Greetings

Hey! It's high time for a female voice... :-)

So this is my second night of Hopkins. I still am not getting wireless and hoping not to pay for ethernet--yet--so I am at the computer lab in the basement of my building.

So...I don't even remember what I did, so I am writing this out of the orientation packet.
Yesterday I moved in, went to a mandatory security meeting where all these police officers gave us a ton of information that I won't remember. I just know not to go 6-8 blocks into the city (versus along the length of the street where there is a sprawl of jhu buildings...does that make sense?) my building and I am good. We got beautiful brightly colored whistles that if we felt so inclined, we could wear as bracelets, to use in case of danger. Ezra (UChicago)--my mom mentioned she had a similar situation at Chicago. Anyway, lots of other fun things happened, then we had a floor meeting, with bonding activities. My RA gave our floor an Alice in Wonderland theme. I have to say, it is actually amazing. There are all these posters and collages everywhere. On the door to our suite, each person's name is on this huge card (as in, a card from what must have been a giant sized card deck) in glittery puffy paint. Every suite's door is like that. I'm kind of in love with it. I am in a suite--my roomate and I share a little hallway, bathroom, and kitchenette with two other roomates. Yesterday it felt like everyone was tucked away behind the suite door,and then in their room. But it is nice because I can go out and have fun in the regular dorms on the freshmen quad and then come back to my own space. Plus there is a lounge so that's good...

This morning was hillel bagel brunch, it didn't dissapoint. JHU is only about 12% jewish, but from what I've observed, there is a core group of active people. There's also an Israeli shlicha for the baltimore area schools.

Convocation was alright. All 38394 deans walked down the aisles in these grand robes and talked, and I kind of nodded off, and then it was over. It was kind of grand, in a way, and nice I guess. Then I had an SA meeting, met even more people, met more people on my floor. It does take effort initially, because everyone is kind of tucked away--but it's a lot of fun, and exciting because we can all cook. Actually let me explain something about my building. It's not on the main part of campus. There's the main part, then North Charles Street, and I am across the street, with some frats, some new sophmore/upperclassmen housing, and the hillel building. It's the part of campus that's actually in the city. But all I have to do is cross the street to get on to the main part, and there are plenty of other jhu buildings around.

Here's the thing--this environment is unlike that of anything I have ever done before in my life. It's really diverse, which makes it interesting. I knew almost no one coming here. At times, it seems really random...I'll find myself thinking 'my life/home is..here? Why?' I have to remind myself that it's not a summer program--I'm not going back to my house in two weeks. (I actually am for Rosh Hashanah) But it's been less than 48 hours, so that just takes time and adjustment. Creepy side note: I see faces I recognize--as in, the 60 jhu people who randomly friended me when I set up facebook a few months back. I see these faces everywhere. Can anyone relate?)

In conclusion, Baltimore is clearly the place to be...
Until next time--later!