Class of 2013: Freshman Blog

4 8 15 16 23 42

Posted by Joe N.

Those of you who watch LOST immediately understand the title of this post, for those of you who don't it actually doesn't matter. I chose the numbers for the title of my post because right now as I'm writing this the premiere of the last season of LOST is on. Normally I would be watching it but I have plans to watch it with one of my friends who is just as obsessed as I am in full HD tomorrow night (if I were to watch it tonight it would only be standard definition). So let's get to the numbers and how they're significant to this post.

4 - 4 weeks ago was the beginning of the new year. For me this is going to be a big year. It's going to be my first full year as a college student, my first year where I'm away from home for the majority of the time, the first full year that I'm legally an adult, so on and so forth. Looking back at 2009 I couldn't be happier with how it turned out and even though I'm sorry that the year had to end, I'm excited for this new year and new decade.

8 - In approximately 8 weeks regular decision notifications will be sent out to all of the people who applied to Hopkins. This may not seem like a big date for me right away but I assure you it is. The project that I am working on for SAAB right now is nothing short of the biggest project that I've ever taken on. It's taken up and will take up a LOT of my free time, but it's something that I love doing and I know how amazing its going to end up. I originally started organizing and planning for this project in October (the original deadline was the ED Notification date). Over the last week of intersession I spent probably 10-15 hours working on what I planned to show to the other people involved in this project so we could hit the ground running this semester. 8 is also significant to me because just about 8 weeks ago my classes for the first semester ended and the reading period began. As you may have known from my post reflecting about that semester it wasn't all that easy for me, but I passed all of my classes and my GPA ended up being a little bit lower than my target GPA, but I was still very happy with my grade.

15 - I woke up 15 hours ago and realized that it was the day of the LOST Season Premiere. I wouldn't have known this if it weren't for one of the public announcements that I receive in my inbox every morning reminded me of this fact. Normally I would use this post to rant about LOST and everything that I like about it but as I said I'm holding off all my emotions about Lost until I watch it tomorrow night. Don't worry, my next blog will most likely be about LOST and why it is one of the greatest shows on TV.

16 - If you add up all these numbers you get 108. If you divide 108 by 16 you get 6 with a remainder. 6 hours ago Lauren and I finished up a HUGE portion of the project that we're working on. I know what you're thinking, with all this talk of this project when are we going to find out what it is or be able to see the results? Good question! If everything goes according to plan you'll know what the first portion of this project is in just under a week and you'll be able to see what Lauren and I have been working on. As I said before the second part of it (which is far greater than the first in magnitude) won't be revealed until the Regular Decision notifications are released. Expect two blog posts from me around these times that explain everything that the project entailed, how much time was spent on it, why they're so awesome, etc.

23 - Almost exactly 23 weeks ago I packed up pretty much everything that I owned and prepared to move into my dorm in McCoy Hall. It was tough because I had to leave all my friends behind even though I knew I would make new friends here. In many ways it seems like this was an eternity ago, I've been through so much but at the same time I can remember the last few days I spent with my friends like they were yesterday. It's funny because I looked forward to being able to spend time with all my friends on winter break, but at the end it just seemed ... well boring. I was home for a total of 5 weeks and if I weren't so bored on the final week I wouldn't have accomplished anything for the project that I'm working on.

42 - Approximately 42 weeks ago I was notified of my acceptance to Hopkins. If you haven't already you should read my post about my feelings about my acceptance and the thoughts that I had in the following weeks. This was another huge milestone in my life and as my last few days in high school went by I was ambivalent once more. I was more excited that I had ever been in my life to attend Hopkins and yet I didn't want my high school days to end. My feelings were nothing but positive after summer of last year as it was nothing short of the best summer in my life, and it left me without any regrets. I have no doubt that this summer will be just as fun, if not better. For those of you high schoolers who are reading this be sure to do everything you want during the summer after your senior year and during your last days of high school, there's nothing like being able to look back and say that you accomplished all of your goals.

 

I have to admit when I first decided that I was going to write my post like this I didn't think that I'd be able to get it to work with all of the numbers. If you add all those numbers up you get 108 and approximately 108 weeks ago I became obsessed with the show LOST and found out that I loved web design and worked with some of my HS classmates to redesign our school's website (http://www.hths.mcvsd.org/). Up until now this was the biggest project that I had taken on, but there were 5 of us so that wasn't a big deal.

As for my video for this week, it's called "How to Not Make Bread," but to tell you the truth everyone that I know makes bread like they do in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHK0uFb6Vzw. Thanks again for reading, see you in about 2 weeks!

My Minor in Psychological and Brain Sciences

Posted by Joe N.

So this week I'm going to talk about my choice to minor in Psychological in Brain Sciences in conjunction with my major in Neuroscience. Ever since I was in middle school I've always been interested in basically all kinds of science. Once I took Biology in 7th grade I realized that I would end up being towards that end of the scientific spectrum when I got to college. In high school even though many of my courses were focused on engineering I found myself leaning towards science over math, and that made me think that maybe I wouldn't want to major or minor in a type of engineering. After my senior year of high school I found that I loved anything relating to the mind and brain through the mentorship program I had during my senior year. Through this program I was able to work at Monmouth Medical Center for about 6 months, and I got to see just about everything the medical students at the hospital did.

Out of the many cases I saw I was always fascinated by anything relating to the nervous system or an underlying psychological issue. There was a point between the time I was accepted at Hopkins and the time I moved in that I was contemplating whether or not to double major in Neuroscience and Psychological and Brain Sciences but when I read the Neuroscience Major checklist I found that you can't double major in both of these departments. I chose Neuroscience because it’s more hands on, more of a natural science whereas Psychology is more theoretical in nature. I knew that no matter what I ended up majoring in I was going to try to minor in the other subject because through these two programs I would gain a near complete understanding of both the mind and the brain.

One of the reasons I chose to minor in Psychology was because the psych program is considered to be a Social Sciences program while Neuroscience is considered to be a Natural Sciences program. This means that I could use the courses required for my psych minor to satisfy the distribution requirements for my Neuroscience major and vice-versa. This means that throughout my 4 years at Hopkins I'll be taking mostly Neuroscience and Psychology courses excluding the general science courses required for my major (e.g. Physics, Bio). The requirements for a minor in the Psychological and Brain Sciences are actually pretty simple. You're required to take 3 introductory level courses from the department that have to be part of the following classes:

- Introduction to Psychology
- Introduction to Cognitive Psychology or Cognition
- Introduction to Developmental Psychology
- Introduction to Social Psychology
- Introduction to Physiological Psychology

Once you've satisfied those requirements you simply need to take 3 other upper-level courses in the department, two of them must be at the 300 or 600 level, and the other one can be at any level. So to graduate with a minor in Psychology, I plan to satisfy the checklist in the following way. I've already taken Intro to Psych, and I’m taking Intro to Cognitive Psych and Intro to Social Psych next semester. So after my first year at Hopkins I'll have all of the introductory requirements fulfilled and I'll be able to start taking upper-level psychology classes if I want. Since a lot of the Psych and Neuroscience courses overlap I'll be able to use some courses to help me get my Neuroscience major and my Psychology minor.

