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Shopping Part Two!

January 26, 2012 in Reid's Blog by Reid | 2 comments

Ciao a tutti!

Shopping week for second semester is almost over, with Study Cards (an official list of the courses you’re taking) being due tomorrow. Luckily, I’ve figured out my semester. I’ll be taking Intensive Italian (Italian Acd), Advanced French Grammar II (French 50), Expository Writing 20 (Expos), and a Freshman Seminar called “Pressing the Page: Making Art With Letters, Paper & Ink.” I’m very excited about this semester, especially for my seminar and Italian. They’ve been amazing so far, with Italian flying by every day and my printmaking seminar seeming too short, though it’s two hours on M/W! So far I’ve made calling cards and monogrammed notecards. Check out my first creation thus far!

 

I <3 Art

Anyways, get ready for a lot more artsy stuff this semester, to add to my arts list from a previous post. Seriously, this is a Liberal Arts college and my goal is to find out why.

Though all Freshmen do not have to take seminars and two languages (well, there is a language requirement, but I definitely loaded up on Romance Languages), everybody who graduates from Harvard College must take Expository Writing. Shaun talks about it from the other side of the bridge, having taken it already, but I have yet to experience this wonderful essay course. Actually, most people don’t like it, but I really love writing, and all the courses I’ve signed up for have high Q ratings (which means they’re good) and are in very close proximity to my dorm! Sweet graphic here:

Wow, Check it out! Canaday has the best location for all things Freshmen.

 

Anyways, these are the Expos courses I’ve sectioned for. A lot of them haven’t been offered yet, and are brand new, so I thought I’d give them a chance, even though it is risky. Imagining Animals does sound pretty interesting, though.

Location, Location, Location. (Okay, and time/subject.)

If I get sectioned into a M/W 11:00-12:00 time slot, I’ll be having bagged lunch twice a week for the next semester! Good thing Harvard offers them for all students, all the time. Also, our dining services have become quite interesting, with HUDS reintroducing the Korean Barbecue night. Let me tell you, that Kimchi was spicy! After I enjoyed my Korean dinner today with my roommate, I met a few of my bandmates and headed up to the SOCH for our first practice of the second semester. We’re playing a few songs and a lot of transition material at Harvard Thinks Big, which is a very popular set of mini-lectures hosted in Sanders Theater. Last year’s information can be found here. It was awesome seeing everyone again, even though the rehearsal was short and the walk to the quad was a bit chilly. If you’ve forgotten about my band, check out this link! Being part of my amazing mini-community was definitely the best part of my first semester, because it helped me to transition into college life much more smoothly.

Whee!!! Random Picture of Cambridge!

 

Another super awesome thing in my life right now continues to be The Crimson! I realized that last semester was a ton of fun, and I had the best time taking photos of sports and arts, specifically for the Fifteen Minutes magazine. Over break, I took a lot of photos, and they have definitely improved, to the point where I am proud of my photography skills. Soon I will be monitoring compers as a Junior Editor, chillin’ with them as they experience that which I’ve just done. Tomorrow, I’m covering the Harvard-Yale hockey game, and my family is coming up to watch with me. I am also “schmoozing” with some peeps (editors/my superiors/great people) in order to be (hopefully) elected Arts Photo Exec. That basically means a lot of mini meetings in order to hold a higher position than my current status. I’ll update you when I hear back, but for now, cross your fingers for me!

Arts and Sports mixed together!

The weather has been uncannily warm as of late, which definitely freaks me out a little bit; climate change is upon us, and it’s been pretty evident here in Cambridge. Hopefully it cools down, so I can use the really great skating rink on the Science Center lawn. (What? Harvard has a free skating rink? Why yes, we do.) Most of the time though, I’m inside, doing my homework so that I don’t get behind. I definitely don’t want to make that mistake again, because it creates a lot of unnecessary stress.  I’ve been doing a bit of walking recently, because I’m auditioning through  Common Casting  for Legally Blonde and Hair (the musical), and I have to hike up to the Aggassiz Theater (also home of the visitor center), Loeb Theater, and Farkas Theater. I really missed auditioning, so this process has been a blast! But I should get back to the pile of work on my desk….

Busy busy

 

Okay! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my post, and for those applying to Harvard, these next few months might be a little worrisome, but try to keep the admissions process in the back of your head and enjoy your last part of high school. You’ll end up wherever you need to be.

