Simply Serendipitous

What a week it’s been and what a month this will be!  I have my first midterms coming up, I have arbitrarily set my first applications deadline at October 15, and I’m going to New York City for fall break!  But before I go and get ahead of myself, I thought it would be best to take a pause and tell you about my classes this semester.

The side entrance to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health -- or, as it used to be known and as the building still says, "The School of Hygiene and Public Health."

As a senior Public Health major, my last set of requirements includes taking classes at the Bloomberg School of Public Health (SPH, for short) down on the east Baltimore medical campus.  This is a grad school, all of my classes there are graduate-level, and my classmates are Masters and Doctoral candidates.  So yeah, it’s a little intense.  The SPH is on the quarter system, so this semester I’ll be taking two different sets of classes down there.  Although it’s intimidating at first, it’s such a great opportunity to be learning alongside physicians, nurses, social workers, international students, and fellow public health seniors.

And since I’m applying to law school, working more hours, and taking on different activities, I decided to cap myself at four classes.  I wanted to be able to put a lot into all of them and felt like taking the normal five would be too much with everything else I have going on.  To be honest, there are days/weeks when four feels like too many, but it’s a great lesson in time management.

That said, here’s the lineup:

On the Homewood campus, for the entire semester, I’ll be taking The Constitution and Criminal Justice System and Economics of Health.  My first term classes down at the SPH are Life and Death in Charm City: History of Public Health in Baltimore and Social and Economic Aspects of Human Fertility.  It’s been a great semester so far and I feel like I’ve already gained a lot from the kind of thinking required by this set of classes.

Next term (beginning October 21), I’ll continue on with my two Homewood classes, but my public health classes will change to Health Behavior Change at the Individual, Family, and Community Levels and Maternal and Child Health Legislation Programs.  Or, at least, that’s the plan; I could always change that up a bit if I wanted to.

Public Health majors who take classes downtown can take whatever they want over the course of their senior year, but at least three of their graduate-level classes have to fit into some kind of concentration.  This can mean taking three classes from the same department or simply mixing it up and making the case that what you’re doing is actually somehow related.  I’m planning to use my Fertility class and Health Legislation class, combined with my Homewood Health Economics course to roughly form a health and economics concentration.  It’s not really a health economics concentration in terms of supply/demand of health care and insurance, etc., but rather, a look at how health and economics intersect.

So, it’s a great last semester for me with all kinds of interesting opportunities, both in my classes, in my job at admissions (I gave my first info session to prospective students on Friday!), and in planning for my big scary future.  And, sneak preview:  I’m a member in the charter class of Hopkins’ newest sorority – something I never, ever, EVER thought would happen.  But it’s exciting and I look forward to sharing some of that experience over the next few months!

Until next time, happy fall and happy application process!

just a little preview of the upcoming weeks' work...

Okay.  I’m definitely getting better at being a student (you know, now that it’s nearing the end of February).  I’ve consistently printed out all of my readings (and even done them, though, admittedly, not always on time), I’ve stayed awake through class (okay–I’m not really an in-class sleeper, anyway), and I’ve even memorized my schedule.  I’ve also managed to significantly expand my movie repertoire and simultaneously increase my caffeine tolerance.  All in all, despite the snow week, I’d say this is shaping up to be a pretty normal semester for me.

So, that said, I’ll go ahead and introduce you to my classes.  You know, now that I’ve finally remembered what they all are and that sort of thing.

