Year after year we send our ILCers east and the tradition is to meet in Front of El Cerrito HS to wait for the airport shuttle. In order to arrive at their destinations at a reasonable hour the cohorts have to catch one of the first planes leaving San Francisco or Oakland airports. With the lengthy check-in lines and then the security screenings, this means that they need to arrive at the airport at 5 AM or earlier. This requires that they gather at ECHS somewhere around 3:20 AM--as was the case this morning.
We’ve double checked and none of our ILCers live on farms where they’re used to rising this early to milk the chickens and feed the cows so rising from a perfectly good bed at this hour is simply unnatural and their bodies often reject the notion.
Nonetheless, they arrive with their parents in tow with smiles on their faces as they prepare to head east for the adventure of a lifetime.
This morning the Vanderbilt cohort--comprised of Arnold Dimas from Richmond HS, Katherine Phan from Pinole Valley HS, and Hummd Alikhan and Gwennie Gilbert-Snyder from El Cerrito HS--met with their chaperone Jenny Gilbert to have their luggage weighed, receive last minute instructions and load up on red and grape vines for emergency sustenance.
And, of course, the group photos that are a staple of every ILC event.
The Vanderbilt cohort heads first for Houston where they will check out Rice University. They then head to Atlanta to visit Emory University before boarding a greyhound bus to take them to Nashville where they will study for the next three weeks.
They valiantly stood in the chilly morning air when all of a sudden their airport shuttle arrives. This wasn’t some old van or bus. Today it was a gleaming stretch limo that seemed to be as long as a city block. Nothing’s too good for this cohort and arriving at the Oakland airport in style should seem par for the course.
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