Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Washington D.C Here We Come!

The grand school of Emory University, is where we started off for the series of college tours that we would experience. But before we went, we spent sometime getting complimentary continental breakfast downstairs in hotel. I delighted myself with some pancakes, eggs, sausages, and a glass of orange juice. Throughout breakfast, I observed the lobby and dining area for breakfast. One thing I realized was the music selection that they play throughout the day. I was curious about what type of music that they play that correlated with the hotel ambiance they have. I began to think "Would the music be contemporary or from other age or is it always classical?" I began to think do they play different music that correlate with the time of the day. Although I didn't recognize the song, I heard a slow song that relaxing, which I believe fit the homely environment. I then decided to take a note for myself to check what the music was like during the afternoon to see if there was a change in the style of music.

Shortly after we ate breakfast, our shuttle came to pick us up to head toward Emory University. When we got close enough to the colleges premises I started to see what type of things and places were located in the vicinity of the school. While I couldn't recognize most of the stores and small businesses, I did know a few of the stores/restaurants we drove by. For example, Starbucks and Chipotle. Throughout the limits of the school boundaries, there were many small business and restaurants that students could visit. I admired this because students don't have to travel to far to grab coffee or other necessities. 


Since the school wasn't to far we arrived there a bit early. The shuttle driver dropped us off in front of the school's bookstore, where there was a Starbucks(notably known to be the largest indoor Starbucks in the country) and where the student store was. We walked up the three flights of stairs to get to the waiting room. The waiting room was very decorative and organized. One thing that stood out, for me, was the three posters that each had "#EMORY" and the year with students signatures around it in colorful ink. They also had a series of bookshelves with little trinkets as well as books. When it got around 9 AM, one of the deans of admissions, Timothy Fields, came into the waiting room and directed us to the seminar room where the information session would be.
 
The information session started as soon as all the people from the waiting room came in. The session started with a very fun and interesting video showing what the campus looked like when class was in session. Being very informative, we saw a range of students all interested in different things share their opinion about the school. After the video, the dean went into more statistics about admission acceptance and requirements for the schools. One aspect that I admired, that the dean went over, was the fact that the regional and admission advisers don't compare schools and their students. They look at what the school offers based on their curriculum and see how much the student has challenged themselves. I was quiet interested in the difference between their Oxford College and Emory College. Both schools coincide with each other. One useful piece of information that the dean shared was how he looks at the common applications for admission. He gave us incite in what he looks for, how he looks at it, and certain things that may "turn off" admission advisers from a student's acceptance. Soon enough we started the actual college tour.

Our college guide was this junior, Kari, showed us different parts of the schools including the dining commons, one of the dorm rooms, the main fitness center, etc. Since Coca-Cola has been a major beneficiary to the school, the school always funds building new facilities for the university. Having new facilities is an important aspect to me because not only does it give students better resources but it also shows that the school is always improving and dedicated to academics. With every turn, our tour guide had something interesting to say about the school, whether it varied from a fun fact, school traditions, or some history about the university. I was quiet astonished to hear about some of their schools tradition. For example their tradition including their skeleton mascot, Dooley. In this tradition, Dooley can come into any classroom and dismiss the whole class for the whole day. I thought that was so interesting because my high school wouldn't even allow our mascot to enter a classroom let alone dismissing a whole class/lecture.
Main Fitness Center
One Quad of Emory University
After the tour my cohort and I went back to the hotel. At this time it was almost noon and I still was curious about the hotel music. When I walked in, I rushed to my room first because we only had about 15 minutes to finish up packing and change to check out by 12:00 PM. When we finished, we all headed downstairs. When I first walked in to the lobby, I heard this contemporary/modern song called "Cool Kids" by Echosmith, which was very different from the song I heard earlier in the day. In the morning they were playing this older song that was very slow but near the afternoon the music changed to this some what upbeat, but still relaxing. I wanted to see what they would play near the evening, but unfortunately we had to leave. 

When we reached the airport, we rushed to our gate. We decided to eat at the airport as well. After some time contemplating where to eat, we finally decided upon two places, which were a philly cheese steak place and a pizza place. The restaurants being next to one another it was extremely easy to stay together. When it was time to board the place, we prepared our things and left to get on the plane. 

The plane, being overbooked again, didn't follow the seating arrangement, so I sat next to Julie. Julie and I conversed about what we were excited about and what we were really looking forward to seeing in Washington DC. I was really happy because I got the window seat, therefore having the ability to see all the beautiful scenery being above in a plane. 

When we got to Washington DC, it began to drizzle. It felt great because on the West Coast we don't see much rain in the summer, in addition to that theirs a drought. Although it was raining, it was humid. But it wasn't to long till we got a shuttle bus came to take us to the hotel. 

When we finally reached the hotel, all of us waited for Mr.Chan-Law to grab our keys. As we waited, one of the employees offered us ice tea. Most of us weren't interested, but Helen did checked what they had, just in case. She came back and said that they had ice tea and ICE CREAM! We were so overjoyed but confused as well. We asked ourselves "is this even free?" The employee then came around and we asked him politely if they were free. He nicely replied it was complimentary. We quickly grabbed one and went back. 

When we got our room key. Mr.Chan-Law told us to meet back at the lobby at 7:15 to get dinner. Helen and I were roommates this time so her and I went into our room and just relaxed a bit. We also took our time to blog as much as we could since we had a little more than twenty minutes to spare. When 7:15 cam around all of us were down stairs ready to go. As we sat their in the lobby, Mr.Chan-Law gave us some suggestions of where to eat. He gave us a few different places but it came down to two choices, one being a German restaurant the other being a Vietnamese restaurant. But since none of us had experienced German cuisines, we chose to get German. 

Pork Schnitzel!! Yummy!!
The restaurant was very unique and it wasn't anything I've seen before. Right when we walked in we saw live performers playing German songs. It was such as amazing experience. When we got our menus, it was almost impossible to pronounce half the cuisines on the menu. But later we realized that getting the name correctly was only half the battle. The real challenge was actually eating all the food. It was so delicious, but so much. The food had incredible flavors and the place was amazing overall. Some point of the dinner, the live performers did this traditional dance that was entertaining. It was a lot different from how we dance in the states. I was so happy to be exposed to the German culture, I couldn't believe that one restaurant could expose that much culture. We were so full by the end of the night that we didn't even know how we would get back to the hotel!
When we got outside it was drizzling just a little bit. As we walked down the street, we had the sudden impulse to jog to our hotel even though we were so full. It was great. We made it to our hotel before the rain got any worse.

Today was an amazing experience full of bonding, learning, and cultural experience.  I had an amazing time in Atlanta and so far an amazing time in Georgia! I cant wait to see Georgetown tomorrow!

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