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The Weekend! {The Weeknd}

November 20, 2012 in Reid's Blog by Reid | 2 comments

Hi everyone! I’m back in Vermont, hanging out with my dog and cat (and a new addition to the house: my little sister just got a mouse….). I think I’ll give you a weekend re-cap; those are my favorite.

Thursday:

I woke up really early after a six hour a cappella rehearsal the night before, and studied a bit before my Stats exam, which was held in a different hall where I haven’t had a class yet [Emerson]. After that was done, I went back outside into the chilly air, done with class for the day. Afterwards, I had an incredible voice lesson with Tom Jones, my teacher, in the beautiful chapel of the Old Baptist Church in Cambridge: great location and great acoustics! Then it was off to the info session at the Admissions Office (I’m hoping that one day someone in the sessions recognizes me from the blog), and after work I headed up to Porter Square to Rosie’s Bakery to pick up a DELICIOUS cake for Erin’s birthday (she’s one of the Opportunes). Then I trekked back down to the Holyoke Center to receive my award for the European Photography Contest, which was exciting and really cool, because I got to see everyone else’s incredible photo skills. Then down to the Crimson for my final Maestro (when we decide what’s going on with the cover for this week’s edition of the Arts Supplement) and then back for more rehearsal in the Lowell Bell Tower! We sound really good but getting ready for Jam sure is exhausting work. I crashed late on Thursday night!

 

The Opportunes looking fancy

Friday:

I went to Central Square on Friday after cleaning my room in preparation for the boy from Yale who I was hosting, and took a few photos for The Crimson. After returning back and eating lunch with two of my fellow Opportunes, we had a 2 hour rehearsal and then were set free … for a few short moments. I had to go pick up the Yale boy and bring him to my room so he could drop off his stuff, and then head back to do a soundcheck in the Queen’s Head Pub for The Nostalgics, as we had a gig that night, too! Then I had to sprint over to Harvard Hall, where The Opportunes had an a cappella performance with The Spizzwinks(?) of Yale; my mom, little sister, cousin, and grandparents came, and my grandmother was serenaded by a Spizzwink which was hilarious. It was very fun soloing in front of an audience with The Opportunes for the first time! Then Leah and I ran over to the Queen’s Head and played the best gig we’ve ever done– we even sang our new original tune, and everyone was going craaaazy. Afterwards, we went to an Opportunes party and I met a few of the alums, which was sweet, but I’d like to get to know them more, and most likely will next week at Jam. The night ended rather late again, unsurprisingly.

Central Square looking cool

Saturday:

Saturday was game day! Harvard-Yale takes place every year, and this was the 129th time that it’s occurred; after waking up very early, my Crimson friends and I went tailgating with hot chocolate down at the Athletic facilities and met up with our other friends. Everyone, it seemed, was there (although I know that’s not true because I didn’t go last year). In celebration of my first Harvard-Yale, Harvard decided to make it a great game and win for me! Yay! Then I worked a bit at the Crimson, and went back to my room to eat Kong with my mom and my little sister. That was surprisingly fun. As tired as I was, I had to rally and go sing at a surprise birthday party in John Harvard’s at 8 with The Opportunes: my final hurdle before returning home. After the gig, I jumped in the car with my family and we drove home to Vermont…it was a pretty great ride, but mostly because I slept the whole way.

H-Y!

Sunday:

I did nothing! Aaaay!

Monday:

Had to start my STAT 101 Exam…are you kidding me, there’s a take-home component?! Then went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving which was crazy. So much food. Then my friend Ashley came over, and because she is vegan and gluten-free, I made this super delicious carrot ginger soup and falafel. YUM.

Tuesday:

That’s today. What have I done … oh! I made a pesto avocado egg sandwich and I ate that. I’m going to pick up Anneli (my friend with whom I spent a large portion of my summer in France) and Cynthia (my roommate) who are spending Thanksgiving with me! I also will be going shopping, and finishing my Stats exam.

 

Have a GREAT Thanksgiving, everyone!

-Reid

 

 

Oh, also, mandatory Beyoncé picture:

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Bulletproof

November 6, 2012 in Reid's Blog by Reid | 1 comment

Hello readers!

