, but I argued that it’s possible that it’s very good material and it’s the work of a master craftsman. My friend thought it was unlikely. However, when we watched the craftsman (we later learned his name was Jamin Uticone) work on a basket, we saw how skilled he was and my friend and I both thought, “I want a basket now.” How ironic!

We also passed by the stall with the Apple Donuts! We enjoyed a conversation with the stall owner before buying some apple donuts from him. I personally don’t like cinnamon, but when I tried these donuts, they were amazing! We’re planning on going back next week for more 🙂 We also ended up buying 2 goose eggs and a half dozen duck eggs. Prior to purchasing them, I didn’t know that they were richer in texture and flavor, so when we cooked them later that night, I was pleasantly surprised. The goose egg was GIGANTIC! (In the picture, you can see the difference in size between a duck egg, which is slightly larger than a hen’s egg, and the goose egg!)

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The Ithaca Farmers’ Market was such a great experience; I’ve heard that people from across the country come to Ithaca for the Farmers’ Market. I loved the atmosphere there, and I realize how blessed we are to have the Farmers’ Market so accessible to us.

Social Justice as a Career Path

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Today, we were lucky to have Laura talk about her experiences in public service and how her journey brought her to where she is today! She was talking about her experiences with working in East Africa and Central America, and one advice that she had for students who were interested in social justice was that they should not try “to go the sensible route”. She said that she went to graduate school for Economics and briefly worked at a large corporate real estate firm, and although she had a lot of fun working there, she did not feel “whole” by doing that everyday. And so she suggests that students who feel like they are passionate about a cause that is bigger than themselves shouldn’t try to go for the “safe” careers. But, as Professor Blalock mentioned towards the end of the talk, as much as we’d like to work for free and completely devote ourselves to the public good, there’s also issues of practicality. We still need to pay our bills and feed ourselves, so we could still go towards a “sensible” route and contribute/volunteer through services/skills that we have acquired as a result of our education.

In addition, Laura had given a small speech about going towards a path that you are passionate about. And I completely agree, because I think it’s extremely important to do something that makes you feel like every day is worth living. But an interesting question that one person asked was, “What about the people who are less passionate?” Because sometimes I am so focused on what I am passionate about, it is sometimes so overwhelming that I forget some people are just not really passionate about anything at all. But as Laura mentioned, everyone has something that makes them really happy or really pissed off, whether or not they realize it. And I guess it doesn’t have to start out like a deep, burning passion, but I think it can definitely grow to that point for every single person.

Overall, I’m very glad Laura came to tell us about all the resources that are available to us as Cornell students and residents in Ithaca, because I do hear of a lot of sexual assault that occurs on the campus, so I’m glad that such a support system exists for us. We are very lucky to be here!

Are We College-ing the Right Way?

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We were lucky to have Professor Shwarz come in again to speak to us! I attended this event last year, but it was refreshing to hear some of the things he said again. There were also some things that stood out to me during this talk, like when Professor Shwarz mentioned that the biggest issue on campus regarding diversity is socioeconomic diversity. He thinks it’s an issue that there is such a big socioeconomic gap in the Cornell population, which I completely agree with! There was an instance where an advisee of his had a group of friends who wanted to go on a trip, but she could not go simply because she could not afford it. And the issue with this is that many people who come from higher socioeconomic status don’t realize that other people may not have the same financial abilities. My experience with this is similar! I went out to eat often with my friends, but I just could not keep up with them in terms of paying for the meals, so oftentimes, I wasn’t able to go with them.

Another big thing he mentioned was that students are not putting as much time into studying as they should be! Traditionally, there should be 2 hours of studying for each credit. A recent study shows that students are spending much less time than they should be on studying, but they are spending the time that they are not using to study on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Since social media itself is a fairly recent thing, it’s so hard to find ways to combat these trends! I have to admit that I often fall victim to social media or online games/entertainment instead of doing work, but that’s why we need to be aware of it! So that we can realize it and try to keep ourselves on track.

Professor Shwarz also mentioned that we aren’t putting as much work into school now because of technology. Traditional English majors used to have to go to the library and search for hours to find what they were looking for, but now that they have the Internet and search engines, looking up information is extremely easy now. Also, it saves A LOT of time just being able to type up essays instead of typewriting or handwriting them… Which makes me wonder how much more technology will advance in the next couple of decades. Maybe we will enter an era where obtaining knowledge will be 10 times faster than it is now, but at this point, it’s extremely hard to imagine!

