Caught in Between

Posted by Lauren B.

Spring is in the air here at Hopkins, making it very hard to focus on the mounting piles of work, as exams are in the air as well. It’s been getting warmer and summer is definitely just around the corner, which is very exciting, and for those of us going abroad, a little bittersweet.

I’ve been working a lot at the Open Houses and the inevitable question, “What do you like about Hopkins,” has been asked a million times. I love Hopkins, but it’s been making me a little sad to talk about what a great place it is here while knowing I won’t be here for the next four months (P.S. if this isn’t making any sense to you, check out my Study Abroad post…. http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/shared/2010/04/where-in-the-world-will-lauren-brown-be-next-semester/)

For the moment at least I am still here, so in the spirit of the last two days of college decision making, I thought I’d tell you what I like the most about this place.

1. The People: I was pretty sure about Hopkins, but visiting campus sealed the deal. Meeting the current and prospective students was incredibly inspiring. I met very normal people who casually invented something in high school, did cancer research, took a year off to travel the world, spoke three languages. Now that I’m here I realize that was only the tip of the iceberg. Everyone here is smart, but it’s the things people do outside the classroom that really wow me. Just in my sorority, I know girls who’ve worked for the UN (in three different countries), biked across the country to raise money for cancer research, interned with Kate Spade, worked and lobbied on Capitol Hill, I could go on. It’s really insane how involved everyone is, but more importantly it creates an environment where you start to expect these things of yourself too. This is a school that challenges you to be the best possible version of yourself, simply by exposing you to all of these options.

2. Baltimore: In my mind, Baltimore was certainly not a reason to come to Hopkins, in fact it was the very opposite. Since I’ve gotten here though, I’ve realized what a great place this is to live. I love the quirky little neighborhoods, the funny “hon” accent, the restaurants, the harbor at night, just to name a few. If you come here, you get the chance to turn this into your city. I can’t separate my Hopkins experience from my Baltimore experience… escaping to Roland Park Starbucks with my roommates, running slash aspirational house shopping in the beautiful neighborhoods to the north of campus, all the great places we’ve had Phi Mu formals, trying to experience the local cuisine (Berger cookies) and befriending a vintage store owner in Fells Point. Baltimore is a great city, and a wonderful backdrop to your college experience. Don’t miss on out it because you believed “The Wire” was a real depiction of life here (for the thousandth time, it’s not)!

3. Public Health (The Academics): The academics here overall are great, but obviously I know the most about my own major. Let’s assume they’re all like this! I’ve gotten internship advice, recommendations, work experience, and real life advice from my advisor, whose notes on my file include things like “Teach for America?” “likes to run!” and “travels”…things that are all really important to me as a person, but aren’t quite relevant to which 300 level social science I’ll be taking come fall. It’s nice to know that the person in charge of your academic career here has a good idea of who you are as a person. The department does a great job of publicizing everything Public Health related–rallies, internships, volunteer opportunities, speakers on campus, and then the fussy but important things like registration deadlines and grad school info.

4. The people who aren’t professors (though they’re great too): It’s a big transition to college, and it certainly helps that Hopkins seems to employ some of the jolliest people in Baltimore. The security guards in my building know all of our names, and tell me to have a good day when I grouch by on my way to class in the morning. The women at Einstein’s and Char Mar are actually the sunniest people I’ve ever met, and it doesn’t hurt that they call everyone “honey.” The director of Study Abroad called up my mother to convince/reassure her that I should go to South Africa for the semester. My roommate’s boss brought her “Charm City Cupcakes” today, and freshman year the cashier at Pura Vida Coffee memorized my friend Jillie’s morning order and would start making it for her when she saw us (usually late) running to class. It’s nice to have such a friendly campus!

I could go on for ages about Hopkins (and I’m sorry, if I met you at an Open House I probably did), but this basically sums it up. Hopkins has the “whole package” in my mind–the beautiful campus, the amazing, intelligent people, inspiring professors, great academics, and then the nice but not vital add-ons like a cool city to live in, really nice staff, comfortable dorms, delicious restaurants, a fun neighborhood, (usually) good weather.

