Do college students and Thanksgiving dinner go together? Well, let's see... college students are stereotypically lazy party animals who subsist on pizza, ramen, and instant mac-and-cheese. Thanksgiving dinner usually involves hours of slaving away in the kitchen to prepare numerous dishes to a table full of hungry house guests. Hmm, the two don't seem very congruous... unless you're us, that is!

How It Got Started

When you start out at college, or at least at Ithaca, you are required to live in the dorms and eat at the dining halls. This isn't all bad, as it is awesome to live with students your age and eat together at every meal, which is already prepared for your dining pleasure. True, dining hall food gets pretty boring after a while, but, then again, it is easy, oftentimes good (shout out to the Kosher Kitchen at Terraces!) and you don't have to worry about cooking or even going food shopping. 

However, once you start living in the Circles or Gardens ("on-campus" apartments) or off campus altogether, you are given the option to go off the meal plan and fend for yourself in the mini-kitchens provided in your apartments. Yes, the boys in my Circle Apartment last year still had a basic meal plan (their cooking skills were, and still are, pretty close to ziltch), but I jumped at the opportunity to be able to control my meals (mostly time and variety) as I wished. It was great to be able to cook, but then again, it's not hard to miss the communal aspect of meeting up with friends for every meal and eating together at the dining hall. Now-a-days, I'm lucky if I even eat at the same time as one of my five housemates.

This desire to still have some communal meals together lead to cook-offs and potluck dinners. It was fun to contribute to a meal and eat together again. This new tradition culminated last Fall semester, before many of us went off to Los Angeles, in a Thanksgiving potluck dinner at my apartment with a ton of friends, food and fun. I can't remember everything that we had, but it definitely involved mashed potatoes, asparagus, pasta, brussel sprouts and a ton more-- a random assortment, yes, but delicious nevertheless.

This Year

This Fall, we've certainly grown to be more ambitious. This is probably due to the influence of my friend Amy, who is an amazing cook and who I began to cook with last Spring when we lived together in Los Angeles. Not to brag or anything (ha), but a few weeks ago, Amy and I even made our own handmade pasta, which was both time-consuming and absolutely delicious. You would expect, given this example, that we would go all-out for our very own "Thanksgiving dinner" and we really did.

I must hand it to Eric and Amy, who slaved in their tiny kitchen for hours over a 12-pound turkey. Personally, I'm a vegetarian, so I made a spaghetti squash and zucchini dish, as well as baked tofu. In all, we brought together turkey, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, baked tofu, spaghetti squash and zucchini, apple pie, and buttery rolls. (And the only one that was not homemade were the rolls!)

As you can probably tell, cooking and eating are two of our favorite group activities. It's not just that we love eating good, home-cooking meals (which we, of course, do), but the process of putting together meals and spending time together makes what we do all worth the effort.

Next in the mix: a team effort for the Extreme Gingerbread House Contest and Chrismakkah plans are already brewing...

The last few weeks of each semester are usually accompanied by an overwhelming "burnt out" feeling-- can it be: procrastinationitis?! Probably, because instead of doing my mountain of work, I'm writing this blog entry instead...

Causes

By this time in the semester, it is clear that we've put a lot of work behind us. Between hours in the classroom, homework, readings, papers, research, exams, activities and more, we've certainly accomplished a ton in the past few months.

In my case, I've been on shoots for Documentary Workshop in D.C. and elsewhere more times than I can remember (4? 5? 6?) and have spent countless hours researching information on our topic-- two opposing characters involved in the "ex-gay" movement-- and reaching out to people who may be able to assist us with our project. I can honestly say that very few (1? 2? 3?) days have been completely "doc free" and it is unlikely to stay that way, at least until our final presentation on December 9th.

However, it is also clear that there is an enormous amount of work that still needs to be completed before the end of the semester-- and we only have a few weeks to do it before winter break is finally here!

For me, the major obstacle between me and freedom is the production of my 15-minute documentary pilot, 15-minute documentary presentation & PowerPoint, and 300+ page documentary research book, an insane amount of work even for six students to successfully pull off. Additionally, I have a 12-page research paper, 16-page course journal and 8-page course journal summary statement due for my Critical Thinking and Mass Communication class. It's crunch time! But... I don't wanna!

Symptoms 

Symptoms of procrastinationitis include, but are not limited to: finding yourself unable to concentrate on homework, seeking out any activity that does not involve doing said work, watching online videos and general surfing of the web in an attempt to do anything other than real work, minutes turning into hours of aforementioned distractions, etc.

As I said earlier, by this time in the semester I-- and probably most other students-- are feeling a bit "burnt out" and it takes some self-convincing to do work, now that I am tired and ready to be on break already. There is so much work to do, yet it gets harder and harder to push myself to do work.

And, I must note that the week-long Thanksgiving break-- booya other college students: Ithaca's (probably) the only one that gives us a whole week!-- is no consolation, as I will be required to be doing a ton of Documentary Workshop and Critical Thinking and Mass Communication work during my time "off."

A Cure?

