Ithaca did not meet my expectations. It definitely exceeded them. When I walked through the center of the downtown shops, I saw a man with dreds doing yoga, found a cinema showing independent films, met a man who does beatbox with flute, and had multiple options of local vegetarian, organic, or vegan food for dinner. I also have not seen a McDonald's or Walmart here.
At Ithaca College and the shops I have been in, there are compost, recycling, and trash bins. Even in the classrooms. While in most cities you have to be intentional in your recycling, you have to be intentional in Ithaca not recycle. Here is another example of a way Ithaca College tries to promote environmental responsibility:
Unrelated thought: I have a canker sore right where the outside of my lip becomes the inside of my lip. It has been driving me nuts all week. I'm eating a sandwich not that has a citric sauce that makes it sting. It hurts.
After my arrival to Ithaca, I met a girl in my class who was a student at the college. After hearing I slept in my car the night before, she told me to come stay with her if I needed a place to stay. So I've been staying with her since I arrived. She's super sweet. She also works at a French patisserie. I visited her at work yesterday, and this is what I enjoyed (it's a brownie cheesecake thing!):
Last night I went with her and her boyfriend to see Spiderman 3D. It was quite a good movie. Natalie and I really got into it. Alex, on the other hand, was pointing out all the scientific flaws. He's working on his PHD. I made sure upon entering the movie that I would not be sitting next to him so that he wouldn't ruin the movie for me.
Today has been my first day off in the past 5 weeks without travel or classes. There have been times that I seriously thought I might be sick with mono again just because I have been running myself so thin. Here is the book that we went through this past week:
My day off started at 7am when I woke up. My body can't sleep in anymore. So I took my time getting ready and headed out to the Farmer's Market and arrived at 8:30...a half hour before it even opens. It was huge though! It consisted of only local providers that were within a 30 mile radius. I bought Natalie, Alex and I pastries, and local buckwheat honey for myself to take back to Bolivar. On the way out, I grabbed a vegetarian breakfast burrito.
After my little escapade to the market, I headed to Buttermilk State Park to go hiking by some falls. It has been my favorite thing from my whole summer this far. It was beautiful and I got to climb rock ledges and wade through high water. It was super refreshing There were several moments that I wished that (1) I could drink the water and (2) that no one was around so I could go skinny dipping. At the bottom of the mini falls, there were several deep swimming holes that I wanted to dive into.
On my way down from the big hill/small mountain I had to climb, I met 3 musicians who marked me as a violinist from the hickey on the side of my neck. It was nice to meet and talk with fellow musicians. There are a lot in Ithaca.
Ithaca has a great institute. The New Zealand Quartet even came for a performance and to teach a couple masterclasses. There is one girl who has played some pretty advanced pieces well, like Tambourin Chinois by Kreisler and Sibelius Violin Concerto, 3rd movement. At the beginning of one performance, a girl who looked younger than 10 began playing a Suzuki Book 8 piece. She played it well...she had all the basics of intonation, left hand mechanics, and good bowing as well as mature tone and musicality. I have been very impressed by how well all the children can play. It's incredible what they are able to do. It's also very inspiring to me as a teacher to push my students to be disciplined and produce the best possible sound they can make.
Well, I'm off to the park to watch dragon boat races with a friend I just made!
Here's a link to information about the city of Ithaca if you're interested.
girl, you know I would have enjoyed that time with you!
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