"Ithaca is Gorges"

After waking up in the Statler Hotel we made our way to check in at our dorms.  It was another breezy, beautiful day in Ithaca as Mr. Chan-Law dropped us off at our dorms, me being the only one in Risley Hall, the rest in Donlon.  I guess I have been living a life of solitude during the night hours between the hotel and the dorms, but I find this as a great opportunity to meet new people.  After checking in I met my R.A. Asher, and went to check out the dining hall for lunch and saw Ms. Kronenberg as well as Abby Eller, the Associate Director of the Summer College.

My dorm!

The next activity of the day was orientation, where we gathered for an assembly in the magnificent Bailey Hall to be greeted by Abby as well as the Dean of the Summer College.  The staff made us feel extremely comfortable and welcome to the school and provided helpful insights on how to get settled in to life on campus.  The enthusiasm of the faculty encouraged us to become more excited for the programs and opportunities available at Cornell as the next step was to divide up into our respective classes. 

Bailey Hall

Right off the bat I can say that I am eager to start the course.  Ms. Kronenberg gave us a personal introduction to Professor Isaac Kramnick, who I felt is not only a gifted instructor, but a cooperative exciting person to learn from.  We settled in the lecture hall where we will be attending classes to have a tutorial for the course with students and parents alike.  The environment of the classroom was wonderful and the tone that Professor Kramnick set especially made me motivated to begin our sessions.  It has also been beneficial to read the required material ahead of time, not only because we will have less work to do later, but also has given me an idea of what the class will be like.   

Risley Hall Residence

Afterwards our ILC Freedom and Justice group decided to take a walk around campus.  This is easily the largest campus we have visited, and discovering what it contains was really an adventure.  Part of the campus consists of a large garden where we explored (and got lost, but luckily we had a sufficient amount of time until dinner).  Tomorrow I hope to see another part of the campus, mostly where the classrooms are located, to get a better feel for the school.  The campus contains a mixture of both older-looking buildings as well as newer ones as well; the Ivies we have visited on this trip have had mostly older buildings on campus with the exception on UPenn. 

Before the night was over we had our first floor meeting to go over basic rules and procedures as well as introduce ourselves to our floormates.  Asher, our Room Advisor, is an undergraduate student at Cornell who is also taking a course over the summer.  I really hope to meet new people through my floor make a smooth transition into dorm life, though it may be hard at first as I am living in a single room with my friends up the hill in Donlon. 

Scenery from the Cornell Campus

So far I am still curious for what the future has in store for us.  I met two great new people today, one of whom is taking the Freedom and Justice course with us, and I hope to meet more.  The transition into the dorm rooms has been interesting so far, especially from making the change from our life of luxury in the hotels visiting the cities.  Right now I am so curious to see what the course is like and am anxious to begin.  I already miss Mr. Chan-Law as we have been acclimated to being around him when not in the hotels, but part of the college experience is to be on your own.  Tomorrow we will have a “college crash-course” in the afternoon and more socializing and activities before we begin classes on Monday. 

Finally, I actually didn't make up the title, I saw it on a grocery bag and thought it was clever...