Over the Gorges and Through the Woods

In an effort to do all the summer things while 1) I have time and 2) the sun temporarily gets lost in Ithaca on its way to the Caribbean or Hawaii, my roommates and I spent a couple weekends in June hiking at Buttermilk Falls and Taughannock Falls. I’ve been to both multiple times, but I’ve never been one to pass up the opportunity to slog through mud, get bug bites, risk poison ivy, and sweat from places other than my palms and soles, all at the same time. During the summer, TCAT (the bus service) runs a route (the 22) that goes to some of the parks and state parks in and around Ithaca. This puts you at the mercy of the bus schedule, but I would rather have infrequent buses than no buses at all.

That said, for both trips we opted to catch the 22 at the Commons instead of taking a bus from Collegetown and transferring, partly because the weather’s too nice to not walk, and partly because last time I used Trip Planner to figure out a trip, they gave me one whole minute to transfer. Needless to say, the first bus was fifteen minutes late and the second bus was long gone by the time we finally made it to the transfer stop. So we took the bus and arrived unscathed at the state parks – and an extra perk: you don’t have to pay the vehicle entrance fee if the vehicle you’re entering the park on is the TCAT.

Buttermilk was pretty crowded, but worth it, unless you were looking for peace and quiet in nature, in which case, don’t go to a state park in the Finger Lakes region. Anywhere that’s hard to get to by car is a better choice. We had a rainy June (7.85 inches of rain; average is 5.06 inches), so the waterfalls actually had water falling down them, and the gorge was . . . gorges. After reaching the end of the Gorge Trail, we continued on the Bear Trail, had a snack, and went to see Lake Treman before heading back. We ended up being able to get a ride back to Collegetown, so we hung around the playground to play Frisbee (and try out some of the playground equipment . . . it wasn’t that crowded, we did not terrorize any children, and I am the size of an average 12 year old).

Overall, it was a nice (relatively) easy hike, even including the initial incline. Note that you are talking to the person who voluntarily takes seven flights of stairs at once to get to the top floor of Olin Library and walks to Wegmans for fun. I would still consider it a hike due to the elevation change and the dirt and stone path.

What I would not consider a hike is the Gorge Trail at Taughannock. If any random person can unload a stroller from the back of their SUV and casually roll their child down the path, I refuse to call that hiking. Because we were looking for something a little longer than the Gorge Trail, we took the Rim Trail at Taughannock. Besides being an actual hike, it’s also a lot less crowded than the Gorge Trail. You get some nice views you wouldn’t otherwise get, though one viewpoint is at a parking lot (but it’s scientifically proven that the view is 300% better if you walk there yourself).

We were doing a bit of a speedrun at Taughannock because we needed to get back into Ithaca by early afternoon so some of our group could go watch Inside Out, so after reaching the top of the trail, we looped around the other side of the gorge and returned to our starting point with fifteen minutes to spare before the bus. We went to see the lower falls, waited around a bit, and then the TCAT arrived to whisk us away back to the Commons. Operation Hike Ithaca, parts 1 and 2: success.

Princess Ida

Since I had previously enjoyed plays at Schwartz (all two of them), when a couple of my roommates* brought up going to see Princess Ida, I decided to go with them.  The event was part of Cornell’s School of Continuing Education’s summer series, in which performances, lectures, and concerts are offered (for free!) for six weeks in the summer.

Princess Ida is a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera about a prince and a princess who have been pledged to be married to each other since childhood.  However, when it comes time to marry, the prince finds out that his bride to be is at a women’s college.  No men allowed, but he has to go get her, doesn’t he?

The group that performed Princess Ida, Savoyards Musical Theatre, had adapted the opera to be set in Western New York.  The fathers of the bride and groom are from Buffalo and Syracuse, and the women’s college is in Aurora (on Cayuga Lake).  I can imagine Princess Ida must have been at least mildly amusing** in its original form, but being set right where we were made it that much better.

