The Big Red One

College is a very daunting place, even when one is drowsy and a bit disconnected from reality.  These brick-laid buildings are still taller than I had imagined, and the people here are friendlier.  But reality tends to sink in very slowly, and as of right now, it is staring me right in front of the face.

This morning began a bit differently like the others.  It was quite nice that the destination (in this case O'Hare Airport) was not too far away.  But, we must remain punctual as ever, and with that, we arrived in time for our flight to Cincinnati, and by extension, Syracuse and Cornell.

We were greeted by the Ithaca transit driver, who was more than happy to take us to the university.  We loaded up, joined by six other Summer College students.  The ride was more or less quite a party, sadly, I fell asleep halfway through.  But I managed to catch a few glimpses of the wonderful greenery around upstate New York.  Forests and trees as far as the eye could see all the way from Syracuse to Ithaca.

Once we arrived at our resident hall, Mary Donlon, things began to move extremely quickly.  Before I knew it, I had met my roommate, Harley, from Visalia, and settled in my room in the resident hall.  Immediately, I started moving towards Bailey Hall to attend orientation.  I made it halfway down to the auditorium, then realized that there was a shuttle and made my way back.

Mary Donlon Hall, behind many Summer College students
socializing with ice cream.

Orientation and the following class information session was intriguing.  The Dean, Glenn Altschuler, put on quite a show, and kept the entire crowd listening, while laughing.  Reneta and Mark McCarthy, the professors for the Hotel Operations Management course, laid things out crystal clear for us.  The message was simple -- do not lose ground on the work.

We returned for dinner soon afterwards, the Ice Cream Social.  It was a great opportunity for me to meet several people in the program.  Our fellow cohorts and classmates proved to be quite interesting, not to mention that the raspberry sorbet was very tasty.  The night also provided several opportunities for a little bit of exploring and familiarizing myself with the campus.

Finally, the night settled with an overview of the rules and then a sleep-check, the first of many, many more.