Happy Birthday To Me!

Carl, Matt, Nick, Joe, Taylor, Carrie, and I! On a bridge overlooking the gorges

Today I have alot to blog about, but not all of it has to do with Plato whether or not that be a good thing or not. I really do enjoy our discussions and lectures on him though. We finished going over all the material in "The Republic" that has been assigned to us, and now the paper we are writing during the course of the rest of the three weeks will be pertaining to him and his criticisms of democracy, which sounds simple but will be hard to pinpoint as he does not clearly state specific reasons. We discussed the Allegory of the Cave today in our group which is a very interesting idea posing how humans distinguish different ideas by just seeing or appearances or actually knowing the essence of objects that exist in a higher realm.

Academic things aside for the moment, I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of my friends and cohorts for all the wonderful things they surprised me with for my birthday and how amazing they all are. Joe already gave away many of the details, but can I just say both surprises, the card in the basement and cake, were entirely COMPLETE secrets from me and they were probably some of the best moments of my life. I don't know if they realize how much I appreciate it :) Thanks, too, to Ms. Neal for the journal! Oh and by the way Hotelies that cake was definitely to die for, one of the best I've ever had. Chocolate, ice cream, and raspberry swirl oh my! Haha. My parents called so I got to speak with them but it is so strange being away from home. However, it is a great experience to get under your belt before actually leaving for college.

Another ILC member, Erin Miller, also has a birthday today! I hope she had as good of one as I did. For dinner I got to explore the "Commons" for the first time and see what public transportation was like in upstate New York. Beforehand I had also stopped in the art quad to enjoy a free afro-reggae jazz concert in the beautiful evening air. This campus really does live up to it's name; the rolling green hills are ideal to sit upon and watch the sun set.

I'm off to bed now after this exhausting but unforgettable day. I'm sure my head will hit the pillow and already be asleep- good thing it's the weekend tomorrow! Sweet dreams everyone.