I have not found a cure thus far, but if you find one, be sure to let me know! I have certainly be running a ton, which has become a combination of stress relief and procrastination in and of itself.

But...Off to work I go (or at least until I do some more procrastinating!).

"The Fierce Foodies" are what my friends Amy, Norah and I call ourselves. The name is appropriate because of our undeniable love for cooking and eating, something which has in many ways united us. We came up with the name right before we signed up to run the Wineglass Marathon Relay together because the race registration required it-- now, we use it for other things as well, such as our Relay for Life team ("Fierce Foodies and Friends")!

What We're About

As Fierce Foodies, of course we are all about cooking and eating. I don't know many college students besides us who enjoy scouring the Food Network website and Epicurious.com for delicious recipes to cook in their spare time. After all, the beer-and-pizza and mac-and-cheese-from-a-box college diet isn't all myth (in fact, it's largely accurate). However, we enjoy cooking and eating old favorites and new creations on any given day when we have time to get together, as well as sometimes when we can scrape together a larger potluck for our friends.

Our Mission

Amy, Norah and I realized recently that there are many eateries in Ithaca that we have yet to try. And, as we are always sad/ disappointed/ terrified to remember, we only have just over one semester left of college to enjoy the amazingness that is being an Ithacan. Therefore, we must take advantage of the time we have left in the best way we know how-- by eating, of course!

Our mission has primarily taken the form of Sunday lunches. Thus far, these meals have taken place at Ithaca Bakery, the State Street Diner and Mate Factor Cafe. (And I'm salivating just thinking about it.)

The Ithaca Bakery (a.k.a. Collegetown Bagels at some locations) is an Ithaca staple and is probably way better than any bakery you have ever been to-- I will even dare to say that it is better than my hometown favorite, David's Bagels. There's just something uniquely Ithaca about the place and there is certainly enough variety in offerings-- from bagels and coffee to sandwiches and other "real food"-- to please anyone, and I mean anyone. One favorite bagel, which I discovered freshman year, became somewhat of an obsession and I would replicate it at the dining hall every chance I got. Think: plain bagel smeared with cream cheese with a slice of tomato and melted Muenster cheese on top. YUM!

The State Street Diner is good, though nothing crazy. In high school, my friends and I would always go to the local diner to get pancakes or other delicious late-night treats, but now I'm not a huge diner person anymore for some reason. Nevertheless, my mozzarella and tomato omelet with whole wheat toast and coffee was pretty delicious. Disclaimer: we ate not long after my 10.5-mile run, after which probably anything would have tasted amazing.

The Mate Factor is probably the most unique eatery in Ithaca, although there is a ton of variety around here. I'm not sure how to describe it to someone who had never been there, but the inside of the cafe feels pretty much like a tree house with wood carvings galore. Cue relaxing music. The food here is incredibly fresh and delicious, two of the most important foodie qualities. I always seem to get the same thing-- a wrap with tofu, sprouts, peppers, lettuce, tahini dressing and cole slaw on the side-- just because I can't ever get enough of it. I've also gotten the peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich, which is just as satisfying. And, as Norah and I will not have Friday classes next semester (yay!), we have decided that we want to spend Fridays here in alternating attempts to either get work done, or simply relax. This will be especially rewarding after our weekly long run, which we have decided to schedule on Fridays in preparation for our half- and full Spring marathons.

What's Next?

I know one thing for sure: to the Ithaca Farmers Market we go! I was astonished to learn that neither Amy nor Norah have ever been to the farmers market before, so it is my goal to make this happen before the market closes for the Winter season after December 19th. After this, I am not quite sure... but I know we'll think of something! (Personally, I'm dying to do a Jewish breakfast, where I'll make matzah brie and challah french toast!)

The Cortaca Jug

For those who are unfamiliar, the Cortaca Jug is the trophy awarded to the winning team after the Ithaca College- SUNY Cortland football game, a tradition dating back to 1959. This is no ordinary Division III match-up, however, and has apparently even been called the "biggest little game in America" by Sports Illustrated. For at least one weekend per year, this special game pits Ithaca against Cortland in an undeniably fierce rivalry.

The Big Deal

Honestly, I personally don't know anyone at Ithaca who regularly attends football games. As a smaller, Division III school, football does not seem to be a big deal at all, especially when I compare it to some of the schools my friends from home attend-- University of Michigan, Penn State, etc. Plus, I'm pretty much the opposite of what you would call a football fan. I know barely anything about the game itself-- though I do know what a "coffin corner" is!-- and I can't really care less about watching it... on a normal weekend, that is.

The fun thing about Cortaca is that for one game a year, we are all football fans. It doesn't matter who you are or what you know, as long as you go to Ithaca, being at the big game is great. Yes, there tends to be a fair amount of name-calling and dissing (it is quite common to hear the chant "Cortland...Cortland...YOU SUCK!"), but there is also a sense of Ithaca community in the stands that is hard to deny.

I will admit that the fun of Cortaca makes me wonder what it would be like to go to a big Division I football school, one where every weekend the students go to the game to cheer on their team. Then again, I love going to a smaller school where I'm not just a speck in a huge crowd, but an actual person! And this applies to both the football game and everything else about going to college.

