Mawrter Musing

It's a jouncing joy-ride…

May 3, 2015
by Zubin Hill
Comments Off on The Benefits of the Honor Code (BMC 9)

The Benefits of the Honor Code (BMC 9)

Alas! this be my last post (perhaps forever…)

Though I had thought to post about this year’s May Day, I’ve instead decided to go out discussing academics–which is the true Mawrter thing to do. As it is now finals season, this last post is about two gems of that period: Self-scheduled Exams & 24-hour Canaday. Both of these items are tied to Plenary which is tied to SGA which is (I think) tied to the Honor Code. This is why I consider them benefits of the honor code.

To be more descriptive, Self-Scheduled Exams are a direct result of the honor code. Their name is rather self-explanatory but I shall clarify a few points. Self-scheduled exams last the entirety of the finals period. Students are told by their professors if they will have a self-scheduled exam or a scheduled exam (it’s about a 70-30 split rate). I think the intro science and language courses largely account for all the scheduled exams. Anyway, the student then looks online for a time slot in which she can take her exam (they all run for 3 hours) and chooses whichever she’d like. Then you go to the Dean’s Office, get your test, and take it!

For myself, I LOVE SELF-SCHEDULED EXAMS! I can thus work most of finals period and stuff an exam where ever I feel like it. They are also a lot more relaxing than scheduled exams. You choose your test location from the 6-8 options and can camp out there, sloooowly dying during those 3 hours.

24-hour Canaday (Library) is, for a fact, a result of a Plenary petition. It is supposed to help those students who like/need to study/sleep in the library by allowing them unlimited access. The library is open 24 hours for most (if not all) of finals week. While I myself have never really partaken in it (as I don’t like to spend excessive hours of my life in the library–too isolating and quiet), I know others greatly appreciate the service.

So, I guess it’s goodbye, my friends. I am temporarily going to a different pasture and you…are doing whatever it is that you do.

Au revoir, chao, and sayonara!

May 1, 2015
by Zubin Hill
Comments Off on [Metaphorical] Tea on May Day (3)

[Metaphorical] Tea on May Day (3)

May 4th, 2014 (Grand May Day) – The Intervening of that Strange Day

Tea is Served (The Delightful Middle)

As the sky vacillated between rainy and sunny, I sat tucked away. Blissful streams of a capella music washed over me. It was a lull in the frenzy of activity I had planned and later enacted. I rode in a tea spun by myself and my teacup-mate–spun so crazily we both got somewhat ill and dizzy and only just managed to stumble drunkenly out of our specially chosen red teacup. I got a henna flower on the back of my right hand. Took photos in a photo booth, wondered if there was a real white rabbit at the petting zoo to soothe my lack of a stuffed one, and watched as Mawrters trolled around in the trackless train.

Leaving the buzz, I located some friends in Thomas Great Hall and sung for them. By then the sky had made up its mind: sunny. The sunlight was greeted by Mawrters with multiple Anasses and general clamor.

I yelled with them.

Live Like Horses

Gut-wrenching sobs and glistening eyes abounded.

But not from me.

And it wasn’t because I’m heartless but rather, because for me it wasn’t goodbye. Just because the juniors now occupied the Senior Steps didn’t mean that it was goodbye for me. That’s what I kept thinking. I still have commencement and Garden Parties.

Who knows, I may cry then.

It seems incredibly fitting to me that this quasi-ending to my freshman year and my time with the all too glorious dark blue class (the originals!) is so altered from the semi-start–Parade Night. Then I was the audience, not a participant.

At that time it was a new dawn for me, the start of a year, a time when the leaves were just beginning to fall but I was blooming. Times of the morning were (and are) calling.

Parade Night celebrated a beginning: of sophomore/freshmen rivalry, senior apathy, and junior-freshman love. May Day celebrates a beauteous end (and a beginning too) as our old seniors “depart” and the juniors rise to ascendancy. Thus indeed, there is a message in these.

Seniors: good luck in that dark, glittering, brilliant, and sharp world.

Juniors: ‘tis your last hoorah, savor it.

Now the ascendancy was complete. The juniors were now seniors (or something…)

A run down Senior Row was called for.

