I must say that I wasn’t thrilled to be driving back to Hopkins today. For the last week I have been enjoying Spring Break at the comforts of home. Yes, doing a little bit of school work, but for the most part I have been sleeping well, eating well, reading lots of news articles, and enjoying watching TV with my mom (this consists of Gilmore Girls, Yankees spring training games, Nets games, and even some college basketball). However, I am now back to work at Hopkins. In the week I was home my bedroom didn’t feel like my bedroom anymore. It really is not as “me” as my room is here. Well, it is me, but me as in middle schooler-me and hasn’t changed since. But now here I am back in my room and absolutely loving it!
So, why do I love my room?
1. My room at Hopkins has bits and pieces of me: memories from trips to Cambodia and China, pictures of my grandpa, a Ratatouille tissue boxes, and a Walle calendar, fuchsia Christmas lights, bulletin boards (that I made), an Obama victory newspaper, a comfortable comforter, etc. And because of this, I love my room.
2. My suitemate. I live in a suite with two rooms. My suitemate is fellow blogger, Lauren C.. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had two years with two great roommates. Although Lauren and I both are extremely busy and it sometimes doesn’t seem like we live in the same suite, she is a great suitemate when we are here. She teaches me about the newest TV shows, complains with me about school work, is quiet at night, and we give each other a break when we’re too busy to do the dishes. I am happy to say that I have not had any roommate issues this year and I really do owe her a lot.
3. My view. Lauren and I got a top 50 lottery number last year which basically gave us the option of any double in Charles Commons. Although, I debated having more room over a better view, Lauren finally convinced me that a view is valuable and I am so glad that she did. Lauren and I live in the only two-person suite on every floor of the St. Paul side of Charles Commons that has a view of the city. On top of this, we live on the top floor, the 10th floor, of this side of Charles Commons. Because of this my blinds are constantly open and I love being able to see the Aquarium and Camden Yards.
4. Charles Commons. I oftentimes get asked the question, “Is Charles Commons worth it?” And I believe that it is. I love living in Charles Commons because it is perfectly situated next to Char Mar and to the lower-end of campus where all my classes seem to be. I love that there is a dining hall and a small gym within the building. I love that the elevators talk to me, that I have a great RA, and that my room is quiet.
5. Not having to move furniture. Although this goes for anyone who lives on-campus, I love that living on-campus allows me to not go through the hassle of buying furniture and worrying about rent. I know, I am supposed to be becoming an adult and that there are some pretty sweet off-campus rooms, but I still do love knowing that at the end of the year I won’t have to figure out how to get my bed out of the door. Because of this and because I will be here for only a semester next year (due to study abroad), I entered the housing lottery for next year and will be living on-campus next year in Homewood.
Well. This year I find myself blogging not quite about my room or house, but about my city. Why, you may ask, a city? Well as it would turn out, this semester my place of residence is Santiago, Chile, in a part of town called Providencia in a wonderful apartment building with my adopted Chilean host family, who are maybe some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
There is a dad, Pato, mom, Marily, Constanza, who is 11 years old, and Vicente, who is 9. (I think it’s a good sign when as I’m typing this i wrote “Constanza, who has 11 years” the first time through…”jaja”!).
The city is incredible. It is in a valley so there are mountains, called the caudilleras, to the east and it’s about an hour west through the coastal smaller mountain range to get to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar to get to the beaches.
Getting around is SO much easier and more pleasant than in Baltimore, or most US cities for that matter. You absolutely don’t need a car here, the metro takes me to most anywhere I need to be, and to get further out from the center of town there is a (somewhat confusing but functional none-the-less) bus system.
Weatherwise, I love it here! Until about noon and after 6 the temperature hoovers in the mid to low 70s and in the daytime it’s hot hot hot…close to 90 degrees. A BIG difference from Albany let me tell you. The people have been incredible, the program I am in has 3 full time staff who are incredibly helpful and kind and actually live by the “there are no stupid questions” rule. How cool is that?
And I mention that because coming to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language makes you basically feel like an idiot a lot of the time. There are so many little things that are just different (like paying for things in small shops or department stores, you pick out what you want, get a receipt, take the receipt to another place in the store, pay, then take the new reciept and your old reciept back to get your goods. The first time I went through that process I was utterly lost.
