2011: Hopkins Freshman Blog

Sleep All Damn Day

Posted by Josh G.

So for those of you that read this that haven’t been living with me for the past 5 or so weeks, you might be wondering what I’ve been up to.

Well first off I’ve been getting some much needed rest in a warm comfortable bed.  I’ve been eating well (and by well I mean lots of take out).  There has been a lot of checking facebook (and if you are an ED admit you know I check the incoming freshman group religiously because I have a serious addiction – but the first step is admitting you have a problem right?) 

In other news, as embarrassing as it is my mom recently wrote a blog on the “Blue Jay Buffet” blog.  Also, I’m very jealous that it snowed a lot in Baltimore because I love the snow.  I got the news from my friends back at Hopkins for Intersession and immediately checked the weather forecast.  And now I’m somewhat worried about my plans to head back to school because my grandparents are driving me back (and apparently buying me enough snacks to last me for the final 7 semesters at Hopkins) and don’t want to drive in the snow.  So we’ll see in the next few days what happens. 

Other than what’s been mentioned, I’ve been playing music, watching TV, hanging out with friends (even a trip to see Hopkins people in NYC), going to see some of my favorite bands play, and “studying” which as a film major means going to the movies and catching up greatly on my Netflix queue which has soley belonged to my brother before I came home and commandeered it the past few months. 

Here are some of the highlights:
Atonement, I Am Legend, Juno, Annie Hall, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Reign Over Me, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Reservoir Dogs, Barry Lyndon, The Science of Sleep, The Bourne Ultimatum, Schindler’s List, American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction, The Jacket, My Private Idaho, Flakes, For Your Consideration, and all 6 Freaks and Geeks DVDs -  plus all the movies that I watched over for the 2nd, 3rd, 100th times.  I wish my Netflix plan could have sent me more than 3 movies, but I’ll watch more over the summer and I recommend all of the films mentioned. 

I’ll leave you with some footage of one of the musicians I saw over break, Kevin Devine who is one of my top 3 or 4 favorite artists.  He’s an amazing songwriter so check him out in the video, on others on YouTube, and on iTunes! 

I’ll also leave you all with two quotes from one of the movies above (you’ll have to research which one though) that hopefully will console those of you going through the application process:

“Hey, Harvard makes mistakes too! Kissinger taught there!”

“Sun is bad for you. Everything our parents said was good is bad. Sun, milk, red meat... college.”

TTFN. 

Intersession

Posted by Jessica K.

Just before I left to go back to school I got bombarded with this question: "Are you excited to go back?" I really had no good answer for this. Yes, I had my intersession all planned out. But, at the same time, reading and lounging around at home had been fun for two weeks...and I definitely could have continued it for three more weeks. Now that I think about it questions about the unknown, the future, are always hard to answer. Of course, after you experience the "future" you then know the right answer for it. So, looking back what should my answer to this have been? I'm REALLY excited to go back.

Some people I know decided not to come back because they thought they would get bored over these three weeks. I can relate to them; I love, love, love to keep busy. So, because of this, I  planned my intersession so I would be able to keep unstressfully busy....hence why I decided to break this blog into sections.

I. Classes
Since Tuesday I have been done with classes, before the halfway mark in intersession too! I decided to pack my Mondays and Tuesdays for the first two weeks, this way I could work the rest of the week. So, I'm done with Vaccine Development and Sex and Sexuality in the 17th Century. Having 14 hours of classes in two days for these past two weeks has still left me with plenty of free time...keep reading to find out!