I Got 99 Priorities, but Health ain’t One

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I was surprised by how much I learned at this Rose Cafe event! It seemed like a simple talk about how to decrease your stress and how to take care of yourself, but I truly learned about lifestyle choices that I want to implement in my life. And I realized that Cornell students don’t value their health as much as they’re supposed to!

We had a discussion about how difficult it was for some people to start large projects or homework, and Ms. Gerding had two suggestions for how to approach this: (1) Have a pre-work routine of about 15-20 minutes that you do every time before you start working, and (2) Breaking up the large projects/assignments into chunks. In regards to (1), I thought it was helpful because if we condition our brains to get into working mode, we’ll be much more efficient than trying to immediately sink from a relaxed mode into a deep-focus mode, which is usually what I try to do. With that being said, I think that (2) is very simple but I never attempt to do it. I try to do all the smaller assignments first, and then leave the large assignments for the last minute, mostly because I find it extremely hard for me to start an assignment that’s HUGE. But what Ms. Gerding said was to break the large assignments into chunks so that our brain gets a sense of accomplishment after finishing one “chunk” of the assignment. Although I think it could really work out for some people, sometimes I feel like I’ll list out so many “to do’s” and I never really get to any of them, and seeing that many “to-do’s” left makes me feel the opposite of accomplished. But I will definitely try doing this anyway!

Finally, we ended the Cafe event with some meditation. I’ve actually thought about trying meditation before, but the idea of it seemed very spiritual to me, and I felt like I didn’t possess enough spirituality for it to help me. Ms. Gerding actually talked about an experiment done on teenage girls who participated in a guided meditation, but didn’t feel like it did anything for them. However, studies showed that there was a decrease in cortisol from saliva samples before and after the meditation, which means that even if your mind is wandering during a meditation, the activity itself can calm you! I didn’t really believe it until the meditation ended and I felt much looser and less tense, and I’m convinced that it will help me during finals week!

Catching Everyone Up to Speed w/ Kate Harding

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I had originally been very interested in the event because “rape culture” is such a hot topic, and I felt that I would be able to learn much more than I could add to the conversation. Someone said, “Just because you’re a woman and you’re always told these issues, doesn’t mean you know everything there is to know.” I found this especially interesting because I’m not particularly very active in terms of supporting gender equality, although I do fully support it, and it struck me that someone who can be considered an “activist” could possibly have something more to learn about the topic. In reality, of course that would make sense, but I’m so used to people who are stubborn and unwilling to accept any thoughts other than their own that it took me by surprise.

I felt that the majority of the conversation was dominated by a few people, which isn’t always bad, but in this case, I wish that I could’ve had more questions answered. My questions were more geared towards those blurred lines of “consensual sex” and “sexual assault.” In society, we think of rape as coercive, but like Kate Harding mentioned, it’s not usually “someone jumping out of the bush and raping you.” It’s most of the times someone you know! However, the tricky part is when the two parties are consensual in the beginning, and somewhere along the way, one party decides he/she doesn’t want to continue, but doesn’t say anything and continues anyway. Ms. Harding’s take on this is that each party should be aware of the other party’s ongoing enthusiasm throughout the entire sexual activity. If the ongoing enthusiasm isn’t there, then the sex should stop. Of course, this situation sometimes can even happen to the most careful of people, but I think it’s more important to be aware of it now so that it can be prevented than to repent for doing it.

I found it interesting that the males in the room brought up the point that men are pushed by society that they should have sex at an early age, and if they’re in college and they haven’t had sex yet, they aren’t men. Though this is no excuse for sexual assault and rape culture, it’s important to realize that those who genuinely would never want to do such a thing won’t always realize it, and the most important thing now is to educate everyone so that we have less of these “excuses”.

Blast from the Past

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I remember wanting to go to this trip last year, but not being able to! That’s why I’m so glad this year it was offered again. I used to want to become an ornithologist when I was in elementary school. I had a pen pal in the 2nd grade whom I wrote to all the time about birds. She surprised me in person with a book about birds one day, telling me that I should definitely pursue becoming an ornithologist if that was what made me happy. It’s funny how things turn out completely different from how you first imagine it… but this trip brought back many memories from elementary school and I’m really glad I went this year.

