Caught in Between

Me on move-in day in Homewood this past fall.

Every year I have writen a blog entry about my “crib.” This year has been a little different for me since I’m not sure exactly what I would consider my “crib.” By the end of May I will have spent four months in my lovely efficiency in Homewood in Baltimore, two months total in my room in New Jersey, two months in my apartment in Vitoria, Brazil, and four months in my apartment in Geneva, Switzerland. Nevertheless, every “crib” I’ve had this year I’ve managed to make into my home. So without further rambling, I’ll welcome you to my most recent place…Geneva.

The City

First, a little about Geneva. The city itself has only 187,697 residents, but the metropolitan area has 1,240,000 people, many from France. The city has been ranked to have the third-highest quality of life. All the stereotypes are true—cheese, chocolate, watches, and punctuality. Geneva is a city that struggled for independence. They were ruled by the dukes of Savoy. In the sixteenth century, the Genevans used the Reformation to rid themselves of the Savoy influence. Independence was given in 1602 and the city became the “Protestant Rome.” To anyone that visits Switzerland, it’s quite obvious that Geneva doesn’t have the same feel as the rest of Switzerland. Perhaps this is because, for religious reasons,  the city didn’t become part of the Swiss Confederation until 1815. Today it is known as a wealthy (and expensive) city with a prominent role in international diplomacy and banking.

Here is a video of the city that I took of Geneva while on a run…

My “Crib”

Secondly, a little about where I actually live.  I live in an apartment building that was bought by Boston University on a cute little side street in one of the nicest areas of Geneva (although, they’re pretty much all nice).  I have a bus stop to work just a few blocks away--right next to the amazing farmer’s market. I also have a cute (though expensive) Italian restaurant on the corner of my road (in fact I am kind of in the ‘Little Italy’ of Geneva), and I have the amazing Lake Leman just down my street. I live with 50+ students on my program, all but seven are girls, and just thirteen are on the same public health track as me.

Oddly enough the building used to be a brothel until it was bought a little over a year ago. I honestly can’t imagine the building as a brothel, but supposedly, until they changed the door, there were many people coming here looking for the brothel that had moved. In addition we were told that if we (young girls) tell locals what street we live on they might give us strange looks. I honestly can’t complain about the brothel that I call my home. We have a resident director, a building manager, and two RAs who take care of us if we have any problems.

Below are pictures of my apartment. I think that these will better depict the place that I call home…

I should also note that there is a very cool basement with a kitchen for the breakfast that is supplied to us during the week and a TV and couches for us when we just need time to relax (or, rather, watch the Olympics). My apartment is definitely a lot different from Building A, Charles Commons, or Homewood, but I definitely do not have any complaints.

schnazzy skiiers celebrating st. patrick's day. wow.

I’m writing this from sunny but cold Colorado, where I’m taking a great Spring Break with my family….

the lovely view from the top

We’ve been lucky enough to have a great week of conditions, with new snow and pretty empty runs almost every day. As half my family snowboards and the other skis, there have been some serious debates over the relative merits of each, but other than that all has gone smoothly. My lovely mother recently won a self-nominated bid for “most improved brown family skier of the year,” so obviously it’s been quite an entertaining vacation, as well.

I’m taking a day off from the slopes today, as my Lindsey Vonn aspirations have come to nothing, and my legs currently feel like lead. Also, as the only gold medal I could take home is in procrastination, I’ve got quite a bit of work to catch up on

my sister and i taking a break

The week before Spring Break was a good one…

hopefully i'll be here next semester! (africa, for the less obsessed)

My parents finally relented on what has nearly turned into World War III (where will Lauren study abroad?!) and said that I may apply to a program in Cape Town, South Africa. I’m still waiting to hear where I’ve gotten in, and there will be more debate on the decision side of things, but at least I got the application in! I’m really excited about the chance to not only study, but see Public Health first hand, in such an amazing country.

!!!

The Study Abroad process is a little like the college application process all over again, and it left me much more sympathetic to my sister, who has finished applying to schools and is now just waiting it out, nervously. My mom pointed out this week that neither of us know where we will be next fall–I could be anywhere from Copenhagen to Cape Town, and while Suzi’s options are limited to the East Coast, hers are all the more nerve wracking. I feel like I’m getting into college again!

