Fresh pair of eyes

Me with my roommate, Eva

Since today was the official check-in day for all summer college students, North Balch Hall was pretty crowded. Many came with their parents, and as more people rolled in, the building grew more and more stuffy. Today was in the late 80s and my roommate, Eva, moved in at around 10 AM. She seems extremely nice and I also got to meet some of the other girls on my floor. I'm very surprised at how friendly everyone was. 

I unpacked a bit more this morning, and also decorated my part of the room. After exploring a bit with my cohort, I ran into some of the people in my hall and we all went to eat together. 

Eating at the dining halls with floormates Kirsten, Maddie, Tess, and Allyson

Cornell is such a huge campus! We did not want to get lost on the first day of class so my Freedom and Justice cohort along with one other floor mate went to find the McGraw Hall, the building for Freedom and Justice. The building is about  a 10 minute walk from my dorm and the walk there is so beautiful.

Our day was more chill than most of the days I'll be having here but it was still very eventful. We had an  orientation at 2 pm, where all 900 students came together for a "welcome to the summer program" session. After, we broke off into course specific groups, and I was able to meet my professor for the very first time! Right off the bat, I knew he was extremely smart and witty. I also learned one fact about him right away: he wasn't a big fan of technology. Professor Kramnick gave us an intro to the class, explaining briefly what to expect and how the class would be run. My course is going to be a lecture-styled class, so he also told us about the lecture and discussion schedule we were to expect. One of our requirements for the class was also to go out to lunch with him (along with 5 other students in the class) so he could get to know us a bit better. 

My floormates and I walked around a bit more after, and by then most of the students were outside wandering as well. We got to meet a few people here and there and at 7 PM, all 900 students gathered for an ice cream social. It was just the perfect way to meet new summer students, for I've never talked to so many people in such a short amount of time ever in my life.

Advisors starting a dance party during the ice cream social

The advisors for each hall also tried to get us more comfortable by organizing games for everyone to play as well as holding an outdoor dance  party. The weather was still really humid but I seemed to forget all about the heat during those 2 hours. I got to mingle with students from literally all over the world (not exaggerating). Speaking of diversity, I also learned that in my Freedom and Justice class, there are students from 17 different states (United States alone)! It's amazing how we can meet people from practically everywhere. We haven't even started class discussions yet, and I already learned so much from just the students' background alone.  Though I am a bit homesick, I am overjoyed for classes to start in 2 days!