1. Fundamentals of Epidemiology.   The final course of my Public Health requirements at Homewood campus, this covers populations’ health and illness, roughly.  It’s a very good course for any aspiring physician, as we talk about all kinds of diseases and how to track them, etc.  As an aspiring not-physician, it’s still interesting to learn about, though not exactly one of my passions.  We’ve done some case studies with real data and studies, which is definitely cool, even as a pre-law person.
2. Constitutional Law.  Last semester, I took American Constitutional Law, the pre-req for this ten-person seminar.  It’s pretty much a continuation of last semester, with a different format (more discussion-based) and just one big, gigantic research paper (“less than one hundred pages,” says Professor Grossman, somewhat jokingly, I think).
3. American Literature to 1865.  So, aside from Epidemiology, I needed one more course to finish off my Homewood requirements for the Public Health major.  An English class.  And I chose this one after being enrolled in a class that was cancelled for lack of interest.  This one is, well, not the easiest way to complete an English requirement.  It’s actually quite tough, but hopefully I’ll make it through without too much damage.
4. Courts, Politics and Public Policy.  Last semester, I took Politics and Policy Design, and this is with the same professor.  This is an entirely-intimidating, 400-level political science course that focuses on the relationship between courts and policy-making, as the name might imply.  It’s very reading intensive (and possibly writing-intensive?), but I’m learning a lot, even just in terms of getting better at reading difficult articles.  The professor told us that we should expect this to be at a graduate-level.  Yikes.
5. Elements of Microeconomics.  On a whim, as I was searching for more credits, I ended up in Micro.  I felt like it was a good thing for me to take while I have the chance, and so far, I think I made a great choice.  It’s very interesting material and I feel much less pressure knowing that it’s not required for my major.  I don’t know why that makes me less stressed about it…but it does.  Plus, the first exam is before the deadline to change to S/U (satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading), so there’s that fallback if I turn out to be terrible at econ.  I’m not a huge fan of the 9:00 meeting time, but I’m getting better at turning into a morning person, so that’s a plus, too.

So there you have it, 15 credits of wonderfulness.  To be honest, it’s not my favorite schedule ever, but I’m starting to enjoy the classes more and more (doing the reading and other assignments helps the lectures become infinitely more engaging, thus making the classes infinitely more interesting.  Even if the classes seem uninteresting, it’s best to do the work anyway, as it makes them more likely to be interesting…it’s tough, I know).  On top of that, I’m starting to get much more serious about studying for the LSAT and am still trying to apply for summer internships (which, by the way, is not going all too well…it’s amazing how difficult it is to find someone to let you do unpaid work for them).

Whew—it’s a busy semester and reading and LSAT logic games await.  But don’t worry, as usual, I’m still finding time for plenty of not-studying, including various attempts at cooking and a huge Netflix queue.

So first and foremost, if any of you read my recent entry on the ethics board, I do want to say I’m sorry for the departure from my normal writing style and I can assure you it’s no permanent change.  I just felt like for that topic, it was best to just stick with the relevant information and try to give a good picture of the board without making it too light–it can be in very serious situations and I always try to treat it accordingly.

Anyway, I just got back from NEW YORK CITY last week!  Quite honestly, it’s amazing I even got on the bus back to Baltimore.  It was my first time to the city and I was such a tourist… I was constantly looking up and around at everything, trying to discreetly snap pictures on my phone, and occasionally (when the urge was overwhelming) pulling out my real camera to take a picture as quickly as possible.  But let me backtrack.  This was a three-day, two-nigtht trip as a capstone on my intersession class, International Development and Policy, or, as I like to think of it, Globalization 201.  It was a little bit more advanced than an introduction, but the coolest thing about it was that all of our speakers (and we had at least one every day for two weeks) were Hopkins alumni.

I think one of the most important things I learned (other than subtle reassurance from four lawyers that I will still be able to find a job when I graduate from law school) was that Hopkins alumni can really do amazing things.  We had such a broad range of people who were all doing things they loved and had come from so many different majors (a Biochemistry major–which no longer exists–now working in strategic marketing in finance, a BME working for Blackstone and teaching us about oil and natural resources and banking, etc., etc.).  Pretty mpressive, yes?

So, as I mentioned, we had two weeks of class and then we had our trip to NYC where we had three days packed with site visits, including HSBC, UNCTAD, International Rescue Committee, Council on Foreign Relations, and several others.   We arrived in the city about 30 minutes before our first site visit, at 40th & 5th Avenue and had roughly 20 minutes of free time.  Naturally, on the bus ride up, I had already vetted the area and knew there was an H&M two blocks away, so as soon as we got there, I took off and scurried around the store, buying two dresses, which I then stuffed into my purse, trying to conceal my consumerism from our site visit.  Hey–I needed birthday dresses! I also had time to have lunch with Julia (read her recent alumni blog
and archived blog!) and catch up with an old friend I hadn’t seen from elementary school.  While it was an incredibly busy and tiring schedule, I had just enough time to fit in a couple of wonderful little things that made the trip perfect.

So now, on the eve of my 21st birthday and the start of the spring semester (whoa!), I’m so excited for everything that’s coming these next few months!  This intersession class really sparked my interest in a couple of different groups and really kicked me into gear for applying for more internships, so I’m looking forward to all of that work these next couple of weeks.  I have a surprising class schedule that I’ll tell you all about shortly (preview: an English requirement and an Econ class?!), and it’s about time to start LSAT prep.  With that, I’m off to wonder where in the world the time goes.

While I’m technically still a natural sciences student (I’m on the nat. sci. track in the Public Health major), my schedule of classes could lead you to believe otherwise–and I love it.  Sure, I am taking biostatistics, but compared to past semesters, I am mostly free from classes that involve any sort of numbers or reactions or brain structures, and after this semester, I’m hoping to never again need a calculator more sophisticated than the one on my phone.

So what exactly do I do as a natural science major who has lost all interest in the natural sciences?   Excellent question, and one I asked myself time and time again when I realized I was in such a position.

I figured I’d go a little more in-depth with describing my classes this semester, though not with straight description (see this previous entry for that approach), but more of what I’m actually learning and doing in them. So, without further ado:

How do policies get on the agenda?  How do you design them so that they’ll get passed?  How do you make sure they’re sustainable (and will last even if you’re voted out in the next election)?  Why is it that, even when there’s a beautifully simple solution, we end up with these extremely complex policies that no one can understand and are so far from the original project?  This, my friends, is Politics and Policy Design.  I’ve grown to be SO much more informed when it comes to all of this, but it’s hard to keep the cynicism at bay, especially when the introduction to one of our books tells us that the underlying assumption is that the main motivation for members of Congress is re-election.  Not the good of their people, not the good of the country, not creating good policy, but their own re-election.  Of course, this is a generalization and assumption for the purpose of creating a political theory (that is very widely cited, mind you), but it’s an example of why it can be difficult to remain non-cynical.

What are all of the aspects involved with the individual mandate for health insurance?  Who are the key stakeholders for and against the policy?  Describe the rationale, in terms of access, cost and quality of care and lay out a concise yet complete issue statement for this policy.  This is my current project in Politics of Health Policy.  We had a group project and are giving the presentation Tuesday, to be followed up by an individual paper.  Of course there’s much more to the class than this project, but it provides an excellent example.

Remember the 2nd amendment?  No?  Well, I do, but only because I had to study the Constitution for a quiz.  Anyway, it’s the whole “right to bear arms” thing.  (Which, by the way, always makes me think of a particular Family Guy episode, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, pretend I never said anything).  And perhaps you’ve heard about juveniles being sentenced to life without parole for non-capital offenses?  If you’re really big on your random current events, you’ll know the “birthers” are still trying to sue to have Obama’s birth record unsealed.  All of this, and much more, is discussed at the beginning of every Constitutional Law class, for up to half an hour sometimes, before we get into the actual topic for the day.  It’s amazing how prevalent Constitutional Law really is–I really expected to be memorizing old cases and a few more recent ones, but I never imagined to have such thorough current applications every single class.

Did you know that most foodborne illnesses are actually caused by keeping food at an improper temperature, rather than poor sanitation or low-quality of the ingredients? Or that over 95% of all waste is industrial waste, rather than municipal waste (municipal waste = yours and my garbage).  I learn a lot of really weird, random things in my Environment and Your Health class, and I think in a lot of ways it’s actually helped me to live a healthier lifestyle.  Seriously!

