Interviews, Nook, New Years Resolutions

Well tomorrow is the first day of class. I've been thinking alot about how I want to tackle this semester. I was pleased with the fall but I am absoluteky convinced I can do better. Hence why Ive pre outlined four bio chapters and two chem ones, plus I even got a head start with OWL. I feel extremely glad I did thus. Speaking of which, I am writing this blog from my new Nook tablet. I absolutely adore my Nook, its perfect for reading (no more late night reading by the fire) andI can carry by school notes with me at all times. Completely worth the week I spent bidding on ebay (winning it on New Years Eve), and the other week I spent tracking the package from two different post offices, each claiming the other one had it.

Anyhow this vacation allowed me to distribute my time between exploring my other interests such as calligraphy and writing and working with my parents. Its quite nice when your parents upholster furniture, Ive been to some of the coolest restaurants and most gorgeous townhouses in the city. I also helped during the interviews for the potential class of 2016. I was present during the first and last night. First night I was a greeter, I simply directed kids where to go from the lobby. Although there wasnt much time to talk to the kids, I solved this problem the second time around. The last night I was initially signing the interviewers in but when my friend needed someone else to accompany her downstairs I went with her. So this time, instead of simply telling the kids where to go, we personally took them up. This gave me a chance to ask them how they were and to ask them if they had any questions. I love talking to them because I was once in their position and I cam certainly think of ways that it could have gone better.

I always love volunteering at events like this, even in high school I adored helping out at PTC, open houses and schoo lfairs. I even some from people from Townsend Harris at the interviews. Its amazing the diversity of students that apply to Macaulay, their backgrounds (out of state), intended majors (environmental science) and overall look. Some wore suitsand were completely confident. Others were much nervous so I tried my best to ease their doubts. One guy told me he was tired and I told him to wake up, he needed to be alert and ready. It was quite nice to tall about my experiences at hunter and it really helped me to solidify my growing sense of belonging here.

19, Winter Break, and Chanel

Bonjour everyone!!!!
The spring semester starts this Friday and with it the start of my daily train commute, bleary eyes, and pre-med life. haha. I'm definitely excited for this semester. I enjoyed my first semester and look forward to a challenging, but thrilling second semester.
NYC had its first snowfall of the year this past weekend. I've been waiting for the snow to come for weeks, but I guess the snow God had enough fun with NYC last year and took his snowflakes elsewhere this year. haha. I missed the feeling of the crunch of the snow underneath my feet.

I've had a very relaxing break filled with lots of reading, watching TV and movies, sleeping, and daydreaming. It's going to feel strange to go back to school after such a relaxing month.

I got to see one of my friends from high school this past Thursday. We decided to go to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn and walk on the boardwalk. I had a great time. Since it's the middle of winter and it was a particularly cold day, we basically had the entire beach to ourselves--it was just us, a bunch of seagulls, and a few old Russian couples. haha (oh and we found this horseshoe crab shell on the sand right next to the boardwalk): =p

This past Saturday, I watched a French movie (there are English subtitles) called "Coco Avant Chanel", which translates into "Coco Before Chanel". If you're interested in Coco Chanel or just in fashion, then you will love this movie. It depicts her youth and her struggles to find love and become successful. It's really a fantastic movie and Chanel is so incredibly inspiring.

Yesterday was my 19th birthday. It was a great day--just a quiet birthday with family and some great chocolate cake. My dad started this tradition of getting me roses on my birthday a few years ago. Here are the 19 roses he got me yesterday:

I think I'll end each of my blog posts with a quote this semester.


Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it."
---- Lt. John B. Putnam Jr. (1921-1944)

S.

School!

All in all, I'd say I really am ready for the new semester. I am actually really looking forward to school, something I never thought I'd say. Not only do I get to go back to the dorm and see my friends, but I'm actually excited about going to class. I like doing well and applying myself. I'm pretty determined to do well this semester and I can't wait to apply this energy

Anthro-Human Evolution, and Statistical Psychology are most likely going to be what require most of my time. So that will mean a lot of studying in the ambulance and a lot of late night outline creating. I wonder if I will look back at this time in my life through a romantic lens and if all of this will seem very artistic. Maybe I should study at a bakery or read in Washington Square Park.

Bye.

Michael

Back to the grind

The Spring semester starts next week and I feel totally unprepared! Well, that's a lie. I'm prepared but not really looking forward to waking up before noon every day again. January flew by and I was in this sort of surreal state. I think I'm so used to long summer vacations that a long vacation in the winter is just confusing. I almost don't believe that I've been away from school for this long.

