Like many of you out there, I eagerly await the release of the last Harry Potter movie this upcoming week.  The replica wand I purchased at Harry Potter World in Orlando sits in its box, ready to be brandished at the midnight premiere, as do my handmade (clothes hanger and electrical tape) Potter glasses.  But whereas this might represent the end of an era for some, my career in magic has at least three more years coming.  You see, at Hogwarts.. errr, Yale... I will be majoring in potions... I mean Chemistry.  

One of the great things about spending this summer in New Haven has been having the opportunity to explore campus life without the guilt of impending academic deadlines. One thing I wish I had made time for last semester is swing dancing, which has been a hobby of mine since I learned the Carolina Shag in middle school. (I was a staff member at a social dance and etiquette institute back home in Georgia, but that’s a story for another day.) Also, apologies for the really corny pun in the title; it’s pretty bad, I know.

When I made a summer to do list at the end of my freshman year, securing a marriage proposal was definitely not a part of it.  Nor was canoeing through a lagoon, traversing a rainforest canopy on a rope bridge, or acquiring two hundred new nieces and nephews.  

When I was but a young and impressionable freshman, one of my upperclassman friends gave me the following advice: "Your goal for the next four years: get as much money from Yale as you possibly can". I chuckled at it then, but it did convince me to take advantage of the many ways Yale will fund students to do cool stuff.  This picture is one excursion to Kyoto's famous Temple of the Golden Pavilion I visited while studying abroad on the  Richard U.