Best Second Day of Anything

Maybe the title is an exaggeration, but today definitely felt a whole lot better than yesterday did. Despite having made some new friends at the Ice Cream Social, thanks to the floor meeting my unit had the night before I befriended two girls across the hall from me, Paula and Sami. They're both from Florida, which is super cool.

I woke up and knocked on Sami's door to see if she wanted to go get breakfast together. I also asked Serena, whom I had met because she left her door open and I sort of just popped in yesterday. We headed to the RPCC and we met up with 2 other girls Sami was friends with, Perri and Eva. While getting food I found Paula and she asked where I was sitting. Who would've known that this morning I'd find two girls I got along with so well. I got a light breakfast of potatoes and pancakes. Probably not the healthiest combination. They have omelettes too and although the line is bearable I chose not to wait in it.

View from the bridge

After breakfast we walked to the other side of campus, in attempt to see if Day Hall was open. Unfortunately it wasn't, so we walked around a little more. Because the day before I got lost I had walked across the bridge with a better view of Beebee Lake and the waterfall to the gorge. I led Sami and Paula to it, and throughout the walk we went into the Human Ecology building, and it was pretty neat.

Staircase inside the Human Ecology building

We knew there was a scavenger hunt at 12:45 PM, and since it was about 11 AM, we went back to the RPCC for lunch. Yesterday I didn't make it in time for lunch, so I was happy that I'd be getting three meals today. During lunch is when things started getting better. Sami and I sat down with Lily, another girl that Sami knew, and gradually more people started joining us. A girl named Madeline from D.C. asked if it was okay to sit down and of course we said yes. Then Carolyn from our unit sat down too. Not too long after Sami saw a boy, Liam, sitting at the table next to us by himself, and as she got up for seconds she invited him to our table. A few minutes afterwards, I was getting ice cream when I saw another guy, Tommy, sitting by himself, so I asked if he was waiting for anyone and invited him over too. They were actually both from New Jersey and live about 15 minutes away from each other. It was a really good time, and by the last few minutes Paula came and joined us too. We decided that we'd meet up for dinner after all of our scavenger hunts.

Inside Ithaca Mall, exit from Target

The scavenger hunt was mostly going around and searching for certain buildings around campus. It was about an hour long and we ended up way by the lower end of campus, almost by College Town.

A friend of ours, Mieke, was coming from the Starbucks and we took a spontaneous trip to the Ithaca Mall! Sami was hesitant because she's a very analytical person, but she joined us anyway. We didn't explore all of Ithaca Mall, it was mostly a Target run for all that Mieke needed and some snacks for us. Mieke is going to be here for 6 weeks because she's doing architecture, so she has a mini fridge so we found it proper to buy some gogurt.

The bus ride back to the dorms was nice, and it was almost 5 PM by then and the activities fair was at 5:15 PM in the Donlon Lounge, so we took a break from all the walking today and had some time in our dorms. The Donlon Lounge was packed with summer college students trying to join many different things: yearbook, Summer Times, soccer, volleyball. dodgeball, hiking, board gaming, and just about anything. Someone from summer college staff tried to start a spontaneous dodge ball game and basically failed.

I found Shuxin in the midst of all the commotion, so she, Sami, Paula, Tommy, Liam, and I went out to the picnic table right outside of Donlon and talked for quite a while until we all got hungry. In between that some guys sat down and talked to us for a bit; they were alright. We all shared interesting things about each other, like how much Liam is into politics. Also, the crazy things that have happened when Sami baby sat and Tommy slipping while cliff diving once. 

We went to dinner probably 15 minutes before it was supposed to close, and stayed there for a whole hour. The sun was starting to set, and some of us have classes that require a lot of reading so we took off. The 2nd floor of Donlon was supposed to have hot chocolate so Paula and Shuxin tried to go get some, but they were out. That's when I heard some slapping on the table and saw playing cards. Some girls were playing Egyptian Rat Screw! I learned that game through some classmates at Middle College, and Shuxin knew it too. We were both really excited and asked if we could play.

After being all sweaty and tired, Paula and I walked back to our dorms. The day felt very long, but the good kind. I did a lot, in my opinion, especially walking. Paula and Sami are taking the same course so I won't see as much of them once class starts, but we made a group chat so we should be fine. I'm looking forward to how tomorrow is going to go and first day of class.