This Thursday was our spring club fair as Amber has previously posted about. I have a slightly different story to tell however…

Having my own club to run on campus, Advocacy Team, we too had a table at the club fair to let others know about our organization and sign up for emails about it. In order for you to fully understand the following events, a brief description of the lay of the land is need: the space where the club fair was held is called the Forum, essentially a really big room. Tables lined the perimeter of room and also made a inside long rectangle in the center of the room. Every campus organization from SGA to the Free Press to fraternities, sororities, religious clubs and ones just for fun had signs and banners and general goodies to give away. Have an image in your head? Now, our table unfortunately happened to be at the farthest possible place away from the entrance… We were in the far back corner, but diligently set up our colorful table cover and display board with some pictures from our events and facts about some of the amazing things we’ve done on campus (acting out against malaria, human trafficking, hunger, HIV/AIDS and more!).

In order to make our table more exciting, I brought some materials from our different events- stories from our World AIDS Day event, postcards we sent in against Human Trafficking, and a bunch of End Malaria coasters. These play a key role in our tale. I brought the coasters to give out to people since we have a bunch of extra. However….since we were so far away from the entrance and the attendance at the event was slowly dwindling and idea came to my mind about how to make my table even better: A Card Tower! Make that a coaster tower.

Sturdier than cards, the coasters held up surprising well, and I soon had quite the impressive tower going (the DJs at the event applauded when I put the final coasters on the top). However, I hadn’t counted on the Alpha Sigs (a fraternity) sitting across from me. I know quite a few guys in their group, some of which were sitting at the table. They spotted the card tower. Now add into this dangerous mix the table behind the Alpha Sigs: Humans vs. Zombies. Why is this important you ask? Nerf guns my friend. And what better target for nerf guns than a convenient card tower? The boys procured a nerf weapon…and failed miserably at actually hitting my magnificent tower! That is until they were within two feet of it.

I seized my opportunity and begged Humans vs. Zombies for some ammo. They kindly obliged. An epic chase sequence followed at the club fair. It was a lot of fun, and for me also showed how all the different groups of people at McDaniel can all have fun together: a fraternity, Humans vs. Zombies and a club to change the world. Why not?

Officially, Spring began on March 20th, 2013.

…I don’t think Maryland got that memo…

While the week before Spring Break had a few randomly gorgeous days, meaning the temperature was in the 50s, the past two weeks have been permanently stuck in the 40s. This is unacceptable. Quite frankly, it’s also been the talk of the campus- students and professors alike are all fed up with Winter and it’s coldness- which is making all of us act a little more frosty. The words, “I’m so ready for it to be warm” or just “It needs to stop being winter already” have frequented nearly every persons lips, and the last few days were no exception. In fact, one of the most bizarre weather days I have experienced was this past Wednesday at a tennis match…

One my Digital Photography assignments was to photograph a sporting event, a general exercise in getting good pictures while your targets are often in motion. This Monday happened to be a unexpected snow day with about four inches on the ground, which promptly all melted on Tuesday when temperatures just dipped their toes into the 50s. But the bipolar weather of Maryland was not done yet. The bad weather early in the week meant that most sports games and practices were cancelled (it’s rather difficult to hit a tennis ball with snow flying in your face and soaking those tennis-shoes). Which meant I was in a bit of a bind for completing my assignment by Thursday morning.

Luckily, I found out there was a Women’s Tennis match on Wednesday from some friends on the team! I knew some of the girls, and figured it wouldn’t be too creepy if I was taking pictures of them from all angles while they played. When I arrived after getting out of class, the clouds were magnificent. Big, somewhat menacing, with deep purples and blues they provided a great backdrop. But the best part was that it was still relative pleasant outside and the sun occasionally peeked out allowing me to snap some good photos while hanging out with the Men’s Team as they supported their female teammates. Then things got crazy. It was sunny, but some snow flurries started coming down…then stopped. Clouds covered the sun as the coach let another photography student and I onto the courts while teh matches were being played. A little more sun lit up the court.

I decided I had taken enough photos, and my fingers were absolutely freezing by this point, so I left the courts to go put my camera away. The wind suddenly picked up, thrashing tree branches and banging signs. The coach looked a bit worried. All of a sudden, it started snowing and sleeting, with wind blowing it in our faces. As I was done with my photos, I took this as my cue to leave, said my goodbyes and fairly sprinted away against the snow and wind to the Computer Graphics Lab to edit my photos. A slightly freaky change in the weather.

By the time I left, about 40mins later, sunshine was everywhere and the wind was nowhere to be found. The last time I experienced such fast-changing weather was in Scotland on the Isle of Skye! Let’s pull it together Maryland.

I’m ready for it to be warm now.

Since my brief trip to NYC was my real vacation during spring break, now I’m back home and getting down to business on what seems to be increasingly large amounts of homework. Having a break really is wonderful though- it’s nice simply getting proper amounts of sleep each night for example and taking some time to hang out with my family and friends that are also home on break.

One of my family’s characteristic relaxing activities is just reading a good book, and I’ll admit I’m a complete nerd when it comes to reading. I love reading new books and old favorites, and every single member of my family, including myself has the habit of getting so absorbed in what we’re reading that hours fly by before we realize it! Since I’ve been home my family got the second Sherlock Holmes movie to watch, which made me realize that I’ve never actually read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic books. I felt a sudden burst of inspiration to read Sherlock Holmes. Handily, his complete works of Sherlock Holmes were sitting in a thick book on our bookshelf. Why not? This was my relaxing at home part- getting to read some Sherlock Holmes mysteries on how he first came to meet Doctor Watson, who is continuously amazing by his friend’s powers of deduction. They’re fun, relatively short stories to read, and it’s a classic I never got around to.

Mixed in to those food breaks of reading however, was a lot of solid work on preparing my Honors Colloquium presentation and French compositions. Honors Colloquium is essentially a class you take spring semester of senior year if you’re in the honors program and everyone presents on one significant work (like their senior seminar or honors thesis) or academic idea they’ve found really interesting and learn in college. I had a hard time choosing what to present on since my honors translation for French isn’t done yet, and ended up with some Communication classes I’ve taken.

I didn’t have time to do a second major or minor in communication, but every class I’ve taken has fascinated me and challenged what I thought I knew about people, the media and the world. What better thing to tell my friends about? So I created a jazzy powerpoint, and jumped into a lot of old Comm. notes to figure out what I wanted to talk about and how. The idea I ran with was essentially: Global News and Edited Reality, how both we, and especially those powers who choose and create our news define our reality and often how we see the world and events going on in it. Hopefully my class will enjoy it and learn something! We’re also making them chocolate-chip cookies so they’ll be happy either way….

Finally Spring Break has arrived, just in time to save my sleep-deprived school self. And what better fun way to spend a few days of spring break than in NYC with a good friend? A great, cheap way to get up to New York is Megabus, with tickets from $1-26 for one direction to or from NYC! A lot of students from McDaniel have used Megabus to get to and from this lovely city, and this was the second time I have used it in the US. I grabbed an extremely early bus (5:30am anyone?) from Whitemarsh, Baltimore and spent three hours sleeping and watching the sunrise before arriving in New York.

My wonderful friend Kelsey came to meet me right after I stepped off the bus, and we made our way through the subway to her flat. Kelsey goes to Pace University, which is right in the middle of New York City, and a very different setting from McDaniel’s rural Carroll County. I always enjoy living in a big city for a bit because it makes such a change from where I normally am at McDaniel or at home, but I do prefer McDaniel’s beautiful green campus to Pace’s skyscraper buildings and extensive security measures. My favorite thing about cities though? There’s always something to do! I’m leaving today and we have done everything from visiting the lovely Metropolitan Museum of Art to the High Line Park (a former railway above the city converted into a garden walk), and visiting every café we came into contact with. One of my favorite things that we did was last night though…

It was to be a classy evening. This required appropriate attire first and foremost, because feeling classy is an essential first step to a successful night! In a black dress with silver jewelry, I walked outside…into a lovely mixture of snow and slush pouring from the skies and coating the sidewalks. Ah well, you can’t have everything. We took the subway to our destination: Columbus Circle, Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club for an evening of jazz. Though running late, we our reservations let us get in just fine and we were led into a beautiful room lit with blue and red lights, small tables and chairs spaced throughout and a bar on one end, and the stage in front. Our table? Right next to the stage. I think we might have had the closest table in the whole place, and felt like we were in the saxophone and trombone player’s faces…

Our classy evening of jazz featured the New York Youth Symphony Jazz Classic, and they were fantastic! As long as you search out opportunities, there are plenty of amazing things to do. The musicians ranged from ages 12 to 22, though most were on the older scale of things. It was a 17-piece band with everything you need for jazz: piano, guitar, trumpets, saxophones and trombones. Kelsey and I even treated ourself to a fancy dessert of apple beignets with this amazing chocolate mousse-like dipping sauce. The evening was amazing: great music and musicians, the classy atmosphere we were looking for (that can’t quite be found in Carroll County), and delicious food.

Besides that lovely evening, I also had a great time frequenting all the cafés strung throughout the city that I’ve so missed from Europe. Now back to Maryland for the rest of spring break!