Although it was longer than I was expecting, I thoroughly enjoyed the opera.  The plot and characters were somewhat ridiculous, but that’s what made it so funny.  The music was provided by a single pianist.  It was nothing too difficult, but that almost makes it worse, because you can hear all the mistakes.  If someone’s playing a seven note chord with thirty-second notes over it and he/she misses a note, no one’s going to be able to tell unless they have perfect pitch or know the piece very, very well.  If someone’s playing a relatively simple piece and hits the wrong accidental, everyone and their dog will hear it.  So props*** to the pianist, and to all the actors and actresses for a job well done and an entertaining evening.

Completely unrelated picture from the Plantations one evening.

*From here on out, I will be using the term roommate for anyone I share living quarters with – my apartment, suite, room, bed, the basement of Olin, etc.

**In its initial showings, Princess Ida was not very well received, and remains one of the lesser performed Gilbert and Sullivan operas today.

***All the puns intended.

Kayaking (v2.0)

I went home for two and a half weeks after finals and ate, slept, read, sat around the house, and went kayaking four times.  Twice on lakes near my house, and twice on the Charles River.

The first lake we went to was pretty small, and quiet since most (all?) access is from private residences.  We just happen to have connections in the right places.  One of my mother’s friends very kindly let us borrow kayaks, paddles, and life vests and launch from her house.  We kayaked out to one end of the lake, then on the way back, we encountered some of the strongest wind I’ve kayaked into.  It was consistently creating waves, which, due to the power of relative velocity, made you feel like you were travelling twice as fast, especially if you paddled in sync with the waves.  And then you would look up at the shoreline and wonder how you could expend that much energy to travel backwards.

Lake number one, with fancy lake houses on the shore.

The second lake was larger, and had lots of little islands.  Along the shore side of the islands, the water was absolutely calm:

We went kayaking in the afternoon of a weekday, so we didn’t see any other boats at all until we were leaving closer to evening.  On our way back to the parking lot, we saw a couple boats fishing, and a canoe.  Then just as we were paddling into the little cove/inlet where the launching ramp was, a whole group of motorboats came speeding roaring motoring out.  Good timing.

As for the Charles River, I’ve kayaked on it before, but always further upstream.  These times, we launched near to Cambridge and had to share the river with motorboats, crew shells, and boat tours.  Still a good experience, but I prefer it when the river is quieter.

Saw these guys on the first trip.

Saw this the second time.  Just like this.  Really.*

*Not really.  I know, you want my Photoshop skillz.

The No-Longer-Hypothetical List of Exciting Things That Have Happened to me at Cornell, Spring 2015 edition

I’m finally writing my semester wrap up posts. I’m not going to say that I’m catching up on writing, because that would be to admit I’m behind. At the very least, though, I do want to write about my rock climbing trip to the Gunks. It was extremely exciting. Anyway, here’s the list:

1. Road tripping with the pep band: I had the opportunity to travel with the band for my first overnight trip. The stars finally aligned, allowing me to leave Olin for more than 24 hours, and I spent lots of hours on a bus travelling to Harvard and Dartmouth. It was during the time New England was buried under two or three miles of snow, and we were asked to bring blankets . . . just in case we were in New England longer than expected.

2. Outdoor rock climbing: Two years after I started climbing semi-regularly, I climbed outside for the first time. And not just anywhere, but in the Gunks (Shawangunks), which are considered by many to be world class climbing. I learned how to lead belay, remove and manage gear, and rappel, all while having a great time. And unlike during my sailing class, we had amazing weather.

View from the top of the Gunks.

3. Grading marathon(s): I’m not sure I would really consider this exciting, but it was quite an experience. After hundreds of hours at office hours, I found myself on the opposite side of the table for once. No matter how well you think you understand the homework problems (which we were required to fully work out before holding office hours), someone will ask something that hasn’t even crossed your mind. Or even better, it did cross your mind, but you promptly decided it wasn’t important. Anyway, the undergrad TAs were in charge of grading the fluids prelims and final, which was preferably done in a group in one long grading session. Seven hours staring at the same problem? So much fun. Except not.

