Schedule Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Shopping period is finally over, my schedule has been signed by Dean Wood, and I now realize that the real academic term is beginning. This is a post- shopping period time where classes are non-introductory and you don’t have the choice of leaving to go to another class at any time. I thought as a junior shopping period would be easier; I would be older and classes would drop into my lap. Wrong. When you are a junior, every class you want or need is usually a seminar with capped enrollment at 15, meaning you frantically shop four times the amount of classes you need.

When all is said and done, I am happy to announce that my class schedule is everything I wanted. I did not settle; I did not cope. On the way, I had to say goodbye to some near winners of the shopping race: Malaria and Lyme Disease, Ecological Urbanism, City of Rome, and New York and the Twentieth Century. There were also ten or more other classes I had on my list that I won’t tire your eyes out with. I am taking Suburbs and the Culture of Sprawl, Sustainability in Science, Globalization and Space, Transportation and Urban Futures, and Advanced Dance Composition.

First off, these classes all make sense because I am in an Urban Studies concentration underneath the American Studies major. After my freshman year, I interned at a film production studio that produced a documentary on Daniel Burnham, a famous city planner responsible for the Plan of Chicago and the Washington Mall.

I had already been obsessed with the 1893 Columbian Exposition (a Burnham plan), and after the internship, I became entranced with the idea of city planning. So my interests at Yale are really any class having to do with a city and then Theater Studies as a double major.

I thought I would just run through a couple of my classes and thoughts on them.

Suburbs and the Culture of Sprawl:

This is my second class with Dolores Hayden after taking her lecture class. I have been waiting to take this class ever since my freshman year, when I circled it in my blue book. Professor Hayden is one of the leading scholars on sprawl and urban development. I discovered her books over a summer, flipped the cover over and realized that she taught at Yale. Professor Hayden is also helping me develop my senior essay. I am applying for grant money to travel to the Philippines to research the Americanization of architecture in Manila and Baguio. For her class, I am planning to write an essay about the effect of wholesale stores, such as Costco, on the suburban landscape.

Globalization Space:

Keller Easterling is a giant in her field, seeking to pair architecture, infrastructure and the idea of a world market into one class. It's an intimidating class because Easterling does not use a lot of conventional terms and her theory is very independent. We use a lot of terms in section such as "infrastructural disposition" and "the form of markets." However, I feel like the course material will become more tangible as the semester continues. For example, last lecture we weighed the pros and cons of building high speed rail in the United States versus other countries.

Sustainability of Science:

In high school, I took five subjects and felt well-rounded. When you get to college, you study in a certain area of subjects (humanities) that you may find yourself scrambling for a credit in another discipline (science) as an upperclassman. I wanted to avoid sciences for non-science majors because I have a strong biology background and wanted to challenge myself. Sustainability of Science is a college seminar that means that with just fifteen people in it, the professor and materials are extremely accessible. I think a semester studying sustainability can ultimately help me when it comes to green design and sustainable cities.

Transportation and the Urban Futures:

I have taken a lot of the Urban Studies courses in the undergraduate level, so this semester I explored possible classes in the Yale School of Architecture and School of Forestry. I found Transportation and Urban Futures at the Forestry School. My friends think I am crazy because the class meets at 8:30 on Thursday far from where I live. However, this topic is so interesting that I am going to go to bed early on Wednesdays to get up early enough. Believe me, 8:30 is much more difficult in college. The class is also going to give me hands-on experience working on the transportation re-routing of Greenwich, CT.

Advanced Dance Composition:

In regards to my second major, I prefer to take classes that are performances workshops, meaning I get to work on a stage or in a studio for credit. I have always been involved in dance theater, but this year I began taking classes with Emily Coates. Emily Coates danced professionally with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Twyla Tharp and Yvonne Rainer, so it is great to work with a professor who has first-hand knowledge of the performance world. I am taking a choreography workshop where we take literary and film sources and interpret them through dance. This Wednesday I led the workshop and created an entirely new dance inspired by the book Space and Place by Tuan.

