Verbal Snippets & Snapshots

So, what goes on at Hopkins during the summer?

I initially planned to write this blog entry about what I've been doing this summer ever since my visit to California (as briefly mentioned in my previous blog entry). I spent about a week at home in Connecticut, and then I came here to Baltimore a little over three weeks ago. Thus, this blog entry would've primarily discussed what I've been doing for my (predominantly) Baltimorean summer. In thinking about what I've done so far in Baltimore, I couldn't help but think about conversations I've had with some of my Hopkins friends this summer about what generally happens at Hopkins during the summer. I thought that describing some of the things we've discussed in those conversations would provide a nice introduction to my blog entry about my Baltimorean summer. Then, however, I realized that the "introduction" itself could make up an entry of its own. Ergo, I decided to write this blog entry to give some background information as to what happens at Hopkins during the summer--and that I'd write another blog entry in one or two weeks to describe what I've actually done at Hopkins this summer.

Nice flow of thought, huh?

By the way, in addition to this summer, I spent last summer in Baltimore. With that said, I have about 13 to 14 weeks' experience under my belt as the basis for this blog entry. Without further adieu, here's my little guide to a summer at Hopkins! In no particular order...

CLASSES: A university isn't a university without classes. Yes, courses at Hopkins are primarily taught during 13-week semesters during the fall and spring. However, a good number of courses are taught at Hopkins during the summer as well! Like Intersession courses, summer courses are optional. Unlike Intersession courses, however, summer courses are "regular" graded courses that are usually three or four credits each. In addition, unlike Intersession courses, summer courses aren't included in the tuition for the regular school year. (However, there's some financial aid available for eligible students.) Usually, students choose to take summer classes either to clear up room in their schedules for the upcoming school year or to retake classes they've already taken. There are also some students who are working for the University in a job that pays for one summer classes; for instance, a friend of mine is working as a "Pre-College" RA this summer and thus is eligible to take a summer course for free--so he decided to take a computer science course for fun. Just like during the regular school year, Hopkins students live in various housing options on campus and off campus. By the way, while all of the students that I've encountered who are taking summer courses here at Hopkins are other Hopkins students, there apparently are some students visiting from other colleges who are taking summer courses here as well. I just haven't met any of them so far. Many other colleges and universities also offer summer courses for their students as well as visiting students from other institutions; I myself took two semesters' worth of introductory biology lecture and lab courses at Fordham University two summers ago.

PRE-COLLEGE SUMMER PROGRAMS: In addition to Hopkins students and students from other colleges, students availing of the summer courses here include "Pre-College" students. As far as Hopkins is concerned, "Pre-College" students are high school students who are at least 15 years old. There are two categories of "Pre-College" summer programs here: one allows high school students 16 years and older to take selected summer courses here at Hopkins, and the other is a "Discover Hopkins" program for high school students 15 years and older. "Pre-College" students who aren't commuters live in the dorms on campus, and their RAs are Hopkins students--such as my aforementioned friend.

CTY SUMMER PROGRAMS: If you're a high school student reading this blog entry, you probably know what the Johns Hopkins CTY (i.e., the Center for Talented Youth) is. In case you don't know what CTY is, it's an institution of Hopkins that identifies academically talented elementary and middle school students nationwide through standardized tests; qualified elementary, middle, and high school students (high school students are qualified through the scores of standardized tests they took in middle school) are then allowed to take a variety of specially designed summer courses and programs that are offered online or at one of a few college campuses throughout the nation--including Hopkins. (By the way, if you've participated in the Duke Talent Identification Program (TIP), it's like the Johns Hopkins CTY.) It goes without saying that non-commuter CTY students are also housed in the Hopkins dorms, and that their RAs are Hopkins students.

LEADERSHIP CONFERENCES: I remember receiving numerous brochures in the mail when I was a high school student for various one-, two-, or even three-week leadership conferences for middle school and high school students. (One example is LeadAmerica.) While I never participated in them, I now have a slight idea as to how they work, since some of these conferences are held here at Hopkins. As with the two aforementioned categories, participating students are housed in the dorms here on campus.

LACROSSE CAMPS: Enough said. I don't know many details about the lacrosse camps that are run at the Hopkins campus. I just know that I see swarms of elementary, middle, and high school students practicing lacrosse around campus during the day--and that, truth be told, I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy when I find myself walking through campus and run across a group of high school lacrosse players who are twice my size.

CAMPUS TOURS: They happen during the regular school year as well, but lots of them happen during the summer! My first visit to Hopkins was actually during the summer before my senior year of high school, and I took a tour of the Homewood campus at that time. I think that a summer tour of Hopkins is like taking an hour-long walk in a large park and getting tanned in the process. Seriously, if you haven't visited Hopkins yet...it's one beautiful campus.

INTERNSHIPS, JOBS, ET CETERA: Besides taking summer courses, Hopkins students are here for the summer to take advantage of paid/unpaid internships either at the Homewood campus or the medical school, or to work in various jobs either at the Homewood campus or the medical school (ranging from being an RA to a summer office assistant to a research technician). In addition, there are Hopkins students who don't work in internships or jobs affiliated with the University, but with other organizations and companies in Baltimore--so they, too, join the ranks of Hopkins students living in on-campus and off-campus housing during the summer.

EVERYTHING ELSE: Just because there's a significantly smaller number of courses taught at Hopkins during the summer doesn't mean that everything else has to stand still! To ensure that life goes smoothly at the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University, you still have people such as librarians answering students' and other library patrons' questions, security guards making sure that the campus is safe 24/7, custodial staff cleaning up campus, administrative officials of various departments keeping track of paperwork, financial aid officers finalizing students' financial aid packages, admissions officers answering prospective students' application-related questions and helping out with the transition for incoming freshmen, academic advisors answering incoming freshmen's questions about registration and returning students' questions about scheduling...and more. Oh yeah, and let's not forget about the professors who teach the aforementioned summer courses, as well as the professors who continue doing research and/or attend various meetings on campus during the summer.

With all that said, it would be a gross understatement to say that Hopkins is quiet during the summer. It is far from that! Granted, the hustle and bustle around campus is different from that of the fall and spring semesters--but hustle and bustle is hustle and bustle.

N.B. I found all of the images illustrating this blog entry via Google Image Search.

I'm a rising college senior, even though strangers think I'm below 18!

