Easter Retreat : Ithaca, New York

Cornell University is in the City of Ithaca, which is part of the state of New York. By car, it is 5 hours from New York City, and 3 hours from the state of Pennsylvania. The past 2 days have been spent largely in the comfort of Yizhuan's car, with him and Joshua (my primary school classmate) driving me around. I have never been in the United States before, and my first impression is the massive land size. Houses are huge, land plots are huge, shopping malls are huge, all these despite Ithaca being a relatively small town of about 30,000 residents. The city actually develops around the tip of Cayuga Lake, which is one of the Finger Lakes. The terrain is largely hilly, and Cornell University, as well as much of the residential detached houses are on hills, which look down upon the lake. The lake is a nice shade of baby blue. The area is blessed with lots of waterfalls. of which I visited Taughannock Falls with Joshua, and Ithaca Falls with Yizhuan. Both were unplanned, but we just came across them as we were sight-seeing. (Photos will be updated upon my return to Cardiff). I was also exposed to the cows in Cornell University, as I and Joshua stood in front of the barn for close to 20 minutes, moo-ing at the cows! These vrey cows produce the milk and ice-cream in Cornell, not bad for a university to be self-sustaining. (The university orchard produces apples too!) However, to my disappointment, I have not seen live deer, even though on the way to Ithaca from Newark, I did spot a few dead ones on the roads. Again, road accidents involving deer is a completely foreign concept to me. I was constantly shouting to Yz to slow down in case a deer jumped out.

I met my JC classmates Jaclyn and Christina for dinner on the first night, together with Jos and YZ, as well as an RI schoolmate Ernest. This was the fiirst time I was meeting them in 3-4 years, and even when we were in HC, or RI, we seeldom interacted. Nevertheless, it was nice, I am really not used to familiarity outside Singapore. We had dinner in the residence catering of Cornell, which actually is pretty much like Marche, buffett style with a wide array of good food choices! It definitely is a first among university catering, if Cardiff had such, I believe I would be very fat now. Perhaps, its a blessing in disguise! Dinner for the second night was at Wings at Ithaca, which serves a variety of wings dipped in different sauces. The portions are famously huge, and it was a heartening meal with Yizhuan and his housemates Sam, and Yan Kai. By the way, I weighed myself in Yizhuan's flat. I am now back to my target of 50kg!

The next few days will be spent at the Niagara Falls! Anticipate!