UMBC is closed?!

What? UMBC never closes! haha. The storm is that bad. So basically the timing of school closing and the Super-bowl last night made everyone crazy!! And now that school is closed again tomorrow my suite mates are gonna be up every  night this week with their music :/ It’s likely that we’ll be out all week because of the storm coming back tomorrow afternoon and then saturday. Because 2-3 feet wasn’t enough to deal with. It’s dangerous to walk, drive, it’s slippery, not to mention claustrophobic with the huge walls of snow! I feel very fortunate to have a place to stay and power. Cabin fever isn’t fun. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in worse off places.

I’m originally from New York so this is very surprising in Maryland. Apparently we’re getting a lot of record-breaking attention It’s quite abnormal. My room mate even heard the snow in Baltimore mentioned on her Korean news program! We’re making headlines globally!

So this leaves plenty of time to clean my dorm room, get organized, and read lots of chapters! FUN! Hopefully I’ll be nice and ahead of the game when school comes back maybe?? I miss walking and getting exercise! I miss the surrounding of people and the Commons. I feel so stuck seeing people only if we happen to pass by because it’s so hard to meet up! The dining hall is crazy too trying to feed EVERYONE. It’s like our only lifeline! Ugh I want my UMBC back, I miss my busy college campus life!!

Stay safe out there!

im over this snow

had a great weekend [[i have been snowed in at a friends house]]- played lots of games, built a fort & a slide on a pile of plowed snow…and school is canceled today! It will probably be open tomorrow, however, and i really wish the streets were plowed so i could go home and do work. my weekend food supply is gone, as is my supply of clean clothes, and i could be using this time to study [[sounds lame, i know]]. i think the boyfriend and i are going to try to venture home [[about 20 mins away normally]] which will probably take over an hour

also i want pancakes.

also i found out that my BU law school acceptance comes with a $90,000 merit scholarship ($30,000 per year)- which is close to a full ride for tuition!

this post consisted of quite a bit of rambling- i think that’s what happens when you are stuck inside for 3 days haha.

The Amusement Park Behind My Apartment

If you were sitting in my room right now you would be amazed at the brave college students still sledding at 12:12 am in the morning. You could hear the shouting and the clapping, not to mention the loud laughs and scream as they slide down the hill right behind my window.

It wasn’t such a tourist attraction yesterday. It was just a small path down a hill….now it looks like a legit amusement park…. I mean in snow… it has a long path, twists and turns and this morning they built a circle on the sledding path with snow that you would go through as you make your way down. It looked really tempting – maybe I should go out and try it

Listening to their voices I just couldn’t help my self so I went out in this terrible, terrible cold and I did the next best thing to sledding with them, I took some pictures – NOW you can see what it looks like too!

The fact that there will be no school tomorrow seem to be the reason for their increase in number……(I can hear them laughing now….wow )….. well — hats off to the brave souls that built this beautiful sledding path and the brave souls still out there enjoying themselves. I am off to bed.

Enjoy the pictures!

Tell me that doesn’t look cool…?!

Number of people are standing at the top end .. I was a bit far away when I took the picture

The side of the apartment that you see on the right is mine

Waiting for the next in line to go…

Super Bowl Sunday- Documented

So I decided to cover the Super Bowl for my next blog, kind of. See, it seemed like I covered everything but the actual game. However, I won’t bore you with the details in live time. Instead, I will bore you with the notes that I took during the day until the game of the game. Ahhh…that’s better. This is the same article that appeared in The Retriever Weekly on 2/9/10. Read on and enjoy.

12:50 PM- Daybreak. It’s a morning tradition to roll over, look out the window, and say “It’s going to be a good day.” Sunday was different, however. This wasn’t just any Sunday, this was Super Bowl Sunday. Today marks one of the two best unofficial holidays known to man, the other being Free Pancake Day at IHOP. I calmly laid my head back down to reflect on the significance of Super Bowl Sunday.

1:06 PM- My reflection ended up turning into a 16 minute nap. Even on weekends, it’s hard to resist extra minutes of rest. Anyway, from training camp to the Championship games, a team works, bleeds and sweats their way through a season in order to reach this day, the pinnacle of the year for the football community. The Saints and the Colts have proven themselves worthy and now have a shot to preserve themselves in football immortality. This is the stuff that athletes live for.

2:30 PM- My four suitemates and myself are all attempting to plan the menu for the evening by thinking about what places are going to be delivering and if we will have a way to go into Arbutus to hit up Papa John’s or Dominos.

2:49 PM- The consensus is Pizza from Papa John’s because a big pizza for 10 dollars is too good to pass up. We have no idea who will show up to the place for the game but just in case we are the prime location for Super Bowl viewing, we might need a lot of food for this one. Estimated time of departure: about 4:30 PM.

3:30 PM- In preparation for the biggest game of the year, the gang and I decide to sit down and watch some pre-game coverage so that way we can get even more hype than we already are. Larry Fitzgerald is doing an on field demonstration and that brings back memories of last year. Last year’s Super Bowl will be hard to top, but I naturally have an optimistic view of what will happen this year. We also agreed that Pierre Garcon will indeed be putting on for Haiti. That makes for a great story.

5:02 PM- Roadtripping time. However, in order to get to the fun part, work has to get done first. Since the Super Bowl comes in the midst of a big snowstorm. We had to dig out my friend’s car in order to pick the pizzas up. This didn’t come easy for the six person workforce that was assembled though. When we couldn’t even figure out how the reach the car without stepping thigh deep into snow and ice, it figured to set the tone for the job that was ahead of us.

5:25 PM- Now we all know that UMBC has a reputation of being the school that is open in rain, shine, tornado, or any other natural force that finds a way to come towards the school. In order to make sure that school would all kinds of open on Monday. The snow plow came through and splashed the workforce with wet snow while we were working to unearth the car from under its snowy grave. Thankfully, a bulldozer came by and made our job really easy by pushing all the snow that was in back of the car a bit further down the circle to make getting out of the spot a bit easier. Road trip to get pizza begins…and so does the hype.

6:09 PM- A text message from UMBC tells me that school is closed tomorrow. While a part of me is distraught, I have a feeling that I will be ok.

7:04 PM- Obviously I skipped the kickoff. Sue me. However, this review wouldn’t be a Super Bowl journal without touching on the commercials. I must say that the T-Pain commercial was awesome. I wish Jim Nantz and Phil Simms would commentate the rest of the Super Bowl with autotune.

7:20 PM- There is always one guy who has to be the one who pulls for the other team. Sitting in a pro Saints room with about 12 people and 11 of them were pulling for the Saints. The lone Colt supporter made it clear which side he was on. It’s too bad because he got drowned out when the Saints did something positive. There was enough food for everyone and there was still a whole pizza uneaten. I must say that that makes for good hosting.

7:33 PM- A Drew Brees pass to Marques Colston has the Saints inside the 5 yard line and the room is loving it. This had me break into a Scrubs like daydream for about 10 seconds which made me think that football is a great way to build community. Some girls even came in and watched the entire game after openly admitting that they didn’t even like football. I found it to be a great way to bond with those around me. All that was imagined all that in about 10 seconds.

8:00 PM- Halftime begins and surprisingly, not one left. I will say this: I could care less about The Who because they aren’t exactly in my demographic. However, the lights were pretty. Halftime is a total buzz kill for those diehard football fans.

8:22 PM- The second half begins with an onside kick?  Really? How screwed up is that? That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that though. I think that Mike Tomlin is kicking himself wherever he is right now because his idea worked a lot of better when someone else tried it.

8:28 to 8:38 PM- A Saints TD brought the room to euphoria. Ten minutes later, the Colts scored one more time to take the lead. The one Colts fan is the only one talking at that point.

8:56 PM- There is 15 minutes left until a champion is crowned. This game isn’t exactly the greatest game, but it’s still pretty good. I must say that I’m satisfied.

9:15 PM- Peyton and Eli Manning’s face of despair is amazing to see because I’m not a fan of either of them. I love to see the two of them lose and this is no exception. I’m loving this Super Bowl, because it has a better ending than the one three years ago that saw the Colts win the big game.

9:21 PM- Question- Why would a rooster lay eggs? I understand the point that Denny’s is trying to get across but roosters don’t lay eggs. Now that we realize that the chicken empire is safe, they need only worry about Chic-Fil-A and their endless supply of chicken. Nonetheless, recurring chicken commercials are funny to me. Denny’s takes the commercial title for this year for me.

9:24 PM- A pick six ends puts the game out of reach for Indy and Peyton has plenty of reason to be kicking himself until August. I’m happy because New Orleans seals their win and gets their first ever championship. As for Indy, I can’t exactly reprint what I think about them. Something about it being offensive. Oh well, that a wrap for a great day for New Orleans and myself.

Involvement Fest- Women in Learning and Leadership

So this past Tuesday, I helped represent W.I.L.L., Women in Learning and Leadership, at Involvement Fest. For prospective students, whatever school you attend in the future, be sure to go to all their club festivals that happen at the beginning of the year! What I like about UMBC is how they even do this one in the Spring as well, if you didn’t get the chance to get in a group in the Fall or if you come in 2nd semester. Involvement Fest is basically this 3 day long display of tables that show different organizations on campus including everything from sororities and fraternities, to religious organizations where you can learn about Islam, various forms of Christianity, or take part in Intervarsity Fellowship that combines religious practices, there’s even a Secular Student Alliance, there are political groups, groups that care about the environment, Vegetarians, Recycling Club, opportunities for community service, organizations based on your major, you name it! Definitely check it out. I was very impressed by the diversity of active clubs we have at UMBC.