There are a lot of different activities that you can take up if you're a psych major or minor. One of the things that I love about the psych department is that in almost all of their courses you have the ability to earn extra credit. The way that you learn extra credit CAN be the traditional way (you write a review of a 10-12 page long article from a psych journal) or you can do it in a way that requires even less work and to me is more fun. The way you do this is by participating in psych experiments that are run by the graduate students of the department. All you had to do to increase your average by 1/3 of a grade (e.g. A to A+) was participate in psych experiments for 4 hours. It may seem like a lot but it’s really not and some of the experiments can be really fun and don't usually involve a lot of work or thinking. I chose to do it this way because I hear about all of these different experiments in my Intro Psych class and their results only this time I get to participate in them and find out how my performance can affect their results. You could also participate in general research in the psych department which can also be really awesome. The group that I'm trying to do research with focuses on the functional organization of the human memory system, which is one of the biggest mysteries in psychology right now and is one of the many links between the Psych and Neuroscience departments involving research.

I absolutely love the psychology department because of the wide variety of topics that they cover. Through my Intro Psych class I was able to find out about all the different divisions of the department and from this knowledge I was able to determine the areas of psych that I wish to continue studying. As I said before I'm taking Social and Cognitive Psych classes next semester because I determined from my Intro Psych course that these are the two divisions of psychology that I love the most. I prefer to minor in Psych instead of majoring in it because there are fewer requirements for the minor. For example I only want to take Statistical Analysis I but to major in Psych you have to take both I and II as well as some other courses that to me seem quite boring. By minoring in Psych I get the same experience as some of the psych majors with a little bit less work, and I can still take whatever classes in the department I want if I satisfy the pre-reqs.

With the experience I'll earn from the Psychological and Brain Sciences department I'll be able to better understand how people's minds develop and how their personalities develop from the experiences they have. With this information I'll be more prepared for medical school and it will also help me out a LOT if I want to focus on Psychiatry or Neurology/Neurosurgery. Since I know right now that I'm going to want to specialize in one of these three fields hopefully by the time I graduate from Hopkins I'll know exactly which area I want to focus on. But that's really far in the future, right now I'm just worried about taking the classes that interest me most so I can learn all about the human mind and brain.

For more information about the major and minor checklists that I mentioned, check out academic advising's website: http://jhu.edu/~advising/majors.htm. So I've got a few videos for you guys this week. The first is a youtube video of a cat that I really want cause its so awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8. The second is a bunch of bears at a zoo that I also want: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1885110. The last is of a baby which is really hardcore, and I hope when I have kids that my son does something like this: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1927447. That's all I've got for this week, thanks for reading and I'll see you guys in about two weeks!

It's Actually Winter Break!

Posted by: Joe N.

This post is going to be kind of short since I'm just going to describe what I've done on winter break so far. But brace yourself because at the end I'm going to have more pictures than I've had in any blog post before. I figured I might as well go through all the pictures I've taken on my phone since I've been home and upload them because they all have some significance.

So back when I was at Hopkins the only thing that was between me and winter break was one simple exam in Introduction to Psychology. I needed to do really well on the exam, and I was really worried because if I didn't there was a possibility that I may not pass the class. As long as I passed the class covered grades would help me out a LOT. Most people think that Intro Psych is easy, but Dr. Drigotas knows how to pick questions for his exams and knows how to pick trick answers. I'll spare the details and tell you that I did in fact pass the class; I actually ended up passing all of my classes so I'm very happy.

I went into my psych exam at 8AM on Wednesday with good feelings about it and I was shocked when I got through the entire exam one time in just over 8 minutes. I thought the exam was going to be much harder so I breathed a sigh of relief after my first run-through. When I finally handed in my exam about a half hour later and I walked out of Hodson 110, I realized something. It was actually winter break. I wanted to yell as loud as I could right there because the Fall semester was over for me. I literally couldn't believe it. It didn't really hit me until I was walking back from Bloomberg after picking up my Physics exam. My thoughts weren't about what I was going to do over winter break, they were about how I had to pack up everything I wanted to bring home in the next 3 hours while finding time in there to eat and figuring out how to get to Penn Station and subsequently my train. Once I got off of the train just outside Edison, New Jersey I still couldn't believe that I was home.

When I got home after I ate, saw my dog, and talked with my parents for a little bit I unpacked all of my stuff and watched TV for a little bit before going to bed. I went to bed at 11PM that night which was the earliest that I had been to bed in a long time, but I had a good reason for it. One of my friends and I were going to surprise two of our friends who go to school in Hoboken and Mahwah early the next day, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of sleep. Getting up early on my first day of winter break was not what I wanted to do at all, but it was definitely worth it. My first day of winter beak was nothing short of one of the best days of my life. I've had so much fun over break so far and it’s not even January yet. Since I'm not going to intersession I don't have to be back on campus until January 25th, the first day of classes.

One of the first major things that happened when I got home was the Blizzard of 2009. I have never seen more snow outside of my house, right near the road in front of my house there was up to 3 feet of snow! It was fun at first but then I realized that I was going to have to shovel the sidewalk in front of my house as well as the sidewalk that went around my house. I would also have to drive slowly over the next few days to get to wherever I wanted because of the snow/ice on the roads.

Aside from that the only other major thing that I did since I've been home aside from hanging out with my friends and celebrating Christmas with my family was go back to the hospital that I worked with in January of 2009 to get my permissions updated so I could rotate in Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry as well as observe Neurosurgery while I'm home. I'm not going to be doing much of this until the New Year comes around but I'm extremely excited for that.

Well that’s about all I can say so far, if anything else major happens I'll either edit this post or make another small reply. I hope you enjoy my pictures! Trust me they look better on my BlackBerry than they do when I upload them.

This time I have more funny videos as well. The first one is a great video with Will Farrell in it that my Mom sent me and the other is a parody off of the Snuggie commercial that my friend Lauren sent me. Both are really great and I know you'll like these two. I hope all of you have enjoyed the holidays so far as well as your winter break, and have a happy new year!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h05ZQ7WHw8Y
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74/the-landlord-from-will-ferrell-and-adam-ghost-panther-mckay

This is the amazing view that I had at one point on my train ride home.

