An email snowballs into a post

I recently requested to be removed from the CASMP (Cornell Alumni-Student Mentorship Program) database.

Freshman year I was paired with a woman who was a veterinarian and living in NYC, which would have been perfect if I'd still wanted to be a vet, but already by second semester I knew I wanted to switch out. First, after I finished my yearlong internship with a clinic on the Upper East Side, I had no desire left to work with retarded, inbred, overly pampered creatures, each with its own 20 page list of genetic defects. Second, I love biology and I love working with animals, but if I didn't become a vet I would have to go into research, and I really don't have the temperament for research.

As the years rolled on, my mentor and I didn't really correspond at all and I still have not met her. I know she is Latina and has a young son who speaks Spanish and some Cantonese and that her husband is Chinese, but that's about it. In freshman year she told me she worked very flexible shifts at an animal hospital in the ER (I think), but I have no idea if she still does that.

In any case, I'd gotten annoyed with all the CASMP emails I was getting and decided to request that I be removed from the mailing list and unmatched from my mentor. It was getting me nowhere.

When I requested the removal, I got an email from the CASMP staff saying that they were sorry to see me go, wouldn't I please tell them why, and don't forget to send an email of thanks to my mentor. I did all of this, the second in great detail, and got another email in response asking me to elaborate on what I meant because it would be helpful.

I obliged.

The following is a copy of the email I sent. I'm posting it up here because as I wrote it, it helped me develop my ideas to an extent that I hadn't really considered before. Why did I quit? Why didn't the program benefit me? How could they have improved the matching system? I focused on the last question because I think that was the most important step. It is the first step in the program and determines quite a bit about your mentor-mentee relationship.

***

Hi Candace,

Thanks for your email. What I meant by interests was more in reference to a student's wider goals, extra curricular activities, and other hobbies.

I believe that in the long run, it is the development of a student's interests and not necessarily their major that will benefit them the most in life. It is likely any prefrosh will change their major a number of times, so only having a matching system based on what major the student chooses so early in his or her career is perhaps not the most helpful way of matching a student with an alumnus.

What I would suggest is for the student to explain a little bit about him or herself first and whether or not they could see themselves in a career that deals with this subject. For example, I have always loved animals and am extremely interested in the green movement and sustainable development. Although I applied directly into the animal science program and planned on becoming a vet, I did not stay with it. Instead, I switched to a different major (Biology and Society, AEM minor) but which was still related to my life interests.

In the event that a student decides to switch majors, even if the shift is not a radical one, I feel the most value can be gained by a pairing in which both individuals have something else in common aside from their majors. Even for students who are sure they want to stay in a certain field or major, a mentor who is not necessarily in the same field but shares the same passions, experiences, or interests would still be beneficial. At Cornell we are constantly exposed to people in our degree program, with willing professors to ask for help and cheery career counselors to read over our cover letters.

Of course networking is important as well, and I can understand that having a mentor in your degree program is extremely handy, but as I stated before, if a student changes their major, having a mentor with the same passions and goals will mean that chances are whatever contacts this mentor has will still be helpful.

I'm sorry for writing such a long email, haha. I hope it's helpful to some extent and that the program can continue to develop.

Best,

Audrey

***

After writing this email, I think that's when I really realized how important it is to stop worrying about what major you're in or what you're getting your degree in. What matters is that you are able to develop your interests and (please forgive the cliche) expand your horizons to the extent that you know what makes you happy and that you are able to find people to share this interest with and help you turn it into a career (if that is what you want to begin with).

I think I may have taken a bit too much liberty in the email and turned it into a rambling sort of "here are my thoughts...oh look this is an interesting idea I would like to explore..." but the CASMP administrator, Candace, seemed appreciative anyway. Apparently the program is supposed to encourage the mentor and mentee pair to foster a deep enough relationship so that even if the student changes majors, they still have other things to talk about and bond over. Unfortunately, they do matching by major because most students were not interested in this broader view and (she used the term "shortsighted") only saw it as a means to network within this major.

What it comes down to is knowing what makes you happy. Doing this is what makes me happy: traveling, learning, living, and writing. This is why I believe it is important to meet as many people as possible, go to as many places are your feet (and wallet) will take you, and network as far as others will support you. It'll all pay off.

Re: last post

Wow, I've just read that last post over and I must have been much sleepier last night than I thought.

I promise the posts will not fall to such substandard quality in the future.

Next up, expect a few posts and pictures about traveling in Prague with the beautiful Sarah Qiao and the Holy Roman Emperor Maxmilian Wenceslas Broad, IV.

Lappland, part II

I'm so terrible with updating this blog...

