Category Archives: Dorm Life

Smidgens and Tidbits

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Filed under Dorm Life, Involvement, Travel

Right now, my entire suite is empty and there are probably no more than five people left in my hall. My most distinct memory of my first American Thansgiving will be how @%$#ing hungry I am, since all the dining halls closed. Although to be fair, I did choose to stay in Ithaca to catchup on work and I did procrastinate on stocking up until after the convenience stores all closed, which leaves me with dining-hall-nabbed fruits and vending machine chocolate bars for sustenance.

Life has been hectic to say the least. Here’s a brief recap.

Work/Stay/Play in Syracuse. This is three-day “conference” that brought together 36 students from Cornell, URochester, and Syracuse U to solve, in a creative and collaborative manner, a huge issue the region faces: how to retain students in Upstate New York after graduation. Cornell paid for the transportation, food, and hotel for all her representatives so I was immensely grateful. Here’s the Daily Sun article!

Kingston getaway with my suite & Royal Military College Christmas Ball. My entire suite drove up to Kingston this past weekend to visit friends. Coincidentally, the Christmas Ball, supposedly one of the top parties in Canada, took place on the same weekend so my good friend Wendy came in from Toronto for the “festivities”, in the tame sense of the word. If I were to tag this tidbit, it would read: wall-scaling, Queen’s, poutine, pancakes, military boys men, endless dancing, black squirrels, Felix Felicis, and generosity and genuineness of so many people we met.

Student Assembly Finance Commission (SAFC) interview. Imagine my surprise when I walk into a boardroom in the basement of Day Hall to find 15-20 people inside – all ready to interview me, together, for an extra-curricular activity. With my love of interviews and public speaking, suffice to say, I decided to bath in the (doubtful) limelight of the occasion and ramble on about my previous experience doing financial services for the Commerce Undergraduate Society (THANK YOU TRAVIS). I’m happy to report that I’m a newly minted Commissioner on SAFC! Very excited to start allocating that $1.2 million (alright, less mathematically challenging than the CUS’s excel budgets but it’ll be fun).

Pants Off! for Charity event at the University of British Columbia. The organizers of this – one of whom is my good friend Lucas – will probably kill me for posting this so late, but here it is! The event was a tremendous success and raised over $400 in the span of a few hours. Here’s photographic evidence of the event

Pants Off! for Charity at UBC

Lucas is the one on the left (you didn’t think I was going to let you off the hook by being “one of the three pantless boys” now did you?).

CORNELL, let’s see some creativity.

P.S. – My mom, an avid reader of this blog and self-proclaimed my biggest fan, will be so proud that it only took four entries before photos of half-dressed boys appeared on Ivy Years.

Cornell, Eh?

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Filed under Academics, Dorm Life, Finances, ILR, Involvement, Job, Travel

Goodbye Vancouver. Hello Ithaca. This is the tale of a Canadian in America. I’ve had the worst blogger’s block in the last three weeks, so here’s an attempt to glossily cover my current situation!

Trip Here – My parents insisted that I fly all the way as they were probably under the illusion that if they let me out of the airports, I would have 1) ended up in some other continent 2) blown my tuition money in Vegas 3) eloped.

3 flights, 4 airports, and 12 hours later, I finally got here in one piece. Note to self: never get on a plane that’s smaller than the average public bus again.

Pre-Orientation - Half a week of university-sponsored fun with international students, what’s not to love? I may have been too eager about Poker Night. If you’re an international student coming to Cornell, I strongly suggest attending Prepare. The participants are so diverse and the volunteers are extremely friendly.

Campus - Huge, beautiful, fusion of old and modern and some architectural pizazz.

Housing - I’m in a double in a suite with four awesome girls, living in the super-modern West Campus. The room is quite large and we have our own bathroom. Our house is also one of the newest buildings on campus.

Dining - The food is… good so far. I’ve never ate at dining halls before and have been warned many times, but wow, I’m impressed.

Finances - Opened a checking and savings account with M&T, currently running a bit low on cash after paying off bursar bills.

Classes - It ranges from fascinating to let’s-count-how-many-people-are-asleep-right-now :D Sophomore year is moving along at a slow pace so far.

Extra-Curriculars – I’m definitely still going on momentum post-UBC. There are a few really great groups that I’m involved with right now in the fields of consulting, student government, business magazines etc. More on that later.

Work - I found a job! Love it!