Verbal Snippets & Snapshots

Because it’s the end of the Fall 2009 semester, I looked through and organized several files on my laptop and realized that among them were videos from this past semester. I’ve decided to compile clips from some of these videos, and the compilation is below. Enjoy!

(P.S. Partially because of the music in the video and partially because this past semester was my second-to-last one as a college undergraduate, this video makes me feel a little nostalgic when I watch it!)

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!

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.

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.

As you may have noticed from reading other student blogs on Hopkins Interactive, Friday, October 31 to Sunday, November 2 (that is, today) was this year’s Family Weekend. My parents visited me here at Hopkins during Family Weekend during both my freshman and sophomore years, but they couldn’t come this year. Even then, I still had a rather busy time–and I couldn’t help but remember how I wrote a similarly-themed blog entry about my freshman year Family Weekend!

Friday, October 31 was Halloween, and I (of course) continued the Halloween celebration that I started last week. First, I dropped by a Halloween party held by some of my former housemates from freshman year. Afterwards, I joined up with some other Hopkins friends of mine who are seniors and recent alumni. Instead of our original plans of going to Fell’s Point (I guess I’ll have to check it out next year–as I’ve mentioned in my previous blog entry, I have yet to go there on Halloween), we ended up going to a club downtown where we heard there was a Halloween costume contest and good dance music. However, when we got to the club, we saw that most of the people there were in their late 20s and early 30s, thus making us the youngest group there. 

(After observing our surroundings for a few minutes, we also had an icky feeling that a few of the aforementioned late 20- and 30-year-olds were trying to act as though they were still in college. It was a fairly awkward impression to have in mind.) We managed to enjoy ourselves, though–after all, all you need to have for a good time is a nice group of people that interact well with each other! We alternated between having goofy and intellectual conversations–and we definitely were the best dancers on the dance floor.

I’ll admit I’m sounding a bit biased with this assessment here.

After the club closed, we went to Nam Kang Restaurant, a Korean restaurant that’s a little over 10 blocks from Hopkins and that’s open until 4:00 a.m.! We had lots of good conversations–and made plenty of jokes and barbs at each other–in between bites of delicious food. Of course, however, all things must come to an end. We finally called it a night when the restaurant closed at 4:00 a.m., and then we went home.

I actually started Saturday, November 1 (i.e., yesterday) on a quiet note: by eating breakfast by myself at my apartment. Then, however, I went to a dance practice for the Filipino Students Association in preparation for next week’s Culture Show–and after that, I did some errands before I went home to do some work. Soon, though, I found myself preparing for yet another event: the First Annual Engineers Without Borders Dessert Reception at the Glass Pavilion, at which I performed a salsa routine with the OLÉ Dance Group. Immediately after we finished performing our routine, some of us salsa dancers headed to the Diwali Dhamaka celebration held by the Hindu Students Council at the recreation center. We were too late to watch the dance performances and other planned segments of the event, but we still got to learn and dance a few raas steps during the open dance floor part of the event! At first, I felt self-conscious doing a set of steps in a completely new dance style while a little black dress with a red flower pinned to my hair–as I’ve said, I had come straight from performing salsa. However, after a while, I got so into the dancing that I accidentally broke two wooden sticks–called dandiyas–while clapping them together!

Oops.

After all the dancing I did–first, Filipino folk dancing, then salsa, then a very elementary form of raas–that day, it was time for me to go home and collapse onto my bed.

Today (i.e., Sunday, November 2), I cooked two Filipino dishes, as well as a pot of jasmine rice, early in the morning. In addition to the rice, I prepared some champorado (a chocolate rice porridge) as well as pancit (a rice noodle dish). I then brought over the food to the basement of the Interfaith Center (IFC) before attending the Catholic Community‘s 11:00 a.m. Mass in the sanctuary of the IFC. In honor of Family Weekend and the different cultures represented in our congregation, we made today’s 11:00 a.m. Mass a multicultural Mass. Different Bible readings, petitions, and hymns were read and sung in foreign languages, including French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Polish, Spanish, and Tagalog. After Mass, there was a multicultural food reception at the IFC basement–that explains why I cooked all that food–and I really enjoyed sampling foods from a variety of cultures!

However, I regretted eating all that food when I had a ballet rehearsal a little over an hour later. Don’t worry–I didn’t spew the contents of my stomach onto the studio floor! They stayed in my stomach. Nonetheless, I managed to move around enough during my ballet rehearsal to use a good bit of energy–when it was dinnertime a little over three hours later, I was hungry enough that I gladly decided to spend an hour eating at The Helmand Restaurant–an Afghan restaurant in the Mount Vernon neighborhood–with some of my friends. It was my first time eating Afghani cuisine, but I enjoyed the food a lot. My entrée was lamb lawand, a lamb dish that was prepared with tomatoes, mushrooms, herbs, yogurt, and mint–and served with spinach and basmati rice on the side. The dessert was especially good. It was a very creamy vanilla ice cream mixed with cardamom, dates, figs, and mango chunks. If you ever find yourself eating at The Helmand, make sure you order the ice cream there for dessert.

I still think it would have been nice to spend this weekend with my family here in Baltimore, but I’m glad I still managed to enjoy myself when I wasn’t doing homework in my room!

Photo Captions: (1) me in my flamenco dancer Halloween costume, (2) a couple that I saw dressed up as John McCain and Sarah Palin (I think Sarah Palin was a popular Halloween costume choice this year), (3) the plate of food I got at the multicultural post-Mass reception, (4) me with my friends Isha and Aparna at The Helmand Restaurant, (5) my dish of lamb lawand

There have been several student dance groups here at Hopkins over the past few years–but believe it or not, there hasn’t been a student ballet company until the end of the last semester! I used to dance ballet from elementary school to high school, but when I came to Hopkins, I was disappointed to find out that (a) there was no student ballet company and (b) most of the ballet classes offered at the Homewood campus, at Peabody, and at Goucher College didn’t fit into my schedule. It goes without saying that I was really excited when I found out about this year’s founding of the JHU Classical Ballet Company.

With that said, we were recently featured in an article in The Johns Hopkins News-Letter–to read the article, click here!

Even though I’m already starting my fourth semester at Hopkins, the fact that I’m at the the beginning of another semester makes me feel like I’m experiencing something new and exciting. Here are three other things about this semester that are helping make it feel refreshingly new:

1. REUNION WITH LATIN: I studied Latin during middle school, and I enjoyed it a lot. My high school didn’t offer Latin, so I studied Spanish during high school instead. I thought it was fun to learn Spanish, but I missed studying Latin. Last year, I took the two-semester course “Elementary Latin,” since I didn’t learn enough Latin in middle school to study the language at an intermediate level. During the fall semester of this year, I wanted to take “Intermediate Latin: Poetry,” but it was in conflict with the rest of my schedule. This semester, I’m taking “Intermediate Latin: Prose” after almost a year of not studying Latin. Considering the fact that it’s been almost a year since I’ve last studied Latin, I initially was hesitant to enroll in this course. After talking with my classics minor advisor as well as the instructor of this Latin course, however, I’ve found that with a little extra effort, I could get back on track. So far, it’s taking me longer to read passages than I’d like. Nonetheless, everything that I’ve learned about Latin grammar is slowly, but surely, coming back to me. I love it! (Or, maybe I should say the following: id amo!)

2. REUNION WITH BALLET: I danced ballet from elementary school to high school. In the fall semester of last year, however, I didn’t dance ballet at all. (I’ll admit that it was because I wasn’t aware of the opportunities to dance ballet at the Homewood campus or at the Peabody Preparatory.) In the spring semester of last year, though, I found out about ballet classes that were taught at the Mattin Center on Friday evenings by a former member of the Bolshoi Ballet, so I spent my Friday evenings taking those ballet classes. However, the former member of the Bolshoi Ballet moved to Colorado during the summer. Therefore, in the fall semester of this year, ballet classes were taught at the Mattin Center on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons (instead of Friday evenings) by Ms. Lisa Green-Cudek, an instructor at the Peabody Preparatory. These ballet classes were in conflict with my schedule, and the ballet classes taught at the Peabody Preparatory itself were in conflict with my schedule as well. Once again, I didn’t dance ballet for an entire semester. This semester, ballet classes are still taught at the Mattin Center on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons by Ms. Green-Cudek, and they’re still in conflict with my schedule. However, at the end of the last semester, a few students founded a student-run  ballet company, and one of my friends from the CSC Dance Program told me about it! Huzzah. Thus, at the first week of this semester, I found myself a member of the inaugural JHU Classical Ballet Company. Company members take turns teaching classes and choreographing pieces for performance; so far, we’re working on a classical ballet piece and a contemporary piece that we’re hoping to perform a few times this semester. Once again, I must say the following three words: I love it!

