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 Since I have more free time than usual over Jan Term, I’ve been trying to swim at least three times a week. I try to go at least once a week during the school year, but when it comes down to sleeping an extra hour or swimming, sleep usually wins.
The biggest struggle with swimming right now is that I have to actually wear shoes to and from the pool instead of flip-flops. The feeling of damp feet in tights or socks is one I absolutely detest, but marginally better than wearing flip flops and having no feeling left in my toe afterwards.
Our pool is relatively small with only five lanes, but it’s free for students to use as much as they want for recreation. I still have yet to go to the campus gym, but I absolutely adore our pool. I’m not interested in being part of the swim team, so I really appreciate that the pool is open to everyone.
I’ve been going after the class I’m sitting in on for Jan Term. There’s rarely many people there. I tend to just do freestyle back and forth and back and forth–but that’s how I like to swim!
In the cold months it’s hard to get out and go for walks, so the pool allows me to have meditative time to relax while exercising so I can eat Nutella guilt-free.
With December came Christmas, the one time of the year that I feel obligated to spend with my family in my parents’s house in San Francisco.
I’m not really very good at being ‘home’ anymore. The last time I was there, aside from two two-day pit stops in May, was December last year. I’m so accustomed to the independence of being on my own now, but when I come home I feel like I lose a few of my years.
I haven’t been late to work or slept in and missed class in the morning at McDaniel. Ever. Yet the first day I was home I had to be up early for a dentist appointment and my alarm just didn’t go off, and my dad needed to wake me up. I found myself unable to figure out how to untie a knot in my shoelaces and had to get my mum to help. I couldn’t manage to find the flour in the cupboard that was right in front of me and needed my sister to show me where it had gone. I am perfectly capable of living by myself, yet I think my parents found that hard to believe with all the dumb stuff I did around them.
I found myself strangely apathetic this break. I saw the people that I skype with or correspond with often, and I saw my old bosses. But unlike last year, in the middle of freshman year, I didn’t feel inclined to catch up with every second person I’d once known. I suppose that’s a part of moving on in life.
Despite needing to use my inhaler twice a day due to the allergies I’d once defeated, it was so lovely having my cats around. I considered bringing them back to Maryland with me, but decided that my floormates might not appreciate a couple of cats wandering around. (Sadly, cats aren’t allowed in campus housing anyway.) Photos of my cats being adorable to come! I also took the opportunity to drink boba and milk tea at least five times. Maryland needs to get its boba act together — a bubble tea stand in the Westminster Town Mall would be nice!
I tried to make the most of the break, however, since next year I’ll be abroad and the following Christmas I’m hoping to work in Yellowstone for winter season and have my family come to me.
 Penguin sculptures at Longwood Gardens — one of my favorite places near my hometown Happy New Year!
My December proved to be a much-needed break from what ended up being one of the most hectic semesters I’ve had at McDaniel. The rest of my family had been very busy as well(my brother is a sophomore in college and my sister is a junior in high school), so to my relief, we didn’t make Christmas out to be too much of a spectacle this year. We didn’t overdo decorations or listening to Christmas music or anything, so this ended up being one of the most enjoyable Christmases I’ve had in recent memory.
I’ve been indulging in some of life’s simpler pleasures in my downtime. Since I’m a fan of literary nonfiction and memoirs, I’m in the middle of reading Sweet and Low: A Family Story by Rich Cohen, a book about the history of sugar and artificial sweeteners and the family who invented Sweet’N Low. So far, it’s proved to be pretty entertaining, and I’ve learned a lot more about sugar than I expected. With my family, I’ve also watched This Is Where I Leave You and rewatched Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited and The Grand Budapest Hotel — all of which I recommend.
December also involved plenty of fun outings for my family and me. One weekday afternoon, my parents took off from work and we went to Longwood Gardens, a botanical garden about 15 minutes from where I live in Pennsylvania that always decorates for Christmas. We try to go every year during the holiday season, and usually, we go at night to see everything lit up. However, going in the afternoon was a nice change of pace. This year’s theme was birds, so one of my favorite parts of the gardens this year was seeing penguin sculptures in the desert and cactus section — what a contrast!
It’s hard to believe that I still have 20 days before the semester starts again — it seems like so little and so much time all at once! I’ll be at home, so I’ll continue to try to squeeze in as much rest and relaxation as I can, but I also hope to work on a few projects to get myself ahead for the new semester. I need read through old issues of Contrast, McDaniel’s literary magazine, to get a feel for what they’re like so I can get a sense of what sort of magazine my co-editor, editorial board, and I need to produce this spring. I also need to do some work on my senior sem so that I can present it again in March at the Maryland Collegiate Honors Council Conference. Wish me luck!
Waking up at 7:30 on the morning of December 6 wasn’t my first choice, but it was perfectly necessary for a very wonderful day full of presentations, medieval armor, and pretty buildings. I’m talking about the 9th Undergraduate Conference of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Moravian College, which I presented at along with two others who worked with Dr. Wronski to write abstracts and papers.
 It was definitely a morning full of butterflies (or possibly hawks) in my stomach, loss of appetite, and a strong desire to simply not go, but it was also a morning of an amount of excitement and pride I’ve never felt about my academic career. Presenting at a conference is a huge step in anybody’s career in academia.
It was an honor to be able to do it, and I wouldn’t have applied if I didn’t want to. That’s what made me walk through the door into a beautifully constructed building on a beautiful campus full of buildings that are hundreds of years old, grab the folder with my name on it, and wait for the conference to start.
The conference opened with a short speech from a history professor and then proceeded onto the panel presentations from students. Since it’s an undergraduate conference, there weren’t a lot of professors there, but there were a lot of students interested in the work others are doing. All three of us were asked questions to expand on our paper and ideas, which was great since it meant people were interested in what we had to say.
By the end of the day, after listening to four panel presentations and an hour long presentation from a professor, we were relieved it was over and ready to do it again. It was one of the best experiences of my life and gives me much more confidence about what I can do in classes and in the future, especially when it comes to attending grad school.
I would recommend everyone taking the chance to present at a conference if they have it.
Hi guys,
One of my favourite things about McDaniel is that there are so many little hideaway places on campus, almost like campus Easter eggs. One of these is Big Baker Chapel (and another is Little Baker Chapel!) which, despite not being always in use, is open until 11 or 12 at night. Big Baker Chapel is basically a church in the middle of campus. It’s where the bells that we hear chiming every fifteen minutes come from.
A few nights ago, one of my friends convinced us to go to Big Baker instead of studying so he could play piano. I had a final paper due the next day that I was frantically working on, but I decided to be coerced, and it was a good decision. Small lamps were placed in each window sill and were the only lights on. I lay on the steps to the altar and stared at the ceiling as my friend played. I don’t take enough time to appreciate the beauty in the small things at McDaniel, but Big Baker at night seems a place where magical things could happen.
Ema
 
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