The meaning behind this picture is a bit complicated so I'm going to have to copy/paste some information from a thread in the Hopkins Interactive Forums. You can read the full contents of my post here, but I'm going to summarize it briefly. "I've always been weird and I knew what I wanted to do since I was in 3rd grade. Most kids would say they wanted to be ridiculous things at the time and never end up following through with that, but I never seemed to change my mind. In 3rd grade I decided I wanted to be a doctor, I didn't know much about it at the time but I knew that you needed to get a good education." This penguin is the first project I did where I knew that I wanted to be a doctor. The assignment was simple, it says on the top of the penguin "I wonder..." and we were supposed to fill it in with something we wonder about our future. I basically wrote I wonder if I'm going to end up being a doctor and curing diseases. I was so happy when my Mom and I stumbled across this while we were looking for something. This is the first place where I wrote about how I wanted to be a doctor, and this assignment was from January of the year I was in 3rd grade. When I finally become a fully certified doctor in approximately 18 years I'm definitely going to hang this in my office along with my medical degrees. I can't tell you how happy I was when I found this, it means so much to me.

This is my dog, she is one of the laziest creatures I've ever seen. She sits on the floor when I eat hoping that I'll give her food. In this picture she actually fell asleep cause she was so bored.

My one friend wanted a picture of what the beach/boardwalk looks like with snow so I took this picture for her. This is about 5 or 6 blocks from where my house is and I can sort of see this point from my house. I can't see the ocean clearly but I can see the wall between my in this picture and the boardwalk.

This is an amazing picture I took of the lake that I live on a few days after the huge blizzard. I don't like this one as much as the next one but it still shows how nice my area looks during the winter.

I am so happy with how this picture turned out. The sun reflected off of the lake more than it usually does because of the layer of ice on top of the lake. This is one of my favorite pictures that I've taken on my phone.

This time my dog fell asleep while I was watching TV. She likes to lay on the couch next to me while I watch TV. I'm convinced that sometimes she actually watches the TV even though she has no idea what's going on. She's a pretty smart dog, I wouldn't be surprised if it was true.

These are the ornaments that I have for every year up until I was about 8. They're awesome for so many reasons, one of them being that they're all cute baby bears.

My dog is extremely spoiled. She lays like this on my lap all the time and makes me rub her tummy. If I don't she starts whining and sometimes she'll just look at me and scratch me with her paws. She's really annoying but I love her so much.

Congratulations Early Decision Admits!

Posted by: Joe N.

Congratulations Early Decision Admits! I can only imagine how excited you guys must be. I was a regular decision admit so I actually have no idea how you feel, even though I was pretty sure that I wanted to go to Hopkins. So as a special post because of the events that just occurred I'm going to go back to the night when I was notified of my acceptance to Hopkins (even though it wasn't in December) and I'm going to go through what I was feeling up until Move-In day and the advice that I have to the admits or any other prospective students still in high school.

So I thought long and hard during the application process and even though I was very sure that I wanted to go to Hopkins and I finished everything before the ED deadline I still decided to apply for regular decision. This was mainly because I wanted to keep my options open and see if I got scholarships at other schools that would affect my decision. I remember the great feeling of relief once I finished all of my applications and submitted them. It was a great feeling because I was one of the first people to finish in my entire grade. I remember all of my friends complaining to me about the applications and their supplements and I just sat there quietly and smiled knowing that I didn't have to worry about anything like that again for a while.

I felt fine for a long time and I wasn't worried about the decisions at all. Towards the end of March I heard from more schools than I thought. It was great to get personal letters from some of the colleges I applied to; it made me feel great that I was able to connect with the admissions officers through a simple application. I got a nice personal letter from the Dean of Admissions at Lafayette University talking about how they loved my essay. Just to clue you all in my essay was a lot longer than I originally intended (approximately 1,500 words) and I wanted to make sure that the admissions officers who read it were able to understand who I was by the time they were done reading it. I picked one major event that happened during all four years of my high school experience and showed how they helped me develop as a person. Since the essay was so long finalizing it was the only thing that kept me from submitting my applications.

Some people ask me where I would have gone if I didn't go to Hopkins. Well if I didn't go to Hopkins I would most likely still be majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. As for the school I would have attended, I would have probably chosen Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. Its a little known school but their ChemBE program was ranked second in the country a few years ago. Since its a state school the tuition would have been considerably less and I got a pretty good scholarship deal there too.

As the end of March drew near I remember stopping to think certain times that I would know if I was accepted to my dream school on April 1st. I didn't really know how Hopkins notified people of their decisions so I wasn't really expecting an email; I was expecting a package in the mail. During my senior year I was involved with my school's drama club (specifically stage crew) and our first show was on Friday, March 27th. While all of the actors and actresses were running around preparing for the show I remember sitting in one of the side rooms in the Middletown Performing Arts Center around 5PM just waiting for something to do. I remember feeling my old phone (my black LG Chocolate v2) vibrating in my pocket and I picked it up to see who it was. It was one of my good friends who had also applied to Hopkins. The text read something like: JOE!!! Check your email, I just got an email from Hopkins!!! I got in!!!!. Words cannot describe how excited I was at this moment, but there was a bit of a problem, there was no computer that had internet access in the building at the time. I quickly ran to my friend who had Windows Mobile with internet access on it and saying something like "JOE I NEED YOUR PHONE HOPKINS JUST EMAILED THEIR DECISIONS!" Almost everyone in drama club knew that Hopkins was my dream school so they understood my excitement. I quickly logged onto my Gmail through his phone and I don't remember exactly what happened but I probably yelled really loud because the first thing I saw in my inbox was entitled "Congratulations from Johns Hopkins University!"

Like I said before words cannot describe my feelings at this moment, I told all of my friends in drama the great news and called my parents immediately. As some of the teachers and guidance counselors came to the play later that night I gave them the good news too. The rest of the weekend which some of the stage crew members had been worried about became so much easier for me to deal with because of this news. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I had nothing to worry about anymore except the decision I had to make, but even now I was still very sure I wanted to go to Hopkins.

It turns out that last year was one of our best years for Hopkins acceptances, we had 10/12 get in last year and 2 ended up attending. The rest of high school seemed to be a little bit easier for me because of all the excitement that came with a simple email. Of course I had a bit of Senioritis, but I didn't let that get to me. Even though it was my senior year and I didn't WANT to do all this work, I got through it anyways because I knew that it would help me in the long run. My GPA for the second half of my senior year was probably one of the highest GPAs I had throughout my entire high school career, and this coupled with the fact that I'd be attending Hopkins next year was all that I needed to get me through the rest of high school.

While I'll almost always say that academics are important, in this case I'm going to say otherwise. For the second half of your senior year academics are still important, but what's more important is that you enjoy the rest of the time you have in your high school/hometown. I didn't plan to do anything out of the ordinary for the rest of high school or for my senior year summer but it turned out to be the best 8 months of my life. I can't remember having more fun in a summer, which was surprising after the great experience I had at Summer University at Hopkins the year before.

So for my funny media this week I'm giving you guys two things from YTMND. The first one is just a really funny intro for sixty minutes and the second is the dramatic reading of a letter that someone actually wrote when they broke up with their boyfriend. Enjoy!
http://sixtymins.ytmnd.com/
http://youmakemetouchyourhandsforstupidreasons.ytmnd.com/.

Is It Really the End of the Semester Already?

