Week One: Check

Well, it looks like I can check week one off of the calendar! It's a weird feeling to know that I am a third of the way through the course already, but it's also weird to think that I have only been here for a week! This place has become our home so quickly, that it's hard to believe that we really haven't been here for that long. Time flies I guess...

But ANYWAYS, class was definitely different today. Professor Kramnick's interpretation of the text was completely different than mine so the lecture was much more helpful than yesterday's. Also, our TA was away today, so Professor Kramnick filled in instead! We were all a little nervous at first, since we had no idea what to expect, but when he came in he began cracking jokes and acting like the jolly guy that he is. We actually discussed a political topic today in our discussion group, as opposed to the usual where we fill out a few worksheets and talk about our responses.

Today, however, Kramnick told us a slightly ridiculous political view that he has where the president is not ELECTED, but SELECTED. The president would be a random citizen whose name was pulled out of a hat and for the next four years, they would ultimately make all of our country's decisions, although they would have a few councils of advisors for nearly every political area. We all argued with him for the rest of the period, and at the end he made the point that whether he actually believed in his view or simply used it as a teaching method, he had proved to us that we all had platonic views on politics, because we had all argued the same thing that Plato would have.

Now, for the less academic aspects of the day: It's Genevieve's birthday today!! Haha

We decided to start out the day for her at midnight last night by calling her into the laundry room, which we knew would be empty. Taylor pretended to be having "boy-problems" and asked Vivi to come down and talk with her. When Vivi arrived though, expecting to find a hysterical Taylor, we Cornellians and a few of our new friends jumped out from behind the walls screaming, "SURPRISE!!!" and presented her with a giant, home-made card. We all laughed and talked for a short while longer, but eventually we decided that it was probably time to get some sleep.

But the festivities did not end there!!! Yesterday, our Hotel Management cohorts were so kind as to order a cake for Vivi from the local ice cream parlor/bakery, and during lunch today, a woman from the bakery walked up to our table with the cake in hand (Vivi didn't know that this was going to happen either). We all began to sing Happy Birthday as the woman approached us, and to our surprise, the rest of the Dining Hall joined in too! Needless to say, Vivi was a little embarrassed, but it was an awesome little event and she seemed to really appreciate it.

Our plans for the rest of the day consist of taking Vivi out to dinner in college-town and coming back to campus to see the free musical performance around 7:30PM. This day has been a lot of fun, and it has certainly been a great start to our three-day-weekend! (No class on the 4th of July!) It's the end of week one, but the beginning of a whole new chapter. Can't wait to see what's in store!