Week-Cap Re-Cap

April 26, 2012 in Reid's Blog by Reid | 5 comments

Hello!

Here are some photos from my trip!

Mosque in LA

Finals of CUPSI!

 

Delicious Mexican Food

 

Streets of LA proper

 

NYC in the Rain

 

 

So yesterday was the last day of classes (ohmigosh). However, I still have class to go to; today we’re watching a play presented by Italian 40 for part of our Italian Acd final, and we have an oral exam on Monday. The only weird part about taking a foreign language is that we meet during Reading Period and have exams during that time instead of in the Final exam period. So, on Friday I’ll have my final French presentation on the topic of writers fighting against oppression, and on Monday I have my oral exam for Italian, and then I am DONE! (My final paper for Expos is also due on Monday…eek, I have to do some research in Harvard’s intimidating library system.)

 

List of Things…

 

Besides studying this upcoming weekend, I’ll be participating in Grand Elections for The Crimson (from the other side, as an exec instead of a comper, electing the compers to the board) and playing many gigs with The Nostalgics. YAY. My mom is coming up to hear my band play for the last time this year on Saturday and Sunday, and she’s also going to see my Freshman Seminar’s printmaking art show! It’s in the Adams Art Space, which is really cool, and we’ve been working hard to set this exhibit up, so I’m excited to have her come!

 

Sneak Peek of Exhibit!

 

I’ve been reallllll busy these past few days trying to catch up on the work I missed last week, but soon it will be done and I’ll be missing it all, so I’m savoring it, I guess. I’m going to stick around until June 1st, and my dorm crew work doesn’t even start until May 13, so I have an entire two weeks to do absolutely WHATEVER I want! I am looking forward to exploring Boston, Cambridge, and other places around the area. Perhaps I will bike to Walden Pond, or better yet, take the train to Appleton Farm, my favorite place in Massachusetts. (Seriously, it is so gorgeous.) I will also be packing up all of my stuff and moving it into storage in Currier, where it will stay until next fall when I move into my new room! (Crossing my fingers for a single.) I’ll be far, far away in Paris…it’s becoming so real, I bought my ticket last week and this week we have an orientation meeting to figure out logistics! Harvard is great; even if you hate everything about it for some weird reason, you can’t deny the amount of resources that abound from the university (:

 

I don’t have much else to write about. If any of you have questions, feel free to comment and I’ll cover them next week! Congrats on accepted students, and choose Harvard … you will not regret it.

peace

-reid

 

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Relay for (Greek) Life

April 25, 2012 in Jeanie's Blog by Jeanie Nguyen | 2 comments

There’s an overwhelmingly negative connotation associated with college Greek life, which fairly arises from the too frequently heard about news articles of hazing gone wrong. Although the behavior concomitant with such tragedies are inexcusable, it isn’t the defining factor of Greek life. The Greek system still exists nationally and I believe the reason it continues thriving lies in the fact that there are endless (literally! The alumni networks are as massive as whales!) positive influences it can have on a member’s life.

I can personally attest to these benefits – connecting to a new support group, feeling more connected to campus, and expanding study groups – and that’s why my involvement in Harvard Greek life progressively dives deeper. This semester, I’ve been transitioning into my new role of Panhellenic Council Vice President of Philanthropy! Although I hate admitting that I have a natural tendency to snap at good news, I love the new opportunities my role avails to me – like participating in Relay for Life, an incredibly inspiring and national event to support those fighting cancer.

Three male fraternities and three female sororities exist at Harvard (although not officially acknowledged due to the institution’s rule against recognizing single gender groups): Alpha Epsilon Pi, Sigma Chi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Delta Gamma, respectively. Over the course of these last few months, representatives from each group met with me to organize fundraising events for the annual Harvard Relay for Life. Each year the Harvard Greek Team raises thousands of dollars for the amazing cause through personal appeals as well as creative ways, some of them exemplified below:

Pie Cancer in the Face: AEPi (Alpha Epsilon Pi) held an event where people could purchase a pie to throw in a brother’s face. Who needs dignity when cancer is looming as a threat? Haha, the boys definitely took pies in the face like the manliest men I’ve ever seen and raised over $300 in the span of four hours! Bonus points for the pun too!!

