Something New

Hello all!

As most of you may know, yesterday was accepted students day here on the Hill. Since my SPUD was canceled for the day due to unforeseen circumstances, I made use of the time pretending to be a prospective student with my friends Clara and Cynthia.

It didn’t work.

We tried going on a tour of Hanselman, but one of the tour guides happened to have a class with Clara, so eventually we meandered off towards Stein. We ran into another tour guide (whose name I still don’t know), and I asked her a question. She recognized me (and I’ve seen her around campus as well). Clara and I then wandered up towards the “Last Stop Information Center” and were immediately picked up by an admissions counselor, Tran Kim-Senior (despite foiling our plans, she’s still really nice).

We sat in on Father McFarland’s closing speech and I was, quite frankly, a little surprised to realize that everything he had been saying was true. I’m used to taking in admissions speeches with a grain (more like a handful) of salt, mainly because I understand that these colleges want you to go to their schools. But hearing Fr. McFarland speak, it was weird seeing how it was all true. I mean, at any other school, I can’t help but feel that my friends and I could have gotten away with pretending to be prospective students. But because Holy Cross is such a tight knit community, that epically failed.

I think it’s a good thing that it failed.

It’s nice knowing that you’re not going to a school completely filled with strangers. It’s just a pity that we can’t step in on your tours at this point.

Clouds of steam whirled around the head of one young, sweet, kind, hardworking (bet you can’t guess who I’m describing), pink-hatted girl as she took dishes out of the dishwasher, waiting for the clock to strike six so that she could go on yet another adventure.

The captains were kind (on a side note, fellow blogger Colleen was subbing for one of my normal captains, and we had a moment of blogger bonding when we discovered how sheltered we were compared to the guys on my shift during our break) and as soon as six o’clock rolled around, they let the girl and her coworkers go. The coworkers, headed for places unknown, went one way, while our young pink-hatted adventurer dashed back to her dorm, put on non-gross clothing, and ventured to Asia.

Well, that’s almost true. Technically, I only went to Hogan Ballroom. Last night ASIA, the (as seems obvious) Asian group on campus (Advocating Student Interest in Asia) put on their annual performance—ExplorASIAn. The performance includes dinner, and features dances from various Asian countries as well as several short video clips from the hosts, “testimonials” from some members, and  plenty of humor. And no, you do not need to be Asian to attend or be a part of ASIA. I am not a member of the group, but several of my friends are. I went to see them perform, and in my personal, completely biased opinion, the dances they were in were my favorites.

In short, the show was awesome. My future roommate Cynthia did a Vietnamese Candle and Fan dance, which was absolutely gorgeous to watch. My friend Abhi did an Indian hip hop sort of dance with his sister which was surprisingly fantastic (he never struck me as the dancing type). And then my friend Jenny did a Filipino dance called Tinikling, which involves having moving sticks on the ground and jumping around them. It looked cool, but I don’t think I’d ever be able to do it. My lack of grace and balance mixed with moving sticks could never lead to any good outcome. 

This weekend is also Visions Weekend for minority admitted students to come visit the school. I’ve met a few, and I can’t wait to run into more of you (no, I am not sketchy) during admitted students day!

Yesterday, I finally got to make use of the Consortium Shuttle for reasons other than exploratory trips to the Worcester Public Library—I went to visit my friend Jim at WPI! We’ve been trying to get together all year long, but because there is so much time in transit (the Consortium Shuttle is a one hour round trip) and my schedule is so spread out, there was no efficient way of getting there. However, because a class of mine was canceled, an entire window of time opened for me to go visit Jim.

It started off in a rush. Advising forms were due yesterday, and by the time I had gotten a signature, the time was 1:37 on my cell phone (which is always a minute off, for some reason). I dashed up to Hogan, and hurriedly pressed the elevator button in the hopes that the 1:36 bus had not already left. There were two very nice ladies in the elevator at the time, and when I breathlessly told them that I was headed towards WPI, they offered me a lift, as they both worked there. It was lovely of them to offer, but I declined, saying I’d wait until the next bus.

But lo and behold! The bus stop was packed with people with luggage waiting for the Consortium Shuttle to take them to Union Station. I hadn’t missed the bus after all. Collapsing on the steps, I had a brief chat with one of the WPI ladies, who happened to be a biotech professor, before the shuttle rolled in and I waved her a quick goodbye. Oh the adrenaline rush! After all the people who were going home were seated, there was exactly one seat left open for me.

I considered myself rather lucky.

A half an hour later, I called my friend, only to hear him answer his phone right behind me. It was a joyful reunion, and not only did I get a tour of their relatively flat campus, but I also got to try their dining hall cuisine (which is much like Holy Cross’) and watch bug-eyed at how good they are at math/science. It was insane, and made me feel rather good that I had chosen a liberal arts school. I feel that I would have missed the humanities far too much if I had gone to a place like WPI. Jim is in his element though, and I’m so happy that he found a pleasant niche at his school to be in.

It all had to end too soon, unfortunately, as 6 o’ clock came by and the last bus to leave WPI for Holy Cross came by. Jim and I watched it from the bus stop. It came up the driveway (we assume it took note of the numerous yellow school buses in its normal spot—there was a band function of some sort going on), backed up, and turned around, leaving two confused freshmen still standing at the bus stop.

Jim and I stood there for a moment before realizing it wasn’t coming back. We chased it down the drive, but alas, it got away. Luckily for me, my parents were coming up that night to pick me up for Easter break anyways, so I called them and asked if they could pick me up at WPI instead. I got an extra two hours to hang out with Jim, which were awesome. I even finally got around to learning Rummy!

At around 8 o’clock, my parents came to pick me up, and my heart racing adventure at WPI had come to a close.

I should totally visit again.

Advising is a lot like going to the doctor’s office—terrifying to think about, but pretty painless (and thankfully, unlike the doctor’s office, there is no chance of getting a shot). For awhile now, I’ve been schedule crazy, spending obscene amounts of time searching courses that don’t conflict with labs. I’ve been finding backup classes and backups for my backups. Ratemyprofessors.com has now become one of my favorite websites ever, and when it fails to find the professor I’m searching for, it does indeed make me weep a little on the inside.

Only a little.

For next year, I’ll hopefully be taking Genetics, Organic Chemistry (part two), Creative Writing: Nonfiction (at the urging of my Montserrat professor, and who knows, maybe it’ll teach me to write even better entries than the ones you must already love), and last, but not least, Introduction to Latin. My advisor nearly gave me a heart attack when he told me I had no free slots to take classes that I wanted to take for the sake of taking…but then we recounted and it turns out that I have seven free classes. And, because I am taking a second English class for the fun of it, I’m essentially taking the same courses as a bio pre-med student here. This means that for all of you looking into that means of study, yes, you will have slots open to take classes you want to take for fun.

In other news, I did not receive the position of Kimball Captain, but upon further thought, I’ve decided it’s quite alright, and I’m so happy for all the people that got promoted!  I’ll probably stick around Kimball next year, so perhaps I could even meet some of you lovely readers. And, if I’m lucky, you all won’t be bitter towards me for taking advantage of this blog to ramble about the daily occurrences of geeks (me) on campus.

I also finally met my fellow blogger, Melissa, for the first time last night! We were standing in line at Kimball together, and a mutual friend of ours said hello to me, which made Melissa realize who I was (alas, I am horrible with things like this, and would never have caught on that she was the Melissa). She was incredibly nice and we spent a few minutes in front of the silverware having a blogger-bonding moment. It was lovely.

Lastly, congratulations to everyone who got accepted to Holy Cross! As the applicant pool seems to grow every year, it was a tough decision for admissions to make, and you should all be proud of yourselves for getting this far. As I’ve mentioned before, definitely try and get a visit in (to all the places you’ve been accepted to) and see if you can imagine yourself there. Since you’ll be living the greater part of the year on campus, you might as well enjoy where you’re staying.

And please, don’t let the numerous Holy Cross stairs daunt you—they’re good for you!

That is, in my completely biased opinion…