I Am Thankful: McDaniel Edition

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Annie Brown

Over the past few years, I’ve come to realize that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I love the combination of lots of great food and lots of great family, and it’s a really warm, cozy, and fun holiday. I’ve also taken time over the last few years to reflect in writing about what I am thankful for each Thanksgiving, and I would like to share with you all of the McDaniel things I am thankful for this year.

I am so very thankful to be having such an incredible semester. I’m taking great classes with fabulous professors, and I live with such wonderful people.

I’m thankful that my suite mates are not just the people I live with but have also become my friends. I could not have imagined my suite being such a family unit, and I am truly blessed that we are.

I’m thankful to have strengthened my relationships with some of my friends who live outside of my suite. I am so lucky to have so many great people to rely on.

I’m thankful that I pushed myself out of my comfort zone a little to take a badminton class. My physical education requirement is now a quarter of the way done, and I got to learn badminton and get to know some people within my major because I took the class.

I’m thankful to have some great opportunities coming my way next semester. My schedule looks pretty good at the moment, and I’m adding in a course about working in the Writing Center and working on a presentation about Harry Potter and the Hero’s Journey to present in April at a Jungian conference.

I am thankful for the ever-supportive and amazing faculty at McDaniel College.

I’m thankful that in three weeks, the semester will be over. I’m going to miss this semester a lot, but after all of the stress that the next few weeks are going to bring, I’ll be so glad for things to wrap up so I can go home for a little extended down time before I get to return to McDaniel for Jan Term!

Lastly, I’m thankful to have such a great job at Admissions blogging for you guys, the prospective students. I truly enjoy sharing my stories, and I hope that some or any of the posts on this blog have helped you get a feel for what McDaniel is like.

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful, and I hope you’ll remember to be thankful too!

Home Alone In Boston Is Not So Alone After All

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Robert

Of course we all look forward to Thanksgiving Break here on the Hill. Though we love our campus and friends dearly, we also love a few days without class and a fantastic home-cooked meal. I chose to spend the break with my friend Barnabas in Boston. I saw it as a chance to meet some new people and explore a new city, but I didn’t think it would changed the way I viewed myself as a McDaniel Student or McDaniel as a whole.

We left at 7pm after classes on Tuesday and arrived at Barney’s house in Boston at 3am Wednesday morning. After sleeping for most of the morning on Wednesday, I awoke to meet both of Barney’s parents and enjoy a delicious breakfast that made Glar pale in comparison. However, there was a feeling I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I felt like a Cowboys fan in the middle of a pack of Redskins’ fans at the game on Thursday (Go Skins!), and I realized it was because I was not with my family on this holiday for the first time in nineteen years.

Living only an hour away from my home at school, I see my parents plenty. Still, there is something very nerve racking about breaking a tradition you had not realized the importance of; then add the feeling of lost in a big city and you have an early nineties Christmas movie. (Home Alone 2, best Christmas movie ever right?)

Later in the day Barney and I went into the city to see the historic sites which put me in a better mood. My mom is a huge fan of American history as was my grandfather; so if there was any acceptable way to spend Thanksgiving away from my mom, it was to spend it looking at important pieces of history like the burial grounds of John Hancock, John Adams, and Paul Revere. Touring, what locals call, the “North End,” which to this day embodies the image of colonial Boston complete with crooked streets, alleyways that you have to turn sideways to walk through, and the Boston Harbor all these sites representing the precursors of the ensuing fight that would allow our nation its freedom.

All this time I had been wearing my McDaniel College hoodie to proudly represent where I come from just as Boston boasts a proud history of brave men. And it was just as we were outside of Paul Revere’s house on North Street that I was stopped by a guy shouting “Hey! Do you go to McDaniel College in Westminster?” Of course I said yes,and the guy proceeded to tell me that he was an alumnus of the school. He had attended McDaniel back in the eighties. He described in detail how Red Square used to be a parking lot, and what it was like to have Gill Gym only be composed of the single gym brick building we refer to as old Gill these days. He told me his time at McDaniel was the best of his life and that he wouldn’t trade it even for a free tour of Paul Revere’s house (okay so I made that up, but good lord the house looked so cool and tours were so expensive).

