Whats Ithaca like?
Ithaca is the Dalai Lama’s North American HQ. Monks rotate in from India regularly and offer classes to the public. They have a couple of old Victorian houses downtown (you’ll see them tending the tiny gardens outside), and have just built/are building a big new headquarters just south of town. If you like to walk to things, walk around the Commons downtown. Much of the Commons is boutiquey stuff you wouldn’t normally go to but there are 2 bookstores right on it, and two more within a couple blocks. They’re all small. Organic food grocery store – Greenstar – is in teh DeWitt mall, a converted 19th century school building downtown that also houses the Moosewood restaurant and a good cafe with fishtanks and two bookstores. The natural areas in Ithaca are unbeatably awesome. The campus is good/great depending where you are on it, and Cornell has tons of resources. The town itself is a lot of old Victorians that are mostly on the shabby side now. Rental housing downtown varies hugely in it
The gorges are amazing in the summer and are great hiking the rest of the year (except maybe in winter) Lots of colleges of course, my favorite things were: Bound for Glory, folk music shows as at Cornell (one this sunday 11/18) Apple Picking south of the city Facebook seems to have a lot of college oriented activities going on in the Ithaca area There are a couple places to go ice skating in the winter The gorges at Taughannock look like something out of Lord of the Rings, worth a trip.
