Coming Home Weekend

Time to catch up fall semester. After an epic summer in Ithaca, I started classes and was immediately sucked into the spinning vortex of terror ChemE. I did make a point to go to the homecoming football game, like I have for the past couple of years.

It did not rain, and it was not negative ten degrees without wind chill, so people actually showed up. I stayed until halftime to see the marching band show, then had to leave to go grocery shopping. Such is my exciting life. The marching band played a show featuring music by The Who and at one point spelled out “WHO” on the field, but it took me a good minute to figure out what they were spelling because the percussion behind them made the H look like an A.

People!  At a football game!

When I left Cornell was tied with Bucknell 7-7 in a display of offensive excellence and output*. The game, however, ended 19-14 in favor of Bucknell due to a late touchdown. The football team’s season ended 1-9, with the sole win coming in a 3-0 home game against Columbia. Yes, 3-0.

Later that weekend, my parents visited and after church and lunch (Saigon Kitchen, would recommend), we went hiking at Treman (again). Then we went to Wegmans for dinner and I went back to the hotel to work on practice GRE tests. Again, I know I have an extremely exciting life.

Gorge Trail at Treman

The next day, Monday, was GRE day. If I had actually planned well, instead of putting it off all summer, I would either have taken the GRE at the beginning of the summer when I was home or at the end of the summer when my roommate with a car kind of occasionally had time to drive me. I had been looking into bus options but in the end, since I likely wasn’t going home for fall break, my parents came to visit instead – and to drive me to Binghamton to take the GRE.

After signing in, which included copying a lengthy (okay, not really) passage in cursive, I was put through another elaborate procedure in which I was photographed, searched, given pencils and scratch paper, and finally walked to a computer in a room with surveillance cameras above every terminal. Four and a half hours later, I walked away from my computer in the room with surveillance cameras above every terminal, returned my pencils, collected my belongings that had been exiled to locked storage in the waiting room, and went outside to taste freedom fresh air.

I got my results a couple weeks later, and I’m happy with them, especially considering the amount of studying I did. I got one GRE practice book and went through the chapters and practice problems over the summer/a couple weeks before the test. The week before the test, I worked through two or three full length tests, though not all at once. That turned out to be enough for me, even with the GRE being my first real multiple choice/standardized test since high school.

With the GRE over, I could turn to the next part of the grad school application process – the applications themselves. Or I could wait until the week before the applications were due to really get working on them. You know, good life choices.

*To be fair, I guess the Cornell defense had a good game, according to the game report.

Super Bowl Sunday

The big sports news of the week seems to be that the Portland Landeagles and the Salt Lake City Hippos will be playing in Supper Bowl extra large VI aye aye captain. This event appears to be happening sometime later today, to be played in the breaks between beer and car ads. It features grown men headbutting each other and fighting over a prolate spheroid.

So yes, I have a mixed relationship with football. On one hand, I’m from New England, so I’d like the Patriots to win. On the other hand, I’m from New England, so I would appreciate it if Patriots All Access didn't displace Jeopardy! to 2:37 am and if the Revolution didn't have to trample flying Elvis’ face for the final couple months of the MLS season. Contrary to popular belief, a team playing on football lines and FieldTurf in a giant empty stadium isn't what most fans enjoy seeing.

In other news, the Revolution escaped the confines of the field house where they were practicing . . . and promptly went to Florida. I don’t blame them. After days of subzero windchill in Ithaca, the temperature finally crawled over freezing, allowing it to snow and rain at the same time. The Revolution played a preseason match against Malmo FF (from Sweden), got most of their uninjured players some minutes, and ended up tying 1-1. Not a bad result, especially for preseason. [Also, Marko Perovic, who played for the Revolution in 2010 and 2011, is back training with the Revolution. A lot of fans weren't happy to see him leave, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.]

It was an eight point weekend for the men’s and women’s hockey teams at Cornell, meaning they went undefeated against Yale and Brown (men were away, women were at home). I stayed in Ithaca and spent seven hours in Lynah with the pep band. My other option was homework that our professor informed us we probably wouldn’t be able to do yet. I found out what one of the women’s hockey players has been up to with the Canadian National Team, namely, getting ready for the Olympics. She assisted on or scored almost every single Cornell goal in the ECAC playoffs last year, so I guess she’s pretty good. . . . In this video she’s number 19, the one who gets illegally body checked to start the fight that sends twelve players to the penalty box. Good thing they made the box big enough. One final note: I’m pretty sure the song in the background is “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky, which the pep band plays before third period of every hockey game.

