“So Awkward!” a.k.a. Welcome Back to Swat September 3, 2008

Hello! I’ve been back at Swat for a while now. No posts, because I was unsure about the status of the blog, but after hearing back from Admissions it seems that I can continue posting…indefinitely.

Quick Recap of the summer: Interning at a law firm was mostly filing, scanning, and organizing. Nothing too thrilling. I did write a memo for an attorney at one point, which was exciting because I got to read Supreme Court case briefs and FDA regulations which felt kind of important

After the the internship: Barcelona and Lisbon with the family — the highlight of the summer. Barcelona is a fantastic city to visit (everything’s very accessible by metro) and I loved the architecture of the city and the charm of El Barri Gòtic, the old city. Lisbon was considerably less touristy, but equally beautiful. It has a great atmosphere: narrow streets, rough cobblestones, old cathedrals, flea markets, and colorful buildings. It’s a wonderful place to grab a pastry and just walk around. Despite my efforts, my Portuguese was terrible. This could be frustrating, especially after being able to communicate surprisingly effectively in Spanish in Barcelona!

One of the many photos from my trip: a town square in Lisbon.

After the trip, I bummed around for a few weeks at home, then came back early to Swat for CA training. CAs lead groups of freshmen in activities during orientation. I had a fun time with my group, and it was nice to have time to settle in. Moving in by myself was a little rough though– dragging luggage off campus to Mary Lyon and carrying boxes up from storage to face the room’s dim lighting and bare walls… I thought of freshman year when eager CAs waited at every dorm to help carry boxes and suitcases! Living in M.L. isn’t bad except for the trek to campus. Our room is actually pretty nice: big with lots of wall space for posters and wall hangings. It feels much more like home now that Zoe’s here and our decorations and lamps are set up.

Work space, already crowded with papers, food, and fan (M.L. has no air-conditioning).

I’ll try to put up more photos with my posts this year. I hope to hear from some readers this year! Feel free to e-mail me at sboppan1@swarthmore.edu if you have suggestions, questions, comments, or just want to say hi. Also, if there’s something specific about Swarthmore that you’d like to know more about I’d be happy to write about it or just respond to you.

Signing off: Adeus! May 21, 2008

Exams are over and it’s almost been a week since I got home. I’m actually leaving for CA in a few hours for a cousin’s wedding. I’m looking forward to seeing my cousins, but I’m wary of the family drama that’s bound to ensue whenever my family gets together!

As for other summer plans, I’m interning in a law firm in downtown Birmingham this summer. It should be interesting–it’s very corporate, which isn’t really the type of law I’m interested in but I think it’ll be a good experience. Plus I’m getting paid well which is always nice.

Shortly after the internship ends I’m going to visit Barcelona and Lisbon with my family for about a week and a half. It’s crazy expensive to go to Europe now, but my dad’s already going for a conference and we got tickets at a reasonable price. I’m really excited about this trip– I’m trying to brush up on my Spanish and learn a little Portuguese!

I don’t think I’m going to update this blog as regularly over the summer, but my friend Neena wanted to guest post about Trash-to-Treasure, so keep an eye out for that.

Desejo-lhe umas boas férias! <– that’s “Have a good holiday” in Portuguese. I hope you accepted students and prospective students have a wonderful, relaxing summer before school starts. Take care, and as always, feel free to e-mail me at sboppan1@swarthmore.edu.

Nearly time to say goodbye! May 11, 2008

Exams are in full swing at Swarthmore. I’ve taken 3 so far: Central African History, Comparative Peace Processes, and Statistics, and I have one more to go. Studying for Social Psych will be decidedly less painful than Statistics. And I’m going home on Wednesday!

Yesterday, as I was going down to Sharples, I saw hordes of juniors with their parents crowding in front of the building. Apparently yesterday was Junior Visit Day where juniors come to get some insight on the admissions process. I haven’t heard of this before, and I have to wonder why the College scheduled this event during finals…I wouldn’t be surprised if some stressed-out Swatties stumbled out of Cornell library and yelled some hapless juniors, “DON’T COME HERE, IT’S HORRIBLE!”

I went to dinner last night with some of the freshman on my hall. We went to an Indian restaurant, Sher-E-Punjab, in Media. The food was amazing and it was really nice to get off campus for a little bit and do some final bonding with the hall. I feel like I’ve been lucky to have such great hall life this year— I think a lot of that depends on the R.A. and Seth has been a wonderful and involved R.A. here on Dana 1st.

After dinner we wandered around Media for a while. Media is about a 5 minute train ride from Swarthmore but, unfortunately, the trip costs as much as going to Philly. It’s a nice area with lots of places to eat; it would be a great little college town.

