Deja Vu

A group of ILC members gathered at the Pinole City Hall to present ourselves to the City Council today. We were all to arrive at 6, but the meeting didn't reconvene until an hour later because the Councilmen were having a discussion in private session. In that hour, we all socialized and received a briefing from Don. It seemed like no one else had attended a Pinole City Council meeting before, but I was proud to tell my classmates about what the meeting would probably be like. 

Almost a year ago, Dyana So brought me to my first City Council meeting. It was a hot day after badminton practice that we walked down to Old Town Pinole. Upon taking our seats, we ran into Mr. Ramsey. I'm not sure if Mr. Ramsey actually remembers me because I was so shy then. We sat through the meeting and listened to concerns over the opening of Five Guys and the construction of Pinole Valley High. I told the people sitting around me this and explained that there were a certain amount of Councilmen that rotated positions. The Councilmen filed in and the meeting reconvened.

The ILC was first on the list. Don opened with a speech introducing the ILC. It had several analogies, but there was truth in Don's speech. There's no doubt that the ILC gives us the opportunity to explore colleges beyond California's school system.

Once Don's speech was over, it was the Vanderbilt cohort's time to shine. The members who didn't have to give a speech simply stated their name, schools they've attended, their courses and university they'll be attending. Loan Chung was chosen to give a speech and she did well! She shouldn't have fretted about the speech this morning during P.E. at all!

Penn, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, and Yale followed. I think I spoke too fast when introducing myself, so hopefully that'll change the next time I have to speak! Rochelle Yee from Hercules represented our Cornell cohort. She gave a great speech about being an ambassador for the ILC. The room broke out in giggles when she stated that she was hooked after hearing that the ILC was free. We wrapped up our presentation and went back to out seats.

The five Council Members congratulated us and shared their experiences. Mr. Swearingen talked about his eye-opening experience when travelling to other schools in his freshman year of college. He said it was interesting to learn about other people and their lifestyles, which reminded me of an answer I gave as to why it's important that I'll be associating with students from all around the world. And as usual, we gathered for a group photo once the event was over. There was a bit of seat swapping and voila, everyone became visible in Don's lens! I don't think any of us stayed for the rest of the meeting because we had homework and a busy week ahead of us. 

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I know that Cornell will be having our first dinner Thursday night and us future Hotelies need to read our book, The Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy. I finally got through half of the book today! It's a lot more interesting than I thought it'd be. Mr. Sharp, the CEO of The Four Seasons, writes about his personal life as well as business affairs. He approaches business in a very humble manner, not through profit goals, but through quality. Already, I've learned that he was the pioneer of hotel amenities! I'm excited to keep reading the book and analyzing the hotels we'll be staying at this summer.