Diwali

So since I’m catching up on blogging here, another important event in my life occured in the last couple of weeks as well- Diwali!!!

For those of you that may not know, Diwali is the festival of lights. It’s celebrated all over India, and the actual date of the festival was about a month ago. But the India Association of Tulane University decided to celebrate on November 19, 2006. Many of my friends danced on stage in the various performances–friends of every race, not just those of south asian descent. That’s one thing I love the most about Tulane– the way cultures don’t segregate into groups the way they do at big state universities. Here in New Orleans we’ll love you no matter what your race and heritage, and we’ll be even more excited if you can teach us something about your culture!

I celebrated Diwali with my friends here at Tulane about two weeks ago. Here are some pictures of the dances and of my part in a skit called the Diwali dating game.

House Gutting

So LONG TIME NO BLOGGING, huh?

Sorry to all you freshmen eagerly awaiting this. I’ve been cramming for midterms and chilling in Friendswood for Thanksgiving.

But before I left, last Saturday, the Asian American Student Union went house gutting with SAFER. As the community service chair, I made all the arrangements and expected me and the board members to show up. But we had a good turnout, and in fact, most of the members participating were NOT on the board. We wereout from about 9 to 4 and we got to see the levee which lead to the destruction of the house we were gutting.

The house we were gutting








Setting up before we began








The other half of our group listening for instructions








Jacob, Brian, and Byron emptying out junk from inside the house








Me raking some away some pieces of paneling, drywall, and peoples’ lives







Lower 9th ward levee








The Asian American Student Union on our house gutting day

It’s funny . . . the memories you make out here in New Orleans. Spending Saturday with pink respirator filters hanging off my face in a house infested with giant roaches wouldn’t normally seem like a fun activity. But seeing the house after we were done was the only reward we needed. I’m rather inspired to do it again some time. After all, without students like us, some of these houses would simply be neglected.

Only at Tulane . . . .

TEMS to the Rescue

So this weekend, I did nothing exciting in terms of Tulane or learning more about this wonderful environment. I spent it being sick . . . . literally. I’m not really sure why but it was pretty embarrassing when all my friends wanted to go out and enjoy this lovely cold weather we’ve been having and I had to stay inside in bed. That’s pretty much all I did this weekend . . . spend time in bed, watching tv or watching stuff on my computer, generally relaxing without eating anything that would make my stomach turn. I missed my sorority’s amazing Family Breakfast, which was at 3:30 AM on Sunday. Normally I would have been up and would have gone gladly- breakfast is easily my favorite meal of the day. Unfortunately, I had a few issues with keeping food IN my stomach, as gross as that is.

But then there was TEMS to the rescue. I have this friend in TEMS who ended up helping me out. He told me what was wrong with me, how to fix it, and what NOT to do. I started feeling better after I listened to his advice and I knew what to avoid for next time. You wouldn’t really think that another 19 year old kid would know something like that but these TEMS students are the exception.

Last year a bunch of my friends and I applied to be in TEMS. Some of us made the first interview, some of us made the second, and a lucky few were selected to by trained by TEMS, or the Tulane student EMT group. They mainly serve the Tulane area, but their knowledge and expertise is much needed for this campus and its neighbors. These students go on call a few days a month where they wear their uniforms and radios and must leave if an emergency does arise. They do this in turn so no one ends up missing anything really important in terms of classwork. When I brought up the subject of my mystery illness to my TEMS friend, I figured I’d get somewhat of an answer, but not the exact causes of my illness. He saved me a trip to the health center . . . . and he’s only 19 years old.

These are the kind of kids you will find at Tulane. They are dedicated to their cause, whatever it may be. And in the end, you will be impressed because for a moment while talking to them, you’ll forget that they’re just students still adjusting to college and its increasing demands.

That’s Tulane for ya . . . we’re hard workers here! =)

Volleyball

Recently I have started going to volleyball games at Tulane. I don’t know why I haven’t gone all this time, but a few friends of mine, diehard fans, are suitemates with one of the girls on the team. So every Friday and Sunday they wear their Tulane Volleyball t shirts and tote their signs with the girls’ names on them to Fogelman. And then they watch the team win . . . which it usually does.

So here’s the thing: we have a reallly good volleyball team. It’s second in our conference, and the games are always exciting to watch. I’d say volleyball is one of the better sports here at Tulane. Three of the girls are Eastern European, and they were all recruited by Tulane for their talent, which is obvious when you see a perfect service ace or a kill that’s so elegant it looks like its being done in slow motion.

