I love February!!! Except for Valentine's Day. Its not like something bad has ever happened on Feb 14th, but the commercialization of it all leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And, Taylor Swift is in a movie with that name... Anyway. The reason I love Feb, is because there are many February Yale traditions:

1) TROLLEY NIGHT...

Trolley Night is an annual event hosted by Calhoun College since 1949. In recent years, TN has happened around Mardi Gras and developed a Stop Light Theme...

- 2 Hours of Live DJ
- 2 Hours of TROMBONE SHORTY & Orleans Avenue!!! (http://www.tromboneshorty.com/main/) <--- Live Band that you see playing above
- Mardi Gras Beads
- A Trolley
- An Actual Traffic Light
- Stop Light Theme:

• Green: Single
• Yellow: Unsure/confused/chilling/etc
• Red: In a relationship

For more information on the history of Trolley Night, check out the Calhoun History Website.

2) A MIDNIGHT LOVE AFFAIR...


The annual Valentines Day Jam from Yale's premiere a capella group - Shades. Each Valentine's day beginning at midnight, the men and women of Shades share their phenomenal voices with Yale. I've not been to one jam yet because I am always in Boston for an MUN conference Valentine's weekend (more about this in my next blog), but Shades rocks my socks.

And my new favourite...

3) FEB CLUB
This is one for the senior's only, but y'all will get there eventually :-)

Legend has it that Feb Club started in the ‘70s, that it ended in the late ‘90s and that it was resurrected in 2006.  Each year, a student, group of students or organization would be handed down the solemn task of organizing 28 (29) parties around the Yale campus, and spreading the word among the student population.  In the early days, there was no e-mail, no web pages, no Facebook.... so word of the parties, their locations, hosts and themes were truly spread by word of mouth.  Feb Club parties ranged from simple get-togethers in a dorm room to elaborate choreographed affairs involving multiple hosts and locations.  In 1987, for example, parties ranged from 18 holes at Timothy Dwight College (i.e. 18 rooms, 18 themes), to a highfalutin affair at the Yale Yacht Club, to Valentine's Day red “special” jello at Zeta Psi, to a Manhattan road trip, to the annual upside-down kamakaze tradition at Morse College.

So I can't give too much away with many of you being U21 and all, but I've gone every night so far (and made it to the gym at 7.30am the next morning). Its becoming a struggle, but I think I can keep going for the next 12 days...

And here are some photos to prove it :-)

Day 1: Gabriele and myself. Day 1 and excited to go hard.....please note the class ring on my right hand. Yah, I got a ring on it!

Day 10: Going strong! This was one of those nights I will never forget. Feb Club was hosted at Hula Hanks, a local dance spot - and we'd rented out most of the space. When I am tired, I wear bright colors to pick me up. This is one of my fave yellow sweaters :-)

Day 16: Running out of hands!!!! So its gotten to the point where we need 4 hands to count the number of days...Yesterday, we had a Mardi Gras theme and Feb Club was held OUTSIDE.

Bring it ON day 17!

...but really?

Disclaimer:  Reader participation highly encouraged. Give me your thoughts on this matter...this blog is not one big Taylor bashing session, it is really about the YDN debate on T-Swift and her lyrics promoting male dominance. I just couldn't resist some initial opinionated commentary. This post is not intended to offend any Taylor Swift fans and is entirely my personal opinion.

I think Kanye's atrocious behavior at the MTV awards directed at Ms. Swift was unacceptable (though damn funny! If you haven't see it yet -> youtube that ish).  When the President of the US calls you a  jackass, it means you really screwed up.


But I digress. Bottom line - take this blog with a pinch of salt.

Like many a young pop music junkies today, I have been known to sing at the top of my tone deaf lungs "you belooongg with meee hee heee" many a time. I think Taylor Swift has some good musicianship in her 20-yr old self. That said, while I do not claim to be an officionado of music awards I have two strong opinions on the matter:

1) Taylor Swift, No! Part I: When Michael Jackson is in the same category as Taylor Swift for an award, any award, Michael Jackson needs to win. Especially because he is dead. Even if it happens to be the Taylor Swift Award. Evidently I am talking about Artist of the Year at this year American Musics Awards. Even Taylor was shocked that she won. America, I blame you - AMA's are based on fan votes.