It was so cool to encounter randomly someone who had attended and graduated from McDaniel, a student body of about 1700 students, in such a large city with over 600,000 people. I didn’t feel so homesick after that because I realized that home is all around. At McDaniel, a huge part of your education is to make you a citizen of the world. I’ve never been out of the country, but I can definitely say that I feel as though I am quickly becoming a part of a great community of alumni and students in this country and that when I wear my McDaniel hoodie I am home as far as I’m concerned.

Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Barnabas

T-Day is awesome. First there’s food, then there’s football, then there’s still two more days before I have to do any homework. Thanksgiving is like a mini-Christmas, and Christmas is hands down the best holiday (just look at the music it inspires! Unmatched!). Thanksgiving is the rare time when everything is looking up: the semester is gonna end soon, your family isn’t sick of you yet, and you have yet to gain 10 pounds.

Today I tried to decide which food I like better: stuffing or pumpkin pie. It’s impossible to choose! Stuffing is so delicious, just the right amount of moisture, some salt and some mystery seasonings, I could eat piles and piles of it. But pumpkin pie, oh pumpkin pie is just so smooth, sweet without being sugary, I could eat an entire pie with a spoon in about 4 minutes. The only thing I’m sure of is that they both taste best when Mom makes them!

We are about to go to our friends’ house. They have a large family. They have three sets of twins, at least one child in his 30′s and at least five kiddos under the age of 10. Let’s see if I can name them, in order: Ian, Erika, Alyssa, Matthew, Megan, Kate and Mariah, Nate, Ben, Suzanna, (here come the little ones I can never remember) Caleb and Joshua, and Grace and Joseph! Whew, got them all (with minimal cheating). We have had a few Thanksgivings with them in the past, and there’s always something fun to do or some child to play with. Here’s looking forward to an awesome day of eating, playing football, and sleeping. Go Patriots!

Driving

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Barnabas

Yesterday I began my season of travel with easily the worst part: driving. Driving a lot. Driving in a small car. Driving at night. Driving in a car that was made in 1992. Driving through New York City.

Fortunately, I had my friend, Robby and my sister, Polly, and a bunch of snacks, songs, and iPhones. We found the most interesting route out of Maryland (27 to 30 to PA, 94 to 15 to 78 all the way to New Jersey). We left at about 6:30, hit some minor traffic in PA and finally pulled into my driveway at about 3:30 this morning! While the drive sucked, this will be the first Thanksgiving I’ve spent at home since high school. We are missing 2 of my siblings (and a sister in law), but we will be going to an old friend’s house in Lowell for the feast tomorrow.

In other big news, I secured my summer job already! In the past my brother, Salim, my sister, Keziah, and I have all life-guarded at a small pond just south of Boston, and next year I will be doing the same. The pond is located at a state run vacation destination that features about 20 one room cabins, none of which have electricity or running water. My family has been staying there during the summer since I was 3 months old. Needless to say, I know how to start a fire with just one match. I am very excited to work there again, but the main perk is that I can live at home, bike to work every day, and save my money!! I will be graduating sooner than I realize, and need to have something ready so I don’t end up in Mom’s basement forever.

A Trip to see the Eagles play the Redskins

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Jess Hague

One of the great things about McDaniel is that there are so many fantastic places to go, without having to go far. McDaniel is very close to places like Baltimore, Towson, and Gettysburg, but last weekend, I took advantage of the fact that McDaniel is so close to Washington DC. My friend invited me to go to the Washington Redskins game with her, since her family has season tickets. Of course I said yes, since it was the game they were playing against my home team, the Philadelphia Eagles.

As soon as I told my parents I was going to the Eagles/Redskins game, they were both very jealous. This game would be the first time I had ever gone to a professional football team’s game, so I was super excited. As soon as we got near the stadium, I was pulled into the atmosphere. There were fans tailgating in every parking lot, and even some tailgates where Eagles fans and Redskins fans were having fun together. Being an Eagles fan, I was little nervous for people’s reactions to my green jersey, but everything was always good-natured. While I was walking through the parking lot, getting into the stadium, or sitting in my seats, I was applauded by Eagles fans and playfully booed by Redskins fans. Of course, as the game went on and the Redskins started scoring more and more, while the Eagles continued to play horribly, all of the Eagles fans got less and less excited. Even though my team lost miserably, I still had a blast, because our seats were fantastic and everyone was having fun!