The highlight of my month off was definitely my trip to Philadelphia, where I attended the annual joint conference of the Archaeological Institute of America and the American Philological Association. It was basically a four day conference filled with all this classics related! There were 3000+ people attending, with over 100 lectures and presentations, workshops, receptions (a fancy word for parties) and an "agora" (as I called it) of Universities, publishing companies, and program directors trying to sell books, trips, and anything related to the study of philology and archaeology. It was one of the most amazing experiences I've had since I declared my major. I shared a room with four equally excited classmates and we all had a great time and met tons of people interested in the same things we are interested in. I even saw four of my professors there.

Naturally, after this, coming back to Hunter for a class seems a bit underwhelming. But I am excited about my classes this semester. I'm continuing to study classical Greek and Latin and I'm starting to learn German! (Actually, I'm not that excited about German. I'm kind of terrified.) I'm also taking a seminar offered by my department taught by one of my favorite Professors. This should be an interesting four months.

Hope you all enjoy your last few days of freedom. You will find me passed out on my fluffy bed until next friday.

xoxo

NOT study abroad, but abroad...

My dad and I landed in Dublin this morning bright (well, the sun was just starting to rise, so not quite) and early at a little after 8AM. After getting very little sleep on our 5.5 hour flight from Philly to Dublin (we had to connect after a flight from NYC to Philly) we were both pretty tired, but since we couldn’t check in to our hotel until 2PM, we decided to hit the ground running. After driving around the city for awhile, we decided to go to the Guinness Storehouse…

where I learned about how Guinness is made, the history of the company…

watched some funny Guinness commercials from the 1950s, and…

learned how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. We also had a great view of Dublin from the bar at the top of the storehouse…

We had made our way through the storehouse at a fairly leisurely pace, stopping for breakfast (scones, mmmmm) and of course, for the pint of Guinness included with our tickets, so by the time we left, it was about 1PM. After awhile spent figuring out where our hotel was and how to get there, we checked in. I must say, coming to Ireland during the “off-season” means you get great deals. Our hotel room is only 90 Euros a night, the room has a balcony with a great view…

…the hotel has a pool, and right after we settled in we had a bottle of Prosecco delivered to our door.

After I ventured out to find us lunch at a nearby supermarket, and got on the internet to check in with people back home, both my Dad and I conked out for a few hours. When I woke up, it was almost 7. We decided to walk over to the center of Dublin on O’Connell street and explore Temple Bar, a known tourist hub with lots of pubs and nightclubs, which serve an interesting contrast to the the medieval cobblestone streets. On the way caught a glimpse of the “Occupy” movement outside of the Bank of Ireland. We sat down at one of the many pubs for dinner, and I enjoyed some delicious Guinness battered beef pie with mashed potatoes…

(since I started the day with Guinness, I figured I should end it the same way).

Then we found a Starbucks! Hooray! It’s always interesting to me the things that are different at American franchises in other countries, but one thing that’s the same is free wifi! We whipped out our Kindle Fires and took advantage of this (the internet I’m using right now is through an ethernet cable). I looked up tipping in Ireland, since we had been uncertain at the restaurant (we left a tip as we should have, but apparently tipping for other services as you would in America is not expected).

Then we walked back to the hotel, and hopefully we’ll get a good night’s sleep so we can be fresh to take on Dublin again tomorrow. We’re going to see if we can get out hotel room for another night in the morning.

Kaitlyn

Vacation?

The holidays are over. :( I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

I am not taking a winter class this semester. I did last year, and although it was an interesting class, it was such a pain traveling in the aftermath of the blizzard. I advise all those planning to take a winter class to do so only if its offered online or if you really need to take it. Perhaps you should consider staying at hunter because it was quite difficult to travel from Queens in the snow.

I am planning on using this month to start prepping for the GRE. The GRE is essentially an SAT-style exam for graduate schools. I bought a few books and hopefully will be prepared by the end of this semester because I want to apply to schools in the fall. Most people brush off the GRE because a lot of it is review, but if you are planning on going to graduate school, you should take this exam seriously and prepare for it. I looked at some prep classes and most are around 1000$!! I am not willing to pay that much money. I will be prepping on my own with the help of practice tests. I think that is a great idea as long as I stay focused and actually do the work! (Which may be a bit harder to do without the structure of a class.) But I will devote one day a week to studying and I hope I stick to this plan.

Anyway, I hope you are all keeping warm! The weather is beginning to get very harsh.

xoxo

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had as much fun last night as I did :)

Since my last blog entry I have completed two huge research papers, received an A on both, taken finals, received my first grade other than an A in a class (a B in Political Philosophy - which I consider pretty good considering how much I struggled with the subject) and celebrated Christmas! Oh, and I made a short "film" for my Imagining the End of the World class with my bff and classmate, a Macaulay @ Baruch student. Here it is for those interested - it's amazing how many hours went into such a short video, and how amateurish it still is! But considering our lack of experience, I think we did a good job. And we had alot of fun.

ttfn

Kaitlyn

kt.ohagan@gmail.com