I wish we could trade it for the Ville (as the town of Swarthmore is called)! It’s really unfortunate that the town of Swarthmore doesn’t contribute much to student life here. The most that the ville has to offer is a Dunkin’ Donuts, Renato’s Pizza, and some tiny (and frankly, boring) stores that seem to be there for decoration more than anything. At first I found the small-townishness of the Ville cute, but now it’s just annoying that Swatties have to take the train to Media or Philly in order to find something to do off-campus. The college has been around for a while now, and it’s surprising that the area isn’t better developed.

Safety at Swat, Spring Fling, and Finals May 3, 2008

This is pretty scary:

http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2008/05/02/man-charged-after-attempted-kidnapping/

I have to say that I have always felt safe on campus after dark. Though part of that probably is because I don’t think I’ve been out alone past midnight except for once last semester. It’s very easy to forget that Swarthmore isn’t contained and that people outside can easily access the campus. I’m really glad that this student is unharmed and I hope that this sort of thing will remain rare…

Tonight I had a Pride and Prejudice screening (the Kiera Knightely and Matthew McFadyen version) with a bunch of girls from Dana (and Neena). We had crumpets and tea and it was a lot of fun! I’ve always pictured a crumpet as a samosa or dumpling-type thing, but it’s more like a pancake. 

This weekend is “Spring Fling”, which is a bunch of events to get people to take breaks from studying for finals. Most notably, tomorrow is Worthstock and five bands are coming to Swarthmore. I think Yo La Tengo is the most well-known.

I’m nervous about finals and hope I can be productive this weekend. Since I’m going to dinner with DRP on Sunday, helping organize a cooking workshop on Monday, and performing for Terpsichore (student choreographed dance concert) on Wednesday, I won’t have loads of time next week to cram.

Mary Lyon it is, then… May 1, 2008

So tonight was the Sophomore housing lottery, which is generally a pretty stressful event, depending on your lottery number. Sophomores who get the worst picks for housing since freshmen are randomly placed in dorms, and from there seniority takes over.

For the lottery, all the sophomores who needed housing gathered in the fieldhouse. People from Swarthmore Christian Fellowship were there feeding the masses with goodies, and just being nice to everyone. There was definitely some stress-eating happening on my part.

 Zoe and I were kind of hopeful, our number was 972, which wasn’t horrible, but not great either. Unfortunately, we weren’t fortunate enough to get on the waitlist (people on the waitlist are given housing not taken up by freshmen, and it’s generally pretty good), so we were forced to pick a room in Mary Lyon, an off-campus dorm.

Mary Lyon and Strathaven Condos are basically the dregs of the housing options– they’re not bad places to live, but the fact that they’re a 15+ minute walk to campus makes them pretty unappealing.

Rooms in Dana, Hallowell, Willets, and Parrish were taken early on by sophomores with good numbers.

It was disappointing— just was we were going up to the tables, housing for Palmer, Pittinger, and Strathaven closed, which means we literally had no choice but M.L. Even if the other options were still off-campus, I think there’s something to be said about having an illusion of control concerning where you live.

On the positive side: we do have a big room, our own bathroom that we have to share with only 2 other people, hardwood floors, a breakfast room, and an R.A. who seems pretty enthusiastic. I think if we get bikes, it’ll be much easier to get to campus quickly and we won’t feel cut off from other people. Also, it’ll be nice to meet a completely new set of people on our hall.

It’s still not ideal, of course, and I can’t help but feel jealous of those who got housing on campus!

DJing and Taking a Prof to Lunch April 26, 2008

Last night was the Deshi Paces Party, and Neena and I were the DJs for an hour. It was a lot of fun! We alternated Bhangra and Bollywood songs with typical Paces music. We did mix in some old crowd-pleasers like “In Da Club” , “Yeah”, “Hot in Here”, and “Bump Bump Bump” (Neena insisted on the last two). Of the Indian songs, I think “Chaiyya Chaiyya” and “Mundian to Bach Ke” were clear favorites. <– check them out if you haven’t heard of them!

It’s hard to believe that there’s only a week of class left. Swarthmore is absolutely gorgeous right now and I wish I could just hang out without worrying about papers and finals.

I went running in the Crum woods with Zoe yesterday and it was wonderful, even though it was pretty hot outside. The trails in the Crum are great for running. The Crum is green, leafy, and isolated enough from buildings and cars to be relaxing. The woods are one of the things I really like about Swat– I’d never be able to escape like that at a big school in the city.

On another note, Swat has “Take Your Professor to Lunch” program where students can take a professor to Sharples for free. I got the impression that very few students use it, because someone mentioned at a Gazette meeting that they were thinking of cutting funding for it.