Cortaca 2009

The only thing I have to report about the game is that the Ithaca Bombers won 23-20. As I said, I can't really follow a football game very well and spent the whole time just cheering and socializing with friends. Note: the weather was perfect this year-- typically attending this game involves freezing for 3-4 hours straight.

Next Year in Los Angeles

Though my friends and I were sad that, as seniors, this will be our last Cortaca weekend, there is still hope for us in the future.

As I have mentioned before, there is a remarkable Ithaca alumni presence in Los Angeles. From pick-up flag football games to living together to even working together, it seems that Ithacans out on the West Coast can always be found in the same places. Therefore, it's not surprising that a group of alumni started a relatively recent phenomenon-- Cortacal. In this West Coast version of the event, alumni gather at The Casting Office bar in Burbank to watch the game (courtesy of a SlingBox, I believe) and reunite over a mutual love of Ithaca and hatred toward Cortland.

GO BOMBERS!

Though there are many things I love about being a student at Ithaca College, one of the not-so-awesome parts is having to register for classes. And, as everyone around here knows, it's that time of the semester again! 

Up at the Crack of Dawn

One of the worst things about registering for next semester's classes is waking up at about 6:45AM to make sure that I can be on HOMER CONNECT (the website that manages class registration, student information, etc.) at exactly 7AM when the system is flooded with students trying to sing up for classes. It's just plain exhausting, stressful, and perhaps even cruel and unusual.

During the previous registration periods of earlier years, when we still all lived in the dorms, there was a sense of community-- or perhaps, group panic-- as we would all get up together and start frantically refreshing the registration site until we could just-as-frantically type in the course registration numbers (CRNs) and cross our fingers in hopes of actually getting into some of our first-choice classes. After all, since the freshmen register on the very last day, luck was indeed necessary to get into just about anything.

Being an upperclassman and living in a house just isn't the same as being an underclassman in the dorms for a number of reasons. Two days ago, when I registered for classes from my off-campus house, I just woke up in my single room and signed on to HOMER CONNECT to select my classes... I wish I could say, as a soon-to-be second semester senior, that I got into everything I needed and went right back to sleep, but that would be a lie.

The Run-Around

Inevitably, class registration doesn't go exactly as planned. Okay, perhaps a semester or two went without a hitch, but generally either the classes fill up so fast that even 7:00:01AM proves to be too late to get into a section or the system blocks you out of a class for one of a number of administrative reasons.

When this happens, scrambling to find alternative sections or classes is usually necessary, yet disappointing. Alternatively (and inevitably), it is impossible to go back to sleep after registration because a flurry of e-mails must be sent out to professors and/or administrators to straighten things out. This is particularly important for getting into required courses, such as when I mistakenly got blocked out of Video Workshop, my Television-Radio capstone production course, as a senior.

Many times, professors will be nice enough to override you into one of the sections of their classes and this is especially more likely if you already know the professor and they are willing to do you a favor. However, this still involves fetching a piece of paper from a department office, finding the professor, having them sign off on the override, and returning the paper to the administrative offices. Can't Ithaca learn how to expedite this process already by creating some sort of online form?!

I am currently in the process of filling out an application for an Independent Study, something which shouldn't even be necessary! You see, I am a Television-Radio, Directed Studies concentration, meaning that I designed my own concentration to my specific needs (i.e. I wanted to concentrate in documentary). I selected the Cinema-Photography course Nonfiction Film Theory as one of my requirements, but unfortunately this course is only offered in the Spring semesters and I haven't been on campus in the Spring since freshman year. However, next semester, the course time conflicts with the schedule for Video Workshop, a critical requirement for my major. Thus, I needed to make a substitution for my program and, knowing that this would make a good choice, I selected Ben Crane's Exploring the Documentary course. Unfortunately, this course is designated as a "Senior Seminar" and I am already in a senior seminar (though with a different topic-- see the post below), and we are not permitted to take the "same" course twice. Therefore, my Independent Study will basically be to take the Exploring the Documentary class. Phew! That's a long way to say that I have all this extra writing up and running around to do to get permissions and make sure that I have all the classes I will need to graduate.

Relief... (Sort Of)

I still have some legwork to do to set up my last class, but it's a relief that the registration period is just about over. Next semester-- my last!-- I will be taking Video Workshop, Independent Study (Exploring the Documentary), Girlhoods in Literature, Food and Society and Triathlon and Multisport Training. (And that will be it, unless I end up signing up for an additional elective with one of my favorite professors, Carla Golden, from the psychology department.)

I guess I will admit that signing up for my last semester of classes is bittersweet. On one hand, I will never again have to wake up at the crack of dawn to scramble to get into classes along with 6,000 other students (well, truthfully, the registration times are staggered, so registration opens gradually to all students) and hope to get into some good classes. On the other hand, I am one step closer to graduating and entering "the real world," whatever that is. I guess I'll probably feel it more when most of the other students are signing up for classes, while we seniors are sleeping in!