2) Taylor Swift, No, Part II: Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammy nominees: "Fearless" - T-Swift. "I Am...Sasha Fierce" - Beyonce, "The E.N.D" by the BEP's, "The Fame" by loco Ms. Gaga, "Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King" - Dave Matthews Band.

Winner, T-Swift. WHHHATTTTTT?????? According  the Grammy website, unlike other awards, the Grammys are there to "honour artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position". Now in the words of Jill Alphonso --->"With that in mind, how did teenybopper Taylor Swift take Album of the Year, the most coveted award? Answer: She sold the most". For this, I blame the members of the Academy that vote. Its like the corporate world - people are selling their artistic souls to capitalism and the institution of $$ making. Hot darn.


Now all my ranting has a point -> Taylor Swift commentary has permiated the Yale Daily News (YDN) and the Yale student concious in the most shocking way. In true Yale fashion there is a heated debate about on campus right now whether or not Ms. Swift's lyrics are anti-feminist and promote male dominance or characterizes men who like her music as "a few guys who like skinny blondes sitting around waiting for them".

The original article appearing in the YDN Feb 2 2010 was entitled Not Quite Fearless by guest columnist Alexandra Brodsky. The most salient parts of her article follow, after her initial quips about Ke$ha - i know i like waking up in the morning feeling like P.Diddy and do not leave Feb Club parties until the (sleep) Po-Po's shut me down, down. Think of them as discussion starters.

• "Plenty of people seem surprised that men like Taylor Swift. She’s the new Gossip Girl — isn’t it cute that boys like her too? But I find it much more surprising that women are on the Swift train. That there are a few guys who like skinny blondes sitting around waiting for them isn’t hugely surprising, but it is more troubling that plenty of women are excited to see someone so helpless." <--- Women on the Swift train (I am not), do you agree? Personally I am tired of equating females wanting a man with being helpless. Some people are just trying to get theirs. But I do take issue with certain methods of pursuit: phone or in person stalking, offering to do laundry/cook/homework in a way that is not reciprocated, being all Bella Swan depressed for 300-pages of New Moon...Really?

• "While passivity in initiating relationships is in no way comparable to sexual assault, I think Foxx would have trouble coming up with more destructive lyrics if he tried [In reference to the song Blame It.] The song simultaneously informs women that sober desire is shameful — so start drinking! — and men that the drunk girl at the bar is inebriated because she wants to sleep with you, equating drunkenness with consent. Yet many of my female classmates proudly raised their glasses in the air and chanted along with Foxx, as though to prove that indeed the Goose had got them feelin’ loose. <--- Blame It by Jamie Foxx and T-Pain also won a Grammy. I literally can't take it. And I have much to say about consent. I think my next blog might be all about it.  Men are held to a double standard in our society, even at liberal and progressive Ivy Leagues of 2010 - you just have to step into the Elizabethan Club at Yale or recall Prof Summer's comments at Harvard a couple of years ago about women being inherently less intelligent than men in the sciences. But I digrees.

• "While Swift and Foxx deal with very different subject material, the response to both shows women gladly buying standards that leave them passive and vulnerable" <--- I'm ambivalent on this.

On Feb 3 2010, two letters to the Editor in response to Brodsky's article appeared. One from a first year student at the Yale Law School, You Don't Have to Call Anymore and another from a senior in Ezra Stiles. The Other Side of Love Story . I'm not judging anyone or anything for putting their opinions out there. But I have to respectfully disagree with the following arguments on the basis that I think they are utterly ridiculous:

• Singing about a crush in “Hey Stephen,” she [Swift] revels in her own power, gleefully singing that while many girls are chasing after him, she is the only one who could write him a song" <--- Call me crass, what is the difference in agency and power between chasing after a boy and writing him a sappy love song? Personally, I value my creative writing juices more highly than a couple of calories lost running after some fella. Regardless, I would not chose either as a show of power, espeically considering that time is valuable. Just ask the guy (or gal) out and get it done with.

• The inferrence that Taylor Swifts' decision to call her album "Fearless" is "remniscent of the words of JFK, [particularly when] she speaks of taking action and standing up for oneself even when fear or heartbreak make it difficult" <--- Mis-interpretation of quote anyone?

