JHU Fun Blog

Eleanor Summer Spent Working

Eleanor's Chaperone: Michelle B.

Destination: Working throughout Baltimore

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Today I brought Eleanor along with me on a typical day in my Baltimore summer. I’ve been working a lot lately, so Eleanor got to come along on my many daily exploits. First, we start out the day with Organic Chemistry at 9 am.

We’re learning about spectroscopy. Chemists use spectroscopy to determine the identity of molecules- spectroscopy can tell you what kind of functional groups are on the molecule, the extent of double bonds present throughout the molecule, and the number of protons in different “electronic environments” in the molecule. Using all this information, one can piece together what molecule they’re dealing with.

Eleanor was a little confused on some of the issues, so during the break during class, she went up to Dr. Klein and asked him to explain the concept again using the spectroscopy graphs he was showing in class. He happily obliged.

After class, we headed over to work in the Admissions office for a few hours. Here in the office, we’re about to go off to a conference about e-recruitment initiatives in higher education, and Hopkins is speaking about our blogging project! Being a veteran blogger herself, Eleanor helps me out with the PowerPoint presentation we’re preparing for the seminar.

After finishing up the slide show, Eleanor and I took the shuttle over to the Medical campus and head into the JHU Epilepsy Lab. First, I had to do some seizure marking of the data from the new patients- Eleanor helped me by pointing out the beginnings and endings of seizures. The fact that this EEG is purple means that we’ve marked it as a seizure already. Then, we put the newly-marked seizures through our time-frequency analysis to further study the dynamics of the seizures. The black line tracks the complexity of the electrical waves, and the colors show the presence of different frequencies.

Finally, after getting back from the lab, we headed over to my final job of the day, at Cold Stone. Eleanor picked out the flavor she most wanted to eat (mint!) and I made an “Ice cream creation” based on the mint. Eleanor thoroughly enjoyed it. After we went back home, we crashed to sleep. It’s been a long day, and we’re doing it all again tomorrow.

Eleanor goes Sailing and Hangs out at Spring Fair

Eleanor's Chaperone and Storyteller: Liny and Roxi

Destination: Spring Fair and the Inner Harbor

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This past spring I was lucky enough to be on the committee for one of the biggest annual events on the Johns Hopkins campus…Johns Hopkins Spring Fair!!   Of course, Eleanor was completely jealous of this and wanted to tag along.

Typical of any girl, one of the first things she wanted to do was go shopping!! Something I didn’t know about Eleanor but that I quickly realized is that she’s in love with purses! She spent most of the day bargaining with the vendors for the cheapest price she could get. [Oh and I should also mention, that Eleanor definitely has a sweet tooth!  When we got hungry, she pretty much downed some delicious fried oreos in a matter of seconds!

One of the great things about being on the committee is that for that weekend you can drive on the carts for as long as you want to, to get to one side of campus to another.  Of course, this got Eleanor jealous too so she pushed me off my cart and started driving one by herself!  Surprisingly, she’s not that bad of a driver for a bear and got into no accidents!

All in all, Eleanor and I had a blast at Spring Fair ’07 and can’t wait for next year!

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After all the fun that Eleanor had with Liny she still managed to find time to go to the sailing club with Roxi. Every Friday the sailing club heads down to the inner harbor. Eleanor had a blast looking at all the great Baltimore sites and she even learned a few things about sail boats.   

Henri Goes to the Theater

Henri's Chaperone and Storyteller: Blake

Destination: Swirnow Theater

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After his evening at Blue Jay Cafe, Henri was sure that his luck with women had changed. He found someone he really liked. On this weekend, he decided to catch a Dunbar Baldwin Hughes theater production and invited the girl he met. She turned him down.

Hurt, he stuck with his plans and went to see the DBH production of the film "Five on the Black Hand Side"- a 1973 remake.

Henri thought that it was pretty cool to see the movie come to life and could relate to the rebellious nature of the characters in the production.

After the play, Henri stuck around in attempt to fill the void left by Bethany. 

Anne-Jay Visits the Inner Harbor

Anne-Jay's Chaperone and Storyteller: Tanmay

Destination: The Inner Harbor

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It’s a cool spring evening and Anne-Jay is helping to host a group of prospective students at Hopkins the night before an Open House. All of Anne-Jay’s new friends have just checked in and dropped off their stuff in their hosts’ rooms. The hosts have decided to head down to the Inner Harbor to show the pre-frosh (Hopkins-speak for prospective students) what downtown Baltimore is like, so Anne-Jay decides to tag along. The group piles into the Baltimore Collegetown shuttle, a free shuttle that runs from campus to the Harbor, six other area colleges and the Towson Town Center mall.

Once they arrive, everyone wanders around the boardwalk amidst the street performers and musicians. Anne-Jay, the pre-frosh and their hosts decide to eat at a Spanish tapas restaurant since the wait there isn’t too long. 

Anne-Jay has never had Spanish food before but she loves all the different dishes the waiter has suggested.

After dinner, it’s time for dessert, of course. Anne-Jay and one of her new pre-frosh friends decide to share a dark chocolate truffle. It’s the best dessert that Anne-Jay has ever had and she knows she’ll be coming back for more.

On the way home, the group wanders a bit more around the Harbor. They explore the USS Constellation, a Civil War era ship that’s docked in the Harbor.

As the rest of the group checks out the decks and sees what life was like on an 19th century ship, Anne-Jay takes a break in one of the ship’s old cannons.

By now it’s getting late, and Anne-Jay and the pre-frosh have a busy day ahead of them. The group heads back to campus and the pre-frosh follow their hosts back to their rooms as Anne-Jay flies back to her NEST in Homewood Stadium.

Henri's Adventures at the Blue Jay Cafe

Henri's Chaperone and Storyteller: Ramy

Destination: Blue Jay Cafe

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Henri and chaperone/wingman JHU_Ramy headed into Blue Jay Cafe with high hopes for finding a girl for Henri.

It just so happened that two lovely Alpha Phi ladies were picking up some snacks on this particular day, including Bethany, who had caught his eye across the quad several days earlier.

Henri casually strolled over, and after some awkward small talk, let's just say that the Blue Jay became the Lovebird Cafe for the day.

The two shared an order of Blue Jay's famous chicken tenders, and then talked all night on the couches of BlueJay about everything from philosophy to medicine. Henri was delighted to find out that Bethany speaks some French (she took it in high school).

When it was time to go, Henri gave her a goodnight kiss. He was certainly smitten when he came home that night.

    

Anne-Jay Leena's morning routine

Chaperone and Storyteller: Andrew

Destination: Class (it takes a while to get ready)

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As an International Relations major, Anne-Jay always finds it necessary to read CNN.com in the morning. It helps keep her sharp. She has been taking Sudafed for the past few days because she has a cold-- she is definitely happy that Charles Market sells extra Sudafed. At least she can put her dining dollars to good use. After turning off her alarm clock and getting out of bed she reads a chapter from Henry Kissinger's Diplomacy for her American Foreign Policy class.

She probably should have done it the night before but she was too busy playing guitar. 

If there's one thing Anne-Jay loves, it's the New York Mets. She wears her Mets hat every day without fail.

Anne-Jay takes a shower.

After checking her hair in the mirror,

Anne-Jay puts on some clothing and her new Nike Air Stabs and is ready to go.

She has three classes today: American Foreign Policy, Microeconomics, and Italian. Hopefully the Sudafed works.

       

Henri Goes to the Library

Henri's Chaperone and Storyteller: Kate

Destination: MSE Library

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I was hanging out with Kate one weeknight, when she wanted to study for her psychology exam scheduled for the following week. While she and her roommate are quiet in their room, it was a little distracting for Kate to hear her housemates talking in the hallway. She and her housemate Zainab thus left their rooms to study at MSE Library. Before they left, they told me that MSE is supposedly not just a place to study, but a de facto social hub, since many people study there. I decided to go with them and see for myself just how social the library is.

Surely enough, when we entered MSE at "M-Level," I saw people talking to each other on couches and armchairs near M-Level's entrance. When we walked farther into M-Level, we passed by desks with computers and group study tables.

I decided to use a computer at an unoccupied desk before sitting with some of Zainab's acquaintances at a group study table.

Before we left M-Level, I looked at some display cases with artwork and photographs. Then we went downstairs. (MSE is built underground! Would you believe it? I've never heard of a library built underground.) Below M-Level is "A-Level," then "B-Level," then "C-Level," and finally "D-Level." The farther down we went in the library, the quieter it became. Kate and Zainab went to D-Level, because they didn't want any distractions while studying and doing homework.

In addition to their company, I had that of their animal friends. While Kate and Zainab studied at wooden cubicles found at other levels of the library, I was intrigued by the metal cubicles that only D-Level has. I decided to sit there with the other animals.

Kate and Zainab let us read their books while we sat at these metal cubicles, and I read about synapses in Kate's psychology book.

Once Kate took back her psychology book so that she could study, I walked through D-Level. I found it more interesting than reading about synapses, because D-Level's shelves included art portfolios, art reference books, and literature books in various languages. Unfortunately, neither Kate nor Zainab could photograph me while I did this, because they were in the middle of studying. At least Kate was reading a book that I found less interesting than what I found on the library shelves.

