Class of 2013: Freshman Blog

Last few days were really tough. Packing and moving out has become one of the least favorite activity. You know, when I first came here last year, I only had 4 baggages of stuff. Now it doubled to 8 baggages plus furniture.. Renting a storage space was an expensive option for me, so I separated the baggages and had them stored in my friends’ houses. So imagine me driving an SUV full of stuff in and out of Baltimore.. yea it was wonderful. I can’t wait for move-in. yay. After I moved everything out of the apartment except for the luggages I’m bringing with meto Korea, I took a train to DC where one of my vocal chords friends is currently staying for his internship. It was time for Deadmau5 concert!! I know, it was a bit crazy to go to such gig right before my flight which was scheduled to leave the next morning. But I really needed this! I mean, it was fun doing research and stuff, but gosh it had been so stressful I really needed to brush everything off.

After the two months of summer in Baltimore doing summer school and tissue engineering research, I have finally come back to Korea to visit my family. Yes I was still very tired from the Deadmau5 gig, I could not let it last too long; when I came back to Seoul, I was busy dealing with many cultural differences that I had to get used to once again.

Heavy traffic is probably the number one problem here in Seoul. Most of the main streets get packed day and night and it always frustrates me to just sit in the car with little progress. Also, there are a lot of reckless drivers who do not hesitate driving through red lights and changing lanes without turning on any signals. Even taxi drivers let their passengers off in the middle of the road, worsening the traffic situation. Being used to driving on the relaxed roads of California, I basically gave up driving in Seoul (At first, I thought it was something like “Asian people can’t drive” thing, but after driving around Baltimore and hearing some people calling them “Baltimorons,” I realized it was just a big city thing…). Public transportation system is good in Korea, subway stations placed in almost every major part of the city. Plus, the tickets are very cheap, costing just over a dollar each no matter. Using trains and buses instead of driving a car not only saves time, it also saves money and frustration.

There are motorcycles everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE. It wouldn’t be a problem if people ride them with great care, but most of the times they are unlicensed and the motorcycles unregistered. In addition, they tend to ride not on the center of the lanes, but between the lanes, squeezing themselves out through the crowded streets. I myself got into an accident when I hit a fast-moving motorcycle with the door while getting out of my car. Fortunately, no one got hurt, but I heard similar accidents even took some people’s lives. So whenever I’m about to get off the cab, I now use the side mirror to check the back.

Working in Korea is a very interesting experience. I realized how “respect” plays a very important role in Korean workplace. You have to show respect not only to the people of higher position, but also to the people who are older than you. So, even when I have the same job as another person, I would have to show respect if he/she is older than me. There are many ways to show respect: speaking with more polite terms, running errands, bowing instead of waving a hand when greeting, coming to work earlier, and covering for them when they’re not present. I did not understand such need for doing these for people who are just one or two years older than me and I still don’t, but it was something I had to do in order to have a smooth work experience. Whenever I meet new people, I now first ask them how old they are so I can treat them appropriately and avoid making them upset.

Even people in grocery stores look all dandy and stylish. Appearance and being in trend is a big deal for majority of Koreans. Here, guys put as much effort as girls to look nice; they often carry hair-wax with them to fix their hair, and some even put make-up powder on their faces. Many are also very trendy, committing themselves to skinny jeans with bright-colored shirts and sneakers In addition, shiny leather man-purses are must-have items for Korean guys. When I came here and saw them all carrying handbags, I JUST had to get myself one as well (plus i’ve always wondered how it would be like carrying a man-purse around me… lol). So yea, people in Korea, or at least people in Seoul, are very trend-oriented.. When I was working at an SAT institute here, I could easily tell whether  a student was born and raised in America or Korea.

Just about five years ago, there weren’t a lot of foreigners visiting/staying in Korea. But now I see them everywhere. Most of them are here to teach for a short amount of time (Not just English, but more like SAT, TOEFL, ACT and all that kind of fun stuff), and others are here for religious or military service. Now that I’m in college, I’m starting to think about where I want to work after I graduate. It would be nice for me if I get a job here in Seoul where I would be able to visit my parents often. But at the same time, I’m as much comfortable living in America (if not more). I still have another 3 years. I’ll see how it goes.

I promised myself I would start this entry before the first of August.  Sadly, it’s 2:30 am on the first of August.  Oh well, my intentions were honest.  Why awake at 2:30 am?  Well, my lovely job in retail has these exciting events called floorsets.  It’s one of those retail jargons that you don’t really understand until you work it.  Basically, all of the stuff in the store gets moved around, and new stuff gets put out, etc, etc.  Really it just means a lot of folding for me.  They usually occur after the store closes, which usually means from 9pm to some odd hour in the morning.  The last floorset ran until 6 am for two consecutive nights, which was followed by an Organic Chemistry exam the next morning at 8 am.  You can’t really say you’ve pulled a double all-nighter until you’ve spent it sweating in a non-air-conditioned clothing store doing heavy lifting and running around for nine hours.  Studying did not really happen.  Oh well.