Your opinions on the matter would be much appreciated.

P.S. Thank you to one of my best friends Zack Abrahamson for bringing this important issue to my attention
P.S.S. Lady Gaga - I have not decided whether I like her craziness or not. All I'm saying is if you can rock these shoes, rock on!

Before I launch into what I hope will be a short post (gahhh!) let me just say that in principle, I am morally opposed to self-advertising Yale. This place is effin awesome and "sells" itself; weekly conversations with Miroslav Volf, masters Teas with Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, Chemistry classes with Nobel Laureates...No it is not all a bed of roses - this is an academically rigorous environment,  and for me, the reality of being a small fish in a big pond was tough to adjust to, no doubt. 
My first week at Yale (i'm in the bottom right of the main picture- mouth agape). Little did I know I was surrounded at that time by a former parliament member in Mauritius (who has now taken time off school to start up a non-profit for education; the current prodigy of the Architecture Department; future Phi Beta Kappa...

But you know you love Yale when it is 5am in the morning on a Monday (for the 3rd time the semester) and you haven't slept because you were procrastinating about that paper due in 4 hrs with your roommate who is in the same boat. I chose to blog for the admissions office not primarily to recruit, but because I genuinely love talking/communicating with prospective students (love manifest in the fact that I work in the admissions office, I'm a tourguide, a senior interviewer...teee heee), and it would force me to document  my own Yale experience so I could come back to it days/weeks/months/years later and reminisce...ahh the good old days when Publick Cup was called Koffee Too.

So what is the point of this blog? Despite my moral opposition to self-advertising, the new Yale admissions video "That's Why I Chose Yale" has absolutely made my week. If you haven't seen it already, please take 13mins right now and click here. Bonus points if you spot yours truly (in a certain cinema scene), and my awesome hip-hop dance group (Rhythmic Blue) in the vid.


So there are the practical reasons I chose Yale - financial aid =  baller. Academics = world class. Atmosphere = once you step on campus the energy is sooo invigorating. Attitude = laid back but challenging. Fit = there are so many good schools out there, but Harvard and Cambridge (UK) were just not the places for me: though they were the right choice for my dad and HS best friend respectively. But in my opinion, the decision on where to go to college should not be fully determined by practical reasons. You have to have that X-factor, the attractiveness that does not wane. Financial aid is transient (the recent financial crisis is perfect example), atmosphere is relative (after 3 months of wet rain and many images of the sunny East Coast of Kenya...), attitude is pressure tested during finals, mid-terms, job and fellowship apps...fit is not entirely your choice - I thought I'd be a great fit at Duke, but alas I was waitlisted and never found out if I got in. 


But after four years of trying to answer the question "Why did I choose Yale" from as many angles as you can imagine, in several different languages and to all sorts of different people, I can finally and in full confidence offer a one word answer - the people (okay, is his two words or one word?). I feel inspired, motivated, rewarded, supported, encouraged, confident, challenged and lucky all at the same time to be a Yalie and to share the best four years of my life so far with incredible friends and many acquaintances.

The new admissions musical captures soo many different aspects of Yale and makes me want to jump for joy. But even the $1,234,567,890 camera, professional filming crew and script (written by two Yalies), and legit career actor (Kobe a.k.a. "Mr. Admissions Officer", Yale '07), this video cannot capture the depth of personality student body. One of the writers of the film not only writes scripts in his spare time, but is a math whiz like no other. One of the drummers you see is currently working on his first psychology book/senior thesis that has already caught the attention of some big-name publishers. Once of the dancers in RB is a national weightlifting champion with a voice recording contract in her back pocket; and she bakes gingerbread houses from scratch. They all came together to make a Rock Musical for this place I call home for the past 4years - Yale. And these are just some of the people I know...what of all those others I don't?


I'm absolutely stoked to be graduating and entering "the real world" (thank you job gods for making sure I will not be a hobo next year). I cannot take Tony Blair, Harkness Tower or Publick Cup with me. But I can take the memories that are forever embedded in my mind - those surrounding the wonderful people I've met here  and their incredible life stories - whether or not these interactions are captured in my blog. And the great thing about this is even when I am halfway across the world, I can still call them, meet them, facebook them...

Summary of Part I: I am a senior with severe senioritis. But I have accepted it! As an ode to my new found comfort with seniority, I have been in a very reflective mood. I hope we can connect on many levels with the feeling of being ready to try out the next really exciting stage of life, and just a bit nervous about the unknown. In no particular order, my musings:
1. Getting it 100% right is not always the point.
2. Dress up and treat yourself to a nice dinner whenever you can afford it.
3. Schedule time to go out and just let loose. And on with the rest...

4. Take EPIC photos. Now, not all EPIC photos are equal. Some are EPIC because they capture 2,000 words in one image. This is me and Gabriele at my 21st b-day pre-game. This photo in so many ways typifies our relationship - absolutely ridiculous. I've sat here, and tried to write a paragraph summary of the 2,000 words and have failed miserably given my issues with writing concisely. Maybe I'll do a whole blog on that. Hmm...
Others are EPIC because of the location and the setting. Case-in-point, my Herculean pose in front of beautiful-building-without-name in Seville, Espana this summer. I was in Southern Spain + Barcelona with my best friend/sister from another mother Gabriele, Papito Gabriele's dad/my second dad (and star of the Blackberry photo in Part I of this blog), and Mamita Gabriele's mom/my second mom. What a trip - all pun intended. We have a whole photo shoot on the rooftops of Barcelona if you are at all interested... The more photos you have, the more memories you stockpile for future use. You don't even have to post them on facebook. Keep them just for you.

5. Surround yourself with intellectual goodness, it is the best feeling in the world. Tony Blair isn't bad either.
Yale is an incredible place to go to school and experience the best four years of your young adult life. But sometimes, I forget how lucky I am to go here, and begin to take things for granted. For example, I took class with Tony Blair this semester (Faith and Globalization, http://faithandglobalization.yale.edu/), and it got to the point where I'd walk into class, and he'd be like "why, hello Amandla? How are you doing <---British Accent". And I'd be like "thanks for asking Prof. Blair. Pretty good. You?". "Not too bad, just had lunch with President Levin". And that would be the end of the convo. But I know a year from now, I'm going to be thinking oh-my-effing-G, I had class with Tony Blair. But there is someone in that class who blew me away even more. Prof. Miroslav Volf, the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale. His list of accomplishments is staggering, so if your interested google him. If not, keep-a-reading...

Never in my life have I been simultaneously so amazed by someone clearly on-top of their academic field and humbled at the same time by their ability to have and facilitate ANY conversation - about faith with athiests and struggling believers like myself, about the pit in his backyard that students had dug out the year before to build a fire, about the market and values.... Prof. Volf walks into a room, and you feel his presence. He begins to speak and says things life "Globalization is about the pursuit of human flourishing", "All mono-causal reasons are suspect", and you can't help but be engrossed in the narrative of his words and how eloquently he spins his thoughts together.

I can only hope that one day I will posses the clarity of thought and mastery of my chosen field of study/work that he does. But for now, I am 100% satisfied with the incredibly refreshing experience of being at the receiving end of Prof Volf's thought process. P.S. on a side note, I was trying to grab a Friday meal with Prof Volf and a couple of friends 3 or so of weeks ago. Unfortunately he couldn't be there because he had to go to Dubai to lead some conversations at the World Economic Forum. That's a legit reason to not have lunch.

6. If in doubt, buy shoes. Heck, just buy shoes. I have an obsession for two things in life - gummibears and shoes. Thank-youuuu financial aid and having a job! When I work a little extra to save money, I can splurge on shoes every once in a while. Shoes have this amazing ability to make everything better. If you finish writing 35 pages in a night as I did last night, a new pair of shoes makes you feel like you slept 24 hrs. If you had a bad test - shoes = pick me up. If you had a wonderful day and want to celebrate, shoes complete your oufit. And if a friend, male/female, straight/gay, big/small, pink/yellow asks you to help them brainstorm their X-mas wish list, shoes are a sure winner.