So W.I.L.L is basically an organization interested in aiding women and discussing issues that face women today especially those in poverty, difficult family situations, and in minority groups. This past semester I took Gender and Women’s Studies 100, which was the most insightful and informative courses I have ever taken. I learned a lot about issues that continue to hinder men and women today in terms of discrimination and also about how certain legal policies can impede women struggling. This group ties into those ideas and most members are majors or minors in GWST. We also have guys in the group!! You don’t have to be a woman to know and care about the issues  I’m not even a declared major, but because I took the course I can take part in discussion and I might have a minor in my future.

We have some cool events planned for this Spring. Last year, before my membership, W.I.L.L got a lot of recognition for their Global Women’s Health Action Week, which now is going to be just one day of informative discussion about how women can take care of their bodies as well as issues facing women in other countries today.  So much of Gender and Women’s studies can be relatable to pre-law or pre-med or political science majors. I would recommend GWST 100 to anyone in those majors involving health and policy. We also want to do more regarding community service to visit women in need. We’ve also held  lectures on books and researchers like the discussion of Migrant Mothers of the Philippines we had in November with Dr. Rachel Parrenas. One of the other things that distinguishes our group from others on campus is our incorporation of feminist ideas that we’ve studied. W.I.L.L is very member-driven in that we only have leaders for SGA reasons not because there is an actual hierarchy. My ideas are weighted equally with those of our co-leaders who just facilitate duties. We have separate committees for different aspects of our group so there are several opportunities to lead. I myself, for example, lead the event for Involvement Fest with another member. I also record notes and our history as part of the Archivist Committee.

Ok this has been pretty long! So that is pretty much W.I.L.L. and Involvement Fest. Feel free to leave me any other questions you might have about UMBC groups. I hope to talk next week about being an Undeclared Major as well as provide some tips for Freshmen. My heart goes out to all you high schoolers finished with applications and trying to get scholarships!! It’s like the stress never ends. Don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s not the world, it’s only the beginning of your future, and you’ll have lots of other opportunities no matter where you go!!!

Mehr Schnee!

Apparently, within the next two or three hours, the sky is expected to open once more and pour between one and two feet of snow all over campus.  I certainly won’t be taking the light rail to Hunt Valley for another band practice this Saturday (which worries me because we have a show at the Recher in Towson, MD, coming up on Feb 19th).

Two days ago, I got to help hold down the Jujitsu table at Involvement Fest for about an hour, before having to run off to class.  It looks like we’re going to have a bunch of new students this semester, as with every semester.  Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to Jujitsu as much as I would have hoped over the course of the last semester.  In fact, I think I only went twice.  Animation is time consuming, and I’m already a black belt anyway, right?  Haha.  The truth is, once you’ve earned a black belt you are only just starting to practice the martial art.  I have no excuse to not practice in some way or another–so I’m making it a point to go as much as I can this semester, but it’s looking like tonight will be snowed out.

Hopefully it’s good packing snow–massive snowball fights around the dorms are always really fun.

The school work is finally starting to pick up!  I’m expected to have 2 NURBS models completed for Advanced 3D (a particular manner to create 3D models involving the manipulation of lines more-so than primitive geometry) on Monday, a 5-second “first iteration” of my own experimental animation process for Adv. Special Topics in Animation due on Thursday, and now the German vocab is starting to accumulate.  (Get it?)

There’s plenty of stuff to do this weekend, and it looks like I won’t be going anywhere!  Maybe I’ll keep stitching together my demo reel, also.  Stay safe!

Almost done…

I have to say, it’s turned out to be an extremely long first full week of classes.  But luckily, the  main chunks of work are behind me now, so hopefully my average nightly sleep can return to normal.  I’m looking forward to that.

Twice now, I’ve posted blogs saying “Wow! It’s snowing here!”  Well, it snowed again this week, and I guess I should stop being surprised at this point.  Tuesday evening the campus was blanketed by about 5 inches, and unlike last time, this snow was perfect for snowmen and snowballs.  So, late in the evening, a group of us decided to enjoy the snow while it was here, and take a walk around campus.  As it turns out, we ran into *many* people who had exactly the same idea.  After having some of our own fun, we ran into another (larger) group of people, building snowmen on academic row.  We joined up with them and helped sculpt a snowdog over the True Grit statue, and then have a ~20 person snowball fight by the Admin building.  In reality, I should have been back at the apartment reading for my class on Wednesday, but I made the executive decision that snowball fights are more important.

Apparently the snow on Tuesday was just a hint of what is to come on Friday/Saturday — The forecasts are generally calling for around 2 feet of snow.  I had some tentative off-campus plans in mind for this weekend, but it looks like they may be adjusted for road conditions.  Oh well, snow is always fun.