Date Auction: The Cambridge Queen’s Head (a restaurant/pub) located in the basement of Annenberg (the freshman cafeteria commonly referenced to as the Great Hall from Harry Potter) graciously donated their stage to the Harvard Greek community to hold a date auction for two hours. Twenty generous and studly fraternity brothers of Harvard volunteered themselves to be auctioned. Girls across campus (even some graduate students!) came to bid for a magical hour with these men, 100% of proceeds going directly for Relay for Life. The “Date Contract” read that the men had to be at their utmost gentlemanly behavior…but we’ll just see how my two dates go before we get excited. Yes, I did buy two. Hey now, it was for charity!!

BBQ: HUDS (Harvard University Dining Services) has some of the best programs!! Check out the stellar grade HUDS (and Harvard in general) got! On weekdays from 11am-2pm, HUDS serves prepared sandwiches, hot entrees, fruit, etc. in the Cambridge Queen’s head for upperclassmen too lazy/too busy (usually the latter in our defense!) to return to their upperclassmen House (dorm) for lunch – this is colloquially termed “Fly-By.” You can also request a brown bag to be prepared from your own dining hall when you know you won’t have time in between lectures, sections, and meetings for lunch! Another way HUDS ensures students stay nourished is by providing cookout food. The philanthropy chairs of each fraternity and I wanted to hold a BBQ before and during the Relay for Life event so we gathered students’ ID numbers and submitted them into HUDS who then provided us hamburger patties, hotdogs, condiments, buns, fruit, chips, and basically everything else we could ever dream of asking for. The BBQ was a hit and people even donated money in exchange for some BBQ! Sorry for not having any pictures :( I was too busy grilling … or at least supervising the grill! :)

Overall, the events leading up to Relay and Relay for Life itself was successful! I had a blast working behind the scenes in my first Spring Philanthropy event and can’t wait for the one in the fall, which I’m hoping to organize with Cradles to Crayons. I can only hope that my last round of midterms (yes, I did have a midterm on the last day of class), presentations, papers, and final exams go just as well!!!

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It’s that time of year…

April 23, 2012 in Kate's Blog by Kate Meakem | 2 comments

It’s that time of year…

 

When the seasons start changing and Mother Nature can’t make up her mind.  Case in point – early last week it was 80 degrees and sunny, then by mid-week it was in the 50s, then it went back up to the mid-70s, and now it’s back down to the 50s.  Hellooooo Boston.  The way I see it, though, there are two benefits to this kind of weather.  1) It never allows us to take the nice days for granted.  When it’s 75 and sunny, everyone is outside lounging away on beach towels in the Quad or down by the River.  2) It gives my sunburns a chance to heal… rough.

When classes start to wrap up.  Yes, that’s right, this coming Wednesday is our last day of class and then Harvard students around campus will enter Reading Period.  Reading Period can mean one of two things.  It can either mean a 10-day vacation if you’re something like a math or science concentrator, or it can mean a 10-day sleep strike if you’re a humanities concentrator and find yourself writing five papers.  Luckily, my schedule this year has offered me spread out Reading and Finals Periods.  I have a paper due this Tuesday, another paper due next week, and then two finals several days apart.

When stress and excitement levels run high.  There occurs this strange dichotomy where while I’m feeling incredibly stressed about major papers and finals, I am also feeling incredibly excited about the summer!!!  This summer I will be working for the Phillips Brooks House Association’s (PBHA’s) Summer Urban Program (or SUP).  SUP is a series of camps in neighboring communities throughout Boston that helps to fight summer learning loss in low-income children.  Just as PBHA is student-led, SUP is too, which means that Harvard students have been working their butts off all semester long getting ready for this summer.  I’ll be working Full Time SUPport (get it?), which means I’ll be behind the scenes helping out all of the camps.  Get ready for lots of blog posts in the coming months about SUP.  One final plug to the incoming freshmen – JOIN PBHA and then WORK SUP!!!!  I promise you it won’t be a decision you regret.

