How lovely it is to read all your messages. Nigel, there's no need to get up at 5 am!!
The pictures more than make up for it! I had a really wonderful time.
My Earth Systems class, with whom I go out for amazing labs every Thursday afternoon, started the celebrations early. My professor, Alex, normally asks at the beginning of class every Tuesday and Thursday whether there were any announcements. We didn't have any and we went off to outdoors as usual. This happened.
We reconvened in the afternoon for a sadly indoor lab and surprisingly Alex asked for announcements again, and a classmate, Steve, replied, "Well, apparently it's someone's birthday tomorrow!" and he appeared with a cupcake and a lit candle! It was really unexpected and lovely, apparently I looked terrified! Another of my classmates (Puerto Rican Kevin, I call him), added that it was our Observatory's 92nd birthday too and that the Astronomy Club were celebrating.
Two Indian girls who live on the south side of my dorm (I live on the north) but practically live in my room appeared at 11.30 pm when I was doing homework with gifts and cards. It was quite nice!
My best friend who is studying in Malaysia called at midnight too to wish me. That was a bit scary and unexpected because I was ignoring the Indians while doing my homework and suddenly my phone started buzzing like crazy. The 17th itself was very special because it was homecoming weekend. I don't know whether other countries have it, apparently it's a very American thing, where educational institutions welcome back alumni for "football" (American football
) and lots of other things. A lot of things were going on, but I had classes till 5 pm. After class my friends, my boyfriend Wahid and I went down to a West Campus dining hall for, according to Mexican Kevin, "wannabe" Mexican dinner. Our table was a gathering of international students - two Bangladeshis, two Indians, one Italian, one Lebanese and one Mexican - the one American at our table felt quite out of place, unfortunately!! Someone at the next table had a birthday too, and they sang Happy Birthday quite loudly. Kevin tried to pick up the song after they were done, saying, "Don't worry Ming, we can be louder!" but unfortunately none of them picked it up and poor Kevin trailed off awkwardly! He did promise loud singing for next year, though! We all walked up to the stadium after dinner where there was a fireworks and laser light show. This year's spectacle was apparently the best anyone had ever seen - and I believe it, because this year we're celebrating Cornell's sesquicentennial! A couple of weeks ago Empire State Building was lit up in red and white to kick off the celebrations.
Saturday afternoon was the homecoming game which I obviously did not understand (why are men THROWING a ball in a game called "football"?!). In the evening the Muslim students association had a banquet, which was really lovely since I got the chance to dress up in a sari and not look really out of place! Afterwards I attended a concert of the men's choir.
All in all, I had a really lovely weekend. But now it's back to the books.
PS. if anyone has twenty minutes to waste, a desire to learn something of Cornell's history and see fireworks with screaming teenagers, check out this and this.
Happy days!
)! I didn't go to uni, but Matthew certainly loved it!
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