Freshman Seminar Fall 17 LC16

Last week I was introduced to the Writing Center. Located on the 8th floor, the center provides free help with editing and improving your writing. When I got there, I was greeted at the front to a friendly lady who helped me sign up. I logged in with my Baruch computer username and password and gave her a bit more information and that was all there was to it! After I signed up, I met with one of the tutors to help edit an essay I have due. I was astonished and grateful as to how helpful the session was. Although I had proofread the entire essay aloud, two nights before I got to my session, and made changes, there were many more improvements to my writing that were made. Also, it was amazing to have another person read my work because I myself cannot find grammatical mishaps, but someone else can easily recognize when a sentence sounds weird. After spending over an hour at the center, I made all the necessary revisions to improve the essay and help get the amazing grade I am shooting for. I am happy that I learned about the writing center because it will be a great tool for me to use throughout my entire time at Baruch College. Also, because of the easy in making an appointment, I know that I can make appointments on a short notice and participate in as many of these workshops as I want. One lesson I actually learned while I was in my session was that usually, I begin many sentences with, “when ___,___ is ___ing ___”. This a sentence structure results in a passive verb which is not good writing. On the other hand, I was taught to drop the “when” and begin the sentence with the subject and the verb ending in an “s”. This sentence structure results in an active verb which is a higher level of writing. I can not wait to visit the writing center again in the future!

Last Tuesday, I was able to join the Hong Kong Club for my freshman seminar assignment. My friend was actually in the club and he introduced me to the important members who are very amiable. I was able to have a long conversation with Tony, one of the chairman of the club, who told me about his experience in the club and his experience of college in general. He then recommended me to join the club’s second general meeting where there are going to be a social gathering of incoming members. Missing my second blog post, I’ve decided to attend the meeting and write about my experience there. One thing I want to say for sure is that the meeting was the best meeting that I had ever attended in my life. Jokes were flying everywhere and there was a defined line between good jokes and jokes that went too far. Tony gave us incoming freshmen heads up on the good professors and even taught us how to twerk (we had a crowd gassing it up and he actually did it). The event allowed the new members to bond with Cantonese style food and games that allowed anyone to play (there was white members as well). I was able to make a couple of new friends and watched my friend attempt to pole dance for telephone charades. This meeting lit up my Snapchat story with goofy attempts to describe words with our bodies and funny remarks to throw off the enemy team. There was a lot of new people opening up to the crowd as the games progresses and eventually, even the most timid guy sitting in the corner tried to twerk in charades. Final game was beer pong (without beer), tongue twisters, and matching group poses. All in all, I decided to join the HKC and become one of their active members.

I have a lot of free time in my life partly because I don’t really have a life. This is the reason why I decided to go to a farm last week. I’ve always wanted a dog, but my mom doesn’t like pets. Well, my sister and I once convinced my mom to get us goldfish, but they all died-not because I forgot to feed them. It was because they lived a prosperous, long life. I will miss my 5 goldfish for the rest of my life. Anyways, in Little Neck, I went to this animal farm, where the animals are treated humanely. People can pet the different animals like goats, sheep, and and ALPACA. I fed the alpaca lettuce leaves and named him Bob. The staff there explained how the alpaca was born and raised it’s whole life on a farm. I love Bob and hope he does well until his death on the peaceful farm. The picture is not Bob.

I decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art on Columbus Day. It was pretty crowded when I went, so it was hard to take a picture. The picture I took was a piece from Jean Louis, who is one of Bourgeois’ three sons and born in 1940. Here she depicts the young boy as a skyscraper. When Bourgeois first arrived in New York City from Paris in 1938, she was awed by the buildings that she was greeted with. Later, reflecting on this sculpture, she said, “I wanted my son to be as beautiful as the skyscrapers here.” I also saw many other pieces that I liked was the Charles White – Leonardo da Vinci which was curated by David Hammons. I really liked the colors used and how you can see the details so clearly. The experience was very enjoyable as it was my firs time there. I would definitely want to go back and revisit with some friends.

On Thursday, I went to the second general interest meeting for the eSports Association. This club consists of a group of friends that play the same video games. I was considering joining that club since the beginning of the semester, but now I can confidently say that I will most likely join. I apologize in advance for no selfie, but I was embarrassed to take a picture of myself because everyone else was quiet and I hope that can be understood. During the meeting, we watched a live broadcast of a League of Legends world championships game. We also learned about the different committees within the club, such as the marketing or tournament management. We were given information about their computer lab in the library building on the 6th floor, which is only delegated for the ESA club’s members use. I will most likely join their competitive Overwatch team that will compete with other colleges. The president also brought us food 🙂

Freskim Noka

I took a whole day out of my busy life, to join the Albanian Club. It all started when I was walking to class, specifically walking up the stairs from the lobby to the second floor, where I saw a female holding my flag and screaming “Albanian Club”. Myself being a very patriotic Albanian, I decided to ask what this was all about. This curiosity of mine was the reason I was forced to join. This club meets every first Thursday of every month.

When Thursday came, the first general interest meeting, I walked myself to the 10th floor. I entered the room where the meeting was held, full of shock, I walk into a room full of Albanians…. All together… in one room… This was going to be interesting. They started off by playing an icebreaker, which you can see in the photo below. Then they played Albanian music and talked about the culture. Then we had food, not traditional food because of Baruch’s budget. Then they had a show of the Albanian traditional dance, which I didn’t participate in because it didn’t seem professional to me. Overall, my experience with the Albanian club was interesting because I meet a lot of new people, not only Albanian. I see these people around campus a lot, which makes Baruch feel more like home

This weekend, Annie and I went to Queens County Farm Museum. There were animals, pumpkins, and people everywhere. This museum offered plenty of activities like tours, a corn maze, petting area, and pumpkin picking, and more. At the petting area, we were given lettuce to feed the animals. They had cattle, sheep, pigs, hens, goats, and rabbits in the petting area. Additionally, they also had honeybees in another section of the farm. We also explored their gift shop, which sold fresh eggs, honey from their bees, and yarn from their alpacas and sheep. At the corn maze, the tour guide explained the rules and told us that we had to find clues and solve puzzles to get out of the maze, which we ended up doing. The tour explored the historic farm, and taught about crops, livestock, honeybees, and compost. The tour showed what it took to grow a variety of crops and produce items like honey, eggs, yarn, and etc.

I went to the Museum of Public Relations with Sahil, which is located in the Baruch library, 5th floor. The museum isn’t large but it does contain a lot of interesting objects. Such as a a cigarette box from the brand that a man, I forget the name, that protested by having women smoke out in public which was considered a taboo at the time. there were also various book from a different man’s library. Interestingly there was a Japanese book on the shelf which is interesting because all the books on the shelf are all in English but that one book. The Japanese book also stood
out because that was the only white book on the shelf it was on.There were many new articles in clear containers regarding protests and major events in communication. Aside from news articles and books there were also old instruments used for communication such as a typewriter.