Mawrter Musing

It's a jouncing joy-ride…

Are You Ready for Hell Week? (BMC 3)

February 18, 2015 by Zubin Hill | Comments Off on Are You Ready for Hell Week? (BMC 3)

Welcome to Bryn Mawr–where you go to hell for fun.

Ok, not really.

IMG_4541

The beauteous Hell schedules for the hellees in my Hell family.

Today we are going to discuss Hell Week–that venerated pillar of Bryn Mawr Tradition. The basics: Hell Week evolved out of plays the sophomores would throw for the first-years (I think, don’t quote me on that). Anyway, it takes place every spring semester in the third week of February. It begins on sundown on the Wednesday of that third week (i.e. today) and ends at sundown on the Wednesday of the fourth week. Hell Week is the true “welcome to Bryn Mawr!” for the frosh. Sure, you’ve been here a semester, but do you really know the place?

Those frosh who want to participate choose a heller (typically a sophomore but theoretically any upperclassman who has been helled her/him/theirself). The heller then crafts a hell schedule for their hellee of the different tasks they are to perform during Hell Week. None of them are obligatory and they are meant to be fun.

Examples of possible tasks: pretending to be a professor in class, creating a petition to make Chris Evans the school mascot, or singing to someone in class.

Hell Week is basically a time of being crazy with no judgement. It’s a time of welcome for the frosh and the first goodbye for the seniors. An important part of Hell Week is the Senior Bedtime stories–when seniors read bedtime stories in their original dorm (usually) to the resident frosh. For some Bryn Mawr is a second home. Thus, many of the bedtime stories my first year were about finding home. It’s not quite that for me (as I truly love my real home) but it is a fairly decent substitute. Where else could I get away with all the stuff I get up to in the dining halls? Where else would I have a good chance of getting into the school-funded summer activities and talking to my professors one-on-one? And, honestly, who else has a President who hosts late-night/afternoon Pop-Ups?

Despicable-Me-Minion-Crowd

Hell Week.

Some people say Hell Week is hazing and get really upset about it. For some Hell Week is the straw that broke the camel’s back and they decide to transfer (an issue I may discuss later). I understand what may happen for these discontents to leave or be upset. If you choose the wrong heller, then, yeah, it might be rough. But I feel there are always listening ears. Everyone isn’t going to endorse whatever is going on with you. For those others who couldn’t handle the insanity of Hell Week, then maybe Bryn Mawr wasn’t for them. Bryn Mawr isn’t about normalcy. It’s about being crazed and embracing that, about being different and unafraid, about being shameless in Traditions, class, and life. Living under the constant censure of society isn’t really that great a thing.

Some rules should be followed.

But none of them without acknowledgement of self or personal ownership of their value.

Me performing during Goodhart Performances.

February 12, 2015
by Zubin Hill
Comments Off on Considering SGA (Bryn Mawr Culture 2)

Considering SGA (Bryn Mawr Culture 2)

SGA = Self-Governance Association

So, just some logistics. My BMC Culture series is going to run until the end of April and I am going to try to cover every vaguely BMC-particular thing I can think of with all the irreverence you’ve come to expect. I’ve decided to arrange the series in order of revelance to current semester events. With Hell Week just next week and Plenary that Sunday, I’ve decided to discuss SGA (next week’s post will likely be devoted to Hell Week).

Now let’s talk about this bastion of Bryn Mawr culture, so despised and useful all at once. Bryn Mawr’s SGA is fancy: by which I mean that they do a relative lot. According to SGA’s FB page, “[i]n 1892, Bryn Mawr became the first institution of higher education in the US to give students responsibility to govern themselves, it was considered a radical experiment at the time.” (Sidenote: I like the “at the time” addend). SGA is responsible for student group budgets, amenities like the Lusty Cup in the basement of Canaday Library (a coffee/snack bar in operation late at night when few food places are), and Plenary.