You know all those headlines citing studies and their crazy amazing findings?  Like how people with a Facebook get lower grades? (an example from class last week).  Most of them are probably inaccurate, and I might even be able to tell you so if I could see the data–all thanks to Biostats.  I mean, it’s not quite as interesting as my other classes, but it’s definitely a valuable skill–and, most importantly, a major-required one!

So you have an idea of what I’m actually doing in my classes.  I am legitimately learning things and am VERY much enjoying myself.  But I’ve come a long way from, say
, spring freshman year.  Want proof?  Look at this little screen shot from ISIS, our online system that lets us register, see our grades, check our bill, etc.  Look at how different my courses were…and allow me to tell you how much happier I am now!

Anyway, I hope I was able to shed some light on the social science courses here–they’re truly fantastic and cater to any interest imaginable.  Even if something doesn’t seem interesting at first, chances are you’ll learn a ton and come out having gained a lot more than you expected.  And, personally speaking, I’m getting a bit more sleep these days–not because the courses are systematically, across-the-board “easier,” but because I’m doing what I’m best at and genuinely enjoy.

So, in between work, meetings, events, and the like, it’s easy to let it slip my mind: I’m actually here to go to classes and, you know, learn things.  And this semester I’m doing lots of both–going to classes, and learning things, that is.

As per tradition, here’s the blog entry where I’ll tell you about my fabulous class schedule, show you why I love it, why it’s a little bit crazy, and where I’ll tell you a few times that I have no classes on Fridays. (And can I just mention that I can’t believe this is my fifth semester of classes?  I’m not sure how many times I’ll throw this kind of tidbit into my entries, but I’m still not wrapping my brain around the fact that I’m so far along in my undergrad studies!)

-politics and policy design: This is a hugely intimidating, 300-level political science seminar full of students who know a lot of things about politics and economics.  I know very little about either of those subjects.  So I sit there quietly and try to take it all in.  But the professor, Dr. Teles, has a sense of humor that I really appreciate and I feel like I’m learning a lot, on many different levels (as in, not just from our assignments).

-constitutional law: This class is all about our judicial system and the Supreme Court.  We haven’t gotten too in-depth with actual cases yet, but it’s a very interesting class.  There’s always some current events to be discussed at the beginning of class and the topic is ever-evolving, making it very relevant.  Professor Grossman has been teaching for 45 years and really knows (and loves) the subject.  He’s always got some fun little anecdotes about an issue or particular justices.  And, just look at one of our textbooks.  When I’m reading this, I feel so legit and it definitely makes my bookshelf look more scholarly, and you can’t tell, but it’s actually a huge book.

-politics of health policy: My third political science class this semester.  There’s actually an interesting bit of overlap between all three classes, though it’s very slight and really only on subject matter, so I’m able to look at an issue from varying perspectives.  Roughly speaking, this class focuses on different health policy examples and how they’ve been framed in the political world to achieve various policy ends.  It’s kind of taking a case-studies approach to policy analysis and principles that I’m learning in my politics and policy design class.

-environment and your health: One of four core classes required of all public health majors, this is one of those bigger, lecture-style classes.  So far, I’ve learned that almost everything causes cancer.  It’s an interesting class, and there’s always some kind of alarming fact or another.

-biostatistics for public health: As the name might imply, this is another of the four public health core classes.  Unfortunately, this runs back-to-back with environment and your health (a.k.a. “EAYH”), in the same room, each for an hour and fifteen minutes, which can be a bit of a long stretch some days.  Especially for a non-numbers person (me) who thought they were done with numbers for the rest of forever.  But it’s really not so bad.

So, that’s it!  I’ve already had my first midterm and am really invested in the courses by now (you know, I’ve done the work so far, gotten to know the little quirks each of the professors have, etc.), and am getting very comfortable with my routine.  And of course, I love love love the fact that I have no classes on Fridays, allowing me to have the occasional three-day weekends, extra study time, time to run errands and/or clean my apartment or any other possible options.  Fall 2009, in short? So far, so good.