Case-in-Point: one of my homeslices Zack owns 3-4 pairs of shoes - like any 'real' man out there (for more on being a 'real' man, check out Zack with the minature puppy below---teee heee. I have madd love for you Zack). I dunno how you all live with 3 pairs of shoes in your life. Anyway, I was helping him think of a wish list the other day, and everything I said, he was like mhhheee...
With these few random musings, what then is meaning of my life? I'll have to get back to you on that at some point in the future. I'm too busy enjoying my senior year on the strugglebus to figure it out :-) Soak in what is left of your senior year -- it never comes around twice. Yes, Yale is effin awesome, but it will be right here waiting for you in 8 months.

Happy Holz yo!

Peace, A xxx

I am a senior with severe senioritis. (Try saying that 5 times fast)...

I also have a problem with writing concisely...so my musings will come in two parts :-)

On with the blog...as I sit by the fireplace in WI (I flew in from New Haven last night), I look back on my life and wonder - where did all the time go? It feels like just yesterday I was jumping up and down like a mad person when I checked my Yale EA decision online in my living room in Nairobi. But it was literally just yesterday I joined my dance group Rhythmic Blue for the last time to kick some serious Harvard tooshy in the Talent-Show after THE GAME. And there is the always profound realization that my 16-year old brother pointed out - as 21 year old, I am a third of the way to 63. But you know what....I'm LOVING it!
As an ode to my new found comfort with seniority, I have been in a very reflective mood of late. I hope we can connect on many levels with the feeling of being ready to try out the next really exciting stage of life, and just a bit nervous about what awaits. In no particular order, here are the ramblings of my inner reflective mind.

1. Getting it 100% right is not always the point I just finished taking part in Yale's "infamous" Studies in Grand Strategy seminar (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122973925559323583.html, http://www.yale.edu/iss/gs/index.html) It was the experience of a life-time and there is no other class like it at Yale. Yes there are things I do not like about it - there is a self-selection bias in the applicants (read:Type A overload), there are no female or minority faculty in a teaching group of 6+, almost everything we read in class the entire year was written by a conservative white male. But it is the one class at Yale I have taken where the Professors will not settle for some B.S. you make up to try and sound intelligent.
However, the big project of the fall semester is the Marshall Brief, fondly referred to as "murder boards" where you are split into groups of 3-4, given a broad topic like Global Public Health and Culture (my group), and told - GO, tell Obama what to do about this for the next 50 years. After slogging away for several weeks (my group put in approx 100 hrs total), you present your proposals orally to President Obama (role-played by GS faculty John Negroponte, former Director of National Intelligence under Bush, Deputy Secretary of State, former Ambassador to Iraq, the Philippines, Honduras, Mexico...you get the picture).
Every group gets ripped apart for 1hour or so. You have 6-8 professors asking you questions you have no idea how to answer. You get yelled at, shut down, you name it. One of the Professors described it as an exercise in pain. And then you have 30mins of feedback in front of the entire class. Terrifying...but totally worth it. You realize with this exercise that the point is not to present Obama with the perfect grand strategy to tackle Global Public Health and Culture. It is impossible. There is no way to get it right in that respect, there is no way for you to win. The Profs WILL always tear into you. The point is to defend your synthesis of ideas to the best of your ability and struggle through the presentation without losing your cool. Operation mere survival.

It was an exhilarating experience and I learned more in those harrowing weeks about public speaking, presentation, thinking on my feet, and making strategic decisions about topics I know very little about than during all the rest of my time at Yale put together.

2. Dress up and treat yourself to a nice dinner whenever you can afford it. Bottom line, If you don't take care of YOU, who will? Its really as simple as that. Playing dress up never gets old, especially when you grab a number of your girlies (or home-slices, or home-boys, or friends...in my old age, I sometimes fall out of the loop of the language you young'uns are using these days). 3. Schedule time to go out and just let loose. I admit to having self-inflicted OCD and the inability to make a to do list in under 30mins. I put "make a to do list" at the top of my to do list, just so I can cross it off. I schedule everything, and it made my day to sync my iCal on the laptop, to my gcal on google, to my Blackberry Calendar....Me + Papito + the BlackBerry at Longwood. <3 for Papito. I thinks its time I name the BB...we spend a lot of quality time together. Any suggestions? I'm thinking of Monster? Or Soy-Cappuccino...