Now...let me talk about both of my classes:

Vaccine Development was taught by a 1977 graduate of Hopkins, Dr. Lew Schrager. He works with the FDA now and thought it would be nice to come back to his school and teach us! It's great to see an alum who wants to give back to his school. He took intersession classes here and now he's teaching an intersession class, pretty cool! The course had over fifty people in it from all majors. Anyway, Dr. Schrager was so enthusiastic about this topic, and really packed the classes in to share with us all the most recent information he humanly could. He also was able to bring in two guest speakers. One speaker was his freshman roommate at Hopkins, Dr. Michael Lenardo, and the other was invited to come, Dr. D.A. Henderson. Having interesting guest speakers in this class definitely helped getting through the long 3.5 hour class. My favorite part of this course was Dr. D.A. Henderson's lecture which was on his role in the smallpox eradication and the differences between smallpox eradication and  polio eradication. {To read more about this incredible man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Henderson}

Sex and Sexuality in the 17th Century was also not taught by a Hopkins professor, but she also knew her stuff! I'm so glad I took this class so I could experience a little of what a History of Science, Medicine, and Technology course is like. The class was very well organized and covered the main topic through many different aspects: homosexuality, sexual diseases, childbearing, etc. My favorite part of this class was learning about how people viewed sexual differences and diseases. Theses views led to learning about treatment through the belief that the body is made out of humors.

As you can tell I had no background information on both of these courses...and came out with some! Intersession has done its job in the sense that I've learned about things I otherwise wouldn't have.

II. Work
I decided to work in the office of admissions over intersession! I mentioned in my previous blog that I have an interest in admissions. I have been working the remaining three days of the week in the office working partially as a student worker for Admissions Daniel and also as a worker for the applicants aka for the thousands, thousands, and thousands of applications. I have really enjoyed my time doing this...not only has my work sped up our Video Blog development, but also because it has led me to realize just how many people want to come to this school. Sometimes my days have meant just seven hours listening to my ipod pulling out completed applications, but even this task is rewarding knowing that the earlier the files get pulled the better it is for everyone. Being around admissions representatives/readers has also made me respect our school's admissions process better. I can tell just from being around this team that thought, and time, is given to each applicant; they really are trying to build the best '12 team possible. Well, yes, numbers do count {GPA, scores, rank}, but the readers do see past the numbers. This has to be done because just having been around the files for a couple of days has made me realize that if you just look at numbers, the whole pool pretty much looks the same. Anyway, I'm so glad I have had this experience to glance into the process...if only prospective students understood the process.

{Please note the picture is from last year.}

III. Other
Intersession means far less time spent in the library, if any. Intersession also means no group meetings, well for me it does. What does this lead to? Three weeks of plenty of recess time! Tomorrow I'm going to DC, on Monday I'm going to the Walters museum. Last weekend I went to the Baltimore Museum of Art {by the way, the Matisse sculpture exhibit is worth seeing}. Plus, I definitely have also been making time to enjoy our rec center. Not only this, but though there were only 25 people in my 100+ building, I have still been able to spend tons of time with friends. I really hope to make a short video of intersession pictures, but because intersession isn't over, you will just have to deal with the pictures sprinkled throughout this post. Anyway, hanging out in dorm rooms, cooking dinner, birthday baking, playing lots of solitaire on my new ipod.....what more is there to say?!

IV. Conclusion
Yes, intersession has proven to be a good experience, or a pile of good experiences, at Hopkins.

Shots, Shock, and Splints?

Posted by Rob A.

Hey everyone, I hope all of your winter breaks went well and school is going good. Since my last post I have been extremely busy with a whole bunch of stuff. If you didn’t know I hail from the great state of New Hampshire, which has recently been all over the news for one of our proudest moments: The New Hampshire Primary. Now I know some of you might not have been happy with the results, but I’m not going to talk about politics here. I would like to say that primary season is one of my absolute favorite times, especially with all of the publicity this election year has been getting. Candidates are having huge events almost everyday that are open to the public, and with New Hampshire being pretty small in size they are easily accessible. This year I was able to go to a few events in my area for a couple of politicians, which included Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and John Edwards. Here are some pics from the event with John McCain, which I happened to be in the second row for! I somehow deleted all of the pics from the other events.

Unfortunately for me, I was unable to actually go and vote on the actual day of the primaries, but I did indeed vote with and absentee ballot. I don’t exactly know all of the individual states’ laws, but I hope if you have a chance that you go out and vote. It’s really easy and it is an important aspect of this country.