I am currently hanging out in Currier D-hall, procrastinating and blogging in lieu of writing my Ethnography of Food research paper…which is due on Wednesday. (Whoops! Just passed in a p-set, though, so I need a bit of an academic break.) I was on retreat for my a cappella group, The Opportunes, this weekend, and had an incredible time in Walpole at one of our member’s house; we learned three new songs (one being a pop medley) as well as some spicy choreography, so our jam in the end of November should be a great show! This week is going to be relatively relaxing before next week takes over and I have about 5 hours of rehearsal a night (thus earning it the name of ‘Hell Week,’ although we all love singing and being among one another). Eek!

 

Opportunes on train tracks!

 

 

I’ve been a lot busier this semester with non-academic activities, and it’s taken me a while to realize that I really love doing my extracurriculars…more than my academics. Therefore I will be dropping out. Just kidding! I love being in such a vibrant community and mostly have to strike a better balance next semester. My goals, published for all the world to see, are as follows:

  • Decide a concentration [major] that is just rigorous enough to push me [but not over the edge].
  • Take awesome classes next semester, and get good marks!
  • Work at The Harvard Crimson (our newspaper) again and have a sweeeeet time.
  • Don’t tour-guide as much, as it really hurts my voice and I don’t want to endanger my vocal cords 🙁
  • Train to be a FOP leader! (I am applying and would love to lead a bunch of first-years into the wilderness.)
  • Hopefully be on the Speak Out Loud team again, as the competition is at Barnard College this year (and I was so close to going there). We will see after this weekend’s slam on Saturday night.
  • Improve The Nostalgics website and send out the majority of our band on an incredible final semester.
  • Have more time! (Hah, hah, hah.)
So hold me accountable to that, all of you!
Hmm so what’s new in the ‘Vard?  Not very much, as a matter of fact. I’m pretty tired, it got very cold this weekend, and it’s only Monday! I’m ‘shooting’ for Editor at Large of the Multimedia board of The Crimson, which means I have to have a lot of little meetings so that I can convince everyone deliberating on my position that I am the one for the job. I find out pretty soon, too, so that will be good to know.

Ah, the Charles

A few things that I’m nervous/excited about:
  • The Election. I am already biting my nails. I cast my ballot today via overnight mail to Vermont, and will be up all night tomorrow; I am hoping to not be disappointed.
  • The results of this week of Crimson delibs; will I be an executive again?
  • What my paper will become!
  • New sweatshirts for the Opportunes, which should arrive on Friday if all goes well 🙂
  • Declaring my concentration officially.
Ooof, I think that’s enough bullet points for now. I should probably work on this paper….and start all the things  I’m excited about (well, not the election).
Have a lovely election day, my fellow Americans. To those internationals reading this, send us good tidings in such a tumultuous, political time!

Well isn’t this terrifying

Until next week,
-Reid

 

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Harvard Mindfulness Outlets and the Senior “Bucket List”

April 13, 2012 in Alumni Blogs by npadilla | 5 comments

Yoga at home in California at the beach!

As you can imagine, Harvard students feel a bit stressed with the school load and extracurricular, not to mention any jobs on the side. But lucky there are great recourses for the overworked mind. Two of my favorites are the prevalence of meditation and yoga on campus.

 

The law school (Hemenway) and undergraduate (MAC, or Malkin Athletic Center) gyms both have a variety of group exercise classes for free for undergraduates all through-out the week.  A number of these are yoga classes ranging from the common Vinyasa Flow style, to the more healing and relaxing Hatha style, each with classes from beginning to more advanced.

 

It’s amazing to me what an hour of your day dedicated to staying in the present moment with yoga can do for your concentration, energy, and positive emotions. I recently took one of special Sunday yoga courses, which change each Sunday to a more adventuresome focus. The one I did was on headstands and shoulderstands—after being in cheerleading and gymnastics for most of my pre-college life, this turned out to be a ton of fun!

Yoga headstands

Invigorated by the powerful healing aspect of yoga, I recently helped get my parents into it—after much persuasion, they are now both taking private lessons in it, liking it so much. Now that I’ll be graduating soon, I realize how lucky I am to have free yoga classes as many places typically charge $12 or more of class.

 

In an effort to extend the benefits of yoga to everyone in the community—for it should be something everyone has access too, not just though you can afford it—, I recently applied and got an interview for the Karma Yoga Studio Community Program, a Harvard-based student program that works with the local Harvard Karma Yoga Studio to provide extremely discounted yoga training to students (such as myself) who then will provide a certain number of community service hours of yoga teaching to underserved populations such as the homeless or high school students. I’ll keep you updated on how that process goes.

