A Glimpse Into My Future

Today, we had our group dinner at La Folie. We all met up at the El Cerrito Plaza BART station a bit before five o'clock and everyone ended up arriving early. On the ride to San Francisco, I sat with Mrs. Thrift and Don. We talked about a variety of topics such as the application statistics and different experiences we had in our classrooms (both college and high school). When our train ride ended, we walked up the gritty San Francisco stairs and called taxis in front of the San Francisco Public Library. I got into the taxi with my mom, Malcolm Carson, and Janis Lee, Emily's mother. Don put me in charge of giving the driver our destination, paying, and getting the receipt, all of which I did successfully. 

When we got to the restaurant, we were escorted into a private room. The staff opened the door to a small Mardi Gras themed setting with a pre-established seating chart along with our menus and programs for the night. I found my seat and saw that I'd be sitting next to Khadine Singh, a Columbia alumna and Google employee, and my mom, Kimberly Mahoney. Across from me was Reginald Terrell, a sponsor, the Ivy League Connection alumna and future doctor, Malcolm Carson, Monica and her mother, Donna Ramsey, and Ismael Ramsey.

Our servers started us off with a variety of finger foods while all of the attendees chatted with each other. It seems like everyone had so much to share with us! Khadine told us about moving from her home in Trinidad to New York so she could attend Columbia and then to San Francisco to work for Google. Reginald, a sponsor, made me really appreciate the hard work that goes into making this program possible. Malcolm expressed pride in being one of the first ILC students and being an El Cerrito High School graduate. We all discussed our future plans and aspirations. We also talked about what  to expect at Columbia, the different sights to see and places to eat the best cakes (according to Khadine, I'm going to have to visit Make My Cake).

Our servers started us off with an "amuse bouche" or mouth amuser composed of a potato chip and a sweet crouton with egg dip. After that, we were served a cream of asparagus soup with lobster and quail egg; this was my favorite dish of the night! We moved on to our main course and had the choice of a lobster dish or tenderloin. Although lobster is my favorite food, I chose the tenderloin because of the bone marrow custard which is something I've never tried. By the time that our desert came, I was stuffed. A rich chocolate ganache and brandied fruit were set in front of me, but I only had the stomach to eat half of it. We finished off our meal with petit fours some of which were better than others. The food was wonderful, but each dish had an aesthetic appeal that made us reluctant to destroy such artwork. 

After we all finished eating, we posed against the wall for our group photos and I struck my signature hand-on-the-hip pose. We said goodbye to all the people who came and caught taxis back to the BART and went home. This has been my favorite night so far because I got to meet such intriguing people and get a feel of the atmosphere that Columbia has in store. I can't wait to finally fly out there!