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One thing I always enjoy doing on the Hill is attending belly dance performances. McDaniel has had a belly dance club since before I came to campus, and over the past few years, they’ve held “haflas” — or “get-togethers” — once a semester so the McDaniel community can watch them perform. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of watching my friends perform in yet another hafla.
While past belly dance performances I’ve seen took place on the main stage in the theater, this semester’s hafla took place in McDaniel Lounge, which is smaller and does not have a stage. This ended up creating a unique opportunity for the belly dancers to invite the audience to perform with them during certain numbers throughout the show.
Eventually, I found the guts to go up and join in on the fun — thanks to the encouragement of one of my friends, Cari, who is a belly dancer. Cari taught us some choreography so that at a certain part of the song, we could all dance in unison. With so many people involved, it was a bit like learning a new line dance. When we weren’t doing the choreographed moves, we were free to move our hips and bellies and dance however we wanted.
Watching the rest of the show was fun too. It was a treat to get to see many of my friends perform after all the work they’d put into learning their routines. (All of the desserts they had on hand were also a treat!) One of my friends who is an alumna now also came back to perform.
Belly Dance Club meets twice a week. They have “Fun-Day Mondays,” for anyone to come and dance with them, and they also have separate weekly meetings for those who wish to perform in front of an audience. Joining Belly Dance informally is something I’ve always said that I’d like to do but haven’t actually gotten around to doing. Maybe next semester, I’ll follow through : )
About two weeks ago, I was inducted into the Mathematics Honor Society, Kappa Mu Epsilon. When I first came to McDaniel, my original goal was to be a Math and Spanish double major. While that did not work out, I still love mathematics, and I have taken enough classes to be in the honors society. I am also the president of Math Club, so I suppose that counts for something.
The induction was really fun. Only my other friend Anna was being inducted with me. My mother came to the induction too. They read passages from the society’s constitution, and we signed the member book. After the official ceremony, Dr. Steinhurst gave a talk about fractals. It was very interesting, and I think even my mom enjoyed it.
 Here are the executive board members reading the constitution during the induction.
 Dr. Steinhurst giving his talk. I look forward to getting more involved in the mathematics community on campus as well as spreading my love of mathematics to other students.
Last Thursday, I had the honor of attending the Latin America Dinner, hosted by the Hispano-Latino Alliance (HLA). It is one of a few culture themed dinners hosted by clubs on campus every year, but it is the first one I have been able to attend.
I am so glad I went and will now do my best to attend every one of these dinners.
Although I don’t speak any Spanish, which means I didn’t understand some of what was said, sung, and acted out, it was a wonderful experience to try new foods from various hispanic countries–it tasted fantastic,–see the students from hispanic cultures and with an interest in those cultures show their pride, and get a glimpse of the diversity of campus that isn’t as obvious during classes.
This year’s theme for the dinner was Nuestra Historia, or “Our Story.” That meant the entertainment, decorations, and discussions all branched from the students of HLA expressing what their cultures mean to them. For some people it was dancing or music, for others it was quinceaneras or fashion, and for some of them it was crazy mothers that love a fiesta.
No matter the things they associated with their cultures, they all greatly enjoyed sharing that love with others, and we all greatly enjoyed being the people they shared it with.
HLA members are a wonderful group of students and I’m glad their dinner came together successfully. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll come up with next year.
 Last year’s document. Hey there,
In seventh grade, my teacher announced in November that we’d all be participating in National Novel Writing Month. I don’t think she expected anyone to take it very seriously, and we didn’t. A challenge to write 50,000 words in one month held no appeal for most of us. I probably didn’t scrawl more than a thousand words that year.
However, three years later, I decided I was going to attempt it again. I had part of a story written, but I kept getting writer’s block. I knew I just needed to get words out of my system, to word vomit and see them on paper. At first, I didn’t think I’d succeed, but to my surprise, I actually went over and finished with about 56,000 words.
The next three years were also successes. Junior year of high school and last year, my freshman year, I told myself I’d aim for 30,000 words–1,000 a day–but ended up writing the entire 50,000 anyway. Throughout the years, I only have one story that I actually don’t dislike, but I think the practice is worth it. And I truly do love to write once I actually start. This year, I know that I really shouldn’t try to win NaNo again. But I want to at least try!
Wish me luck.
Ema
The crisp air tickles the depth of your lungs, coating your insides with a fresh renewal only the breath of sweet fall can bring. The crunch of the colorful leaves un der your feet as you traipse across Red Square sounds the soft alarm that autumn has finally arrived. Campus during the fall is a sight to behold. With trees all around, every pathway is a tapestry of painted splendor. Every day I come back from class, I throw open the windows and let the afternoon breeze flood through my apartment, gently blowing open my curtains in the process. 
This year, being in an apartment, fall takes on a whole new charm. In the morning, I wake up to my coffee maker brewing fresh coffee. Because the sun sets earlier, after school and work, I curl up on our couch, and watch my favorite television program in the dim lighting of our living room lamp. Our kitchen provides a great opportunity to embrace fall foods – soup, grilled cheese, and stew are on our stove almost every day.
Following a beautiful fall care package from my parents, I have now adorned my apartment in the most enchanting and festive decorations. Lining the edge of our mirror above the bathroom sinks, purple and orange lights contribute a nice, warm, and October-y glow. Mini pumpkins sit on our window sills and fake candles flicker inside cracked glass candle votives. Happy pumpkin car toons dance around the cups and glasses in the cabinets and grace the center of the sugar cookies on the table. While I don’t particularly like anything scary for Halloween, a small scare is always a bit of fun, as long as I’m not the scared one J. So to finish off the fall decorations, plastic spiders crawl around the beds of my roommates (shhhh). With decorations complete and scarves hanging in my closet, I am ready for the temperatures to plummet. The cold never bothered me anyway ;).
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