The start of the semester was a little rocky with all of the snow days and power outages, but things are finally starting to look up! There’ve been a lot of things to love about my last semester of senior year, so I’d share some happy moments that have happened thus far:

• I am going to Indonesia this summer! I was selected as a Critical Language Scholar so the U.S State Department will be fully funding me to study Indonesian language and culture for ten weeks in Malang, Indonesia. It was a tough decision because I now must give up other opportunities, but after talking with many people I trust, I feel I’ve made the right decision. The way someone put it to me was, “Once you graduate it’s easy to get settled and comfortable; take the opportunity to travel while you can!” I can’t wait to see my Indonesian friends, visit the bi-co students who are doing the same program I did in summer 2012, improve my Indonesian, make new friends, and see new places!

My friend Tiwi and I in rural Java, Indonesia

• I absolutely love my classes this semester! I was originally going to take a class at each of the Quaker Consortium schools, but I made a last minute decision to take classes I was truly passionate about over ones that would have been a little more practical. I want to spend my last semester studying things that make me happy and having less commute time means I can spend more time with the people I love. One of my classes this semester is very unique. It’s called Writing Taste: an English class that explores the philosophy and sociology of food. Our class is co-taught by a Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr professor so we split out classes between the two campuses. Five of our classes are taught by a famous Philly food critic so we get to learn the basics of food journalism along with some amazing opportunities like receiving money to go to a restaurant of our choice to do a restaurant review and go to Fork, one of the best restaurants in town, with our class.

Cheese filled “gnudi” at Fork: so delicious

• Making time to get off-campus! The upperclassmen spend so much time preparing for Hell Week for the first-years that we sometimes forget the importance of getting off-campus to clear our heads every so often. It can be hard to motivate yourself in the winter when it’s so cold, but it’s worth it! On Tuesday, I went to a local restaurant with some friends for delicious chips and strawberry jalapeno salsa and drinks. The next night I went to see Young the Giant with my friend Prianna at the Tower Theater, a convenient train ride away. It’s nice to remind myself that I’m adult and I can go out and have fun even on a school night!

At the Young the Giant concert

• I started my Teaching and Learning Initiative partnership! In this program, students are paired with staff members and we each get to teach and learn a skill (and get paid to do so)! I am teaching my partner arts and crafts that she can do with her three year old daughter and she is teaching me how to cook. It’s a wonderful collaboration and I’m thankful for the opportunity to get to know my staff partner so well since we may not have met otherwise.

Making savory crepes for our partnership

• Our newly elected President Kim Cassidy hosted a carnival pop up event! She has been hosting surprise one-hour fun sessions for the whole campus throughout the year. She has done everything from skee ball to lego building to s’mores and now a carnival! There was cotton candy, popcorn, games, prizes, balloon animals, and temporary tattoos administered by the lovely Communications staff. These events are a great way to bring the campus together and get to know our beloved “KCass” a little better!

My temporary tattoo from the carnival

• I got to help make Filipino food with Barkada, the Filipino student club, this past Friday! I’ve never had Filipino food because Filipino restaurants are rare in Portland and Philly so I was excited to try something new. We made a sort of egg roll called lumpia, both fried with meat and not fried with vegetables. We also made a dessert called turón, a fried pastry with jackfruit, plantains, and brown sugar. We also got to snack on Clover chips and try different Filipino sauces to dip our creations in. There was also a Wii to play Just Dance so it was a fun afternoon for everyone! Afterwards, the Community Diversity Assistants hosted an event where students were able to write down microaggressions they had experienced in the classroom to help develop a diversity curriculum for faculty and staff. 

Homemade FIlipino food

Now there’s only a week until Spring Break! Good luck with midterms, Mawrters! I’ll be spending lots of time in Philly in addition to visiting some friends in New York and DC and next week so I’m excited to relax next week.