If you haven’t already decided to come to Hopkins, I hope this helped you take the plunge, send in your deposit check and buy the sweatshirt/coffee cup/bumper sticker/all of the above. Good luck, and I hope to see you here in September!

-Lauren

P.S. speaking of amazingly talented Hopkins people, thank you to Greco for taking all these beautiful pictures!

Hi! Time for a new blog, I guess. I think what I will do is start posting videos of my MJ song titles because the songs are cool. =]

So why “I Want You Back?” I had breakfast with a few freshmen this morning, and I was talking about how my biggest regret freshman year was not having enough fun. So, what follows is an “If I knew then what I know now…” entries, and as you all are making your final college decisions (May 1 is around the corner!), I thought this may be of some help to you all.

By now you know that Hopkins is a place where fun happens (if not you need to re-read our blogs and check out the message boards ;) ) so I don’t need to go into that. But why do I regret not having enough fun freshman year? And what do I know now that I wish I knew back then (and want you all to know NOW so you don’t make the same mistake)?

1. Fun is necessary. Seriously. You can’t just study all day and not have something fun to break your day up with. It’s human nature to want to have fun, and it really helps. Last year, I’d restrict myself from doing things because I felt that they were not necessary, compared to the amount of schoolwork I had to do. Having more fun would have probably relaxed me more and gave me a better, more well-rounded, perspective on school.

One of the few times I ventured out last year...on the way to Peabody for a concert

2. Studying plateaus. Yea…I really believe that there is a point at which your studying plateaus, and 17 hours isn’t any different from 13. It took me until this year to realize that skipping activities I did weekly was not helping, i.e. I’d always skip a club meeting every week because I had an exam in the days following the meeting. But what that actually did was suck fun time away and make me more stressed cuz I had no outlet. Now if you really have to play catch up fine. But chances are that 1.5 hours you take off from studying won’t kill you. I HATE that I skipped Spring Fair last year because I was studying for a chem test that would have turned out the same anyway. Yea. So not happening this year.

3. EXPLORE EXPLORE EXPLORE! And I am still kicking myself for not doing better with this for this year. I see pics from the other current students’ blogs and wonder why I don’t have half as many. Granted, my idea of fun is not as cool, but still. My mixture of cheapness and laziness has not served me well…so freshman year, take the time to exploreeeeeeeee your new home!

4. Do not feel guilty for having fun. This sounds really stupid but you would not believe the number of freshmen I have encountered who have told me they feel guilty for having fun instead of using that time for studying. Truth be told, this is what makes students unhappy, because they feel like they have to forsake going out or watching a show or something for studying. DON’T EVER FEEL GUILTY FOR ENJOYING YOURSELF. Now of course, there is a balance you have to find, ie I’m not saying party each night instead of studying or writing your paper, but reward yourself! You have a test on Thursday? It’s ok, take an hour to watch GLEE on Tuesday as a study break.

On campus Gospel Choir concert I almost didn't go to because of studying...

One of the freshmen to whom I was talking gave me good insight…she said she wanted to remember her four years as FUN, not as “I can’t believe I got a 60 on that test.”

As I approach the halfway mark of my college career, I realize that’s what I want too, and I don’t want to run out of time to accomplish this. When I am older and have a job, remembering my GPA won’t bring me as much satisfaction as thinking about the random fun times I had would.

Just some food for thought!

And here is that video as promised.

-Dominique =]

I’m going to be honest: I’m overwhelmed by my life right now and just how fortunate I am. I usually am living a life that’s somewhat of a balancing act, but it seems to be even more of one here in Geneva. It’s not overwhelming in a stressful way, just in a, “Is this really happening” kind of way. I don’t think I realized the overwhelming-ness until yesterday when I had one of those naps that you wake up from and are completely delusional from. After only an hour, I woke up and had no idea where I was, what day of the week it was, nor what time of day it was. After about a minute I got my act together: Geneva, Switzerland. Thursday, April 15, 2010. 8:00 pm.

