Trains, Planes, and a Big Yellow School Bus

So it's been about two weeks since I've written, and in that time I've experienced all the forms of transportation that Baltimore has to offer. The vehicles themselves aren't all that interesting (though I do think it's ironic that the Collegetown shuttle is a kiddish yellow school bus), but they do outline my past two weeks pretty well, so that's how I'll present this blog. Points if you can identify some form of transportation that I missed.

It all started last weekend, "fall break", when I left Baltimore (on a plane!) and headed to Michigan. I went with a friend from my floor, and we both visited friends at U of M and generally just got a taste of the Midwest. It was nice to get away for a weekend and see life on another campus. I stayed with a close friend from high school, and she took me around Ann Arbor. The town was lovely, and I had a great time catching up, but it was so nice to get back to Hopkins and feel at home again. Most of my friends here went different places for the weekend, so it was like a little reunion when I got back on Monday morning. As soon as I got back (at the devilishly early hour of 9 am), I went to the common room and we all sat around catching up and swapping stories of our fall breaks, and I think everyone felt like we had been away for longer than just a weekend.

Wednesday was probably one of the most fulfilling days here so far. Instead of heading to Gilman for Intro to Fiction and Poetry, I walked (technically not a vehicle of transportation, but I'm counting it anyway) to the Baltimore Museum of Art, which is about 2 minutes away from campus. Don't worry, Mom, I wasn't skipping class; for IFP, we got to spend the hour browsing the museum and writing about whichever piece struck us the most. It was amazing; the museum is small enough to be manageable but full of beautiful and diverse pieces.

Then, right after class, I ran to meet my friend Kit on St. Paul Street and we hailed a taxi (that's three!) to get to Penn Station and took the train (four!) to D.C., where we sprinted over to the National Mall just in time to see - *drumroll please* - the Dalai Lama!! I know, you're allowed to be jealous. He was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, which is Congress' highest civilian honor. Richard Gere spoke for a surprisingly long time, there were a bunch of Tibetan music performances, and then the Dalai Lama himself finally gave a little speech. I know I should have appreciated his words about world peace a little more, but really my favorite part was when he paused, said "Wait a minute", reached behind the podium, and pulled on a little red visor. (Okay, and the stuff about world peace was cool too.) Even though he didn't speak for a very long time and my view was mostly obstructed by a large tree, it was awesome to just be there and experience something so historically significant.

After a busy week of midterms (okay, so I only had one midterm, Art History; but my friends had a lot more) we decided to blow off some steam and voyage to Little Italy on Friday evening. A group of six of us quickly grew into twelve, as so often happens, and we took the Collegetown shuttle to the Inner Harbor and walked the half mile from there to Little Italy. After another week of homemade grilled cheese sandwiches, it felt amazing to sit down to a steaming plate of gnocci. We took our time heading back from dinner, splashing around in the rain a bit, and just generally enjoying the Inner Harbor at night and the luminance of the marina.

So that makes a total of five different kinds of transportation in the past week alone. Now if only there was a people-mover to get me from my bed to the library tonight...

Comments

[Daniel Creasy]

You should ask one of the HopCops if you could borrow their cool Segways!!!

[Siobhan]

I'm totally jealous that you went to Little Italy!! I haven't been yet and Italian food is my favourite!!!

[Laura]

I LOVE going to the BMA for class... well or a variety of other times, but ESPECIALLY for class.... its one of those "wow, this is awesome" moments you have about Hopkins.

[Mandy Stein]

haha I like how when describing the same event, you said six turned into twelve and I said seven turned into thirteen. how typical of us.

[Josh G]

all i have to say is Richard Gere?

[Katie Schlossberg]

I'm straight up drooling over your "steaming plate of gnocci."

[Shayna B.]

Question: how did you get to hang out with all the cool kids on campus?