Anyway, I digress. So my new favorite thing to do is schedule is time to go out in the middle of the week. I feel like such a rebel having class Thursday morning at 9am and staying out till 4am Wednesday night. Oooh, such a guilty pleasure! But then you get to have an absolute ball doing things like the Senior Masquerade Ball...I lost a dress strap that night. But that is a story for another day. For other musings:
4. Take EPIC Photos
5. Surround yourself with intellectual goodness, it is the best feeling in the world
6. If in doubt, buy shoes. Heck, just buy shoes!...

...and the meaning my (life), please keep reading...

Peace, A xxx

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

The logical answer you'd think is yes. You did get into Yale after all :-)

But the issue is really much more complicated than that. What does it mean to be smarter? Using what standards? Smarter according to what knowledge? Dropping the Y-bomb is undoubtedly something many of you 2013-ers are dealing with right now, and an issue I am always learning how to navigate through. I know that getting into Yale does not make me de-facto 'smarter' than people who do not get into Yale, where I use smart in every sense of the word - books-smart, street smart, people smart...But I also know that my brain works on a different plane than many of my peers in high school who are now pursuing post-high school education/work experience. But why does this all matter?

Given that I am such a firm believer in experience above all shaping who you are as a person - hence my decision to come to Yale and "go Ivy", for the experience surrounding the schooling - is there an objective measure of just how smart a person is? Does there need to be?These are not questions I am going to attempt to answer now, but through the course of this post, I will ponder on them more using the framework of questions found in the board game version of "Are You Smarter than a 5th grader".

1. Earth Science: What geological era are we in right now?
Ummmm....Not the Jurassic, and Cavemen do not exist anymore. I can tell you that much.

Me and my roomie Gabriele dressed up as Cavemen for Halloween

ANSWER: Cenozoic

This question highlights the specificity of knowledge required in 5th grade Earth Science, a level of specificity I simply do not have for knowledge in Earth Science. I googled the geological eras of the world to discover that the Jurassic age falls under mesozoic geological era that preceeds the cenozoic era we are in right now. At the risk of sounding really arrogant, now that I know this, I don't think my life has changed. It doesn't make sense to try and determine how smart I am by knowledge that doesn't impact my life and thus knowledge that I have no incentive to learn. Is this a snobbish approach to learning? Am I wrong for feeling this way? Is it realistic for me to pick and chose what knowledge I retain, when the whole academic point of going to college is to broaden my intellectual horizons?
 

2. Social Studies: Johannes Gutenberg invented something that changed the world. What was it?

Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts library, Yale

ANSWER: The movable type printing press.

Okay, so talking about knowledge that changes my life - supposedly Johannes Gutenburg's invention  does. And it turns out that I know what he invented, the movable type printing press. And you want to know why I know, because we have a copy of the Gutenburg Bible, the first book in the Western world to be printed using this method (one of only 11 original vellum copies in the world) right here at Yale on display at the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Maybe my rational for retaining only certain types of information is not so bad after all....
 

3. Art: Name the 19th century photographer best known for his striking images of the Civil war.
A. Matthew Brady B George eastman. C. Louis Daguerre.

 

Do not let the smiles on our faces fool you - this picture of my dance group was taken at the Yale-Harvard Talent Show, a staple of the famous "Game", the annual extravaganza when Yale takes on Harvard in American football and many other festivities. Its our modern version of the civil war. Yale always wins the talent show :-)

ANSWER A: Matthew Brady

This is one of the questions that you either know the answer, or you don't. I did not, and I claim ignorance on the basis of being an international student. Nonetheless, the question of what constitutes knowledge and 'smart' in Art is a completely different ball-game. Because the art is produced by other people, how can you judge how we appreciate this art at a secondary level? Is simply knowing the photographer and his technique in this question sufficient? Or is it more important to understand the subject of his photography, the US Civil War?

4. Life Science: If you fly from California to Connecticut, how many time zones have you passed through?

Yay Goldengate Bridge!