I thought of writing about something Hopkins-related for those admitted students out there who are still deciding whether or not Hopkins is the right school for them. However, although I’m technically a Hopkins student right now, I also happen to have affiliations with Boston University, University of Geneva, and the World Health Organization. So not only is my body not in Baltimore, but my mind is simply not there right now and it probably would be more interesting to hear about my life. So for those admitted students out there,  I hope that this blog at least shows you the benefits of seizing opportunities, such as study abroad, at whichever school you end up at.

So update on life. Ready, set, go…

I have been told numerous times that a semester of studying abroad follows a rollercoaster ride. I’ll admit, my experience has fit this stereotypical ride. You arrive. You are overwhelmed (by the language, the prices, the people, etc.), but you try to be open about everything. You suddenly begin to go from a vacation phase to a studying abroad phase. You realize that this is going to be your home, so you should probably find out your favorite restaurant, what time the grocery stores close, where the fake meat section is (well, maybe that’s just particular to me…) and build-up a social network. You travel. And in the middle you miss home and feel like you still have a million days left. You for some reason miss things that you maybe shouldn’t be missing like the MSE library, SAAB meetings, and planning the undergraduate public health conference (…which was today and went well!!). And for me I even questioned whether I picked the right place to study abroad. And then, well, the end begins to appear and you are overwhelmed: How in the world will you get everything on your to-do list done? How are you going to get these final papers down? And then it sinks in: you are going to miss this place.

I’m in that final phase and I’ve begun to realize how fortunate my life is right now. Last weekend my dad visited in between business trips in Europe. We went to CERN, had macarons, went wine tasting with my program, walked around old town, and somewhere in all of this he looked at me and said, “Do you realize just how lucky you are?” And maybe it’s because I’ve been in slums throughout the world before where kids beg to come back with me to NYC, but I really do realize that I’m so fortunate and am thankful for this.

I’m in the internship phase of my program meaning for four days of the week I intern. I wake up at 7:20 am, get my work clothes on, have breakfast with the others on my program, and head to the WHO on the bus, arriving at 8:44 (preciously the same minute every day, because, you know, this is Switzerland). My days go by quickly. I have no idea why since my project, estimating intellectual disability prevalence in the entire world throughout time with limited data, is slightly overwhelming and frustrating. Perhaps the challenge of it makes me work harder? Perhaps it’s because I enjoy the company of everyone in my unit. I’m not sure. I enjoy my lunch break. The other interns come from throughout the world and are mainly older with fascinating experiences and views. I usually don’t wrap up my work until just before 6 pm. To which I take the bus back to my apartment, make dinner, catch-up with people from home, and try to do check off things on my never-ending miscellaneous checklist which involves everything from school work to finding housing in the fall.

One day a week I have a long course entitled Controversies in International Health. It’s taught by a professor on-leave from University of Washington. My favorite part of this class is the site visits that we get to take. Honestly, I feel like I’m on the Magic School Bus. Today we went to Handicap International and Doctors Without Borders (Switzerland). I was overwhelmed with just the thought of being able to visit two Noble Peace Prize winning organizations in just the span of a few hours. I just can’t learn what I learn form the site visits in the classrooms at Homewood. At Handicap International I was overwhelmed by the chance to talk about Camboida and landmines (a topic I’m passionate about and spent my middle and high school years focusing on) with someone who has dedicated their entire life to the topic. We have also had the opportunity to visit IAS, UNHCR, WHO, and soon ICRC (yes, it’s monopoly soup here—especially when all the organization acronyms are then translated into French as well).