As I mentioned late last semester,this spring brings a lot of changes for me.  I’m not taking any math or science classes.  This means I have to re-evaluate how to approach learning.  In fact, I’m really re-learning how to read, too.  I assumed I knew how to read well, but in trying to understand philosophic texts and Court opinions, I quickly realized that just seeing the words wasn’t going to cut it.  No more problem sets at the end of the chapter to help me make sure I’m on track.  But by the same token, it’s really paying off to be able to learn in entirely different environments.  Sure, it’s difficult, but I’m so glad to have the opportunity to get a very broad education.

With that, here’s this semester’s lineup…

Intro to Moral Philosophy: I registered for this class because it’s required for my maybe-yes-maybe-no Bioethics minor.  I also thought it would be great for personal enrichment.  For some reason, I had the silly idea in my head that this would basically amount to reading various texts and then just sitting around and talking about it.  Instead, the field of Moral Philosophy involves a lot of terms and definitions that are much more complex than I had imagined.  I won’t say I’m disappointed, by any means, but it’s much more difficult than I expected it to be.  The downside? It meets at 9 AM, which is ridiculously difficult for me.

Philosophical Implications of Clinical Neuroscience:  This is a 400-level Philosophy seminar–yikes!  I signed up for it on a whim, after having watched various news pieces on neuroethics and finding them both interesting and problematic.  It is a surprisingly accessible class, with a very moderate reading load.  We have very interesting discussion, aided in part by the diverse interests of the group, ranging from the Neuroscience majors to the Philosophy grad students.

Fundamentals of Health Policy and Management:  This is my first class as a Public Health major and it’s very interesting to me.  We have three professors for the class and they bring in a lot of different guest lecturers to speak on the topics they know best.  I feel like it is helping me become very well-informed in terms of policy issues, and just how the health system works in general.  Our first assignment was an analysis of President Obama’s health reform proposal (from during the campaign).

Law, Psychology, and Public Policy: I signed up for this class after Jessica mentioned it to me.  It’s a 20-person seminar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.  We meet once a week for 2.5 hours; our professor works in D.C. in addition to teaching this class.  So far, each week we’ve had reading on a hot topic that has been before the courts and have read what psychologists have had to say on the issue.  For example, last week’s class was about affirmative action in college admissions, so we read about three court cases.  For that, we read the Supreme Court decisions for each, a report submitted by psychologist Patricia Gurin (known as the Gurin Report), a report submitted by the National Association of Scholars critiquing Gurin’s research, and an amicus curiae brief submitted by the American Psychological Association.   It makes for a lot of reading, but good discussion.  The second half of the course (after spring break) will consist of student groups conducting presentations similar to the classes our professor has given.  A very unique class, in my opinion.

International Human Rights Law in US Courts:  This class is also a 20-person seminar, meeting once weekly for 2.5 hours.  Our professor works for a federal judge in Baltimore, in addition to teaching this class.  Honestly, this is the kind of class that is making me rethink what it is that I want to do with my life.  I know that sounds overdramatic, but it’s true.  I won’t go into huge detail of the ideas behind human rights law and bringing suit in US courts, but for each class, we typically read a couple of court decisions (either Court of Appeals or Supreme Court, usually) and any applicable treaties, statutes, etc.  Some of the ideas are incredibly difficult to grasp, but it’s absolutely fascinating.  I’m actually looking into forming an outside research project on this topic, but it’s hard to tell whether or not that will actually pull together in time or if it’ll be a more distant plan.

*If you have any questions about any of my classes (or anything!) feel free to post them in the Comments here or on my personal message board thread of our Hopkins Interactive Forums.

I had a moderately busy week, though it mostly just felt like a bunch of little things, instead of any one huge thing.

