A Saturday Spent

While others were making good use of their Saturday exploring and having fun on their first weekend, I shied away from the heat and lazied my day away indoors. I caught up on some sleep, ate a lot of food, and spent the day working with my group on the PowerPoint slides I wished we had had the initiative to work on earlier.

For me, the project was intense, but there is still a lot more work to be done, and I just feel like our material is not up to par. I like my group members a lot. We laugh, we get along, and it's great, but I care about our results a great deal. So without further ado, I need to start being more responsible, or better yet, a more effective communicator.

It's important that I figure out how to manage my time better, because there's so much of the experience that I don't want to miss out on. This is what taking the time to create a schedule is for. There will be other Saturdays, but will I be able to effectively and efficiently delegate my time in the future?

I'm Becoming a Philosopher. (Well, Not Quite)

Today will be tough to beat, as far as having an overall fantastic day goes. Before I jump into the story of this practically perfect day, I want to explain my title. Professor Kramnick has pointed out numerous times that philosophers tend to think of everything in groups of threes, such as Plato’s three allegories explaining knowledge and its realm (the sun, the line, and most famously, the allegory of the cave). Today, my perfect day also formed a nice group of three, which happened to be my three favorite things in life as well (a shocking coincidence). This fantastic group of three which really covered everything that happened today was; food, sleep, and baseball. To me, it is impossible to go wrong when some amount of each of those things is all that makes up my day, and this day was just as good as one who knows my love for those three things would expect.

I began the day by shattering my sleeping record on this trip, staying asleep for an amazing 11 hours, from midnight till 11 in the morning. I had a quick brunch which along with a bit of McDonald’s was about all I ate (so really it was only a group of 2 and a half, but that doesn’t make me much of a philosopher so I rounded up). After this quick brunch Joe told me that Ms. Neal would be willing to drive us to Cooperstown! Apparently while I was asleep plans had already been arranged, but Joe, knowing that I am a complete baseball nerd, told Ms. Neal that I would want to go too. Soon Ms. Neal, Joe, and I were on a two and a half hour drive through upstate New York.

On that ride, my excellent day of sleep continued with a nice 90 minute nap, (filling one whole sleep cycle as I learned at last week’s crash course) and combined with my hour-long nap on the way back, brought my grand total of sleep up to a whopping 13 and a half hours!

But back to Cooperstown, what appeared to be a small brick building with barely enough room for a busy restaurant turned out to hold countless memorabilia and wonderful tidbits of information. I was able to take pictures with the bronze hall of fame plaques of both my dad’s favorite player (posted above) and my grandfather’s favorite player. There were too many amazing things to recall, and I truthfully can’t think of what else to write about it, I’m still in shock. It’s difficult (for me at least) to put into words just how incredible the Hall was, and I’m so grateful to Ms. Neal for taking me and Joe to see it.

COOPERSTOWN!!!

I WENT TO COOPERSTOWN TODAY!!! It was so amazing!!! Before I get into it though, let me post some pictures:

Me at the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, and Joe Arciniega

The Hall

My Favorite Player: Jackie Robinson

Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Joe Arciniega

The bat that Babe Ruth used when he famously called his shot

Hall of Fame

I still can't believe it! Visiting Cooperstown has been a life-long dream of mine, but I never thought that I would actually have a good opportunity to do it. This was truly an amazing experience and I am so happy that I got to have it.

Admittedly, I was a little upset when Ms. Neal woke me up at 9:00 AM with her text message, but when I saw that it was regarding a trip to the Hall of Fame she was instantly forgiven. I replied as quickly as my half-awakened brain would allow me to and then went ahead and got some more sleep.

At about 1:20 PM we began to drive and continued onwards for about 2 1/2 hours. I also have to say that I was a little disappointed when we first arrived at the Hall because from the outside, it really doesn't look like much. However, once you get in and start exploring, it just seems to go on forever.

There are three floors to the Museum, all of which were thoroughly explored by Nick and myself, and every one of them has it's own great treasures. The first floor has the Hall, which I posted above, and the second and third contain various baseball artifacts from throughout history, such as Babe Ruth's bat.

We walked around for about 3 hours and finally decided that it was time to hit the gift shop and go home. We drove for about another 2 1/2 hours, of which Nick was knocked out for almost all, and finally arrived home around 9:15PM. Nick and I, and probably Ms. Neal, are very tired from this spectacular day of American tradition, but would like you all to know that there is nothing like Cooperstown. If you are a baseball fan, you HAVE to go. You will truly will not regret it.