Tonight I helped put on an event called “Music for Micro,” a combo coffee-house and acoustic/open-mic night!

From 7-10pm in the middle of Ensor Lounge, inside Decker College Center (essentially the middle of campus) we had quite a different set up from the normal couches and chairs for students to meet and hang out. Instead, we transformed the space into our own mini coffee house, complete with live music! Why music “for Micro”? Well Micro stands for micro finance, a really effective solution to combating poverty. In a nutshell, micro finance allows impoverished people to take out a small loan to create or expand a buisiness, which in turn lets them generate a sustainable income. The result? These people get to lift themselves out of poverty if they are only given the opportunity! I have personally seen the transforming results of micro loans in Cambodia this past summer, and have been eager to share about it on campus.

The evening was meant to be a fundraiser for a micro loan- specifically one for a woman in the Philippines. Since it was a fundraiser, we not only had musicians come and play some great live music on guitar and piano, but had a photography auction as well where people could bid on beautiful photographs taken by fellow students (starting prices from $1.50 to $3). We also had a slideshow running throughout the event showing pictures of the families I had met in Cambodia whose lives had been completely transformed by micro loans. Throughout the night there was our “coffee house” area with coffee, hot chocolate, tea and a selection of tasty pastries. People could pay $1 and get a hot drink and a pastry to eat while enjoying the music! As a final fun event, we invited Dangersauce, the campus improv group to come give a performance halfway through the night, which pulled a pretty decent crowd in.

Overall, a fun, relaxed evening of good music, refreshments and supporting a great cause. Hopefully McDaniel will continue to keep getting behind micro finance projects and make a real difference in the lives of people around the world!

PS. Advocacy Team, the club I lead on campus organized and ran the event

In the flurry of excitement that the announcement, “The college will be closed today” caused, I knew what was coming. 6-10 inches they said! Well… what we actually got was more like 3-4 inches with rain at the end (never trust the weathermen…), but most importantly, we got a break from classes for the day! What was really coming, despite the amount of snow we got, though a little more would have been appreciated Maryland, was sledding!!

Here at McDaniel, we seem to have a sledding tradition. Maybe it’s just my friends. Maybe it’s simply because we are taking a leaf out of Peter Pan’s book and don’t really want to grow up just yet. Maybe you’ve read Calvin & Hobbes and realize sledding is where one can do their best thinking (if you haven’t read this wonderful comic strip, do. It’s one of my favorites of all time). Or it could simply be the wonderful fact that McDaniel sits on top of a hill, which makes sledding an incredibly fun pastime on a snow day! Plus, it’s just fun.

Four years ago, my freshman year was the extremely exciting Snowpocolypse with some 3-4 FEET of snow. It was the best thing since summer vacation was invented: no school for a week, snowball fights everywhere, giant igloos in the Quad, hot chocolate, you get the idea. But this was when we first discovered the noble art of sledding at McDaniel, and specifically: sledding late at night on the golf course. This might sound strange at first, but by waiting until the evening after it’s been snowing all day you first of all- get more snow. Second, most people go during the day, so you (and your friends) get the hills all to yourselves at night! Plus, like tonight, there are generally some pretty sweet stars up on top of the Hill. Now, why the golf course? Hills! There is one section of the golf course, closest to the tennis courts, past the football and baseball fields which has a magnificent hill that goes down and down including some small hill that can get you some fantastic air. The only things you need to be careful of are the lake in the far left corner, and the occasional tree at the bottom. BUT! Steer carefully to avoid those, and you are in for a magnificent ride of speed and excitement.

Back in the olden days, we had dinning hall trays… which some people attempted to use to go sledding in (another tradition). As we no longer use trays in our dinning hall (sustainability, hooray!), we’ve since upgraded to actual sleds. And inflatable pool toys. You’d be surprised how well an inflatable floatie-chair works going down the hill- comfy too. Being given a snow day, we of course had to go out tonight with our usual gang and have a fantastic time and generally getting soaked with snow. Today was pretty wet snow, so while it made for excellent snow balls and snowmen, we had to seek out new sledding hill that hadn’t already become grass thanks to previous riders!

All in all, a fantastic night of remembering you are never too old to go sledding, make a snow man or get in an excellent snow ball fight- right in time for us seniors. Coming to McDaniel? Bring a sled.

I’ve decided I have a new superpower: extreme observation. Eye sight that is now drawn to the things I used to pass without a second glance. Starting to notice all the little details, the uniqueness, the artistry, and things that are just plain cool.