Anyways, so the reason I was unable to be in NH for primary day was Intersession. Intersession is a special program here at Hopkins that runs for the entire month of January (7th – 25th). The school offers a whole range of classes and other interesting activities. Plus everything is included in your tuition, so it is a great thing to take advantage of. This year I was unable to take a class through the school because I needed to take WFR (Wilderness First Responder) for Outdoor Pursuits. WFR is a 10 day, 80-hr course that instructs us on everything from heart attacks, shock, blister care, lost crowns, and sunburn so we can survive in the wilderness. My fellow blogger Roxi is also taking the course with me, since she will be leading sailing trips come spring. One of the highlights of the week actually involved Roxi, because we needed to learn how to administer shots. Roxi and I were paired up and gave each other saline solution shots. Fortunately, both of us survived even though it was nerve racking using needles for the first time since so many people have fears of them.

Another interesting moment was this past Tuesday, where we had our night practical. All of us were split into groups and had to do a mock search and rescue in a state park up the road in Maryland. One of the guys in my group tripped and broke his leg and we had to splint it up and keep him warm, while another girl had a seizure and we had to take care of here. All of this was pretend, so don’t worry but we needed to treat it as if it was real so it got pretty intense a few times, especially when the girl started having a seizure since we weren’t expecting it. Not to mention it was the middle of the night and freezing, but it was a good time and it was cool to see how much we progressed from the first day.

WFR was a great time, especially since I was able to hang out with all of my fellow freshmen OP leaders all the time. Let’s just say you get to know each other pretty quickly after a few head-to-toe examinations and a couple of splints. We also got to spend a lot of time with each other outside of class since the campus isn’t full yet, which was interesting since the nights were like a run on of the class since all we talked about was WFR and saving people’s lives.

Today was the last day of class, and I am happy to say that all of us passed our rigorous examinations and are ready to move on to our next trainings, HOLT and August training, so we can eventually lead freshmen on Pre-Orientation trips. HOLT is a two week intense courses where we either hike or canoe continually and learn all of the things necessary to live outside and survive in the wilderness. Once we have been assigned trips to lead, we plan out our August training trip which basically follows the same exact route as we will follow the following week during Pre-O.

One other thing we have to look forward to is our instructor retreat in West Virginia. Sometime in February we get to go camping and do a whole bunch of winter activities, such as snow tubing and snow shoeing which should be a ton of fun. For those kids who were recently accepted under ED, I strongly suggest doing Pre-O, not only because it is a BLAST but also because it is great to come in to Orientation with friends already. As I have mentioned in some of my previous posts, two of my best friends were on my Pre-O trip and then a whole bunch more are fellow leaders. Feel free to ask me questions about Pre-O or the process to become a leader and getting certified.

Well I have got to hop in the shower and get ready for our OP dinner tonight with all of the kids who took WFR this past week. Then later this weekend I am leaving for Florida for a few days to visit family and finally get a chance to relax. Next time I talk to you I’ll be starting up my second semester, also my first semester that will count towards my GPA!

Good Decisions

Posted by Stephanie D.

I'm currently writing this blog from my favorite comfy spot in Cafe Q, at a table next to the window (so I can see the snow falling everywhere!), while I sip a hot vanilla latte. Perfection.

I know I just wrote a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn't help but want to write again. I have so much to say about Intersession, and how amazing it's been! Let me just say that my slightly-spontaneous decision to come back to Baltimore for Intersession was one of the best choices I've made so far at Hopkins. The past two weeks have been the most fun/relaxing weeks I've had here so far. Well, maybe besides Orientation. Come to think of it, both those time periods have something to do with the lack of schoolwork ... hmm, I sense a pattern.

Anyway. In my last entry, I mentioned how I planned to take Italian over Intersession. Fortunately or unfortunately, the dang Registrar wouldn't let me sign up for three credits, so instead I enrolled in a one-credit course called "Writing About Yourself" and planned to switch it to Italian in person on the first day of Intersession. Before I could do that, though, I decided to attend just one "Writing About Yourself class" - mostly because it was January 7th and there was nobody on campus yet - and I'm so glad I did! Maybe it's narcissism, maybe it's fate (okay, probably the former) but I LOVED this class! There were about 14 students in the class, from all different grades, and we focused on writing and reading memoirs, and how to turn personal experiences - even the most trivial ones - into interesting stories.