Speaking of chemistry, my final is this Thursday morning.  A part of me really doesn’t want to study.  I have an A in the class, and since I am transferring the credit the grade actually doesn’t follow.  So, in reality, I could pretty much fail or not even take the final, still pass and get the credit.  It is as if nature has offered me a test to decided if I really am a self-slaughtering masochist.  I feel like I would be more upset if I kept my A, and it didn’t follow versus if I got a B or C and it didn’t follow.  However, I am also really considering taking Organic 2 at Hopkins second semester, even though I am not premed, and it is not required by my major.  I am really enjoying the class, and I think I am actually pretty good at it.  It’s so crazy how nature made all of these god-awful crazy rules for how things are going to work.  So much to remember!  But it is completely and utterly ingenious, and more importantly kind of beautiful.  I guess I am lucky to have a pretty good memory, sometimes I wonder if it is semi-photographic.  Is there a test I can take for this?  Either way, I am not going to give my memory all the credit because I did read that textbook, all 600 pages of it.  Other than that, I haven’t put tons of effort into it.  It’s summer after all!  In fact, I haven’t cracked my book open since the last exam!!!  I am dreading it so much, since it seems I have wasted so much sleep to wake up every morning for class.  As much as I enjoy it, I will be happy when it is over.

Organic has really has me considering if I have chosen the right major.  I do love ChemBE.  The faculty is great, and there is a lot of opportunity within the department.  However, ChemBE seems less about chemistry and more about applications and production of different chemicals.  When I compare a class like Process Analysis to Organic, Organic takes the cake hands down.  Currently, we are learning about NMR, IR, and Mass Spectroscopy (which I don’t believe is covered in Hopkins’ Organic), and I love it.  I know there even exists a whole course is Spectroscopy, and I really want to take it. It’s subjects like Quantum Chemistry and Organic Lab have me really considering changing my major to Chemistry.  I think coming into Hopkins I thought ChemBE would be more chemistry based than it actually is.  The only pure chemistry courses that are required are general chemistry, O-Chem 1, Physical Chemistry (the one semester version taught in the engineering department), and a chemistry elective.  It just goes to show sometimes you know what you want when you step foot on campus, but so much can change in only a semester.

In the end, I think the engineering degree may open more doors and lead to more job opportunities.  I hate saying that because I hate students who choose engineering for the money or the prospects of a shoe-in job.  I also must admit that I don’t want people to think I dropped ChemBE because I couldn’t handle the heat.  I know I shouldn’t care what other people think, but I want people to know if it’s hot in the kitchen I’ll go as far as to put my hand on the stovetop.  I also know that my mom would prefer if I stayed an engineering major.  I’ve worked so hard within my major, from my involvement with the Chemical Engineering Car Team, to my involvement with the mentorship program and AICHE, where I was elected as sophomore representative.  In the end I have to stop thinking about what others think and want and really try to discover what I want.  I wish a magic genie could just appear and tell me what the right choice is, but I know that will never happen.

A funny thing happened a couple weeks ago.  I was browsing through my bookshelf looking for something interesting to read, when I ran across some old textbooks I brought home after my grandma died, which included a Schaum’s Outline of Differential Equations.  As I was browsing through the archaic study guide, a small folded piece of paper fell out.  On the back was some scratch work from a problem (most likely from the book.)  When I opened the paper, I ran across a page from a lab report titled Lindlar’s Catalyst, which included detailed instructions on how to synthesize this special catalyst that is used to hydrogenate alkynes to alkenes with cis-isomerism.  At the top of page was the date December 16, 1966.  The lavender-blue ink indicated that the page was printed from a mimeograph, a hand-cranked printer that dated before the late 1960’s.  It was like finding a hidden treasure, a piece of Watkins history.  The careful scripted math on the back was signature of my dad, and the date indicated that the page dated back to his time spent at Caltech.

My dad is a pure genius, and I am extremely critically of other’s intellect.  He is on my list of the most intelligent human beings I have ever met, which is very short.  As a high school student, he handcrafted a particle accelerator in the height of the atomic age including an ultra-high vacuum created from refrigerator heat pumps.  He even built a hovercraft.  In college he was first a chemistry major, then he switched to physics.  However, his senior year he dropped out to pursue an invention, which we now know as modern microwave popcorn, with his brother, under the brand name Act II.  Now he is a small business owner, who makes outdoor lighting fixtures.  It wasn’t until a phone conversation that occurred last semester that I learned that he might have truly regretted leaving the university scene.  As a gifted machinist and physicist, he said the times he spent in the physics labs where some of the best in his life.  Looking back now, he wishes that he had continued to study physics, even at the graduate level, and someday have his own lab.

He used to tell me I would never be as smart as him, which is probably true.  But it’s moments like after one of my organic midterms when I can show him a paper with a big red 95 on the front, that I can see him smile with a gap between his two front teeth large enough to drive a bus through.  These moments makes it all worth it, even if the grade doesn’t follow.  Maybe it’s true, and I will never be as smart as him, nor can I understand what kinds of crazy ideas pass through his mind when he stares into space with his gap-toothed smile.  Then again, maybe I am inching closer to something.  Maybe I was put here on this earth to finish something he never could.  It’s seems illogical and maybe a bit superstitious, but that paper may have fallen out for a reason.  Who knows why I felt such a sentimental connection to a piece of 44-year old paper, but all I do know is that my biggest fear is realize at 64-years old, that I have made a lifelong mistake.

So for now I am going to stay and engineer.  It’s so hard to make a decision after only two semesters; however, if I need to change it should be something I should anticipate sooner rather than later.

I’m sure most of the followers of this blog are high school students. I’m sure they’re pretty driven high school students, who are extremely focused on academics. That’s only natural – they’re looking at a school known for academic excellence, and they want to make sure that their transcripts reflect the fact that they’re striving for academic excellence too. Don’t get me wrong – doing well in school and grades can be important. But at the same time, those same focuses can easily overwhelm students.

Over the past year, I’ve seen a lot of students affected by this. Practically all of here at Hopkins are very academically focused, and as incoming freshmen, we were used to aiming for (and getting) top grades. So we came here, and we kept trying for those grades, and some of us got way too caught up in that struggle. I admit, I’m definitely not perfect. I’d like to say that I’ve always been focused on learning for the sake of learning and on enjoying life. While I’ve certainly never taken grades to the extremes, I know that I have gotten caught up in the grade rat race.

But this year, something changed. I’m not sure what it was. Maybe it was first semester covered grades, and knowing that I could focus on learning, and not just cramming for tests. Maybe it was knowing that I was surrounded by hundreds of other equally (or moreso-ly) intelligent people. Maybe it was subconsciously realizing that in 10 years, I won’t care about any of these grades. Maybe it was realizing that the memories I’ll have of college should be more than grades and late nights in the library. Memories aren’t made of letters and test scores. They’re made of experiences. They’re made of laughter and tears. They’re made of struggles and triumphs. They’re made of spontaneity and planning. They’re made of late night walks around the campus. They’re made of mud fights on the freshman quad. They’re made of 4 am conversations with friends. They’re made of explorations to Hampden and Fell’s Point. They’re made of pillow fights. They’re made of late nights watching movies and stuffing your face. They’re made of first experiences. They’re what we want to remember.

This probably all sounds very cliche. It probably is very cliche, but more importantly, it’s also very true.

I was wandering in AMR II today, and I saw this quote: “Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone.”  Moving beyond the beach and into the college arena, the footprints are the grades. They’re something tangible, something physical we can fixate on when measuring our time spent in college. But ten, twenty, thirty years from now, we won’t remember the grade on the first micro midterm. We won’t remember our score on the orgo final. We won’t remember the strange way anthro participation grades were calculated. But we’ll have memories of experiences and friends. And making the memories is what really matters.

With just under 4 weeks left until Orientation Week, most of my work is starting to wrap up. Most of my main responsibilities as part of the Orientation Executive Staff involved redesigning the Orientation website, managing the online registration program, Peer Ambassador Training and the subsequent matching of PA’s with incoming students, and finalizing the schedule. Since the website was basically finished in the middle of June I’ve been focusing on the last few things over the past few months. Today was an exciting day as we’re closing registration in just a few hours, and not only have we seen a huge jump in the amount of the incoming class that’s registered, but we’ve seen a big jump in the amount of incoming students who have registered for the Hopkins Passport.

When I joined the Orientation Staff my goal was to get as much of the incoming class as possible to register for Orientation. We’ve made it mandatory for all of the incoming class to register, and as such my goal was to get the highest yield possible. Last year only about 75% of the incoming class registered for Orientation, and my goal was to get around 95% to register. As of early last week we had about 75% of the class registered, so we decided to send out a mass email to the incoming class and their parents to push for more registrations, and to encourage people who have already registered to purchase the Hopkins Passport. The results of this marketing push were far more than what we expected. As of right now with just about 5 hours left for registration 1215 of the 1237 members of the incoming class have registered meaning that right now 98% of the class has completed this process. Furthermore about 950 members of the class have chosen to purchase the Hopkins Passport, meaning that 78% of those who have registered have chosen to purchase the Hopkins Passport. This is a full 8% above our original goal of 70%.

In the world of JHU Orientation, statistics are everything to the offices which oversee our activities, and I’m 100% sure that they’re going to be extremely impressed when we present the results at our next staff meeting. Last year only 40% of the class purchased the O-Pass, and as previously mentioned only 75% registered in the end. This year we’ve more than doubled our revenue, and we’ve saved with a lot of the other events that we’ve been planning and we’re very excited to see what the participation in each of the events is.

As of right now we’re about halfway done with matching the incoming class with Peer Ambassadors. This year instead of simply matching them by major we’re matching them by personality similarities (this year the incoming class was asked to complete a personality profile after they finished their registration). We’re planning on having all of the matching done by this Monday, meaning that by the time the next JBlast goes out in the middle of next week the incoming class will be able to look up their PA’s online. The only thing really left on my plate is the Orientation Schedule, which is supposed to be done by the middle of next week as well. The best part about finishing the schedule is that once it’s finished mid-next week all of my responsibilities leading up to Orientation Week are complete and I can sit back and relax until early move-in occurs on August 22nd.

Over the course of this summer I’ve done much more work than I could have imagined. From web design to managing logistical data regarding our events and registration it all caused me LOTS of stress, but I think in the end it will all be worth it. The goal of the Orientation program is to help new students to adjust to the environment they’ll be in for the next 4 years of their life. We’ve worked lots more hours this year than we would have liked but in the end we succeeded in our overall goal(s): to have an amazing Orientation program that all of the incoming freshman will remember for most of their lives, and to outperform last year’s program. I actually can’t believe that it’s already the end of July and that we’re closing registration today. When I was in the Office of the Dean of Student Life this morning and they were talking about how happy they were that registration ends this evening my jaw dropped. What’s great though is that the greatest part of the program (and possibly the hardest part) is still yet to come, Orientation week! I’m really looking forward to all the events that we have planned for Orientation week, and I’m even more excited to meet the members of the incoming class.

I’ll finish off this post with a couple of AMAZING pictures that my friend took when he visited me. Originally about 4 of my friends were supposed to come visit me because I’ve basically been in Baltimore all summer, but in the end 3 of them had to back out for family or work reasons. In the end my friend John came anyways even though he had to make the 2.5 hour drive down alone, but it ended up working in our favor because we got to do the things that we wanted to do without having to worry about whether or not our other friends would enjoy it. Anyways, here’s a few of the 150 or so pictures that he took when he came and visited me. Thanks for reading, and see you in 2 weeks!

Here's a nice picture of the lower quad that my friend took right around sunset.

Here's an amazing picture of the entrance to Mason Hall and the Johns Hopkins signature in the background near the front desk.

Here's an apprentice-style picture of me in the Alumni Boardroom in Mason Hall. This is the conference room where the board of trustees have some of their meetings and in my opinion its one of the nicest rooms int he building.

Here's a picture of the Mason Hall entrance on the Decker Quad at sunset. My friend used a polarizing lens so the windows ended up turning purple. It actually makes the windows look even cooler than they normally do.

At this time last year, I was in your shoes.  I was an indescribable mix of emotions: nervous to move to an unfamiliar place, anxious to be more independent, sad to leave so many old friends, and excited to meet new ones.  At the same time, I was busy ordering textbooks, shopping for dorm supplies, searching the Class of 2013 Facebook group discussion threads for answers to my seemingly endless questions, and, most importantly, working part-time at a soft pretzel factory.

When I used to tell people that I worked at a pretzel factory, I usually got a reaction like, “Wow, twisting pretzels would get really old after a day or two!  You must be so sick of it!”  Truthfully, they couldn’t have been more wrong.  This job was perfect for anyone like myself with a really short attention span.  Just as I got bored of twisting pretzels, I’d fill the mustard cans.  When I got sick of that, I could stock the sodas, put together the party trays, assemble the boxes, answer the phone, sweep the floor, dip the cinnamon pretzels, stamp the frequent buyer cards, manage the cash register, and salt the pretzels once they came out of the oven.    Twisting pretzel dough all day would have been incredibly monotonous and boring.  For my own sanity, I needed all this variety in my job description.

The best part was that my boss didn’t seem to mind at all that I switched frantically from job to job.  In fact, I think she appreciated variety just as much as I did since she was constantly coming up with new promotions (my favorite being her idea to pay a middle school kid to dress up like a giant pretzel and wave at the cars passing by).  As part of these promotions, she always liked to switch up our pretzel varieties.  One week she would tell us to make dozens of pretzel dogs, the next week we’d be making pretzel sausages instead, and the following week, cinnamon pretzels would fill the glass case.  Running a factory dominated by regular salted pretzels was clearly not an option.

That being said, one day while I was helping a customer at the cash register, my boss came through the door pushing a giant freezer.  I helped her get the enormous freezer into the corner of the store and realized that inside were ten huge tubs of water ice (or Italian ice as they call it in Baltimore).  Since her store was part of a pretzel franchise she technically wasn’t allowed to sell water ice, but to avoid getting caught, she instructed us to quickly push the freezer into the back of the store if we saw any franchise representatives about to enter.  Just for practice, we even did a few “hide the water ice” drills.

The water ice was a huge hit!  The factory became significantly busier in the following weeks, and this water ice became my boss’s new pride and joy.  She raved about it all the time and seemed to like the mango flavor about as much as the pretzels themselves!  The only drawback to the water ice idea was that once a week when the franchise representative came around, all of us would scramble to get the giant freezer in the back of the store and smoothly answer the rep’s questions about why little kids were exiting the store with purple faces.  (Why did they always have to get the grape!!?)

Unfortunately, a rep came in one day and found the water ice after we failed to hide the freezer fast enough.  Our boss’s mood was much more solemn during the week that followed.  She clearly missed raving about the flavor varieties, seeing kids run around with sticky fingers, and occasionally snacking on mango ice around lunchtime.  Even though we still sold all of our pretzel varieties, the lack of water ice made the pretzel factory an entirely different place.

