When I came to Baltimore, I was excited to find that there’s always a ton of fun stuff happening both on and off campus. Especially on the weekends, students take day trips to Washington, DC, New York, and Philadelphia. Throughout the week, people tend to gravitate toward more laid-back activities like movie nights, video games in the Bloomberg Student Center and trying local food spots. One of the most important things I’ve learned is to just say “yes” to plans—even if staying in bed sounds tempting. I’ve rounded up a couple of my favorite memories so far—the ones that started with a spontaneous “yes.”
Let’s get into it.
Trivia Night
Hopkins Groups, the university’s online platform for student organizations, is a great way to find events happening on campus. Oftentimes, the school will advertise things going on. This is how my friend Jennifer discovered a trivia night happening in Mo’s Place at the Bloomberg Student Center. I was a little tired since I had just taken an exam in neuroscience lab, but the thumping music and large crowd woke me up.
Since it was just the two of us, we were matched with some random students to form a team. We were excited to meet the other members of our group and quickly got to know each other. As an added bonus, we got free stickers, buttons, and necklaces. We even got to order two free appetizers. The trivia centered on all of the Hopkins campuses. It was pretty hard, but I learned a lot of random facts about our school. Apparently, our lacrosse team represented the United States in the 1932 Summer Olympics. We finished the night by getting to pick between a free shirt or a free beanie. After this, I’ll definitely be looking more closely at the events going on around campus.
Went on a “run”
I absolutely hate running. So, when my friend Danny called me one morning to ask if I wanted to go on a run around Baltimore, I’m not sure why I said yes. Despite my hatred of running, this ended up being one of my favorite memories from junior year. First, we ran to Sherwood Gardens, a park near campus. Since it was spring, all of the flowers had bloomed. I was shocked at just how many flowers there were. We hung around there for a long time before continuing our run.
We stumbled across Loyola University’s campus and got drawn in by music and food. They were having some kind of spring celebration. We crashed it for a few minutes, talked to some students, then continued on our way. By now, we had settled into a mixture of jogging, walking, and talking (always lots of talking). We somehow ended up at Hopkins’ Evergreen Museum & Library. We didn’t go inside, but we walked around the place and took lots of pictures.
At this point, we were both hungry. As per Danny’s recommendation, we walk-jogged over to Miss Shirley’s Cafe, a popular brunch spot near campus. As soon as I found out this place had been featured on the Food Network, I knew I had to go. This is easily one of my favorite food places in Baltimore, and I’ve been back multiple times since this trip. We ended the day slow-walking it back to campus and finishing our leftovers.
As my time at Hopkins is coming to a close, I’m committed to knocking a bunch of items off my Hopkins bucket list and spending lots of time with my friends. Whether it’s a trivia night in the Bloomberg Student Center or a “run” through Baltimore, I’ve learned there’s always something happening if you’re willing to say yes. Hopkins might be known for academics, but the memories I’ll miss most happened far outside the classroom.