ANSWER: 4

When I count now, I still get three. I think the issue here is the meaning of the word "through". Do you count EST where Connecticut is? It seems to be a pretty straight forward question, no? Am I over complicating the question, a problem I tend to have often because of being taught at Yale to question everything? I do know one thing for certain though. It does get a whole lot warmer any time of the year if you fly from Connecticut anywhere West. I am currently in Houston for the weekend on job interview related stuff, and the 70 degree weather here is AMAZING. By contrast - its snowing in Connecticut.
 

5. English: The word "I" is nominative. "Me" is objective. What similar world would be possessive?  

My future Castle home in Istanbul, Turkey, right on the Bosphorous. When I'm rich and famous, its going to be MINE, MINE, MINE :-) hahahahaa

ANSWER: MINE

 

Finally, a question I can answer. But one I had to think about nonetheless. It is amazing how much knowledge I take for granted and assume I will always recall. Learning is an amazing process - emphasis on the word process. You have to practice to get better, there is always room for improvement, and if you don't use it, you forget it. This goes for everything including mental math. What's 18 x 19? This is actually a question asked at one of my finance interviews last week. I would have had no trouble working it out in under 5 seconds in 8th grade. Now...it took me a while.
 

Do yourself a favor, grab a copy of this game, and then tell me what YOU think.

Peace,
A

 Hmmmm...on second thoughts, maybe I can't.

I'm generally a very good girl. I study, but not to much. I party, but never too hard. I like to meet people's parents and grandparents. I do my laundry. I say please and thank-you. I make my bed everyday. I love my family and friends dearly. But sometimes, I just want things I can't explain. Irrational exuberance, Robert Shiller would call it. Hormones my mom would say. I just want certain want sometimes.  I promise I'm not a material girl, but you feel me?
So here is a list of things I asked Santa for this year; some of them I got, some of them I'm still waiting for...

1) I want OBAMA for President: Check
I like to believe that besides being an incredible man with a vision for America that instils hope into people, and a leadership style that truly bestows ownership of America's future to its citizens, Obama won the election because his father was Kenyan. We Kenyans just have something special about us :-) Turns out that Obama Snr.'s first wife was my kindergarten headmistress. Go figure. Two degrees of separation baby, two degrees. From the age of 8, I have wanted to become the first female president of Kenya. Obama and I should talk.
New Year's resolution - meet Obama before I turn 21. The African-American Cultural Center at Yale (www.yale.edu/afam) through the ORD Leadership Forum is sponsoring two students to the inauguration first class - from travel, to access to all the invite-only events, to sitting on Obama's side of the stadium, close enough to see the pinstripes on his suit. Sadly, my name was not randomly drawn from the hat. But hey, I have 8 months before I turn 21. As a side note, Elizabeth Alexander, poet extraordinaire and Professor at Yale will be reading the inauguration poem after Obama speaks. Again two degrees of separation...

2) I want to curb my hormonal attraction to boys: Still waiting
This is a hard one. I keep telling myself that I will grow up, and try to muffle that "I want you now"/"Come hither" feeling I sometimes get, and replace it with logical "Oh, he's got nice manners. I should get a cup of tea with him and discuss the state of the economy".
For goodness sake, I'm a Yalie with at least half a brain. I'm a friggin' junior. But I'm also human. Sigh. Maybe if I ate more gummibears and chocolate this coming year, then I would quell some of these feelings? Que piensas?

3) I want to stop drinking coffee: Still waiting
I'm addicted. I admit it. But only during finals. Starbucks has too many calories and breaks the bank. Koffee Too (renamed the Publick Cup, but no-one at Yale call's it that) is too far away. But ABP is just right. 

First of all A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to you all, Yale Class of 2013. Many many many years ago (okay, like 3), I sat nervously at my computer screen waiting for the decision that would frame the rest of my life - the results of my EA application to Yale. I had told my mom that I wasn't going to college if I didn't get into Yale...The view of my 'backyard' a.k.a. The Big Courtyard in Branford a.k.a. "The most beautiful courtyard in all of America" - Robert Frost

I'm glad that worked out, otherwise I'd be a hobo right now, my mom would have kicked me out of the house. But instead, I am having the time of my life here at Yale. Although I am 6,000 miles away from home (I am from KENYA! woot woot!), my soulmate and best-friend is my roommate, I am a junior in Branford - the best college at Yale, I've finally decided to declare my double major in Economics & Mathematics with International Studies, I'm part of the most amazing dance group on campus - Rhythmic Blue, Yale's premiere hip-hop and contemporary dance group, and I'm head honcho of the biggest student-run conference on the Yale Campus - Yale Model UN (www.yalemodelun.org). What more could a girl ask for, except maybe Ne-Yo in a box for Christmas? 


