Verbal Snippets & Snapshots

Don’t worry; this isn’t yet my “Farewell, Hopkins Interactive!” blog entry; rather, this blog entry is meant to re-cap the events preceding Commencement as well as Commencement itself. By the way, the 134th Commencement of the Johns Hopkins University (say that thrice fast–I refuse to say, “three times”) occurred on Thursday, May 27, so I’m writing this blog entry as an alumna. How do I feel about being a new college graduate? It probably wouldn’t surprise you for me to say that I have a mixture of feelings. Anyway, on to my recap.

Many student organizations have some kind of farewell event for their graduating seniors, and the JHU Classical Ballet Company, the Filipino Students Association, and the Hopkins Catholic Community were no exceptions. The day after classes ended, there was a Saturday morning brunch for members of the ballet company, at the end of which the underclassmen presented us graduating seniors with personalized, decorated pointe shoes (a.k.a. “toe shoes”) that had the signatures of most of the underclassmen in the ballet company. While I will still be in Baltimore next year to work, I won’t be able to participate in ballet company events very often (if at all), so I thought it was a nice gesture.

As for the Filipino Students Association, the annual senior farewell dinner was held during finals week. Because of the timing of the event, the affair was low-key and held at an off-campus apartment close to Hopkins; the underclassmen ordered dozens of steamed crabs seasoned with Old Bay (in the classic Maryland style) and threw us graduating seniors a crab feast. Meanwhile, the Hopkins Catholic Community held a baccalaureate Mass for graduates and their families on the evening before Commencement. However, several events happened in between FSA’s senior farewell dinner and the Hopkins Catholic Community’s baccalaureate Mass, and I’ll describe them now.

Finals for this semester ended on Sunday, May 16 (the late date is due to the snow week we had back in February), and so the following week was filled with Senior Week events. As the name aptly implies, Senior Week is a week of social events for the soon-to-graduate seniors. I attended all the Senior Week events, except for the three-day trip to Ocean City; I chose to work part-time at the medical school instead. Unfortunately, I have few photos of myself at the events, but I can give my take on them:

Club Night @ Mex (Monday, May 17): I have no idea how a club called “Mex” that is heavily decorated with Mexican-style fixtures can play almost no Latin music. Then again, I’m guessing the fact that I heard nothing Mexican or Latin coming from the speakers might have to do with the fact that the club night was a Hopkins-exclusive event–and I’m not complaining about that part! I thought it was quite fun to dance and flit around the club like a social butterfly and know that I’d only bump into other Hopkins students and not shady strangers. I also loved being able to see many seniors whom I hadn’t seen in a while–and even seniors whom I saw regularly. Unfortunately, I got tired fairly early (I had spent the day working part-time at the medical school), and I ended up splitting a cab with another female friend who also got tired early. (We didn’t want to wait for the provided busing, since that would mean at least one more hour of us waiting for the first bus’s departure from the club.)

Crab Feast @ Mattin Center Courtyard (Friday, May 21): The crabs were too encrusted with Old Bay seasoning in my opinion (as well as the opinions of my friends with whom I was eating) for me to eat many crabs–which was a bit of a disappointment, given the fact that the event was supposed to be centered around all-you-can-eat crabs. I ended up filling my stomach with a lukewarm burger, runny macaroni, and stale cookies. It’s safe to say that I wasn’t thrilled with the food. I did, however, like being able to joke around with my friends whom I saw there, so I still managed to enjoy my meal somewhat–just not because of the food, though.

Barbecue @ “The Beach” (Saturday, May 22): Ironically, this event was free to anyone who donated at least $2 to the Class of 2010 Senior Hopkins Fund, but the freshly grilled burgers were much better than those served at the previous evening’s $37 admission crab dinner. I guess it was a way of demonstrating that free food somehow tastes better, especially when you’re in college. By the way, in case you haven’t already learned this fact from any of the other Hopkins Interactive blogs, “the beach” is a large lawn in front of the MSE Library that overlooks North Charles Street. It’s quite lovely, actually–just nowhere near the likes of an actual beach. In addition to freshly grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, there was also free Rita’s Ice gelato served–and there was a large, inflatable obstacle course. Some of my friends tried out the obstacle course, and it looked fun. I was considering going through it myself, but I got engrossed in catching up with some of my freshman year housemates who were attending the barbecue.