And, of course, mindfulness techniques at Harvard can be cultivated in the form of meditation. As part of my “senior bucket-list” (a list I started to try and complete all the things I’ve always wanted to do at Harvard before leaving), I finally went to the Harvard Meditation Club. I’ve done meditating at home and at the Harvard Women’s Center, but stop going to the Women’s Center one.

 

The Harvard Meditation Club has two weekly events, a teacher-led session on Tuesdays, and a student-led session and philosophical discussion on Saturdays. I went the Tuesday session and loved the energy that came with group meditation and discussion. I know I’ll get going back.

 

I’m about to take off for yoga class (Yin Yoga at Karma Yoga Studio), but thought I’d just provide my senior bucket list thus far:

 

Senior Bucket List

 

To Do

* Use the Leverett House Darkroom to develop photographs

* Eat at the local Greater Boston Buddhist Center

* Go to every (or the most possible) house’s Master’s Open House [we went to Kirkland’s yesterday for dessert and coffee]

* Apply for a DAPA (Drug & Alcohol Peer Advisors) Grant for a food-centric party with friends

* Go to the Harvard Observatory in the Science Center

* Check out Adam’s basement tunnels

* Go to a play, opera, or otherwise (two in mind so far!)

Art from the Adam’s House Tunnels

Completed

* Rock Climbing in Lowell House

* Harvard Museum of Natural History

* Fall asleep in a library [Cabot Library]

* Get lost in Widener

* Get a free water

* Go to Harvard’s 3am eateries  (e.g., The Kong, Felipe’s, Nocs, & Falafel Corner)

* Get a free DAPA water bottle

* Classes at the Innovation Lab

* Leverett Sherry Tasting with the Master

* Write for The Crimson

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Innovate or Die (?)

February 23, 2012 in Reid's Blog by Reid | Permalink

 

Hello Everyone! I’ve been really, really busy (in a good way) these past few weeks, mostly with Crimson and school stuff, which is obviously a blast. Although I’m getting worn down, I think I’ve been structuring my day properly to allow myself enough time to do exactly what I need to do and still get some rest. Do you know that I sleep 8 or 9 hours a night? Yep. I do. I pride myself on that, and basically my theory is that anyone who gets less sleep hasn’t organized their time well enough, or totally overbooked themselves. I have managed to (kind of) find a balance, with the help of some schedules and structure.

My schedule from yesterday afternoon…pretty full, but totally do-able!

 

So what, exactly, have I been doing? Same old, same old, except for this INCREDIBLE and very bizarre event I recently went to. It was called “Experiencing Economies; Innovate or Die,” and basically it was a tour of innovative and design businesses/spaces in Boston which ended up selling out in one minute (there were 50 slots, too). My favorite place that we went to was Continuum, an innovative consulting corporation that was definitely one of the coolest places I’d ever been. I was covering this event for The Crimson, and ended up going all alone on a tour with a ton of grad students and people who were older than me. It was all very secretive, and I really had no idea what to expect, so the bus that I boarded could have been going to Akron, for all I knew! However, we ended up at Harvard’s iLab first, which is essentially a large technologically-innovative and up-to-date building where students from MIT and Harvard can come in and collaborate on big ideas, eventually getting funding for them. It’s about half way between Harvard and MIT, and was really cool. There, we did a psychology experiment on advertising and branding, lead by a History of Psychological Science Graduate student. Here are some photos from the event!

Some Art at the iLab

 

This was pretty cute…and cool, because people were drawing on the walls!

 

This was definitely my favorite quotation.

 

Some photos of the psychology experiment….bringing me back to my SLS-20 (intro to psych) days!

Obviously, my artistic and academic abilities were put to the test! The next stop that I enjoyed was Continuum, because there was an incredibly interesting exhibit set up there; these two women had gone into Boston’s inner-city high schools and worked with students who were affected by violence, and they broke that violence down altogether. They filmed fights and replayed them to analyze how they worked, charted the cycle of a fight, talked about the differences between domestic abuse and gang violence, and went into extreme detail to help these students work out the true definition and consequences of violence.

This was really inspiring.

 

This exhibit was moving, and made me really consider pursuing a career within Continuum; it puts creative and innovative ideas to good use, for the benefit of others. What could be better? By the time the exhibit was closing, I started to get really, really hungry. Luckily, there was tons of food, and my friend Ned was bartending, so I could swing by and visit him!

Yummmm

 

Ned with the red suspenders!

