Friday, October 16, 2009

Ithaca, NY

Last week I visited my friends Melba and Hod at Cornell University. Ithaca is so beautiful!



People told me how pretty the gorges are, but I thought they were in state parks, cordoned off from the rest of the town. Instead, we walked over a number of gorges from Melba & Hod's house to Cornell campus.



The architecture of the campus is pretty too.



This is on the Cornell campus!

A requirement for graduation is to pass a swim test. My young friend Josh said this is to safeguard students who like to gorge-dive. But later I learned that MIT also has the swim requirement, and they have no gorges.



Treman State Park. This reminds me of "Lord of the Rings" when Frodo hides from the Nazgul.



Apparently one of the drawbacks of Ithaca is that the winter lasts for a long time. Otherwise it would be too perfect.



Melba and her large poodle.

We walked the dogs every day. It was my first time walking a dog. At first, it was hard to know how much leeway to give on the leash. I didn't want to yank the dog around, but I also needed to keep it out of traffic. After I figured out the right balance, I found dog-walking to be surprisingly fulfilling.



Me with Melba's little dog. It was very quiet, and also liked having its belly rubbed. It was warm, and liked to cuddle, and didn't wiggle around very much. If I were designing a dog, I would create the same features.

8 comments:

Jeremy said...

Those pictures definitely take me back since I lived in Ithaca for 8 years.

Cornell has one of the nicer campuses in the country, but all those hills and gorges become a pain in the ass when the roads ice up.

Wanda said...

There are apparently swimming tests at Columbia and Dartmouth too. Harvard used to have one. I'm guessing that it was some sort of fad a long time ago for universities to want their students to know how to swim.

Unknown said...

I'm so glad you enjoyed your visit to Cornell & Ithaca! I crossed the bridge from North Campus to main campus every single day, and Fall is my favorite time of year with the foliage. In the winter, it can be pretty as well (especially with the water falls frozen), but it is bitter cold and the overcast winter can last a LONG time. Makes me appreciate the San Francisco Bay Area weather each and every day! Go Big Red! Ithaca is Gorges!

Anonymous said...

Ithaca does look nice. Girl you are looking more experienced. Where's your makeup?

Rakesh Juyal said...

wow. nice pix

pavel said...

Both puppies definitely look lovable, and I cant say just yet, which one I'd feel more attached to.

Anonymous said...

Cornell Community Reacts to Recent Student Deaths

University places security personnel on bridges, urges students to seek counseling as needed

The Cornell Daily Sun
March 13, 2010
http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2010/03/13/cornell-community-reacts-recent-student-deaths

Anonymous said...

Two suspected suicides confirmed at
Cornell; total now at six
CNN. March 20, 2010
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/20/new.york.cornell.suicides

What a basketball team though! (Unlike Caltech's...)

Cornell laughing all the way to the Sweet 16
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=df-cornell032110