4. APT puzzle challenge: One of the things I miss about high school is math team. Yes, really. There’s something about staring at a problem that looks ridiculous, then all of a sudden seeing exactly how to get the answer. One Saturday, a couple other ChemEs and I (yes, we hang out even when we’re not forced to in class) spent a few hours problem solving. We weren’t horribly great at it, but we weren’t awful either. Problems were similar to those found here.

5. The Glass Menagerie: One of the 161 Things is to see a play at the Schwartz Center. So I did, and it was very good. It was actually the same day that I graded the first fluids prelim. I’m sure I had plenty of problem sets to work on, but I gave myself the rest of the night off after grading for seven hours. Besides the actors’ excellent work, I liked seeing the props that I had a part in making being used.

Next semester will surely be exciting, because after three years of learning about running distillation columns and separators in theory, we'll be running them for real.  Hopefully we don't break anything too expensive.

Semester in Review [Spring 2015]

Half of four score and twenty days ago, our administrators brought forth on this university, the end of another semester, after many finals, in dedication to the pursuit of education. And only now will I be writing about it.

In addition to taking five academic classes requiring actual work, I had three one credit classes of varying time commitment, and I was a TA for (ChemE) Fluid Mechanics. Which may not have been the best idea, but the only thing I regret is not taking my liberal studies class pass/fail.

Environmental History – This was my second 2000-level liberal studies class. The material was interesting enough, but I didn’t find the course as a whole coherent. Although the professor lectured somewhat chronologically, in the end the class felt like a collection of related facts instead of topics that built on each other (unlike, say, an engineering class). If I were to recommend a history class, I liked History of Science in Europe much better*. I will say that the books and readings for the class were well chosen and generally interesting or of historical significance.

*With the caveat that the enjoyment of liberal studies classes – more so than technical classes – depends very much on the professor or teacher.

Intro to Process Dynamics and Control – Required ChemE class number one. This class focused on mathematically modeling systems to predict transient behavior (non-steady state, so the time derivative can’t be assumed to be zero, which just makes everything that much more difficult). In the second half of the class, we used the model to develop control systems.

Process Control Strategies – Not the same as the class directly above. I’m planning to use this as one my ChemE electives. In this class, the professor tried very hard to convince us that in the real world, no one uses mathematical models to control processes; people just use trial and error. While taking the class, I didn’t like the professor’s teaching strategy at all, but after getting through the class, I have to admit I learned ChemE things. The midterm and final were good exercises in process control, though frustrating at times – the TAs, on multiple occasions, gave us different answers to the same question asked minutes apart. That’s totally not confusing at all.

Chemical Kinetics and Reactor Design – Required ChemE class number two. It’s kind of like two mini classes – one on kinetics followed by one on reactors (though kinetics plays a part in designing reactors). Taught by the same professor who taught me Intro to ChemE, and just as well organized. We had competitions every week in recitation ranging from matching chemical reactions and rate equations to figuring out fun facts about our fellow ChemEs.

Analysis of Separation Processes – Required ChemE class number three. Another lecture style I was not a big fan of: annotating handouts on PowerPoint and drawing arrows all over everything. I didn’t need to read my notes anyway. Material was exciting enough, and relevant – separation units and reactors are both major parts of process design.

Career Perspectives – Required ChemE class number four. To go with the academic classes, we had a seminar every week given by a former ChemE who spoke about his or her current job. Definitely a good thing to see how (or not) their ChemE knowledge was used after graduation.

Production Lab – A couple times a week, I worked in the scene shop at the Schwartz Center. I used the screw guns and saws, painted, cut rope, and tied flowers, among other things, for two plays – The Glass Menagerie and Blood Wedding.

Shawangunks Rock Climbing – Another PE class just for fun. After a couple introductory/preparatory classes at Lindseth, we went climbing in the Gunks for a weekend. It was fantastic. I don’t know if I can say it was my favorite PE class ever, because b-rock was every week for over two months (vs. just a weekend), and in high school I got to try cross country skiing/go hiking/do the ropes course in PE, but it might be my favorite PE class ever.

If you made it to the end of this long post about classes which you probably don’t care about, congratulations. Here’s a picture of a waterfall as a reward: