Class of 2014: Freshman Blog

It dawned on me last week that I had not been taking advantage of Baltimore’s exciting city life.  I thought to myself…I now live in a vivacious city filled with fun and adventure, yet I have barely been off campus.  I did some research, talked to a few people, whipped out my credit card, and printed the email confirming my purchase of two tickets for the Baltimore National Aquarium on Sunday afternoon – one ticket for me and one for my boyfriend, Michael – after all, he would be visiting that weekend from Middlebury College in Vermont, and who better to share that experience with than my best friend?

After a quick cab ride to the Inner Harbor, we entered a giant glass pavilion that simulated a luscious rainforest.  A surging waterfall, tropical fish, foliage, and mist immersed us into a peaceful yet electrifying atmosphere.

The simulated rainforest inside the glass pavilion

First was the Animal Planet Australia Exhibit…there, we saw beautiful pink birds way up in the trees, baby crocodiles, and a BLUE LOBSTER!  Can you believe that?  The lobster was blue!  At first, the possibility crossed my mind that maybe all lobsters are blue until they get boiled and served, at which point they’d turn red – much like the way our blood is actually blue in our bodies but becomes red when it is exposed to oxygen.  Eh, well it made sense to me at the time.

THE BLUE LOBSTER

At the aquatic exhibits, we saw Nemo, Dory, and even Ursula!  For those of you who are Pixar/Disney deprived, that’s a clownfish, a blue tang, and an octopus.  The Dolphin Show was unbelievable.  We watched dolphins do out-of-the-water flips that I haven’t even seen humans do.  Did you know that a dolphin can swim at a speed of up to twenty-five miles per hour and some can jump anywhere from fifteen to thirty feet straight out of the water to entertain audiences?  At the end, the dolphins circulated the water tank and used their tails to splash water at the audience.  Lucky for us, we weren’t sitting in the “splash zone.”

Nemo, the clownfish

Dory, the blue tang

Ursula, the octopus

The 4D Planet Earth movie was my favorite part.  Our seats rumbled and gusts of wind were blown into our faces.  As a seal was innocently swimming along in the ocean, the music from “Jaws” was gradually rising in the background…getting louder, louder, and louder, until – BAM! – a shark chomped down on the seal, as a plastic rod from the back of our seats simultaneously jutted into our backs, causing a fit of screams from the audience.  The shark rose into the air in slow motion – seal in mouth – and as its body landed back in the ocean, a stream of water was shot into the audience!  When bugs and snakes came onto the screen, I shrieked as a thin piece of leather, electronically programmed from under my seat, brushed against my legs.  After that, I sat with my legs pulled to my chest. Here is the trailer for this movie!

Is this not the coolest fish you've ever seen?

Our day was incredibly memorable.  We enjoyed a delicious outdoor lunch at a nice restaurant in the Inner Harbor.  It was 75 degrees in the middle of October.  We ended the day on the water in a dragon-shaped paddleboat, bringing back memories from Disney Land of spinning teacups and kiddie coasters.

Me in my life jacket before getting into the paddleboat

Baltimore has so much to offer – a day spent at the National Aquarium is only one of the amusing adventures that I plan to embark on during my time as a student of Johns Hopkins University.  I love being able to take a break from my work and enjoy a four-hour vacation in the middle of any day.  I encourage prospective students to explore Baltimore during a trip to visit Hopkins.  Who knows?  Maybe the blue lobster will convince you to become a blue jay.

Me and Michael in the dragon-shaped paddleboat