As my graduating senior friend and rising senior friend sped down Senior Row, I and another friend trailed them. We raced fast as four bullets shot out of a gun. The wind whipped by, freezing me, chilling me as I laced through the trees of Senior Row like a needle through fabric.

Cold air filled my lungs and I imagine I felt as colts must feel: free as the wind they chase with the world spread beneath them.

April 29, 2015
by Zubin Hill
Comments Off on Memories of May Day Past (2)

Memories of May Day Past (2)

May 4th, 2014 (Grand May Day) – The Intervening of that Strange Day

To continue on our journey through the eyes of First-year me, I present:

All Things That Be of the Insane Variety

In an email to us prior to the event, Traditions announced that to the keen of sight, white rabbits could be found about campus.

I desired to be one of those people.

It was for this reason that I was found by my Haffner Dining Hall co-worker  as I passed said hall on the way to the Sunken Garden. When he spotted me, he called out “Is that my Liberian princess?” (referring to my ancestry).

I replied in the affirmative and inquired as to whether he had spotted a white rabbit.

“A white rabbit? A real white rabbit?” He asked back, including hand gestures and a surprised expression.

“No,” I replied, “A stuffed white rabbit.”

“A white rabbit?” He repeated.

“Not a real white rabbit, a stuffed white rabbit!” I reiterated, urgently and mildly exasperated at his incomprehension.

Now, two things: (1. try saying real white rabbit and not stuttering. It’s bloody hard. (2. At that moment I came to realize how crazy I sounded, wandering about behind Haffner, dressed in white, and talking insistently about white rabbits. I sounded positively certifiable.

Needless to say, I quickly concluded our conversation and went off alone in search of my guiding rabbit.

Eat Me!

Triple-crossed wooden poles spun their wind-blown pinwheels as I and a group of friends approached Erdman Green. The pinwheels were colored as the coming of Spring–bright and lively. The storm that looked to be brewing, too was of Spring.

Nonetheless, food was in order.

My group quickly seized grilled hot dogs, drinks, and salads and procured a seat inside. A light drizzle began to fall, daring us to continue our May Day revelry. I braved that misting air for the sake of a great coup: three cupcakes (lemonade, oreo, and coconut) stabbed through with a toothpick topped by the sticker-label “EAT ME!”

I indulged the cupcakes and happily consumed them.

April 27, 2015
by Zubin Hill
Comments Off on May Day: As Told by a Once-First Year (1)

May Day: As Told by a Once-First Year (1)

As we are almost at the end of our journey through sophomore year, I thought it comforting to reflect on the past. In this case, with May Day approaching, I decided to share my May Day vignettes from last year’s Grand May Day. I have segmented them into three post-snippets.

May Day is a Mawrter Tradition: It is always the first Sunday of May and is an unofficial goodbye to the seniors. There is maypole dancing, bouncy castles, caricature painting, and snow cones to be had. It’s essentially a big college-sponsored party where most students dress in white to celebrate the arrival of May.

Enjoy!

May 4th, 2014 (Grand May Day)

The Tea is Put to Boil (The Beginning)

“It’s Alice in Wonderland.” My supervisor at work told me the Friday before May Day.

“What?”

“The theme for May Day.”

“Oh…”

While May Day was said to be Grand May Day (it was even in the title), my excitement for it was ambiguous. I didn’t know what to expect and could only conjure up a lackluster imitation of genuine excitement. But…then I heard about the pocket watches, and it all changed. I had long yearned for a pocket watch the way an Englishman yearns for curry. To have it neatly delivered into my hands awakened a building internal pressure.

For I knew then that Grand May Day had laid out the cards and was set to fulfilled its title.

“Off With Their Heads!”

Strawberries and Creme for breakfast. Check.

A Parade with Jingling Dancers and Swordspeople. Check.

And a Horse and Carriage. Check.

Such were the inclusions on May Day. In the parade, President Kim Cassidy sat in a horse-pulled carriage while the Traditions Mistresses followed behind in white top hats. Arriving on Merion Green, we all watched as the seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshmen, and McBrides danced about their maypoles. The seniors danced with expert flair and, after mounting the stage, Kim Cassidy pronounced them the winners to the cheers and hollers of the gleeful crowd. She further stated, in true Lewis Carroll fashion, that from then on out everything was to be what it wasn’t so that nothing might be as it was.

