Simply Serendipitous

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.

Okay, allow me to apologize in advance for the self-indulgent nature of this blog…well, I suppose blogs about ourselves are a bit self-indulgent to begin with, but this one’s about my birthday so it may a bit worse than usual…

My mom and I were disappointed to be unable to spend my birthday together; we’ve always been close so it was hard to imagine celebrating without my family.  Hence the reason for this post: to show that even away from home, birthdays can be amazing, especially with the great friends I’ve made here at Hopkins.

I woke up late, had breakfast from Einstein’s Bagels and got a lovely birthday bouquet from my boyfriend.  Next was the sudden and spontaneous trip to Towson Mall to go spend some of my birthday money…I happen to be in love with the store Anthropologie, and I was able to get a dress I’ve been admiring online for weeks.    We had lunch at the food court (I had Chick-fil-a for a little reminder of home) and then headed back to campus.

After a short nap, it was time to get ready.  We had reservations at Boccaccio’s in Little Italy–a little neighborhood near the Inner Harbor with all kinds of amazing Italian restaurants.  After being a panicky girl and taking forever to get ready (and running late, of course), we caught a
cab and headed downtown.  The restaurant was amazing, it was one of those fancy-schmancy places where the host introduced himself to both of us, and there seemed to be an abundance of utensils on the table, most of which confused me.  The menu was small but surprisingly diverse and creative–not your ordinary spaghetti and meatballs kind of thing.  The waiter told us if there was something not on the menu he’d be happy to accommodate us, and being the cautious (okay…picky) eater that I am, I ordered fettuccine alfredo that wasn’t on the menu.  We had some sort of mozzarella/tomato/peppers appetizer that was apparently made from buffalo milk…yeah, I didn’t know that until after I ate it.  Let’s just say it wasn’t my favorite.

The food was terrific and the service was great–if you’re ever looking for a nice place to go, I highly recommend this place.  Instead of the usual ice cream and obnoxious song, I got a tiramisu with a candle in it since they knew it was my birthday.  It was so fun to get all dressed up and have a fancy dinner–it made me feel like such a little city girl!

After that, we came back to my floor, where some of my friends were waiting with a cake.  I had no idea they had planned it; it really was a wonderful finish to a wonderful day.  We all sat around eating cake for a bit and catching up since everyone’s returning from Intersession.   Afterwards, I fell asleep pretty early–apparently shopping and eating all day wears me out!

So now I’m taking a break (or procrastinating) from getting everything organized for classes to start on Monday.  I’m trying to clean off my desk so I can actually use it, but that’s proving to be a bit of a challenge.  I’m getting really excited for all of my classes!  It’s going to be tough, but a really interesting schedule.  I’ve got Cognitive Neuroscience (the first real neuroscience class I get to take!), Physics for Physical Science Majors (not sure why I’m taking that, since I’m likely a Biological Sciences Major…), Organic Chemistry II, physics lab, and orgo lab.  I’ve already gotten all my books and binders/notebooks, so now I’m just waiting for the work to be piled on!  In all seriousness though, I’m really looking forward to this semester and I feel like I learned a lot last semester while I “learned how to learn,” so to speak.  I know now what it takes to succeed (and how easy it is not to succeed if you get lazy), and I know how to better manage my time.

To all the seniors in high school, congrats on finishing all of your applications!  It’s a great feeling, I know.  If there are any juniors out there, keep your head up–it’s tough but it gets better!    To everyone at Hopkins (i.e. my fellow SAAB-ers), have a wonderful semester!

Intersession 2008: breathing time.  That was basically what my Intersession was this year; a time to catch my breath and collect my thoughts before starting the second half of my freshman year.  I can’t believe how fast the time has gone, I fully intended to write more blogs during Intersession  but the time seemed to slip away before I knew it.  Anyway, here’s the basic run-down of my Intersession.

I came back to Hopkins to take a philosophy class on Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher often considered to be an existentialist.  The class was Monday and Tuesday evenings, from 5:30 to 9 for two weeks.  There was a TON of reading but the entire 3.5 hour class was dedicated to discussion–no lecture whatsoever.  It was very thought-provoking and although I didn’t agree with a lot of the philosopher’s ideas, it was an extremely useful to learn to open my mind a bit and not let my own opinions prevent me from getting something out of the class.

I’m hoping to spend this last week to get ready for the second semester–particularly in terms of my Organic Chemistry “skills.”  I also hope to explore Baltimore a bit.  I wanted to do that during all of Intersession, but the Baltimore Collegetown Shuttle (click the link to check it out, it’s really cool and FREE!l) hasn’t been up and running so I was a bit reluctant to spend all the money it would cost to get around by cab.

Other than all of that, I’ve been reading, watching movies, knitting, and most of all, SLEEPING.  I feel like I’ve been pretty lazy, but I just keep telling myself that I’m catching up from last semester…regardless, I’m thoroughly enjoying my free time and although I know it’s going to end, I’m enjoying it while it lasts…

Expect an update soon with some of my Baltimore excursions!