Posted by Joe N.

I'm 100% serious when I say that it seems like just a week ago I was sitting down to write my first blog post for Hopkins Interactive, and now it’s the end of the semester already. It’s currently the reading period and I have never been more confused in my life.  During the reading period there are no classes, it’s a time during which you're supposed to be studying for exams. It started on Tuesday and it’s just really weird overall. It's hard to describe because you're still here at college, and you have to study for finals, but there aren't any classes. It’s like a really long weekend. The only problem is that the reading period ends on Friday (tomorrow), and the exam period starts. So the exam period is from Friday the 11th until Friday the 18th. Doesn't seem like a bad thing, I didn't think so either. But then I checked my exam schedule and saw that my first exam is 9AM-12AM on December 12th. That's right, a Saturday morning. My first final exam of my college career is at 9AM on a Saturday morning. The reading period pretty much gives the Registrar's Office an excuse to schedule exams on the weekend. While I'm not happy about this at all I'll be able to deal with it, especially because my other two exams are at 9AM on Tuesday and Wednesday. So my main topic for this post is going to be the academic transition from high school to college. I said I'd do it before but I ended up having another topic that I really wanted to write about.

So before I start let me preface by saying that I attended a pre-engineering high school with a pretty rigorous curriculum so my opinions about the transition are going to be radically different from other people. As a result all throughout high school I was all related to engineering. During my junior year I chose a path that was heavily focused on Electrical Engineering, but the curriculum was still based primarily on physics and chemistry. When I came to Hopkins I knew I wanted to be a Neuroscience major, I actually knew a few years ago that I wanted to major in Neuroscience, and I selected the courses I wanted to take accordingly. Of all the classes I'm taking there is only one that I've had a class like before, and that's Physics. Funny story about Physics it was actually my highest grade for the majority of the semester and I always thought that it was my worst subject. Apparently I was a lot better prepared in Physics in high school than I thought, even though my grade wasn't what I wanted it to be. Thanks a lot Mr. Silverman!

So in all my other classes (Introduction to Neuroscience, Introduction to Cognitive Neuropsychology, and Introduction to Psychology) the information I was learning was entirely knew. At first we started off with the basics such as experimental methods in Psychology and brain anatomy and terminology in Neuroscience. I was amazed at all of the information I was learning throughout the rest of the semester and while I'd like to say the classes were easy they were definitely not. The exams that I took in all of the classes were some of the hardest exams I've ever taken, but they weren't so hard that studying wouldn't help. I'm one of what you might call the "typical" students at Hopkins; I very rarely had to study in high school (even though I chose to anyways to make myself feel better), and I was used to doing well in many classes without having to try that hard. When I took my first exam here at Hopkins I was shocked by the content of the exam because it was so advanced, but I wasn't overwhelmed. I studied as much as I possibly could for this exam and attended the study sessions to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I didn't feel like I needed to do so, but it was my first college exam and I wanted to make sure I was over-prepared. I ended up getting an A on that exam and I couldn't be happier. This was a small victory though because it meant that I would have to continue studying at that level to get high grades in this class.

Studying has proven to be a pain, and now I realize why I studied so little during high school. Even though it may not be fun it’s still very helpful and it’s a great feeling once you get your exam grade knowing that all of the time you spent studying paid off. I've had that happen with a lot of exams here so far, but there also have been exams that I've struggled on. There have been exams where I've walked out thinking that I did well and I end up getting a C or C- on them. It’s a hard feeling to get used to but instead of letting it bother you, you have to realize that this is still helpful; it means that you need to study more for the next exam. This last semester has certainly been a struggle for me but I feel that I'm going to come out of it with all positive thoughts. I feel that this semester was one of the hardest 4 months for me to get through, but I also feel that I've learned more in this semester than I have in my entire high school career. The gap between the level of difficulty of the information presented in high school and college is HUGE, and I'm still shocked at the amount of new information I've learned in the past 13 weeks. I'm thankful to all my professors and TAs for their help throughout this struggle and I'm definitely looking forward to next semester.It’s weird that I'm having all of these positive thoughts now considering that I still have 3 finals to get through before winter break, but I'm confident that I'll get my studying done and I'll end up with all S's in my classes. I have two funny videos this week and I'm extremely happy that one of my good friends found one of them again. The first video shows why you should never try to do pro wrestling stunts in your own backyard (or more specifically off your roof). My favorite part of this video is what the camera man says to both of the kids involved; listen carefully to what he says: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHNOIttoPdY. The second video is also very funny and I don't really understand how something like this happens, but here it is anyways: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z3NmZLR-8k. Thanks for reading about my experiences as a first semester freshman. I'll have two other posts written before I come back for the Spring Semester and then I'll start blogging every two weeks again. See you next time!

Transportation On and Near Campus

Posted by Joe N.

So one of the questions that we get asked a lot in the forums involves transportation on and around the campus. It make sense because parents want to know how their children can get home on the weekends or holidays and the students want to know exactly how they're going to be able to get around the city and maybe sometimes to other states if they want to visit their friends. In this post I'll talk about transportation on the campus such as the JHMI Shuttle as well as transportation that is near the campus available for students to use to travel to other states.

Transportation on campus is an amazing thing. There are several primary ways you can get around the Hopkins campuses one of which is completely free for students. The Johns Hopkins Medical Institution (or JHMI) shuttle is a shuttle which runs between the Hopkins Homewood campus, Penn Station (Northbound and Southbound) as well as the Medical Campus. This is really great because as long as you ensure that you get to Penn Station with enough time before your train (or bus) leaves you'll be able to get there for free! The shuttle posts its schedules online via the parking and transportation website which allows the students to plan how they're going to organize their transportation accordingly. It’s also very useful because if you get involved with research on the medical campus you can get there without having to know where you're going (like you would in a taxi) and you also don't have to pay.

Another awesome way that you can get around areas in Baltimore or near Baltimore is through the CollegeTown bus network. The CollegeTown bus is also completely free for students and just as with the JHMI Shuttle you swipe your card once you get on the bus and then you can go to any one of the numerous stops the bus travels to. Some of the popular places include Inner Harbor to the South and Towson to the North. This bus also posts its schedule online so the students can determine how they're going to get to Towson or Inner Harbor on the weekends. For more information about the CollegeTown Shuttle including where it goes and when it leaves the Homewood campus, visit their website. I personally love the CollegeTown shuttle because there are so many places around Baltimore that you can go and not paying for it makes it even better. The CollegeTown Shuttle isn't just available to Hopkins students; students from other colleges in Baltimore have the ability to utilize these transportation systems as well. This helps because I have some friends that go to University of Maryland, College Park and if we wanted to meet up they'd be able to get to my campus or Towson or Inner Harbor for free and not have to worry about where they're going. Also if you're planning on going somewhere within 1 mile of the Homewood Campus late at night and you're worried about the area you have the ability to call the Security Van which will drive you from campus to a location of your choice or from a location of your choice back to campus. This is also great because you can go somewhere with all of your friends and since it’s a huge van you can all travel back to campus together. Some students actually use the shuttle if they want to get somewhere that's relatively close to campus when it’s raining. I'm not saying I do this, but it’s something that’s available.

