Erwaman's Personal Journal - May 2010

Johns Hopkins Visit, Day 2, Saturday, April 24, 2010

We went to sleep pretty late Friday night, around 2:10 am. Unfortunately, we also had to get up early (for a weekend day) in order to help set up for the bboy competition. I got up around 10:15 am and helped myself to some of Andy's Quaker Oats Granola Cereal with soymilk. I asked Andy if this was the same cereal box that he had written his "Which idiot glued the bag to the box?" post about. It was. Even though Andy concluded the design was genius after realizing its purpose, I still dislike it. When I eat cereal, I like to take the whole bag out of the box and be able to see the full bag of delicious-looking cereal while I am pouring it out. However, I think preventing people from removing the bag by gluing the bag to the box does avoid the problem of trying to stuff the cereal bag back inside the box after you take it out.

After eating breakfast, Andy finished up his cardboard, handwritten giant $500 check. Then we went to the Glass Pavilion, a very beautiful room where the bboy competition would be taking place. When I got there, the bboys kindly gave me a Hopkins Spring Fair T-shirt for free :D.

(front)


(back)

We needed a schedule of events and campus maps for the competitors, so Andy and I went to a computer lab, where we printed out a whole bunch of event schedules and campus maps, four per page. We cut these up with scissors. Then we went outside and put up signs around campus directing people to the Glass Pav. While putting up signs, we walked through the Spring Fair again and donated fifty cents to an elementary school fund. For our donations, Andy and I got to draw lollipops, and since mine had a dot on the bottom, I got to select a prize. There wasn't really anything I wanted, since the prizes were kids' prizes like coloring books, children's books, and kids' toys. But I eventually settled on a hand clapper, like this -

- which I figured might come in handy for making noise at the competition.

After we finished putting up signs, we went back to the Glass Pav, where we chilled for a little bit and I worked on my last diffy-q pset. Andy's friend Anna Mischke showed up, and we decided to go grab lunch together. She was a Hopkins alumna who had graduated in '09, had served in the air force (pretty bad ass), and was now selling insurance in the Baltimore area. She was a bgirl who Andy met at breakdancing practice his freshman year. On our way to Chipotle, we passed an old man, who said he needed fifty-five cents for bus fare. I gave him the exact amount.

We spent a good portion of lunch talking about diets - how Andy is vegetarian, how I do a different diet each month, how Anna probably has a gluten intolerance because when she eats cereal and bread and the like, the food comes out looking like how it went in.

We also called Angela Li and invited her to join us at Chipotle and then come with us to the bboy competition. We probably waited like over thirty minutes for her, even though Chipotle was only about a block from her room (in the same building that Andy lives in). In the meantime, Andy's friend Jessie Young called him and ended up heading over to Chipotle as well. [Random side note: This was my second time eating at Chipotle. (My first was with my cousin Kevin at UC Berkeley over spring break.) But both times I went, I couldn't help but think of this graduation speech about the lessons learned at Chipotle.]

When Jessie arrived, Angela still hadn't arrived, so we decided to just head out without her. Of course, right when we exited, we saw her walking down the street toward us. We also bumped into another person, who Andy and Jessie knew (I forgot his name), and the six of us headed to the Physics Fair, where rumors said there would be free T-shirts and ice cream. When we got there, some Hopkins students were helping some little kids launch rockets. Apparently, the free ice cream didn't start until 4 pm, and it was only 3:30 pm at the time, and we didn't want to wait around another half hour. Disappointed, we trekked back across campus to the Glass Pav, where competitors, their teams, and an audience had started to gather.

From then until about 9:30 pm, Andy and I were in the Glass Pav watching the breakdancing competition. During the middle, I went outside to a lounge area to read my diffy-q book (in order to do the pset) on the couch and fell asleep there for a bit. When I woke up, I had a bit more energy, moved to a desk, and made some progress on my pset. I made it back to the competition in time to see the finals between DOMKey and Gravity.

Overall, I was incredibly impressed by the amount of competitors, the level of skill, and the size of the audience. I learned a few things, too, from watching and talking with Andy, such as the gesture for giving props -

- beatriding, and a better sense of breakdancing artistry.

Below are some pictures I took:

Wow, look at the lush trees outside.




















Toyz being funny.






So cool! I want a backpack like that.




Finals: DOMKey (left) vs. Gravity (right).


DOMKey (left) won, though Gravity (right) got the award for best power moves combo.

After the competition, we weren't too hungry, since Chipotle really filled us up, so Andy and I split a footlong Veggie Delight sub from Subway. I've had Veggie Delights before, but I must say they always pale in heartiness compared to subs with meat in them. However, I wanted to get the full Andy Tien experience, so I told him to order the Veggie Delight exactly as he normally would order it - everything except onions. It was an incredibly packed sub, and it was pretty good, but I'd still prefer a teriyaki chicken sub any day :).

Back in Andy's apartment, I got hungry again, so Andy cooked some ramen for the two of us, and we ate it while watching StarCraft videos on YouTube.

Afterward, Andy and I decided we both needed to get some work done, so we packed our bags and headed out. First, Andy met up with two friends, Will and Sean, to talk about rooming for next year. They want to live off-campus together in a triple, but they're having some issues deciding on a place.

After that, we went to Eisenhower Library, where Andy kind of passed out on the table while I made some more progress on my diffy-q homework. When I got tired, I woke Andy up, and we headed back to his apartment and went to sleep.

End of Day 2.