Thursday, July 7, 2016

I - Another Traverse Between Cities ✧ ─=≡Σ((( つ•̀ω•́)つ

Dear Reader,

I fell asleep watching the sun rise.

This morning, our cohort woke up at 7:30 AM and ate breakfast on the 2nd floor of the Knight Conference Center.

~Ryan embracing the rain~
I piled blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries on my plate, as well as a slice of rye bread with a small container of strawberry cream cheese to provide a light first meal of the day. I generally don't eat candy and cake on a regular basis, but fruit provides a sweetness that is irresistible. ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ Toast!

The day started completely sunny when I awoke, but by the time we were ready to leave to tour WashU the rain was flooding the grounds. It was f a n t a s t i c. No, really. I happen to love warm rains, because:
  1. Warm rain doesn't make you feel cold
  2. Rain makes the air easier to breathe when there aren't streams of the tears of my enemies ( clouds are sad today ;-;) pouring into your mouth and nose every time you look up
However, this rain was so intense that our flight was cancelled. I don't mind though, because I will probably be more productive on this Amtrak ride than surrounded by fluffy pillows in a hotel. :3

Back to the tour.

We walked down to South Brookings Hall pounded by torrents of rain that one could wash their hands in by simply sticking their arms out. The greenery at WashU was vividly coloured, unlike most of California's landscape in recent years. Another discovery was finding that my waterproof jacket turned out to only be water-resistant, and by the time we got to the hall, my sleeves were stuck to my skin by the chemical virtue of dihydrogen monoxide. I think that walking in the rain was my favorite part of the day, being able to enjoy both the weather and the gorgeous, gothic style campus architecture. It was like being in England again, with brick buildings and tall, peaked windows everywhere. You can see here (meaning, above) that Ryan definitely enjoyed the walk as well.
୧[ ˵ ͡ᵔ ͜ʟ ͡ᵔ ˵ ]୨

Image result for l'oreal, hair modelOnce we were gathered into a sizable room (you could fit around 70 people comfortably in there), we were greeted by a young lady who's eyebrows were on point and a young man who's hair could have been photoshopped from a L'Oréal model. The woman's name was Nancy, a communications design major who recently graduated from WashU. She carried much of the presentation and (I thought) she should have majored in marketing, because she knew how to sell a product (in this case, WashU). The guy's name was Sankalp, a second year student majoring in theoretical mathematics and minoring in economics and philosophy, who came from Bombay, India. Sadly, we were sitting pretty far back, so I couldn't capture a good picture of their faces. Imagine this hairstyle, but brown, and on an Indian guy.

Pretty much the entire 5 hours.

We were told quite a few interesting tid-bits, including the vast network of advisors (plenty to go around, and more!), the ease of taking classes between multiple majors, and the constant thrum of construction around campus. Our outdoor tour was cancelled because of the heavy storm (we heard thunder! there was a streak of lightning too :3), but we got something better -- a panel of students that currently attend WashU that could answer questions relevant to the present.

Interestingly, though the school prides itself on its diversity, the panelists (which were called in on the spot) were six girls, five of which were Caucasian and one of which who was Asian. Though WashU seems like a school with a great environment and culture, I wasn't swayed as much as some of my cohort members. A good school, but not quite for me. Too many girls with perfect eyebrows -- you know, that's a huge factor in choosing a school. :^ )

Along with the not-tour, we got meal cards that held 8$ of credit to be spent in the Danforth eating commons. The cards were supposed to be a one-time swipe and use, but I got mine back and got a total meal consisting of pot stickers, a salad, a cookie, and bottle of soymilk worth almost 10$. ;D
First view of Chicago!

We were told that our flight had been cancelled about then, so we made our way back to the conference center, picked up our luggage, and caught a taxi (or two) to the Amtrack station.

I spent much of our 5 hour train ride with beautiful scenery listening to music, composing this blog post, and chatting with Jae-An and Jahnvi about their trip to Emory.

We got to our hotel (the Hyatt Place) by a taxi from Union Station at 9:30 PM and had dinner at Chant, an Asian fusion restaurant, a minute or two walk from our hotel....and now I'm going to fall asleep watching Full House.

Yours,
eh.


No comments:

Post a Comment