The week in review: On Monday, I went downtown to the Civil Division of the Baltimore City District Court for my second courtroom observation for my Business Law class.  (Check out my blog about my first day in court HERE). I observed one judge’s courtroom for a few hours, then headed back up to campus with just enough time to write up the observation before I had to go to a meeting.  Afterwards, I realized how much reading I had to do for my Anthropology class and got to work on that, finishing much later than I usually stay up.  Luckily, I don’t have class until noon on Tuesdays, so I let myself sleep in until about 9:30, since I had stayed up so late.  After class, I did more of the reading, and headed off to dinner before my 6:00 PM Physics lab.  I have to be honest: I’m really looking forward to finishing that up!  I got out around 8:30 and then came back to write a precis (basically a short paper that identifies the central argument throughout the readings for the week–or this is how my professor described it) for my Anthropology class.

Wednesday was dedicated to working on a proposal for my Anthropology final paper.  Our professor and TAs are quite generous in this assignment, in that they are reading these five-page proposals, but not actually grading them.  I had a lot of journal articles and books to get through in order to write this outline-format proposal, and it didn’t turn out quite as expansive as I’d wanted it to, but I was just glad to get it done before some horrific hour on Thursday morning.  I got a good night’s sleep on Wednesday night, which is always a good thing, especially since Thursdays are my busiest days.  I have a Physics section, 20 minute break, Anthropology class, 15 minute break, Calculus section–running from 10:30 to 2:20.  I guess I should be glad that this is as busy as I get in terms of class times, though!  However, I didn’t bother to really give a good look out the window before leaving my room and failed to realize that it was absolutely pouring–and it continued to do so ALL day.  Kinda puts a damper on things, don’t you think?  Thursday afternoon was filled with Calculus homework that seemed much harder than normal, followed by a meeting, and then me crashing around 11 PM.

This weekend, Mike and I ventured out to Towson to see the new James Bond movie.  I’m new to James Bond–I’d never seen any of the films, so I was a little confused, but it was still entertaining.  Mostly, it was just a nice break after a week of a bunch of little things here and there that needed to get done.  On Saturday, I spent pretty much all afternoon working on Physics homework, then we made dinner and watched a movie and I went to bed pretty early.  Today, it’s 2:00, and I’ve yet to do much of anything productive, though I have a 100-page Anthropology reading (and then a precis to write), a Physics exam on Thursday, and a Calculus exam a week from tomorrow…hm.  Perhaps I should get on to some of this?   I’m definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving break, but there’s so much in between now and then!

Okay, so it wasn’t actually my day in court, it was the day in court for about 27 people whose lives I glimpsed into simply by completing a class assignment.  The class: Business Law I, which is actually more like an "Introduction to Law as it Pertains to Business" class.  The assignment: observe court.  Over the semester, we have to complete two observations, and one has to be Circuit Court, the other has to be District Court.  One case has to be a criminal trial, and the other has to be a civil suit, but we can see either one in either court (i.e., we can see the criminal case in District Court or Circuit Court). 

Some of you may be wondering, "what’s the difference between district and Circuit Court?"  I’ll briefly explain (as it pertains to the state of Maryland), before I get back to my day in court.  The distinction is not very clear, and there is a lot of overlap between the two.   In civil suits, District Court will hear lawsuits between $5,000-$30,000.  Circuit court will hear civil suits over $30,000, or civil suits in which one or both parties want a jury trial.  The major difference between the District and Circuit Courts is that Circuit Court can hear jury trials.  As for criminal suits, District Court hears misdemeanors, motor vehicle violations, and some felonies (with lesser punishments), while Circuit Court hears felonies and District Court cases in which one or both parties wish to have a jury trial.  Clear as mud, huh?  In essence, the Circuit Court is the more "serious" of the two in terms of the types of cases it handles and the types of punishments it can hand down.