This (finally) brings me to my point and to the reason that I decided to come to Hopkins in the first place.  At Hopkins, there’s no need to hide your water ice, and there’s no one to tell you that you can only sell pretzels.  You can diversify your college years as much as you want!  Every one of you 2014ers should strive to make your Hopkins experience about taking a variety of classes, becoming involved in a variety of activities, and putting yourself in a variety of new social circles.  The more diversified your Hopkins experience is, the better it will be.  Here’s why:

1) You many love your intended area of study as much as my boss loved pretzels, but whether you’re attending Johns Hopkins or running a pretzel business, you’re eventually going to want some variety to keep it exciting.  Math major?  Try reading to kids at a local elementary school to mix things up!  Cognitive science major?  Try taking Italian!  Take advantage of the options available to you.  Let’s face it, nobody wants to have just pretzels for four whole years.

2) There’s nothing like having 123890813 humungous pretzel orders to fill at once to make you never want to see a pretzel again.  After standing next to the burning hot oven for hours upon hours working to finally get all of those trays and boxes filled, water ice is the perfect remedy.  It’s enjoyable, much less labor, and completely different in every aspect from a pretzel.  The same scenario applies to pursuing any major at Hopkins.  There will be times when you’ll get frustrated with your major and never want to do another integral, read about another important figure of history, or write another word.  In times like these, you’ll be happy you took a completely different class or joined a student group just for enjoyment.  You’re going to need some kind of water ice to pull you through.

3) Customers love water ice!  Having water ice is going to make your business more successful.  Think about how many pretzel places there are in the world.  Now think about how many of those pretzel places also serve water ice.  See?  The same thing will apply to you in the next four years.  There are tons of political science majors out there, but at Hopkins, you have the power and flexibility to be a political science/biophysics double major, pre-law student, admissions volunteer (hint hint), athlete, campus emergency responder, and member of the Art League all at the same time.  How many people in the world can say that?  You truly have a lot of opportunities ahead of you, so keep in mind that it’s good to be unique!

4) There are other flavors of water ice out there that you haven’t had yet, and who knows, you might end up finding a new favorite flavor.  Do you think my boss, one of the world’s biggest pretzel fans, ever thought she would love mango water ice so much?  Of course not!  If there is one thing to take away from this story, it’s that if you never try anything new, you’re not going to figure out what your true passions are.  You won’t get to attend Hopkins forever, so if there is any ideal time to discover your true interests, it’s now!

So, class of 2014, I leave you with these parting words of advice: attending Hopkins is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and in order to get the most out of it, you need to explore both academic and extracurricular areas that are outside of your comfort zone.  I’m telling you this as I’m sitting here with my brand new, bright purple book of Spanish plays for next semester wondering what in the world I was thinking registering for a theater course as a biology major. Aside from participating in a Shakespeare coloring contest back in eighth grade English, I have pretty much zero experience reading plays, so this course has a lot of potential to go horribly wrong.  However, I have to keep reminding myself that this is exactly what the Hopkins experience is about.  By next semester, I might be going around campus quoting Cervantes and Lope de Vega, or I might decide to never read another act or sonnet ever again.  Either way, for the next four months, theater will be my water ice.  What will yours be?

So it’s 11:30 pm on a Friday night.  What am I up to?  Whilst the rest of the adolescent population of Minneapolis maybe at concerts or parties, or other eventful festivities, I am at home, sitting at my kitchen table and reheating my mother’s most recent cooking concoction.  After the first couple bites, it seems to contain a good amount of olives and potentially capers.

So a lot has happened the last couple of weeks.  First was a four-day camping trip up north for the Fourth of July.  Up north is basically Canada, which is a country I have never actually visited but I have been very physically close to.  After a weekend of tent flooding, ten thousand mosquito bites, and not showering, I was very excited to return to the city.

A view from the balcony of the Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis. It overlooks St. Anthony Main, a historic milling district of North Minneapolis.

The following weekend a friend and I took a four-day weekend trip to Chicago, which was awesome.  She had some friends spending the summer in the City, so it was a great opportunity to spend time there.  Man oh man! Chicago puts Minneapolis to shame.

The weekend after that, I figured it was time to put the long road trips to a rest.  I don’t know how much more my circulatory system could take.  That weekend we spent in the city, where we celebrated the Aquatenniel festival and my birthday.  It was pretty low key, but, overall, enjoyable.

The past week was a bit rough.  It began with a mad dash to memorize as much organic chemistry and ended with a slightly painful exam.  The best way to describe summer organic chemistry is speed chemistry.  It’s like a giant race to see who can smash the most reaction mechanisms in their brain within a week.  The insanity ensues for two more weeks, but after that I am home free for the rest of summer.

Tomorrow nearly concludes weekends in July.  My dad and I are heading to St. Paul for the Red Bull Flutag.  Unsure of exactly what it is, but to my understanding, it’s where people make home-made flying machines and attempt to fly them off of cliff.  Sounds entertaining and ripe for some awesome people watching.  Since my dad is the president of his model airplane club and a seasoned hang-glider, I am sure he will enjoy it thoroughly.  I am hoping for some free Red Bull.  I am going to need it for this chemistry final.

