Another time zone, another adventure

I've finally made it to my dorm room! Welcome to my new home for the next three weeks. I am so excited, but before I go into too much detail about Cornell, let's rewind just a bit back to this morning.

Our last day in The Drake

After spending three wonderful days in Chicago, our journey had sadly come to an end. We checked out of The Drake at around 9:20 AM and headed for the O'Hare airport and didn't run into much traffic. The moment I stepped onto our plane, I knew it was the beginning of a new adventure. The flight was a mere two hours since we had to transfer in Detroit, Michigan.

Christian, Mr. Chan-law, and Jenna on the flight to Ithaca, NY

Our next flight to Ithaca took about an hour or so, and I had the pleasure to sit next to man who was born and raised in Ithaca. Conversing with him, I was able to learn a bit about life in Ithaca, Ithaca many years ago, and Ithaca today. He was very kind and also told me some of the places I absolutely needed to visit (including the famous gorges) in Ithaca. Having a conversation on the plane definitely made the flight much shorter, and since our flight was short to begin with, it almost felt like we made it in about 20 minutes. 

As soon as we drove up the hill to Cornell, I was in complete awe of the campus' beauty. I couldn't take my eyes off of anything I saw outside the car window. It was so much to take in, and I have to say, it was a bit overwhelming-- but in a good way.

Found my room!

Each of us got to meet our RCAs (Residential College Advisor) once we arrived at our hall. My cohort and I did the early check-in (which is a day earlier than everyone else) so we were practically the only ones in the entire hall. I, along with Christian, Michelle, and Jenna are staying at the North Balch Hall for the summer while Rochelle and Tomi are staying at the Risley Hall (which is just across the street). 

Jim Schechter, Director of Cornell Summer Program

I also seemed to have forgotten about our new Eastern time zone while I was in my dorm, so I ended up in a rush to get ready for our dinner. We dined at John Thomas Steakhouse, which is a fine restaurant just about 5 minutes away from the campus. There, we met up with Jim Schechter, this year's summer program director. Because he just took on the job as director a few months ago, he wasn't familiar with the Ivy League Connection yet. After happily explaining it to him, we all ordered our meals and he told us a little bit more about some of his encounters with this year's summer students. Unfortunately, he was very busy (since it was the night before hundreds of high school summer students check in) and had to take many phone calls during the dinner, so we weren't able to ask him all of the questions we had in mind. Nonetheless, the dinner was still enjoyable and the food was awesome. 

I didn't get to explore Cornell at all because we spent most of the day in airports, but I'm definitely excited to  take a walk around the beautiful campus tomorrow.