A New Day A New Adventure

The day started out with our cohort waking up slightly later than we had envisioned we would wake up. We then rushed downstairs to quickly eat our breakfast at the Omni's Breakfast Buffet. I didn't really view many of the options since we were in a bit of a rush but I just picked up pretty much what I saw that I could eat at that moment which ended up consisting of 2 pancakes, a slice of bread, and a small chocolate scone with a glass of water. We then caught a cab which dropped us off at Northwestern in Evanston. We took it as the time to see why Chicagoans say they have a beach even though they don't live near an ocean. So we headed out to see Lake Michigan which is right behind Northwestern. And it was pretty cool. It actually looked and felt like a real beach except for the fact that it was a freshwater lake. And because of that, the water didn't have that salty smell that beaches in California have. I found that super cool and interesting. The addiction of this beach next to Northwestern is something I really liked because if I were to attend away from California, I'd still at least have the California beach factor with me. Which is not found in other schools in the east.

After the beach, we then headed inside the waiting room for our tour of Northwestern. One thing that Northwestern really likes to make prominent is the amazing things that their students and alumni have done. In the first display case shown, they had the Game of Thrones book on display because George R.R. Martin was an alumni at Northwestern. And me being the Game of Thrones fan I am had to take a picture of such a display.

There was then a huge interactive display of what Northwestern students were doing. Me being the fact nerd I am loved looking through it because it definitely gave an idea of the kind of track i would want to take at this school and how the school would help me get there. From what I could see from the display board, the school focuses A LOT on entrepreneurship. And as someone that wants to create something of my own one day, I see this as something really great. Also as someone that wants to go back to my country of origin and also do a lot of work there Northwestern gives a lot of help and access to that. I was super interested in their Mandela Washington Fellowship For Young African Leaders Initiative because it aids as a strong support force for 25 African entrepreneurs who want access to many different opportunities to help them take this knowledge and bring back to their countries of origin. That program stood out to me the most because it took the approach of applying what we learn and sharing that knowledge and community uplift instead of other peoples usual approach of just donating food, clothes and such.

I also realized that Northwestern deals alot with technology and innovation like many other top schools. They are dealing alot with science in this school such as nanotechnology, Green technology, technology to help with medicine, technology to help teach and so much more. As someone who is a huge science nerd it was super awesome that the school so heavily supports science and innovative thinking among students.

The tour guide then called us into a room where we watched a video about Northwestern. I have done previous research on the school a while back before ILC so i already knew how prestigious and well known the school is. But one thing I really found out today was how the school made sure that every class we were taking was being taken for a reason. Because the school does not have a core curriculum, it allows for more flexibility when it comes to choosing classes which was the main thing I got out of the presentation.

After the presentation, we went to the tour. In this tour there were two tour guides in our group. They took us around and showed us many of the buildings, and told us many of the traditions that took place at the school such as painting on the rock (which was a tradition that formulated from a prank pulled by the freshman against the seniors), and a spring festival that takes place where many bands such as the Mowgli's, and singers such as Chance the Rapper, that go on stage and sing for the Northwesterners. Also, the school showcases a lot of spirit because it is a Division 1 school, so there's not a place you can go without seeing purple. The buildings that they showed were extremely nice. I really liked the fact that the buildings looked really old style and dated yet they looked very clean and well taken care of.

After the tour, we took the train back to the hotel where we waited for Mike's cousin Amy. When she came, we started walking towards a place called Eataly. And it was something completely different than I had seen before. Eataly is a Italian restaurant / market where one can buy different Italian foods and also food and dessert. It was super cool! I had ended up ordering a forcaccia and at first I was super unsure about it because for some reason I thought it was another variation of a deep dish pizza which we had yesterday but I wasn't a very big fan of. However, after eating it I was blown away by how delicious it was (Before I wrote this blog I definitely googled some forcaccia places around the Bay Area). While we were eating, we talked more with Amy and she told us some amazing things about her position in Chicago and what made her take the route that she took today. She also got her master's in Public Policy which was pretty cool to hear because of the fact that I'm taking Public Policy at Cornell this summer in a few days. She talked a lot about her job with CBS and it was super interesting to hear. She definitely opened my mind about the city.

We then went to Shake Shack which is where I bought something called a Concrete which was somewhat of a fancy version of an Ice Cream cup. It tasted pretty good! I wish there was a Shake Shack in Northern California though because as someone who can't really eat most of the options at In N Out, Shake Shack gives a better variety.