Believe it or not, I'm more shocked about the first half of the above sentence than the second half. (As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I spent the second half of May visiting my relatives in California--and there were many strangers who asked me what year in high school I was. Part of it may have had to do with the fact that I was with my family most of the time, and part of it may have had to do with the fact that strangers have tended to think I look younger than my actual age ever since I was a tot.) Anyway, I decided to entitle this blog entry as such, since it's that time of the year for me to summarize all of my junior year blog entries à la my freshman year blog entry summary and my sophomore year blog entry summary. As I did last year, I'll divide my blog entries into seasons--here it goes!

SUMMER 2008

My First Summer in Baltimore summarizes nothing else but my first summer in Baltimore! One of the things I did was visiting the annual HonFest in Hampden, where women were having their hair styled into beehive hairdos, as shown in the photo on the left.

Anticipating Fall at Hopkins (V.3.0) talks about the reasons why I was looking forward to my junior fall at Hopkins.

JHU_Kate's Words to the Class of 2012 has a little video that I made with some advice for the then-incoming freshmen.

FALL 2008

Junior year has begun! contains yet another video I made; this one summarizes what I was looking forward to doing during my junior year.

Karaoke, Physics, Head Bobbing, and Lots of Food describes a fun-filled weekend of study groups (with food!), karaoke singing (also with food!), and events of Fall Fest (with food as well!). It was a struggle not to be a glutton that weekend.

Hitting the One-Third Mark, as the title implies, discusses my shock that already one third of the Fall 2008 semester had passed by; it also talks about some of the academic and extracurricular activities I was doing at the time.

Hitting the One-Half Mark, à la the previous blog entry, discusses my shock that one half of the Fall 2008 semester had already passed by. Surprise, surprise. Even more exciting, however, it discusses how I watched two of my friends bake different kinds of pumpkin cake (and how I got to sample them) and how my first time baking cookies in my off-campus apartment was a success!

...and the Halloween festivities begin! talks about how I celebrated Halloween one week early.

A Busy Family Weekend...Without the Family is yet another blog entry whose title gives away the content. Simply put, it talks about a plethora of activities I did during Family Weekend--including celebrating Halloween! And, as the title indicates, my family unfortunately wasn't able to visit me that weekend.

A Re-cap and Preview, just like the previous blog entry, has a title that gives away the content.

My Love Affair with Hopkins discusses how I've had a mix of feelings about Hopkins over the past few years at Hopkins. It's a more uplifting blog entry than the previous sentence might imply!

WINTER 2008-2009

Baltimore: Another Reason to Consider Hopkins is quite possibly my favorite blog entry of the entire academic year. I'm not surprised: Baltimore really does live up to its name of "Charm City"!

A Quick Update and a Look Back at 2008 has a video that I made to reflect on the past calendar year.

No Regret discusses how Intersession 2009 was far from a smooth one for me--and I had thought it would go much smoother. However, as the title indicates, I still don't regret it one bit--because it taught me a lot of valuable lessons.

My Personal Goals for the Semester: The title explains it all.

"¡Puedes Contar Conmigo!" (which is Spanish for, "You can count on me!") is an expansion on the previous blog entry.

The JHU Classical Ballet Company: Year Two describes how much the ballet company has expanded here at Hopkins in only its second year.

SPRING 2009

Hopkins Cribs: Off-Campus Housing gives a tour of the lovely off-campus apartment where I lived during my junior year.

Don't worry! is an entry that I wrote for high school seniors awaiting their college decisions.

"Just don't let them get to you." is my take on dealing with what you perceive as the cons of the institution you attend as a college student (whether or not you go to Hopkins).

Microcosms Within a Larger Microcosm describes the mini communities at Hopkins where I've come to feel at home.

With that said, those are all of my junior year blog entries! Compared to my freshman and sophomore years, I didn't think my junior year was outstandingly amazing or horrible; however, I must say I did a lot more personal growth this year than I did in my freshman and sophomore years. I cut down on some of my extracurricular involvement to study more and to focus on the activities that were most important to me; I gained a lot of practical experience in living in an off-campus apartment; I worked in part-time jobs that I enjoyed; I strengthened friendships that I had made as a freshman and a sophomore; I figured out how to integrate more phone calls to my family into my schedule; I expanded my cooking repertoire a lot; I continued building on my musical and dance tastes--and more!

Hello, senior year...

Microcosms Within a Larger Microcosm

Before I continue with this blog entry, I'm going to say that (1) I'm done with my final exams and papers for the Spring 2009 semester, (2) I started off my summer vacation by spending a few days here at my home in Connecticut, (3) I'll continue my summer vacation with my family by visiting our relatives in northern California for two weeks starting tomorrow, and (4) I'm a rising college senior and quite shocked about the fact. For one thing, I feel like I was just spending the past three years getting a feel for Hopkins--and now that I know the ins and outs of this school after being here for three years, it's almost time for me to leave? Craziness. Also, the fact that I look much younger than my age isn't helping me accept the fact that I'm al. In fact, only a little over a week ago, I was volunteering at an end-of-the-year talent show at an elementary school where I've volunteered to teach ballet over the past three years. A teacher saw me alone in the gym cleaning up, thought I was an elementary school student who was loitering, and scolded me--until she took a second look at my face and realized I'm twice the age that she thought I was. True story.

Anyway, the reasoning behind my title for this blog entry is that I think the undergraduate student population at Hopkins is in itself a microcosm. As much as Hopkins encourage us students not to live in a bubble and have an awareness of the greater Baltimore community and even the global community, it still feels like Hopkins is its own little world sometimes. At the same time, however, the "little world" founded by the Hopkins community (which consists of 4000+ undergraduates, 1000+ graduate students, numerous professors, and several faculty and staff members) can feel overwhelming if you haven't found at least one smaller community within Hopkins with which you feel comfortable. That community could be your freshman year floor, a club you join, a research lab where you help with research, and so on.