One thing I neglected to mention in my previous post was that while Megan and I were staying in the hostel in Abisko, we also took the liberty of using the sauna there. A few people who take time out of their day to wander onto skype or gchat and talk with me will have heard this story already, but for those of you who haven't, I will recount this tale of culture shock.

Megan told me beforehand that this hostel had a sauna which you could use at certain times during the day, but had to go into completely naked. "Sure," I thought, "Sure, why not? It's cultural and it could be fun! I don't mind seeing Megan naked."

The evening I returned from my epic first day out on x-country skis, after a quick dinner and a short rest, Megan and I threw on pajama pants and sweatshirts over our birthday suits, grabbed some soap, and waited for the old man who ran the hostel. He arrived with fleece partially zipped, curly white chest hair peeking out, and a quick command for the other two travelers who had just arrived to hurry up.

A quick dash out into the snow then into the sauna entryway, slow start and rapid finish of stripping males and females, some shivering and a snatch at the small towels for sitting on, and we're finally in the hot, dark, steamy sauna.

Obviously I don't have any pictures for you guys to see, but the entire building was very cool. It was rough hewn wood painted red on the outside with the original wood visible from the inside. Wooden benches lined the walls except for the wall with the sauna door in it and deer antlers were mounted on one wall for the ladies to hang their clothes on. The men stayed on the opposite side of the room (where the lone candles were flickering by the single window) and put their clothes on the benches there.

Inside the sauna the old man (also completely naked) showed us how we were to bathe, mixing hot and cold water for us and after any of the girls washed their hair, he would command, "Bend forward, put your hair in front, use your hands" then promptly pour a bucketful of warm water over bent heads and backs.

The bench ran along the inside wall of the sauna, forming a narrow U-shaped sitting area. In the end it was Megan and myself, an American guy, a German man, two French girls and the French boyfriend of one of the girls, a few Dutch women, and maybe a Danish woman. The eucalyptus oil scented water mixed with the heavy pine-wood steam was extremely relaxing and I could feel my muscles loosening after that day's work of skiing.

After the heat got to be too much, I ran outside (still completely naked) and danced and jumped around outside on the icy, snowy porch. I didn't have the willpower to roll around in the snow (unlike the German man) or have a naked snowball fight (like the French girl and American guy), but instead ran back inside to enjoy the sauna a little longer. Megan didn't even venture past the entryway of the sauna.

The next morning, we headed out to see the dogs in the nearby kennel.

The visit started out innocently enough,

but ended up being disastrous for Megan's gloves:

The dog ran away with her glove and dumped it somewhere in one of the little wooden houses inside its enclosure.

We left Abisko that morning and headed back to Kiruna, leaving the train station and heading directly for the bus stop where we could catch a ride to the Ice Hotel.

There isn't much that words can do to describe the hotel. It was the hotel's 20th anniversary this winter, which they proudly pointed out in the ice sign in front of the hotel.

Apparently, all the ice that is used in the hotel is taken from the river the year before, sliced out of the surface of the water by gigantic chainsaw-like devices, lifted out, and placed in storage until they begin building.

They start with three different sized molds for the hotel: a large arch, a smaller arch, and a hexagonal shape. The molds are sprayed with a slushy mixture of snow and ice to form the shell of the hotel. The larger pointed arches are used to form the great hall:

The smaller arches are used for the rooms themselves:

And finally, the hexagonal shapes were used to form the small hallways:

The snow sinks and settles over the course of the winter, so the hallways become warped, the ceilings sink, and the doorways get lower and lower. The maintenance personnel will often have to re-carve the doorways sometime during the winter, as it gets too low for anyone to walk through comfortably. Though, maintaining the hotel in general is not too difficult as each room has an air hole or two in the top and whenever they need a new layer of snow in the room for the floor, people on the roof simply shovel snow from the roof down into the hole.

The artist suites are the rooms you see in photos with incredible ice and snow sculptures in them. Some are a bit freaky (in one room there was a giant girl's head made of snow and in one giant hand she held a huge ice teddy bear and the other was in the process of reaching towards the bed) and others are cute or amusing (one was an Ice Age themed room and another had naked women in it with light-up nipples). All of them were amazing though and I found many extremely beautiful.

Here are a few:

The rest of the photos are on my facebook

All of this is, of course, much better when you see it in person.

There was also an ice chapel, but it was in use the entire day because three different couples were getting married in a row. There was also a reindeer outside the chapel to pull the new couple around in a small sled:

We also stopped in at the Ice Bar, though we didn't actually buy anything to drink. Those big furry hats were expensive enough, and I don't think either of us were in any kind of mood for alcohol so early in the day, hahaha.

The bus took forever to come pick us up, so by the time we climbed up into its warmth, we couldn't feel our toes or move them.

Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see the aurora that evening as well, so we didn't manage to see it at all during those 4 days. During dinner, the American guy, French girl, Megan, and myself all hung out in the hostel we (by coincidence) were all staying in and flitted between the Aurora Sky Station site and ChatRoulette.

We became friends with a native of Kiruna who was a friend of a friend of the American guy and who the next morning drove us to the airport. He also drove us around the city for a little tour that evening and hung out. He was the one who mentioned the marshmallow fluff and Anna Nichole Smith show which I discussed in an earlier post.

By the time we got to the airport, Megan and I were basically half dead and passed out in the plane. I got this photo of Lappland before I lost consciousness though:

Lappland, part I

Originally this post was to be finished about three weeks ago and was supposed to be musings on the impressions I have of Sweden and Swedes, however due to my amazing procrastination abilities and all the work I've been trying to get through, that never happened. So now because I've just returned from Lappland, this post will be about the breathtaking experiences, heartstopping scenery, and other amazing aspects of northern Sweden that cause bodily functions to cease operating properly.

On the 19th of this lovely month, my friend Megan (from California) and I hopped on a plane bound for Kiruna, a small city located in the northernmost reaches of Sweden.

We landed around 10 or 11 PM and found there were no longer any buses shuttling people between the airport and the city center. The cab company line was busy every time we tried to call and anyone who got through was told they'd have to wait 45 min - 1 hour. We wandered in and out of the door a few times and settled in to wait for the next available cab, but luckily (and we got SO lucky this whole trip except when it came to the northern lights...but you can't win 'em all I guess) the young woman who worked at the EuroCar rental desk who we asked earlier for hostel/hotel numbers walked out and saw us waiting around.

As she walked with us out the airport door, we tried to run into a cab that was filling up, but didn't make it before the seats were all taken. So then we turned to her and asked how she and her coworker were getting back and she said they'd drive. Looking at the pained expression on our faces, she said she lived in the opposite direction of the city center but that she'd drive us for 100 kr. Sweet deal. It only cost us 50 SEK each (about 7 USD) and we got to the city without having to wait an hour!

We learned that she wasn't from Kiruna, but that she'd moved there for school. Then she met a Sami (the indigenous people there-- they have characteristically dark eyes and hair as well as super high cheekbones) and they fell in love and she's stayed in Kiruna ever since. Romantic, no? Megan was super jealous of the woman's life in Kiruna and especially the Sami boyfriend, hahaha.

We got dropped off at the hotel we'd made a rush reservation at, Hotel Kebne, and after checking in and speaking to the super friendly receptionist who was remarkably amicable for being awake at 11 PM, realized that we'd have to leave on the morning train to Abisko at 7:00, and as a result miss breakfast. Not cool. But again we are saved by the awesome people of northern Sweden. Maria kindly makes two sandwiches and packs them in a plastic bag with two bananas, two oranges, and two juice boxes for us. Yay for awesome people living in Northern Swedennn!

Our hotel room:

Now although Kiruna is quite a small city (seems to be more of a town than anything actually...though coming from NYC, loads of cities feel like towns lol) we had trouble finding the train station the next morning and ended up missing our 7 AM train by a few minutes. Sad story :( But then the next train which was supposed to leave around 9 AM was delayed for another hour and a half, so we were waiting around in the station for basically the entire morning. Not a bad time though since we had the station to ourselves for like 3 hours.

A very tired Audrey and extremely sleepy Megan:


Eventually the train came (late even for the stated time of departure) and we settled into our warm seats, staring out the window, watching kilometers of mountains and snow fly by the window, defrosting our feet on the heaters...zz..z...z...

Beautiful Lappland.

Once we arrived in Björkliden, we once again got lucky and hitched a ride with a hotel employee up the mountain to the ski lodge where she worked. There, we warmed up with some hot coffee and waited for the musher to come get us. At around 1 PM, the other group of 4 hadn't shown up so we headed down to the lodge ourselves and met Morgan, the musher who would be teaching Megan and I, as well as driving the 4 person sled with the Chinese tourists on it.

We bundled up in borrowed boots, gloves, and giant snowsuit and hiked up to where the dogs were lined up. Megan and I each had our own 4 dogs and a small sled. Each dog was about 20 kg (approx. 44 lbs- so not as large as you'd think) and could pull twice its weight. I weigh something between 50 and 55 kg I think, and my dogs had a total pulling power of 160 kg. Suffice it to say I had to keep my feet on the brakes nearly the entire time.

My lead dogs:

Driving the dogs along the trail, feeling the cold wind whipping against my face, and basking in the beauty of Björkliden's untouched snowy peaks was nothing like I've ever felt before. In a place like this, all you can feel is awe and wonder. All the discomfort of frozen cheeks, cold toes, and dripping nose simply melts away in the face of these sheets of ice and rock. Along this trail, I couldn't help but feel so honored, because I felt like I was one of a select few who were allowed to see such beauty. It's not that I was capable of doing this-- many people are capable of doing it-- but I felt like I was permitted to do so. By whom? Hell if I know, but that's how it felt. And it was an honor.


My pictures don't do the land justice, but please, if you're reading this then here is a place you must go at least once in your life. This is something you should do if you are capable of doing it. We each only have one shot at living (and by living I mean enjoying the youth and strength of your body the way it should be enjoyed) so why not do this as soon as possible?

Bring a good camera too and keep extra batteries in your gloves. They don't work very well when the air is a chilly -25 or -30 C.

It was an incredible experience and the dogs were absolutely wonderful. Traveling in Europe has given me a few more goals to add to my Bucket List. This includes "own my own patisserie" and "set up a dog sledding lodge with my own dogs." Thank you so much, Morgan!


Following this adventure, we made our way back to the ski lodge to grab our bags and hiked back down the mountain to catch the 4:30 PM train to Abisko where we would be staying the night. As I was buying my Björkliden patch, which I have carefully sewn onto my backpack and wear proudly for the world to see, and a post card, Megan remembered she'd left her purse in the luggage room back at the top of the mountain. Up we went again to fetch her stuff and ended up sitting in the bar/restaurant area in the lodge, listening to a rather cute Swedish man sing a medley of Swedish and American songs and giggling at the wide smiles he shot in our direction.

I actually thought his biceps looked funny, but Megan asserts that it was because his shirt was too tight around the arms.


Around 7:30 or so we caught the last train to Abisko and found our hostel. Megan spent the evening reading the ridiculous biochem textbook she lugged around in her bag and I played games with the 2309840912375892734982398 Chinese people who also happened to be staying there as well. There were actually only like 12 or so. 2309840912375892734982398 was a mild exaggeration. All the games they came up with were really cute and super fun (except the one with numbers...because unlike the other Asians there, I am incapable of doing the 7 times table in my head beyond 7 x 13).

We all kept a lookout for the aurora the entire evening, but unfortunately didn't see anything. The evening before we arrived there was apparently a really beautiful showing of the green curtains dancing around in the sky, but we were just unlucky. SIGH.

The next day we headed out with some x-country skis and slowly (I say slowly because being a first timer, there was a lot more shuffling, walking, and falling than there was skiing) made our way to Abisko national park. We skiied/hiked around the canyon where there was also ice climbing going on, but to be honest I wasn't too impressed with it. After all, at Cornell we're surrounded by gorges and walk over bridges to get to class, so it wasn't terribly exciting. This gorge was quite shallow, I'd guess around 30-40 ft deep, max. and not what I was expecting. It was cute though and the icy waterfalls were pretty.

Following the trail under the bridge and to the other side of the street, I decided to start on one of the ski trails in the park. Megan, of California, was cold so she headed back to the hostel while I spent the next few hours skiing around. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go on the King's Trail after the day's activities, but it's all cool with me because I got to see this:


I had to unsnap my skis to get to the edge of the water and I recall cursing the little snow bunnies and their wide feet as I plunged thigh deep into the snow at each step I took. Well worth the effort though! <3 style="font-weight: normal;">After I finished that trail, I then took off towards the tourist station again, leaving my skis against the wall and hiked up to the bottom of the mountain where there was a lift up to the top. The ski tracks hadn't opened yet, so the lift was fairly empty and I could enjoy a cold, quiet, and breathtaking ride up the mountain for a mere 155 SEK (about 21 USD). It was -20 C at the top, but with windchill, it was about -27 C, so I ended up borrowing a massive parka and some boots from the lower station before heading up. The park staffer also laid a fleecy blanket on the seat for me and then another across my lap so I wouldn't get cold :)

On the way up:

The view was again, absolutely amazing. Words elude me, which I find particularly frustrating, but I suppose that's what pictures are for. Although admittedly, these photos don't convey half the intensity I wish they could.

Lapporten: Valley of the Samis


At the top I met a young Swede named Emil who was 21 and working for the National Park. Another example of the great system where students aren't pressured to enter college right after high school and are encouraged to travel, work, and (apologies for the cliche) otherwise expand their horizons.

For all the single ladies (he's taken though-- this is just eye candy) hahaha :)


After a very warm hot chocolate and a nice conversation with Emil, I made the cold ride back down the mountain and skied back to the hostel.

Upon my return, Megan greeted me in her PJs and a very relieved, "You're ALIVE!!"
Apparently, had I not returned when I did, she and the hostel manager were going to go out looking for me in the car. Thank goodness it didn't come to that, hahaha.

next days- to be continued...