3. MENTORING: At the beginning of the fall semester this year, I signed up for the group STAND! (Students Taking a New Direction), which mentors at-risk juvenile youth. Because of various logistical problems, however, STAND! members weren’t able to do any mentoring for the entire semester. Last week, though, we finally met our mentees at the Baltimore Juvenile Justice Center’s Partnership for Learning, a program that helps first-time juvenile offenders who are struggling in school. At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to relate to my mentee, but we got along pretty well. Starting this week, we’ll be helping our mentees do their homework and use software programs meant to improve their literacy, in addition to trying to be overall role models for our mentees. Even though I was a tutor in the JHU Tutorial Project last year, it looks like my work in STAND! will still be quite different from other things I’ve done before; I’m both excited and nervous about it. Despite the fact that I got along well with my mentee the first time I met her, I still doubt sometimes whether I’ll be an effective mentor in the long run. Nonetheless, I intend to do my best, and I hope that I really will make a positive difference in my mentee’s life overall. By the way, this STAND! group isn’t to be confused with STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition.

Besides those three things, mostly everything else that’s in store for me this semester is a continuation of the fall semester or Intersession. Some, but not all, of those things include: studying, doing research, dancing salsa, teaching ballet to elementary school children after school, volunteering and working for the admissions office, and last (but not least), taking out time to hang out with my friends, especially my suitemates and my friends who’ll graduate at the end of this semester.

N.B. The first image is a painting depicting Cicero’s denunciation of Catiline before the Senate; in 63 B.C., Catiline was an aristocrat who plotted to overthrow the Roman Republic, but Cicero uncovered Catiline’s scheme. In my Latin class this semester, we’re reading the speeches that Cicero delivered to unmask Catiline’s plot and denounce him. By the way, I found all the images illustrating this blog entry via Google Image Search.

It’s already the last weekend before finals?!?!?

Friday, April 27, was the last day of classes. Since then, the campus has been alternating between celebrating the end of classes and studying for final exams/working on final projects. For me, as soon as the last midterm for Cognitive Neuroscience (and hence my last class of the semester) was done on Friday, I relaxed. Okay, I’m sorry. I just lied. I didn’t relax. Instead, I went to an OLÉ Dance Group practice at the Mattin Center’s dance studio, had an hour-long break in which I chatted with some friends at the library, and returned to the Mattin Center’s dance studio to take a ballet class. Then I went to a dinner that the underclassmen of the Filipino Students Association threw for the FSA seniors. It’s an annual tradition for FSA to eat dinner at a restaurant at the end of the year, and the underclassmen would chip in to pay for the seniors’ meals. Because there are seven seniors in FSA this year, however, we did something different: we reserved a patio of the apartment building where JoJo (i.e., the senior who’s the president of FSA) lives, and we held a dinner there. We chipped in money to order steamed crabs and buy beverages and desserts (i.e., ice cream and muffins), and my friends Amethyst and Gabby prepared chicken bog and potato salad. By the way, chicken bog is a delicious Southern dish that Gabby, who’s from South Carolina, introduced to us all; it consists of rice, chicken, sausage, and seasonings. Also, the photos from the FSA dinner are Jeremy’s; this is the same Jeremy mentioned in my blog entry about Relay for Life. I decided to include a photo of him and JoJo in this blog entry, because JoJo is this year’s president, and Jeremy will be next year’s president.

Last night (i.e., Saturday, April 28) was the First Annual Eclectics Dance Showcase, which was hosted by the Eclectics Dance Group. While the show featured mostly numbers by the Eclectics, it included guest performances by the JHU Modern Dance Company, the OLÉ Dance Group, and two dance groups from University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). I danced in a salsa routine to the song “Ella Volvió” with OLÉ (a link to the song’s music video is in my previous blog entry), and it was nothing but fun! I also saw parts of the other dance groups’ routines, and I thought they were good. What a fun evening of dance!

The following is a video that my friend Clarisa took of OLÉ’s salsa routine–FYI, I’m the girl at the far left at the beginning of the video:

At the end of this entry is a link to the music video of the song “Ella Volvió” by the salsa group N’Klabe and the reggaeton artist Julio Voltio. The OLÉ Dance Group will be performing a salsa routine to “Ella Volvió” at the Eclectics Dance Group’s first annual dance showcase on Saturday, April 28. I’ll write about the showcase in an upcoming blog entry–keep out an eye for it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfqCDjc5yM0