I wrote a blog entry about the Filipino Students Association in the fall of my sophomore year. At that point in my undergraduate career (wow, I felt old just uttering that phrase), I was already involved with various student organizations--however, not to same the extent as I was involved with FSA at the time. Now, though, I've felt "at home" with other organizations here at Hopkins:

Hopkins Catholic Community: I've attended Masses held by the Hopkins Catholic Community at the Interfaith Center ever since the start of my freshman year, but I didn't get involved with the group beyond that at first. As a sophomore, I got more involved with the Hopkins Catholic Community by acting as the community service chair; however, I still didn't spend much time with members of the Hopkins Catholic Community besides attending Masses and running monthly community service projects. It was this past year as a junior in which I got much more involved with the Hopkins Catholic Community--and, not surprisingly, I felt more like a member of this organization and more like it was a "small community at Hopkins" where I felt at home. For one thing, after keeping mostly to myself when it came to religion for two years at Hopkins, I found it refreshing to take the time to hang out with members of the Hopkins Catholic Community at dinners, retreats, and other events to discuss our thoughts on Catholicism. I also like the fact that not everything we do together always consists of religious discussions--some of my favorite memories include socializing and doing wacky things such as writing impromptu songs about hippopotami (true story), holding an end-of-year dance party (where yours truly danced so much and so energetically that she got exhausted and left the party half an hour early), and watching Jurassic Park while imitating the raptors' movements. I guess the moral of the story (no pun intended) is that I like quirkiness and feel at home whenever I'm with a group of people who feel the same way.

JHU Classical Ballet Company: If you've been following my blog over the past few months, it should be no surprise that this performing arts group is on my list of "important microcosms." Ever since I joined the ballet company when it was founded in the spring of my sophomore year, I've formed friendships with other students who share the same love for ballet--and the same appreciation for the therapeutic effects of dance. (Even just one hour of dancing, as tiring as it can be, is a huge stress reliever!) Especially this year, we've spent numerous hours together dancing in classes and rehearsals--as well as taking occasional breaks to goof off. And, of course, we've taken steps to hang out with each other outside the dance studio and Shriver Hall. Since the ballet company is predominantly a female dance group (we're working on recruiting more males, though), we've had lots of "girl talks" over coffee, lunch, or tortilla chips and salsa!

JHU Filipino Students Association: As I've mentioned earlier, I've been an active member of FSA ever since the start of my freshman year. Unlike the other organizations that I've mentioned here, FSA has a very social nature--looking back, it's probably the reason I felt "at home" with FSA before I had the same feeling with other organizations at Hopkins. I'm not saying that it's all play and no work, though: running numerous cultural dance practices and organizing the logistics of events such as documentary screenings or our annual Filipino Cultural Night (in which 150+ guests watch us perform an hour's worth of song and dance numbers while eating catered Filipino food) aren't jokes! However, considering the fact that we frequently like to hold potlucks and karaoke nights, it's hard to ignore the social aspect of FSA!

Ryugo Lab: I joined the Ryugo Lab at the medical school as an undergraduate research assistant halfway through my sophomore year, and I currently intend to stay with the research lab until I graduate one year from now. (On a side note, I still can't believe I'm a rising senior.) While most of my interactions with the other members of the research lab have been on a professional level, I've been with the lab long enough that I feel comfortable joining in on random non-research-related conversations that go on during breaks; in addition, Dr. Ryugo (or "Dave," as he likes to be called) tries to organize lunch outings to restaurants every now and then, and I join in on those if my schedule permits. Thanks to such breaks and lunch outings, I've come to feel a lot more at ease around the other members of the lab than I did when I first joined. (I was very quiet when I was a new member of the lab.)

Student Admissions Advisory Board: The Student Admissions Advisory Board (or "SAAB," as we like to call it) is the undergraduate student volunteer organization that runs Hopkins Interactive--and is the reason why I've been writing this blog about my undergraduate experiences for the past three years! Time and time again, I've said that one of the reasons I've loved being a member of SAAB is how I've come to interact with a large variety of people: the Hopkins undergraduates who comprise SAAB come from a wide range of backgrounds, we've interacted with various admissions counselors and other Hopkins faculty members, and we've interacted in numerous prospective and admitted students and their parents virtually and in person. In addition, this past year, JHU_Julia took steps to hold social gatherings so that we SAAB members could bond even more. I've also found myself bumping into various SAAB members at different places around campus and having conversations with them every now and then--just like with the other groups I've mentioned with this blog entry, an organization where I feel "at home" is one where we don't just do business but also socialize!

To close this blog entry, I also want to say that I've met many other people at Hopkins through organizations besides the ones mentioned above--in fact, some of my closest friends at Hopkins aren't in any of these groups! However, I just wanted to focus on the "sub-communities" where I've felt very much "at home" here. Before I'll return to my last-minute travel preparation tasks, I also want to say that I've had a blast spending the past few hours packing and double-checking my things in my bedroom at home. The reason lies behind two words: (1) dance and (2) playlist. Yep, I've been dancing in my room to a playlist while packing for the last few hours--it's pretty fun!

"Just don't let them get to you."

As much as I hate to say it, I've come across some Hopkins students who seem to complain about Hopkins 24/7. I have to disagree with them. Hopkins is not heaven on earth, of course. However, despite its flaws, it's still an excellent educational institution--and I'm gosh darn grateful every day that I'm a student here. If you think about it, it's a privilege both (1) to admitted to this school and (2) to have the financial means to attend this school (whether it's via financial aid, your own money, your rich uncle's money, et cetera). I'm guessing that it's not just at Hopkins, but at other colleges, where students like to complain and moan and whine and fantasize about scaring away prospective students with so-called horror stories. In case you're still deciding where to go to college and you've had the misfortune to communicate with a bitter student from either Hopkins or another college, please read what I have to say.

Based on personal experience and the experiences of other Hopkins students I know, the euphoria of getting acclimated to college life and exploring everything that Hopkins has to offer wears off by the start of sophomore year. Classes become noticeably harder (no matter what your major is), and extracurricular/work commitments become more demanding as you take on leadership positions. The "I love Hopkins mode!" isn't on 100% of the time as you start to notice that there are things about Hopkins you dislike--especially if some of the things you dislike are things you can't change (such as, say, the dour disposition of one of your professors).

You can do either one of two things about the loss of your lovey-dovey feeling about Hopkins: (1) become a bitter person about everything you dislike about Hopkins for the rest of your undergraduate career or (2) learn how to deal with the fact that no place is perfect and keep reminding yourself why you chose to be a student at Hopkins. Assuming that you chose to attend Hopkins after serious deliberation, let me remind you that you chose it for its pros, not its cons. After you're past your honeymoon phase, do you still think the pros that prompted you to choose Hopkins still outweigh the cons you learn as you spend more and more time at Hopkins? Plus, are you coming across new pros to Hopkins in addition to those cons you're encountering? Complaining/whining/moaning/cursing aside, if you actually think about the state of your student-hood at Hopkins, chances are that it's not so bad after all. In fact, it's probably great!

I do my best to do #2. If that fails, I call my parents or one of my friends from home to vent. More often than not, I'm offered one or both of the following pieces of advice: (1) "You're not going to like everything. You'll always find in life that there are people you don't like and there are things you don't like. Just don't let them get to you." and (2) "You're at a great school, and you're a bright girl. You can do it!"

Sure, it's hard sometimes to pep myself up at moments when I second-guess the decision I made three years ago to attend Hopkins. It's especially hard when I have experiences such as looking at my watch while I'm studying and realizing that it's already 2:00 a.m., yet there are still several things I want to do before I go to bed. Still, the habit of periodically taking the time to reflect on my Hopkins experiences and analyze them is the reason why I find myself honestly saying, "I love it here!" whenever I'm asked what I "really" think about Hopkins. There's a reason--or, I should say, there are reasons--why I'm still here after nearly six semesters (plus one summer) at this university. It's not "I'm too lazy to transfer." And no, I'm not being paid or bribed to stay here, either! It's because (1) I love being a student at this university and think all the pros about it outweigh the numerous (yes, numerous) cons, and (2) my family and I are blessed that financial circumstances (which include the phrases "financial aid" and "work-study awards") allow me to remain one.

Yes, it's true that Hopkins is a school where you have work hard for your grades, where your hand isn't held (so to speak), where an already-challenging workload gets harder after freshman year, where the words grade inflation are seldom uttered. (Take a look at this thread on the Hopkins Forums about the topic: CLICK HERE.) By the way, if you haven't read JHU_Roxi's fabulous entry that she wrote last year regarding the correlation between work and Hopkins, please read it. Every word of it is true.

However, it's also true that Hopkins is a school with numerous academic opportunities--so many that it's hard to fathom them all at once. It's also true that Hopkins is a school that has a large and strong alumni network. It's also true that Hopkins is a school that's known to produce hard-working individuals by their time of graduation. (True fact: I've heard many stories about how Hopkins alumni who are employers prefer to hire Hopkins students over students from other high-profile institutions--because they know about the work ethic of Hopkins students.) It's also true that Hopkins is filled with students who appreciate the value of taking time off from studying to have fun every now and then--and that many students live by the "Work hard, play hard!" and "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!" credos.

This may not apply to you, but have you heard the saying about how your parents seem to know everything when you're a young child, "dumb" when you're an adolescent/teenager, and wise when you're an adult? The same kind of thing applies to Hopkins. It seems amazing when you first step foot on here. Then it seems horrible once you get used to this school and start noticing things you don't like about it. Then you start to appreciate its flawed beauty the closer you get to graduation.

With that said, if you're still deliberating to attend Hopkins, please realize that it's not a perfect school--but no school is. And for an imperfect school, Hopkins is pretty darn awesome. (And for the cynical readers: no, I'm not being paid to write this. I work in three work-study jobs to get by financially, and this definitely isn't one of them!) If you haven't already, please take advantage of resources such as other blogs written by Hopkins students, the Hopkins Forums, and even a Facebook group designed for students admitted to Hopkins. Use them to get more information about how it's like to be a student at Hopkins. I'm guessing you'll find out that, well, it's wonderful.

For those of you still wondering whether to attend Hopkins or another school, please consider what I've said and good luck with your decision. As great as I think this school is, it's also not for everyone. Please make sure that Hopkins has what you're looking for academically, socially, and so on. For those of you who've already chosen to attend Hopkins, I'm looking forward to seeing you in the fall--and also please consider what I've said. You're in for an up-and-down roller coaster ride that will be nothing short of exhilarating.

Take care. :)

Don't worry!

Just a few hours ago, I returned to Baltimore from a weekend-long retreat I helped run at a retreat house in rural Pennsylvania. (I'm the co-retreat chair for the JHU Catholic Community this year.) One of our activities included a discussion about decision-making, and one of my co-retreat attendees chose to talk about how he handled the college selection process when he was a high school senior. Since he's now a graduate student, this took place seven years ago--yet I found there were similarities between his situation back then and my similar situation three years ago. Both of us felt like we were stuck between two equally compelling college choices when we were high school seniors--despite the four-year gap, despite the difference in the college choices available, and despite numerous other factors. Also, both of us as high school seniors felt a lot of pressure to make the "right" decision in selecting which college to attend--after all, it's an important decision.

Upon further reflection, I also realized that year after year, high school seniors across the nation who plan to attend college all feel the same kind of pressure at this time of the year. It's just as perennial as the flowers that start to blossom at this time of the year in regions of the world that are located in the Northern Hemisphere and have temperate climates. Seven years ago, my friend felt this kind of pressure. My high school friends and I felt this kind of pressure three years ago. Meanwhile, volunteering with the admissions office has led me to interact with numerous high school seniors who felt this kind of pressure two years ago...one year ago...and now this year. For many of you who are reading this blog entry, you're probably thinking that you're no exception.

To that, all I have to say are two words: Don't worry.

I don't mean you should take the college selection process lightly. As other current Hopkins students have said in their blog entries over the past week, you still should weigh the pros and cons of the colleges that have accepted you. You still should consider factors such as academics, location, financial aid, and campus life among the pros and cons. (And don't forget that when it comes to learning more information about Hopkins in particular, I highly recommend that you look at our website for admitted students, our Facebook group for admitted students, the Hopkins Forums, and other blog entries recently written by current Hopkins students.) You still should determine whether or not you want to stay on wait lists. You still should take steps to cope with college rejections if you received any. (It's true that in the larger realm of things, being rejected by a college isn't the worst tragedy that could happen to someone--but let's admit that the sting of such a rejection is still not pleasant at all.)

What I mean is this: as you take all the necessary steps related to the process of deciding at which educational institution you'll spend the next four years, you should make an effort to have as calm an attitude as possible. I know it's easier said than done. I myself am the type of person who can't help but have butterflies in my stomach and double-think, triple-think, and even quadruple-think every aspect of major decisions I need to make.