Joe Arciniega, Future Hall of Famer, signing out. Good night!

Carnival InThe Quad

I am, as my parents will tell you, a morning person and I always have been, but today was different. I slept in until 11:45 this morning, the latest I think I have every slept in before. Feeling like I had already wasted half of my day, I quickly changed my clothes and went for a short run around campus. After that Vivi (Genevieve) and I played a little soccer to keep our ball skills up for when we come back home. By this time I had unfortunately missed breakfast/brunch so had to chow down on a cliff bar (perfectly acceptable breakfast in my opinion).

Once I got back to the room, as was mentioned on my best friends Masao’s blog, I had a skype date with the one and only Masao MacMaster. Our chat ranged from talking about our programs and how the first week went for us respectively. It was a great addition to my morning.

While I talked to Masao I realized how much I was learning here. I hadn't really stopped to think about everything I am absorbing from Professor Kramnick's lectures until I was talking to Masao about them. I realized that the horizon of my knowledge I had pre-Cornell was now expanding rapidly or with every lecture. I told Masao about Plato because to me Plato's ideals are the basis for our society now. Plato suggested that the system of democracy in Athens was a foolish way of governing a people. He thought that instead of letting everyone lead only the philosophers should lead because they were the only ones who could think and were the only ones who could understand that everything has an idea that is more meaningful than its appearance. The philosophers could understand the essence of things were as the workers and military mean could only understand the appearance of things. I couldn't believe how much this reflected our society. Our government tells 'lies' to protect us just like the 'lie' about the metals that Plato uses. It is strange how things can just hit you when you are skyping.

After my wonderful chat with Masao, I went to the carnival put on by the RCA’s in my building and the other hall up on a pretty good carnival with a ton of games. The only one I played was a' try and throw the football through the hole' game and I was not every good. The reason I didn’t play the other games was because I was so tired from my silly little workout.

My day was not every academic, in fact I didn’t do anything school related--that is what tomorrow is for.

Until tomorrow, Over and Out blog readers

Ahhh...The Long-Awaited For Weekend

Honestly, my day's schedule has not included much, but that is not because of lack of things to do or opportunities. The sole reason is that I took advantage of having no set schedule and slept in. Until almost noon! That is one of the great things about being away from home in this environment. Not until college will I ever have sole control of my schedule like these three weeks, learning crucial time management abilities.

So after my leisurely sleeping in, I went and got breakfast- lunch if you are attuned to the rest of the world. My afternoon was very relaxed as well, I attempted to play some soccer with Taylor but it was too hot! This humidity is really killing me. After napping (more sleep!) for a few minutes and watching some of the women's world cup soccer, Cornell Summer College was hosting a fair, full of arts activities, carnival games, and bouncy obstacle courses! It was a wonderful way to spend the rest of the afternoon and I even won tickets to get a prize for my little brother.

Next, we went to dinner, the usual cafeteria all you can eat buffet! As promised, I went to go watch a movie with the gang down in the little theatre after dinner and practicing violin for a few minutes. I had never seen this movie before. People stared at me in shock when I first announced it, and now I fully understand why. Forrest Gump is my new favorite movie! I cried tears of both joy and bittersweet sadness, and loved all 140 minutes of it. Thanks for another little belated birthday present everyone.

Now I'm off to bed after doing a quick outline for my essay for class. Goodnight, but first go rent Forrest Gump from your nearest Blockbuster!

An Hour is a Minute

Why is it that days goes by so fast?  I guess when school is very busy, time is simply a relative thing.  Between the deadlines and the group work, things tend to pass by extremely fast, and before you know it, a whole week has passed from the first time I step foot on this campus; nearly two weeks since we set off on our journey.

But the point is, time goes by relatively fast.

The 4th of July weekend is interesting because we Hotelies will not be partaking in too many festivities around the campus, due to a group presentation on the 4th of July  Thus, the rest of the weekend will be a bit booked with project work.  Of course, it is never really a bad thing -- Hotel Management has by far proven to be enthralling, though difficult.

Mark addressing the class.

Today however, was nothing too strenuous in terms of lessons -- a short video detailing the meaning of running an effective group and an exercise based on it was rather simple.  Following that, all of the Hotelies were sent to the computer labs to work on our memos and after, our group presentations.

