Fireworks with Friends

Summary of Freedom and Justice Week 1,
we are very happy with our work.

July 2nd, the start of our second week at Cornell, and quite an eventful day. I did not too far behind on sleep this past weekend so getting up in the morning was easy. It was back to the same routine. Breakfast, lecture, discussion, lunch, writing workshop, and then the school part of the day is over. Our class today revolved around John Locke and his theories of State of Nature, Natural Laws, and Natural Rights of life, liberty, and property. Luckily I studied Locke (and Hobbes) in both my 9th and 10th grade history classes, so I was more than prepared for this lesson. I find Locke's ideas and the era he lived in to be very interesting and I am  very happy to get the chance to study it again. The writing workshop after lunch covered the fundamentals of building a string arguement or thesis and how to outline an essay in anticipation of us revising our Plato essays.

After class Calvin, Alex, and I heads off to a group discussion room in the library to study. We used a white board and made a chart summarizing everything we have learned so far. It was actually very helpful, and we have plans to do something similar tomorrow with Morgan and Sam.

The "Harry Potter" Library

We then spent the rest of our time before dinner relaxing and watching tv. After dinner we played pool, unfortunately I got crushed. Hopefully I will do better in our rematch later in the week. After playing pool, Calvin, Alex, and I went to watch the Ithaca Firework Show, which for some unexplained reason is on July 2 not the 4th, with our new friends Morgan and Sam, and our even newer friend, Alyssa. We got a great spot to sit, with what we thought would be a great view. Unfortunately, we misjudged where the fireworks would be and a tree was right in the middle of our view. The show was still very entertaining, and was big enough and close enough that the tree barely blocked anything. We had to rush home right after the finale to 

make it back in time for check in.

After check in I finally skyped with my parents and sister, and got to see them for the first time since that cold, early morning two weeks ago. I am glad I finally got the chance and it made me realize how much I miss them and everyone else back home. I am going to make more if an effort to stay in touch in these next two weeks.

Apparently Calvin is an accomplished
pool player

Tomorrow will be a long day. With an extra lecture to make up for the Friday we have off, immediately followed by studying for the midterm. Every test and paper counts and is the difference between an A and a B or even C, as we only have three graded assignments. It is a little stressful knowing how much it counts for, but I know that it I study and maintain healthy habits an A is well within my reach, but it needs to be earned. I have every intention of earning that A and I will do everything in my power to get it. For me, the WCCUSD, and the ILC.