Senior Formal @ Evergreen House (Sunday, May 23): Just FYI, the Evergreen House is a historic estate located adjacent to the Loyola University campus, but owned by Hopkins; for this reason, school buses transported those of us who bought tickets for the formal. The formal was more like a semiformal in terms of set-up, people’s attire, and the food served (there were heavy hors d’oeuvres, but not a full sit-down meal), but I had no problem with that. By the way, the formal wasn’t at the Evergreen House itself, but at a smaller building on the house’s grounds that looked like a converted barn. It was quaint (I mean this in a good way), and with the decorations and the dusk turning into evening light, the building looked quite nice. It also was nice seeing a lot of fellow seniors dressed up for once! Like I did on the evening of the club night, I didn’t want to stay for long at the formal, so I ended up walking back to the Homewood Campus–while wearing high heels. The 1- to 1.5-mile walk wasn’t that bad, really. It might be due to the fact that I’m used to painful toe shoes, or I have comfortable heels, or both.

MSEEYA Cocktail Party @ MSE Library (Tuesday, May 25): That’s right: a cocktail party at the library. Granted, it was restricted to the Q and M levels of the library (a.k.a. the two highest levels of our famous underground library), especially M Level. Admission was free, and the event was for graduating seniors, young alumni, professors, and their dates (or their friends who were of the appropriate age); everyone who was 21 and older received three free tickets for wine or beer (and there was also soda and water available), plus there were plenty of heavy hors d’oeuvres served. I actually didn’t redeem any of my tickets, since I was rather intimidated by the large, rowdy lines of people clamoring for their free drinks; I ended up doing plenty of mingling and eating instead. I saw quite a few SAAB (Student Admissions Advisory Board) members there, including fellow senior JHU_Jackie as well as JHU_Jessica (back from Geneva!), JHU_Lauren, and JHU_Mandy.

In addition to the official Senior Week events, I met up with several of my senior friends for lunch or dinner; there even was a potluck dinner on the evening of the same day that the barbecue was held at the beach, and there were many seniors I knew who attended it. There was plenty of good food, and the best part was bonding while we sang our lungs out and danced heartily to the songs of the playlist that the co-hostesses had put together. I’m not a huge pop aficionado, but I still maintain there’s nothing like goofing around to Lady Gaga’s music–especially when you’re not worrying about exams or papers and you’re confident that you’ll get your bachelor’s degree in a few days. I actually remember having a conversation with another senior at the potluck about how the period in between the end of finals and graduation is probably among the most fun times to socialize as a college student–it’s so true. As fun as that week and a half were, they were also bittersweet, though. All of us seniors were saying farewell to the undergraduate way of life, and many of us were also saying (temporary) goodbyes to each other, knowing that we’d be scattered all around the world after graduation to pursue our educational and career goals.

Commencement itself–which, as I mentioned earlier, was held on Thursday, May 27–was a bittersweet event (not surprisingly). This year, the traditional morning commencement exercises were combined with the undergraduate diploma ceremony, which used to be separate events in previous years. Also new this year was having the bachelor’s degree graduates walk through the Homewood Campus one last time before they joined the procession of doctoral and master’s degree graduates going into Homewood Field (a.k.a. the lacrosse field). Given the beauty of the Homewood Campus, I liked this new change of walking procedures–it also was a fairly bittersweet moment. (How many times have I used bittersweet in this blog entry?) It struck me then that it was my last time walking through campus as an undergraduate–and while I knew I’d walk through the campus again in the future, it would be in the context of an alumna attending reunion-type events or doing errands such as visiting the pre-professional advising office. Basically, it just won’t be quite the same. Maybe if I decide it’s worth paying for alumni membership at the recreation center during the next year, I might find myself walking through the Homewood Campus regularly–but for now, I don’t see treks through the campus being a regular occurrence for me.

What wasn’t nice, however, was the fact that everyone at Commencement had to sit through 90-degree weather for four hours. Even though I brought two water bottles and one bottle of apple juice with me (and drank almost everything), I still felt somewhat dehydrated. On the bright side, the speeches were definitely worth listening to (in my opinion)–and Mayor Bloomberg’s keynote address was hilariously memorable. (You can read the text of Mayor Bloomberg’s address as well as President Daniels’s speech here.) Also, being able to grumble about the weather made being jam-packed into tight rows of folding chairs with several other graduates bearable. Following the ceremony itself, I was able to meet up with a few of my friends before I joined my family for a post-Commencement reception on the Upper Quad. After the reception, my family and I went to the bookstore to purchase a frame for my enormous diploma (diplomas for tertiary education degrees are much larger than high school diplomas) as well as a class ring, before we ate a celebratory dinner at Roy’s of Baltimore in Harbor East. (On a side note, I saw several other graduates and their families eating there, too.)

To close this entry, I’ll share with you a few links:

• The Official JHU Commencement Website: It gets updated every year with information for that year’s Commencement, but you can view it now to see how this year’s Commencement and other graduation-related ceremonies were like at JHU.
• The JHU 2010 Commencement Video: There’s a summary video made after each year’s Commencement, but this year’s is unique because of the fun surprise at the end.
• The Flickr Gallery of Commencement Photos: Among the photos there, there’s one of me hugging my mom after Commencement. Yay!

Also, below is a short video I made with photos of some of the events that I described above. While the background song, Dave Matthews’s “So Damn Lucky,” is of a rather romantic nature, I think the lyrics somewhat describe some of my feelings about my four-year Hopkins experience that has just happened.

N.B. I found the image of steamed crabs in a pot through Google Image Search.

As I’ve mentioned many times throughout the past four years on my blog, college is a time for exploration and learning both inside and outside the classroom. At a secular university like Johns Hopkins, some of the lessons I’ve learned outside the classroom have had to do with religion. Surprising? I’ll admit that on first thought, I myself think that the notion is a tad shocking–however, on second thought, upon realizing that Hopkins is supposed to be an institution where students and professors are open to learning new ideas and discussing the ideas they have, it’s not so surprising after all.

I attended Catholic schools all the way from Pre-K to Grade 12, and my family was–and still is–a traditional Filipino Catholic family. Not surprisingly, I was raised knowing a lot about the Catholic religion. What I knew about religions besides Catholicism mostly came from conversations with my non-Catholic classmates, reading National Geographic magazine articles (I’ve been an avid reader of the magazine for years), and the comparative religions course that I took in my sophomore year of high school.

Despite my upbringing, being actively involved with the religious life scene at Hopkins wasn’t one of the first things I did upon arriving here. Throughout my freshman year, I simply attended Catholic Masses that were celebrated at the Interfaith Center. Starting my sophomore year, however, I became more involved with the Hopkins Catholic Community–and not only did I increase my interaction with other Hopkins students of the Catholic faith, but also I became more aware of events being held by other religious groups, and I learned some more about what students of other faiths believed. The best part about all of this was that I was learning about how other people lived their faiths, and I wasn’t simply reading about it.

Here at Hopkins, the staff of the Interfaith Center regularly meet with representatives from different religious groups, and they strongly encourage student religious groups to interact with each other and share their faiths with each other. By becoming more involved in the Hopkins Catholic Community, I also became more aware of announcements from the Interfaith Center about various interfaith activities; furthermore, more friends and acquaintances of mine became aware of my involvement with the Hopkins Catholic Community, and so I started having even more conversations with other Hopkins students about what they believed (or didn’t believe) with regards to the presence (or absence) of a divine being. Because I’ve only gotten more involved with the Hopkins Catholic Community ever since my sophomore year, I’ve also become increasingly aware of events that other religious groups have been holding around campus. (By the way, on a side note, I’ve found myself doing the same with regards to multicultural groups and dance groups; the more I’ve gotten involved with the Filipino Students Association and the JHU Classical Ballet Company, the more interested I’ve become in what other multicultural groups and dance groups have been doing. I guess it’s only natural that when you find a deep interest in an area, you become interested in similar areas.)

Over the past few years at Hopkins, I’ve found myself attending a Shabbat held during Ramadan (so there were elements of the Jewish Shabbat as well as the Muslim evening prayers breaking the Ramadan fast); going to lectures on Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam; listening to Buddhist students share their philosophies; and conversing with friends and acquaintances about many different views on religion. Last week alone, I attended two events in which practitioners of other faiths talked about their religion: (1) a dinner at the Interfaith Center in which members of the Muslim Students Association gave a presentation the differences between Sunni and Shi’a Islam and then answered questions from the dinner attendees, and (2) a talk by Professor Uma Saini–who’s a Hindi and Sanskrit professor at Hopkins, an advisor to the Hindu Students Association, and an ordained minister of the Vedic faith–in which she discussed the main characteristics of the Vedic faith as well as the differences between Vedic philosophies and the Hindu religion that stemmed from ancient Vedic beliefs.

What moved me the most about the two events of last week was the joy in which the MSA members talked about their religion as well as that in which Professor Saini discussed her beliefs. Even more moving was the openness in which people attending the dinner at the Interfaith Center as well as Professor Saini’s talk in which Hopkins students had in listening to what had to be said about Islam and the Vedic faith, and it was nice to see that the questions they were posing were truly ones of inquiry. Depending on the circumstances, religion can be a volatile conversation topic, but it did not seem to be the case in these two events–nor has it been the case in most of the interfaith events that I’ve attended while I’ve been at Hopkins.

There will be many things that I’ll miss about Hopkins after I graduate in a little over two months. One of them will be the ease in which students can attend events geared towards students learning more about different religious faiths–and the scholarly open-mindedness that I’ve seen many Hopkins students display when learning about what religions other than theirs believe. By witnessing students of different religions being able to talk about their differing beliefs in smooth-flowing conversations, I’ve come to see how people can have strong convictions in their religious beliefs yet be able to discuss their similarities and differences with other people.

As history and even current events have shown, differences in religion can lead to conflicts. It doesn’t always have to be that way, however. Since the students of today are the leaders of tomorrow, I hope that what I’ve witnessed at Hopkins isn’t an anomaly, but what would become a trend someday.

Photo Captions: All of these images are taken from the JHU Campus Ministries website. (1) This nine-pointed star is a symbol of the Baha’i faith. (2) This image is of the Wheel of Dhamma, which illustrates the eight-fold path of Buddhism. (3) This image is of the Christian cross. (4) To both people who practice the Vedic faith as well as Hinduism, the word “Om” in Sanskrit is believed to be the best word describing God. (5) This image is of the “Palm of a Hand” that’s a symbol of Jainism. (6) This image is of a Jewish menorah. (7) This image displays the beginning words of the Qur’an in Arabic. (8) This image is of the phrase “Ik Onkar”; it means, “God is one,” and it’s a central tenet of Sikhism. (9) This symbol is used by Unitarian Universalists.

It all started with two warm smiles and one bowl of dried mangoes in September 2006. Being the type of person with multiple interests, I was genuinely torn among several of the student organizations who had tables at the Student Activities Commission (SAC) Fair (now known simply as the Student Activities Fair). The Filipino Students Association was among the few that left a lasting impression by the time I stepped out of the recreation center because of those smiles–and, of course, those oh-so-delicious dried mangoes.

Joining the Filipino Students Association was already in my mind even before I stepped foot at Hopkins, since I was craving interaction with people my age who went through the same cultural experiences. I’m not saying that I wasn’t aware of my Filipino heritage when I started college; I definitely was! My Filipino immigrant parents had made sure of that; still, I didn’t meet many people my age of Filipino descent in southwestern Connecticut, where I was born and raised.

Nonetheless, I was hesitant to approach the FSA table at the SAC Fair. I thought that its members might look down on me: I was fluent only in English, I couldn’t name more than five Filipino celebrities on the spot if I was lucky, I couldn’t cook Filipino food (although I could eat it with gusto), and I couldn’t dance one Filipino folk dance. I couldn’t even dance hip-hop, which many Filipino-Americans in the U.S. dance well; I was a classical ballet dancer. When I started talking to two friendly upperclassmen who had a bowl of dried mangoes at the FSA table and encouraged me to sign up for the FSA mailing list, however, I had a feeling that my fears were unnecessary. I was correct.

Fast forward to the present, in which I’m now a second-semester senior at Hopkins. After that fateful event known as the SAC Fair, I became a very active member of FSA as a freshman, then a secretary as a sophomore, then a co-vice president as a junior, and now a co-president as a senior. I’ve also improved my understanding of Tagalog, I’ve become more aware of Filipino pop culture and current affairs, I’ve learned how to cook some Filipino dishes, and I’ve learned how to dance four Filipino folk dances (and choreographed routines in them).

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Student Organization Name: Filipino Students Association
Category of Group: Cultural
Founded: 1980 (unofficially); 2004 (officially)
Your Name: Kate F.
Your Hometown: Stamford, Connecticut
Your Year: Class of 2010
Your Position: Co-President (also: Co-Vice President [2008-2009], Secretary [2007-2008], and Regular Member [2006-2007])
Website: http://www.jhu.edu/fsa

1. Why did you choose to become involved with this student organization? As previously mentioned, I joined FSA to interact with other people my age of Filipino descent; I also wanted to learn Filipino folk dances (especially the tinikling, in which two six-foot-long bamboo poles are clapped together and people jump in and out of them) and perhaps other aspects of Filipino culture of which I wasn’t aware before college.

2. What are the organization’s membership requirements? To be considered an official active member, we require that one attends at least two general body meetings a year. Our regular events include about one general body a month, about one social event a month, and numerous practices for events such as Culture Show in the fall and Filipino Cultural Night in the spring. Most of our active members participate in more regular events than just attending the general body meetings.

3. What special events has this organization hosted? Starting my freshman year (the 2006-2007 school year), the then-president and one of the other officers coordinated a “Filipino Cultural Night” event in which Filipino food was served and traditional Filipino songs and dances were performed. It’s become an annual event ever since, and we’ve been working on expanding the event ever year. During its first year, it was held in the fall, but now we hold it in the spring. FSA also regularly auditions for and performs in the Culture Show hosted by the Office of Multicultural Affairs. In the Fall 2009 semester, we also collaborated with TASA (the Taiwanese American Students Association) in organizing a fundraising banquet to raise funds for typhoon victims in the Philippines and Taiwan.

4. What makes your organization awesome? FSA is a very warm and welcoming group of people! The upperclassmen of FSA when I was a freshman made us feel very much at home, and all of us–upperclassmen and freshmen alike–bonded a lot that year. We’ve worked on doing the same thing the following years for every new batch of freshmen (and new upperclassmen members as well). You don’t even need to have a drop of Filipino blood to join FSA; we’ve had a number of non-Filipino members in the organization over the past few years. Really, all you need to do to join is show an interest in some aspect of Filipino culture and come to our events! We’ll welcome you with open arms.

5. What are some neat things about your organization (e.g., history, traditions, quirks, or prominent members)? Members come from all over the world! There are Filipino-Americans hailing from different parts of the United States, Filipinos who grew up in Manila and attended international schools there, Filipinos who grew up in parts of the Philippines that are very different from Manila, Filipinos who grew up in various countries abroad, non-Filipinos who grew up in the Philippines, and non-Filipinos who hail from different parts of the United States and other countries as well. People’s interests are varied as well–and not just in academics. We have a former wrestler, a former gymnast, a former professional body builder, a few dancers, a few a cappella singers, many people who could play at least one instrument…and more. Even though all of us have an interest in Filipino culture and many of us grew up in Filipino households, we’re still a diverse group in terms of what we enjoy doing.

Photo Captions: (1) This is a group photo of FSA members immediately after Culture Show in November 2006. (2) This is a group photo of FSA freshmen girls in a Culture Show after-party in November 2006. (3) This is a candid from a senior farewell dinner in April 2007. Underclassmen treated the graduating seniors to an evening picnic at a high-rise apartment’s courtyard: the main dish consisted of many Baltimore-style steamed crabs! (There were side dishes, desserts, and drinks as well.) (4) This is a group photo of a few FSA members relaxing before they demonstrated the Filipino folk dance “tinikling” to Baltimore elementary school students participating in the JHU Tutorial Project in November 2007. (5) This is a photo from a Christmas party/gift exchange in December 2007. (6) This is a photo after Filipino Cultural Night in May 2009. (7) This is a group photo from the senior farewell dinner in May 2009, in which underclassmen treated graduating seniors to dinner at a Filipino restaurant in Montgomery County. (8) This is a photo of most of the girls who performed at Culture Show in November 2009. (9) This is a photo from a Christmas party/gift exchange in December 2009.

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!)

Hi there, everyone! I’m sorry that it’s been a whopping three weeks since I last posted a blog entry! Just to explain what’s been going on, I first spent the beginning of this month navigating several assignment deadlines. I finally was about to work on posting a blog entry–only to get diagnosed with the H1N1 last week.

(On a side note, you may have noted from a blog entry of JHU_Jackie, a blog entry of JHU_Wafa, and even the Hopkins Interactive online forum topic on the H1N1 that I was far from the only Hopkins student to have some form of the influenza [whether it's a regular strain or the H1N1 virus]. It goes without saying that I’m pretty grateful that my professors have been understanding when it came to making arrangements as far as making up written assignments, presentations, and quizzes.)

I ended up spending last week sleeping and self-quarantining myself in my apartment. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I practically scurried around the Homewood campus because I had to make a lot of errands regarding matters such as appointments with professors about making up assignments and asking questions about classes I’ve missed (as well as asking about potential classes for next semester, because it’s that time of the semester to register for Spring 2010), picking up and depositing paychecks from my part-time jobs, and so on. Meanwhile, I spent Wednesday of this week traveling, yesterday celebrating Thanksgiving with my family at home, and today avoiding the madness of “Black Friday” by sleeping in and trying to get homework done.

With my lengthy explanation of my lengthy hiatus from blogging aside, I will say that I haven’t spent all of November lying sick in bed or working on catching up on assignments! (Really!) Here’s a summary of some of the things that I did outside of classes pre-H1N1 this month:

RESEARCH: As I’ve been doing since halfway through my sophomore year, I’m still working as an undergraduate research assistant at the Ryugo Lab of the medical school. Unlike previous semesters, though, I’m not doing research for credit, but I’m being paid as a part-time student employee. Because of that fact and also because of the fact that I’ve been a member of the research lab for almost two years now, the expectations as to how much and how well I should work are even higher than they already were in previous semesters. Both the Ph.D. who’s the lab’s P.I. (“primary investigator”) and the postdoctoral fellow of the lab have been acting as my research supervisors, and both of them have been telling me that there’s a possibility that I could be a co-author of a paper before I graduate in the spring–provided that I put in the requisite work, of course! Currently, I’m doing a lot of data analysis related to analyzing and comparing synapses of globular bushy cells in the auditory nerves of congenitally deaf kittens, congenitally deaf kittens who have received cochlear implants, and normal-hearing kittens.

WORK: Besides working part-time at the Ryugo Lab, I’ve also been working part-time as a teaching assistant at the Village Learning Place (which is a non-profit community library that’s located a few blocks from the Homewood campus and has an after-school program for elementary school children), a monthly e-newsletter editor for the Center for Social Concern, and a house manager for the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra (a job that entails supervising numerous volunteer ushers, setting up a post-concert reception, and so on–basically, I have to act like a “hostess of the evening,” including placating angry orchestra patrons). Three additional part-time jobs sounds like a handful, and it can be at times–however, the latter two jobs are mostly once-a-month engagements that don’t take up much time overall in a given month. Still, the additional income helps!

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE: I originally was planning on going straight to graduate school after my graduation in May to pursue a master’s degree before applying to medical school. However, after re-thinking the matter and discussing it with the Office of Pre-Professional Advising and my parents, I’m now leaning towards working for a year as a research assistant (whether I’ll continue with my current research lab or join another lab is something into which I’ll need to look) following my graduation in May before I proceed to additional schooling.