Plenary is hosted in the second month of each semester (October for Fall semester and February for Spring). Resolutions, crafted by students, are proposed and voted on at Plenary. The whole idea is that, when a resolution is passed it has the support of the student body. 1/3 of the enrolled student body must be present, ~400 students, for Quorum–which is the only time we (those at Plenary) can actually vote on a resolution. There has been a lot of grumbling in recent years about Plenary. Quorum wasn’t reached/maintained my first semester at Bryn Mawr so that Plenary was unproductive. Since then, there have also been issues reaching/maintaining Quorum. Some say students should be allowed to vote via the internet, others that Plenary should be abolished, etc. I think Plenary is good to have–not least because it’s currently my main venue for selling Butter Pear (imported Liberian accessories). Yes, it is tedious to just sit there. BUT it is also nice to have a say in things that affect me and be able to promote and provide campus-wide suggestions/policies.

If Plenary vanished then people would know what they were missing. Then the complaints would really spike.

February 8, 2015
by Zubin Hill
Comments Off on Juggling

~ At the start of this past week I was convinced I would stress myself out/not be able to handle all I had to do. Somehow, through God’s providence and some lucky cancellations, I did just fine. My week was set to have 5 meetings, 2 (3 page to be sure) papers due this next week, and internship deadlines. Luckily, 2 meetings got cancelled and the rest I managed to handle.

I don’t know if I’ve really gotten into the groove of the new year yet.

~ On Saturday I celebrated my heller’s birthday with my grand-heller and great-grand heller also in attendance. It was at a karoke and we ate unlawful amounts of food. I’m talking, so full that my belt felt like it’d snap off.

~ I’m in the midst of applying for as many internships as I can write convincing applications for and whose listed tasks don’t sound mad boring. This is, astoundingly, fewer internships than I’d like = ~5. I need to do something over the summer. My resume is always forefront on my mind. Whch is probably unhealthy.

~ I applied for a job on campus, which would involve me working with my heller (yay!) I hope I got it…but, knowing me, I probably didn’t. It was one of the meetings I’d had this week.

~Finally, I have a correspondant for/from my French class. She’s Marseillaise, 20, and wonderful to converse with. I feel my language and skill improving after only a week!

Notes on Bryn Mawr Culture (Episode 1)

February 2, 2015 by Zubin Hill | Comments Off on Notes on Bryn Mawr Culture (Episode 1)

THE FREE BOX

Here begins my semester-long series geared toward taking you “inside the strange practices and behaviors of Mawrters.” I intend to reveal to you all our deeply prized secrets. It is, without question, the untold story of life on a Bryn Mawr. I know you didn’t ask, but you’ll get anyway!!!

So My Readers, I shall introduce you to the first important facet of Bryn Mawr culture: the art and joy of the Free Box dive.

What is the Free Box? You may ask. Well, this is what it is:

Quite literally, a cardboard box emblazoned with the words – FREE BOX. (I was too lazy to take a picture of ours. It wouldn’t have looked that great anyway. Besides, ye must experienceth le boite gratuit for yourself).

Whoohoo! I LOVE THE FREE BOX!

Precisely as the name describes, it is a box filled (when it’s near a break) with stuff Mawrters don’t want anymore. There is one on every hall. It may not look like much, but within are countless and unimaginable wonders! Now, I have attempted to go Free Box shopping increasingly often over my BMC career. Top targets: the Pems, Rock, and Rhodes N + S. The problem with me and Free Box Shopping is that I always end up feeling like a terrible creeper. I feel almost like someone is going to call Public Safety or be like:

“You’re not a member of this dorm, what exactly are you doing wandering about with your eyes searching the building?”

“Oh…Hi…I’m not doing anything. Just leaving…

And then I’ll scamper away embarrassed.

Nonetheless, I have curbed my fears and crept about in search of clothes. The best times are probably (ranked in order of stuff from least to most): Thanksgiving, Fall Break, Spring Break, Winter Break, and GRADUATION! Basically anytime prior to a break–the longer the better. My finds include: some spanking coral pants (given to my lil’ sis), a monochrome, front-button dress (given to my 2nd sis), 3 pairs of jeans (plum, forest

Free Box Fashionista!