 

Signing off

-Reid

 

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A Taste of the Arts at Harvard

November 1, 2011 in Caroline B's Blog by Caroline Burke | Permalink

This weekend I was lucky enough to go see friends perform in two great shows: “Execution,” put on by the Expressions Dance Company; and “Othello,” performed by Harvard’s Hyperion Shakespeare Company. Now is the time of year that student groups put on their fall semester exhibitions and performances, having had some time to practice for the past two months. I was excited to get a chance to support my friends and the groups they’re a part of!

First up on Saturday was the Expressions show: “Execution” is the title of their fall dance performance. Expressions is a student-run company that focuses on hip-hop, though they sometimes bring in tastes of other styles. Being someone who is TERRIBLE at dancing, I’m always so impressed by Expressions dancers – they all look so sassy (in the best way possible)! This performance was also great because it incorporated a piece by City Step, a group on campus that volunteers with middle schoolers in Cambridge and teaches them how to dance. Their oldest class, made up of 7th graders, got a chance to partake in the Expressions show and I know they kids were all ridiculously excited about it.

Photo Credit: Gordon Bae

 

Saturday night I went to see another friend as Iago in a rendition of Shakespeare’s “Othello” done by the Harvard Hyperion Shakespeare Company. Personally, I was completely unfamiliar with the storyline until seeing the play this weekend, and it was kind of nice to be able to watch without comparing their performance to any established opinions or biases. The blurbs advertising “Othello” described it as highly stylized, and it definitely was – all of the characters, aside from Othello himself, were wearing white to symbolize the racial divide defining the character relations. Their rendition was mind-blowing! It’s so exciting to see successful student performances on campus.

Othello Poster

I was particularly glad to have an excuse to stay inside on Saturday night because Boston experienced a surprise October snowstorm! While it’s not terribly unusual to get snow this time of year, it definitely caught everyone off guard. I, for one, don’t have any of my winter jackets on campus and spent the weekend exercising some serious layering strategy. Below is a picture of the lone snowman I found in Harvard Yard the next day – as is very characteristic of New England weather, we went from having near blizzard conditions on Saturday night to a sunny 50 degree day on Sunday. Sometimes I can’t keep up!

The Lonely Snowman

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My Epic Adventure with Mary Poppins

March 3, 2011 in Kate's Blog by Kate Meakem | 11 comments

If there is one thing I regret about my time here at Harvard, it’s that I don’t ever get out.  There is so much to do on campus and in Cambridge that when people ask me, “So, how do you like living in Boston?” I have to honestly answer, “Well… I haven’t really been to Boston.”  It’s embarrassing.

I know a lot of kids that make the effort to go out and explore, it’s just that I’ve become so busy that when I do have down time, I find myself in my dorm or Lamont library socializing or “doing work” (the quotes are there for a reason).  And hey, they don’t call it the “Harvard Bubble” for nothing.

But this was not the case two Thursdays ago when my best friend Heather, who goes to Wellesley, called me up and asked, “Do you want to go to the Boston premiere of Mary Poppins tonight?!?”

I had a million reasons not to go.  I had an Economics 10 problem set to finish, I was exhausted from a week of late nights and hard work (or procrastination…), I really, really hated the movie (Mary Poppins freaks me out – the bankers, the creepy old people, the loud cannon thing that makes dishes fall, the TALKING PARROT), but then I thought, “Why deny myself this opportunity to see a little more of the world?”  So I went!

IT. WAS. AWESOME.

The musical itself was just plain fun.  I mean, who doesn’t love upbeat cheesy show tunes in concordance with lively choreography and brightly colored costumes?  But the BEST part was taking a break from the daily routine.

Of course, because my life is a comedy errors, I was late, one of my high heels got stuck in a crack between the bricks of the sidewalk, I almost missed my stop getting off the T (Boston’s version of a subway), I tripped and fell in front of EVERYONE going down the stairs in the theater… and the fire alarm went off (for the first time ever, according to the usher – of course, it was because I was there).

This is my best friend Heather posing outside of the theater with a fire truck after the smoke alarm went off. Photo cred goes to my cellphone.

Regardless, I had a fantastic time!  Of course, I then stayed up until 5:00 a.m. finishing homework… but it was totally worth it!

Has anyone else out there seen the musical?  What are some things that you’ve done as excuses to get out and about?

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