DANCE: Because of the four aforementioned endeavors, I haven’t been dancing as much as I have in previous semesters. Still, everyone needs to exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle (plus I love to dance), so I haven’t completely abandoned it! I still try to squeeze in weekly ballet classes with the JHU Classical Ballet Company, and I’ve even been able to join rehearsals for a small number of student-choreographed pieces. Similarly, I’ve decreased my involvement with the OLÉ Dance Group and with the Filipino Students Association’s dance team, but I’ve still attended some dance practices and learned new choreography with both groups as well–including a Filipino folk dance that involves balancing candles on one’s head!

OTHER CONCERNS: The five categories above sum up most of what I’ve been doing over the past month (and, now that I think about it, the past semester), but it’s not everything. I’ve also been working with officers of the Filipino Students Association and the Taiwanese American Students Association to organize fundraisers for typhoon relief efforts in the Philippines and Taiwan. I’ve also been participating in numerous church-related activities, primarily acting as a church choir pianist. And, of course, I’ve been working on keeping in touch with my family and trying to stay in touch with my friends–after all, my family and friends are very important to me, so I need (and want) to maintain my relationships with them!

With all of that said, I’ll return to my homework and enjoying my mom’s cooking from last night’s Thanksgiving dinner!

N.B. I found the images that illustrate this blog entry through Google Image Search.

The title for this blog entry has multiple meanings: (1) over one week has passed since I posted my last blog entry (but it doesn’t feel like it), (2) about one third of the semester has already passed (but it doesn’t feel like it), and (3) a year has passed since the last time I posted a blog entry in which I had a video of myself speaking to the camera (it does feel like it, in this instance). I’ll admit, though, that my inspiration to include such a video in this blog entry stems not from that one-year-old blog entry of mine, but one of JHU_Peter‘s recent blog entries. (I need to give credit where credit is due!)

Anyway, I’ve been a pretty busy student since the last time I posted something on this blog, and the video will describe how–enjoy!

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.

I’d love to type a long blog entry laden with photos and videos that summarizes the past week–especially the very busy weekend I just had–but I’m in the midst of finishing a paper due tomorrow and starting to study for an exam I’ll have on Thursday! I’ll quickly summarize what happened this past week and what will happen this upcoming week–and then I’ll go back to my homework!

This Past Week:

Academically, I spent some time working on the usual weekly physics problem set as well as doing the usual pre-class assigned readings for Latin. In addition, I spent a lot of time studying for a Latin exam I had on Friday afternoon last week, as well as reviewing some of my organic chemistry notes in preparation for an exam I’ll have on Thursday morning this week. Besides the academics, I also spent time during the week preparing for the JHU Catholic Community’s Fall 2008 retreat, which was an all-nighter retreat that started on Friday night and ended on Saturday morning. (I’m one of two retreat co-chairs for the JHU Catholic Community this year.) Furthermore, I attended ballet classes and rehearsals and numerous Culture Show practices for both the Filipino Students Association and the OLÉ Dance Group during the week–and then spent all of Saturday rehearsing, attending sound checks, and performing in Culture Show itself! It was a large success, and since both FSA and the OLÉ Dance Group performed in the first half, I had the privilege of sitting in the audience and watching the entire second half. (When I performed with FSA and the OLÉ Dance Group at Culture Show in previous years, the two groups were scheduled to perform in different halves of the show, and so I spent most of the production backstage.)

This Upcoming Week:

As I’ve mentioned, I’ll have an organic chemistry exam on Thursday of this week, so I’ll spend a lot of time tomorrow, on Tuesday, and on Wednesday studying for it. I’ll also have a physics exam on Thursday of next week, so I’m starting to prepare for that as well–and I’ll really start preparing for it once I’m done with my organic chemistry exam! Meanwhile, I’m also looking at the registrar’s online list of classes for the Spring 2009 semester, since online class registration for that semester will start next week. When it comes to the extracurricular scene for this week, I’ll just have a few meetings, one ballet class to attend, and one ballet class to teach–and I’m not complaining about that! After last week, I really need some extra time to focus on my schoolwork as well as to get some rest.

With that said, I’ll return to my paper! Have a good week, everyone! I hope to have some photos and videos from the retreat and Culture Show in my next entry.