Signs like these tell students where the CollegeTown Shuttles will pick them up/drop them off. It also helps people in the area to find key tourist points in Baltimore. 

Aside from the private transportation available to Hopkins students there are also several different ways you can use the public transportation available to Hopkins students throughout the city of Baltimore. There are of course Taxi Cabs all throughout the city that you can use to get from campus to Inner Harbor. Taxis often stop outside or go near the Homewood campus so it’s not hard to get from campus to wherever you're going. Using a Taxi to get to Baltimore Washington/Thurgood Marshall Airport can get a bit pricy but there are alternatives offered during the holidays for students. Similar to the Security Van service available to students during the holidays one of the offices on campus (I'm pretty sure its Student/Residential Life) offers a van service which will get you to the airport, and all you have to do is go to the Residential Life office in AMR II and buy a ticket for 15$. I've never been to the airport so I don't know much about where it is but I can tell you it’s definitely much more than 15$. From BWI you can fly out to any airport in the country and you can book your tickets online as soon as you know when you're planning on leaving/returning. Most students figure out when they're going to leave and return after they find out their midterm/final dates for the holidays. Personally I was unable to leave until Tuesday morning (the dorms close at 6PM on Tuesday night, by the way) because I had a midterm on Monday and another one on Tuesday. I know that most of my friends (actually most of the student body) were gone before Monday and most professors know that stuff like this happens so they don't do much in class on these days. The registrar's office posts the exam schedule for finals early in the year so it’s easy to get tickets for Winter Break. The whole process repeats itself for the spring semester where students choose when to leave for spring break based upon their exam schedules and the final schedule will be posted by the registrar's office towards the middle of the spring semester.

Here's a picture of a Bolt Bus (see below) right where it picks up its riders in New York City @ 33rd and 7th Aves. 

The final method of transportation I would like to discuss is my personal favorite: Bolt Bus. Bolt Bus is a transportation service that is fairly new and consists of busses that travel between major cities on the east coast. There are busses that will take you to Boston, New York City, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. The busses leave from train stations so it’s not that hard to find out where they are. The bus that leaves from Penn Station in Baltimore only goes to NYC but I'm sure there are other ways of getting to Philadelphia and Boston. Not only are the busses extremely comfortable and the rides don't take that long, but the busses have power outlets and free wireless which not only makes the ride go much quicker, but it allows you to get work done on the way there. If you book your tickets far enough in advance you can get prices as low as 2$ for a one way ticket. Up to a week before the tickets hit their max price at about 20$ for a one way ride. This is still a really amazing price. Two weekends ago I went to visit some of my friends from high school and I met them in NYC. The transportation for the whole trip cost 40$ total! Once I met my friend Tim in NYC we went back to Hoboken where he goes to school (at Stevens Institute of Technology for Electrical Engineering) and in case you've never been to Hoboken or don't know where it is, it’s right across the Hudson from NYC so you have the most amazing view (especially at night!). Below is a picture I took on my BlackBerry when we were heading back to the city when I was leaving.

 

 I'm sure you can imagine how amazing this view is late at night.

Lastly I would just like to say that even though I've had more fun than ever in my first 3 months at college, it feels so good to be home. You may think that once you go to college you forget how to live your life at home and how to drive, etc. but you actually don't. When I got home it was like I picked up right where my home life left off. It was also awesome to hang out with all my high school friends again because no matter where I go I'll never find people who are as unique as them. Even though this break only lasts for about 5 days it’s great to see everyone again. Yesterday I visited my old high school and I got to see all my friends in the grades below me as well as all of my teachers and there really is no better feeling than seeing old friends again. So to conclude there are many ways to get around on campus or to places that are near the campus or even to major cities that are relatively close to Baltimore. I'm actually sure there are many more than I'm unaware of at the moment. So my first video is another funny video about pets and involves a dog that pretty much can't rollover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxdPYCc_1mU . My second video (explicit language warning) is about some of the people that come to the Jersey Shore in the summer. This video was filmed at the beach in Seaside Park (which is about 30 minutes from me) and wasn't staged at all, some guys just got a video camera and started recording. This is one of the funniest videos I've found in a while and I can't believe it’s real: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5weU2olAl-E . Enjoy and I'll see you all in two weeks!

Filming and Food on Campus

Posted by Joe N.

So before I get to my main topic for this post which is food on campus I want to talk briefly about the filming which was done on campus last week. So nowadays everyone one knows pretty much what Facebook is even if they don't use it themselves. Some director eventually got the idea to make a movie based upon the founding of Facebook which took place primarily at Harvard University. This director (David Fincher) happened to be the man who directed the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Game, Fight Club, Se7en, and Alien 3. So as you can see this guy is actually a big deal, its not just some random person directing the movie. They decided to have Jesse Eisenberg who was in Zombieland and Adventureland play Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. Justin Timberlake is in the movie too, but unfortunately he wasn't on the campus or people would have made a much bigger deal about this shooting. So how does all of this relate to me? Well since Harvard doesn't allow commercial films to film on their campus the team who is developing the movie about the founding of Facebook, known as "The Social Network," decided that our campus looks close enough to Harvard for them to film here. So several weeks ago we saw this announcement informing us this would happen and the general area where it would happen.

Needless to say the entire student body (well at least those who read the message) was excited about what the message said, but some were actually angry that they would be using our campus as a "stand-in" for Harvard. I was at first but at the same time it was really interesting because I had never seen what its like when they're filming and actual movie with a director as amazing as the one for this. Originally I didn't intend on going to see what was happening during the filming aside from walking by but when I was on my way to Mason Hall to film something for Hopkins Interactive I saw the entire crew set up in front of Shaffer Hall and needless to say it caught my attention. On my way back I stopped and watched what was going on for a while and took some pictures of the set. The crew was very thorough with what they did to make sure our campus looked like Harvard. On the bulletin boards where we normally keep our student activity flyers they replaced them with all Harvard flyers and changed the lettering on our buildings to match the building names they had in their script. This angered some of the students but it was understandable. At one point they were actually filming outside AMR I and II which a lot of students could see as they were trying to walk back to their dorms from dinner. All in all it was very interesting to see how everything went down and get a few pictures of the set to show your friends. Below are some of the pictures that were taken by Homewood Photography during the whole process as well as one from my BlackBerry which shows a fake flyer they put up.

 

This is a really great picture of the huge helium filled light balloon they used to illuminate the entire scene.

 
This is another great picture taken during the night shooting that shows how close they let students get during the filming of this scene which was essentially just Jesse Eisenberg running across the upper quad.

 
This is a great picture of what the set looked like during the day when they filmed in the front of Shaffer Hall.

