Ithaca is Gorges

Hey.


Ithaca College from one of the football (American football) fields.

Last weekend, my cousin Cybil came to visit. We became relatives when my uncle Alex got married last year. His wife is Cybil's aunt. She's going to graduate from high school at the end of this year so has been looking around universities in New York State. We had a great weekend, as it was the annual Ithaca Applefest this weekend! There are hundreds of stalls in the Commons (pedestrianized part of downtown) where apple-related merchandise is available. Unfortunately, it totally poured with rain all weekend, so people still went - they just got soaked. I also forgot to take my camera on both Friday and Saturday... so here are a bunch of pictures from the week with absolutely no apples involved.

Americans are very proud to be American. I think that's great, I'm very proud to be here. Anyway, this means that everything in America has a slogan. Towns, cities, and states all have little taglines that they put on license plates. 'Ithaca is Gorges' is the slogan for Ithaca. (It's a play on words... gorgeous...) At the T-Shirt shop there are loads of spoofs like 'Ithaca is gangsta' and 'Ithaca is not George's'. New York State's slogan is 'The Empire State', but my personal favourite is New Hampshire's 'Live Free or Die'.

I had a midterm exam today, and I have two more tomorrow. Work is going well. From Wednesday of this week is Fall Break (like Spring Break - woooo!) when most people go home... That's not an economically sensible option for me, so Zack has kindly invited me to stay with him up in Syracuse. I can't wait - it should be really fantastic.


A cool diner.


Another cool diner.


"What? Both your wate and your fate? From one marvellous machine?!" At the Ithaca bus station.


Street with trees.


The Commons. They're awesome. I freakin' love Ithaca.


This is the road that connects downtown to IC. The description sounds dull - but look how beautiful it is.


Halloween's a-comin'! Wendy checks out the blow-up pumpkins in the Terrace Dining Hall.


Wendy!


Alexis!


The mist outside Target (a chain like Wal*Mart).


Alexis tries on hats in Target!


So the weather has gone from "amazingly beautiful" to "bloody freezing" over the course of a few days. It's really foggy, but the fall leaf colours are amazing. Hopefully when my parents visit in November the trees will still look as brightly coloured as they are now. My dad has to see them.


Left to right: Charlie, Zack, Cybil, Alexis and Wendy. Don't be fooled, Zack was holding that piece of food there for about half an hour while I was getting ready to take the picture.


As the great Hilary Duff once said: "Let the rain fall down."


Just a few pretty trees.


Autumn in New York.


Finally! English weather!


Zack shows Cybil the Horner Theatre.


Inside the chapel. Funky.

I got my 'dream' film back - it came out quite nicely. There's one shot in the middle which is way overexposed, but the rest of it came out just right and when we watched it in class, people thought it was funny. I was worried that no one would get it, but everybody did. The Cinema Production class has finally overtaken US Politics as my favourite, partially because the 15 or so of us are getting to know each other really well.


Zack, Cybil and myself outside by the pond. In the rain.


We went to see 'Burn This', a play put on by the Theatre department. I could only sneak in one photo before the nice lady told me to put it away. I also went to a choral concert on Sunday (The Fall Choral Collage) - which reaffirmed my belief in classical music. It was very moving. Especially "Wie lieblich sind deinen Wohnungen" (How Lovely are Thy Dwellings) by Brahms, which I'm pretty sure I've taken part in a performance of before...


The pond!


Brian, me, Priyam and the always awesome Zack. Brian is a little too close for comfort in this picture...


Cybil and I outside the Park school.


Mood: I love Ithaca!

Currently listening to: John Mayer - Heavier Things (Matilda better be impressed)

Crazy American fact #6: The Beatles were not American... so America sucks. But Bob Dylan was... so America rules. Discuss.