Hyping the Trip

Extreme Pizza in Hercules

With the school clock winding down to its final weeks, the reality of going to Cornell University for the summer is starting to sink in more and more, and today's meet and greet was just another milestone that has made me hungrier for my visit.  I arrived at Extreme Pizza in Hercules around 6:10, 20 minutes before the meet-up time.  Being an avid-basketball fan, I wanted to be able to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers match up against the Atlanta Hawks before the meeting started.  One by one, members of my cohort started to arrive and I greeted them with a hello and a handshake or a hug.  The greeting went beyond a basic hello, as I broke the ice and made basic conversation to bond with my fellow cohort members.  Ironically, Thao, who lived the closest to Extreme Pizza, was the last person to show up, which I found amusing.

After everyone arrived, we ordered our food, sat down, and started discussing the plans for our trip.  Mr. Chan-Law laid out the schedule for our trip, which includes visits to Atlanta, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and, of course, New York.  As a group, we discussed how long we would stay at each place, what we would do, and where we would go.  The trip starts off on June 16th with a flight to Atlanta to see Emory, followed by a trip to Washington D.C. to see Georgetown, a trip to Philadelphia to see UPENN, and finally, a trip to Ithaca to attend Cornell.  The entire conversation got me more and more excited for the trip; the more our cohort went into our plans, the more anxious I got.  The meeting wasn't so black and white either.  We'd veer off-topic a little bit and throw in a couple jokes or sly comments here and there, which I believed meshed our group together more than it already was.  All in all, the meeting was incredibly fun and informative and made me a little more excited for this life changing experience.