Here are some pictures of the girls . . . and if you’re a Tulane kid reading this–go watch them some time!!!

These are from their game on Friday against UAB . . . which they lost by a VERY close fifth match!

Homecoming Pep Rally

So last Thursday was the Homecoming Pep Rally. It’s sort of taken me awhile to write about it, I know! This week, as I walked around, I noticed no windows were painted and then I remembered I had wanted to share my experiences with you all.

See, one of the things that the Homecoming Committee announced at the pep rally was the winners of the window painting contest. Various different organizations paint the windows of Bruff, including student organizations, fraternities and sororities, and multicultural groups. Various dorms also compete amongst themselves, on the windows of their own buildings. This year the winner was the India Association of Tulane University, and I can tell you from walking around campus last week that pretty much everyone knew it would happen. IATU entered the contest late, but you’ll see from my pictures why they still won. This, if you ask me, is art (done by Aden Malik of IATU).

The pep rally also featured the marching band and the color guard, both of whom I had never seen perform before. It was very obvious the effort they went through to guarantee a good show.

And finally, they had fireworks. When my friend called me to go to the pep rally, I thought no one would be there and it would be pretty dull. Coming from a huge state school last fall, the University of Texas at Austin and a proud public school in the small town of Friendswood, Texas, before that, I was used to school spirit being at an alltime high ALL the time. In Friendswood we had a football team that never won but we still went to their games to support them, and the stands were always packed. Here at a small private school, school spirit is a little different. You don’t see as many people at games, but the ones you do see are diehard fans and can tell you exactly what’s going on. This pep rally, however, was a reminder of how school spirit, though different from that of a public high school and big state school, is still there, tried and true. The place was packed and the firework show at the end of the night was something I’d never seen at any pep rally.

The whole thing made me proud of this school and proud to be a Tulanian!

Multicultural Food Fest

On Thursday, we had our Multicultural Food Fest. It was in honor of homecoming, and it brought together a diverse group of organizations. The food was good . . and lasted about 20 minutes!!! Here are some memories that I think represent this experience well, and bring out Tulane’s multi ehtnic student group.

This is the representation from the Asian American Student Union. Here at Tulane, what the actual color of your skin is doesn’t matter at all. What does matter is the interest you have in learning about other cultures. We’re very open and all of our multicultural groups have members of widely varying backgrounds.








These are girls from my sorority, Delta Xi Nu. We are the only multicultural Greek body on campus, and just by looking at us, you can tell that we’re a very diverse group of girls. But sisterhood ultimately brings us together, and we learn about each others’ cultures in the process!









Here’s our poster!














My friends Jacob and Annabelle goofing around. She’s eating this interesting macaroni and cheese with some spices in it . . .












These freshman are all in the India Association of Tulane University. They signed up for it at the ACTIVITIES EXPO, where all the multicultural groups are represented by booths. Their executive boards sit at the booths and try to get members to sign up. In several of these groups, you can be on the email listserv without paying dues (which means you can even be invited to events without paying dues, which are usually only $10 anyways). That way, you can choose to pay for whatever events YOU want to do.




And this is the girl who made it all possible in terms of this Food Fest- Sarah Chiapetta. She’s on the Homecoming Committee this year.

Internet at Tulane

Oops so it’s been awhile since I last posted. Ok partially this is my fault, but partially because the internet connection in my room has gone from bad to worse. Now many of you may not know this already, but Tulane, as a private university, doesn’t allow you to use file sharing software like Limewire. This means that you can’t really download anything you want to download because Tulane is particularly conscious about copyright laws. Now I tried to get around this by using another downloading system, using torrents, but that is what causes my internet to go from bad to worse.

But then I found this thing called ctrax. It’s like this free online music database, and its REALLY fast. It’s a great way to download music, and they have most of the popular music you’d find on Limewire anyways. And now, they’re letting you download a special player for it so you can put this music on your ipod like with files you download from Limewire. As a freshman, I never knew about this. Only after I got onto the Residential Hall Association did I find out. So pretty much I spent an entire two semesters being angry that I couldn’t download anything here. Ctrax is not a bad option, and they’re fast-growing as well. They also don’t violate copyright laws . . . which no longer is a concern for most of us but in the end, downloading music from Limewire is still sort of illegal.

So here’s to all you incoming freshman: Don’t fret about Limewire- check out Ctrax instead!