The Falls

Today was great. Today was uneventful with the major exception of my trip to Treman Falls. I spent the morning talking and playing games with friends. But around 1:00 I went on a bus to Treman Falls. Treman Falls for those of you who don’t know it is a waterfall the pours into a natural pool. It was a pool in nearly every sense. It has people sunbathing, families, lifeguards, signs describing the rules, but it was surrounded by cliffs and trees and instead of concrete it was made of rocks. It was beautiful, but the water was cold and took a while to get used to. 

After the falls I just had dinner and went to my dorm. I loved today and I am excited for class tomorrow.

Before Treman Falls I did very little. I helped my friend Pooja with her laundry and after that we went to her floor’s common room to talk and do work, but then two people asked us to play Uno and that is how I met a new friend named Dana. I was happy to find out she was riding on the same bus as me because previously all my friends who signed up for the trip were on the same bus, but I wasn’t. So on the bus I talked with Dana and she was really nice.

We finally made it to Treman Falls after the whole group walked the wrong way we found our way to the falls and swimming area. It was beautiful. The falls were tall and loomed over the green blue pool. Cliffs rose from the swimming area and trees lined it. It looked like it had very little human contact (if you ignored the buoys and the diving board). When I first got into the water it was freezing, I was shivering and was debating whether or not to go any further, so I sucked it up and dove in. After a couple of minutes the water felt nice and I enjoyed swimming around in the cool water. It was a great escape from the heat. I loved that there was no smell of chlorine and the natural pool didn’t feel like a little box like artificial pools do. There was one diving board that I used a lot. It was fun, jumping into the water next to the thundering waterfall. When I swam over to the waterfall it was shocking how warm the water was. It was a welcome break from the ice cold water of the pool. I also loved the water rushing over me it was soothing and the water rushing on my back was an amazing massage. The only downside to the diving board was when I was waiting the sunshine made me feel warm and comfortable and once I jumped into the pool the comfort and warm vanished and replaced with bone chilling cold water.

I dried off, put on dried clothes and sat in the sun for a little bit. Once it came time I left to go to the bus that brought me back to Cornell. I was a little sad to leave the falls because it was a lot of fun, but I love being at Cornell so it wasn’t a bad thing at all. I went to my dorm to do work then have dinner with my friends.

Today was great, but it somehow reminded me how I have very little time left here. I am going to miss Cornell because I love it here and I hope that one day I will go here as a student, but for now I miss home. I am also excited to go home because I can not only have a home cooked meal and my own sink, but I get to come back as someone better because I believe that during this trip I have become a better person. I have always wanted to improve my community and help fight for the rights of others, but I never really knew how, but after this experience I feel as though I have the tools available to do so. I don’t want to leave Cornell, but I can’t wait to go home.