Life on the Hill Blogs: http://www.cornell.edu/studentlife/blogs/

My Cornell Blog: http://blogs.cornell.edu/phoebe/

And since I have an obligation to write at least twice a week, the entries won’t be as sparse as here on Ivy Years. This also means I will no longer be updating this blog (at least until I graduate). Hope you join me on my new venture.

I see you. I see you at your desk with a stack of names – candidates with seemingly-flawless resumes and stellar academic credentials. By this point you may have become bored with the monotonous process of Googling names. Or you may be Facebooking your potential interns and gleefully chuckling to yourself as you come upon some blurry shot of said intern doing a keg stand while making a lewd gesture to scantily-clad female cohorts who are in compromising positions.

As a freelance web designer and a (very eager) future intern, I have an especially great interest in my online reputation, which is why I had my hesitations about this blog entry. You see Dear Potential Employers, I have picked up a hobby while I’m here in England. While not exactly self-destructive or harmful to society, this hobby has the potential to burn holes through my wallet, make my evenings go by in a hazy blur, and raise questions about my status as an alcoholic. The hobby? I am currently a card-carrying member of the Oxford Wine Tasting Society.

At the beginning of term, a friend of mine suggested joining the Wine Society here. At first I thought this was a bit unnecessary, because 1) tequila is cheaper* 2) my palate isn’t that perceptive or sensitive and I will probably mistaken a Chateau Mouton Rothschild – Pauillac 2000 vintage for a £5 watered-down bottle from the Tesco supermarket  3) I’ll be taking HADM4430 – Intro to Wines at Cornell next year anyway. My skepticism eventually gave in to curiosity and I went to my first tasting: Introduction to Alsace.

* This is a joke.

A tasting session at Oxford is neither the stuffy hoity-toity scene you imagine nor… okay who am I kidding, wine tasting can be pretty darn pretentious. The meetings usually take place at Merton College and go on for about 2.5 hours. Each session revolves around a geographic region – we’ve done the aforementioned Alsace, Lebanese, Chilean, Rioja, Burgundy etc.so far – and is led either by an expert from the winery/region or the Bacchus Society’s president, the lovely Alex Linsley. The talks are very educational actually – we learned about growing conditions, wine-making traditions, the peculiarities of each vintage, and more.

Upon learning about my new-found obsession, my Oxford tutor for International Economics actually suggested that I do a paper on the wine trade and international wine regulation! THIS IS WHY I LOVE OXFORD. For research, my tutor gave me a DVD of the award-winning film about wine, Mondovino, and told me to go to the grocery store and buy a bottle from every major wine-producing region. Needless to say, my 3000 word essay was a tipsy masterpiece.

Over the course of Hilary term, my roommate and I have accumulated a large number of wine bottles. I was horrified to have this shelf collection pointed out to me one day when I was Skyping with my parents. However, my dad was VERY excited that I joined Bacchus and promptly told me he actually just bought a wine fridge. Here’s a screenshot haha:

During Easter break, we took this wine obsession one step further and went to Bordeaux to have St. Emilion wine (now that’s a whole story on its own). C’est la vie.

So Dear Potential Employer, when you come across my resume and see that I have listed “wine” as an item under “Activities, Skills, and Interests”, do not be alarmed. After all, wine – while I’m legal in the UK – fits under all three categories of “Activities, Skills, and Interests.”

Warm regards,

Phoebe

P.S. – Here are some wonderful blogs I found and now follow =)

• Dr. Vino – The author, Tyler Colman, is pretty prominent in the wine world. He wrote one of the books I read for my Intl Econ tutorials! His writing is accessible and to-the-point.
• WSJ On Wine – “Incisive criticism and accessible advice on the world of wine”
• Jamie Goode’s Wine Blog – Expect lots of pictures and tasting notes!
• The Terroirist – The name of this blog refers to terroir, a French word that holds particular significance for winegrowers. The terroir is basically the belief that the micro-climate, soil, wine-making techniques etc. all contribute to the composition of the wine.  The entire French system of appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) for wine classification is based on terroir.
• Sociology of Wine – fascinating background into this dynamic industry