Free Box Fashionista!

green, and blue) by reputable brands, knit booties, several tops, and a jumper. The picture on the left is comprised of entirely Free Box Finds.

And a Traditions sweatshirt (which sold at $30 originally and was just my size!!!) It has BRYN MAWR TRADITIONS and an owl carrying a lantern in all the class colors on it (since all that is not really visible).

My goodness! I feel at this point I may never have to shop again and instead just get presents from the Free Box (but really…)

 

 

January 22, 2015
by Zubin Hill
Comments Off on Where I’ve Been

Where I’ve Been

I want to share a piece I wrote some 2 years ago. I’m posting this in the midst of the furor about the upcoming battles between the GOP-controlled Congress and Obama (especially post-State of the Union). I feel my thoughts then are meaningful now; we are still figuring out race and Obama’s place in American history, still trying to show that #BlackLivesMatter and understand what the encroaching end of Obama’s tenure means. Back then, I was coming to terms with the allergic reaction the right was having to Obama and what it meant for me and America. Truly, I’m still coming to terms with it.

“Somehow, in our fear and desolation, we got away from where we started. We turned away from the road we tread and went a different way. Now we don’t know if we can get back, don’t know if we even want to. It was the journey and the promises made. They called us and made us dream that we could be more, made us hope that life didn’t have to continue as it was.

“Yes we can!” we cried, loud and in one voice.

As time drew on, suddenly, the bandwagon emptied and people went back to living and stopped dreaming. We stopped believing that one man could solve the problems and started thinking instead that in one man was the root of all the problems. In both our starting thought and our ending one were we wrong.

Neither is true.”

Zubin Hill, 2013

I guess the idea is just that, much as I may laud Obama for having the guts to get done what needs to be done, it’s important to understand that democracy is a system and a process. Things have to go through the filtration system and often that takes time. Regardless, it is unfair to say Obama has done nothing or that (even them) Congress has done nothing.

History will judge both. I think we need to recognize how far we have come…and that there is yet another mountain to climb. You can live and dream.

Don’t give up either because life has thrown some curveballs.

 

Reflections

January 18, 2015 by Zubin Hill | Comments Off on Reflections

Now that I’m back on campus and my externship has ended, I guess it’s time for some REFLECTIONS!

I think my externship was fairly successful. I had to adjust myself to the situation, be in constant interaction with my extern sponsor, work on my researching + marketing skills, and learn how to operate in an office environment. My extern sponsor was pretty generous and made sure I had food and such. In retrospect, I can see how the whole “staying in her house” thing could have gone terribly wrong. Thankfully, being at her mercy was not akin to being at the mercies of an evil stepmother. However, it is a situation to which I shall pay greater attention next time.

I learned some facts about the publishing industry like: shipping worldwide is a pain, considering the distribution of possible foreign rights partners is important, and there are a lot of little websites to help manage a business.

On the more personal side, I also grew quite a bit. I had to give a constant report of my experience to my externship sponsor–something that at first challenged me. Eventually, I thought about it ahead of time and was able to provide decent answers (“I’m learning efficiency, independence, etc.) I’m certain this will improve my interviewing as I SUCK at interviews. I discussed politics with my extern’s husband and tidied up after dinner so I could be helpful. I learned that Quakers are hyper-passivists, have semi-silent meetings (thus explaining the origins of the game Quaker’s Meeting), and believe all roads lead to heaven/God.

I finally understand a couple of other things about Bryn Mawr just from learning about Quakers (we’re a Quaker school).

I compiled Wikipedia entries (which I had previously avoided doing because it sounded mad boring – but it was OK), wrote a sales email, and researched various things. I learned to multitask and keep composure in a small space.

In short, I learned “when to hold ’em, when to fold ’em, and when to walk away.”

[Yeah I know this is video has been posted prevously].

P.S. I’ve made a commitment to post more frequently and cut the size of my posts in half (or maybe just less…) I hope the difference is notable.