Caroline’s Blog

This week has been a pretty intense one on Harvard’s campus: between the different Assassins games and the campus wide House war that’s going on, the entire student body has been watching their backs. I, for one, spent the first few days of this week hiding out from my attacker in Dunster Assassins, only to be “killed” in the dining hall during lunch…

For a bit of background, many of the upperclassmen Houses run a game of Assassins towards the end of each semester. Each House has their own set of rules, but the basic idea is that players are assigned a “target” and are expected to “kill” them over the course of the game. “Killing” your opponent might mean a variety of things – anything from spraying them with a water gun to hitting them with a foam sword. Once you kill your opponent, you gain their opponent, and it continues on until there are only two players left. All of this amounts to a really intense week of strategizing and stalking!

This year, Dunster’s Assassins game is themed after Hunger Games. Every night, we get an email from “AnonyMoose” telling us which “tributes” have died, along with a brief story of how the kill happened. Each entryway has also been assigned a specific weapon to use, much like the districts in the book: the Gamemaker put different weapons in the arena, and my entryway was assigned a red pen as our weapon of choice. When I got killed in the dining hall this week, it happened with a piece of masking tape!

Probably my favorite version of Assassins is the game run by Quincy House, as theirs has an incredibly involved series of rules. The tradition goes back decades, and the most recent update of the pages-long rule document can be found online (check out their website!). I have a few friends playing, and since the only place they can get shot is in on Quincy grounds, they’ve all been avoiding Quincy House during the day so as to survive another day. Last night, I was walking by Quincy House on my way back to my room, and was surprised to find that there was a huge crowd assembled in Quincy Courtyard. Turns out there was a duel going on, a rare occasion in the Assassins game in which two players go head to head in a confined area in the courtyard, shooting Nerf guns at each other and playing to the “death.” Though the actual fight lasted only a minute or so, the entire event took over twenty minutes because there were so many rules to be clarified. It was so intense!! A few pictures are below.

Dueling in the courtyard!

Talking strategy…

On top of all of the Assassins games happening simultaneously, there’s also a multi-House war going on! Though the details are a bit fuzzy, the war began with Adams House and Currier House has since extended to include nearly half of the upperclassmen Houses. When Cabot House joined the fray, they announced: “We, the people of Cabot, will not stand for such injustices and must act to impede this infringement upon our Faust given and unalienable Rights, among these being Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Admittedly, the war itself is a bit of a joke but it has stirred up a bit of friendly House rivalry! You can check out the most recent coverage, courtesy of The Crimson, here on their blog.

And my last bit of news is that Henry Kissinger, class of 1950, came to campus this week in celebration of the College’s 375th!  In the midst of all of the Assassins games and right at the start of the inter-House war, Kissinger – a former Secretary of State – spoke in Sanders Theater on Wednesday. It was really interesting to hear his perspective on his political career, which involved real life decisions about political strategies and war tactics. When asked about his “position” on the inter-House war and whether he had any input about how to best “win,” Kissinger announced that he was a proud supporter of Adams House, his former home at Harvard. Glad to see that the House spirit never dies!

Kissinger in Sanders Theater

While the large majority of my time at Harvard is spent maintaining a healthy balance between work time and fun time, I must confess that there are weeks where I find that I really just have to buckle down and get things done. This week was definitely one of those weeks, where I felt like every time I sat down to take a break (or more likely, try to take a nap) I would remember something I needed to do or add to my ever-growing to do list. Another confession though: I kind of think I thrive during weeks like this, and find that it’s when I’m at my most productive – though the days themselves might be stressful, there’s a strange sense of satisfaction to get to the end of it all and realize how much I got done. Admittedly, I’m not quite done with this crazy week soooo that sense of accomplishment won’t be happening for a few days, but I’m looking forward to that feeling nonetheless.

A handful of things that managed to spring up this week:

-       Thesis: This was probably the most exciting part of my week – I finally figured out who my thesis advisor is going to be!! After literally months searching and a dozen conversations with different faculty members, I feel like the pieces are finally starting to fall into place. Finally finding an advisor means that I know have to turn to the more involved question of exactly what I’m going to ask as my research question. I settled on prison health care as a general topic, but am in the process of determining my exact focus, which takes a lot of reading… Add to that the problem of having to apply for human subjects approval and the puzzle of figuring out my methodology and it turns out I have a LOT to think about. The deadlines are coming up much sooner than I thought!