161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do, #94

#94. Go to an acapella concert

Until a couple Fridays ago, I’d seen CU Winds and the CU Symphony Orchestra, visiting jazz groups and orchestras, but I had not been to an acapella concert. (I also haven’t been ice skating at Lynah, but that’s another matter.) What was particularly special about this acapella concert was that it was my first concert as a Cornell student that I was in the audience for. Up until that point, all the groups I’d seen had been from backstage while working for Cornell Productions.

It was definitely a different perspective, and the second time in the span of a week that I was looking at things from another point of view. The first was at the homecoming game, which was the first football game I've ever been to where I didn't have to play in the halftime show. (And more generally, one of the few sports games that I didn't go to with the band.) It was a little weird being there to watch the game and not to play Davy when the team scored or to start chants of “Let’s go red.”

Similarly, sitting in the audience instead of backstage felt kind of strange.  It was an interesting night overall, because I was actually working after the concert to take down the curtains and speakers in preparation for CU Winds later that weekend.  Anyway, vocals don’t travel as well as instrumentals backstage, so I guess this was a good concert to hear from the front of the stage.

As for the concert itself, it was a joint concert between twelve different acapella groups, so there was a decent variety of songs.  One of the groups did “Bad Romance,” and personally, I like the Zheng Lab’s parody “Bad Project” better, but it was done well at the concert.  Near the end, the Hangovers sang “You Got a ‘C’” to “Under the Sea,” which was pretty funny . . . especially in prelim season (which this semester, is every week for me).  [I was having trouble keeping track of which groups performed, let alone what they sang, so normally I wouldn't remember the group and the song, but they were one of the last to perform and I was already backstage waiting for my shift to start.  In contrast, even after not having used it for possibly a year, the other day I managed to come up with the molar mass of calcium. . . . It’s 40.08 grams per mole.]

Overall, the concert was great.  I enjoyed myself, and I didn't even get back to my dorm too late after work.  And while we’re on the topic, here’s one last acapella song: “We Didn't Go To Harvard” by Cayuga’s Waiters.  They were at the concert, but didn’t perform this song.  It never gets old.  (The lyrics at 1:30 fall under the "sad but true" category.)

And the Band Played On

Last year, homecoming was on a rather cool and drizzly day, so I stayed in my dorm for most of the day and played games on my computer caught up on homework. This year, homecoming was on a cool, windy, and rainy day, so naturally I not only went early to the band room dedication, but also stayed for a full half of the football game.

The new band room (also known as the Fischell Band Center) is a slight upgrade over our previous location. There wasn't anything inherently wrong with the band room we had in the basement of Barton, but, you know, it is kind of nice to have a space that actually has instrument and uniform storage space. Plus the sky ceiling tiles aren't falling down and there aren't any colored fluids dripping from the ceiling. I’m sure that was very safe.

Highlights of the building dedication included: rain right in the middle of the ceremony; a multiple choice quiz with the answers a) Cornell, b) Cornell, c) Cornell, or d) all of the above; and the pep band members sneaking out the side door when we eventually got to play. (The marching band was there for the football game, so there were only a few people there representing the pep band and apparently no one had planned for the pep band being there.)

After the band room was officially dedicated, I hung around, met up with some friends, and checked out the engineering school tailgate. Yes, engineers know how to party.* A few hours later, the game was scheduled to begin. At that point, it was only drizzling a little, so a couple friends and I decided to go anyway.

Note: Stadium lights are on
Further note: It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon
Conclusion: Friday night Saturday afternoon football

Half an hour later, we were losing 10-0 to Bucknell and it was pouring. This is the point in the game where most sane people would have decided that getting pneumonia wasn't worth staying to watch their team lose. This is the point in this post where I point out that I’m a college student who probably lost most of my sanity after the second or third . . . or first . . . week of classes (Mathematica at 1 in the morning, anyone?).

Meaning that I stayed through the halftime show to see the marching band perform. It was completely worth it. Besides, I was multitasking: I was watching the football team play and taking a shower at the same time. You don’t really need soap to get clean, do you?

The marching band played “Hey Jude,” “Carry on Wayward Son,” and the Alma Mater. In the pouring rain. Some of the fans with umbrellas didn't stick it out that long. For the record, I would have stayed for the rest of the game after halftime, but I had to get to a meeting.

And in case you were wondering, Cornell beat Bucknell 45-13.

*No, not really.