When I’m starting to dread the prospect of packing up all of my stuff.  It took me long enough to unpack and make my beautiful single look just the way I want, and now I’m going to have to find some way of packing all of this stuff back up and sticking it in Currier storage.  I really don’t want to write anymore about it, it’s all too painful to contemplate.

When I begin to desperately text friends to grab a final meal or coffee before everyone leaves campus!  It’s that time of year when I’m looking back and remembering all those times I ran into “this person from class” or “that person from my freshman dorm” or “the person that OMG I love but I haven’t seen in AGES” and I’m realizing that I only actually grabbed my promised meals with maybe half of them.  This means that I still have a lot of people to go, and not a lot of time left!  Ahhhh!

When House formals go on the calendar!  Each House has its own Spring Formal, which, depending on who you know in which Houses, can mean a lot of formals to go to.  So much fun!

 

That’s about all I got, folks!  I wish everyone a very happy end of April, and to all of the pre-frosh – COME TO HARVARD!

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Hanging out with Crimson Key!

April 22, 2012 in Caroline's Blog by Caroline Burke | Comments closed

Yesterday marked a FANTASTIC end to the week: in addition to it being generally beautiful out (75 and sunny!), I got to spend nearly the entire day with friends from Crimson Key Society. Crimson Key is one of the main extracurriculars I’m involved with, and is a group that I’ve really come to love as an undergrad, so it was awesome to hang out all afternoon with friends. Key is what I like to think of as the official “welcome committee” for Harvard College: in addition to giving historical campus tours three times a day, we run freshman orientation, staff freshman and junior parents’ weekend, and help out at Commencement each spring. As might be expected out of a bunch of tour guides, Crimson Key is generally really enthusiastic, energetic, and outgoing, so it makes for a really fun group of friends to hang out with.

Crimson Key during freshman orientation

My day with Key started with an afternoon game of softball across the river by the Stadium. One of my favorite (random) things about Harvard is that a few of the student organizations on campus run a softball league in the spring, which is really laid back and just offers an opportunity for students to enjoy the spring weather and hang out on the weekends. The league includes a wide variety of groups, ranging from the Harvard Band to Hasty Pudding Theatricals to the Crimson; yesterday, we were playing the Advocate (a literary magazine). The one downside about the league being so laid back is that we don’t actually have any formal equipment – we like to call it a BYOG league (“bring your own glove”). Unfortunately, since neither the Advocate nor Crimson Key remembered to bring a baseball bat, our softball game turned into an impromptu kickball game played with a soccer ball, which ended up being a blast! Luckily Key had brought a couple ex-soccer players, so we ended up beating the Advocate 15-8. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the weather!

Key celebrating the softball/kickball win!

Key softball/kickball then transitioned into pick ups/welcoming of new Key members who just got into the organization. We have 33 new members in total! Over the course of spring semester, Crimson Key runs a “comp” process where students who are interested in joining go through a couple rounds of interviews and evaluations. “Comp” is a concept employed by a number of organizations on campus – while it originally stood for “competition,” comp now stands for “competency” and just means that each group determines a way to train and evaluate potential new members. For Crimson Key, students have to prepare a “model tour,” where they memorize the full historical tour and present it for evaluation in front of current members.  Last night was when “compers” found out that they had gotten into the organization – overall, 33 new members were welcomed! It was so much fun to get everyone together and celebrate the end of comp and the start of a new year with Key.

Three of your favorite bloggers! Kemie, Scott, and I are all in Key together

In totally separate news, this weekend is Visitas, or visitation weekend! I snapped the picture below when I was at a New England reception that was being held in the Quad. It’s sort of scary to realize that my own prefrosh weekend was three years ago!

Springtime (and prefrosh) in the Quad!

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Pre-Frosh & Presencia Latina

April 20, 2012 in Jesse's Blog by Jesse Sanchez | Comments closed

Visitas Weekend has finally come! Every April, Harvard opens its gates to the admitted students for a jam-packed weekend full of diverse events, great food, and incredible conversations. This is an important weekend because the admitted students have to make the decision of where to spend their college careers. It’s an exciting time of college exploration and finding out if Harvard is right for you.