I hope I didn’t lose too many readers from that…if you managed to make it through that, you may
be exasperated to hear that my day in Circuit Court (the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse, to be exact) involved no jury.  I ended up wandering into the Drug Treatment Court, which is a (in my opinion) great program offered in Baltimore City.  The people in court that day were basically being checked on to gauge progress.  They were all individuals who had been convicted of some kind of drug felony, but instead of being sent to prison for 5-10 years (or more), they were given 3 years probation, which serves as time to complete drug treatment. 

I think this is such a great program, because while some may argue that sending drug dealers (as most drug felons are dealers) to prison would get more drugs off the streets, I think that if you are able to treat addiction, you are instead putting more clean individuals back on those same streets, which exerts a positive influence on areas that are very lacking in that.  If you send a dealer to prison, he/she will be replaced by another dealer in a matter of days (if that).  If you are able to rehabilitate a person and allow him/her to have another shot at a life, instead of just trying to take the "bad" people out, you’re putting more positive influence in.  Addiction doesn’t make for a bad person–so many of these people have so much to offer to their communities if only given the chance, which this program tries to do.

That being said, the judge (Judge Allen Schwait, who presides solely over the Drug Treatment Court), had to tell a few different people "if you don’t want to be here, there are plenty of people who do; we simply don’t have the money for people who don’t want to be successful."  I also found it very striking when the very first man to have his case heard went in as a free man and left in handcuffs for violation of probation, as he was not meeting the terms of his treatment program.  That hit me especially hard when I was walking from the courthouse back to the Peabody bus stop and thinking about him and the others who had lost their last chance, and subsequently their freedom.

If you couldn’t tell, treatment of addiction is something I feel strongly about, and I’m fascinated by the criminal "justice" system.  This overlap between medicine and law is why I’m so interested in pursuing both an MD and a JD, but as I always say, "we’ll see."  As a sidenote, I plan to write my Anthropology of Mental Illness final paper on the topic (somehow), so don’t expect this to be the last you hear on the issue.  It has deep personal significance for me, and I think more Hopkins students should at least be aware of the issue, considering what an epidemic it is in our city.  More on that one later.

After two full weeks of school (plus the random two days from starting classes on a Thursday), I can safely say that Hopkins is really back in full swing.  Orientation is long since over (or so it seems), and things have really settled into place for what is going to be another tough but exciting semester.  I’ve really gotten used to all of my classes and situated into things quite nicely.  As some of you may remember from my last post, I’m trying to branch out a bit this semester/year.  Unfortunately, my attempt with ballet didn’t work out schedule-wise, but I’m still excited about other random opportunities that have yet to arise (how’s THAT for optimism?!).

As I haven’t done too much exploration worth blogging about, I figured I’d take the easy route and briefly describe each of my classes and why I chose to take them.

• Physics II: Professor Barnett is the classic grandfatherly figure.  He’s wonderful.  Part of the reason I chose to take Physics II this semester was because he usually teaches the Physics classes that are in the “off” cycle (Physics I in the spring, Physics II in the fall).  This class is all about electricity and magnetism, which I’m not so fond of, but but that may just be my less-than-loving relationship with calculus shining through.  It’s a class of about 110 students, which is a very manageable size in my opinion.  It’s also graded very fairly and not on a standard curve, so the only competition is with yourself!
• Physics Lab II: Not much to say here…I’m honestly not much of a fan of the Physics labs because they’re from 6-8:50 PM can be quite tedious at times.  It is, however, a major requirement, and it’s not such an awful one at that.
• Calculus II:  This is taught by Professor Florin Ambro, who is European.  He has some sort of great accent, though I can’t pinpoint just what it is.  He’s a very fun lecturer, and even though the class is ~100 or so students, he speaks as though he’s carrying on a conversation.  I’m hoping his exams are just as nice!
• Business Law I: Professor Sandhaus is possibly insane.  I’m not even kidding.  He’s very…dynamic, and his class is a lot more fun than I expected it to be.  He’s an attorney and brings some very interesting experiences to the table.  For his class, I’ll have to do two courtroom observations, which Jackie actually did last semester.  All in all, it seems to serve as an intro to law type class with an emphasis on business.  I’m taking this because I was originally considering the Entrepreneurship and Management minor, in addition to my interest in law school.
• Anthropology of Mental Illness: This is taught by Professor Clara Han, who received her MD and PhD in the spring of 2007 and began teaching at Hopkins in the fall of 2007.  She’s absolutely brilliant (as are all the professors here, really), but also has interesting perspectives since she’s so young.  Some of the readings for her class include:  Bipolar Expeditions, Shelter Blues, Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison, in addition to chapters from many different anthropologists and psychiatrists.  I can already tell this is going to be a class that really challenges the way I think about pretty much everything.  My TA is going to play a major part in that, as well.