Two months ago, I turned...wait for it...OMG...I can't believe it....20 years old!!!!! My brother was the first person to let me know that I am now 1/3 of the way to 60. I had a momentary pre-mid life crisis for about a month when I realized that I was half-way through with Yale, the economy was going to crap and I was trying to get hired for my junior summer by a consulting firm or investment bank. My pre-mid life crisis felt just like most of the period between October - Dec 2005 when I handed in my EA app to Yale, and continued working on my other apps to Harvard and Cambridge in the UK. Only this time, the names are McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan.

Sometime in October, it hit me, I'd totally been through this process before, and I would first need to consider three key factors:
i) What kind of job do I want my junior summer? Most investment banks and consulting firms hire you your junior summer looking to make a full-time offer for your senior year a.k.a. liberal arts vs. specialized?
ii) What do I value most in the work environment ? a.k.a with whom, where, and what opportunities do I want as I go to school everyday?
iii) What is the work-life balance? a.k.a what would my life outside class look like?

Now that I am armed with a plan to tackle my pre-mid life crisis, allow me to walk you through my current job-search landscape.

The last two weeks of the semester at Yale are baller. Period. The second-to-last week before exams, you crown off an awesome semester of classes with cookie parties - my INTS 384* Professor traditionally bakes cookies for the last class, dance parties - like we ever need a reason to party; but the end of semester means that you have to make good use of all the party supplies you've stocked up during the semester, and what I like to call "paper-writing" parties - me + my laptop + food + the library, its a trip - literally.


Allow me to explain the last point. I have learned during my time at Yale, that I am not a test-taker, I am a paper-writer. I would much rather take 15 pages to tell you about modifying a discrete choice mathematical model to predict the outcome of the Oscars (as is the aim of  my Econometrics paper for this semester) than take 3hrs writing a mathematical proof of Euler's theorem in an exam. It is fairly normal at Yale to take 4-5 classes a semester, which translates into a mixture of 4-5 exams or papers at the end of the semester. I took 4 amazing seminars INTS 384, ECON 483, CSJE 360 and THST 420*, and one lecture, which translated into 4 papers and 1 final. With 80 pages of writing due in the second-to-last week before exams, the creation of the "paper-writing" party was essential.
*using only code names for my classes is a ploy to get you to check out the "Shopping. (Period)." tab on the menu you currently see on the left of your screen...


Once you are done with the second-to-last week before exams, you have the week before exams a.k.a. Reading Period. You have a glorious week of no classes to (being to...) prepare for your exams. For some Yalies this means 7hrs + a day in the library working super hard. With four of my classes done before reading week and only one final, for me it means 2hrs in the library and 6hrs dancing :-) I am a proud member of Yale's Premiere Hip-Hop and Contemporary Dance Group - Rhythmic Blue (RB), and at the beginning of reading week each semester we have our show. It is always CRAZZZYYY and this semester was aptly titled "RehaB: Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll".

Dancing is a big part of who I am and what I do. Branford College (my residential college, the best one at Yale, no negotiation!) has a newly renovated dance studio and I spend almost as much time in the studio as I did in class this semester. RB is one of 16 dance groups at Yale. While we focus predominately on hip-hop and contemporary dance in RB, you will find everything from Mexican folkoric, to ballet, tap, Irish Dance and Argentine Tango on campus. RB auditions twice year, performs one big show a semester on campus, and in between we do everything from community service oriented performances and classes to competitions and talent show cases. Here is a taste of what we do:


At the beginning of the semester after auditions, we have "showing", where everyone choreographing for the semester shows a brief sample of they piece they will be putting together. Based on this sample, you sign-up for as many dances as you are interested in doing for the semester. You then have 1hr rehearsal a week per dance. Now, you see I love my RB loves, so I usually do 6-7 dances a semester. Besides seeing the group at rehearsal....


I see them at dinner...
After-hours at parties...