My favorite part about this weekend is meeting the Admitted Students- or as we call them at Harvard- the “Pre-Frosh.” Current students get the chance to host Pre-Frosh in their dorms during Visitas in order for a chance to see what it’s really like to go to Harvard. Hosts are also there to provide any kind of advice, guidance, or past experiences to help the Pre-Frosh make their decision. I signed up for 3 and I can’t wait to pick them up and show them around once they get here!

Another one of my favorite parts of this weekend is that Presencia Latina falls on the Friday of Visitas. Harvard’s Presencia Latina is a spectacular Latin Arts Showcase where groups from across the Harvard, Cambridge, and Boston communities can come together to celebrate the Latin culture. I really hope some of my Pre-Frosh can make it to the show! I was at Dress Rehearsal last night until the early morning so I know the show is going to be a great one, as always.

Another reason why this year is so special is because Presencia Latina has reached it’s 10th Year! That’s an entire decade of Latin Arts. I really appreciate that Harvard gives us the resources and space to celebrate a culture that means so much to me and I know that we’ll continue sharing this beautiful culture for years to come! That was one of my concerns about coming across the country to college- I thought I would lose my culture. Luckily, Harvard provides a ton of opportunities to celebrate the culture you grew up in as well as learn of the diverse set of cultures that make up Harvard’s student body. This weekend will be unforgettable.

To get a look in to what last year’s Presencia Latina looked like, check out this video!

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The View from the End of the Road

April 20, 2012 in Natalie's Blog by npadilla | Comments closed

 Lowell House Courtyard

Spring has sprung: see the flowers blooming! It was almost 80 degrees and warranting more classes to be outside. Less than a week left of classes, the last official classes of Harvard, and I can’t believe it!

The senior class committee has been sending out impending countdown announcements: 36 as of now. The days are still filled with last minute study, delving into extracurricular, and preparation for graduation. I’ve been attempting to take advantage of the local surroundings while I’m in the area; particularly study breaks in local cafes!

 

 Diesel Cafe, Davis Square, Cambridge

As for extracurricular, it’s been a Food Literacy Project heavy week. This Tuesday FLP hosted our annual Top Chef competition—teams from each of the Harvard houses (and the freshmen) who won a preliminary cooking competition came together in Annenberg (the Harvard freshman dining hall) and were each given thirty minutes to make an entrée and dessert to be judged by the Harvard dining services, including Executive Chef Martin Breslin.

The event was high energy and full of creativity and food passion. Check out some of the great dishes from the event:

 

Adam House Dishes

Leverett House Dishes 

Currier House Dishes [the two kids of a house tutor were the team!]

The winner was Winthrop house with a fattoush salad and apple tart. Check out the winners and their meal below:

 

In the meantime, I’ve been working on sales and marketing with a local company, helping put on events. With that, fellowships for the summer, and an offer to get trained in yoga with a Harvard community program (!), it looks like at least the next few months post-graduation are coming together, the first couple of which will be in Boston.

 The view from a dorm room in the Leverett Towers, featuring the Charles River

~Natalie

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CUPSI!

April 19, 2012 in Reid's Blog by Reid | 1 comment

YARDFEST RECAP:
This is the stage of YardFest, a really fun music festival that Harvard hosts. We (my band) opened for The Cataracs, Das Racist, and 3LAU; it was really fun to play, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the other acts.

It was really fun performing at Yardfest, although the crowd wasn’t that into it. At the festival, there were a few giant tireswings, and I definitely was close to falling off of them, but it was a huge blast and I got to feel like a kid again. There aren’t many times at Harvard when you get to just chill as an entire campus, and this was one of those rare moments when a lot of the students enjoyed each other’s company while listening to some dope beats. (Good music.)

 

 

Woohooo YardFest stage later!

 

Our Set list; we ended with Beyoncé's "Love on Top" and it was so good!

