My favorite part of Cornell, and what I'll miss the most once I leave, is Lynah Rink. And the Carriage House Cafe, in Collegetown. And CTB. I like food.
One thing I'd change - the weather. Everyone's got to say that. Winters here suck, it "Ithacates", which is this disgusting mix of snow and rain that blows in your face and makes you hate life. Fortunately, the globe is warming. That said, Ithaca in the fall is unlike anything you've ever seen - beautiful beyond words. Ah, nostalgia. Cornell apples, and apple cider, and all the trees turning color...it makes trudging through the sludge for 4 months tooooootally worth it.
Cornell is big. I like it that way. It's broken down into colleges, and that helps. Plus, somehow everyone seems to know everyone. I'm not really sure how that works.
When I tell hotel people that I'm in the Hotel School, I am greeted with SHOCK AND AWE. Even though hotelies are dumped on by the rest of campus for being stupid and dragging down the school's SAT scores, it is absolutely the best hospitality school on the planet. Non-hotel people usually fall into one of two categories: "Ohh, Ivy League" or "Cornell, what's that?"
I spend most of my time on campus in the libraries, but that is a new development this year! Also, we finally got a Starbucks, which is awesome. Ithacans are hippies and don't like big chains, so we had to fight to get it. But the grande peppermint mocha frappachinos and sooo worth the decline and fall of the unique Ithacan non-conformity.
Ithaca is definitely a college town. Collegetown is located off the south side of campus. It's about 6 square blocks of student-focused retail, restaurants, and off-campus housing. Plus, along with Ithaca College on South Hill, college students make up half of the Ithaca population. I wonder what they do in the summertime?
Cornell's got a pretty fugly bureaucracy going on. Skorton is the people's president, though, he's obviously making a lot of effort to change things in favor of the students. Still can't get those extra Big Red Bucks back at the end of spring semester, though.
The biggest recent controversy? Cornell Republicans trying to get a resolution passed for concealed carry (of guns) on campus. It was astoundingly defeated by the Student Assembly. Every once in a while the Republicans do something bat-shit crazy and cause a stir.
Our basketball team is great this year, which is exciting. The Lynah Faithful are always a force to be reckoned with. Other than that, about the only manifestation of school pride is the t-shirt section of the Cornell Store.