As you can tell, I have a very diverse group of classes.  My modes of thinking are certainly put to the test with the physical science, math, then social science, and law all in the course of a few days (sometimes a few hours if I have sections or if I’m doing assignments).  It’s a really fascinating semester but it’s also manageable, which is very important to me.

On a completely random closing note, I’d like to share this wonderful video I happened across on CNN’s website.  I have a dachshund at home that I miss dearly and this video just cracks me up.  It’s actually the same clip replayed twice, Mike’s theory was that they just knew people would want to watch it again.  If you’re in the mood for something silly or need a break, take a look, it’s absolutely adorable.  Until next week…

Are we there yet?  Well…yes!  It’s been a couple weeks and few hundred miles since my last blog and we’re now at the beginning of the new semester and the new school year–and I’m so EXCITED!

Today was the first day of classes, which for me was a cancelled physics section, my Anthropology of
Mental Illness class, and calculus section.  I have to say, I’m not overly anxious about either physics or calc, but I have to be honest: I got chills when my anthropology professor described her upcoming research.  I spent a lot of the summer thinking things over and as of right now, I’m both pre-med AND pre-law.  Wait…what?  Yes, you read correctly.  I’m looking into the very few MD/JD programs and also trying to figure out why in the world I’d need both (other than the fact that I could do pretty much anything).  But, not to worry, this hasn’t meant a change in majors, though I am considering the addition of the anthropology major…only time will tell I suppose.

While shopping for my back-to-school essentials and waiting in the check-out line, I noticed those teen magazines that all seemed to have a common theme for this time of year, which is (in big, bright letters of course), “new year, new you.”  Okay, so it sounds cheesy, but I do feel like there should be some element of re-evaluation before each new school year.  For me, this has meant trying to figure out how to be happy and healthy while trying to recover from a very difficult semester last spring (for more than academic reasons).  So my first objective was to craft a schedule that was challenging but manageable, which allows me to get to my second goal, which is to try new things.  So far (and I think I should really stop here in the interest of not over-extending my non-multitasking self), I’ve signed up for twice-weekly ballet classes and last semester I applied for and was accepted to the Ethics Board.
I’m hoping the ballet will be a nice way to stay active and a good change of pace in the middle of the week, while I am absolutely honored and so excited to be a member of the Ethics Board.

I’m hoping I’ll be able to keep my schedule the way it is right now because it leaves a lot of free time during the day.  Maybe I’ll be able to use that to finish unpacking my room!  [Okay Dad, you were right, it's taking me more than a week...]  I’m living in Charles Commons this year which is amazing.  I have a huge suite with a big living room and dining area.  It’s just perfect.

Tomorrow’s classes are physics and calculus but then I’m going to the Orioles game and we have great seats so I’m unbelievably excited for that.  Aside from that, I’ll be working on my anthropology reading (it is  a 300-level class, after all), and cleaning my room before we start our first full week of the semester.  I was hoping to go to the farmer’s market this weekend, though I think we’re supposed to be getting rain from the tropical storm, so I may have a nice sleepy Saturday instead.  Aside from all that, I’m so excited for all the new freshmen–I remember what I felt like this time last year with absolutely everything being new.  I hope they all take advantage of it and enjoy the carefree spirit that inevitably comes with the beginning of the new year–I know I sure am!