After Shake Shack, we then went to Dylan's Candy Bar. Which was a massive candy shop with two stories. Coming from a person that doesn't eat much candy, I thought the store was awesome. I literally felt the 10 year old in me as I roamed through the store and looked at all the candy choices. I was extremely impressed. There was a huge room with just a giant row of chocolate lined up. In the end I walked out with a square of fudge as we headed for our next destination.

After the candy store, we ended the adventure with going to Garrett's Popcorn Shop. I picked up a bag of the Classic Chicago style popcorn which consists of a mixture of cheddar and caramel. Even though I don't like cheese flavored popcorn, the mixture makes the popcorn taste really great. Out of the Chicago style pizza and the Chicago style popcorn, I'll definitely remember the popcorn the most.

We then said our goodbyes to Mike's cousin and headed back up to the hotel room where we packed up ready to leave the next day for University of Chicago and then back on the plane for Detroit. Today was definitely a great day filled with great food and a great university (that I will definitely be applying to). I can't wait for what the day will bring tomorrow!

Seeing the Wildcats

Attempting the Titanic Pose

After some amazing breakfast at the Omni Hotel, we caught a cab to Northwestern University, home of the wildcats. We were a little bit early so we explored the beautiful campus. The campus is right next to Lake Michigan and after two days of not seeing water we just had to go there first. Right after taking pictures of the scenery, Joceline and I made the decision to play in the water. Unlike Joceline, I didn't think to take my shoes off. I thought it would be fine since I had sandals on. As soon as I stepped into the water, the sand gathered up on my sandals which wasn't pleasant. I very soon realized the water was extremely cold and there were a bunch of rocks everywhere. Joceline and I were ready to stop playing in the water after about 5 minutes and we were thankfully able to find a hose to help rinse the sand off. 

Shortly after our tour started. The tour began with a 45 minute presentation about the school itself, the majors they offer, etc. The most interesting aspect about Northwestern to me was that they actually don't have a "core" set of classes that you are required to take as part of your general courses before taking the courses specific to your major. I really thought that this was extremely unique as most colleges do require you to take a certain amount of math, science, and English courses. It also seems to be an extremely good fit for those that may not know what they want to major in. Another really cool part about Northwestern is that if you take a bunch of classes that seem like they could be a major then you can graduate with a degree in that "major" after getting it approved by the dean. After the 45 minute presentation, we broke out into smaller groups with a student tour guide to walk around the campus and ask further questions. I chose to go with a tour guide named Jim, a music cognition major from Memphis, Tennessee. I was drawn to his group when I heard him yell, "If you want to be in a group that's cool and awesome then this is the group to be in." I figured cool and awesome was the way to go, so I went to his group. He walked backwards for most of the tour and told us lots of random tidbits of information. For example, the sorority and fraternity rows are built on the opposite ends of the campus because the architect for the campus had a daughter who wanted to go to Northwestern and was interested in Greek life. He didn't want his daughter near all the fraternity boys, so he had them built on the opposite ends of the campus. He told us all about the class sizes, job opportunities, food, extracurricular activities, resources, safety, and much more. For example, Northwestern offers a free transportation service to those that do not want to walk to campus themselves late at night. A student worker will drive to the student and take them anywhere within a 3 mile radius of the campus. This makes the campus extremely accessible to students at all times and more safe. 

After the tour, we walked about ten minutes to a public transportation stop and took the L back to the middle of the city and then we proceeded to walk back to our hotel. Chicago's public transportation system reminds a lot of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transportation). The way you get into the waiting area is similar. The lines also seem to be very simple and straightforward the way BART is. I was extremely tired from the tour and playing in the water so I fell asleep on the way back to the city, which is awesome because that means the seats are comfortable enough to sleep in. I'm just kidding. I can sleep almost anywhere. 

Later, we met up with Mike's cousin, Amy, who is a Chicago native. We first went to Eataly, an Italian grocery store and food court. I ate some amazing mango and mixed berry gelato. Next, we went to the infamous rival of the West Coast's In-n-Out, Shake Shack. I recently watched a video comparing the two and was extremely excited when we went there. I actually didn't get anything because I was extremely full from the gelato and bread I ate, but after just going inside I can definitely see the allure of it. The inside was extremely quirky and had a variety of different burgers and types of desserts. The next time I'm near a Shake Shack and famished then I know where I'm going. The third place we went to was Dylan's Candy Bar. It's a two story candy shop filled with every candy you can think of. There were even 3D printers that could make you your own personalized candy. The last and best (in my opinion) place we went to was Garrett Popcorn Shops. I'm usually not a fan of either cheddar or caramel popcorn, but the two flavors together are very tasty. The sweet and salty flavors really balance each other out to create this equilibrium of mouth watering goodness. It's definitely something I'll buy again if I am in Chicago again. 

