Spring Break

I had such a great time visiting friends at Cornell over spring break. With a week off from classes, I was glad to have the chance to get out of New York City for at least a few days, and see upstate New York for the first time. I wasn't disappointed. Ithaca is absolutely beautiful, with gorges, rivers, and lots of greenery. I had forgotten how much I missed being in a place with trees, fresh air, and no skyscrapers. Cornell's campus is really quite stunning, especially the clock tower, Gothic Way, and the AD White library. I generally enjoy wandering around gothic-style college campuses (which UW was but NYU is most definitely not), and so the change of scenery made for a very nice short spring break trip.

I headed down with a friend on Friday evening via the Shortline bus. (Note to self, never plan to do bluebook citations on a bumpy bus ride ever again, or at least without anti-motion sickness pills). We arrived at Ithaca sometime after midnight and wandered off to Short Stop Deli for sandwiches. The next morning, I got beignets at Northstar Cafe with two friends. So worth it. That place is delicious, especially because I haven't had authentic beignets in a long time. That afternoon, to make up for the fact that I wouldn't be able to see it live in NYC, we saw "Werther" broadcasted Live in HD at the Ithaca Mall theater. I'll probably be blogging about that in much greater detail soon, as it's now probably one of my favorite operas, and easily among the very best productions I've seen so far. Also,  the experience of seeing an opera live in HD was an interesting one. Again, there will probably be a much more detailed blog post on this. I do find it funny, though, that not one day in Cornell, I'm making up for something I would have done in NYC. I guess I'm slowly becoming a New Yorker after all.

The rest of the trip was spent wandering around Cornell, visiting the gorges and falls (which are very pretty, even when frozen over), drinking tea, wandering around College Town, hanging out in the computer science labs with my grad student friends, playing piano in the lounges, playing board games, and spending a lot of time reading in cafes, [and emotionally recovering from 'Werther":)]. Despite how cold it was, I really enjoyed my stay, and I wondered more than once what law school would have been like if I had opted to go to a school with a more traditional college campus and college town, rather than a very fast-paced, urban setting like the middle of Manhattan. I think I would definitely have enjoyed the more open-campus feel of a quieter setting. I've heard that New Yorkers recommend trying to get out of the city every once in a while for a change of scenery, and I'm very glad I did so for spring break.