I decided to stay in the class, and instead of enrolling in Italian as well (that would be too many credits for intersession - you're only allowed to take three, and Italian is a three-credit course by itself) I signed up for the two-credit, ambiguously named "Journalism Institute." I was HUGELY into my high school newspaper, especially in my junior and senior year, and although I haven't had much time to get involved in the News-Letter here (I plan to make time this semester! I'll do it! I will!) I really miss talking about, writing about, and generally being surrounded by journalism.

Once again, I made a great decision! While my "Writing About Yourself" course ended this week, Journalism meets for all three weeks of intersession, every morning from 9-11. I would typically avoid a 9 am class at all costs, but it's been surprisingly easy to drag myself out of bed every morning because this course is AWESOME. The teacher is this incredibly brilliant man named Russell Smith who has been the Editor of four different publications - he started City Paper while he was still a student at Hopkins, and he ran the New York Press for a long time - and, suffice it to say, he has a lot of experience with the journalism industry.

There are only six students in the class, and we pretty much sit around for two hours and drink coffee and talk about politics, sports, controversial medicine, student rights, drug usage, and pretty much anything that you can think of to cover. Russell teaches in a really tangential way, and the first day I was kind of like, "How does this relate to journalism....?" but I quickly realized that this loose, frenetic, creative style of discussion is what inspires most of the articles that newspapers choose to cover. Incredible. Of course it's a much more laid-back environment than any other class I've taken at Hopkins, and that has something to do with the nature of Intersession, but I still feel like I'm getting a lot out of it - maybe nothing tangible, but definitely something.

ASIDE from classes, I've just LOVED being on campus with so few students around. That might sound anti-social, but it's really the opposite. With only about 1/5 of the freshman class on campus (I'm just estimating, that's definitely not an exact figure), I've had a lot of time to meet/get closer with people I didn't spend as much time with last semester. Although my hall is pretty desolate (it's pretty much just me, my roommate Lauren, and my friend Doug) a lot of my friends from other floors/buildings are here. Many of them have been participating in the Wilderness First Response program (I'll let JHU_Rob talk more about this!) and therefore are pretty exhausted by the time they get out of class, but they've still been up for hanging out - whether it's a night on the town, a luxurious three-hour dinner at the FFC, or simply a night of just hanging around the common rooms, watching Planet Earth and playing board games.

While we wait for the rest of the kids to stop tromping around in the "wilderness" of Balitmore, my friend Amy and I have taken it upon ourselves to have a lot of adventures. One day, we decided to dress up in our most ridiculous clothing and take pictures of ourselves in various random places around campus - Cafe Q, Gilman Hall, etc. We even went to dinner dressed like that. We attracted a few stares, but it was a great time. The next day, we dressed up in really fancy clothes for no good reason (have you noticed a theme? We like to play dress-up) and went to dinner at Donna's, this great Italian place on St. Paul street. For some reason, the website isn't letting me upload any more pictures right now, but I'll add those later.

Okay, I'm off to go drag my friends outside for a snowball fight. I'll leave you on this note: INTERSESSION=AMAZING! I never want it to end. Except I guess we have to get around to that whole "class" thing sometime...hmm.

"I thought it didn't snow in California?"

Posted by Stephanie D.

...At least that's what a friend from Hopkins asked when I told him I was going skiing a couple of weeks ago. Oh, those silly Easterners.

Anyway, it does indeed snow in the very northern tip of California, so that's where I spent my first few days back in the home state, as I mentioned in my last post. My best friends and I headed up to Tahoe for a fantastic four days of catching up, cooking and eating ridiculous amounts of food (we tend to do that a lot when we're together. I'm pretty sure I gained the "freshman fifteen" here at home over the last couple of weeks, rather than at school), and playing Apples to Apples by the fireplace (Josh, you'll like that one).