 

The evening was a total success, and after I went to my friend/bandmate Noah’s 21st birthday party, I fell asleep both content and inspired. Check out the OFA article I wrote here!

 

The next day (Saturday), it was my mom’s birthday! I called her up a million times until she answered, chatted with her for a while, and was on my way. I love my momma! I had to finish a photography shoot for the cover of this week’s Crimson Arts, so I ended up staying at the Crimson all day Thursday, for part of Friday, and for a while on Saturday and Sunday in order to finish up the cover with my fellow exec, Dean. Here are some behind the scenes shots!

Dean photographing one of our models in The Crimson

 

Our completed cover!

 

It was a really fun assignment for The Crimson that Dean and I got to run entirely, from conception to final product, which was printed yesterday! Many thanks to all of my models/friends for their pretty faces (:

Now that I’ve covered some exciting things in my past, we can look to the exciting thing in the future: this summer, I will be going to Paris in the Harvard Summer Study Abroad!! I was accepted about a week ago, from a pool of many applicants, and will be able to get a jumpstart on my potential path as a Romance Languages and Literatures concentrator! Nothing could be more exciting than spending my summer in the City of Love (and blogging about it while I’m at it). Now all I need is for my grants to be approved, something I’ll know in about a month. By that time, I’ll be in a House, have my summer planned out, and be preparing for my trip to LA with my fellow CUPSI Slam Poetry members. Wow! The future is pretty exciting in general, but even more exciting when you’re at Harvard.

Thanks for reading, and happy Thursday.

-Reid

 

 

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My Weekend…WAS AMAZING!

November 17, 2011 in Reid's Blog by Reid | 7 comments

Normally, I have pretty good weekends. Sometimes it rains, which I like (but not whilst parading around Cambridge); sometimes I have a huge exam at 8:30 AM on Monday (cough cough…LPSA); and frequently there are fun fiestas to be attended. However, this was the best weekend I have had in a long time. Why, you may ask? Read on!

 

Thursday Night:

We didn’t have school on Friday, due to Veteran’s Day. So, I didn’t have to wake up for my 9 AM class!  (Fun fact: you may think waking up at 8 is fantastic in high school, as I did, but in college it seems that nobody goes to bed until 3 and everyone wakes up at 10 and I am cursed. Though most people [my roommates] do follow that schedule [as I do on Tues/Thurs mornings], I am pretty lucky to wake up at 9 so I’ll stop whining.) Also, it was FACULTY DINNER, which is an incredible experience. Da ‘Berg is officially transformed into The Great Hall and HUDS prepares an extravagant meal to impress our profs, TAs, proctors, and the like. Although I like Annenberg a lot, I hold no deep feelings of love for it except for during Faculty Dinner! My lab partner and I invited our lab TF, Greg, and dressed to impress before gorging ourselves on mushroom ravioli, some meat thing (is it obvious that I’m a vegetarian?), roasted root veggies, and cake. Carrot cake, chocolate raspberry cake, cheese cake…. Yummmm. Knowing the food would never again be this exquisite, I ate way too much and stumbled out of Memorial Hall with a rather large stomach. It was worth it, by the way.

After that, I went to the IRC semiformal with my roommate, Rachel, as her plus-one. She is some spiffy chair for H-MUN (Harvard Model United Nations), whereas I know nothing about this political smorgasbord. Luckily, we mostly danced. After going to the penthouse of the Cambridge Hyatt (here’s a lovely image) via taxi, we danced the night away until the wee hours of the morning. (Actually, I ended up splitting a cab with some people and leaving at 10:30, in preparation for Friday.) When I thought it couldn’t get any better, along came Friday.

 

Friday in the Lighter Hours

After parting ways with my cozy, cozy bed at 10:30 on Friday morning, I suddenly remembered that my AWESOME band (The Nostalgics) was scheduled to record our Holiday album from noon to six that day. Really, my email alerted me about this, in addition to telling me about a sweet deal at B. Good, this incredible burger joint near the Holyoke Center. UC Restaurants offers great savings on restaurants on some Fridays, so I went down and got 20% off of my mango shake and West-side veggie burger. After eating my second great meal of the weekend with three of my bandmates, I walked to the Quad and entered my favorite building on campus, the SOCH. (I’m not really sure if it’s my favorite building, but it’s very underused and underrepresented, so I have adopted it.) Some fancy event was happening, which is a rarity at this unfrequented 50,000 square feet of space, so we went up to the PentHouse where the recording studio is. Due to a recording malfunction, our recording session soon morphed into a practice session, with some fantastic originals coming together, as well as “All I Want For Christmas,” everyone’s favorite x-mas song. After figuring out some rippin’ horn lines and baller vocal backgrounds, we felt satisfied and packed up to go. Sadly, we got locked into the Emergency Stairwell, which we did not know was alarmed until we were inside. However, one guitarist had left early and saved us from a sure death, and we celebrated life at Pfoho dining hall, eating another fantastic meal, though I soon learned this was not good Chinese food. Expecting to not eat again, my chipmunk-storage complex switched on and I filled up on tofu and mini-corn. Little did I know, this was not the end of my Asian experience.

