Hello, everyone! It's been almost a week since I got back from Cornell and I can honestly say that--not surprisingly--my opinion of the experience hasn't changed much since I came home. Overall, I had a great time in Ithaca. You might ask: did I enjoy myself? The short answer is yes. Make yourself comfortable if you'd like to hear the long answer...

In retrospect, it's interesting that my current rating of my experience is so positive, despite that my first impression, about 5 minutes from campus, was something like: "this place is in the middle of nowhere, and I think I've seen enough cows to last a lifetime..." Yet, as soon as my father and I started to drive past campus, my impression completely changed.

First of all, Cornell's campus is huge. Maybe I emphasize the size so much because, up until about 3 weeks ago, I'd mainly visited small liberal arts colleges. Nevertheless, I'm sure the general consensus is that Cornell's campus is enormous. For example, if you want to get from North Campus to another corner of campus, like the veterinary complex, it can easily take you 30 minutes. Or say you want to walk from North Campus into collegetown, even downtown. Again, 30 minutes is the norm. Still, the size wasn't too much of a problem; my legs got used to walking all the time, and if I ever wanted to go to someplace off campus, like the mall or collegetown, public buses were passing through campus all the time.

Another noticeable aspect of Cornell was that once I actually got there, it didn't feel so isolated: the campus itself is almost like its own city, plus its surrounded on the southside by a collegetown, suburbs, even a downtown area that feels very urban. To the north, there's enough malls and shopping centers to keep anyone satisfied for a long time. All in all, it's a great location. Not that there isn't plenty to do on campus. In fact, I was hardly ever bored for 3 whole weeks, which is rather impressive, when you think about it.

I spent my time at Cornell doing two main activities: attending classes and having fun. That's not to say that my course wasn't enjoyable; actually, it was great! I took an intro to psychology course called Individual in the Social World. As the title implies, it focused on the more social side of psychology, including topics like stereotypes, conformity and altruism. And that's just skimming the surface.

I guess if you're not a complete nerd (like I am), you might not have been as amused by merely the course material. However, you probably would have enjoyed anything else about the course, from the entertaining professor to the friendly TAs. My professor was Tom Gilovich, who is apparently a well-respected figure in social psychology. Besides which, he's a very funny, interesting guy. For instance, he always included a funny video to supplement the presentations he gave. The videos ranged from anything to cartoons, like the Animaniacs, to quirky Japanese commercials featuring Gilovich himself. The videos worked so well because, besides being entertaining, they always illustrated the daily psychological concept Professor Gilovich was discussing. I also had a wonderful TA named Lily. She was sweet and friendly, and always broke concepts down into simple terms. In short, it was a thoroughly enjoyable class.

So when I wasn't reading a college semester's worth of textbook chapters, what else could I possibly be doing? Well, to the outside observer, I might not seem so interesting, but I had most of my fun by simply hanging out with the people I met. By the first night, I'd met about six other people who I wanted to spend more time with and, as the 3 weeks went by, our group grew to about 12 kids in all. On North Campus, there are plenty of large grassy fields and community centers, like Robert Purcell, so most of the times we'd just sit around, talking and joking, playing games, those sorts of activities. Many of the boys I hung out with could play guitar, so a couple of times we used someone's laptop to look up lyrics and sing together while one person played guitar. It's almost strange to think that I spent most of my second Saturday sitting on the grass while singing pop songs to guitar music, but, at the time, it was loads of fun! We also went to two dances the summer college organized for its students, but all the same, I preferred just hanging out. Guess I'm a girl of simple needs!

Despite that I had plenty of fun just hanging out with my fellow summer college students, we did go off campus to have fun elsewhere. We went to collegetown a few times. I turned 17 on a Thursday, so my friends took me out Friday night to a nice restaurant in collegetown and treated to me to dinner and dessert. We also went to the mall many times, where we mainly shopped and saw a movie or two. I'm generalizing here because, to me, the most memorable times I had with my friends were just lying on the grass outside after a long day of class, looking at the stars and chatting about whatever.

I think the friendships I made are part of 3 components that made my Cornell experience so successful. Incidentally, those 3 components include the 2 main goals I had coming into the program: check out psychology and see if I like Cornell as a possible college choice. After 3 weeks at Cornell, I love psychology and I love the school. The last part of my summer success story is the friends I made. The majority of friends I spent time with were international students, from places like Canada, France, even Colombia. It was nice to meet kids from all different places and, as a consequence, hear so many perspectives on so many topics, some opinions similar, some different, but all interesting.

So, overall, I've come to same conclusion that started this blog entry: my experience at Cornell was one of my best summers ever! 3 weeks well spent.