Release the Kraccun

A weekend or so ago we all headed down to Ithaca in New York State to visit my cousin Jarred who attends Cornell University which is part of the Ivy League in the USA.


It is a beautiful drive down and we stopped off at some falls which freeze completely over in the height of winter.

Few gates open to get into the USA - many more back into Canada

 The Ivy League is an athletic conference composed of sports teams from eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group. The eight institutions are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. The term Ivy League also has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism.

Cornell University was founded on April 27, 1865 as the result of a New York State (NYS) Senate bill that named the university as the state's land grant institution. Senator Ezra Cornell offered his farm in Ithaca, New York as a site and $500,000 of his personal fortune as an initial endowment. Fellow senator and experienced educator Andrew Dickson White agreed to be the first president.

It was great fun! We wandered around the campus and took a look and it is just beautiful I have to say .

We wandered around sorority row as I wanted to see if the houses really were like in the movies. There are some MAMMOTH ones there. I did spot a couple of sorority sisters or pledges or what have you but I think only in the movies are they the blonde picture perfects.

As a freshman at Cornell you have to live on campus, which I think is a rather nice idea as it means you get the chance to bond.

As a student in Auckland you tend to stay with people you know already, or in my case, you worked so much you don't really get a full uni experience so to speak - although I wouldn't change my experience for anything.

Kappa Alpha something arather

Cornell basketball - we just snuck in whoops

Jazz and his BRIGHT blue sneakers

Honestly my family takes me to the nicest places. This is suicide bridge - apparently even alum come back to jump off it depressing yet committed I guess

Safety barriers to ward off jumpers

Ezra Cornell statue with a sweatband around his head. Quite funny - the statues in Albert Park , Auckland always get cones put on their heads.

Apparently this is some sort of love tree - you carve your initials and your beloved ones into the trunk. Poor tree

My top highlights were:

The Harry Potter Library:it has little nooks and crannies and special little lights and the book shelves are so ornate. Occulus reparo indeed!

The Steel Herakles - giving new meaning to balls of steel. You have to love such an ostentatious display of testosterone!!

Saw this and immediately thought oo I hope I don't meet them later!  Although I did.

No visit complete without American Football eh

Then we headed to get some booze for the evening thinking we would just chill and watch tv while eating Japanese and having a few.

There is this awesome spiced rum that my cousin drinks called Kraccun - so of course I had to buy it and keep saying "RELEASE THE KRACCUN" until I think Jarred was going to duct tape my mouth shut.

About to RELEASE THE KRACCUN

We also ended up going to a hip hop concert for a guy called Nas which was well awesome. I did find it hilarious as I think by far I was the oldest person there although no one would have known! All the kids were filming the concert on their phones and I can't help but think that they are missing out on the experience by doing so.

Fuelled on the illusion that I was young we headed out to a local bar (bear in mind the legal age to drink is 21) and if I thought I was young I was quickly brought back down to earth as I found myself debating the rights of murderers to have fair representation with two Cornell visiting lecturers who were also lawyers. When you get hit on by someone who is 50 you know you just aren't young anymore. Or they are really gross. In this case, both statements were true, bleh.

I ignored my wheat free diet for the evening and Jarred and I went to this awesome burger place (I'm pretty sure it was about 2am) and hoed into one of the best burgers I have had in since, forever - and its been about 2 months since I've had a burger.

Early morning, wine, Kraccun, and scotch. GIGGLES

I'm gonna eat you little burger nom nom

 So , I had, as my cousin said I had to , partied like I was in my 20s. However , the next morning was the horrible reminder that I am no longer in my 20s but in my 30s because I was just sooooo tired. Sooo sooo tired.


But hey, once every blue moon it's not bad to let loose :-)