Highlights of Summer 2012

My cozy apartment in Ithaca, NY

I subletted my sister's apartment this summer, and her four roommates became mine when she took off for her new job in DC. They all graduated this past May.

This summer was different from the last couple of semesters when I lived in the dorm, more so because I had no meal plan and I lived off-campus. No meal plan = come up with the means to feed yourself. I didn’t know how to cook. You wouldn’t count Raman noodles, canned tuna, and warming up already made hamburgers in the microwave as cooking. But by the end of the summer I was cooking my own barbecued chicken and making pancakes from scratch. This was a huge accomplishment for me, especially because I never wanted to help my mother in the kitchen (which I really regret), so I had to learn how to cook on my own.

Other great aspects of the summer included having a 4th of July get together with friends, watching Spiderman 4, becoming obsessed with "The Office" thanks to Netflix and one of my housemates, visiting Buttermilk Falls here in Ithaca, and meeting Bill Nye during Cornell Reunion Weekend!

With 5 of the interns at Viva Taqueria in the Commons

Ithaca, NY

The biggest highlight of the summer, without a doubt, was getting to know and bonding with the seven other interns through the Cornell Farmworker Program. I’m sure they now all think of me as the giggling idiot, because I would laugh at everything. I don't think I’d laughed harder than when Hannah started singing Destiny’s Child out of the blue when we passed a three-legged dog on the street, “I’m a survivor, I’m gonna make it!” or than when Elsa had remarked that the eagles in México were “going down” (decreasing in number). "Going down" has more than one meaning in English.

I originally had other plans for this summer but I’m glad they didn’t work out because I would’ve never been able to meet and work with the other interns. We were a diverse group, with 4 Cornell undergrads, 1 Cornell grad student, 1 from Ithaca College, 1 graduate from Michigan State, and another who’s husband is a Cornell grad student. Everyone has been incredible and contributed something valuable to the team. Being able to bond with them coupled with the meaningful work we were doing made the experience an amazing one.