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Bratislava, Slovakia is only a two and a half hour bus ride from Budapest – the perfect weekend destination. Two other friends and I found round trip bus tickets for $24 and a hostel for $20 a night. With prices like these, why wouldn’t we make the trip to visit Bratislava?
This weekend was one of the most memorable weekends for me. We went on a three hour walking tour of the city, visited the city museum, walked around Bratislava Castle, explored the ruins at Devin Castle, ate the traditional Slovakian dish with sheep cheese, walked along the Danube River at evening with the UFO Bridge in the background, and met a captivating group of Australian backpackers at our hostel. There were so many fantastic moments and I enjoyed every minute of the trip. This weekend convinced me that I want to have a career where traveling, exploring new places, and meeting new people are normal occurrences.
In Bratislava, this desire was almost like an epiphany moment. I always thought that I wanted to travel after college, but after this trip, I firmly believe that traveling is one definite requirement for my career. I am not exactly sure what that career might be, but I am hoping that Professor Ambrose at the Writing Center, the Center for Experience and Opportunity (CEO Office), and my academic adviser will help me sort out that (small?) detail. For now, I will continue to travel and when I return to McDaniel hopefully I can start making this dream become a reality!
 
This semester, as I mentioned in my previous post, I’m taking an English class called New Media Writing, a 3000-level class that students can count towards the English major or the writing minor. My last post focused mainly on our “Nichepertise” projects and the fact that we have a lot of class discussions on Twitter, so this time, I want to talk about some of the cool technologies and social media sites we’ve been learning about.
Every Monday, groups of two or three students give a 15 to 30 minute presentation about a different social media platform that the presenters had never used. So far, I’ve seen presentations on We Heart It, an image bookmarking site; Hootsuite, a post scheduling site; and IFTTT, a site that lets users create “recipes” using components of different websites to generate new information. (It’s kind of tricky to explain, so you should check it out for yourself.)
 Here are some of the affordances and constraints I quickly brainstormed soon after downloading Instagram back in September. This week was my week to present, and my group and I gave a presentation about Instagram. While most of our classmates already had and were familiar with Instagram, the three of us who presented had just so happened to have never used it before. And the fact that the app is so popular made it a reasonable choice to analyze in terms of affordances, things technologies let us do, and constraints, limitations of technologies. We’ve learned that in spite of how they sound, affordances aren’t always good and that constraints aren’t always bad.
 This handy adapter allowed me to project my iPhone for my entire New Media Writing class to see. Part of our presentation involved us giving a demonstration of Instagram. Because one major constraint of Instagram is that its desktop website isn’t very functional, we knew that demonstrating Instagram using a computer instead of a smartphone wouldn’t be very engaging, in spite of the long list of constraints we could generate about it. Luckily, I had some vague recollection from last year that it’s possible to use a projector to project a smartphone screen, so I emailed the professor to see if he could make that technology available to us. Within an hour, he had emailed me back with a picture of an adapter that could hook up my iPhone 4S to part of the projection system.
Being able to hook my phone up to the projector definitely helped make my presentation more interesting and engaging. My classmates were intrigued the fact that doing such a thing was even possible, and they were entertained to see me take a picture of one of my group mates as a part of the presentation–as we set up the shot, it was kind of luck watching a live video feed of the classroom from my perspective. Also, with varied success, we got our classmates to tweet and Instagram about affordances and constraints that they encountered with Instagram, and we had a class-wide discussion to wrap up our presentation.
It’s amazing how something as simple as a smartphone adapter can catapult a presentation into the 21st century. There are so many technologies available in classrooms now that I didn’t have either when I started high school or when I graduated high school — the generation of high school students that followed me has had access to some pretty cool stuff, and given how quickly technology is growing, I can only imagine the sorts of stuff you’ll have access to once you’re students on the Hill!
And by the way — follow McDaniel Admissions on Instagram if you haven’t already!
 Hey guys,
This weekend, I convinced my friends to go apple picking with me at Baugher’s. They have an orchard less than ten minutes away from campus, and it costs a dollar to go picking (though you have to pay for the fruit afterwards.) We got to ride from the marketplace to the orchards on haycarts, which was quite cute.
There were six different types of apples growing, and I got to educate myself on what apples other than “the red ones” and “the green ones” taste like–in my limited experience, this was all I had needed to know. My new favourite type of apple is the Mutsu apple, which is both sour and sweet at the same time and completely delicious. We ate apples as we picked, which is the best time to eat apples–straight from the branch!
Afterwards, we went to their petting zoo. While my friends went to find the goats and cows, I got distracted by a sweet little kitten that decided he was my new best friend. I must have sat there for at least twenty minutes just playing with him. I miss my cats, so I was really happy.
Now, we’ve baked a lot of apple things–apple pancakes and apple crisp and apple quiche
Ema
 This week I went to see the on-campus production of Buried Child. I went out to support our college theater and to see how the hard work of the students and staff has paid off. I also got to see some cool alumni that I normally would not get to see who came out to support the theater as well.
This play was slightly challenging for the audience because it made us question well, what is the meaning of this show? Why did the events happen this way? I know was a challenge for the actors involved but they pulled it off well.
The play covered such topics as interracial dating in the seventies era, family secrets, child abuse, and sexual abuse. It also covered on some levels infidelity, religion, and family disputes.
The actors, all McDaniel students, did an amazing job creating a three-generation family. The actors must have put great effort into their objectives, and the lighting, sound, costumes, and stage design was all wonderfully laid out and executed.
They even brought the audience into the world of the play by playing music that was relevant to the theme of the show.
The McDaniel plan is the way in which the college ensures you’re getting a well-rounded education. Requirements include but are not limited to scientific-inquiry, textual analysis, Jan Term, and Sophomore Interdisciplinary Studies.
Some classes I have taken that have fulfilled the requirements for me have been include Drama Therapy for my sophomore Inner Disciplinary Studies course, Introduction to Biology, Introduction to psychology, and Performance and culture.
Benefits include a better appreciation for the written word and oral presentation. I have learned to jump back and forth between Apa and MLA writing styles, I have also learned various forms of presenting. Other benefits are that you can fulfill these requirements while looking at different majors if you’re unsure what to declare. I came in a biology major on track for pre-med but by the end of my freshman year I realized this is not what I wanted and classes like Intro to psychology, Intro to sociology, and Human behavior in the social environment helped me pick what path I eventually wanted to take and they helped me fulfill requirements while I was looking for where I truly belonged.
The McDaniel plan keeps you active with gym credits. I have taken tennis, hap ki do, and yoga core to fulfill requirements for the McDaniel plan. I have enjoyed all of these classes however yoga core was by far my favorite. These classes help you find skills, inner strength and fight off the freshman fifteen.
It also keeps you involved in other areas of study besides just your major. I have met amazing professor outside of my major and I have met students on campus and become friends with them that on a normal day I would not have run into because they were not in my major. If not for the McDaniel Plan my life would be less than what it is today.
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