Life is going faster than I can take it. And it’s a tough balancing act between trying to make the most of each and every day, staying in touch with those at home, planning out the next step(s) in my life, interning, studying, and well, sleeping. It’s a balancing act, but one that I have learned to enjoy. I honestly came back with just a few hours of sleep on Thursday and still happened to have a smile on my face.

And I know I’ll soon be back in Baltimore hearing Bloomberg speak at the senior’s graduation. And I’ll be staring at the Swiss army knives and chocolate that I bring back, trying to convince myself that I wasn’t dreaming for a semester. And before I know it I’ll be beginning a new internship in New York City. Until then, I’ve got to go write about iodine deficiency 100 years ago in Switzerland….

Posted by Lauren B.

Hello again!

Though I didn’t videotape a real cribs video like the freshmen (my room has never been clean enough for such a thing) I’d like to give a quick tour of my lovely suite in Charles Commons…..

Our room, 1221, which we always refer to by number, is a strange and overly decorated suite of four single bedrooms and two bathrooms. We picked a semi-tragic lottery number, and by some small miracle still ended up in Charles Commons, but on the 11 month lease side. The 12th floor, the penthouse of Commons, has a huge common room on the floor with tables, couches, and a TV just steps from our door, which is why you won’t see one anywhere in our suite

Last August, my roommate Laura and I were the first to arrive, as we had signed up to be Peer Ambassadors for the incoming freshmen. Given the fact that we moved in with only a small group of other sophomores, we were able to take some decorating liberties, dragging lots of stuff in and clogging the elevators with many, many trips up and down. You can see the trajectory of our decorating, and it seems to have gotten worse over the course of the year. During intersession, Laura and I once again were the only ones here, and that seemed to cause some problems. Cabin fever worsened during Snow Week and we put up some insane decorations in the common room.

final stage of living room madness

Moving from the AMR’s to Commons last fall was a huge transition, and it’s definitely the biggest jump in terms of housing. I went from a very snug single room sans air conditioning, where I shared a bathroom and shower with about ten other girls on my hallway, to this lovely abode where I have a small kitchen, my own bedroom, and enough space to actually have people over. It’s a great place to live, definitely, and they obviously gave a lot of thought to the layout of the building in terms of community–we have a lot of communal space, all of the suites have pretty big living rooms, all the floors have common rooms, study rooms, or both. We also have a gym, a kitchen, laundry facilities, a cafeteria, and some huge conference rooms that they use to screen movies in and such. You can check it out here http://www.jhu.edu/hds/oncampus/buildings.htm

That’s enough information about the building itself though, so here are a few more pictures of my room!

Our front door, the fridge, and the door to Laura’s room.

My desk, and the kitchen (lots of dishes to do).

The living room, all of our schedules, and my room.

and below, my room and the lovely sign we put up reminding ourselves of where we live.

Just a little decoration in my room and in the hallways.

…..and last but not least, the door to my room!

Hope you enjoyed the scenic tour of 1221!

-Lauren

Last time I wrote, I was crossing my fingers about study abroad, for two reasons. I submitted my application just in the nick of time, postmarking on the day it was due from Colorado where I was vacationing (though I didn’t publicize that one to the people reading my application). Secondly, I have never met two people less enthusiastic about me studying abroad in Africa than my parents….

As best as I recall, they’ve never ever forbid me from doing something (within reason), so I was a bit thrown off when they expressed their serious reservations about South Africa. They were worried about the safety in the city, the distance from home, and whether or not I would be comfortable in a city that restricts your personal freedom out of necessity.

I’m a fairly independent person even at school, and my parents worried that I would be frustrated by not being able to go running by myself, for instance. Their concerns seemed to outweigh any good things about the city, and I was genuinely concerned I wouldn’t be able to go.

In the end everything worked out alright though, and Dr. Citti at the Office of Study Abroad spent some time chatting to my mother on the phone, reassuring her that the city was safe, I would be okay, the program was amazing etc. etc. I’m not sure what she said to her but it must have been something great, because my parents agreed to let me go to Cape Town just in time for me to receive my acceptance!