 

One HUGE perk to playing at YardFest (besides playing, obviously) was that we got to have a Green room in Sever to ourselves that we could chill in before and after our set. (It happened to be my Italian classroom in Sever, which was pretty funny.) We also got free YardFest shirts, and got to hang out with the other “bands.” The only drawback was that we had to go to class the next morning after playing, but I can’t complain as one of our guitarists, Will, ran the Boston Marathon the next day!

CUPSI 2012, OR HARVARD GOES TO CALI:

So, I’ve been talking about this for a while. On Tuesday morning, 4 of my fellow teammates/students on the Harvard Poetry Slam Team took the T to South Station and boarded a Bolt Bus to NYC, on our way to catch the flight to LAX for the National Poetry Slam Competition. We actually made it, because I’m sitting in the hotel room right now! Here’s a quick recap from the road.

15 minute break between bus rides to NYC for CUPSI!

 

LaGuardia, waiting to board American Airlines.

 

Gorgeous Clouds in NYC

 

Chicago O'Hare airport, lookin' green.

 

Creeping around the Airport! Yay Chicago.

 

Sunset in LaGuardia…before the ridiculously longggg plane ride.

 

Wooh! Is this Chicago or LA from the air, I can't remember.

Finally, we all landed in LAX (with a dream and a cardigan) and headed over to rent a car. The car lot was HUGE.

Yaaay rental car place! We got such a nice carrrr.

We showed up at our hotel late Tuesday night (very, very late; 5 am on Wednesday from east coast time) and crashed, hoping to catch some z’s before competing on Wednesday.

Our très chic hôtel

The next day was obviously gorgeous, as this is So-Cal and is so niceeee.

Look at all dem Palmtrees @ U of Laverne!

 

Yay, CUPSI! It's real!

We registered and everything! YEAH!

Woah, there's Harvard

 

The crazy athletic center at U of Laverne

 

So today we competed, and we did a pretty good job for the first time we’ve ever been in a CUPSI slam; I won’t go into all of the scoring details, as they are pretty weird and complex, but we rep’d. Then, we got some delicious free food (I ate too much icecream…but who cares?) and danced for a while with members of the 48 other poetry slam teams that are competing here. We just got back from a cipher (read:non competitive rap battle, if such a thing can exist) at the DoubleTree where the majority of the poets are staying, and I am exhausted. Tomorrow we compete again, which is going to be really fun but I need some rest. Pardon if this post is short.

 

Happy Happy VISITAS weekend, wish I could be there…but then again, this is what Harvard’s all about–opportunities to do crazy stuff like this.

Peace

-Reid

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Spring Festivities

April 18, 2012 in Jeanie's Blog by Jeanie Nguyen | 2 comments

There’s a line I say quite frequently that I wish I heard others vocalize as well: “We met at science camp.” I actually say it with a shy pause – definitely not because I’m slightly embarrassed or anything…it’s just for the dramatic effect!

I spent two of my high school summers at science camp: COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics & Science) at the University of California Irvine and YSP (Young Scholar Program) at the University of California Davis. Whenever my peers question these summers, I naturally articulate that it was THE BEST SUMMER EVER as my eyes roll to the back of my head to replay all my cherished and hilarious memories. The chemistry and neuroscience classes/lectures that I attended, the hands-on research exposure and experiences, and most definitely the people I’ve met, all can explain my personality and interests, which is a huge reason why I put tremendous effort into maintaining my friendships from science camp.

Last semester at the epic annual Harvard-Yale football game, a friend from science camp – the only Yale student I know – reached out to me and offered to tour and host my friends and me during the weekend of the game. We all had so much fun with my friend showing us the local hot spots and agreed that this one weekend was too short. Therefore, this past weekend, the Yalie visited me for Yardfest! He’s never been to Harvard before and has been pretty committed to bashing it since he got waitlisted, so naturally, my goal was to change his opinion. My favorite quote of the weekend: “Harvard is so great! There’s a river and we can walk around at night.” I’m so glad that he not only felt safe roaming the streets of Cambridge, but also had a blast at Yardfest where students wildly danced to The Nostalgics (with Reid!), 3LAU, Das Racist, and The Cataracs. For two years now, Yardfest has pulled through to be an awesome Sunday evening and since the event ends before 10pm, there’s still time to study after!