(Panelist skyping in to a panel from DC)

Throughout the week, we heard from Hoover Institute fellows, Stanford professors, the Beijing bureau chief of The Washington Post, an official from the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a former director of the World Bank, and a former Secretary of State under President Reagan, just to name a few. My greatest take-away from all of this is the surprising amount of humanity that is involved in international relations and foreign affairs. In Government classes, we learn about the realpolitk nationalism that plague the relations between China and the US. Our professors tell us that the Sino-US relation is shadowed by distrust stemming from sovereignty, human rights, security, and trade issues. FACES literally put a face to this entire discussion. Former Secretary of State George Schultz chuckled as he recounted how much fun he found former PRC President Jiang Zemin to be, and how much he appreciated Deng Xiaoping’s blunt, and straight-forward personality. Sure, Schultz spoke at lengths about the future of US and China in a bipolar system of world power, but what was most memorable to me was the thought, heart, and toil that these statesmen put into fostering the relationships of two countries.

Punctuating the provocative discussions of tri-party policy development in regards to Taiwan, panels about regional stability in South Asia, and seminar talks about gender roles in China and the U.S., the delegates…

Traipsed the Stanford campus making funky short films and learned the meaning of “chillin”.

Roamed around San Fran like perfect tourists.

Concocted elaborated three-course meals with a limited number of ingredients for the execs to “enjoy”.

Engaged in crisis simulations playing national leaders.

Shopped for Stanford gear

(Stanford’s mascot is a tree)

And learned how to share a small bed with a bedmate in the guest house at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

In between panels and parties, we found ourselves becoming fast friends. The delegates are Fullbright scholars, JD/MBA candidates, PHD students, entrepreneurs, government interns, non-profit founders, aspiring i-bankers/artists/diplomats/consultants/professors, multi-lingual exchange students, and much, much more. They hail from all corners of the world. Some switch between English and Chinese with a confident ease  that I admire. Some have been to more places than I will probably go my whole life. And how can we forget the executives at Stanford who organized this? Kudos guys!

Part II of the conference will convene in Hangzhou in November this year. See you in a flash!

I’m slowly losing count of how many papers I have due in the next few days (4? Maybe 5?) Here’s to hoping that I’ll be uber productive during my 3 hour layoff in the Philly airport. See, I wasn’t too bummed about staying in Ithaca for Spring Break because I have a trip planned for California, commencing this Saturday. I will mostly be spending time at Stanford University for a conference on US-China Relations. On Wednesday, the group of delegates are going to San Francisco for a day of fun. Hopefully I’ll have plenty of pictures to share!

P.S. – A shout out to the newly accepted Cornell Class of 2014, congratulations!

I did pretty well on one resolution so far – Take every opportunity to travel. There was Mock Trial at Yale in February. This past weekend I was in Shippensburg, PA with the Cornell HR Games (basically Jeopardy, HR style) team competing in the Northeast Regional. Both Cornell teams made it to the semi-finals and went head-to-head. To my immense surprise, my team made it to the finals and went on to beat Shippensburg University. NORTHEAST CHAMPIONS, HOLLA! It’s so nice to have the plaque back after the series of Penn State wins in the past couple of years.

So other than that, why is life good? Canada broke the record for the number of gold medals at a Winter Olympic game! Ithaca is finally showing the first hint of spring! I may have exciting plans for next spring semester! NY Fashion show just keeps fueling my love for fashion! School is chill but interesting! Love, love, love Cornell.

Cornell Mock Trial has 3 teams, 436, 437, 438, as designated by the American Mock Trial Association. My team 438 fluctuates between 7 or 8 people, with the oh-so-dapper Captain Fanelli at the helm (wink).

In the weeks before Cornell’s Big Red Invitational and Yale’s New Haven Invitational, we had practices every night, sometimes going til midnight at Goldwin Smith. On cross practices, I got grilled on miniscule details from the 9-page affidavit I had to memorize. And thank goodness too, otherwise surviving the UPenn and Carnegie Mellon cross-examinations would not have been easy.