12:21 AM now.  So the week has officially ended.  Although it was filled with a decent amount of pain and sweat, I am foreseeing the rest of this month ending well.  Tonight a friend and I watched Juno, which is an awesome movie and even takes place in Minnesota.  Yeah, for reals!  It even mentions Ridgedale Mall, which just happens to be the place of my employment!

Another view from the Guthrie. This one is a snip-it of the downtown skyline.

So I think I will retire to my bed soon.  But not without more food!  Now that my bowl of pasta concoction remains nearly empty (save some capers and red peppers), I think course two will consist of some nearly week-old birthday cake, even though my stomach is feeling a bit queasy from the Swedish Fish earlier.  Nothing quite heals an ailing soul like birthday cake.

Just because it’s my summer vacation, and just because my art history final is (finally) done with, doesn’t mean that the “art appreciation” portion of my brain has since switched off. As you may have read, I’m currently History of Art and Writing Seminars major. Aside from visiting local museums in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (the Kimbell Art Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, and Southern Methodist University’s Meadows Museum are home to some impressive exhibits), I found a major art void in my life after classes at Hopkins wrapped up and I left Baltimore. I really missed being constantly challenged by my art history professors and peers to interpret art more deeply, to ponder its role in our history. A few weeks ago, my parents decided they were ready for a family vacation. They interestingly enough planned a trip for New York City, one of the art capitals of the world and arguably one of the most art-rich cities in the United States. What could be better than a relaxing vacation, some retail therapy, and a little bit of quality time at the Met? That’s exactly what I’ve been up to for the last week or so.

At dinner with my parents

Me and fellow Hopkid Louisa (walking advertisement for Barbour included)

I’m happy to report that I’m no longer suffering from art withdrawals, and I was actually in awe of the extensive art collections at both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art! I knew that those museums are widely respected among members of the art community, but it was even better to discover their astounding popularity with the general public. Art is something that everyone can appreciate, whether you have read one hundred books on Cezanne, or simply haven’t heard the name before. I can certainly see why these places consistently draw such diverse visitors and are such major tourist destinations. This is what you see when you first approach the museum on Fifth Avenue. Such a grand, imposing, authoritative structure—certainly comparable to the Louvre or National Gallery in London. Last semester’s “Introduction to the Museum” class with Professor Rodini had me thinking about all aspects of this particular museum: the physical architecture of the building, how each exhibit was curated, the color of the walls, the amount of detail and information included in the museum labels. All of these features impact our perception of a work of art. As I navigated through the museum with my mom, from ancient Hellenistic sculptures to modern Picasso masterpieces, I realized just how broad these collections were! With my camera in hand (no flash of course), I went picture crazy at the Met and especially the MoMA—paparazzi style—snapping candids of my favorite “celebs”: Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon (considered the first painting of the 21st century), Matisse’s The Dance, Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Miro’s The Birth of the World.

Picasso's "Demoiselles d'Avignon"

Matisse's "The Dance"

Van Gogh's "Starry Night"

Miro's "The Birth of the World"

But the most impressive of all (and probably the tiniest, most valuable little masterpiece I have ever seen)? A fourteenth century painting of the Virgin and Child or Maesta, part of an alterpiece by Sienese painter Duccio. The Met purchased it for a mere 45 million dollars, and we are so fortunate to have such an extraordinary piece of Italian history here in the U.S.!

Duccio's 14th c. Virgin and Child

Now, unfortunately, I’m back in Dallas from the art haven that is New York City. Despite my inherent enthusiasm for art and paintings, I don’t think I would have fully appreciated all of the museum-going that I did on my recent NYC trip (or my Florence study abroad trip) without any of my art history and museum classes this past year at Hopkins. It is hard to admit, but without last semester’s art history final, I would have been lost in the sometimes esoteric artsiness that the MoMA is known (notorious?) for. Going to these two museums was kind of analogous to reading about all of your favorite celebrities in People magazine and then one day having the opportunity to meet them in person—a radically different and eye-opening experience. (Maybe I shouldn’t be equating the intellectual integrity of my art history textbook with that of People magazine, but you get the drift!) I’m still looking forward to being back in Baltimore, but maybe this time, with a renewed appreciation for the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum! Thanks for reading! -BK

So this week I’m going to talk about my 2 top favorite things from this past week/month: Online Courses and the TV Show How I Met Your Mother. One of the perks I get for being part of the Orientation Executive Staff is a free course, and since my Academic Advisor suggested that I check out the online course Positive Psychology it was my top choice. What’s really awesome is that it also doubles as an upper-level psychology course and will contribute to my B.S. in Psychology. While I’ve been working on orientation stuff for the past few weeks, my roommate and I have watched all 5 seasons of How I Met Your Mother. As a result of that and the fact that I have at least 2 Positive Psychology assignments every week, they’ve become a major part of my life.

Positive Psychology is mostly based on what is known as Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, which is a theory that states in order for us to be truly happy, we much start at the bottom of this pyramid and work our way to the top.

