Ups and Downs

Today's events were extremely varied. I had to rush to get out of the Hotel Providence, because we were going to check in early at the Brown summer program and then go immediately to a formal brunch with the Latino and African-American Brown alumni association. I took the fastest shower I've ever taken and ran down to the lobby with my bags. After all that, we had to wait for about half an hour for Ms. Kronenberg to take us to Brown in her rental car. The reason it took so long was because a triathlon was taking place in the city and many major streets were blocked off. It also took us an hour to get to campus. Registration also took at least an hour. I didn't realize there were so many students in the Summer@Brown program!

I learned much more from the alumni brunch than I thought I would. Mercedes Domenech (Brown admissions officer) and Joan Khattab (Wellesley alum and spouse of a Brown alum) both gave me very valuable information and advice about my college search. We will probably have an informal lunch with them this week to bond and talk further. I'm really grateful that they are reaching out to us, and that they recognize us reaching out to them.

When it came time to move in, I thought I was ahead of the crowd because I already had a fan and sheets. I was wrong. The rest of the group went to purchase those items while I stayed with Ms. Stewart. We didn't realize that they would be leaving campus to get these, since they were available for rent through Brown! Unfortunately, Ms. Stewart and I had to wait for more than two hours in the hot, humid weather. My wool dress skirt, my fancy blouse, and my new blazer were all sticking to my skin, and even my extra-comfortable foot-massage heels were starting to hurt just from the heat and the time spent standing up. We tried searching for them in the dorms and throughout the whole registration line, and Ms. Stewart must have made at least 15 calls during that time. In the end though, it all worked out, and I eventually got my bags and the knowledge that my friends were safe in their dorms too.

The stress wasn't over, though. I had left my wallet, my Brown ID, and all my registration information in Ms. Kronenberg's car. I couldn't believe I had just jeopardized my whole stay at Brown so quickly, when I had just been thinking about others being so neglectful. I went to orientation with my mind racing. After multiple tries, Ms. Stewart finally reached Ms. Kronenberg through Mr. Ramsey and brought me my wallet. I'm so thankful that she went through all that effort to bring it to me.

My new roommate is really cool! Her name is Janice, and she's from Hong Kong but she goes to German Swiss International School. I think we will get along great. The room is very nice, too. It has plenty of space, so it doesn't feel cramped at all. The day ended on a very good note.

My new bed, with my laptop's Internet running on my newly activated Brown wireless account

My new desk

I Fell In Love (With A College)!

It seems like all our bad luck from yesterday was reversed. We were on time to our morning college tour of Wellesley, which is a 30 minute train ride out of Boston. The weather wasn't as stuffy as it was yesterday, either. As you can see, the campus is absolutely gorgeous. It seems that everyone connected with the college cares about its well-being - physically, academically, and culturally. We met the student who was going to give the group information presentation, Monica, on the way to the admissions office. We walked and chatted for a bit, and then she started the presentation.

The Interfaith Chapel, With A Meditation Room and Free WiFi!

Monica turned out to be a Political Science and French double major, if I'm remembering correctly. That was exciting because I'm considering Political Science as an area of study, and she had plenty of information to give me. Wellesley has distribution requirements, and around 1,000 courses to choose from. Lucero grabbed a course catalog, so I'll be borrowing that to look at the amazing course choices more in depth. If you can't find a course that you want to take, or you want a dual degree, Wellesley has partnerships with schools including Babson College, Brandeis College Olin College of Engineering, and MIT.

You can create your own major. Some of these "custom" majors have become standard majors because they are so popular, such as Latin American Studies and Cinema/Media Studies. The average class size is about 18 students. The students I talked to experienced class sizes ranging from 2 to 30 at the very largest. All classes are very discussion-based, which I like a lot. The professors are very involved with the students and often go way beyond their required office hours to help out students. They will even invite whole classes over to their houses for dinner and discussions! There are absolutely no TAs and all classes are taught directly by the professors. A full 98% of the professors have either a doctorate or the highest degree in their field.

Undergraduate research is very highly encouraged, but not required. Monica was interested in the differences between Clinton's and Obama's efforts towards health care reform. She talked to her professor, and that little spark became an entire semester doing independent study on this project. When the bill passed, she wrote an essay on it for her final project. In the sciences, you can design your own experiment and present at national science conferences. Research can happen either during the year or over the summer, can be funded by 100 different grants, and can start as early at 1^st semester freshman year. MIT supports Wellesley student research as well. If you research in conjunction with professors there is the possibility of getting paid by the university.

A Reading Area in the Library

The Student Activities Center

Before the tour, I wasn't even really considering Wellesley because it wasn't strictly urban and because it's a women's college. But everything else in the picture fits so well that it didn't even matter. Anyways, it's a short bus or train ride to Boston, and many students go to Boston for the weekend. Plus, students from the four colleges mentioned above can also take classes at Wellesley, and that includes some men.

Science Presentations in the Science Library

Cool Staircase in the Science Library

A Typical Dorm Room

The Outside of the Dorm

At Wellesley, there is everything you could ever want academically and in extracurriculars. There's lots of student activist groups, focusing their efforts on both outside and inside the campus. While I was on the subsequent tour, I teared up a little bit thinking of how perfect Wellesley is for me. I am definitely applying, and I will try my best to get in. On the train back into Boston, we ran into two Wellesley students going to Boston for the weekend. Mariana and I struck up a conversation and they answered all our eager questions. Becka (woman on the right - I'm sure I'm butchering her name, it's actually more complicated) explained to me what the Peace and Justice major is. It's basically a way to look at world events that's a little different than sociology or history. It assumes that something is wrong where there is no peace or justice and that something should be done to change this. Peace and Justice is often combined with other majors, such as Economics or Political Science. This really appealed to me and just reinforced my liking for Wellesley.

Boston College, next on our schedule, just couldn't measure up to Wellesley. Our group gave each other disappointed looks as soon as we walked on campus and felt the entire atmosphere change from engaging and honest to almost generic and rather uninteresting. The student presenters for BC were interesting enough, but they didn't have the same passion and academic caliber as Wellesley students. The thing I liked the most about talking to those students on the train was that they weren't being paid by the admissions office to present, like the tour guide and Monica were. They were giving us their honest opinions.

A Statue at Boston College

The Emphasis on Sports and School Spirit at Boston College

We concluded the day by eating at a very elegant restaurant called L'Espalier. It was some of the best food I've ever eaten. I ate tempura crab, beef tenderloin with many different ingredients that I'd never heard of, and strawberry Bavarian ice cream. It was wonderful.

I talked to Ms. Kronenberg about possible ways to improve the Ivy League Connection for future years. The program is so great already but it could always be better. Hopefully, our group will work on informing students who are interested in the ILC. We also plan to present about student nominations at the first faculty meeting of the year at El Cerrito, and share our presentation format with the other ILC groups so that they can present at their own high schools. It felt great to be treated like an adult and have my ideas valued. I'm very grateful to everyone who's made it possible for me to be here right here, right now. Today, my special thanks goes to Mr. Crosby, who initially nominated me for this program. He wasn't required to nominate anybody at all, but he picked me out of all his classes. I really appreciate that he cared enough to do that. Thank you so much. I'm having one of the best experiences of my life right now.

A Trident and a Butter Knife?

I held a small silver trident in one hand and a metallic butter knife in the other. Mrs. Kronenburg, Mr. Ramsey, and the Brownies sat around a rectangular table. I stared at the fish centered in the middle of my plate, framed by small and black bead-like balls, lettuce of some sort, and brown squares.

We were at the fancy restrant, L’espalier, where arms covered in black material and hands come out from behind you and grab your empty plate immediately, where your water glass is never half empty, and where they push your chair in for you as you sit down. This was a new and fun experience for me with amazing strawberry lemonade.

The halibut was great mixed with the food around it. Suddenly I noticed a weirdly shaped brown and lumpish thing on my plate that looked like some kind of meat. I swallowed. I had eaten smaller squares of this…delicacy. Nightmare images spun in my mind at a sickening pace that it was snail meat. I asked one of the waiting waiters behind me what it was.

“Squirrel,” he informed me. The world began to spin a lot faster.

“What?” I asked quietly. I pointed at the stuff again hoping he was mistaken. Surely, he thought I was talking about something else!

He pointed to the lettuce and named it something similar to squirrel in his accent. Then his finger moved to the lump on my fine plate. “Mushroom.” Nothing sounded better to my ears. The world slowed down to its normal speed and my throat suddenly cleared itself.

Nothing matched that tense moment for me even though today was a bit rushed with two collage tours and information sessions! I visited Wellesley College, an all girl school, and Boston College that is Catholic based. I liked Wellesley’s internship program, that you could take classes at MIT, and that there was a piano in all the living rooms of the dorm buildings. I liked Boston College’s dorm system where you can get a full kitchen when you are a senior and have your bathroom when you are a sophomore, the craze for sports, and old buildings. Plus Boston College’s dorms have air condition! I will look for these types of things in other colleges and universities.

Tomorrow I go to Harvard!

Feminism and Fashion

If there was a prize for the most feminine day possible, I think I may have just won it.

Let me explain: after a glorious extra half hour of sleep, I woke up to awful cramps.

But it wasn’t all bad. To continue with the femininity, we visited Wellesley College today. An all-woman college. And unlike the Connecticut College Catastrophe of 2010, our visit today was above and beyond.

My close friends (and heck, even acquaintances) could be heard describing me as “boy crazy.” If you told them I was interested in a woman’s college, they’d laugh and laugh until they couldn’t breathe.

But today some incredible women opened my eyes to a different college experience.

Usually the information sessions you go to are all the same. “We have a great study abroad program,” “our faculty have a great relationship with the students,” etcetera, etcetera.

At Wellesley today, a charming woman named Monica finally told me something new. She had me interested at the get-go. She told us all about the cross-registration program, where you can take classes at other colleges, including MIT!

Now if you know me, you know MIT is probably the farthest school from my interests. But after hearing her talk about a friend who took a creative writing class there through Wellesley’s cross-registration program, I thought, hey, maybe I can actually make at MIT, the bane of my existence.

Marisol and I often joke, because she’s a math and engineering girl, and I’m the writer. She wants to go to MIT, and I don’t. She’d sure get a kick out of me not only going to an all girls college, but taking probably the only creative writing course at a school famous for it’s engineering.

A tour followed our info session, and we got to see the beautiful campus, with greenery that reminded me of and surpassed that of Berkeley’s. The more our tour guide talked, the more she won me over!

Surprisingly, the non-male factor was the farthest thing from my mind. My only complaint was the construction, which our guide assured us would be done by the time we might apply.

A look at the course catalogue only solidified my interest.

And as if I wasn’t completely won over already, as we were boarding the train to get back, I struck up a conversation with two Wellesley students—one who had just graduated, and the other who had just finished her first year. Two completely different perspective from current students, and they were both glowing reviews. We actually exchanged email addresses, so that I could get in further contact with them, which I will definitely be doing.

Our visit to Boston College was unexciting and uninspiring compared to Wellesley, so I won’t bore you with the details of that. I couldn’t make that witty and interesting if my life depended on it.

The third and final portion of my day (and blog entry) centers around an ages old female tradition: sacrificing comfort for the sake of fashion.

Shall I elaborate?

We went to a lovely dinner (and ate some delicious food) with Mr. Ramsey and Mrs. Kronenburg. To this dinner, I wore a gorgeous black dress and a pair of four-inch heels; black and white Oxford pumps, the most beautiful shoes I have ever seen.

Now we were lucky enough to catch a cab to the restaurant, but not so lucky on the way back. Now I have worn these shoes before, and other than aching arches, they’re not a problem.

But in the humid Boston heat, even your feet can sweat, and mine sure did, leaving my feet sliding around in my shoes, my toes rubbing against the peeptoe. It left two of my toes completely raw—I had to use antibiotic cream and band-aids to cover it up, because it was not pretty.

So from feminism to fashion, I guess you could say I had a pretty girly day. And for the most part, it was a pretty great one.