 
Here's a schedule for the Harvard football team which I found when I was walking out of class the next day. They actually had caution tape up around these boards to ensure students didn't mess with them.

So now onto the other main topic for this post: food on campus. So one of the most important things you need to know about a campus is how the food is. Its important because you're going to be living here for most of the year, and so you end up getting all of your food on campus. So there are several different dining halls on campus. The main one which is used by all Freshman is known as the Fresh Food Cafe (FFC). The FFC is great because its buffet style and it has a LOT of seats so you can go there with your friends, eat as much as you want, and talk with other people you might meet there. While this is the only dining hall that you can eat at throughout the entire semester according to your dining plans, you still have some money you can spend at other upperclassmen dining halls. At these places you have to use Dining Dollars which is essentially cash that can only be used at these places. For breakfast you can go to Einstein's Bagels in Charles Street Market (which is amazing, if I didn't restrain myself I'd go there for breakfast all the time). Charles Street Market itself is like a huge convenience store and you can use dining dollars for anything you get there. For lunch there's Levering Food Court which has a deli, a grill, a salad place, and a pizza place. I prefer to head there on my way back from Psych class to get food before the big lunch rush hits and because its right on my way back to my dorm. For dinner there's Nolan's which is right below Charles Commons. The great thing about Nolan's is that even if you don't want to get food you can go there and just hang out (they have TVs and a few pool tables and they have events every night of the week).

 

Here's a picture of the FFC from the outside (its right in the center of the bottom half of the image). This shows how convenient the location is for students living in the AMRs - AMR A and B are visible immediately above it and to the left while AMR II is visible on the right side. Its a bit of a walk for students living in Wolman, McCoy, or Hopkins Inn but its no big deal.

Aside from all those choices you can use J-Cash at a lot of the places along St. Paul street which is literally right off of the campus. Some of the places you'll find there are: Subway, Cold Stone, Chipotle, Starbucks, University Market (the equivalent of a 7/11 with a grill, their food is AMAZING and I go there too much), and a bunch of local places farther down. Right across the street from Wolman/McCoy you also have Tamber's which is a great little diner-style place and you can always take the CollegeTown bus to Inner Harbor or Towson for other options. So you really can go to a different place to eat each weekend which is really amazing.

I'll go into a little more detail about the FFC since that's what all prospective students should really worry about since they'll be eating there the majority of the time. First of all let me say that there are two dining plans you can choose from: Unlimited Meals per Week @ the FFC and 100 Dining Dollars per semester (this is what I have this semester) or 14 Meals per Week @ The FFC and 250 Dining Dollars per semester. So I ended up deciding to change dining plans because I don't eat more than 14 times at the FFC like I thought I would so I could use the extra dining dollars. Once you get to college you may find that your eating habits are completely different, there are some days where I'll only eat twice and others when I'll eat more than 3x. Now that I know what my eating habits are like since I've been here I know that I want to change my dining plan. So like I said the FFC is buffet style and they have a deli station, a grill station, a salad bar, a sandwich station, an action station, a "homestyle" station, a pizza station, a vegetarian station, and a desert station. Almost every station changes what they have from day-to-day and during each meal which is really good. The only problem is you might find that some nights you're not in the mood for anything there which is exactly why you have your dining dollars and other options on campus. The action station is where they allow you to make custom entrees that changes each night such as a pasta, macaroni, or a cheesesteak. The homestyle station usually has stuff like turkey or roast beef, potatoes, etc. The food at the FFC is really good but unfortunately I find that when I go there what's available to me isn't all that different from what I saw there the day/night before or there just isn't anything that I want. This is because when I was here for the summer university program 2 years ago we were only able to eat at the FFC for the entire month so the food is a bit boring to me. I still go there as much as possible because its also a great social place and even if you're not hungry you can find someone you know there and just take a break from whatever else you're doing.

Thats about all I've got for this week. If you come to visit campus I would definitely suggest you try to eat at one of our dining halls to get a feel for what the campus food is like, and if you've already done that try one of the places in the adjacent neighborhood, you can't really go wrong here. So for funny videos I'm going to do 2 this time because the first one is a bit short. My first one is a dog which basically talks in this video and its just amusing to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXo3NFqkaRM. Sticking with the Batman theme from last time here's a great video that came out right after the movie "The Dark Knight" which shows what the movie would have been like if Superman was there too. I laugh hysterically every time I see this video, its very well done: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1884973. Feel free to post a comment if you have questions about anything I write, or visit our forums (http://apply.jhu.edu/forums) if you have questions you'd like all of the students to see. See you in two weeks!

Sports and School Spirit

Posted by Joe N.

So during the course of the past two weekends there were 2 open houses and about 1,300 extra people on campus. Over the course of those two open houses I heard a lot of students and parents ask questions about sports and school spirit. Since both are a key part of Hopkins (more so for some students than others) I thought I'd discuss them briefly. First of all sports at Hopkins are divided into several categories. There is our main sport which is the only Division 1 Sport: Men's and Women's Lacrosse. In case you don't know we have an outstanding lacrosse team and we've made it to the playoffs for the past few years and we won the championship in 2007. Since Lacrosse is D1 students are recruited to play lacrosse and often end up practicing most of their time here. The next main category of sports is Division 3. We have lots of D3 teams: soccer, football, baseball, basketball, swimming, water polo, etc. D3 is just as competitive and exciting to watch as D1 games but it doesn't require as much practice time as D1 sports. Aside from that there are club sports and intramural sports which I'll discuss a bit later.

Almost all of the sports which we have here at Hopkins have their games at Homewood Field which is the stadium right on the Homewood campus. Its a really nice little stadium and it can fit a lot of people. I've been there for several soccer games already and I'm planning on going to a football game soon. The stadium seems small at first but that's because as of right now its never that crowded. Once lacrosse season hits in the spring the stadium becomes nearly full for all the home games. Each school has their signature sport and for Hopkins it's lacrosse. I've never watched a lacrosse game before (aside from some highlights of the championships Hopkins has been in) so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they're like..

Of the several soccer games I've been to so far the most notable was the most recent one I attended against York. York happened to be the #3 team in our division (we're #11) and this game was going to be pretty competitive because last year we ended up knocking York out of the playoffs. I was very excited to go to the game and I hurried back to my dorm after my physics lab (which ends around 8PM) to get to the field for the start of the game. Most people think "oh if its a division 3 game its probably not that competitive or fun to watch." This statement is completely wrong, I had so much fun watching this game, it was one of the best soccer games I've ever watched. York was very crafty with the way they organized their team, they were all about having control of the ball. I definitely noticed that they had control of the ball more than we did but our defense was really strong and they didn't end up getting that many shots on goal. Their players were also not afraid to rush our players or put pressure on them if we had control for too long. I was very satisfied with the gameplay for the entire time but I was upset with the final score. We didn't lose, we tied. But we tied 0-0. We went through 2 10 minute overtime periods (which were just as if not more intense than the regular time) and we almost scored at least 4 times. School spirit was definitely noticeable. Our section of the stadium was more full than I've ever seen it and you could feel the anger of the crowd every time the referees made an offsides call against us, or when they carded our players. It was especially noticeable when one of the York players started to act dramatically as if he'd been terribly injured which resulted in one of our players been red carded.

So onto club and intramural sports. Club sports are really great. If you love a sport enough to play it or go to practices for it all the time but don't want the time commitment of D3 sports club sports are definitely for you. Club sports are very casual and laid back, you can pretty much go to practice whenever you want and attend the competitions if you want to. There are leaders for each club who organize the practices and competitions as well as coaches who are willing to help you whenever you need help. Most of the club sport life is practicing but the leaders are sure to look out for any competitions they can go to. Also during the beginning of the year they'll set up divisions of the club so the beginners get the attention they need and the advanced members can pretty much do what they want to get their work outs done. Intramural sports are somewhat similar. Intramural sports are usually smaller and have teams that can be divided up by your dorm, or you can make your own teams. To be fair they only allow one D3 player for the sport on each team. Intramurals are also run by students who set up matches and practices, but you'll find less intramural sports than club sports on campus. However if you come to campus and you want to start a club sport its one of the easiest things to do. The same is true with any kind of club sport or club/activity in general. You'll find the student life office encourages you to make your own clubs/activities and will even consider giving you a grant if you have enough interest.

Well that's all for this week. I apologize for my delayed post, I had 3 midterms this past week and I wanted to make sure that I studied enough for all of them without having to worry about doing my blog entry. As for my usual video post, this time its not from YouTube, its from CollegeHumor.com. While CollegeHumor can get a bit vulgar sometimes I love the site as well as all the people who work for them. Interestingly enough one of their top comedians (Steve Hofstetter) was at Hopkins several weeks ago for a comedy show (he was amazing). This one is called Batman Vanishing and is especially funny for those of you who have seen the Dark Knight (if you haven't seen TDK you'll probably still understand it). Here it is: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1921846. Thanks for reading and I'll see you all in (less than) two weeks!

Remembering Sunday

Posted by Joe N.

So judging by the date on my calendar it seems like I'm just about 2 weeks shy of having been at Hopkins for 2 months already. Wow, time here has gone soo fast (especially because over the last week I had midterms in every single one of my classes) but like I said before I've never been bored this whole time. A lot of my friends have asked me what I do with all my free time here and I'm gonna touch upon that real quick before I get to the main point of this post (Orientation). One of the first things I'll do if I have free time is get rid of any homework I have for the week (especially Physics cause it can take up a LOT of time). Once I've done that one of my favorite things to do is sleep (mostly because my classes require me to get up early every day but I still go to bed whenever I feel like it) or go to the Rec Center with some of my friends. The Rec Center has an amazing amount of things you can do there but I have my personal favorites. I haven't gotten a chance to try out the rock wall yet (yes we have a full size rock wall in our rec center) because its always really crowded when I go there. My favorite thing to do whenever I've got a few hours to kill is play racquetball for an hour with my friends. The first time I played racquetball was when I was here in the summer of 2008 and I got addicted to it because it was so much fun. For those of you who aren't familiar with the sport its basically like tennis except you're both on the same side of the court, you're in a closed room (with a pretty high ceiling), and there's a wall where the net would be. It may not sound like a lot of fun but trust me once you start playing and getting good at the game it is. Other than that I'll usually watch movies or whatever game is on TV during the weekend especially on Sunday which is always my lazy day. Watching football games was fun this weekend because I saw everything from a certain team that will remain nameless mess up an extra point attempt (luckily for them the other team had a penalty during the play so they got a redo) to the Ravens literally having a flag thrown for them on every play.

 

Here's a picture of what our rock wall looks like, and if you can believe it this isn't even all of it, there's a whole other side that's not visible in this picture!

Ok now onto the real point of this entry. As I mentioned in my previous post Orientation is one of the things that makes Hopkins very different from other schools. "Orientation is the first thing you experience at any school and it is often one of the most memorable times. I remember talking with my friends about what they were going to have going on during their orientations and it sounded really fun. The odd thing was that all of them had orientations lasting one or two days. When I finally got the schedule for the JHU orientation I was ecstatic. They had events planned for us for the entire first week, and even a few more days. They knew that we started classes and they had events planned around that as well. Interestingly enough one of my greatest experiences during orientation was the Alcohol and Making Informed Decisions meeting because one of my favorite Neuroscience Professors was the one who gave the lecture." So one of the things that makes orientation special here is that we have an entire committee for it, as well as hundreds of students who volunteer for activities such as moving new students in or serving as Peer Ambassadors. Over the next few minutes I'm going to go over the highlights of the orientation events that I attended.

So obviously you have the events that you'll see at almost any school such as move-in day, a mandatory security meeting, a mandatory floor meeting with your RA, an alcohol and making informed decisions meeting etc. But here's where it starts to get unique. Several weeks before orientation I was reading a page on the orientation blog which told me about the Peer Ambassador program. Basically rising Sophomores volunteer to act as Peer Ambassadors to the incoming freshmen. Its very interesting because the orientation staff pairs you with a PA based upon your major (so I was paired with a neuroscience major). So for an hour on one of my first days on campus I met in with my PA and a group of students who all had the same major interest as me. Our PA was also able to tell us about the first year classes she had taken for Neuroscience already, and told us what to do to make it through some of the classes we were taking. It was really great because you got to know someone who has the same interests as you as I already mentioned and you stay in contact with them throughout your freshman year if you need advice.

"A Peer Ambassador is an upperclassman who has volunteered their time and energy to advise a group of approximately 15 incoming students; because each new student is assigned to a specific advising group, it is essential that new students become acquainted with their Peer Ambassador prior to arriving on campus."

Also during orientation I attended a seminar on undergraduate reserach and finding a campus job. It was very interesting to find out how easy it is to participate in research here (and what excited me the most was that you can easily participate in research that happens on the medical campus). We also had the opportunity to watch Slumdog Millionaire on the Upper-Quad with members of our class and even some Upperclassmen which was amazing as well. We also had our class photo taken which was another great experience and there were a whole bunch of "Hopkins 24/7" seminars wihch basically told you how to keep yourself busy during your free time. My personal favorite one was the seminar discussing the Digital Media Center @ JHU and all it has to offer. Its really amazing and if you visit the campus I suggest you visit there. Through the DMC you can rent anything from Digital SLR Cameras to actual game consoles (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3) for up to a week. They also have an amazing game lounge that you can rent out if you and your friends want to do some hardcore gaming on a weekend. They also have gaming parties every other month where the entire DMC has games set up throughout the various consoles and you can just walk in and play. They also have a fully equipped audio recording studio and offer tutorials that teach you how to use it. They also have LOTS of tutorials for using various computer programs.