I think the best part of being at the game was the atmosphere. Since the entire NFC East hates the Dallas Cowboys, whenever their score popped up on the big screen, everyone in the stadium started to cheer since they were losing. Even though the fans didn’t agree on what team they were rooting for in the stadium, they agreed that they were rooting against the Dallas Cowboys. I’m very grateful that McDaniel is so close to places like DC, because if it wasn’t, I never would have had the opportunity to go see my team play football!

Personal Victories

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Annie Brown

I’m finally home for Thanksgiving break, and it feels so wonderful! I missed my mom and my puppy and my siblings so much, and we were all very happy to see each other when I returned to my home away from McDaniel.

I was afraid that I wouldn’t have exciting things to share with my folks other than the normal “the semester’s going great, but I’m pretty stressed this time of year,” but in a period of less than 24 hours before heading home, I received not one but two pieces of awesome news!

The first news I received last night after my Hero’s Journey class. Last week, I gave a presentation along with a couple of other girls about elements of the hero’s journey and alchemy in Harry Potter books 5-7. Another group presented about the same things in the first four books. After this week’s class, my professor pulled me and my friend Emily, a girl from the other group, aside to ask that we give a presentation about Harry Potter and the hero’s journey at a conference full of people who use Jungian ideas (the ideas of Carl Jung) in their work.

We’ve actually had a number of interesting guest speakers in The Hero’s Journey whose work is tremendously influenced by Jung–clinical social workers, an art therapist, a woman who practices the I Ching, a shamanic drummer, and even a Vedic astrologist.

Presenting about Harry Potter to these people will be a pretty cool experience. Like any presentation given at a conference, it will also look great on my resume, but most importantly, I’ll have the chance to work closely with one of McDaniel’s many awesome professors to put together a spectacular presentation. The presentation isn’t until April, so Emily and I will have plenty of time to work on this presentation and have this unique experience.

I got more fabulous news when I checked my email after lunch this afternoon! I received an email from Josh Ambrose, the director of McDaniel’s writing center, to tell me that I have been accepted into his peer tutoring course for this spring! By taking this course, I’ll be eligible to be hired in the Writing Center next fall. (So if you come to McDaniel and visit the Writing Center, it’s possible that I’ll help you out with your paper!) I’m super proud to be enrolled in this course now, because I not only want to be a peer writing tutor at the Writing Center but also because I had to get two letters of recommendation and interview with Josh just to get a spot in the class. I was so excited that I was screaming, cheering, and running throughout my suite–much to the annoyance of some of my suite mates who were trying to squeeze in after-lunch naps, as I later found out.

So tonight, I came home very tired but quite proud of myself. I feel victorious! It’s such a great feeling to know that all of the hard work I’ve been putting in this semester is being paid off with meaningful outcomes that are happening right now. I’m hoping that when I get back to campus after break, I’ll be able to use these accomplishments to help motivate myself through the rest of the semester.

Kickin’ it with my housemates

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Amber Slater

One of the best parts of college life is how quickly relationships form and how intense they become because we are constantly around each other. Though I only knew one member of the Spanish house before I moved in, I consider living here one of the best decisions I’ve made in college.

There are ten of us living in the house right now, and if you go into our living room at night, probably about half of us are there watching a movie, doing homework, or just hanging out. Some of my housemates have even made a habit of going on runs together at night. Most importantly, we all share a love of eating and someone is constantly making snacks in the kitchen.

Tonight was the last night we will all be together for about a week due to Thanksgiving break, so we spent the night watching I Am Legend and talking about what sorts of leftover Thanksgiving food we plan on bringing back to the house to share. As I was watching the movie tonight, I felt so blessed to have grown so close with such amazing and interesting people in the span of just a few months.

While I’m definitely excited to head home for a few days and relax with my family, I know that I’ll miss my late-night hangouts with my housemates during these next few days of break. This semester has been a tough one, and I owe a lot to the people I live with for always putting a smile on my face. This is one of the great joys of college life that I doubt we’ll find again: creating a second family through the friends you meet.

Flamenco field trip

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Amber Slater

Each semester, the Spanish department organizes a field trip to Gala, a Spanish theater in DC. This past weekend, we saw a flamenco show! I was excited to go because the theater is in a really awesome part of town with lots of little restaurants and I had never seen a professional dance show before.