History of Art (Renaissance to Present)

So you may have counted and realized that this is my sixth class, even though I said I was taking five. Don't worry, I am taking five. I think I attempted to take six once. My mom said I was crazy, my friends said I was crazy and my dean just shook her head and laughed. Denied. So no, I am taking five. BUT I have decided to audit art history. This decision came after my summer session in England where I took a weekend trip to Paris. I spent time in both the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay. Aside from the Impressionist paintings and the Mona Lisa,

I felt like an illiterate person staring at a book. I just didn't have the background to appreciate the paintings and sculptures I saw. So I am auditing art history in the hopes of absorbing knowledge that will make me much more aware of what I am looking at in museums.

It’s looking like a good semester academically, but I will keep you all posted about how these classes turn out later in the semester.

Break Time

The beach we spent a day at.

Hey Yale 2014! I am writing this blog inside the Fort Lauderdale Airport, after a relaxing four day vacation with my family. We left two days after Christmas and flew into the Miami area, stayed one night, and then drove the entire length of the Keys. I had a very different picture of what the Florida Keys were before I got there. I think I had more of a Bahamas in mind. The Keys are actually a string of islands that never quite left that area of fifties roadside kitsch, essentially a classical Main Street America strip lined with beaches. Once I got used to the quaint wackiness of it all I enjoyed it. I was able to snorkel for the first time, eat conch fritters and exhaustively pursue Key Lime Pie. One down side was the weather is a bit breezy for laying out on the beach without many layers.

Required food group in the Keys.

For my family, this vacation would not have happened on a traditional high school holiday break. Most likely, you were let out the 21^st of December and have to be right back after New Year’s, probably the fourth. The perk of being a college student at Yale is that Winter Break is about a month in length. This allows not only time for your family, but the chance to entertain ideas of trips, and of course loafing around your house as well.

Every other year for me has been playing the fall finals game and getting home as early as possible. My last blog mentioned my fanaticism for Christmas, and that sentiment at school has always meant I am chomping at the bit to fly home on the first or second finals day. Sophomore year I left so quickly I kept getting called by people in my college about hanging out. I had to explain to them I had already left. A little off-tangent, but freshman year I overslept my Connecticut Limo and had a great time paying the 200 charge off. This is my junior year, and I actually was able to take my holiday blinders off and realize that I had a couple of days to spare before heading home. This is also because of an odd layout of the Yale Calendar, where my last final was on the 15^th. Instead of flying home, I went to visit my good friend Lauren at her home in Westchester.

Nothing is stranger than leaving college in a car when you are accustomed to flying. One minute I am standing in the Stiles Courtyard, the next I am in her Jeep on the highway. No shuttle, no baggage security, all very unsettling to me. Lauren found this funny, because she is so spoiled in her short commute. (You may think you want to be as far as possible for college from your parents but you will miss dinner and laundry, believe me). Lauren and I relaxed in her house and the next day did a Girl’s day in New York City. We had tea, shopped and saw Next to Normal, a really moving Broadway musical. I flew out to Chicago the next day.

My cousin and her new sled.

The days up to and on Christmas are a blur, a mish mash of seeing every friend you can, furiously shopping for gifts you have not bursared, and cramming all of your holiday traditions into three or so days. Christmas Eve I opened presents, Christmas Day I opened presents, and I then flew down to Florida to tan my face (not) for New Year’s. New Year’s will be fun, as I am staying Chicago and celebrating with high school friends.

While the days after New Year’s for me will be devoted to a tour of my friends at Big 10 schools, I have started saving for a Yale tradition that I unfortunately am missing this year. Each year the Yale Alpine Skiing Team coordinates a 100 person ski trip to Tremblant, Quebec for Yale students. It is pricey, but it is a week of relaxed ski lodge time with your Yale friends and gives you the ability to meet others. Several of my close friends are going, including my friend Sara that I visited in Miami. I have a whole year to save the money, and I will definitely be there the next year. You may think that your school breaks may be boring after time at college, but they actually can turn into a lot of fun events jammed into one month.