Saturday, June 20, 2015

We Start Yet Another Journey

I awoke to the ringing of both my phone and clock alarm. Surprisingly, with the fan on at full blast, I was still able to wake up at 7 AM. Getting ready took no hassle due to only a few students checked in at the time. After making my bed and getting ready, I took the elevator to floor 1. When the doors flew open all I heard were orders being shouted and RA's carrying them out. All the students assigned to the Mary Donlon building were checking in. Luckily, I checked in early and was able to quickly get my room key and ID.

Our dorm beds after settling in
As I was testing out the key to my dorm door, my roommate and his family arrived. As they were settling in, introductions and background information went back and forth. Matthew, born and raised in Long Island, New York, is taking his second college campus program. Last summer, he took a course at University of Pennsylvania, saying the program was awesome, but the dorms and bathrooms were gross. Overall, I am lucky that Matt and I are roommates, because we are very compatible with one another.

As 10:30 rolled around, I met up with my ILC cohort in front of the RPCC building. Chan-Law arrived in the rented van and we made a hour long trip to Target in order to get needed supplies. We arrived sooner than expected and we returned to the RPCC building to dine for lunch. The dining hall was amazing. The hall was in buffet style with food from all around the world. A couple of burgers, pasta, and bread was enough food for the afternoon.

Immediately after eating lunch, Shanti, Julie, and I headed to the Cornell Book Store to pick up our Hotel Management course book. However, we ran into a few problems, causing us to check in after the Cornell Summer College presentation. We notified Chan-Law and he was able to pick up our books.  Orientation went really well and I learned a lot about Cornell educational wise and community wise. Thanks to the great speaking from Cornell's dean, Glen Schechter, and Brandee Nicholson. All shared personal stories and informed parents and students their roles in being apart of the Summer College.

Full house for Summer College Orientation
After the verbal orientation of Summer College concluded, students split up into their programs and followed their instructors. We arrived at Statler Hall in a matter of minutes and were seated in one of the brand new lecture halls. Reneta McCarthy and her husband Mark McCarthy gave us an amazing introduction to the Hotel Operations Management. Both covered everything one would need to about the program and answered the students and parents questions. Classes will be held from 8:30 P.M - 6:00 P.M with a 1 hour lunch break at 11:30 A.M.  Also, we will have to operate our own hotels through a program named CHESS. In the long run, I expect to have a different perspective on managing any type of business and hope to share everyone back home about my experience.

The orientation concluded and dinner was next. We ate at the RPCC building again for the buffet. Again, the buffet impressed me very much with the quality and quantity of the meals. After our heavy meal we went outside to play frisbee and volleyball. In the process of doing so, we were able to meet 15-20 new people who we asked to join in on our games. Connections were being made. Eventually, we quit after the RCA staff member reminded us that the ice cream meet and greet was occurring in the Mary Donlon dorm. Wow, what a party. Students were flooding outside the doors and into the courtyard. After a hour of constant conversation with dozens of students, I headed up to my room to shower and get ready for the night.

A beautiful panoramic view of Ithaca 
9:30 P.M and we still have a few more items on our schedule. It was time for our floor meeting. Everyone on our floor, 6, gathered together and introduced ourselves. Afterwards, our RCA's went through the priority items in the House Rules manual. Being one of the first groups to finish gave us time to ask many questions and sign a paper agreeing to the rules. Time for bed yet? No way! Now we had to stay up until midnight in order to be present for the daily night check-in. To kill the in time, I read through the rule book and blogged. Night check-in went very smooth and I was out and back in my room within 10 minutes. Reinforcing the fact that if one is early to beat the lines, things can be accomplished more efficiently.

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