Other exciting things in the pre-SB week included Blue Key (tour guide) training, which makes me feel important, but it turns out my walking backwards skills really need practice. I also found out that I have been offered a position as an Admissions Representative, which means that not too long from now I’ll be able to interview prospective students when they visit campus. I’m so excited about this! If it wasn’t already clear, nearly everything I do on campus revolves around Admissions, which I really enjoy, but has started to make my resume look a little crazy.

Mason Hall!...my new home, apparently.

The only downside to this lovely week was the amount of work (midterm season), but I’m really enjoying my classes this semester so it wasn’t all bad. This is also the first semester since I’ve gotten to Hopkins where I haven’t taken an English or Writing Sems class, so the work was quite different as well–problem sets and exams, rather than papers and presentations. It’s nice to change things up a bit, and brush up on different skills….plus if I do study abroad, most of the foreign university systems rely heavily on exams so this is good practice!

the whole family!

I love having this week off of school to regroup and maybe sleep a bit, but it’s been hectic. I arrived home in NJ much later Friday night than I had intended, due to a train booking debacle in which I thought I could leave said booking until Thursday night. It didn’t go all too well, so I got home around 9. Saturday was occupied by frantic “Big-Little” shopping prior to dashing to the airport, where our flight was delayed around four hours. This week has not been a transportation success, but almost every flight out of New York was delayed that day, so we had good company at least. I’ll be heading home with my family on Saturday afternoon, and returning to Hopkins Sunday night. This week has been busy but great, and there are lots of exciting Baltimore Spring things to look forward to when I return.

As I mentioned before, “Big-Little” week is coming up after break. Another weird but fun sorority tradition, we each get a “little” (Little Sister) and we try to keep her in the dark about who we are, delivering gifts and clues all week long before we reveal our identity on Friday. I’m so excited about it, and the new additions to my Phi Mu family are simply fabulous, I can’t wait for revelation! There’s so much going on after break and it seems the end of the year is way to close for comfort, this has been such an amazing semester thus far I really don’t want it to end.

Good luck to all the high schoolers still waiting on RD acceptances! Hope everyone’s having an amazing Spring Break, enjoy the great weather!

Till next time,

Lauren B.

Haha like the movie. :P

Anyway, another myth I’d like to address:  Hopkins is not social. Students don’t do anything but study. We’re boring.  Blah Blah. ‘Tis yet another myth that makes me want to scream.

I will admit we have our share of the socially challenged; there are a few who do nothing but complain about grades and spend their time on D level; there are some who forsake going out for that extra hour of physics studying. It happens…but the things to remember are 1.) They are in no way representative of the whole student body  2.) You don’t have to be like that if you don’t want to (but if you so desire, then go ahead and study your brains out! ;)  )   3.) There is and should be room for work and play. End of story.

Nothing like a game of Mafia to relieve stress

I implore you to check this link out: http://bit.ly/b43gCM

Here we talk about what we do for fun and how possible it is to have a social life.  Even when we’re in the library studying we have social lives because you always see someone there and you just HAVE to talk to them! Anyway, here are some things I’ve done to have social life (disclaimer…this blog is limited so don’t think this is all I do… =] )

1.) Go on trips with your student groups. Many of my close friends are in Hopkins Christian Fellowship, and we go on many retreats and whatnot throughout the year. Here’s a pic of my friends on one of those rope swingy things that you have to pull to detach yourself from (do you know what I am even talking about?

2.) Explore Baltimore. Take the time to research a neighborhood in Baltimore and grab some friends and explore it! Many explore Hampden, which is a yuppie neighborhood right near Hopkins…but try some new places…Fells Point, Little Italy, Federal Hill, Locust point…here’s a pic from East Baltimore (near the med campus).

This was being demolished as I took this pic...to make room for med school housing

3.) Numnums….eat! Omgee I can’t say this enough. Baltimore has so many restaurants, many of which won’t break your pockets. Tired of dining hall food? Go to a restaurant! This is from Cafe Hon in Hampden, Baltimore…it actually helped to rebuild Hampden from being a druggy and prostituty area. Go there! The owner, Denise, is pretty nice.

Large plate from Cafe Hon. I don't even remember what this was.

4.) Take pictures…of each other? Lamesauce but taking pictures of people (well people you know…otherwise that qualifies as being a creeper) and things is a cool way to get to know stuff.

Pictures are fun when you take pics of your friends taking pics of you

5.) Throw/go to parties! Call me odd but I don’t like going to parties with dancing and stuff…I like parties with food, board games, couches, people, light background music, and charades. Impromptu ones are best!

Christmas partyyyyyyyyyy

There ya have it folks…some of the things I do to have a social life. Now you can either look at this and say wow how cool! Or look at the other blogger’s and say that I’m lame compared to them. Don’t feel bad, I do the latter all the time. Which gives you all the more reason to check out the other blogs and see what we cool Hopkins kids do for fun! :)  Now I’m off to pack for a half-week in New York, my real native land (love bmore tho!) I need to get some reacquainting done, so until next time!    -Dominique

Sometimes I don’t believe this crazy planet that we call Earth and this crazy life that I live in. I finished my French final and then… one day I’m in Amsterdam, the next day London, then back to Switzerland, and then, you know, just a weekend in Paris followed by my first day at the World Health Organization as an intern. No biggie…just kidding. I just finished my ten-day spring break and have started the second-phase of my study abroad program a 9-5 pm for-credit internship followed by a five-hour public health class on Fridays. Although it was weird to return to a place that I don’t quite consider my home, it was nice to give my legs a break from endless days of walking foreign streets looking for good food and famous sites. In the back of my head I know that my future will have many more endless days of navigating streets around the world—hopefully without such terrible currencies as the Swiss Franc, Euro and Pound.

I don’t even know where to begin with my spring break.  I guess the 500+ photos that are being uploaded to my computer will prove to myself that I’m actually not in some sort of dream. But, really, even today felt like a dream. Coming back to Geneva and dressing up for the “real world” and having the usual not-dreamlike “first-day on the job” experience that included many technical failures—a computer that decided to open random applications, a password that wouldn’t agree with me, and needed to be changed by IT three times, and a badge machine that didn’t work for 30 minutes—still felt like a dream. I mean I’m working in THE World Health Organization where so many of the reports that I read about are produced and a place that has always, to the public health major (that would be me), felt like some sort of fantasy land. And there I’m this morning just hopping on the number 8 bus to the WHO.

And though I admit I get home sick and sometimes campus sick for spring at Hopkins filled with lacrosse games and cherry blossoms and long M-level days, work days at Center for Livable Future, I also know that studying abroad was the right choice. I know that in just a few minutes I’ll be missing Geneva. So, like I always say, please prospective students and current students, consider running away from Hopkins life and studying abroad.

So instead of writing on and on about my dream, I’m just going to include my  favorite and interesting pictures of my travels throughout Switzerland and during spring break… So get ready, set, go!!!!

greetings from snowy baltimore!

That’s how I feel about this semester. I think it had something to do with snow week, and me being here for intersession, but I never quite got a handle on it. Luckily, midterms scared me out of that one, but I still feel as though this spring is a bit out of hand

Nonetheless, I have exciting classes to talk about. This spring I’m taking Bio II, Fundamentals of Health Policy and Management, Economics of Discrimination, Social Psychology, and War & Peace in International Trade.

The first two (Bio and Health Policy) are requirements for my Public Health major. I can’t say I enjoy biology, but I’ve never been a science person so I’m just trudging through it. For those who enjoy science though it’s apparently not that bad…I’ve even heard the word “easy” being batted around, much to my frustration. Fundamentals of Health Policy and Management is nice, and similar in theory to my Econ class last semester (Economics of Health). We talk a lot about the recent healthcare reform policies, today we discussed the nursing shortage, we’ve gone over hospital structure, insurance, and primary care. I really like it, and it’s nice that we can incorporate topical information as it comes up over the semester.