Do whatever you need to do to arrive at a decision by the end of the month regarding your college selection. However, you don't need to fret about the outcome. You'll be fine in the end.

Good luck!

Hopkins Cribs: Off-Campus Housing

As some people at Hopkins who've seen any of my Hopkins abodes in person know (such as JHU_Jackie and JHU_Stefanie), my housing experiences over the past three years have slowly, but steadily, improved in terms of luxury.

As a freshman, I lived in a double in AMR I. AMR I is one of two "traditional" dorms for freshmen at Hopkins--that is, it has communal bathrooms. AMR I also lacks air conditioning! Overall, I enjoyed living in AMR I, and I usually didn't have a problem in using communal bathrooms or dealing with a lack of air conditioning. However, it's not a surprise that AMR I is thought of as the "least luxurious" on-campus housing option for freshmen.

As a sophomore, I lived in a four-person suite in McCoy Hall with my friends Miriam, Nian, and Zainab. Our suite had a small lobby with a kitchenette, a bathroom, one double, and two singles. Unlike AMR I, McCoy Hall does have air conditioning. Combine that fact with having a private bathroom (instead of using a communal bathroom) and a kitchenette, and I thought my sophomore year housing situation was a huge step up from my freshman year one--even though (1) McCoy Hall is the "least luxurious" on-campus housing option for sophomores and (2) I shared the double with Zainab, while Miriam and Nian each had singles.

This year, I've been living in an off-campus apartment with the same three friends with whom I shared a suite last year! We live in a lovely three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in a small, quiet apartment building that's verrrrry close to campus. It's right across North Charles Street from AMR I and AMR II (which are two of the dorms for freshmen on campus), and it's between two University-owned buildings! In a fashion similar to last year, Zainab and I share the master bedroom, while Miriam and Nian have their own bedrooms.

So, what are the "steps up" this year for me compared to last year? As you'll soon see, the apartment where I live this year (1) is very spacious and has lots of natural light coming in during the day (there are windows in every room of the apartment), (2) has two bathrooms being shared among four girls (instead of just one), (3) has a full kitchen (instead of a kitchenette), and (4) has a living room (instead of...uh...none).

I. ENTRANCE

First, the above photo is of the main door of the apartment...

...and when you open that door, this is part of the view you have! In the photo above, you can see a bit of the kitchen towards the left and a bit of the living room towards the right. Let's look at the living room first.

II. LIVING ROOM

    

Most of the furniture in our apartment came along with the apartment, and the furniture you see in these photos of the living room is no exception. As you can see, my roommates and I created makeshift curtains out of old bedsheets, and we even decided to cover the throw pillows on the couch with matching pillowcases!

III. KITCHEN

 

Miriam, Nian, Zainab, and I all love to cook and even bake--and for that reason, we have a lot of fond memories that center around this kitchen! Even though the above photos might not properly convey our kitchen's dimensions, our kitchen is pretty large for an apartment. To give you an idea, it's pretty easy to fit four to five people in it while they do things such as washing the dishes, cooking, looking through the fridge, and heating something in the microwave. Given that the kitchen is my favorite room of the apartment, I can ramble on--but I won't.

IV. HALLWAY BATHROOM

 

This is one of the two bathrooms of the apartment, and it's the bathroom that my two roommates who have their own bedrooms use. Given its location in the hallway, it's also the bathroom that our guests use.

V. MASTER BEDROOM

 

Last, but not least, let's take a look at the master bedroom! As I mentioned earlier in this blog entry, Zainab and I share this bedroom. We agreed to split the room so that I have the side of the room with the only window of the room--but a small closet, while Zainab has the side of the room that has a walk-in closet--but no window.

 

I don't have much to say about the bathroom that's located in the master bedroom, besides the fact that I really enjoy being able to use the bathroom without leaving my bedroom!

 

 

As I've done in previous years, I'll close this entry by highlighting a few miscellaneous items in my bedroom. The top left photo is of a wooden mask from Ghana that's hanging on the wall beside my bed; I received it as a gift at the beginning of this semester from Nian, since she went on a Hopkins-sponsored study abroad trip to Ghana during Intersession. The top right photo is of a few decorations I taped onto the wall above my dresser. The top decoration is a bunch of doodles I made that I liked. Meanwhile, the middle decoration is a miniature collage with my name and a photo of Miriam, Nian, Zainab, and me from last year--Nian made it and gave it to me along with her Christmas present for me. (Miriam and Zainab have similar collages from Nian.) The bottom decoration is a collage that my friend Christine made in an activity in which she, a few other girls, and I made collages of images and words to describe each other. The bottom left photo is of a photo frame that Zainab gave me as a birthday present last year; the photo it encloses is of a few of my freshman year housemates and I posing after a mud wrestling match we had. Also in front of that photo frame are three mini wind-up toys I own. I received the sushi toy and the rice bowl toy as part of a birthday present last year--and I got the brain toy all the way back in my senior year of high school at a neuroscience major info session here at Hopkins! (JHU_Wafa knows just how awesome this toy is.) Last, but not least, the bottom right photo is of metal "jeepney" model. In the Philippines, the first "jeepneys" were jeeps that were left behind by American soldiers after WWII--and then elongated, elaborately decorated, and converted into public transportation vehicles by Filipinos. Nowadays, jeepneys are actually manufactured in the Philippines, and they're a popular mode of transportation there.

With all that said (and shown), I hope you enjoyed my third year of "Hopkins Cribs"!

The JHU Classical Ballet Company: Year Two

It's already been one year since the JHU Classical Ballet Company was founded in Fall 2008 and started holding classes in Spring 2008! It still makes me giddy to think about how much happier I've been at Hopkins ever since I started dancing ballet on a regular basis again when I joined the ballet company just a year ago. (I used to dance ballet a lot from elementary school to high school.) The 2008-2009 academic year is the first full school year for the ballet company. Since the fall, we've been holding classes and rehearsals in preparation for various performances around campus, including a joint dance showcase we'll have with the jazz/lyrical group Jaywalk in just one month!