The cause for my new skills? Art courses. Throughout college, I’ve taken a Black & White film Photography course, currently a Digital Photography course, as well as several graphic design and computer graphics courses. They’ve taught me to seek out and savour every little detail that I find. Photography courses have honestly changed how I see the world. While walking along campus or down the street, I notice everything (I feel like Spiderman or Superman with extreme senses): cotton-ball clouds standing out against the blue sky, the reflection of a tree in the window, the light illuminating someone’s earring in class or an interesting texture off a rusty metal car.

Everything suddenly has beauty and value even if it’s just bizarre. No longer do I simply walk looking straight ahead- I look up to see rolling storm clouds or sunset-streaked skies against the dark outlines of trees. I look down and notice how the puddles from yesterday’s rain are reflecting the cloud-dotted sky. A rainy day produces beautiful raindrops on windows. You get the idea. I’m constantly searching, observing and waiting to find something other people haven’t noticed. I have photography classes to thank for that.

Then there are also my graphic design classes. Never have I looked at magazine ads the same way. The other day I opened my friend’s magazine to a car advertisement and was fascinated, “Look at this! They morphed the car into water droplets! Do you have any idea how much work that would take??” I now know the effort and skill behind the design and the graphics, what things are original and what can be easily produced with Photoshop. When passing a billboard, I literally do think, “Woah. That’s a great logo.” Or…not so great- I could do better than that.

Whether you have a great interest in art or photography or not, take it from me that just taking one little photography class can open your eyes to a whole new world. The mundane becomes interesting. The fascinating and beautiful suddenly appears all around. Want to spice up your life? How about acquiring some X-ray vision?

Tonight, I got a three-course dinner. The best part: it was free!  Sodexo, the company that does our food at McDaniel has a new chef in the kitchen for the past two years: Chef Jamie. As a new idea to improve campus dinning, Chef Jamie decided to create “Dinner on Us” events each month. Essentially, an announcement is sent out, and whoever responds can come in for a free, served 3-course meal in Glar while we discuss campus dining: what works and what doesn’t and what we’d like to see in the future.

While he’s only been here for around two years now, our new chef has had his work cut out for him and, in my opinion (and that of others there tonight), made a lot of progress on making Glar food better! He’s been improving a lot of things behind the scenes and introducing new ideas and items pretty regularly, like the Mongolian Grill, Pasta Action station and the crêpe station I talked about last week.

The meal was great (especially the fresh, still-hot rolls and the delicious lemon custard dessert), and the best part was Chef Jamie sitting there with his yellow legal pad and pen taking down all our comments and suggestions. It’s so great to have leaders and management that actually listen to the students, seek out their opinions and then react accordingly; I got to bring up how I loved the “make-your-own” type stations, such as the crêpe, pasta and Mongolian grill stations. New today was also a make-your-own flatbread pizza station! You got to pick all the sauces and ingredients you wanted to go on top and they made it right there- three minutes later you got to pick up your own personal pizza.

After we had chatted away critiquing, praising and making suggestions for both the Pub upstairs (please bring back flatbread!), and Glar downstairs, Chef Jamie took us on a behind-the-scene tour of Glar to the kitchens and food storage areas. He definitely has me convinced on his vision for Glar in the future and knows how to get there. So incoming students- look forward to more delicious food! And if we’re not happy- they’re always open to suggestions. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Last night, one of the clubs I’m involved in on campus, Heroes Helping Hopkins, had a different sort of fundraiser: eating at Buffalo Wild Wings!

Heroes Helping Hopkins (HHH) is a service club on campus, and we make dinners for families at the Believe in Tomorrow Children’s House who have children in the pediatric section of John Hopkins Hospital. It’s a really fun and rewarding way to show some kindness to people who are going through a tough time. The idea is simple- we have “Cook Nights” every month that members sign up for to drive down to the Children’s house and make a meal and a dessert for the families.

In order to have the money needed for buying the food for such Cook Nights, our brilliant leadership organized a fundraiser with Buffalo Wild Wings, where if people brought a specific coupon, 10% of their purchase would go towards HHH. Other campus organizations have done this before- but never have I seen this amount of advertising for the event! HHH was on top of making sure everybody on campus knew: Facebook, emails, word of mouth, they had it all. As someone who knows about the effort it take to promote events, I was pretty impressed. Even more impressive was the turn-out on Thursday night. I’m pretty sure half of McDaniel turned up that night.

My friends and I were there for both a friend’s birthday and the fundraiser, so we had a relatively large group and had to wait a while to be seated. As we were waiting, there was a constant stream of greetings to people we knew coming and going and spotting even more people in the crowd already eating. Surrounded by TV screens showing at least ten sports games at once, we had a fun time eating and joking around. All told, HHH raised $236 for our future Cook Nights!

Not bad for just eating wings and burgers.