Simplicity

Accustomed to waking up early, I automatically woke up at 8AM today. As soon as I cleaned my room, I went to the computer lab to work on my report. Reneta and Mark e-mailed us yesterday afternoon about giving the class a weekend extension, so the majority of the class was there. I worked for two hours and then went to lunch. Coincidentally, I ran into Tomi, Jenna, Christian, and Serena. Serena asked me if I knew a place where she could eat out of those Chinese to-go boxes, the white ones with a red pagoda and tin handle. It's funny because it's supposed to be a Chinese take-out box, yet she's never actually seen one of those in China.

After continuing to work on my report, it was time to start office hours. Our group of TAs helped us and answered our questions. Once it was six, I had to leave because I had a personal interaction meeting with my RCA. Each week, every summer college student has to meet with their RCA to talk about how everything is doing. My RCA Maisie is really nice and inspirational. During a habits workshop on our first Sunday, her personal statement was read. It was revealed that she was diagnosed with diabetes as a child and has since been getting over it. We talked about classes, college, and culture. Her theme this week was to get to know how summer college was different from home.

I didn't think about it before, but life at Cornell isn't too different from home. Every morning and before dinner, my dad would light incense in the family shrine. A smoky sandalwood smell would fill the air. And the biggest difference is the food. Regardless of whether we eat out or have a home-cooked meal, we almost never ate pasta, bake potatoes, pizza, or anything like that. I'm not used to it, but I enjoy the food.

Half an hour later, we had a floor meeting. All of Maisie's residence gathered in the lounge. She went over some check-out procedures and went onto a positive game. Everyone had a piece of paper taped to their back. We all mixed and wrote positive things about each other. It was really fun because we were all writing on each other's backs and then tingly to read all the positive comments.

Lastly, we all walked to the lawn. Since the hotelies had class and the weather was bad on July 4, the fireworks were postponed until today. Serena, my friend from China, and Anran, my friend from Greece, walked with me to see the fireworks. Families from the community and Cornell students brought towels and lawn chairs to get a good view of the show. Sadly, several large trees covered the majority of the fireworks. We started to hear more fireworks than actually see them. As we walked back to the dorms, people played Star Spangled Banner from the clock tower.

One of the few fireworks that we could see

Today was such a simple, yet memorable day. There wasn't a big event or anything, but it was one of those days that you can look back on and smile at. There's less than a week left and every day until next Saturday is going to be packed with activities. Tomorrow is our first day with guest speakers and we get to tour the Statler Hotel!