I wasn't planning on going skiing at all - I'm pretty pathetic at all athletic activity, and after an experiment with snowboarding last year that ended with a herd of middle schoolers running me over and laughing at me, I swore off the snow sports all together. I planned to wait at the lodge for my friends, catch up on reading and coffee...okay, and just be bored. But fate did not listen to my plans (and neither did my friends).

My friend Carson realized that the skis she had rented at home were too small, and so she had to rent new ones...and it turned out that her old ones fit me perfectly! So, ignoring my muffled protests and claims that I "really didn't mind waiting at the lodge", my friends strapped the skis onto my feet and pretty much sent me down the mountain. Strangely enough, I didn't break any bones or make a giant fool of myself - actually, I was decent! So that made a great trip even more enjoyable - being able to ski (granted, lagging half a mile behind my friends the whole time ) and chime in on the oh-I'm-so-sore fests afterwards.

Anyway, the trip was awesome, but it was good to get actually come HOME after that and sleep in my own bed, etc. My family and I had a great time during Christmas - we're Jewish, so Christmas for us is like a adapted family holiday, where we just spend time with each other and make sure to eat a lot of bagels and pretend to hate the sight of Christmas trees. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration - actually, we went over to my Aunt and Uncle's house for Christmas Eve and helped them decorate their tree. "Helping" was the initial plan, but within about 20 minutes, my mom and my sister and I had taken over the decorating process completely - it turns out that Christians get pretty sick of tree-decorating? My cousins thanked us immensely and returned to the living room to play video games while my mom and my sister and I spent 2 hours debating the placement of ornaments. The next day, we had more family time and went to see Juno - which, if you haven't seen it yet, do. Right now. Stop reading this blog, in fact, and look up the nearest theater. It was that good.

I don't have time to go into all the great things I've done over break - plus, my mom made a snide comment the other day about how my blogs always seem to be longer than anyone else's ("Do kids actually want to read that much?" thanks, Mom) but I'll give a few highlights.

It's been amazing to see all my friends, and everyone has had such different experiences that I've really had to sit down over coffee or lunch with each friend for at least an hour before we can get over the "catching up" and go on to do something else. So there have been a lot of leisurely coffee dates and not a ton of activity, but I'm okay with that. A friend of mine threw herself a birthday party at the Embassy Suites, which is a total throwback to 7th grade when we used to rent a hotel room and have birthday slumber-parties, and it was hilarious - we got totally into 7th grade mode and even wore party hats. Another night, we had a picnic dinner by my pool - yes, in the middle of winter. Oh, I love California.

New Year's, however, was probably my best night of break. It started off really stressful, as New Year's always does, because my friends and I had no idea what we were going to do. We gathered at my friend Julie's house around 3 pm and decided we were going to dress up no matter what, so we got all dressed up and took pictures and pretty much just sat around the rest of the room arguing over what to do. We were about to resign ourselves to staying in, when our friend Genna called and told us that we had to come over to her house. I'm glad we did, because it turned out that almost every single person I wanted to see over break was there! It was better than typical New Year's parties in high school because everyone was so happy to see each other and just be together for the stroke of midnight.

As much as I've enjoyed being home, I made a pretty spontaneous decision a few days ago - I'm coming back for Intersession! I wasn't really planning on it, but I realized that all my friends are going back to school around the 7th anyway and so I'd be stuck here for three weeks, basically just hanging out with my family. And I LOVE MY FAMILY, don't get me wrong (don't kill me, Mom!), but they're busy too.

So I decided to come back to good old Baltimore, where I'll spend intersession taking ITALIAN. I'm beyond excited about this, because I think the best way to take language is on its own, with no other distractions, and it will be my only class over intersession. My roommate and a bunch of other friends will also be on campus, so it'll be fun to hang out without the stress of so many classes. I head back to Baltimore on Sunday, and it'll be sad to say goodbye to California, but - I'm excited!

Okay, I'm off to go watch a movie called Danny Deckchair. It sounds suspicious, but my parents SWORE I'd love it...hmm, we'll see.