Aside from all the nostalgia, it was refreshing to be able to walk on the trail and experience what it’s like to bird-watch, since I had never done it before (despite having wanted to become an ornithologist). I just wish I knew in advanced so I could have worn the right footwear to the trip! And it would have been nice to bring/buy binoculars. It was really interesting that there now existed applications that helped bird-enthusiasts ease into bird-watching by helping them identify specific bird species based on size, color, location, etc. I felt that the outdoor part of the trip was marginally more interesting than the lab part. I wasn’t too interested in the research behind all of it as I was with the actual act of hearing and seeing the birds, which means it was probably a good thing that I didn’t end up pursuing ornithology! Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the trip overall and I would love to visit the lab again on my own time!

What Does the Market Want???

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It has been a year since I’ve had Professor Blalock as my Managerial Economics I professor, and it sure was nostalgic hearing him speak about his attempt at creating an efficient cook stove that underdeveloped African countries would want to use. Anyone would think that it’d be boring to listen to the same lecture given twice, but it was actually pretty enlightening and entertaining. I’m actually glad I got to hear the lecture twice because I was able to pick up on details I wasn’t able to during the first time. And I was also excited to hear about any progress made on the research. It was especially fun because of all the managerial econ terms and ideas he was trying to get people to realize. One of the things I really admire about Professor Blalock is his ability to tell an entire store and navigate you to the message that he’s trying to get across.

One thing I didn’t really remember from the first lecture was the study done on verifying how often the cook stove was used. Professor Blalock mentioned that there were three tests done to verify it: (1) ask them how often they use it, (2) watch them to see how often they use it, and (3) attach a device on the cook stove that counts how many times they’ve used it. I was shocked at the fact that they found out no one was actually using the cook stove, even though it was much more efficient and overall healthier. It could be that they just don’t like change. I’m saddened that there wasn’t any progress done after this discovery, and I really do hope that one day, they will switch out the three-stone stove for something that is more advanced and healthy.

Is Our “Help” Really Helping?

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We watched a documentary called Poverty, Inc., which is primarily focused on poverty conditions in Haiti and several other African countries. I was first a little curious why the producers decided to focus on Haiti when there are many other countries that suffer from poverty in Asia, Latin America, etc. Later on, Mark Weber, one of the co-producers, explains that it was because Haiti and other African countries are just closer to the US, and a lot of our aid goes directly to them, which sets up the situation perfectly for viewers to digest.

My takeaway from this event is that those that keep people in poverty are the ones that control the most power, and lose the most from change, while the people who are in poverty have no power, and would gain the most of things changed. In context, we’re talking about the global aid system, which is supposed to be for the benefit of those in poverty, but what the documentary explains is that it creates a generation of people who are “dependent” on aid rather than working to get themselves out of poverty. Another interviewee explained in the documentary that the reason why those who try to work themselves out of poverty can’t is because they are excluded from international trade and the global society. The most striking thing to me is to find out that the money we pay in tax dollars that goes towards the government for global aid is actually hurting the countries, and we are wasting our tax dollars on that.

A Chill Skating Rink

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Like many of the people in Cornell, I was aware of the ice skating rink located on campus (Lynah Rink). It’s a funny story actually. I had only recently found out about the rink because I was ice skating back in my home town during the winter break, and I wanted to know if Ithaca had any ice skating rinks. So I found an ice skating rink in the Commons, and I was set on going there after the break and never thinking about it again, but I think I saw a link saying Cornell students can skate in an on-campus rink called Lynah Rink!!! I’m so glad that Rose House offered an event to go there because I don’t think I would be brave enough to go skating alone! It’s always nice to have a few familiar faces to ice skate with.

I also really enjoyed the beginner lessons portion. I’m not a particularly great ice skater, but I can move around a little. I just felt that having guidance readily available was such a safety net for me (and possibly many other Rose Scholar fellows) and I could rest assured knowing that if I wasn’t sure of something, it would be okay. Overall, I had an amazing time! I eventually became tired and went to get a late lunch. The only thing that I would have changed a little was the time. I thought that we might not have had enough time to digest our food before we went skating because many people might eat at 12 or 1pm. However, it worked out in the end, so I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I hope there are other future events like this one!

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