And there are so many Chilenismos (phrases unique to Chile, kind of like “wazzap” for Americans, if you live there they make sense, but an outsider who learned the pure, gramatically correct form of the language would never encounter in any textbook). So the last 4 weeks have been a supreme rollercoaster, ups and downs corresponding to minor victories in understanding my new host culture and steppig out of my comfort zone, like trying mote con huesillos (an apricot juice with a dried peach and corn drink people use to rehydrate here, and it’s DELICIOUS).
Don’t let anyone tell you that study abroad is easy. Maybe your classes aren’t as demanding as Hopkins, but there’s a whole emotional aspect I don’t think people usually think about. I miss my friends so much sometimes, being thrown together with 28 strangers, on the wrong side of the equator and having to figure out a new language AND take advantage of traveling and exploring a new country is pretty stressful. There’s a lot of pressure to learn the language, to make Chilean friends, to do this, to do that…and all the while get used to living in a new home with a family who you want to like you because you’ll be living with them for the next 4 months and who wants to get off on the wrong foot?
BUT! Despite all the hardship and sometimes the dissapointment that comes with trying to make a new friend group, I couldn’t be happier. I’m only a month in and this has been the most incredible experience of my life, and I’m pretty sure it’s only going to get better! Next weekend I’m traveling to a volcano to go hiking and horseback riding, then we’re planning a trip across the Andes to Argentina to a wine town…and hopefully after that I’ll start traveling north. :)
I’ve gotta run though, my family and I eat dinner together every night, so I’m off to cenar. Disfruta mi video y no puedo esperar mostrarles mis otras fotos!
I have been meaning to write this blog for a while and yet I have never found the right time to write about it. However, the time has come: I am anxiously awaiting to hear the decisions for my summer applications, I feel sick and thus not creative enough to think of a new topic, and I feel “blah” about classes. But I am happy that just yesterday I became co-president of Public Health Student Forum for next semester.
Anyway, I have been meaning to write about teaching assistants, more commonly known as TAs. TAs are simply graduate students, sometimes undergraduates, who assist in teaching classes. Additionally, graduate students play a role in teaching courses. Yes, I know you are probably saying, “Why would you write a whole blog about TAs?” But there is a reason for my madness!
A common statistic that can be found on college websites and viewbooks is what percentage of the classes are taught by professors. As someone who visited tons of colleges, colleges always praise themselves if 100% of their courses are taught by professors. According to last year’s viewbook, 96% of courses at Hopkins are taught by professors. Parents will go crazy about this statistic on tours. They question why someone who is not a professor should teach a college-level course. They question why there should be sections taught by other students. Honestly, when I was looking at schools, I understood these concerns. However, after 3.5 semesters at Hopkins, I am beginning to rethink my preconceived notion.
I have had more good experiences with graduate students at Hopkins than bad. Every semester that I have been here I have taken a class entirely taught by a graduate student; that means for me as a social sciences major the statistic has dropped down to 80%. However, these have been my favorite courses: IFP I and IFP II: IFP or Intro to Fiction and Poetry are popular courses taken by students to fulfill writing requirements. There are multiple sections offered every semester and are entirely taught by graduate students in the Writing Seminars department. One really cool part of this course is that you are required to go to a few readings that are at night and see your teacher and her/his peers read their poetry. Additionally, by having a graduate student as a teacher, students are more open to what they choose to write about and are more willing to talk to the teacher about their writing.
The City in Time and Space: This was a Dean’s Teaching Fellowship course taught by Daniel Pasciuiti. This means that Daniel applied to teach a specific course related to his research. I enjoyed this class not only because it was a small, discussion-based course, but because Dan was enthusiastic about the topic and knew all the current research.
Sociology of Disability: I walked in this class and was told, “This is going to be your second favorite course. And I am saying second favorite, because everyone already has their first favorite.” This course is taught by Christian Villenas who is another PhD student at Hopkins. He has taught this course multiple times and makes the class enjoying for us by finding thought-provoking books for us to read, showing us videos we would otherwise not see, and assigning a great group project that looks at an aspect of college life through the eyes of a student with a disability.