 

Friday Night

On the shuttle back to the yard, one of my band-mates asked me to go to Chinatown with him in celebration of a friend’s birthday. Although I was full and had little desire to eat, the draw of novelty appealed to me, so I immediately accepted. After taking the T to Park Street, we made our way to Hot Pot Buffet, whose two floors were, to our dismay, completely full. The walk was in vain, I feared. However, my friend was a lot more innovative, and decided we’d go to the Harvard Club of Boston. It’s really lovely, I soon found out, and is full of history, much like its namesake. In the Library, there’s a gorgeous pool table and loads of reunion books, dating back to 1900. My grandfather, whom I never had the chance to meet, went to Harvard for undergraduate and medical school (I think). I quickly (slowly) calculated his year of graduation, found the 10th anniversary book, and read about his life. My mom was just two years old when he wrote the report! This discovery really threw me for a turn, and I was flooded with thanks; perhaps a little premature, but we’re all really lucky to be studying here, and to be part of this history that, for me, binds me to my unknown ancestors.

 

Saturday Day

After again having a tearful departure from my bed, I set out on another lovely escapade. I walked down to Blodgett pool, which is across the river, and took pictures of our men’s swimming and diving team for the Crimson. My freshman class really shone, with Michael Mosca setting a school record in diving in his first meet and the freshman swimmers securing 1st place for Harvard. Here’s a photo:

Blodgett

Then, what did I do? More photo!!!! (FUN) I claimed a really amazing pitch (story) for FM, which is the Crimson’s magazine. What is this amazing pitch? Is the suspense killing you? Well, I will ruin the surprise– I GOT TO TAKE PICTURES OF GUACAMOLE!! Yes, that is right, I spent my entire afternoon sampling and photographing the delicious mush. More good food! My writer and I went to Chipotle, Qdoba, Boloco, Felipe’s, and Border Cafe. The last two were by far the best, which is good, because they are local restaurants, unlike the 3 other chains. Here’s a picture:

¡Guacamole Olé!

 

 

 

Saturday Night:

I continued in the spirit of photography as the sun set, presenting my photo essay to other compers (comp=competitor, but it’s no longer competitive, just an anachronism) at The Crimson.

Then, I sprinted to Holden Chapel, which is a beautiful and tiny space hidden in the Yard. The Speak Out Loud club was hosting a Poetry Slam, which is basically a spoken-word competition. (Think rap battle minus the hip-hop tracks, plus scores.) Eleven poets slammed their AMAZING poems, and I was lucky enough to compete against them. The place was totally humming with energy, as the crowd really participates in poetry through pounding their feet, clapping, and encouraging the poets as they perform. The first round, we slammed a 3 minute poem each, and mine was a story about a cabin I love in Vermont. The next round was the lightning round, where we’d slam a 1 minute poem, and I slammed about my love for poetry. Our scores were added up, and the top 8 moved on to the final round after a brief intermission. My jaw dropped as I found out I’d moved on; I thought those incredible poets had me beat for sure. We had another 3 minutes to get the highest score we could (which is a 30); the top 5 scoring poets became Harvard’s Poetry Slam Team! I slammed about coffee (as a metaphor for something else), and LOVED it, because the packed audience was awesome. At the end, we all lined up and five names were read. I’ll be competing in April at CUPSI along with my four other team-mates! More updates on this soon, and if you want to know more about poetry slams, here’s a great link. (To hear some awesome slam, here’s another.)

I went out and celebrated with my friends afterwards, and caught up on all my work on Sunday.

 

This weekend, I’m not going to Harvard-Yale; instead, I’m going to visit my grandparents and have a pre-Thanksgiving with them! Then, I’m covering the Tail of the Charles (men’s crew invitational) on Saturday, so I’m really excited to see what this new weekend brings!

 

All the best,

-Reid

 

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