posted by Lauren B.
So one of the most common questions I get asked at Open Houses is “what is a typical day like at Hopkins?” Aside from “hey, so what were your SAT scores…” I find this to be maybe the most irritating question, and I think the activities of the past 48 hours can explain why.
Phi Mu!
This week is the middle of formal recruitment, otherwise known as rush, for the three Panhellenic sororities on campus (Alpha Phi, Phi Mu and Kappa Kappa Gamma). Rush started on Saturday with “ice water” round, and finishes up with Bid Day on Thursday. The start of formal pledging is one of my favorite things about spring at Hopkins and really made my year so much fun. But rush was only the beginning of this strange, strange week.
My pledge class at Ice Water.
First off, the weather has been bipolar, with two days of heavy snowfall and two days of balmy spring. Sadly, neither of the snowy days were quite snowy enough to merit a snowday, but it made campus look amazing.
Though the week as a whole was fairly unusual, Tuesday had to be the weirdest slash greatest. It began when I had actually no class, which left the whole day open for frolicking in Baltimore. My roommate, Laura, is really involved with the Hopkins chapter of Engineers Without Borders. She helped to organize their fundraiser, a desert reception to benefit their projects in Guatemala, South Africa and Ecuador.
She’s been doing the behind the scenes stuff for months, organizing the raffle, food donations, and all that madness. I got to help with the fun stuff on the day of though, and we spent the day rocking around the city in our friend Charlotte’s car, picking up food donations and attempting not to sample them.
We got to travel all over Baltimore, from Fell’s Point to pick up pies at “Dangerously Delicious,” which lived up to its name when we were inexplicably detained by two giant slices of broccoli quiche, to Charles Village for gluten free treats at Sweet Sin bakery, where we also managed to make a pretty serious purchase. Being allergic to wheat myself I was obviously thrilled to find this place so close to campus, and my fridge in Charles Commons is now packed with gluten free treats and cupcakes.
The real kicker to the afternoon, however, was our time spent in the kitchen of the Hopkins Club, where I learned that I would be a terrible, terrible chef. The lovely people there helped Laura and I arrange the millions of cupcakes on hundreds of trays (barely an exaggeration) and lent Engineers Without Borders tons of stuff for their reception. It was then up to Laura and I to wobble over to the Glass Pavilion with all the deserts (see the gem of a picture below).
After delivering those delightful treats to the reception, I sprinted back to Charles Commons just in time to dash off a response paper for my Econ class and submit it on WebCT within 30 seconds of the 6 pm deadline. Speed homework was followed by a quick dinner before I headed off to see the finished product of our strange day’s work. The reception was great, and two of my friends actually won great things in the raffle.
More lovely pictures of the snow, taken by Greco!
More lovely pictures of the snow, taken by Greco!
By the time we left it was near-blizzarding, and the rest of the evening was occupied by frantic weather.com checks as we tried to analyze the likelihood of getting a snow day.
Beautiful gluten free cupcakes for the EWB reception.
Turns out I actually should have done a bit more homework, as school was most certainly on (with the exception of 9 am classes) today. Today was the opposite of yesterday, with class straight through from 10-4, a Study Abroad meeting just after that, and “Pref Night” for my sorority all night. Tomorrow will be bid day, another day without classes, and the start of pledging for the new baby Phis! The next few days bring everything from homework to amazing Phi Mu dinners, lunch with a prospective student to the Super Bowl.
I can’t imagine what the other SAAB-ers have been doing this week (I’ve
been up to my ears in rush) but I can almost guarantee it was nothing
like this, so I hope this helped you get a sense of how different each and every single day is here at Hopkins.
And as an aside…Hope all you East Coasters enjoy the FOOT OF SNOW coming your way this weekend!
-Lauren
I wanted to crash the EWB dessert reception SO bad – the signs for it were all over campus and definitely teasing me, haha.
You guys looked great at rush! How excited are you for tomorrow?!?