Following her speech, the “May Hole” was laid out and after a brief respite, all tramped to Denbigh Green to form a circle. Yelling out, the circle disintegrated into a running crowd–everyone clamoring to get beneath the May Hole. Flower petals were thrown as “As Cool As I Am” played and Mawrters danced and sang along. Everywhere was white and arms and bright colors. Everything was a blast of shouted song, “I WILL NOT BE AFRAID OF WOMEN!”

April 21, 2015
by Zubin Hill
Comments Off on The Secret Habits of Mawrters (BMC 8)

The Secret Habits of Mawrters (BMC 8)

I return for my penultimate BMC Culture Series post!

Today we will be considering two interesting peculiarities: Hour-long dinner and the Bryn Mawr Chop.

Hour-long dinner was a source of constant annoyance for me as a first-year. I worked in the dining hall and always wished those Mawrters at that table would just kahfiyeh! (Liberian-English for get lost). But no, they would sit there, giggling and chortling until well after closing. Now that I have an alumna friend, I understand better (though she and I have hour-long lunches). For undergraduates, it’s quite simply that they have so little time else to see each other–you gotta take what you can get.

For example, I have one friend at whom I constantly marvel. Had I not decided to be unexpectedly outgoing my first day at BMC, she and I would never have known each other. She’s an English major…I haven’t taken an English class since my first semester. We aren’t in any of the same clubs or groups, either. Thus, dinners and the odd meeting are the only times we can meet up.

The Bryn Mawr Chop is a force: all the “cool kids” do it. Mostly it happens after your first semester on the Mawr. I got mine not because I necessarily wanted short hair, but because I was tired of continuing to straighten my own hair. Pretty much whenever you return from a break, there will be buckets of people who have lopped off their locks or shaved their heads. It really fun to see all the crazy styles people come back with.

Next time on the Culture Series: We’ll discuss the boons gifted to us through the Honor Code and Self-Governance!

 

April 18, 2015
by Zubin Hill
Comments Off on Grand Celebrations

Grand Celebrations

“I’ve often described myself as a proud American (OK, I’ve screamed it off of rooftops) but I have a Latina soul.

So what does that mean?

I love food!”

~Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor

IMG_4734Rather than stand behind the podium adorned with a flower bouquet to deliver her opening remarks for the student event, Justice Sotomayor paced the stage. She even descended to mingle with the audience once the question and answer session started. She has a personable manner–she was constantly calling her photographer to come take photos of her with the questioners and snuck in little jokes left and right. For example: “you see those men at either side of the room? They’re here, not to protect me from you, but to protect you from me.” It is not every day that a Supreme Court Justice visits your college–as the Justice herself stated, “it does take a village…to have me visit.”

The student event was held as part of the Katherine Hepburn Medal event. The Hepburn award is intended to honor trailblazing women who make a difference and has been awarded only 5 times, I believe.

Hearing her speak was both inspirational and thought-provoking. Inspirational in that her very manner confirms that influence and status need not corrupt and make one into a diva. She is someone that allows for discussion–she puts you at ease. Indeed, her audience-interaction and auditorium-roving led the moderator to say as we neared the close of the event, “if I could encourage you to return to the stage?” (Justice Sotomayor did not do so readily). She approaches things her own way with youthful vigor and verve. As a strong proponent of verve, I was most pleased to recognize that treasured trait in her. She was thought-provoking in that she stated “we can only aspire to things you’ve been exposed to.” I’m not certain I agree with that sentiment, but I shall consider more deeply why I disagree.

Friday was also Worship Night. It marked the first time that the various fellowships on campus have held a joint event. It was quite well attended and I felt at peace as I haven’t in a good while.  I have so much time on my hands yet far too easily allow myself to get into the rat-race mentality. I took a breath. I danced quietly in my own space and I connected with my Christian community members.

As I wrote my goodbye message to our departing College Pastor, I couldn’t help but think how this semester is a turning point. I’m going away and when I return, the world will have shifted.