Alumni Lawn, 4/16/07

By the way, since I'm now in the habit of posting pictures, I thought I would upload this one as well. It's my favorite picture I've ever taken at Vanderbilt. Funny thing is that I took it exactly one year ago today while all of my friends were studying on Alumni Lawn. See the mixture of beauty and friendship you can find at Vandy?

Spring Fever at the Commons

Dear Prospective and Incoming Vandy Students,
I thought I would tell you about some really neat programming that The Commons put on tonight. They had a celebratory event called "Spring Fever at the Commons" with food stands everywhere and the opportunity to play games on Peabody Lawn. I took a whole bunch of pictures because I had such a great time and figured I could share them with you all. Click the link for the web album below and enjoy!

"Spring Fever" web album (I recommend the "Slideshow" option)


P.S. come to Vandy!

SPRINGGG

Okay, so I'm officially horrible about updating my blog...
There are a few things I've been meaning to write about in the past two months. I'll just write about all the cool Vandylicious stuff I've been up to...or at least as much of it as I can pull from my memory bank.
First and foremost, ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK. Oh my gosh. I cannot possibly write enough about it. It was the best thing I've ever participated in here at Vandy. You hear that, prospies? EVER. Come to Vandy and partake in ASB and you will have lived the good life. Have no idea what I'm talking about? I'll fill you in. ASB was founded at Vanderbilt in 1987 but has now spread to colleges all over the country because it's so cool like that. The idea behind it is that instead of going home or to the beach for spring break, you go on a service trip with a group of other students to a specific site and do a service project for a week. My group of ten students, who shall henceforth be referred to as my ASB family, went to McCreary County, Kentucky to work with a housing and development corporation there. We basically made a lot of house calls for the elderly involving painting, yard work, cleaning, and the like, but it was really cool because we met so many people who lived there and got to hear all about their lives (80 year-old Mrs. Wilson was my favorite--she made us a strawberry shortcake). Although the service part of it was fun (and fulfilling), my favorite part of the trip was making so many new friends. I mean, think about it: I spent one week with the same nine people living in a one-room house (not as bad as it sounds--it had bathrooms) and making WalMart runs with them. Oh, and every night we watched The Office, Season Three on DVD on Matt's computer (Matt was one of my site leaders). We also did these things called Life Maps where you tell your group members your life story and then they get to ask you all kinds of questions like what your goals are, why you came to Vandy, what you want to be when you grow up, etc. So I learned a lot about everyone's lives and families and dreams and personalities. It was the best experience ever. And then we came back to Vandy and have continued to hang out together. Actually, I saw a bunch of them on Saturday night at Alyssa's suite (Alyssa was my other site leader). End of ASB story (but please feel free to ask questions because, as you can see, I'm pretty obsessed).
Also...Cafe con Leche was a couple of weekends ago and was simply superb. It's an event put on every spring by Vanderbilt Association of Hispanic Students (VAHS) where they have all kinds of Latin American dances. Some of my friends were dancing in it so it was really cool to go and watch them do the Salsa, Tango, and lots of other dances whose names I cannot possibly remember, let alone spell. Cafe con Leche is cool though because just like Asian New Year Festival, Diwali, and other cultural events, you don't necessarily have to be a person of that cultural background in order to participate. Case in point: one of my friends who danced is half-Indian, one of them is Egyptian, and one of them is white. Yay diversity.
The thing that has got me in the BEST mood right now is the spring weather. It's finally here! And let me tell you, Vandy's campus beats them all. It is gorgeous here right now. All of the flowers are in bloom and wherever you walk, you're able to smell them and see the little petals everywhere. Come here for a visit in the next few weeks and try and prove me wrong. I dare you.
Finally, Rites of Spring is next weekend (!!!). This is a big deal, people. It's our weekend-long outdoor concert on Alumni Lawn where you basically pay like ten or fifteen bucks for a pass and you can go see musical acts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Just to give you a taste of who's coming this year, let me do some name dropping: Lil Jon, Colbie Caillet ("Bubbly," anyone?), Feist (so we can all rock out the songs from the Apple commercials), Spoon, Old Crow Medicine Show, and The Avett Brothers, just to name a few. I'm rather excited.

Oh, and by the way, course registration is going on right now so I'm pretty much like a kid on Christmas morning. Yes, I look forward to scheduling that much. It's just so exciting to look at the Schedule of Courses and see all the options I have for Fall 2008! I can hardly decide what to take. But anyway, if you're interested in sharing in the fun, click here.

