The wall of fame

Tomorrow (or actually already today) the semester is about to start. Early? Yes. But what can I do about it? On Tuesday we had a departmental orientation, which included presentation of research areas of the faculty (something I believed people should've known before applying to the department, but I am not here to judge :) and giving away a lot of material about the university and more. Then there was a nice dinner where you could also have a chance to chat with the faculty and other students. However, a more amusing thing took place earlier, at the very beginning of the day, when all the new-coming faculty and students had to take a photo to be placed on a huge poster which is located at the entrance to the department. Yep, it looks like "doska pocheta" (honorary board) in the good old Soviet times. It is rather funny. And the process itself is even more entertaining. This lady photographer puts you in a very "natural" poses, to get "the best" picture for you. She takes a few and then selects the best one together with you. Mine was "sold" to me with the words: "Here you look very confident and competent. Like: 'I know what I am doing. Give me the job!'". Hopefully I will get hold of the digital version of the picture, so I could share what a composition of " I know what I am doing. Give me the job!" looks like.

Here are some pictures to get you a sense of what the situation looks like. Here is Gina being photographed:

And here is Laura going through the same process and then selecting the pictures:

I went through it too and also Amir Hezroni, who is a visiting professor from (you would never guess…) Israel.

And yes, everyone had also to sign a paper which allows Cornell to do with these pictures whatever they want. Well, that's the price of being posted on the wall of fame...