~ A Picture Can Tell a Thousand Words, But a Few Words Can Tell It's story~

Field Museum at Sky Deck

Todays blog is packed with pictures. My day started at 2:50 AM with a meeting at El Cerrito High School. This is where are parents gave us farewell and cohort and chaperone we say hello. Don weighed our luggage told us from now on we have to blog every night to just final messages about our flight. We grabbed our final snacks and any remaining things we needed and went to take a group picture and boarded our shuttle to SFO.

(In Back)Chaperone:Mike Girls: Joceline, Kaichi, Diana(myself), Shuxin(Left to Right)
    

Our plane took off at 6:45 AM. I was sitting next to Joceline and beside us was a man from Pennylsvania. He informed us about UPenn it's campus and major, but we didn't talk very long because he seemed more interested in looking at his tablet, but thats ok. Joceline and I had a great time looking out the window and talking among ourselves.

After landing we took a shuttle to the hotel. Once exiting the airport we were slapped with humidity that us "California Girls" have never experienced to. Our driver told us about all the places to visit in Chicago,but sadly we couldn't have time for everything. Yet, we did get to do one very interesting thing.

We arrived at the Omni Hotel where my first impressions were just wow what is this fancy skyscraper building, but than I did realize this was our hotel.Everyone at the hotel was very friendly it was very quick to get into our rooms and the rooms were beautiful whole Cornell cohort can agree that this is one of the nicest hotels we have ever been to. We quickly threw our bags in the room and got ready for an adventure.

We caught a cab with the most interesting  Greek cab driver I have ever had. This cab driver asked us where we are from to what we want to do in college. He even gave us real life lessons which went around the lines of "You don't have to get married you are all independent smart young ladies" or "Kids aren't always the best choice". All I can say is that he was a very unique driver. He told us that he lived in Chicago for 45 years and had never once traveled to the very place were visiting... Willis Towers, or here is a more familiar name sky deck.

NOW FOR THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY...

The Beautiful View

The sky deck was amazing in the beginning we were able to go through an elevator which would compare how far up we were to real life monuments like the statue of liberty. The tower is 103 floors. Everyone even jumped on the sky deck which was very scary, but once done you felt no regrets.

Casually Laying Down at 1,353 ft Above the Ground

After a long day we finally went to go eat at Lou Malnatis to go meet with alumni from UChicago, Simon and Courtney. I had my first deep dish pizza which was amazing I would never get tired of it and we ended the meal with a cookie and icecream dessert. Anyway they both gave us a lot of information about UChicago that you can't get anywhere, but from them. They informed us about financial aid to campus life. Courtney helped me a lot with discussing my major (International Business) and she told me what classes I would take at UChicago and how its a very supportive environment. We all had a good time talking. I definitely am going to apply to UChicago because of this dinner which I never would have thought I would even consider I definitely got to experience a little glimpse of the city life and weather, but I think I could get used to it. 

Lou Malnatis Classic Pizza

Arriving in the Windy City

The Cornell and Brown Cohorts arrived at El Cerrito High School at 2:50 AM. We heard the pre-departure speech from Don, took photos, and got snacks before we and the Brown cohort headed to the San Francisco Airport. We bought our very early breakfast from Peets Coffee and Tea. Shortly after we boarded our plane. Our flight was supposed to take off at 6:00 AM, but it was delayed for 45 minutes. The good news for that was that it was originally supposed to be delayed for 50 minutes so we took off 5 minutes earlier than that. Don told us to sleep early the night before because we'd have busy days as soon as we got off our flight, but honestly I couldn't sleep. So, I ended up waiting for the takeoff to watch the pretty sunrise and then I knocked out. 