 

Anne-Jay at the Open House

Anne-Jay's Chaperone and Storyteller: Flying Solo

Destination: Admitted Students' Open House

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Anne-Jay Leena was really excited on April 11th, 2007. It was Admitted Student open house day- so many of her potential new classmates would be overtaking the campus! Anne-Jay was up bright and early.

Right when she entered Shriver hall, she walked up to her registration table to receive her information packet for the day. She also grabbed some of those sweet free pens.

When Anne-Jay checked in, she received an awesome new Johns Hopkins tote bag- a nice change from the Yellow bags she was used to seeing.

This one matched her feathers MUCH better.
Anne-Jay got to talking with the Admissions staff members running the registration table. She decided to join in and help them register some new arrivals.

The best part about Open Houses- free breakfast! Anne-Jay enjoyed some orange juice on the steps of Shriver as she waited for the Open House to begin.

While she was hanging out on the steps, Anne-Jay met up with some of her Admissions pals -Jeremiah, an admissions counselor, and Wren (amazing jump roper!)

They let her ride in the luggage cart! Anne-Jay is nice and small so she didn't take up the space needed to transport everyone's things to the luggage storage room.

After her joyride, Anne-Jay sat down in Shriver auditorium to hear the introductory speeches.

Anne-Jay realized that from her seat in the back, she couldn't see very well, so she decided to perch on the back wall.  Here, she's watching Admissions Director John Latting greet all the admits.

After the welcoming comments, Anne-Jay went off to explore the campus. Wow! Look at all that construction! It's for the new Decker Quad, which will house a new admissions office and a new Computational Sciences building, along with a gorgeous new entrance. It's opening in October!

Anne-Jay quietly observes all the chaos outside Shriver hall.

Anne-Jay chills with Juinting and Julia as they work at the Ask-A-Student table. Anne-Jay fields all the questions about how to stay so awesome at Hopkins.

Finally, the best part of the day- LUNCH! Anne-Jay ate like a bird though.

At the end of the open house Anne-Jay reflects on her day, all the great new students she got to meet, and how she's looking forward to the upcoming year. 

Eleanor Does Laundry

Eleanor's Chaperone & Storyteller: Michelle T.

Destination: Bradford Laundry Room and Homewood Campus

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Eleanor, being environmentally conscious, has really gotten involved in teaching her suitemates how to save energy & be earth-friendly. As part of HEAT (Hopkins Energy Action Team), she feels it's her duty to educate her fellow students - and educate she has!

This week, she showed her suitemate from Singapore all about eSuds, a new way to do laundry.

The machine will email/text message you to let you know when your laundry is done...that doesn't really save energy, but it's pretty cool.

Eleanor taught her suitemate all about how using energy-saving cold water is really sufficient for most of your laundry needs. She also took some time to do other chores, like washing dishes, with only the best quality biodegradable cleaning products.

At night, after a hard few hours of work, Eleanor headed out to the quad, where she noticed that Gilman's clock tower has been lit with green & blue (earth colors!) lights for some unknown reason.

Adventures of Anne Jay Leena in Toronto

Anne Jay's Chaperone: Stefanie B.

Destination: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Because Anne Jay Leena is a double-degree student at Hopkins as a Romance Languages and Peabody as a Voice major, she ventured up to Toronto, Ontario with JHU_Stefanie.  Anne felt at home because there were Blue Jays everywhere because the official mascot of the Toronto baseball team is the Blue Jay!  For three days, Anne ventured around a new city to enjoy her Spring Break.

Anne decided to let Stefanie drive her car up across the Canadian boarder. Lo and behold, the trip up there was an adventure that involved a massive speeding ticket.  Anne was a good sport and got Stefanie to laugh it off. 

They faithfully stopped at mandatory spots to take pictures like the three boarders they crossed: Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada.  Anne also joined in on the fun of staying in a hostel called Clarence Castle.  She was excited because she met people even from her hometown.  There were also people from Russia, Scotland, China, and Japan.   

In addition, she was able to watch the National Ballet of Canada perform The Taming of the Shrew.  It was perfect because it incorporated brilliant music provided by the amazing orchestra and dance (her ever-growing passion).  Anne also watched the scholarship winners of a conservatory in Canada perform their recitals.  She felt a deep connection because conservatory kids just do things differently.  However, her Romance Language skills came into play with everyday shopping because Toronto is very much like New York City.  Plus, she thoroughly enjoyed Elizabeth Gilbert’s account of her trip to Italy (where Anne studied abroad) in the book Eat, Pray, Love at the local bookstore.

In the end, Anne did get closer to home when she went up the CN Tower, the tallest building in the world.  Anne missed the view from above, but she was excited to return back to Homewood to relax with her wonderful friends for the rest of her vacation.      

Oh the memories!