Fall in Ithaca can sometimes seem like a scary indication of things to come. There are a lot more of those “grey days,” the rain seems more oppressive and temperatures suddenly drop. In my opinion, the saving grace of fall (aside from the pretty foliage) is AppleFest.
AppleFest really is the most wonderful time of the year (I’m Jewish and have never been able to relate to the Andy Williams Christmas Song, so I’ll admit that the “most wonderful time of the year” thing in regard to AppleFest may be a bit biased). Anyway, this post is about #23 (Attend Apple Festival on the Commons) and #153 (Buy a Cornell-grown apple from a vending machine).
Seeing as how it’s my senior year, it’s time to YOLO before I GTFO, so I decided to shirk my academic responsibilities for a few hours and get me some apples…and enjoy one of those rare opportunities to see actual Ithaca residents who are not students or professors.
My friends and I walked around the commons lingering at the Taste of Thai booth, the apple cider area, the hard apple cider area (hell yes) and finally decided to get the caramel-apple-in-a-cup concoction that I’ve never seen anywhere else. If you didn’t get that little cup of heaven, you should have some serious regrets, because it’s actually mind-blowingly awesome (and I don’t say that lightly).
Now that we’ve talked about the food, let’s talk about the people for a hot second. We Cornell students have our little East Hill “bubble” of sorts. We go from home to class, upperclassmen make more frequent trips to Wegmans and down to the Commons for dinner, but rarely do we get to see the motley assortment of people that comprise Ithaca.
When I went sophomore year, I was with my friend, J, who is terrified of dredlocks. Poor girl was traumatized by the amount of dreds in her immediate presence, which was/is mildly entertaining to the rest of us. AppleFest can be a bit of culture shock to us Cornell folk, but it’s always kind of cool to see “real people”…while getting all sorts of apple products.
Apples have clearly been on my mind lately, so I decided it was time for me to stop walking past the apple vending machines I have seen for almost three and a half years in the Plant Science Building. It was time for me to actually buy an apple. Since I had two prelims in one day, it would be my little adventure to break up the monotonous studying; so on my way to my second prelim, I did the deed.
Rather, I attempted to buy a Cornell-grown apple from a vending machine. The issue was that there were no apples in the vending machine! We’ve all had those moments when we’ve had a ridiculous craving for some vending machine delicacy and found it was out of order…imagine your devastation at that moment multiplied by, I don’t know, a bagillion. So upsetting…I’m going to keep trying to complete # 153, I’ll update you if and when I am able to succeed. Fingers crossed, folks!!
Original Author: Jaime Freilich