As I said, I was told by my Academic Advisor that Positive Psychology was one of the best Psychology courses I could take since the field is relatively new and the professor isn’t a harsh grader. Positive Psychology was first coined by Martin Seligman when he was the President of the American Psychological Association. For years the psychological community had been focusing on mental illness and depression, and everything that can go wrong with the human mind. Seligman among other psychologists decided that it was time they start deciding what people could do to be happier. When Positive Psychology was first taught by Tal Ben-Shahar (one of the authors of the books required for the course) at Harvard, only about 8 students took the course and a few ended up dropping out. However, the next year it was the largest class taught at Harvard, and its continued to be so to this very day. Ben-Shahar was actually a guest on the Daily Show in 2007, and if you’re interesting in seeing what he said check out the video of his appearance: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-9-2007/tal-ben-shahar.

Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman is one of the required readings for my Positive Psychology class. This book is really well written as Seligman was President of the APA and responsible for the surge of interest in Positive Psychology.

Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar is the other required reading for my Positive Psychology class. It's also extremely well written and tells you what you can do in your everyday life to be happier, and gives you a much better idea of what happiness is. I would definitely suggest both these books to anyone who is looking for a good read.

Positive Psychology is interesting enough as it is, but the fact that I’m taking the course online over the summer makes things infinitely better. Most people love taking the course at Hopkins for reasons similar to those why Harvard students take the class; because it ends up being a self-help class and you walk out of the class knowing how to make yourself happier. The fact that I don’t have to wake up at any specific time to go to class, and that I can do the readings whenever I have time helps me out a lot because then I don’t have to worry about finishing the readings on time. It’s also great because I’m used to taking classes where the assignments you’re given have right answers, but this class is completely writing based. Not only is it writing based, but most of our assignments are opinion based, and we’re free to write in whatever style or person we feel. This works out very well since I’m going to be taking real writing classes at Hopkins soon, so I can get in the creative mindset that will be necessary for me to do well in those classes.

The cast of How I Met Your Mother. Barney Stinson (played by Neil Patrick Harris) is possibly my all-time favorite TV character (aside from Jack and Desmond from LOST of course) and shows how great an actor NPH can be.

So aside from Positive Psychology, Orientation work, and admissions work this past week the other thing that’s been occupying my time is How I Met Your Mother. Normally I can’t get that into comedy shows because they aren’t that funny (there are some good episodes, but mostly mediocre ones) since I’m used to shows with really confusing and cryptic plots, but this show is really well written and I can watch almost any episode and be laughing the entire time (even after watching all 5 seasons). My roommate and I have gotten so in the zone that most of the conversations we have now a full of references from the show. The only issue is now that we’ve gone through all of the episodes we have nothing to watch while we’re working, so we’ve resorted to watching whatever looks interesting on TV. Well that’s all I’ve got for this week, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!

I’ve known that I was going to spend the Fourth of July in DC for awhile now. My first concern was always my wardrobe choice. I shopped around from a pie-like dress at Anthropologie, to a classic Americana light denim costume (not to be confused with the Canadian Tuxedo). Ultimately, my work plans got in the way, and I ended up with a sale rack shirt shorts from K-Mart (let it also be known that it was approx. 102 degrees in DC that day).

So I set out on the Fourth to have a quintessential American holiday — and boy did I get it. I started the day armed with my “Obama Family” souvenir tote that was originally way overpriced but since the vendor had a “ladies” price, it only ended up being mildly overpriced (I know, I know, but I’m a destitute intern!). My friend Kara and I went to the annual fourth of July parade and I got misty quite a few times with all the bagpipes and Iowa Jima reenactors. We shoved and pushed ourselves to the front (THE AMERICAN WAY) and I sweated obscenely (BODY ODOR = PATRIOTIC). The whole event was very wholesome and I even found my “too cool for school” self singing along to “Proud to Be an American” after the fortieth time it was played.

I was committed to this whole tourist thing, so just because I was having heat stroke, I was not going indoors for any reason. So we were off again by foot towards the National Mall to set up shop for fireworks later in the evening. Photo-ops were strategically planned (the Capitol Building, the White House, the Washington Monument). Okay, so I already changed my mind. I NEEDED air-conditioning. Where to turn on a federal holiday? Pete’s Diner. Right near the Capitol, the less than posh diner serves oatmeal from Quaker’s instant packages, Ketchup in disposable packets, and paper table clothes. And I couldn’t have been happier at Le Bec Fin.

The diner was owned by a group of Chinese women who were completely decked out in their red, white, and blue, and as the restaurant was shutting down, couldn’t stop singing along to Rick James on the radio. They were honestly enjoying their holiday to the max, and at that moment they just represented everything America is about: hard work, smiles ,and the pursuit of happiness with a little “Super Freak” thrown in.

I was genuinely sad to have to leave, but I certainly appreciated how much they deserved a break.

But since I was being kicked out of my air-conditioned haven, it was time to go see Reba. Oh, you know. Reba McEntire. And Gladys Knight (no Pips, though). Every year, there’s a free concert on the National Mall where you can later see the fireworks. It is broadcasted on TV, but keep in mind it’s PBS. This set was great — the crowd was a wild bunch of young children and their parents. But they still knew how to bust a move. And they were all dozing off by the time the fireworks were going off (right next to the Washington Monument). Worked for me!