So let’s talk about Yale. The campus is a spectacular collection of gothic structures packed into a couple street blocks. It had the same austerity as Harvard, but like Harvard, we discovered the quaint little coffee shops or lunch places that Yalies frequent. I didn’t spot too many places that could’ve been sets for That’s Why I Chose Yale, which might be a relief. My photos are on Facebook.

Competition-wise, we did pretty well for a mostly-newbie team haphazardly brought together only four weeks before the tournament. One member even won an Outstanding Witness award for, dare I say, mastery of the Alabama accent.

Best of luck to the two Cornell teams moving on to the next round!

This year, I waited after the New Year and New Decade euphoria to settle down a bit, hoping the overly-optimistic and wishful thinking would be out of my system before I sit down and make resolutions that are actually feasible. So here they are, somewhat anticlimatically presented.

Write New Year Resolutions – YES! DONE! (Kidding…)

Think before I speak – to avoid embarrassment, regret, hysteria, and perceived stupidity on my part.

Do something terrifying – gorge-jumping or dancing in front a large crowd of people maybe?

Hit the big FOUR-OH, not agewise mind you, but grade-wise.

Learn to cook beyond boiling water.

Get my driver’s license, because my friends currently view my inability to drive as practically a disability.

Blog more often! And write for a publication.

When it comes to extra-curriculars, DEPTH, not BREADTH.

Take every opportunity to travel.

Sleep before 12:30 and get up early to preview lectures – I have a feeling this will be the toughest one.

Of course, there’s the “internship/career/graduate school/fitness plan/eat healthier” staple that come with every resolution list which I will bypass here.

QOTW: What are your New Year Resolutions? And how many have you broken already?

When someone agrees to something, shut up, stop providing details, and go celebrate. You’ve won, don’t push your luck by adding unnecessary information.

If a small action on your part can make a big positive difference for someone else, take said action.

Memories and morals are the most valuable things you have.

Sometimes friends drift apart or go in different directions. Try your best to save it, but know when to let go.

Family, the older you get, the more precious and loving they become. Also the older you get, the less you’ll see them and actually miss their nagging and idiosyncracies.

Love does not last.

How you see the world changes as you change how you see yourself.

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

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.

Do I sound like a troubled and emo young adult? Fear not, I was simply at EARS. Cornell EARS standards for Empathy, Assistance, & Referral Services, a free advice/listening couseling-like service for students who want to talk about any issues they or someone they know has. Now normally I would never admit I went to someone who loosely reassembles a psychiatrist, because let’s face it, I’m about as sane and practical as they come. I make pro’s and con’s lists for everything. Every time I take an extended trip my travel plans are carefully outlined by the hour and color-coded by categories on an excel document. I compartmentalize so well that I have different versions of my resume that fit each major career paths that I may pursue.

The reason I was on that squishy sofa next to those giant teddy bears was because a friend of a friend was undergoing training to become a counselor and needed someone to practice on. No one else she knew had issues they wanted to share so I (bravely) volunteered. It started off superficial and shallow, “sometimes I feel a bit stressed”. Duh, it’s Cornell. “Everyone wants different things from me”. Er, it’d be creepy if they all wanted the same thing (‘brainsssssssssss’). Yes, the cynical voice in my head is quite loud. We dug deeper. Time passed. I felt surprisingly relieved. At the end of the day, there was no  single pinpointed stress. The joint conclusion by the counselor and myself was that I in fact had too many issues. HA! Take that Freud.

All jokes aside, EARS was definitely an interesting and beneficial experience. Next time I might even go and just chat now that I’m familiar with the atmosphere there and know that the counselors are absolutely wonderful. For anyone who just wants someone to listen, EARS is located in 213 Willard Straight Hall.

On another note, Phoebe will be taking a break from sanity for the next 48 hours as she rejoices the completion of all her prelims!

[Edit: Nov 26] Oh gosh, I just read this in the advice column of the Daily Sun and it scared me how it reflected my sentiments and state of mind almost word. for. word.