When we arrived, our professors gave us some time to walk around and grab food before the show. I had been to the theater before and gotten some tasty empanadas, but they didn’t have vegetarian options this time. Instead, I got an awesome tomato and mozzarella sandwich.

After lunch, we filed into our seats to watch the show. Flamenco requires three elements: el cante (singing), el baile (dancing), and las palmas (handclaps). There were two guitarists, a violinist, two singers, and two dancers in the show. I was amazed at the concentration and intensity the dance requires as well as the fluidity of the different roles in the performance. Throughout the show, the singers would stand up and dance onstage or the dancers would sit with the musicians and add to the percussion element of the performance.

When studying a language, it is important to not only enrich vocabulary but to also increase your understanding of the various cultures that speak that language. The Spanish department does a great job of enlightening us culturally and helping us to gain a greater appreciation for the language we are learning and the people who speak it. Next semester, I’m pretty sure that we’re going to a tango performance!

Interested in learning more about flamenco? Check out this video:

Cambodia Cook-in!

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Mara Seibert

This Sunday, instead of thinking of turkey and mashed potatoes, my apartment was host to a Cambodia Cook-in! It was a fun dinner-fundraiser event through Advocacy Team, raising money for an entrepreneur named Rath who we’re funding a $350 micro loan for. The evening was a really fun event, but with lots of hard work involved.

Essentially, we made a feast! Cambodia-style. I took a trip to Cambodia this summer with the organization World Vision ACT:S to learn about micro-finance, and get people’s stories on whether is was an effective solution to poverty. Essentially, micro-finance is giving people small loans to help create or expand a business so that they have a sustainable source of income and can essentially lift themselves out of poverty. The trip was incredible- and so was the food! So I figured it was time for McDaniel to get just a little taste of Cambodia…what we could muster up in Westminster, Maryland that is. We started cooking at 4pm, the event was from 6-8pm and finished clean-up by 9-something. A lot of work. But check out our menu:

Fruit smoothies: mango, banana, ginger, pineapple, orange (make any combination!)
Cashew Chicken with Rice
Cambodian Chicken Curry (my favorite, this turned out delicious)
Fish and Lemongrass Soup
Pineapple Fried Rice (my favorite dish in Cambodia!! …didn’t turn out so great here..)
Fresh Spring Rolls and dipping sauce

Needless to say, it was pretty delicious. We had great fun cooking everything together as a group (there were between three and six of us bustling around my poor kitchen), and proceeded to make the biggest mess my kitchen has ever seen. But it was for an excellent cause- what better way to help end poverty that to eat together? Every attendee had to give $5 to eat, all of which went to our entrepreneur.

Suddenly my common room became festive with lights, random photos from when I was in Cambodia, a giant map on one wall, and of course, a table full of food waiting for us to eat it all! It was a ridiculous amount of food-meaning I may be eating curry for a while. Who says meals have to be boring affairs? Pick a country, grab friends, some recipes from the country and go grocery shopping. Come back for a fun meal that you get to make together and may, in fact, taste delicious.

Fall Visit Days

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Kat

So, I work with admissions and one of my favorite parts of that is meeting some of the prospective students. Today was one of the fall visit days and I had the privilege of working as a Glar floater. What we do is sit down, eat lunch, and just talk to and get to know some of the prospective students. It is a way they can get questions answered in a less formal setting and a way that the students who work in Admissions can meet some new people. It is a lot of fun and I always need someone interesting during lunch.

Today I sat with 2 other admissions people and 4 prospective students. At first they were a quieter group, but after asking them a little about themselves, they started talking a little bit more. They were from different areas and they all had different things they wanted to study – one was business and two were undecided between a few different things. Myself and the other two admissions workers talked a little about our areas of study and how we got into our fields, the guy sitting next to me was really interested in the fact that I studied Arabic, which made me happy because I absolutely love it.

They also had some questions for us, they wanted to know about the dorm locations and what it was like living on campus. They also wanted to know more about the local area and accessibility of clothing stores, groceries, and more. Overall, it was a good conversation and I feel that they got a lot of good information about the school; but so much more importantly I feel like we got to get to know a little bit more about them and they about us. I personally really hope to see the people I met today on the Hill in the fall and I cannot wait until the next event in which I get to meet a few more prospective students. I love it here at McDaniel and I hope someday they will too.

Stories from the Hill

Monthly Archives: November 2012