Hope you all had a merry christmas!

Hi everyone, hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

My family stayed home, considering everyone except Mom was sick.



The illness took the usual route: Jessi --> Gaby --> Papa

Now, the day AFTER Christmas, we all feel much better! Darn it.

Christmas eve!

Happy Christmas Eve!

It's my favorite day of the year. Christmas day loses the anticipation, yknow?

It's too bad I'm SICK!
And I've been sick since Saturday night!

Fever, rash (quite unsightly), ear ache, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes.... misery....

Yea, I'm not happy about getting sick 2 days after arriving home. Especially considering the flu pandemic we had at school and I was not sick ONCE (except for a sore throat a few weeks ago).

So you guys won't see me for christmas :(
And I won't get to eat my usual double portions of food because I don't have an appetite!

Home for the holidays

Hi everyone, looks like I'll see you all soon!

I got home Thursday evening.

Ithacaaaaaa.

I got a ride home with friends of mine who are graduate students at Cornell. They were going to Boston so I hitched a ride. Worked out well, we stopped in NYC.






I've never been to NYC before! We didn't really get close to the cool stuff, but it still looked beautiful from far away :)
I'm happy.

I'm home and stuffing my face~

I'll start working at the hospital again, so keep an eye out for my sister and I romping around together.

Something to make you jealous

Here's a random post to make y'all jealous.

I got a pikachu.

HA!


Alright, have a nice week everybody! I'll be home Thursday evening.

Cookie time~

So we baked cookies today, the the Eco House kitchen (which is LOVELY by the way!)


And then residents ate most of our cookies when we left the kitchen.

DO STUDENTS HAVE ANY MANNERS OR RESPECT?!?!?!?

NO!!!!

I was royally pissed off. Especially considering how protective I am of my food :)
(Saemin, you know what I'm talking 'bout)

.... kidding..... sort of... hehehehehe!

Christmas in Ithaca!

The only pics I have of Christmas in Ithaca (so far) but they are prettyful :)

Nothing new...

So I've got nothing new to say to you guys.

However I did find a picture of a very pretty bird today.



It's a plum-headed parakeet.

Aint it pretty?

And yes, that's all I have for you guys today. This weekend will be eventful however. I think I'll bake cookies with friends tomorrow to chill after taking some finals, and then there is a milonga tomorrow night also. I was also invited to a theater performance so I might go to that also~

One weekend until I go home (the 17th), and it's the last weekend of the semester so HAPPY TIME!

The midnight scream

So... finals begin tomorrow. Everyone has exams and papers, and the stress is building.

Therefore, a midnight scream was organized!

Here is the scream on North Campus, from inside my dorm. Turn up the volume to hear it.

What do I eat here?

The food. My first priority. Because I'm a little piggy.



Unfortunately, I can't say I eat well here. Sure there's lots of food, but sometimes there's no time to eat, or the dining halls close and all there is left to eat is CRAP! American heart attack food!



But enough of that. Today's food:

Typical lunch. There was a salad, but I ate it by the time I took the picture.
And I didn't eat ALL of it! I always take more than I can eat :)


A stir fry. The freshest thing you can eat in the dining halls.... that isn't a burger. Or pizza.


Risley hall dining. Risley is a residence hall, actually. This room reminds everybody of Harry Potter. Their food seems more homemade, or at least has more attention given to it, than the other dining halls. It's tiny, but it's a nice change to eat there.

A typical dessert.

Random post: music from Williard Straight Hall

So here are some random music performances in the Williard Straight Hall lounge!

I tried to be discreet again... so sorry about the video quality. Not much to see.

SNOW. Finally.

So we finally have snow! It came so late this winter... and there wasn't very much of it either. But I'm not complaining~

On a random note, THE SQUIRRELS HERE ARE WEIRD! They are not gray, they are reddish! And they're not fat lie the ones at home. Here's proof! See the weirdness?

End of classes!

It's the last day of classes, people!!!

No more classes after today!

I have study period until the end of my final exams, which is Dec 15 (chemistry). I have bio on Dec 11.



Until then, it's hanging out with friends, exploring Ithaca, and most importantly STUDYING!

We will study, I promise you.

In fact, my dorm will issue 22-hour quiet hours. The only time we can make normal noise is between 7pm-9pm. So, yes, we will study.

So, what will I do after I finish my finals?



Well.... I'll go home for winter break between Dec 17-19. Probably on the 18th. I'm trying to find a ride to Boston because I don't want to pay for the bus again.... and the bus is so boring! I have friends that visit Boston occasionally, and some might go to Boston to visit friends. I might tag along. I'll let you guys know what's up.



So stay tuned! The coming attractions feature a beef farm field trip on Saturday (in the snow, I'm afraid) and some videos of mini music concerts in the Williard Striaght Hall lounge.

See ya!

I'm home!

I'm home for Thanksgiving!

I took a bus here, and I got home last night. My friend is staying with me so she can experience a New England thanksgiving.



Time to regain all the weight I lost at Cornell.
Yes, that's right. I lost weight.



But do not worry! I'm going to devour all the food in our fridge, just like old times.



Mmmmm..... pumpkin pie :)

Cornell dining: Mexican dinner!

So I saw this flyer about last week's Mexican dinner in the central campus dining hall.... and I almost DIED. OF JOY.



The menu looked fabulous! Like, this was ACTUAL Mexican food.



They called THIS pozole. I wanted to go throw it at the chefs in the back because they LIED!


The food turned out not being so great.... but what did I expect? C'mon people.



The tamales, however, were GOOD. They tastes just like Mama's! I was so surprised, considering how much work goes into making them (we have first-hand experience).

Everything else was like, whatever.

But it was so nice to have a change in the menu!

Thanks Cornell Dining ;)

I love fireplaces

I love fireplaces.



Appel, one of the community centers on North Campus, has 2!



This one was lit on a cold day in the dining hall. I got a seat right next to it. Yay :)

Christmas comes too soon in Ithaca

So, just thought I'd let you guys know.... Christmas comes way too soon in Ithaca.

At the beginning of November (as in, Nov. 1), the mall played CHRISTMAS MUSIC!



I was like.... seriously?

Borders had their entire selection of Christmas music for sale.

I was like.... huh?

And it gets better.



One of the dorms already has a CHRISTMAS TREE!!!! Omg.




And the central campus dining hall also has a christmas tree.

Long story short, Ithaca just can't wait for Christmas!

Good thing Christmas is my favorite holiday!!


Alright, that's today's rant.

My newly found calling: Argentine tango

To all of you that have not heard me rant about how amazing argentine tango is, NEWS FLASH!

Ballroom is fun. Swing is fun. But argentine tango..... tango BEATS ballroom!

This is a video of an outdoor social dance in Hong Kong. This is what tango looks like when I dance at social dances here in Ithaca. Except there are less people. And it's not outside because it's below freezing here at night now.




Grocery store tango. I love it!


I've found that what I've wanted to get out of ballroom is what argentine tango gives me.
Argentine tango is usually danced in a closed embrace and is much more improvisational than ballroom is and the movement is soooo nice and natural.

Anyways, so I bet you guys are like EWWW YOU HAVE TO DANCE SO CLOSE TO YOUR PARTNER!
Well... yeah. If you don't like to hug, you can't dance tango. Sorry.

Tango is apparently attractive to people who are brave and intense. I dunno if I would call myself that.

Point is, argentine tango is my favorite style of dance!



After 4 weeks of dancing it, I've come a long way.

Ithaca has a good tango scene. There is a beginner's class at Cornell taught by the teacher in Ithaca, Joaquin from Buenos Aires, but I am currently not taking that class.

This is a short clip from last nights Thursday tango practica here on campus (a block away from where I live). Sorry the clip is such bad quality and so short, but I was trying to be discrete!



So anyways, Joaquin is the teacher dude. There's an old Dominican guy that does the private lessons. The community is pretty big. I think 30 people come for the Thursday practices. I think 50 came for the monthly fancy social dance, which is called a milonga.

I go to a social dance on Sunday night downtown and a practice dance on Thursday nights on campus, very close to where I live.



Sometimes there are Saturday dances. Last Saturday, there was an AMAZING fancy milonga with pretty much the entire Ithaca tango community. Well, only the experienced people. My friend Sofia and I were the only beginners there.

Argentine tango is the way to go for me! It takes my mind off of school for a couple hours and it's SO FUN! And I've made lots of friends.

Tangueros have to be friendly since it can be an awkward dance at times ;)

Happy birthday to my sis!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS!


I know your birthday was the 16th but... it just occurred to me that I should put something here about it. YAY!



Mkay. So I'm using the little girl form Totoro to depict you. Since she is EXACTLY like you in almost every way.



TOTORO!!!

Mish <3

Thought of the day: I love belugas

Yeah I know it's random but c'mon, have you ever noticed how angelic and CHUBBYYYYYY belugas are?!

They are so cute.

And very intelligent.

Here's a photo of a beluga saving a struggling diver. The beluga was already pushing the diver up to the surface by the time other people noticed she was cramping up and drowning.



What a good little beluga baby :)

And they can blow bubbles. Awesome.




That's it for today's rant. Hope you guys appreciate these beautiful creatures a little more now <3