So first and foremost, if any of you read my recent entry on the ethics board, I do want to say I'm sorry for the departure from my normal writing style and I can assure you it's no permanent change. I just felt like for that topic, it was best to just stick with the relevant information and try to give a good picture of the board without making it too light--it can be in very serious situations and I always try to treat it accordingly.
Anyway, I just got back from NEW YORK CITY last week! Quite honestly, it's amazing I even got on the bus back to Baltimore. It was my first time to the city and I was such a tourist... I
was constantly looking up and around at everything, trying to discreetly snap pictures on my phone, and occasionally (when the urge was overwhelming) pulling out my real camera to take a picture as quickly as possible. But let me backtrack. This was a three-day, two-nigtht trip as a capstone on my intersession class, International Development and Policy, or, as I like to think of it, Globalization 201. It was a little bit more advanced than an introduction, but the coolest thing about it was that all of our speakers (and we had at least one every day for two weeks) were Hopkins alumni.
I think one of the most important things I learned (other than subtle reassurance from four lawyers that I will still be able to find a job when I graduate from law school) was that Hopkins alumni can really do amazing things. We had such a broad range of people who were all doing things they loved and had come from so many different majors (a Biochemistry major--which no longer exists--now working in strategic marketing in finance, a BME working for Blackstone and teaching us about oil and natural resources and banking, etc., etc.). Pretty mpressive, yes?
So, as I mentioned, we had two weeks of class and then we had our trip to NYC where we had three days packed with site visits, including HSBC, UNCTAD, International Rescue Committee, Council on Foreign Relations, and several others. We arrived in the city about 30 minutes before our first site visit, at 40th & 5th Avenue and had roughly 20 minutes of free time. Naturally, on the bus ride up, I had already vetted the area and knew there was an H&M two blocks away, so as soon as we got there, I took off and scurried around the store, buying two dresses, which I then stuffed into my purse, trying to conceal my consumerism from our site visit. Hey--I needed birthday dresses! I also had time to have lunch with Julia (read her recent alumni blog and archived blog!) and catch up with an old friend I hadn't seen from elementary school. While it was an incredibly busy and tiring schedule, I had just enough time to fit in a couple of wonderful little things that made the trip perfect.
So now, on the eve of my 21st birthday and the start of the spring semester (whoa!), I'm so excited for everything that's coming these next few months! This intersession class really sparked my interest in a couple of different groups and really kicked me into gear for applying for more internships, so I'm looking forward to all of that work these next couple of weeks. I have a surprising class schedule that I'll tell you all about shortly (preview: an English requirement and an Econ class?!), and it's about time to start LSAT prep. With that, I'm off to wonder where in the world the time goes.
I went to NYC this weekend and went to that same H&M hehe...too cheap to buy anything though. It was weird because I am actually from Brooklyn NY, but never went to Times square until this trip..SO WEIRD. Glad you had a good time!
Posted by: JHU_Dominique | January 25, 2010 at 10:35 AM