So as the night ended and I started the long exodus home to Georgetown, I couldn’t stop humming “Proud to be an American.” I know that you’re rolling your eyes at me right now (rightfully so). But let me have my moment — I grew up in New Jersey where the fourth of July is spent watching police run up and down the beach after the hooligans who set off illegal fireworks. This was just what I always knew the fourth of July could be (and I even got a piece of pie later that night at my apartment).

At my internship, I read SO much news everyday that it can get disillusioning. Politicians have to make concessions. Politicians get money from special interests. Politicians make selfish decisions.

But my little day of Americana was just the medicine I needed. For just that day, I lived in an episode of the “West Wing” and President Bartlet was there to walk to Congress and explain to pedestrians on the way that everything is going to be okay….

More to come!

Preview: Tyler goes to the Senate…

Dear Friends,

Still hope your summer is treating you well.  I apologize, but I do promise that this post ends with a point; it’s not just me going off on tangents.

Yesterday morning, I opened my e-mail when I got to work. Scanning my messages, I immediately noticed that between 2-4am I had a crazy number of messages from my parents. That was odd, I thought, since one or two messages throughout the night is much more typical. Confused, I opened the newest of the messages, from my mom, and learned that my dog, Ralph, had died during (my) night. I won’t elaborate on what happened immediately thereafter.

Ralph had been with my family since I was four years old. I am an only child, so, though it may sound odd to some, he was in some senses more of a brother than pet to me. I never had a brother to get into trouble with, but I did have Ralph, my always-dependable partner in mischief. Better yet, he was always game for anything, especially if there was the promise of a few Beggin’ Strips involved.

I’ll admit that I thought the dog-pesky kid sort of bond was uniquely American. Maybe it’s the (perhaps corrupted) vision of the American Dream I’ve painted in my mind: white picket fence, a barbeque, lemonade, and a large, green lawn in front on which a kid plays with his dog. But that’s not entirely true.

I don’t always do bad news very well, and, yes, the second I could leave work, well, I did. I went down to a lounge in Parliament where everyone hangs after work.  There, I had a few conversations with some people I didn’t really know too well – some regulars I’d seen around the place before, what have you, but also my roommate’s boss, Sam.

Sam’s Scottish, and he was curious as to why I (apparently) looked like hell and wasn’t in the best mood. I told him why, and, somewhat to my surprise, he was able to relate: he had a similar go-around maybe two years ago, and during then, he told me, he felt the same.

Sam and I weren’t alone at the table; my roommate’s colleague, Jessica, was also there. She grew up in Spain, though, as she told me afterward, she’d lived across Europe as her family travelled for work. When she was growing up, her dog, Sadie, had travelled from country to country with her and her family, just as Ralph had travelled from state to state with my family and me as we moved. Needless to say, it was nice to be able to relate. But moreover, upon reflexion, I noticed that, in this regard, there’s a bit of universality on this matter: regardless of culture and country, there are always more commonalities than one would expect. Thankfully, this is one of them.

Another is something that I’ll admit I didn’t expect too entirely much in a building void of doctors (but certainly not lawyers). I’d been inside for far too long, and after Sam, Jessica, and I had reached a bit of a slow point in our conversation, I headed outside for a few minutes to get some air. There, I saw a friend of mine, Liam, who is also working here. He was with his boss, who is from Northern Scotland. I didn’t know his boss, so I introduced myself, said that I was from the United States and said that I was here for the summer before I return to university. He, typically trying to maintain the small talk without reverting to the weather, asked where I’d went to school. Of course, I replied Hopkins.

At first, I thought his ears somehow misconstrued ‘Hopkins’ for ‘Harvard’ or ‘Oxford’ based on his reaction. I was really rather confused at first, because, again I’ll admit, I didn’t know Hopkins had that sort of international esteem. But it apparently does. The next day (today), I gave him my resume as he asked. Before I told him of my university, he wouldn’t have read it. But after I told him, he asked for it.

Now where does universality come in here? Pretty simple, actually. I don’t like to name-drop that sort of stuff, because I, well, think it’s sort of silly. But here it actually made a difference. In the United States, Hopkins calls a good reaction, but I had no idea that it would in the UK. What I’m getting at here is that Hopkins does have a reputation that gets you something that a lot of other places don’t. Moreover and interesting to note, I was in a bar full of Oxbridge alumni. What I’m not getting at, however, is that you should pick a school solely because of its reputation: I was lucky enough to have been admitted to a school that is respected and that fits my academic and social wants, needs, goals. A lot of my friends were wooed by third-rate state schools because of cost, and those schools do indeed have their place, but they’re aren’t for everyone, and if one has an opportunity to attend a school that’s right for him/her and is positively reputed, well, that’s something more to consider. It does have benefits that you wouldn’t expect or imagine.

Oh, and I even made it clear that I am primarily studying history, not something related to pre-med.

–Daniel

This is a photo of Ralph taken about a month ago.