Group 9B of the Hotel Operations Management course.

This is where the real work begins.  Even though PowerPoints are very simple to create, making it good is another story entirely.  Thus, we spent close to three hours trying to figure out how to properly organize our presentation.  On the bright side, our group has actually been working on it, so we are not too far behind.  One more meeting tomorrow and I think we will be finished with the physical component.  The verbal part, I think, we will have to deal with soon.

Of course, even the most packed of schedules have to have room open for free time.  Today was Genevieve's birthday, and I hope our group managed to make it a good one.  We even had an ice cream cake ready for a group lunch and managed to get the entire hall to sing along to "Happy Birthday."  I like moments like those, they make me smile.

In the evening, a few of us visited the Commons in Ithaca.  It was very nice to get away from the campus for a little bit and enjoy the local sites.  There were several shops in the area that we looked through, including a great used books store and of course, Collegetown Bagels.

With Kevin and fellow Hotelie Dylan in front of a giant caterpillar at the Ithaca Commons.

It is always nice to balance work with a little bit of fun, if only a bit.  I guess it was just nice that there was enough time at the end to relax.

I believe that this first week has been very educational, not to be cliche.  There were routines that were worked out, connections made and smoothed out, and of course, tabs that were used and not used appropriately in Microsoft Word.  It is a bit exciting to know that there is so much more to learn in the coming weeks, as well as so much more to do.

However, at the moment, I am exhausted by the long day, and there is still work to do tomorrow.  So until next time, adieu.

Out of the Cave and Into the Ithaca Commons

The majority of class time today was dedicated to editing and re-editing our business memos. Our wonderful TAs patiently read over our memos and made suggestions and answered questions. I personally got mine looked over from three different TAs before I turned it in. After this, I worked with my group on our class project for a few hours, and then I actually had free time! Jobel and Dylan, our Hotelie friend from Ohio, taught me how to play Banana Grams. After a few rounds, the Hercules Hotelies and Dylan took a bus to the Ithaca Commons for dinner.

Me playing Banana Grams with Dylan

We walked up and down streets lined with artsy shops. There was a barefoot harp player and a cross-legged woman wearing a multi-colored turban. We made our way to a used book store, where I bought a Paul Gauguin art book. Taylor, Joe, Nick, Vivi, and some of their other friends met up with us and headed over to a pizzeria with Kelly, but Kevin, Jobel, Dylan and I wanted anything but pizza, so we ate at the famous Collegetown Bagels instead.

My Cayuga Croissant

Collegetown Bagels was very impressive. The croissant I ordered was delicious, and the eatery is also very environmentally conscious. There were separate containers for trash, compostables, and recyclables, just like there are at the Trillium dining hall at Cornell. I want to set up this kind of waste system at Hercules High School. There was also a book swap in the back of the store. The sense of community here is just so very strong.

Most of the stores were independent and the people were very warm. A man on the bus kindly corrected us when he overheard us talking about getting off at the wrong stop, and a family whose car was being ticketed by an officer let me hold and play with their dog Tickles.

Me, Kelly, and Tickles

Kevin, Jobel, Dylan, and me in front of the Cornell Daily Sun Headquarters

Tomorrow we won’t have class, which will probably be very disorienting for me. I will, however, be meeting with my group to work on our PowerPoint presentation on Starwood Hotels and Resorts. In five days, I have learned:

· how to make memo and letter templates on Microsoft Word

· how to make Power Point templates

· how to identify different types of business models

· hotel managing strategies

· public speaking skills

· how to write an effective business memo

· how to calculate occupancy rates, average daily rates, and revenue per available room

· different types of hotels

· how an effective team functions

· how the Waldorf=Astoria employees contribute to their hotel

· the benefits and shortcomings of franchising, managing or owning hotels

· what different types of guests (business, leisure, and group) tend to expect from hotels and why they expect what they do

This is just what I remember learning off of the top of my head. We definitely have learned more than this. Talk about making the most of one’s week.

In addition to these academic lessons, I have also learned to set two alarms in the morning just in case one fails to wake me up, to shower in the afternoon because that’s when no one else showers, to check for important items (keys, ID, money, cellphone) every time I leave to go to a new place, to properly balance my meals and to effectively and openly talk about problems within a group.

I am having a blast, and I feel guilty for saying this, but today I don't really want to go home.