Sinai, Chills, and Gotham

Hey, everyone!!

Happy Halloween!

It's been a chilly end to the week, and I can finally feel hints of winter nipping at my heels. As much as the cold can be bitter and make it hard to go out, I also find myself liking it every once in awhile. It wakes me up and helps me clear my head. But ask me again in 2 months, and I'll probably be complaining about how cold it is and how I want to see sunshine and pretty spring flowers again. haha.

In my last post, I promised that I would tell you about the event that I went to last Saturday. I spent a majority of that day at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai's annual open house. I'm glad that I went because I learned some good information through the Sinai admissions officers as well as through current medical students. Everyone there was warm, welcoming, and honest about the medical school applications process and the medical school lifestyle. The big takeaway for me was that I need to continue putting in hard work so that I can be at a school as great as Sinai one day. After all, dreams don't become reality just by wishing for them to come true but by putting yourself, fully and truly, into achieving them.

On Tuesday, I found out that I got an A on my Jewish history midterm (the one that I mentioned last week)! Getting that exam back was definitely a good way to start the week. Now here's to killing the rest of my assignments during the semester.

Tuesday night was the first round of presentations in my gene regulation bio seminar. My professor gave critiques to the presenters right on the spot so that the entire class could learn what we should all do better in our own presentations. The great thing is that he's not grading these presentations (at least not at first). He's giving us the opportunity to revise the presentations, and he'll grade those revised versions. Super nice of him. He understands that this is a difficult class so he's trying to make it manageable for us. I'll be presenting on the 11th. Wish me luck!

So let's talk about non-school related things like TV!

I've talked about Grimm a number of times on this blog because I just love the stories that are shown every week. It's fun to see what kinds of "creatures" the writers will come up with next. Last week, they featured a guy with an octopus head who was able to steal people's memories. Yikes.

I've been following this show since the beginning of my freshman year, and I can't believe it's already in its fourth season. How quickly time goes by.

So if you have time over Thanksgiving or winter break, catch a few episodes from the first season. You might get hooked. ;)

A new show that I've been following lately is Gotham. It tells the back story of the city that a young Bruce Wayne will eventually grow up to protect. But the show doesn't focus so much on Bruce as it does on Jim Gordon, who will eventually become police commissioner. In Gotham, he is a young idealistic detective who is determined to help restore order in a corrupt and decaying city. Ben McKenzie is perfect for this role! He knows how to portray the young Gordon's idealism along with his struggle to keep that idealism in such a difficult environment.

Photo courtesy of Flickr

The show has been fantastic so far. The writers have introduced several characters that will eventually become important in the Batman storyline. It's fun to see how the writers re-imagine some of the origin stories of characters like the Riddler, the Penguin, and Poison Ivy. Gotham is also great at talking about issues within the criminal justice world as well as the various issues that come up in dense urban environments.

It's also beautiful to watch because it depicts characters and settings that have a 1940's feel even though the audience knows that the show takes place during modern times (there are cell phones). Some of the clothes are typical of the war period, and others seem to have come straight from our own closets. The police station looks like it could be from the 40's, but the apartments look like fancy modern-day ones. I think this interplay between two time periods adds a layer of complexity that makes the show aesthetically rich.

If you have time on Monday nights, check it out.

A photo of the rose that I got last week. Stunning, right?

S.

Quote of the Week

“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.” 

~ Confucius

A Film Adventure and Halloween

Hello everyone!

This past week has been a relatively quiet one for me. The assembly with Colum McCann that I mentioned in my last post was very insightful and it was an amazing opportunity to hear the author read passages of his own work and to talk about the motivation and meaning behind the wonderful piece of literature. The novel he presented on, Let the Great World Spin, is emotional and intense and I would highly recommend it! Although you'll all end up reading it anyway if you end up going to Macaulay Hunter so maybe you could wait until then.

In other news, my friends and I attempted to go to a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Chelsea Bowtie Cinema on Friday night, but arrived only to find that tickets were entirely sold out for that night AND the following night! Instead we just went and had some donuts and cried about not being able to see Rocky Horror. Other than that unfortunate incident, my weekend went well. I found out that I'll be acting in the next film for the Pied Filmmakers Collective, which is surprising and exciting since I've done production and directing for the first two films of the year. I originally joined the group with the intention of acting, so it'll be nice to get in front of the camera, although I definitely enjoy both jobs.

Speaking of film, I've decided that I'm going to take Film 101 over the winter intersession since it will help fulfill some of the Hunter Core requirements and film is something that I'm more interested in than I had anticipated. I'm most excited about taking it because that mean's I'll be able to live in the city over the break! Yay!

With Halloween, the opera, and spring registration all right around the corner, time seems to be flying by. I feel like I only just moved in a week ago, when in reality I've been living here for over two months! How did that happen?! I'm most excited for the fact that November is right around the corner, since Thanksgiving means I'll finally be able to go home and see my family, even if it is only for a few days. I miss them a lot and I'm very excited about getting to see everybody again.

Anyway, I should probably head off to bed before getting too sappy! Goodnight and stay well!

~ Adam Hobbins '18

Begin it!

Hi, everyone!

I had my first exam of the semester today, and it was for my Jewish history class. I actually haven't taken an in-class exam since my physics final back in May, but it's amazing how naturally I got back into my "exam-taking" mindset. But that doesn't mean that I wasn't nervous beforehand. I spent my morning worrying before I went in and took the exam in the afternoon. I felt MUCH better about it after I was done.

Then, my day got even better when I got a flower from someone. Yay for red roses!

The last couple of Tuesdays, I've found myself on a Central Park bench studying for a couple of hours. The weather was gorgeous! The trees were still mostly green with hints of orange and red. The sun was shining, and there was just a slight breeze. It made studying feel a lot less tedious. But the weather will be cooling down soon so I'll be back in the library. Not that I mind too much. It feels good to know stuff, if that makes sense. It feels good to be filled with knowledge and to know that my hard work is taking me places.

Then, Tuesday night, we had our penultimate discussion on scientific papers in my gene regulation class. That means people are going to start presenting next week, and the first draft of our paper is due in less than 2 weeks. Yikes. Much reading and writing for me in the days to come.

On Wednesday, we discussed this poem by Marianne Moore. It's one of the hardest poems out there but also strangely beautiful. Have a hand at deciphering it or better yet, allow yourself to float in the difficulty, which is what our English professor was telling us to do.

Tomorrow, I'll heading out to an event, which I hope to tell you guys more about in next week's post.

Btw, how are all of you prospective students handling the college admissions process? It's been 4 years since I've gone through it, but I still remember the pain of making sure every piece was just right. Please feel free to leave us questions in the comments section about anything and everything college-related. And please read over some of our old posts. There are great pieces of advice scattered throughout each one.

S.

One of my favorite quotes of all time:

Quote of the Week

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and endless plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself then providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe