12 ILC at COLUMBIA: It's Amuuuurrrricaaa

I woke up this morning very happy. Why? Because it's the Fourth of July! Not only did that mean no class, but that meant a trip to Coney Island with Ms. L and then a fireworks show later on the Hudson River. Tomi, Aurea, Morvarid, and I woke up early to catch the subway to meet Ms. L, where we transferred to the train. Since Lucas and Leonard had gone to Coney Island this past weekend, they opted out of the trip. Nevertheless, we had an amazing time.

Once we arrived, Ms. L took us to Nathans Hot Dogs, which has been open since 1916! I got a hot dog with ketchup and sauerkraut, and it was definitely delicious. After eating a very early lunch, we walked around before returning to see the Hot Dog Eating Contest. To be honest, I think the contest is gross and the mass food intake turns me off. However, I decided to suck it up and watch the women's competition. By the end, even though I was still disgusted, I was rather impressed that the winner was able to eat 45 hot dogs in eight minutes and forty-five seconds. I think the rest of the girls were a bit skeptical as well, so we decided to skip the men's competition (I've seen it on TV before, it's worse than the women's) and go to the beach.

Nathans!

Lots of hot dogs, fries, and lemonade

Tomi, Aurea, Morvarid, and I

Entrance to the theme park

Tomi and I

The beach was great. It was very relaxing to be able to sit in the sun and tan, walk around and dig my feet into the sand, or wade in the Atlantic Ocean! We stayed at the beach for over an hour before packing up and finding Ms. L, who had opted to relax in the shade.

Aurea

Myself

Taking pictures of myself like yeah...

Soaking up the sun!

We then decided to go on rides, with Aurea and Morvarid deciding to be daredevils and go on a ride that shot them extremely high into the air. Think of it as a bouncy beam. It's a bit hard to explain but due to my extreme fear of roller coasters and heights I decided to sit this one out. Besides, Tomi and I went on the kiddie rides after and spun around in a giant dinosaur, so it was nice.

We rode in the pink one (although I wanted to ride in the purple one)

Tomi

It was an absolutely wonderful morning and afternoon well spent at Coney Island. After Tomi and my dinosaur ride, we all went back to the train, transferred to the subway and said by to Ms. L, and then went to Columbia. After getting a quick dinner, all of us except for Lucas went to the fireworks on the Hudson River with RAs and several others. We were there several hours early, so we took our time by playing Charades and Truth or Dare. I had fun pretending to be Paris Hilton and then had even more fun when I excepted the dare to belt out the first verse of "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton to the rest of the park.

Then came the fireworks! They were absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, my pictures don't do them much justice because there were so many people in the way, but I had a good time enjoying them. However, getting back to campus due to the large influx of people was not fun. I made it back in time, though.

Tomorrow is going to be stressful - we have our second quiz and our first debate. Not only will I be up late studying, but I will also be doing more research for my paper and reading cases for homework. Time to get to work!