My sister is a high school senior now and I had such a flashback to that college decision time as I sat in Social Psychology last week with my roommate Laura, and the email popped up on the screen, “CIEE FA 10 Cape Town AS Program, Acceptance Email.” Laura and I caused a mess in class as we tried to celebrate really quietly while at least pretending to take notes. My parents sounded as enthusiastic as they could be when I called them later, and I’ve been giddy all week about it.

As I was applying, I decided that if I didn’t get into Cape Town, I didn’t want to go abroad, so it’s only just now becoming clear to me that I really won’t be at Hopkins this fall. Because the University of Cape Town is in the Southern Hemisphere, my semester will begin in mid-July and end in mid-November, just in time for me to be back in the States for Thanksgiving.

As excited as I am to finally go to South Africa, I know I’ll miss my friends and Hopkins itself so much while I’m gone. I won’t be able to see too many people from here while I’m gone, as shockingly Cape Town isn’t the #1 destination, but I am going with my friend Pearl, and Laura will be in Durban for an Engineers without Borders project in August, so it won’t be entirely Hopkins-free.

I’m so, so excited to go, and I can’t wait to see what it’s like. I’m sure it’ll be a bit of a culture shock but I cant wait to see what it’s like to go to school in another country, on another continent for a semester. I’ll be sure to update you all once I’m there on what it’s like, I can’t wait!

Until next time,

Lauren

P.S. This is the program I’m doing http://www.ciee.org/study/programOverview.aspx?pID=134#1rightForYou

Howdy! Sorry I’ve been sooooooooo late since my last blog, which was apparently 19 days ago, as Admissions_Daniel has reminded me. Anywho it’s ok. Here I am. I’ve had an amazing, warm, sunny and family/friend filled Easter so I’m in a good mood. Plus, my previously dead iPod is now living again…coinky dink that it came back to life on Easter? :P

Sooooo, I live in Homewood Apartments this year with one of my best friends on campus. Why Homewood? I primarily chose it because I didn’t want a meal plan. If you live in any of the other dorms (besides Bradford Apts), you HAVE to have a meal plan, regardless of year. I had the 19 meal plan last year (now “Unlimited”) and I ate campus food to my heart’s content. So I’m cool with cooking my own food/buying it/using meal swipes that my meal plan having friends waste. It all works out.

Plus compared to the single bedrooms in McCoy, Commons, and Bradford, our rooms are huge. Well, at least mine is. It’s very comfy here and I love it and will be sad to leave it when school ends. Anyway, let’s look around…

The entrance to my suite!

Here’s the door to the apartment. Our names are on dinosaur eggs because our theme is dinosaurs hehe. Just like all of the other dorms, we use a key to get inside, so no fancy door opening contraptions, sorry if that bursts your bubble!

What you see when you first walk inside

Since Homewood is an on campus apartment, it comes fully furnished and it has the same style of furniture and carpeting that the other dorms have. Here’s the long couch and a slanty view of the full kitchen…Homewood and Bradford Apts are the only on campus options that have full ovens in their kitchens, and I’ve been using that like crazy!

Better living room view

Better kitchen view

Lots of room. We should have people over more often but we fail a lot. Mmm, looking at this picture makes me want to go bake some banana bread with the bananas that are rotting on the kitchen ledge….

The bathroom, you can't see it but there's a full bathtub

Here’s our bathroom. I like keeping things clean and tidy, so yes it is always this clean looking. Homewood and Bradford are the only on campus dorms that have bathtubs…not sure if that matters to you but hey it’s cool having one I guess. Off to my room…

dresser

desk

So yea…bed, desk, dresser. The desks are wider here and the dressers are bigger too. Sorry for all of the beauty products; I’m kinda a product junky and I am never satisfied with the results. I should just make my own products! But yea, I’m  very comfortable here and I will miss it so much! But I hope you enjoyed! Here’s the corresponding videooooooooooooooooooo: