Tea

Two important things occurred today. First, the Brown I cohort met up with the Columbia cohort during the visit to Yale University earlier today. Second, the Brown I cohort had a dinner with two notable figures from Brown University.

I had no expectations for Yale, since having expectations often results in disappointment. Low expectations tend to result in greater satisfaction, or so it goes for this pessimistic part of my thinking process. I suppose I can only have expectations if I actively set them by consciously thinking of them. 

We had a tour led by a group of students, which I found very effective, despite the size of the group. They took us around the campus and explained some of the idiosyncrasies. We had lunch at the Caseus Fromagerie & Bistro. Lunch was absolutely massive; there were two courses followed by dessert. There was so much food that we ended up with a ton of leftovers. I've been trying to order tea at every restaurant I'm going to, since I want to learn what specific teas are like. I had some English Breakfast here. We split up into three tables during the meal; at my table, we had two people from the Brown I cohort, two people from the Columbia cohort, and two Yale students. They told us a lot, but by this point, much of this information wasn't as new to me anymore, since this was the fourth college I visited. 

After lunch, we explored the campus a bit more, until our tour ended at the Yale Bookstore. We made our way back to the train station to go back to Providence; from then, we were given a little time to prepare for our dinner at The Capital Grille. We all dressed up in suits; a bystander on the streets even asked why we were dressed up. Our guests at the dinner showed up shortly after us; they were rather relaxed and approachable. They told us a bit about where they were from and what they did. I also learned quite a bit about the admission process; much of it is new information that I'll be keeping in mind. The meal was very extravagant; I had a filet mignon. I also had some Earl Grey at the end of the dinner.

I've been thinking about my classes over the remaining duration of high school. Before this trip, I thought I was going to be fine with three years of Spanish, though now I want to end with five years of Spanish when I graduate. I also want to increase my involvement in extracurricular activities.