Economics of Discrimination and War & Peace in International Trade are two great Economics classes that I’m taking to (try) to finish up my Econ minor. Economics of Discrimination is a great class taught by a professor I had last semester as well. She’s actually also the advisor for my minor! We talk a lot about the wage gap between women and men, mothers and non-mothers, minority racial groups, etc etc. It’s really interesting, and a more people-oriented approach to Econ. It’s nice to have economic models that can then translate into good conversation, as well. My other Econ class is a bit over my head (as in they may as well be speaking a foreign language) but it’s an enjoyable challenge so far. We’re discussing the effects that environmental policies have on national welfare right now, and though I think I understand it in principle, I’m always slightly mystified when I look up to the board to see a graph with 12 lines on it. It’s a really small class though which helps a lot, and we can ask a bunch of questions, question why something is the way it is, and generally just work through the problems together.

Last but not least is Social Psychology. This may seem a bit out of place in my usual Public Health-y schedule, and it is. My roommate Laura and I have completely opposite class schedules (she’s a Chemical and Bio-mollecular Engineer) so we took this class just because we could both take it. As far as I know it satisfies zero requirements for my major, but as we both have odd schedules this semester, most days it’s the only chance we get to see each other during the day. I’ve never taken a psychology class before and it’s really interesting–side note it’s also the class I sat in on when I revisited Hopkins my senior spring.

hopefully the snow will melt one day….

Explaining all of these classes as least helped me figure out why on earth I’ve been so overwhelmed this semester…it actually looks like a lot of work. I’ve been doing some fun stuff here too, namely digging out of the snow, spending time with my roommates, going home for the weekend, counting down till the return of Gossip Girl, making spring break/study abroad plans, and getting used to my internship (more details on this next time)

-Lauren

Don’t you ever just want to scream because of rumors? When MJ made this song he was talking about the media, but I think I’ll steal his title to talk about something that makes me want to scream here–the myth that Hopkins is cutthroat.

Cutthroat: “Ruthless in competition; “cutthroat competition”; “bowelless readiness to take advantage.” That’s the first definition that came up on Google.

Hopkins isn’t like this. But, alas, we get plagued with this question over and over again. From where are you all getting this information?? ;)

I understand. I talked to an alum of JHU (c/0 ’40-something) and he did admit that Hopkins was like this…back THEN. Fast forward 70 years…and Hopkins is a collaborative environment. Sorry if this is a topic that’s been beaten into the ground, but as long as we get questions about this, it’ll have to continually be addressed. I just have a few pointers about the issue that may get you thinking differently about Hopkins.

1.) Stay OFF College Confidential. Half of the people who post on the JHU thread there base their comments on speculation…or if they do go here, they are not good representations because they hate it here and will find even the smallest thing to complain about. Resist the urge!

2.) Talk to REAL students. i.e. us. ;) Always talk to a real student at a school in which you are interested, so you do not make decisions based on heresay. If you asked us (and many have: http://z14.invisionfree.com/Hopkins_Forums/index.php?showtopic=1026 ) we’d say that people get that opinion from the fact that everyone wants to do well here. Does that mean cutthroatness? Nah.

3.) Ask for help…really! Everytime I go into the library I see groups of students working together, at tables, on couches, etc. I have never been denied help because someone was afraid to give me an edge or something stupid like that. You basically have to work together to understand material and get peer reviews, and JHU students really do that. Ask TAs and tutors too; they are wonderful.

You wish you had cool friends like these to help you out before exam time

4.) Talk to professors about how his/her class works. No curve? Then there’s REALLY no reason to get in a tizzy about how well your classmates do on their work. Even if there is a curve, no point in being cutthroat because there is room for everyone to do well. It’s statistically possible for everyone to receive an ‘A’ grade in a curved class…so just bite your lip and do your best!

5.) Wanting to do well in a class does NOT equal cutthroat. A lot of this rumor probably comes from the known fact that we are driven students. If my friend wants a 4.0, she should be able to get that without being accused of being cutthroat. There’s room for everyone! I will admit we are more intense than a lot of other schools, but hey, you wanna go to a top notch school? You’ll have to encounter top notch students who strive for the best. And we help each other along the way.

There ya have it…some blog for thought about this myth that so many people buy into. You wanna see cutthroat?

Poor Mr. Bear...didn't even see me coming.