-       Extracurriculars: It just so happened that this week was the week that all of my extracurriculars decided to have an extra meeting, ask for an extra tour, or have a special meeting on a weeknight. The week started with a 7 hour long training for FOP (I’m leading a training trip for new leaders in May!) and was peppered with tour evaluations for Crimson Key Society (we’re about to elect a new class of members) and a planning meeting for Health Leads. Tons of stuff going on, and all at the same time!

-       Summer: I finally ended up securing a summer internship, but have spent the past couple of weeks trying to figure out where exactly I’m going to live. Finding an apartment to sublet is more difficult than it might seem! Luckily, this ended up working itself out pretty easily, but not before a couple of hours perusing Craigslist listings for summer sublets in the Cambridge area.

-       Computer Troubles: In a really unfortunate twist of events, my laptop completely died a couple of days ago and I was delivered the sad news that its hard drive completely died. Forced to say goodbye to my computers while it gets fixed in the shop. Not the most convenient considering that I have midterms on Monday and Tuesday!

-       School: Yup, saving the best (/worst) for last. This weekend is simultaneously my “wow, I have three midterms on Monday and Tuesday” weekend where I study all day, all weekend AND the turning point in my semester when I have to start looking ahead to the big final projects, papers, and take home finals I’ll have to start dealing with over the next few weeks. I find that this part of the semester can be the hardest to deal with, because I simultaneously have to keep my head in the “midterm game” while keeping an eye to the finals that I have just on the horizon. It’s seriously crazy to realize how fast the semester has flown by!

How do I make it through weeks like this? That’s an interesting question and even after three years, I’m still not sure I’ve developed the perfect formula for weeding through these more stressful times.  One solution I know works for sure: up the coffee intake. I am a full-fledged coffee addict, and this time of year is when I start making multiple trips to the coffee shops around the Square for caffeine. Another trick I’ve learned is to not be shy about giving my roommates a heads up about my stress level and work load. It may sound silly, but even a simple “hey, apologies in advance – probably will be a little messier than usual this week!” can really make a difference, and my roommates are always great about supporting each other through various crazy times. Definitely one of my secrets to success!

I’m having a bit of a “time flies” moment: today marked the start of Junior Parents’ Weekend. There are several important lessons to be learned from this occasion:

1. I’m getting old. Having your parents come to town to visit for Junior Parents’ Weekend officially means that your time at Harvard is coming to a close – by this point, I know what I’m studying, I have some vague idea of what I’ll be doing post-graduation, and the most important questions on my mind generally tend to surround my senior thesis and career aspirations. Heck, the housing lottery for my senior year is this coming Tuesday. My days, unfortunately, are starting to be numbered.
2. Parents love to take their kids to dinner. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the course of my undergraduate career, it’s that college students should take every available opportunity to eat out while parents are around. As much as I love HUDS, it’s always awesome to have an excuse to eat in the Square. This weekend we’re hitting two of my favorite restaurants, Henrietta’s Table and Sandrine’s.
3. Parents also love to meet roommates. One of the nicest things about Junior Parents’ Weekend is that by this point, my roommates each know the others’ families and enjoy spending time with them – makes it a lot of fun to go out to dinner together!
4. Take advantage of every opportunity to interact with faculty. Tonight, the Dunster Housemasters – Mr. and Mrs. Porter – hosted a reception for juniors and their parents. I was shocked to find that only about 20 juniors (out of a class of 100+) took advantage of the offer! At worst, these types of events are a good excuse to eat tasty food. At best, you get to learn more about different professors’ lives and how they interact with Harvard.
   

   Masters' Residence, where we had our reception

5. New England winter is just as bad as I think it is. My roommates are both from warm climates – North Carolina and Southern California – and I know their parents were a bit shocked at the Boston cold. While I do feel bad that parents got blasted with a snowstorm this weekend, it’s a bit reassuring to get confirmation that this weather is, in fact, cold. It also makes me feel a bit more rugged for being able to survive New England!
   

   Snow!

Aside from spending time with my parents, my roommates, and their families, I’m also hoping to take this weekend as an excuse to visit a couple of museums on campus. The Museum of Natural History and the Sackler Art Museum are both open to parents for free this weekend (students always get free admission) and my parents and I are hoping to take advantage of that offer tomorrow afternoon. In contrast to Freshmen Parents’ Weekend, I now know where to take my parents on campus!

Social Studies concentrators are required to take a “tutorial” each semester – during your sophomore year, the tutorials focus on political theory (Kant, Weber, Rousseau, Hobbes…) and are meant to serve as a academic base for the rest of your work in the department. Junior year, the tutorials are topic-oriented and students can pick what their focus is: this spring, I’m taking a tutorial on the American city, which has been AWESOME so far. Each week we read ethnographies about different cities in the country, and we complement our readings with our own field work. The eight of us have to pick a topic area in Boston and then spend 5+ hours a week doing field research. I ended up deciding to write about the relationship between government programs (public housing, food stamps, etc) and community centers, and therefore have been spending the past few weeks wandering around Boston and visiting different offices and neighborhoods to try and get a feel for the area.