Additionally, I should mention that two of my three intersession courses were taught by graduate students and both were great classes on unusual topics within the teacher’s area of research (one course in sex and sexuality in the 17th century and another about breastfeeding). I am also taking an Oral Presentations course this semester which is taught by a faculty member who also is not technically a Dr., but has been able to challenge myself more than any other teacher at Hopkins.
I have also taken numerous classes with a section component. Sections are when a, usually large class, breaks up once a week to discuss and review the course content. Courses that have had taken with sections include Issues in International Development, Biostatistics, Calculus I, Fundamentals of Health Policy and Management, Intro to Public Health, Global Public Health Since WWII, Fundamentals of Epidemiology, and Medical Sociology.
In all of these cases, sections were led by graduate students. And many times sections have been my favorite part of a course. In Calculus I the majority of the students were struggling with the lectures and how the material was being taught. This led to many students not going to lecture, but instead treating the section as a lecture. In that course the graduate student, Thomas Wright, would re-teach the material in a new way to the students. An addition, people crowded in his office during his office hours and during review sessions that he voluntarily had. Secondly, my section leader for Global Public Health Since WWII, Claire Gherini, led one of the best sections I have been in. She put so much effort into making a good section and even spent her own time devoting a section on how to write a good paper using examples from the rough draft’s of our essays. In addition, she offered to write a recommendation for me.
So, yes, I will agree, this has not been the most interesting of blogs. But I am so happy that I didn’t base my college choice on whether graduate students were uninvolved in undergraduate education. For many reasons, having graduate students on-campus have made for some of my most valuable academic experiences…and seriously, I secretly always wanted to go to a Montessori school when I was younger that I could call my teacher’s by their first names…and by going to Hopkins, I have been able to (sometimes).
Stay tuned for next week when I discuss my home away from home this year in Charles Commons.
Can’t wait to talk to you again Jess. I’m glad you got through all those applications … they’d be absolutely insane not to want you working for them this summer!
So Il guess I’ll start at the begining.
True story, even though I’ve worked my butt off for the last 3 years to study abroad, as soon as I got on the plane bound for Santiago, I wanted nothing more than to get off and run back toward home. I couldn’t believe that I was ready for living on the wrong side of the equator from my family, my friends, my boyfriend, and (perhaps most importantly) apple pie.
4 1/2 months isn’t very long in the grand scheme of things, but everything about this country seems new. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like a kid all the time, discovering new things and trying to figure out how the world around me works -- knowing how to survive in an American city is far different from survival in the Chilean metropolitan.
Thank goodness I couldn’t turn back, because I would have missed out on so much! I made a movie of the trip my group took to the south of Chile to the island of Chiloè. It was absolutely beautiful , I’ve never seen anything like it! I’m that kid that has lived in the city all her life, and while we were there there was a clear night where you could see hundreds of stars and even the milkey way. I’ll absolutely never forget that image. It’s just no fair, if you ask me, that there are people who get to live amongst such beauty
I’ve also visited some universities and am in the process of chosing which classes I’m going to take. It’s certainly weird being in the process of class selection while the rest of my friends are coming up on midterms and spring break! Oh well… :) Vamos a ver.
Santiago is just amazing. It’s actually a very pretty city, not all grey and dirty like some American cities I know. There are trees everywhere! Streets don’t look like streets because you’ve always got a canopy of green above you. And the metro system is great. it’s so nice not having to worry about having a car to get around, plus it’s super convenient to get anywhere in the city and even in the country.
Tomorrow I’m going to the home of Pablo Neruda (Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet) and a port city called Valparaiso and some friends and I will spend the weekend on the coast at the beach (I’m trying to make the most ouf of my second summer of the year).
As it stands, I can already tell that my spanish is getting better. It’s going to take a bit before I’m actually thinking/operating/living in Spanish, but there’s no doubt in my mind that immersion is the only way to force yourself to really learn a language and how to speak it correctly, especially with all the crazy “chillenismos” that they use here…it’s almost like learning a whole new language with all the phrases and the accent they only use here.
Right so there’s a tango concert in the park next to my house so I’m going to check that out. Chao Chao!!