Omni Hotel

We arrived at the Chicago O'Hare Airport around 12:00 PM (CDT). As soon as we arrived, I felt the humidity and immediately missed the chilly weather of El Cerrito at 3:00 AM. We took a shuttle to the Omni Hotel, quickly checked in, and put our luggage in our rooms. Then, we were off to the streets of Chicago. We walked along the famous Michigan Avenue before we got on a cab to go to Willis Tower. It was my first time in a cab and I didn't realize how interactive the drivers would be. Our cab driver asked us all about our trip, dreams, and family life and then told us life advice. He basically told us to experience life and experiment before settling down, which I thought was extremely appropriate considering one of the ILC's goals is to encourage its students to broaden their horizons and apply to schools outside of California. It also made me realize how it didn't necessarily matter what your job was. Even though the cab driver just picks up random people off the streets every day, he was still able to tell us much more insightful advice that I found extremely relevant and more helpful than any informational talk I've been given at school.

I was most excited to go to the Willis Tower out of Chicago's tourist places. I love seeing the beautiful view and how small the large buildings look. It reminds me how everything is so very relative to each other. For example, the airplane seat was pretty roomy to me because I'm a relatively small person, but it was cramped to Kachi, my seat buddy, because she is quite a bit taller than myself. Similarly, all the city buildings look really large up close, but from a larger building they look extremely small. Even though the view at the glass decks in Willis Tower is absolutely breathtaking and very worth it, getting on the glass decks themselves to see the full view is very nerve-wrecking. I'm usually not afraid of heights and am rather nonchalant about it, but looking down before attempting to step into the glass decks was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. The logical part of my brain told myself there was a possibility the deck could break and I would plummet to my death and looking down really reinforced that concept in my mind, but after forcing my body to step into the deck while my trembling hands held onto the side of the deck (as if I could possibly keep myself up if the deck were to suddenly break apart from the tower) I was able to feel for myself how stable the deck was. After feeling that for myself, I was able to jump and achieve a very blog worthy picture with the help of Joceline and her phone. I felt very proud of myself for overcoming my fear and happy that I could see the view.

Lou Malnatis Classic Pizza

The last big part of my day was going to Lou Malnatis and eating dinner with my cohort and two University of Chicago students, Simon and Courtney. First of all, the food was alright. It was my first time eating deep dish pizza and honestly I don't really see what's so special about In my opinion, there wasn't enough sausage, too much tomato sauce, the cheese wasn't melted enough, and the crust wasn't the best. I honestly prefer regular pizza crust to the thick crust of deep dish pizza. The real star of the dinner for me was the deep dish cookie with ice cream and whip cream on top. I wasn't able to snap any pictures of it because we all immediately started digging into it as soon as we saw it. It was so amazingly warm and gooey and when mixed with the vanilla ice cream it was absolutely scrumptious. The more important part of the dinner was the discussion with the University of Chicago students. They told us all about their admission process, school, etc. It was extremely informative and helpful to how likely I could see myself as a student studying at University of Chicago. 

This Blog is Multiple Thousand Words Long

Just kidding. But there will be a lot of photos, and each is worth a thousand words. Departure day had finally arrived. I woke up later than I meant to, sorry Don, and had a quick 2:30 AM breakfast of leftover pasta and my favorite Jaliciense custard (jericalla). I got to El Cerrito High School and was greeted by 54 degree weather and the other 9 ILCers that were waiting. Don weighed my bag and thankfully it was only 34 pounds. Don had a table set out with a variety of snacks that we could all grab for the trip in big Ziploc bags and another table with lanyards, bags, and hangers for those who needed them. We got a good talk that wasn't too long from Don and proceeded to talk the Cornell cohort picture. This time we had a special feature of the Cornell flag. Not too long after the shuttle arrived and I sadly had to to say goodbye to my mom and sister. I'm going to miss them but I'm glad I'm getting such an independent experience.

3 AM faces

The ride to the airport was very quick and actually everything was very smooth from there! Check-in bags were quick and TSA lines were short and quite the opposite of hectic, thankfully. Mike then let us pick which quick breakfast we wanted, and there was a unanimous decisions for Peet's coffee.

My view from the plane

Finally it was time to board the plane, oh boy. It was my first plane ride! Every place I've visited has been a road trip so this is definitely on example of Ivy League Connection exposing students to new experiences. Luckily, I had expert traveler and fellow cohort member Diana with me to guide me through everything. It wasn't so bad at all, felt more like speeding than anything. The views were incredible even though everything looked like green or brown patches of land.

Diana and I were sitting next to a man who was actually from Pennsylvania and we got to ask him a bit about UPenn's campus and he said he'd been to Chicago a couple times, but he wasn't very talkative and more into his ebook. So we let him be and got to chatting it up between us instead,

After landing, we spent a good hour or so in a shuttle. It sounds boring, but the driver was very interesting and he gave us many suggestions on things to see and definitely had many opinions to share, especially about deep dish pizza. Yum.

Fast foward, we checked in to the Omni Hotel, which is very lovely. Then we hurried along to go to the Willis Tower, and we were driven by yet another interesting driver! He had been living in Chicago for 45 years and gave us, and mostly Shuxin, life advice. You never know what you're going to get when you step into an shuttle/cab. 

The Willis Tower had an amazing view. It was seriously breathtaking. The elevator ride was only 60 seconds long and it covered 103 floors. The entire structure is some 1500 feet high, a record breaking height. It had a mini exhibit with cool lighting fixtures and showed some places at ground level and then how they would look 103 floors up. We all dared to go onto the Skydeck and even jumped for some photos. It was wild to be looking down at the glass and seeing the street at the very bottom.

Amazing view of Chicago

Sadly, my picture of the pizza did not do it justice

We spent a good amount of time there, but it was time to go back to the hotel and get things sorted out before our casual dinner with the UChicago student and ILC alumni Simon. It was also a chance to try authentic Chicago deep dish pizza! Personally, I'm big on Zachary's Chicago Pizza back home in the Bay Area, so yes I was deeply excited. We took a rather calm cab drive to Lou Malnati's Pizzeria and we found Simon and his friend Courtney already waiting for us. Before ordering pizzas we chose to get some bruschetta and mozzarella sticks. Simon suggested we try the classic pizza and we also got "the Lou" pizza. Both were equally delicious and the crust was definitely something else due to it's high butter content, so worth it. We learned a lot from both Courtney and Simon about UChicago's application, the way their classes are set up, and got a good idea of what their campus is all about before visiting it.

We ended the night a deep dish cookie dessert, but we had to hurry along because we knew it was supposed to rain and we had a short walk back to our hotel. The real ending to our first night at Chicago was a quick dip in the pool and some down time in the hot tub. All and all it's been an incredible experience so far, despite the fact we didn't do too much today we enjoyed ourselves a whole lot and of course learned a thing or two.

The First Day of Adventuring in Chicago

The day started out with me leaving the house at around 2:00 sharp and reaching El Cerrito High School at 2:40ish. Though I was tired and extremely cold (it was around 50 degrees!), I still had a small warmth in my body from the excitement of me going to board a plane in just a few hours. Don went over a few more logistics and pointers and things we had to remember as for the fact this would be the last time we would see him in person. Mike and Don also brought us a ton of snacks for the plane so we were more than ready to go. We took one last big Cornell group picture right below

After taking the group picture, our shuttle finally arrived at 4 o clock on the dot and that's when we said goodbye to our parents. My dad took me so I said my goodbyes to him and we were headed off to San Francisco Airport!

We had reached San Francisco airport around 4:45ish and it surprisingly went by super fast. I had been pre-checked for the TSA stops so I had a quick scan which I found super convenient. From there we picked up some food from Pete's Coffee and quickly arrived in the plane. We arrived inside the plane at around 6:30ish but we didn't end up leaving until around 7:30ish because of delays in the plane. The plane ride was a good rest from walking however as a person with long legs it was a struggle having the seat in front of me leaned back since it kinda squished my legs. But my discomfort was quickly forgotten when I saw our plane finally leaving for take off. As we ascended into the air further and further, I knew that I would be in for the trip of a lifetime.

We arrived at Chicago Airport at around 12:45 and as I exited the plane I immediately felt one thing in the air: humidity. It was hot (85ish degrees) yet you could definitely taste the moisture in the air. Almost hard to breathe at first but then I just realized that was the Californian in me adjusting to my new environment. We then collected our bags and promptly left the airport to head to our shuttle. When we got in our shuttle and started driving to our hotel we began to talk to our shuttle driver. He talked about how he grew up and lived in Chicago for 40+ years and that he knew everything that we as tourists should do. He got us hyped for Chicago Pizza, Chicago hotdogs, Chicago tourist sites and everything we should do and eat in our time here. He was really cool and told us to give him a call whenever we needed an idea for a new place to go.

We arrived in our hotel, the Omni Hotel, and it was BEAUTIFUL, Definitely on the higher end of hotel chains. The lobby was absolutely gorgeous and it now serves as our official meeting spot for the next two days. 