In other news, Involvement Fest was this week.  For non-UMBC readers, Involvement Fest is a 3-day long event where student organizations can set up tables to advertise and recruit members.  As I’ve mentioned in past posts, my friends and I have recently established a Foreign Film Club, so we set up yesterday to let people know that we existed, and try to woo some potential moviegoers.  It turned out to be quite successful, and we collected ~40 e-mail addresses, and got a lot of positive responses from students.  We plan on showing our first movie towards the end of this month, and then we’ll screen one or two per month after that.  We haven’t picked a movie for sure yet, but we have a few in mind:  Lagann (a 2001 Bollywood film), The Motorcycle Diaries (a biopic about Che Guevara), or Amélie (a French romantic comedy).  Yesterday actually has me a lot more excited about the club, now that I know there’s a large amount of potential interest among the student body.  Now we just have to get moving on actually setting up our first event!

This week

So yesterday I was very productive! It was my first real day of school in that I had assignments and quizzes. When those firsts come up you come to the realization that you’re back in the game. I’ve been waking up early and going to bed early as well which feels great. If I can give advice to anyone in reflection of the past week it’s that, if your schedule is well spaced out, you won’t regret it!! I feel so much less stressed than last semester and even from back when I was in high school! You have more time to plan, remember, and do work. I can review for basically all my classes two hours beforehand. I can also finish assignments.

I was so set on making a calendar for this semester to keep it all together, but actually in higher level courses you have less book work and more big assignments due long term. For example, I have 4 papers to write for Spanish in the future, which I have to plan for, but that’s really all I have on my to-do list and the papers have to be good quality of course! With more space in my schedule I feel that I don’t have to plan so much and I feel free to actually DO work! I like that better, doing it now, versus always planning for later hoping I have time. I’m also taking less credits which is a relief. Sometimes you gotta take it easy.

Which is another reason why I think I’m gonna stick with my courses. I think Creative Writing is going to be a good challenge for me and I like it. I could use a brush up in English it was my intended major! With education. Oh gosh don’t even remind me. That’s what I really have to be thinking about before this semester ends, a plan for myself. English and Education majors, Spanish GWST or Philosophy minors. What on earth am I going to do! Haha, it’s so hard to take it one day at a time, when I want to plan everything out and feel secure.

I hope later this weekend (when I’m stuck in my dorm snowed in!) to touch on Involvement Fest that happened earlier this week because I went to represent W.I.L.L. I can talk more about the organization and how that day went!

Maryland First Lego League at UMBC

I don’t know if you have heard of First Lego League tournaments but that was where I spent my entire saturday.

Maryland FIRST offers a progression of four programs for youth in grades K to 12, ages 6-18 these programs challenge and inspire nearly 1,000 students in more than 100 teams across the state each year. UMBC being a major partner hosts the tournaments each year in the Retrievers Activity Center(RAC). And the Meyerhoff Scholars program always helps by asking its students to volunteer. Being an affiliate I had a chance to be a referee at this tournament.

It was great! I had never seen anything this awesome being done with legos in my life before. The kids are so smart. Here is a summary of what the game is. So the kids would have a team of their choice and they would have a field with obstacles and twists and turns and target areas where they can earn points by touching — mind you all this is made out of legos and their task is to program their robot to do these tasks in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. And not only that the entire tournament is made up several parts. One part requires them to research a problem and present a solution to it like engineers but all their models would be made of legos. For me it was simply amazing to see. They really enjoyed and they were all engaged and thinking like young engineers and promoting team work. They got to do things hands on and they got to reasearch a problem and actually find a solution at that age -It was really amazing to see. And when they won they got these trophies made of legos.

It was really fun –   of course we had to stand most of the time and we were there from 7 or 8 am 5 or 6pm. But we were wearing the black and white referee shirts and I got to wear a funny hat too. It was just really cool to see. I’m glad UMBC is part of shaping such young minds. Check out some of the pictures below.

Check out our head referee… go Luke!

Check out their intricate robots….VERY COOL

During practice rounds before tournament begins

Look at us with our black and white stripe shirts and all..

The basket ball at the RAC with anxious fans and parents waiting for game to start.

look at them with their small lego trophy

I GOT ACCEPTED TO LAW SCHOOL!

YAYYYYYY!

I got the call in the middle of my 10am class, so I didn’t pick up. I checked my voicemail right after class thinking it’d be from a summer internship program I applied to, and instead i found out that I have been accepeted into Boston University School of Law’s Class of 2013.

I feel sooooooo much better knowing that after I graduate I have a plan- I am definitiely excited to hear back from the rest of the schools I applied to (Columbia, Chicago, Cornell, Boston College, UPenn, Emory, Georgetown), but hearing from the first is such a great (and relieving) feeling.

YAYYYYY!