My first stop was the Dudley Square neighborhood in Roxbury. I confess: despite having spent the past three years volunteering at Boston Medical Center, which is only a few blocks away from this neighborhood, I’ve never ventured past the area immediately surrounded by the hospital and was excited to have a reason to do a bit of exploring. After a bit of wandering around, I ended up finding this delicious local cafe called Haley House that serves up local recipes – their whole concept is “food with purpose,” so the entire institution is tied in with the surrounding community. I tried a jerk chicken grilled cheese, which was to die for.

I also got to spend a lot of time downtown this week, largely checking out formal programs like the Boston Housing Authority and the Department of Transitional Assistance. After years of working with patients and referring them to these organizations, I found it incredibly interesting to visit a lot of these programs that I’d heard so much about. I admit, I was pretty nervous about doing ethnographic field work at some of these sites, as I generally just have to walk inside and start talking to people about the kinds of services that are offered there. I was pleasantly surprised, though, to find that all of the employees I ran into were extremely friendly and willing to chat with me for 20 minutes about their jobs. Today, for instance, I was lucky enough to get a full hour-long tour of this community center called Rosie’s Place, and then was offered an impromptu tour of a job search agency near my hospital! The fact that people have been so willing to help has definitely made the research process easier.

Outside of my tutorial, though, things have been a bit frenzied for the past couple of weeks. This past Wednesday, I had two midterms and a paper due on the same day, with ten pages of field notes due for my research project on Thursday. Egad! Not the easiest academic week I’ve had this semester, but I think I’ve managed to survive it mostly intact. I’m also bummed I couldn’t upload pictures, but my computer seems to have crashed! I made an emergency appointment at the Apple Genius Bar for tomorrow, but in the meantime I’m struggling to figure out what’s wrong Fingers crossed!

After returning from a wonderfully relaxing winter vacation, I came back to campus last week and got hit hard with something I’ve gotten pretty good at avoiding: “real life.” As a second semester junior, there are some big questions that I have on my plate that I have to start sifting through – what will I write my senior thesis on? What do I want to do with my summer? What kinds of jobs am I considering for after college? …the list, unfortunately, goes on and on. Unsurprisingly, I’ve spent my first couple of weeks back on campus dealing with logistics and doing a bit of thinking about what the next couple of semesters (and years!) will look like.

The first major item on my “list” is the summer question. As a junior, there are two major options: “the internship” or thesis research. Many of my Social Studies classmates are spending the summer doing field work for their senior thesis, and therefore have been focused on applying for funding and finding an advisor to help them refine their project. I envy these individuals for a couple of reasons: 1) they have already picked their thesis topic and 2) they have a concrete plan for what they want to do this summer. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I: 1) haven’t yet finalized my topic and 2) really have no clue whether I should be applying for funding. Egad!

As I mentioned, the other major option (aside from thesis research) to consider is taking a summer internship, although even the goal of “finding an internship” is an extremely abstract vision. Especially for someone interested in public policy, as I am, there are a whole range of options to consider, ranging from Harvard-sponsored programs to policy internships in DC to private sector options. Two Harvard resources that have been really great in this search have been the Center for Public Interest Careers, which runs an awesome internship program for undergrads, and the Office of Career Services, which is primarily responsible for running the On Campus Interview program for big private firms interested in hiring undergraduates. I’ve found it really helpful to have so many Harvard-specific resources and programs at my disposal. Still trying to figure out exactly what my vision is for this summer, though!

Luckily, I’ve managed to make a bit of headway in refining my thesis topic! I’m still very early in the “game,” but at this point Social Studies juniors are expected to start thinking about their specific question in addition to finding an advisor to work with over the coming year. We have to fill out a thesis journal over the coming months, as a way of reflecting on the process and keeping track of the decisions we’re making. My early idea is to write on health care in prisons, primarily looking at the role of preventive care in this setting. I’ve set up meetings with a couple of Harvard professors and graduate students who study incarceration, so hopefully they’ll be able to help me formulate my question. It’s sort of exciting to finally make a bit of progress!

This weekend’s definitely going to be filled with a good amount of work, both for the classes I’m taking and for non-class related tasks (applications, outside research, etc). Since the weather’s been a little lousy, I’m almost looking forward to the opportunity to camp out at a local café with something warm to drink! Excited to have a productive weekend!