After we checked into both our hotel rooms (which were both really nice), we decided to leave one room as a luggage room and one as where we would all sleep. After checking into the hotel we walked over to the Walgreens just a few blocks away to go pick up some drinks to sustain us, and then caught a cab to the Willis Tower. Our cab man had a lot to say about certain topics and basically was trying to tell us to make the most out of our lives. But after meeting him one thing I realized about Chicago besides how crazy the drivers were, was how talkative the cab drivers were. Which I see as something that is pretty cool. 

We finally made it to the Willis Tower and it was awesome! Me being the history nut I am loved the amount of history that went into one building. They had multiple display rooms that would tell the background of the city and the buildings made. It made me super happy because there was a room where you could just press a button on a display and it would play audio from a famous historical person in Chicago. We then got to this super cool room about the skyscraper and it would light up multiple colors of the rainbow in 30 second increments. Me, once again, being the history nut I am, was super intrigued on the facts about the skyscraper on the wall and how it was once the tallest tower in the world. And I definitely had to take a picture with it. 

Afterwords we took an elevator and made it up to the SkyDeck to see the views of Chicago. The SkyDeck was about 103 floors and was the tallest building in Chicago and before we went on it I was terrified. Prior to taking the elevator up the SkyDeck there was a video that played that showed people jumping on a glass window box that stuck outside of the building. So basically the only thing separating one from the 103 floors down was a piece of glass. I was extremely scared when I saw that. However after taking multiple looks outside the window and seeing how beautiful Chicago as a city really was, and taking multiple baby steps onto the glass window box, I didn't feel afraid anymore. I felt awesome in fact. 

After we left the SkyDeck, we went to the souvenir shops, and then ended up leaving the Willis Tower. After chasing cabs for 20 or 30 minutes we finally caught one and rushed back to the hotel to put away our items and got ready for the dinner at 5 at the Lou Malnati's (sounds very similar to Illuminati) with a former Ivy League Connection Columbia alumn Simon Cohen and his friend Courtney. When we arrived he was already waiting for us at the restaurant. Simon and Courtney had talked about how they felt about attending University of Chicago and their process when it came to choosing the school and how they feel about the school now. They offered a lot of insight and answered a lot of questions that really help for me especially as for the fact that I will soon be applying for schools since I'm a senior. During this dinner, we ordered appetizers and I ordered a personal veggie deep dish pizza. At the end we all split the cookie ice cream plate. 

After the dinner we went back to the hotel. The rest of my cohort wanted to attend the pool but I didn't bring a swimsuit because I wasn't really going to be up for swimming during the time. So instead I used the time spent at the pool to catch up on my blogging and text my sister. 

Overall, the day was very eventful. Today was a great first day of what's to come. I really enjoyed the day and can't wait to see what else Chicago is going to offer me while I am here. Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

~ Few More Hours till Chicago Chicagooo~

Chicago here I come. In a few more hours I will be meeting at El Cerrito High School at 10 to 3 in the morning. Yes, a long day awaits. My luggage weighed and if I have all necessary materials will be checked. From that point I will say goodbye to my parents and hello to my cohort and chaperone and will be shipped of in a shuttle to SFO.

At Chicago we will be visiting Northwestern and UChicago. I am very excited for these two because who knows I might fall in love with them and next year you will see me attending one. I definitely want to take a lot from these colleges because they can be my future. Other than colleges we will be visiting the Sky Deck and seeing the jelly bean at Chicago, I can't wait to take pictures! Then our days at Chicago will end and a flight to Ithaca will be in place.

I am very excited for my inspiring leadership course I can't wait to be a part of the program which is not just book studies, but physical activities as well. I am a little nervous with everything I am going to be exposed to like being away from my family, but this is all just a part of life and seeing where it takes us. I like the books that we will be reading for my course they all seem very interesting and two of the books are very adventurous--just my cup of tea. I also know that one of the days we will be almost in boot camp you might say using their training course which should be fun, time to get in shape. 

Yet, I can't forget the main reason I am excited I will be dorming in South Balch Hall in this prestigious university. I am elated to see the campus and get the feeling of college life, especially the food! 

I am very thankful to the Ivy League Connection and especially Don for this amazing and once in a lifetime opportunity. Thank you for everyone's support. Now I have to try to get some sleep for tomorrow. I know I am going to have a great time with my amazing chaperone and one of a kind cohort!