Objectively Vandy

katherinemiller August 19th, 2008

As a little closure to my trip, I thought I’d post a few photos, then offer a little perspective on housing, since we’re right here in between the freshman and upperclassman move-ins. First off, before we went on vacation, we went to my cousin’s wedding in the Orlando area:

I rather like the picture of all three of us (my brother, myself, and my mom — my dad was lurking around there somewhere). In Captiva, though, I got a good chance to play around with some long exposures, as I’m a big photo geek, so this was sort of thrilling for me. This was the neighbors’ dock:

And, of course, here’s a sunset because what trip to the beach is complete without a ubiquitous sunset photograph:

So, basically, now I’m just packing in a rush, buying new jeans, and insisting on Chesapeake Bagel Bakery for lunch (seriously, it’s quality and I pine for it when at school). Anyway, freshman year, I requested a single and lived in Kissam Quad. Quite honestly, as terrible as everybody makes it sound, it’s really not that bad. Old, home to some really terrible carpet/paint/tile sartorial selections, and a little moldy? Yes. But it’s not the seventh circle of hell or anything.

This past year, I lived in one of the new dorms on the Peabody Campus, Stambaugh, which faces the Commons building, and has the giant veranda/porch situation on one side. The two things that really stand out about that room are: how bright and clean it was, and how incredibly high the ceilings were. While I think all the freshmen having roommates will definitely liven their first few weeks up considerably, something about the old housing choices for freshmen really appealed to me as a prospective student. What cannot be called anything but spectacular, though, is the Commons building; beyond the very, very solid dining there, it was a great place to work and to feel like a part of a network of mutual friends. A lot of us referred to the dining hall, with all the oak, as Hogwarts (because we’re lame), but with everybody thrown in there together, at meals and from around 9pm to 1am with people studying and working Sunday through Wednesday especially (Thursday can be a lot lighter because people go out), it’s very casual but memorable way to see a lot of your friends on a daily basis.

This year, after a housing lottery process that felt a little bit like success meant communing with the devil, I have a single in Towers II. One of my best friends is two floors below me, and three friends are on my floor, so hopefully it will go swimmingly. Some of the housing rules changed (in previous years, academic standing, rather than true standing determined the number of points you had in the lottery), and there were fewer off campus exceptions granted, so many a junior are in singles this year. I’m definitely more central to main campus this year, which I appreciate — though, really, I actually like walking a lot. While some of the upperclass housing leaves a little to be desired, that so many of us are on campus really does set Vandy apart from many of our counterparts, and it definitely creates a much stronger focus on the campus and campus community, which I can certainly appreciate from a student media level, among others. Anyway, if there are any housing related questions, please feel free to throw them in the comments.

• Campus , Summer
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katherinemiller August 13th, 2008

Next Wednesday, my mother and I will be hurtling down I-81 through the Old Dominion and Tennessee and onto Vandy. I’m moving in a few days earlier than the upperclassmen move-in (Saturday) to get cracking on some stuff related to The Vanderbilt Hustler, the campus newspaper (which you probably know, but “The Hustler” is something it really doesn’t hurt to qualify a little more). Right now, though, I’m at the beach in Captiva, Florida:

I’ll post a few taken with my Rebel later this week, which I can’t do right now since I (stupidly) left my card reader at home by accident. We’re staying on the bay side of the island, which is about a seven minute walk from the beach (…it’s a very thin barrier island on the Gulf Coast). My grandparents are rolling in from the Orlando area today, and we’re going fishing tomorrow and Friday with my uncle and cousins who live in Ft. Myers–so, fun times all around. I actually just went over and got a Diet Coke at my fav place on this island: The Island Store.

It features a sign like so “Need a penny? Take a penny. Need 2 pennies? Get a job.” So, clearly, quality. Anyway, that’s my week here, but either later today or tomorrow, I’m going to post about Housing, how it works, what’s good, my half-experience with the Commons, and so on.

• Summer
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katherinemiller August 7th, 2008

Today was my last day at the RNC, following a pretty fun week. Monday, I delivered the “Obama Energy Plan” tire gauges to national press outlets like the Washington Bureau of the New York Times, on what was an extremely awesome weather day.

The next morning, we toured the Pentagon, which was just not going to be interesting no matter what (all the cool stuff is far behind closed doors), but I had never been before. Later that afternoon, my friend Mike and I went to the counter-protest to MoveOn.org’s counter-protest to the House Republicans’…er…overall protest. Yeah, the District of Columbia’s slightly crazy these days. I didn’t deign to hold any posters (a lady does not picket — I’m kidding, ladies love to picket), but here’s Mike with a borrowed poster out in front of the Grant Memorial:

The next day (Wednesday), though, I had the privilege of being on the House floor for about an hour and a half, watching the Guerrilla Congress in action. Regardless of how one feels about the politics of the situation, or energy policy in general, the entire movement over the past week has been awfully unique. And, unlike the instant gratification of the cable news - internet era, the entire movement (while heavily aided by online efforts and the Twitter text-messaging revolution) has been behind closed doors in a lot of ways, without C-Span, without microphones, without cameras in the House chamber. I posted a fairly detailed description of my experience, but had a serious moment of doubt when I was unsure whether that was fair game, because I’ve seen so few reports of what’s actually going on within the House.

To cap off an already pretty great day, Mike and I then had dinner with a good friend of ours who graduated last year from Vanderbilt, and we had a super sweet media geek discussion over Chinese food. Tomorrow, I’m off to the Orlando area for my cousin’s wedding, then down to Southwest Florida for a week at the beach. Then, it’ll be a quick few days at home before I’m on I-81 going to Nashville for my junior year. Just for the hell of it, here’s the parting look I had this evening when leaving the RNC (straight ahead are the three House office buildings):

Definitely a good summer (and it’s not even over yet, ha!).

• Summer
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katherinemiller July 31st, 2008

This morning, I got up at some point prior to the beginning of time (5:15 am) to go down to the White House for a presidential departure, otherwise known as watching President Bush walk out of a building and hop onto Marine One. Watching for, and then suddenly spotting the helicopters arrive out of practically nowhere was surprisingly impressive and exciting. Definitely worth it, in terms of the atmosphere and ambiance and all, but not something I’d again (a West Wing tour is actually something I would highly recommend if you ever have the chance) — it was nowhere near as awesome as meeting President George H.W. Bush at a fundraiser for Sen. Lamar Alexander in February (definitely a highlight of the semester). From my vantage point, actually, the most intriguing, unique part of the morning was this:

Boy scouts! All the Iowan Boy Scouts from the horrible tornado that hit their camp met President Bush this morning, and the boy who threw his body over the other kids to protect them received special recognition. When we were exiting the premises, they walked out in front of us and you could definitely tell they were pumped to be there.

• Summer
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katherinemiller July 30th, 2008

Between a busy week at work and the exceptionally frustrating experience of the WiFi crashing for the first time in three years, I haven’t gotten the chance yet to post here. So, I’m starting this blog off right — on my front steps, stealing my neighbor’s wireless.

Anyway, just to be clear, I plan on blogging in this space twice or thrice a week. Within one of those posts every week, I’ll pick a topic of general interest on campus (like Greek life or housing) and expound a bit on that, hopefully clear up some of the ol’ Vandy mystique that might surround the topic.

To put a less meta spin on this post, though, I am currently interning in the press office at the RNC (Republican National Committee, that is). There, I’m actually joined by two other Vandy undergrads (a Nashville native and a Tri Delt) out  of about forty-five interns. Meanwhile, of course, our nation’s glorious capital is bursting with Vandy students from all over the country interning on the Hill and elsewhere, with some pretty incredible opportunities — one, for instance, is at the online division of the Washington Post, and another had a byline on the third page of the Washington Examiner (a newspaper that’s a popular read on the Metro) this morning.

That sort of variety of summer experience was reinforced about a month ago, at an event for Washington area students and alumni with Chancellor Zeppos on the absolutely gorgeous terrace overlooking the Capitol at the brand new Newseum. I ran into several people I hadn’t even realized were in the city for the summer, all we’re doing exciting, interesting stuff — and I don’t think that was a coincidence. Although it was definitely a Washingtonian crowd, as my Georgian friend lamented and I loved, it was also Vandy to the core: a mix of sharp business and politics-focused discussion balanced with the casual charm of life outside work.

From what I’ve heard of the Vandy crowd in New York this summer (and seen during a visit to the city two weeks ago), ranging from Wall Street to publishing houses, they’ve had a similar summer existence — experiencing a city, and doing it accompanied by their friends from school.

• Metaposts , Summer
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