Although New Haven Yalies may appreciate Harvard’s security, this week, I’ve become cognizant of not only how excited and committed Harvard students can get about the most random things, but also how much I love this enthusiasm!! If you follow us on Twitter (which you should!), I tweeted about an article about all the House Wars that have been arising – check out Caroline’s take on the wars! As a freshman last year, I wasn’t aware of these inter-house wars that are such a perk to House Life! I’m a proud Mather House resident, and us Matherites are led by a somewhat anonymous “General Mistie” (a spin off one of our house master’s names?).

If you’re a high school senior procrastinating, let me help you out by providing some HILARIOUS insight to the emails that have been sent out:

Read this Crimson article for relevant background info.

In the words of General Mistie:

Mather,

The war council has decreed its intent to defend Currier if Adams continues hostilities towards our Quad brethren. Note that we only act to protect our allies from harm, and will declare war if necessary:

“Decree to Save the Tree” (best document title ever…Currier’s Mascot is the Tree)

Mather House takes this opportunity to remind the warmongers of Adams House that we have long maintained a strategic alliance with Currier House. Our houses unite every year to promote peace and prosperity, setting an example for all Harvard houses to Increase Mather and Currier spirit.

Adams’ recent encroachment on the sovereignty of Currier is an unwise and rash decision, greatly underestimating the strength of Currier and its allies. Pforzheimer House has already declared its solidarity with Currier, reminiscent of the Pfoho-Adams War of 1999.

Adams would be wise to remember Mather’s actions in the Great House War of 2004, where we acted courageously in Adams defense against Kirkland. When Kirkland infringed upon Adams territory by stealing the Adams gong, Mather courageously stepped in to protect Adams against its stronger opponent. Without Mather Gorilla warfare, the gong may have never been recovered.

We will not be the house that stands by and watches its allies struggle alone. Mather calls on Adams to rescind its declaration of war by 11:59:59 P.M. Wednesday April 11th, 2012. If Adams does not comply or takes any hostile action against Currier or its allies, Mather will immediately declare war in solidarity with its Quad allies.

We urge Adams to reconsider their reckless decision and advise the citizens of Adams to implore their leaders to withdraw their declaration of war. After almost eight years of peace, Mather does not wish to enter hostilities with any house. But where there is tyranny, we will fight for the right to maintain housing independence.

Sincerely,
General Mistie

And to not play House favorites, I’ll also illuminate the participation of Cabot House:

Let it be known that on this day, the Tenth of April in the year Two Thousand and Twelve, the House of Cabot did officially enter into an accord with the House of Currier. We, the people of Cabot, are joining in defense of our ally, sturdy Currier, with the good Houses of Pforzheimer and Mather to denounce and oppose the acts of aggression taken by Adams House against our sister house, fair Currier.

Adams House’s declaration of war and illegitimate claim to the territories that rightfully belong to Currier House is an offense and provocation to all Houses. Following the senseless and terribly made Adams housing day video, Cabot residents did not succumb to provocation and instead let the people judge Adams. However, we can no longer stand idly by and watch Adams continue to commit these acts. 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 (one of my personal favorite quotes of all time!), among these being Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. In the spirit of Quad solidarity and in support of the rights of all peoples of all Houses at Harvard to live freely and peacefully, the undersigned do declare that the people of Cabot have entered into a defensive alliance with the House of Currier and will be at war with the House of Adams if any acts of aggression are made.

Until the time at which Adams publically recognizes its misdeeds and renounces its actions, Cabot House will maintain its hostile relations to Adams. Let it be known to the Harvard body that Cabot House, the Heart of the Quad, will not stand for houses that act dishonorably. Quarter will not be provided to those who wish harm against our brothers and our sisters.

Lastly as a consequence for Adams continued dishonorable acts of aggression and vitriol, Adams house residents will be held to Cabot House dining hall restrictions, whereby Adams house residents will not be allowed to eat on Tuesdays from 1:30 PM until 2:00 PM. Let this be a lesson to all who transgress against such peaceful houses as Currier.

Semper Cor,

Cabot House

The technical, sophisticated language, the historical references, and just the overall passive aggressive tone makes me want to read multiple textbooks on these House Wars! I’ll always LOVE the intensity that Harvard students bring towards not only their academics, but also extrapolating ridiculous jokes.

This type of enthusiasm will definitely carry over to this weekend as we welcome the newly admitted undergraduate class during Visitas (formerly known as Pre-Frosh Weekend)!! We’re all so excited to see you…looking lost, confused, and holding a crimson folder with a dandy map inside! Be ready for free swag! The weather is for sure welcoming as I just had my first class outside today on the steps of Memorial Church!

When you sit on Mem Church steps, you're overlooking Tercentenary Theatre…that's Widener Library straight ahead!

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Summer Approaching and…the Admissions Mistake?

April 17, 2012 in Scott's Blog by Scott Yim | 5 comments

As the semester winds down, life is getting busier, the days are growing longer, and it’s starting to look like summer a little more each day. My motivation for doing schoolwork is decreasing and I can’t believe that it’s almost the end of my third year here. The end of the spring semester brings about a whole bunch of things, including summer plans and one of my favorites–Quincy Assassins. It’s a bit complicated to explain, but long story short, we sign up in teams of up to 6 people and are assigned targets that we have to shoot with Nerf guns. The rules are 13 pages long! Caroline wrote about the most epic battle yet in Quincy courtyard the other evening. My team is all just about terminated, but the few other teams that are left are extremely intense. They stake out our dining hall and hallways on a daily basis. The game makes you incredibly paranoid, but it’s probably the most involved and dramatic game of Assassins played on campus (many other Houses run their own versions).

Quincy Assassins

Me and a few members of my Quincy Assassins team being ridiculous!

As far as summer plans go, it looks like I’ll be doing two things–proctoring on campus for Harvard Summer School and traveling the world hosting a new documentary series. While I can’t mention too much, the television show is basically about how different cultures and backgrounds affect people’s learning styles. I’ll be lucky enough to travel to Korea, China, Israel, France, and India with two other Harvard students, as well as one of my Peer Advising Fellows (PAF) from my freshman year, who has since graduated. Peer Advising Fellows are basically upperclassman buddies who are assigned to an entryway of first year students to advise them on academic, social, and personal matters. I’m currently a PAF and I love it! For those of you who will be studying here in the fall as freshmen, you’ll all have a PAF, as well. But I digress. My PAF’s name is Lilli, and she is now working for Google. Jenny is another one of the students, whom I’ve actually been very close with since freshman year, as we met through playing volleyball (she played on the Varsity Women’s Volleyball team for two years). The other student is Bryan, whom I met a few months ago, but I’m excited to get to know him better. We were all filming this past weekend and had a lot of fun together!

This coming weekend is Visitas, or as Harvard called it when I was visiting as a high school senior back in 2009, “Pre-frosh Weekend.” I think Visitas has a better ring to it. Regardless, I hope those of you who are visiting will meet as many people as possible and take advantage of all the cool opportunities on campus. One of the people I met during my visiting weekend is now one of my closest friends and blockmates (blockmates are people you pick to live in the same House with after freshman year). It’s also extremely fun to meet people and keep in touch over the summer before you get to campus. There is an activities fair where you can get a whole bunch of free swag and sign up for mailing lists to show your interest in various extracurricular clubs even before you start studying here. Also, a great majority of the student groups put on performances and special events, so be sure to check those out as well. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m the House Committee (HoCo) Co-Chair for Quincy House (each of the undergraduate upperclassmen houses have a House Committee that plans house events like formals, study breaks, and other events to foster community and make the house a fun place to live). Each HoCo has been working hard to plan your regional reception events, so be sure to check those out. Now that you got in, you may or may not be wondering one of the main questions I constantly thought about: Am I the Admissions Mistake? Absolutely not. And I hope you step on campus this weekend knowing that you deserve and have every right to be here.

 

 

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Assassins and War!

April 14, 2012 in Caroline's Blog by Caroline Burke | 7 comments

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

 

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