By: Jingwei Zhao

In one of my previous articles, I wrote about the excitement I had for travelling to New York. Now I am in Ithaca and it is a very interesting place. One of the most famous law schools in the U.S. is located here, the Cornell Law School. My parents and I went to the law school and it was a marvelous experience. The outside of the building looked old, but the inside had a more futuristic design. The way the sun shone on the law school made the building look bright and lively. The library was enormous and neatly decorated, with multiple books even on only one topic.

The building where the swimming championship was held was huge! It is the Athletic Center in Ithaca College, which was founded in 1892 by William Egbert. The pool is 50-meters long and has a ton of seating areas. Both sides of the pool have a diving block and touchpad to detect when the swimmer touches the wall. The championship was fun as there were many activities you could do, such as cap trading and cape designing. My team is made up of smaller teams in Maryland and is called Potomac Valley Swimming. I had a coach from one of the other small teams in Maryland and he was funny and optimistic. This experience was super fun overall.

I went to the Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell Museum. The Corning Museum of Glass made me realize how amazing glass was. I watched a short presentation on how glass is made and it was fascinating how complicated the process was. There were many glass sculptures and some really stood out. There was a glass sculpture that marked the capitals of different countries. The Rockwell Museum had an Art Hunt so that once you found all the pieces of art on the list, you got a prize. The museum not only included paintings, it also included sculptures and pots. One of the pieces on the Art Hunt list was a statue and two others were pots.

To end the trip, my family went to Niagara Falls. It was massive and so big that part of it was in Canada while the other was in New York. I took two rides, “Maid of the Mist” and “Cave of the Winds.” “Maid of the Mist” is a boat ride that lets you see and feel Niagara Falls up close.

“Cave of the Winds” puts you right under the American Falls and the water pierces your skin so it feels like there are icicles on your back. The line to “Maid of the Mist” was so crowded that you waited three times longer than the actual ride. “Cave of the Winds” was less crowded since we chose to do it in the night. New York was packed with fun and I experienced so much of it in just five days! I would love to come back there again.