I know all of you high school seniors out there have received your admissions letters by this point. Chances are that if you're reading this blog you've either been accepted or wait listed and are wondering if you should come to Vandy next year. Let me make the decision easy for you: Y-E-S. Really, you guys, it's no contest. Vandy is amazing and the opening of The Commons is going to make it even better. Trust me: I live here now (in The Commons) and wouldn't trade the experience for the world.
If you still need to be convinced, check out this blog entry that I found on insidevandy.com called "Top Ten Reasons I Love Vandy." I think it's very persuasive ;)

That's all I've got for now. Sorry for the lack of updates. If you're reading this, and you're a senior and you're trying to make your college decision, I would LOVE to talk to you! Leave a comment and we can chat.

Happy Spring!

Fiddler on the Roof/ANYF

Hey all! Thought I would write a post tonight about my Vandytastic weekend.

On Friday night I went to see Vanderbilt Off Broadway's production of The Fiddler on the Roof. I love this musical (who doesn't?) so I was really excited to see VOB's version of it. The cast was so talented and they really put on a fabulous show. The guy who played Tevye was phenomenal and all of the supporting cast (including two of my friends!) was amazing as well. It's always really cool to go to something like this and see how talented your fellow students are. That's one of the things I love most about college and, specifically, Vanderbilt.

On Saturday night I went to the Asian New Year Festival, which is an annual cultural celebration put on by the Asian American Student Association (for more about this club, click here) to celebrate the new year. This year is the Year of the Rat so there were lots of gummy rats scattered around on the tables--haha. Anyway, the evening started with an optional dinner of Asian food and was then followed by a ton of performances including a Korean fan dance, a Chinese yo-yo act, and a hip-hop routine that combined Asian and American pop songs. And that's only a small sampling of the night. If you'd like to see a slide show of ANYF, click here to go to InsideVandy.com and check out a presentation that my friend Ben put together. Overall ANYF was REALLY well done and it was awesome to watch my friends who participated in the dances and performances. And it was just a cool celebration of Asian culture!

By the way, are any prospectives out there interested in studio arts? I'm asking because I spent a couple of hours last night at Vandy's Studio Arts Center throwing pots with my friends Eric and Tom. I'd never been to our Studio Arts Center before but it was really cool! There was a lot of showcased student art and the building itself is just fantastic. I didn't know we had such great resources for Art majors.

Well that's all I've got for now. I'll try to write another post later this week! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Primaries/More on Classes

Hello friends. I thought I'd build off of my post from last week and write a quick blog about the best classes/professors I've ever taken at Vandy. But first, let me just say that Super Tuesday was so exciting! Lots of Vandy students went and voted and it's been awesome hearing everyone talk about the presidential candidates. Our student newspaper, The Hustler, has been providing constant coverage on the '08 Election, and the Vandy Democrats and Vandy Republicans have both been really active lately. People are certainly getting passionate about the upcoming presidential election and it's creating a really exciting atmosphere around campus. Just thought I'd share that for all of you high schoolers who are interested in politics!

And now, without further ado, here are my favorite classes ever:
1) History of Rock Music (Fall '06)
-Harder than it sounds, but definitely as interesting and awesome as it sounds. The prof who teaches it (Jen Gunderman) has played with tons of famous bands, and she even invited some well-known musicians to come to our class (like one of the guys from Widespread Panic...yeah). One of the assignments is to go to a concert and then write a paper about it using the info you learn in class; the other big assignment is to argue for a musician that you think should be included in the class. We learned about Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, James Brown, Dylan, Hendrix, The Doors, Janis Joplin, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Journey, U2, Nirvana, plus tons of more bands and artists. Way too many to list. But the thing I really liked about this class was that we learned about these musicians in the context of American history and how they affected or were affected by their own era.
2) French 115F: The French Experience in the Americas (Fall '06)
-Not as dull as it sounds, folks. This class was my freshman writing seminar, a.k.a. a class that all freshmen in the college of Arts & Science have to take (you get to choose from dozens of options). There were 12 students in the class, myself included. Five of them are now among my best friends (and one is my roommate). Our professor was fantastic and taught us a lot, but most importantly she made the transition to college work a lot easier. At the end of the semester she invited us all over to her house for dinner! (Yes, that kind of thing actually does happen.)
3) American Studies 100: Citizenship and Culture in the Early Cold War, 1945-1963 (Spring '07)
-Probably my favorite class ever. I loved my professor and I loved the subject material. We talked about everything having to do with the 1950s and how America developed or was hindered during that time. We also watched several movies that featured material we learned about in class. Taking this course made me want to be an American Studies major, which I now am.
4) History of World War II (Spring '07)
-Taught by one of the best professors at Vanderbilt: Michael Bess. This guy is the man (or, as my friend Ed would say, "epic"). He really knows his stuff. We talked about everything have to do with WWII, even the fringe elements (like popular music and art at the time). Prof Bess is even creating an archive based on interviews that we, the students, have done with people who lived during the War--mostly grandparents, but other people too. On the last day of class everyone gave Bess a standing ovation. Pretty epic.
5) Oceanography (Fall '07)
-Okay, let me just say that I seriously cannot stand taking science courses, and quite honestly I didn't exactly enjoy studying for these exams. However, that being said, Ocean was an awesome class because it really opened my eyes to what's going on with the earth, global warming, processes affecting the ocean, etc. It was just one of those classes that exposed me to something I had no interest in prior to taking it. Professor Goodbred is wonderful, too. Actually, my friend Kathleen and I refer to him as "Wonderbred," but that's beside the point. The guy is just really passionate about the ocean and he was a great lecturer.
6) To be determined, based on how my Spring '08 courses turn out.

Alright, so that's all finished now. Sweet. But before I go, let me mention that I enjoyed receiving comments on my previous post. Whoever asked me to talk about cool places around campus: fear not, you will get your wish. As for the person who asked me something about a math course: could you further elaborate on that? I wasn't quite sure what you were asking.

Happy Super Tuesday/Mardi Gras, everyone!

New year, new classes

Hi everyone! Okay, I'm ashamed to say that it's been more than two months since my last blog entry. It wasn't until one of my hallmates reminded me to update that I even remembered this blog! Apologies to all.

So it is now the fourth week of classes here at Vandy and second semester is fully in swing. Campus is a busy little hub right now; we've got Student Government elections coming up, our basketball team is winning big, and many student organizations are already gearing up for the 2008-09 school year (shout out to VUcept!). Not to mention that with April getting closer and closer, I've seen more and more high school students walking around campus either on tours or on their own. I am especially excited by this because I'm a tour guide, and we're coming up on our really busy season pretty soon. I hope everyone who has visited campus so far has had a great time! And if you've not yet had the pleasure of checking out our beautiful campus, make plans to visit soon!

Okay so classes this semester are awesome. That's not to say that I didn't like my classes last semester, but seriously, I have a great schedule right now. Let's do a quick run-down of my courses, shall we? I'd like to share them with you all so you can see the kinds of classes you can take at Vanderbilt.
1) Sociology of Education (Schools & Society): M, W, F from 10:10 to 11.
-Alright so this class is definitely one of my favorites. I have this really engaging and hilarious professor who makes every class worth getting up for. We've so far covered the history of American education, theories behind education, sociological concepts associated with education, different types of schools, etc. I look forward to going every day.
2) English 210: Shakespeare (the Tragedies): M, W, F, from 1:10 to 2.
-Let me just start by saying my professor is from New Zealand! He is awesome and has the best British accent you've ever heard. He really knows what he's talking about, too; the guy reads from Shakespeare and his voice literally booms. I've always had a hard time appreciating Shakespeare and he's slowly but surely helping me to understand the brilliance behind the poet. Right now we're reading Titus Andronicus which is pretty much the bloodiest play I've ever read.
3) English 273E: Starcrossed Lovers: T, R (R=Thursday) from 11:00 to 12:15.
-This class examines the problem of the "starcrossed lovers," a.k.a. two people who fall in love but are thwarted when they try to be together. Classical and contemporary literature are full of these characters. So far we've read Ovid's Metamorpheses as well as the story of Tristan and Isolde; I'm looking forward to reading Romeo and Juliet and watching Casablanca.
4) American Studies 295: History, Memory, Narrative: T, R from 1:10 to 2:25
-So this class is basically an undergraduate seminar (seven students) in which we're examining the theme of the American narrative and how historical events are remembered in American culture. I really like it because a lot of it is discussion based and most of our work involves reading novels and watching films. Yay for small classes.
5) PoliSci 245: American Presidency: T, R from 2:35 to 3:50
-Basically what it sounds like. I don't enjoy political science classes all that much, but I figured that since 2008 is the big election year, I might as well get informed, huh? We spend most of our classes learning about the history of the presidency and how the role of the president was crafted at the Constitutional Convention, but we also have scheduled in-class debates where students talk about topics such as the Electoral College. My professor is a really knowledgeable political scientist who wrote all of the books for the course; and not only is he really wise and experienced, but he is amazingly nice and reminds me of Mr. Rogers :)

Okay so that's the schedule. Five classes, 15 hours total. I hope anyone who has read this now has a basic idea of what a course load at Vanderbilt can entail! Unfortunately I have a lot of schoolwork to do, so I'll now have to conclude this post, but give me some feedback if you like the kinds of things I'm writing about! I'm thinking of having an upcoming entry in which I discuss the best classes/profs I've had at Vandy so far.

peace outttt