 

Here's a student working on a project using both her person laptop and the advanced software available on the DMC computers (which is free to use for all students).

Next came my two favorite events throughout all of orientation: The O-A Capella Show during which all the A Capella groups performed and the Tom DeLuca hypnotist show. The A Capella show was amazing and I never knew there were so many different groups at Hopkins. My personal favorites were the All Nighters and the Octopodes. I found out later that the Octopodes actually have a CD (which is one of the best produced CDs I've ever listened to). The Tom DeLuca show was awesome, I don't think I've ever been more entertained for 2 hours than I was with this show (if I have the chance to go back next year I'm definitely doing it). Oh there was also a comedy show with Dan Levy who's been on Comedy Central, he was also really great.

Here's a video from one of the A Capella groups I mentioned (the All-Nighters) performing Hide and Seek. This video wasn't recorded at O-Show but it gives you an idea of how good they are.

So as you can see there are a lot of things which make Hopkins Orientation so unique, not many Orientation progams last for more than a day (let alone a full week!) and can provide you with so many different forms of entertainment. No matter who you are, no matter where you come from you can always find something to do each day during orientation and meet new people at the same time. That's all for this week. Next week I'm going to describe in-depth the academic transition that I experienced from my high school program to here at Hopkins.

My video for this week is another one of my personal favorites and I laugh every single time I watch this video. Its called "Grandma Decides to Ghost Ride the Whip" and the title pretty much says it all. The title of my blog is the name of another one of my favorite songs and it kind of relates to what I was discussing this week. Thanks for reading, look for another post in 2 weeks!

Worlds Away

Posted by Joe N.

Hey guys! I'm Joe and I'm (obviously) also a Freshman at Hopkins this year and I'm one of the 8 Freshmen who are going to be writing on this blog. I would also like to welcome everyone to the blog and if you don't find the answers to you questions I invite you to check out the Student Profiles and the Admissions Forums. If you still don't find your answer be sure to contact one of us and we'll make sure your question gets answered. Before I get to the main point of my blog I'd like to let you guys know a little bit about me.

I'm from Belmar, New Jersey (right on the Jersey Shore, I actually live about 5 blocks from the beach), I'm a Neuroscience major and Psychology minor and I'm on the pre-med track. I attended High Technology High School, a Pre-Engineering magnet school that was recently ranked 4th best high school in the country. I watch a LOT of different TV Shows but my all-time favorite TV Show is LOST (closely followed by Fringe, if you don't watch these shows you should start now =D), I'm literally obsessed with it. I listen to all different kinds of music but my genre of choice is definitely metal, all the concerts I've been to were to see metal bands. I'll listen to all other kinds of music but I prefer metal. I'm also obsessed with almost anything related to technology or medicine and you'll find that all of the classes I'm taking this semester and next semester are related to both of those topics (I tend to avoid humanities at all costs =D). I live in McCoy Hall which is actually an upperclassmen dorm but the floor that I'm on (Terrace Level) is all Freshmen and I'm right across from Wolman Hall. I personally love the location because even though I have to walk a fair distance to my classes (especially Physics which I have at 9AM and is literally the farthest building from my dorm room) I love being close to the book store, Charles Commons/Nolan's, and all of the restaurants on St. Paul Street. I also love McCoy because I have air conditioning and I share a bathroom and kitchenette with my two other suitemates.

Here's what the bookstore and the entrance to Charles Commons looks like from the outside.

In case you're wondering, here's a little bit about why I chose to come to Hopkins. I chose to come to Hopkins because when I was here for the 2008 Pre-College Summer University program I found out that everyone on campus is so nice and friendly and always willing to help you out if you have a question or a problem. (Summer University was one of the best experiences of my life and if you have the ability to do it I strongly suggest you do) I also came because of the presentation I saw during one of the open houses for the Neuroscience department. At that time I wanted to major in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering but after I saw that presentation I started leaning toward Neuroscience. I actually made up my mind when I filled out the form that went along with my deposit to Hopkins and changed my major to Neuroscience. The availability of research here was also a deciding factor. At my high school we were allowed to do research but we couldn’t use human subjects so all my ideas weren’t approved. At Hopkins not only can you do research on campus relating to the medical field, but you can also work with students at the medical school or even work directly with the Hopkins Hospital.

The Hopkins sign! This is how my friends and I would orient ourselves when we didn't know our way around campus.

Right now I'm taking 5 science-y classes: An Introduction to Neuroscience (my favorite class and professor so far), General Physics I for Biological Sciences Majors, General Physics Lab I, Introduction to Cognitive Neuropsychology and Introduction to Psychology. So far I've taken my first exam (An Introduction to Neuroscience) and while it did require a lot of studying it wasn't that bad. Some of the activities I participate in on campus are Club Swimming, Hopkins Organization for Pre-Health Education (HOPE), Student Admissions Advisory Board (SAAB), and the JHU Photo Club. I also love video games (even though I haven't found the time to play them that much yet). One odd fact about me is that since I've been to Hopkins I've gotten more sleep than I used to. At my High School I was used to having 4+ hours of homework each day and now that I only have 2 classes with homework I spend my free time catching up on readings (which doesn't take long at all) and sleeping at random hours during the day.

Thats basically everything you'd ever want to know about me and my schedule at Hopkins so far, so now I'm going to talk a little bit about Orientation (otherwise known as O-Week). Orientation is the first thing you experience at any school and it is often one of the most memorable times. I remember talking with my friends about what they were going to have going on during their orientations and it sounded really fun. The odd thing was that all of them had orientations lasting one or two days. When I finally got the schedule for the JHU orientation I was ecstatic. They had events planned for us for the entire first week, and even a few more days. They knew that we started classes and they had events planned around that as well. Interestingly enough one of my greatest experiences during orientation was the Alcohol and Making Informed Decisions meeting because one of my favorite Neuroscience Professors was the one who gave the lecture. That's all I have to say for orientation right now, but don't worry I'll go more in-depth into it during my next post.

This is just one of the many fun activities you get to do as a whole class during orientation. Among the others are convocation and first night/class party following first night.

Well that's all I've got for you guys right now. In closing I've been here for a month so far and to me it seems like its been a lot longer (in a good way). No matter what time of the day it is there's always something to do here (and not just schoolwork) which is great. A lot has happened too, I've made a lot of new friends, participated in a lot of different activities, learned a lot more than I thought I would in all of my classes, and learned my way around the entire campus. Make sure you check out my student profile when its put up in the middle of October, and my page on the Hopkins Forums (please don't hesitate to post your questions, I'd love to answer them!) Also check out my TypePad profile page for other ways you can keep up with me, friend me on facebook if you want or check out what music I've listened to recently on last.fm =D.

Oh, I forgot to mention I'm going to try post a link to a random funny YouTube after every blog post I make. Here's the first one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jxXdCEcFHM. Also if you're wondering I got my post title from one of my current favorite songs. See you guys next time!