Anyways, a friend and I decided that it would be nice to take our poli sci professor from last semester to lunch. We ended up going to Sharples with him yesterday and had a good time and interesting conversation. I took my adviser to lunch early in the semester, but besides that it hasn’t seriously occurred to me to see a professor outside of the classroom or office hours. For various reasons– ie: wouldn’t it be weird or awkward, and would a professor really want to go to lunch with students? But it’s actually a pretty good experience and professors seem really responsive and nice about students taking them to Sharples.

Pennsylvania Primary April 23, 2008

Yup, today was the Pennsylvania primary and I voted. The actual process was a little anticlimactic (part of that was probably because I was really excited); it was all electronic and involved pushing a green “VOTE” button after selecting the candidates. I felt like there should’ve been some kind of exciting noise after pressing the button…

Right now news sources are projecting Clinton as having won. Being in the Swarthmore bubble, it’s hard to get a sense of the political climate of the state. I think a lot of Swatties are for Obama here, and there is a small (but vocal) group of students for Clinton.

Photos! April 16, 2008

I know I haven’t put up any photos all year (a combination of laziness and not knowing how), so here are some of life at Swarthmore from most recent to earlier this academic year:

With some of the dancers from last Sunday’s Gamelan performance. Cool costumes, huh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the Rev. Ralph Roy (third from left), Vice President Eldridge, Dean Smaw, Dean Larimore, and Brandon after Rev. Roy’s talk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Zoe in Philly before we found Konak, the Turkish restaurant. (Photo taken by Amy!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Deshi girls before our Terpsichore performance last semester:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoe, James, and I before the Halloween party last fall. Zoe is Elizabeth Bennet, James is a tiger, and I am Soulja Boy. Someone said I actually looked like a penguin, which may be true…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those are all the photos for now!

Miscellaneous happening on campus: Chelsea Clinton came to speak at Swarthmore last Friday, which was pretty cool. I’m voting for Obama in the Pennsylvania primary, but I don’t think I would be crushed if Hillary actually won the nomination in the end.

Welcome to Swarthmore! April 15, 2008

This’ll have to be a short update since it’s late and I’m once again procrastinating work. The workload has really picked up now that finals (curses!) are in sight.

Ride the Tide is this Friday, which reminds me– congratulations and welcome to the new (or potential) Swatties!!! I found the whole college admissions/decision process to be really stressful, so I hope you seniors have found some relief in at least knowing what your options are, whether that includes Swarthmore or not. Remember to have fun and enjoy yourselves (meaning, don’t work too hard!) before graduation!

I recently interviewed and was accepted to be a Campus Adviser and I’m really excited about meeting the new class of 2012!

It’s hard to believe that there are only 3 more weeks of class left. I’ve become attached to this campus …especially as it’s blooming more and more beautifully each day! 

As for my summer plans, I’ll be interning in a law office in Birmingham. I’m not sure if I want to go to law school, but hopefully this experience will help me decide. And getting paid is always a plus!

As always, feel free to comment or e-mail me with any questions or if you just want to say hi. I would love to hear from you!

Taiko = amazing. April 7, 2008

This past week/weekend has been exhausting!

I get more sleep than some of my friends (who always seem to be up doing nasty Engineering problem sets), but last the past week was nonstop things to do. I was forced to confront the fact that it’s really hard to do many things at once academically and do them well — and even doing stuff I love like Darfur Radio Project can be draining.

Speaking of DRP, our new show “Nation and Adaptation” is out! You can listen to it at www.darfurradioproject.org. I got to “host” it this time, which was pretty exciting. I really like Chelsea’s piece on Sudanese youth who’ve immigrated to the U.S.

On Friday, Rev. Ralph Roy came to campus to talk about Dr. King’s legacy (see a previous post for my interview with him). I’ve never organized an event l like this at Swarthmore, so I wasn’t sure what to expect but I think it went well even though there wasn’t a huge number of students there. Ralph gave an great speech and it was nice to see so many people from Swat’s administration such as the deans there. I have a lot of respect for Ralph and I’m glad other people got to hear his story. It just makes it even more special that he’s a Swat alum

Last night (despite my exhaustion) I went to see a Taiko group perform on campus. The Taiko group is from Tamagawa University in Japan and they performed Japanese drumming and dance. It was the best performance I’ve seen at Swarthmore by far. There was so much energy with the drumming and the dancers were really talented and graceful. The auditorium was packed even though there’d been very little advertisement for the event, so I’m glad I got a good seat up front. They come every year and I’m going to drag all my friends to their show next year since most of them missed this one.

At Swarthmore (and college) is that there are all these opportunities to be exposed to different things– cultural, political, etc. The only bad part is that you’re forced to pick and choose from the interesting things happening on campus. ie: I want to go to the Iran-U.S. panel today at 4:30, but I have to study for a Psychology midterm!

This coming weekend is Parent Weekend and my parents are coming to see me for a few days. Hopefully Swarthmore will be in bloom by then; right now the weather is still pretty cold and bleak.