One of the pieces in which I'm scheduled to perform in next month's showcase is called "Dance of the Little Swans." It's a pas de quatre (i.e., a dance for four) from Act II of the ballet Swan Lake, whose music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and whose choreography has been staged by numerous dancers since its premiere in the 19th century. However, the most famous choreography for Swan Lake is arguably that of Marius Petipa, who was the ballet master of the Imperial Russian Ballet (which was called the Kirov Ballet during the Soviet time, and which is now called the Mariinsky Ballet) during the 19th century. In choreographing the ballet, Petipa collaborated with the dancer Lev Ivanov--and Ivanov actually choreographed parts of the ballet entirely himself. This included the popular one-and-a-half-minute dance commonly known as "Dance of the Little Swans," in which four female dancers dance in unison with their arms linked to mimic the awkward movements of cygnets that tend to move huddled together.

Here's a video of three of my friends and I rehearsing "Dance of the Little Swans" onstage at Shriver Hall. I'm the dancer wearing a black t-shirt and black sweatpants. By the way, you might need to turn up the volume to hear the music.

Meanwhile, here's a video of four dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet performing "Dance of the Little Swans."

It goes without saying there's no question as to which video shows superior dancing! However, my friends from the ballet company and I are hoping that with a lot more rehearsals over the next month, we can polish the piece enough that we'll be satisfied with our performance at the showcase. Plus, the dance will look much better when we'll perform it wearing white leotards, white tutus, and pointe shoes--instead of the combination of sweats and ballet slippers we tend to wear during rehearsals. I'm quite excited about the next month's worth of dancing!

Photo Captions: (1) This is a photo of four dancers from the English National Ballet dancing "Dance of the Little Swans." (2) This is a sheet of choreographic notation for part of Lev Ivanov's original choreography for "Dance of the Little Swans."

N.B. I found both of the images illustrating this blog entry via Google Image Search.

"¡Puedes contar conmigo!"

As a little update to my previous blog entry about my personal goals for the semester, I'll say that I'm definitely still working on those goals. I've been making slow, but steady, progress towards accomplishing a few of them. Granted, my body is currently cursing me towards my goals relating to ballet, running, and rock climbing--especially my legs. Despite the fact that I've been dancing since I was a child, I'm a klutz. Add that to the fact that ballet is something from which I took a nearly two-year-long break before this year and to the fact that I only started running and rock climbing on a regular basis last year and this year, respectively--and you have fodder for a slapstick comedy every time I step foot into the dance studio or the recreation center. What keeps me going is realizing that I want to live a long life, and physical exercise (along with a healthy diet and a good sleep schedule) is part of the key to being healthy. Plus, I find dancing and being physically active to be quite fun--even during my clumsy moments.

Anyway, I've realized over the past few weeks that I want to set yet another personal goal for myself. However, it's not a specific goal that I want to reach at the end of this semester, but one on which I want to work over my lifetime: to become more proficient in non-English languages. I'm the eldest daughter of two Filipino immigrants, and I learned foreign languages in middle school and high school, but I'm fluent only in English. In this age of globalization, I find this fact a little embarrassing.

I came to this campus being very fluent in English--but nothing else. Yeah, I had enough of an understanding of Tagalog to get a gist of a Tagalog conversation whenever I hear it. Yeah, I learned some Latin in middle school. Yeah, I learned some Spanish in high school. In signing up for electives in the fall of my freshman year, I was considering continuing with Spanish, which I had taken in the first three years of high school. Unfortunately, two summers and one school year without any Spanish usage had taken its toll, and I was placed in the beginner level when I took a placement exam. I figured that since I was at the beginner level, anyway, I might as well take Latin. I missed the language, and I knew that learning it in the classroom at Hopkins might be my last chance at getting any kind of Latin instruction. Thus, I enrolled in "Elementary Latin" in the fall of my freshman year.

Two years later, I took the course "Advanced Latin Poetry" in the fall semester of my junior year (that is, the previous semester)! I loved it. This semester, I tried taking "Reading Latin Poetry" (which is yet another course that focuses on advanced Latin poetry), but it didn't fit well with my schedule. For now, I'm just working on keeping alive my basic knowledge of Latin grammar. I'm hoping to resume "official" study of Latin in the fall semester of my senior year (i.e., next semester) by taking "Advanced Latin Prose." I think I want to read Latin texts casually on my own until I grow old and gray, even when I'm done studying Latin in the classroom. I don't want to give up my knowledge of the language anymore! However, as much as I enjoy learning Latin, I also miss learning Spanish.

Thus, since last semester, I've been re-exposing myself to Spanish little by little by listening to Spanish-language pop/rock songs while I study (in addition to the salsa music I normally hear during salsa practices with the OLÉ Dance Group). So far, it's been helping me refresh my vocabulary, and even simple grammar rules (particularly with verb conjugations). For instance, I'd look up the lyrics of a song, try to translate them, and then check myself by looking up the definitions of words I don't know and going over different verb tenses. If I'm feeling really motivated enough, I end up going over some more Spanish vocabulary and grammar rules (not just what I need to learn to understand a song I enjoy). Of course, learning Latin in the classroom doesn't hurt, either! (As you might already know, Spanish is one of the Romance languages.) After having been introduced to quite a few Spanish pop/rock songs that I like over the past two weeks, I've realized that I really want to continue this pattern of re-teaching myself Spanish little by little to the point that I can be as proficient in it as I used to--and, like with Latin, I don't want to let go of that knowledge ever once I have it again.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, I had a conversation with a friend who speaks Tagalog fluently and is a fan of a few Filipino pop artists and rock bands. While we were talking, I described to him how I'm re-teaching myself Spanish by listening to Spanish-language songs. Then I realized to whom I was talking and had a "Eureka!" moment: I could do the same thing with Tagalog! I asked my friend to recommend me a few songs, and now I have a bunch of new Tagalog rock songs on my laptop.

So there, you have it: I want to increase my proficiency in Latin (which will be mostly in being able to read texts in that language), Spanish, and Tagalog over the next who-knows-how-many years of my life. And, as a second-semester junior at Hopkins, I'm working on those goals by going over some Latin grammar on my own this semester (so that I could take "Advanced Latin Prose" next semester), listening to Spanish pop/rock songs while I study, and listening to Tagalog pop/rock songs while I study and I want to take a break from the Spanish songs.

Speaking about the first paragraph of this blog entry, I'm sooooo sore right now--but I should quit my whining!

Photo Captions: (1) This is an image I found that shows some of the muscles in the human leg. (2) This is a photo I found that had various words displayed on it in a random fashion. I thought it was pretty. (3) This is a Latin inscription that was found at an amphitheater in Pompeii, Italy. I couldn't figure out what it says, since most of the words are incomplete. (As you can see, the entire inscription wasn't found.) (4) This is a photo for the rock band La Oreja de Van Gogh, which is based in Spain. (5) This is a photo of the Filipino rock band Eraserheads.

P.S. The title of this blog entry is the name of a song by the rock band La Oreja de Van Gogh. I like the song (whose title means "you can count on me"), and I like the music of the band I've heard so far. I also like Van Gogh's paintings, but I still don't understand why a rock band would name itself after the ear that he chopped off. "To each his own," I suppose!

P.P.S. I found the images used to illustrate this blog entry via Google Image Search.

My Personal Goals for the Semester

Like many other students here at Hopkins--and, I'm guessing, like many of you prospective students reading this blog--I thrive off setting goals for myself and working to reach them. This semester is no exception! By the way, these goals are listed in no particular order--especially since I want to reach all of them, anyway. I think I'll have an exciting semester trying to reach these goals--and I know that even if I don't meet all of them completely, I'll have improved as a person in various ways. That's a nice thought to have, isn't it? I think so.

1. I'd like to do well academically this semester.

2. I'd like to improve a lot in ballet. I've been dancing ballet since the first grade, but it was only during my first three years of high school in which I was serious about the art form and danced it several times a week. From my senior year of high school to the midpoint of my sophomore year at Hopkins, I didn't dance ballet much--save attending occasional ballet classes and demonstrating simple ballet steps as a volunteer ballet teacher at Baltimore elementary schools. Just a little over one year ago, however, the JHU Classical Ballet Company was founded--and I joined it. Since then, I've been working towards getting back into the ballet form I once had. I'm almost at that point, and I'd love to become even better at ballet than I've ever been! I'm hoping that by the end of this semester, I'm flexible and strong enough that I could do an arabesque penchée that's at least 135 degrees high. (In case you don't know what a penchée is, it's a ballet pose in which a dancer stands [or tiptoes] on the foot of one leg, bends forward, and extends the other leg behind her [or him] as high up as possible. The ballerina in the photo is doing a 180-degree penchée with her right leg.) While doing a good penchée is not all there is to ballet, having the flexibility and strength to do it would allow me to do many other ballet steps and poses much better than I currently can! I'd also like to improve my pirouettes and other turn-based steps. They were my weak point in high school, and they still are.

3. I'd like to run a mile in 7 or 8 minutes by the end of the semester. Right now, I could run a mile in about 10 minutes effortlessly. I know a 7-minute mile isn't impressive via cross country or track standards, but knowing myself, I'd be really happy to run one come May.

4. I'd like to climb a 5.10-level course at the rock wall at the recreation center. I started rock climbing in November but didn't have the chance to continue climbing in December and January for various reasons. Anyway, I started rock climbing on a regular basis again about two weeks ago. The rock wall has various set courses at levels starting at 5.4, then 5.5, 5.6...and so on. (This numbering is from the Yosemite Decimal System, which is one of various difficulty rating systems that climbers use.) Partially due to my heigh (I'm 5'1"), partially due to the fact that I'm still a beginner rock climber, and partially due to the fact I need to work on my upper body strength (thanks to ballet, my leg strength isn't an issue), I'm currently struggling with courses at the 5.7 and 5.8 level.

5. I'd like to take a few of the drop-in yoga classes that the rec center offers.

6. I'd like to expand my baking and cooking repertoire. Before I came to Hopkins, I was baking and cooking illiterate--save knowing how to boil water and use a rice cooker. I started cooking on a regular basis in the fall of my sophomore year--and while my first cooking attempt resulted in overly-spicy chili, I've improved since then. Meanwhile, I started baking in the winter of my sophomore year with a Filipino rice cake recipe--and didn't bake again until I baked cookies from scratch for the first time a few months ago. (Both baking attempts had good results.) Over the last few months, though, the only foods I've baked are various cookie recipes (all from scratch). Anyway, while I want to expand my baking and cooking repertoire overall, there are specific foods for which I want to develop my own recipe by the end of the semester: cheesecake (which is my favorite dessert) and crab cake (which is one of my favorite entrées).

7. I'd like to finalize my plans for the summer. Right now, I have several options that involve either going home to Connecticut and commuting to New York City to do an internship and/or research and/or volunteer or staying in Baltimore to do one, two, or all three of those things. As you can guess, those are a lot of possibilities!

8. I'd like to keep in touch with my family and relatives a lot more. I'm not saying that I haven't been keeping in touch with them--I have! I've found that no matter how busy I am here, taking time to communicate with the members of my immediate and extended family is worth every minute. I want to have more of those precious minutes of communication with my loved ones this semester.

9. I want to strengthen my current friendships and expand my social circle. Yeah, I have many acquaintances and casual friends here at Hopkins, and I've been told I'm a fairly social person. However, most of my closest Hopkins friends either have graduated already or will graduate this year. Meanwhile, even my close Hopkins friends who'll graduate with me next year have boyfriends or girlfriends. Being in a social circle filled with couples and soon-to-be alumni means one thing: I should reach out, get to know some of my acquaintances and casual friends better, and meet new people in general. I've been working on doing that over the last two weeks, and I'll continue to do that for the rest of the semester.

10. I want to be happy. That, I think, is the most important goal of all.

N.B. I found the images used to illustrate this blog entry via Google Image Search.

No Regret

As a high school friend of mine likes to put it, life is "not always rainbows and butterflies." As I've mentioned in a few previous blog entries, I've had both my ups and downs over my two and a half years at Hopkins. This past Intersession was no different.

I'll admit that it wasn't horrible. Nothing physically, emotionally, or financially (as you know, joking about money isn't appropriate these days) devastating happened to me during the past three weeks. However, I guess what really makes me far from excited to write about my Intersession is the realization that I had during the last week of Intersession: Intersession 2009 was a huge personal disappointment for me.

Granted, I wasn't even hoping to do anything spectacular this Intersession. I wasn't planning to do a mini study abroad trip or go on an adventurous vacation with my family or even attend the inauguration. (Call me a scaredy cat, but while I consider myself a decently social person, I'm the kind of person who'd rather stay at home than attend a high-profile event that expects a very, very, very large crowd--like, say, the annual New Year's Eve celebration at Times Square. Or a presidential inauguration.) All I was looking forward to doing was taking three credits' worth of satisfactory/unsatisfactory courses, continuing to help out with research at the Ryugo Lab, working part-time, dancing, and spending my free time socializing with people at Hopkins whom I know. They weren't extraordinary plans, but I wanted to enjoy them after a hectic end to the fall semester and then two weeks of doing almost nothing at home--besides sleeping, watching a lot of Disney movies, surfing the Internet, and occasionally going out of the house to shop or meet my friends or go to church with my family. When I returned to Hopkins at the beginning of this month, I was hoping my Intersession plans would strike a wonderful balance between the typical busyness I have during a regular semester and the sloth I had when I was at home.

Out of all of those things, I think it was only research and dancing that met my expectations. Research was research: I continued helping the postdoctoral fellow of the Ryugo Lab analyze data for her project, and despite the tedium of analyzing data, I still enjoyed the excitement of wondering what the results would be once the project is finally completed. Meanwhile, my dancing plans involved practicing a little ballet on my own as well as with a few other girls from the ballet company--plus taking a three-session beginner flamenco dance class offered through the Department of Student Development and Programming. (You know you're jealous about the flamenco.) Okay, I'll put it out there that I'm far from the greatest dancer on Earth. Even at Hopkins, I'm not the best dancer around. But still, those hours I spent dancing either ballet or flamenco were just...wow. I felt so happy with the combination of vigor and serenity that dancing gave me: vigor coming from the fact that dancing is a physical activity and serenity coming from the fact that dancing is, despite being like a graceful workout, an art form. Oh yeah, and I was tickled pink that I got to use the flamenco dance practice skirt I had purchased for my flamenco dancer Halloween costume--I knew that when I bought that skirt in October, I'd be able to find another use for it!

Otherwise, however, I found myself not enjoying everything else as I had hoped I would. I don't want to sound like a whiner, but I'll try to explain what I thought was disappointing: first of all, the two classes I took weren't engaging at all. I took a two-credit classics course called "Jupiter Triumphant: War and Victory in Ancient Rome" and a one-credit music course called "Philosophies of Music Composition." The first course was supposed to explore what happened in triumphs that were held in honor of some victorious generals during the Roman Republic--and, during the time of the Roman Empire, that emperors frequently decided to throw to glorify themselves and entertain the people. The second course was supposed to explore the influence of historical events on the way in which composers structured their musical compositions. While I knew these courses probably wouldn't be academically rigorous, I was at least looking forward to class sessions that would pique my interest.

Unfortunately, I realized only during the second class of each course that I didn't like either of them as much as I hoped--and it was too late to drop them. The course about triumphs covered fascinating material, but I found myself being one of those few people who almost always raised their hands to answer questions while the majority of the class remained silent. I don't know about you, but I don't find it fun. And I didn't find it fun that the teacher of the course was so disappointed with overall class participation that she gave us all a test on the last day to see if we were "actually learning the material." (I remember joking to a friend on the night before the test that I might as well have been one of those people who stayed silent during class.) As for the music class? We hardly analyzed the musical composition of the works we covered. We spent most of our time listening to samples of music from different eras of Western music history and learning very basic music terms. I think the course would've been a good introduction to Western music history for people with little to zero music experience--but for and yours truly and a friend of mine who was also in the calss, because we both had taken some degree of music theory, we both play the piano, and she's a singer, it was like being a college student attending a class on the ABCs.

On a positive note, I got some enjoyment out of the reading for the classics course (which had a lot of reading assignments for homework), and I got a bit of enjoyment out of sitting for two hours straight two days a week listening to some beautiful music.

As for work? I worked as an Intersession-only office assistant for the administrative office of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences on campus. Because it was Intersession, the office was so quiet that I probably spent at most 20 minutes out of every two-hour shift actually conducting errands such as delivering packages or retrieving the mail. The rest of the time I spent doing homework for one of my Intersession classes or surfing the Internet. Now, I know lots of people who'd find that an ideal work-study job--but considering I like working for my money by doing something that keeps me busy and that I enjoy, I felt pretty guilty knowing that I was getting paid for essentially doing the same thing I'd do on my own at home if I didn't have a job.

And...well...that leaves the "spending my free time" part. As you may recall from the three (yes, three) entries about my Intersession last year, I had a blast spending lots of time doing random shenanigans with my friends around Baltimore, from going out to dinner to playing video games. This year, while I still knew a lot of people who were at Hopkins for Intersession, a good number of them were busy either working all day or studying for the MCAT (or the LSAT or some other important standardized test). Added to the fact that I also had a lot of homework daily (do you remember how I said that my classics course required a lot of outside reading?), I found myself not socializing as much as I had hoped. To top it all off, during the last week of Intersession, the following happened: numerous heating and electrical issues with my apartment arose, some roommate conflicts happened among my roommates and yours truly, and more. (I won't elaborate on everything that happened for the sake of discretion and for the sake of preventing this blog entry from sounding whiny.)

Catch this, though: I wouldn't take back anything about this year's Intersession, even though it was undoubtedly my least favorite out of my three Intersessions so far. Even if I were told beforehand that I had a choice between staying home and continuing to "do almost nothing" and coming to Hopkins and having the kind of Intersession I had, I'd choose the latter. Despite the fact that I found myself being disappointed at how most of my expectations for that three-week period of time were far from fulfilled, I learned a lot from what I did experience. I learned how to deal with freezing indoor temperatures (yes, my apartment is that cold), I refreshed my memory of some concepts I learned about electrical circuits in General Physics II when an electrician came to repair some burnt wires in my room, I realized that I should keep fire safety a top priority in looking for another apartment next year (I plan to move out of the one in which I'm living after the lease expires), I learned a few skills in diplomacy in dealing with roommate conflicts, I learned that all interpersonal relationships--whether they're platonic friendships or romantic relationships--are filled with pleasant and unpleasant surprises...and more. And if you think about it, if I didn't like this Intersession, that just means chances are I'll like my next--and last--Intersession more than this one! I hope it'll be my best. When you're at the bottom, there's nowhere to go but up.

I was well aware of the fact that college is a learning experience beyond the classroom. This past Intersession was a reminder of that--and I'm grateful for that reminder.

N.B. The images used to illustrate this entry are taken from AllPosters.com.