Ken Foo
My Week in ESTEEM has been filled with fun activities as the month of February ends. First and foremost, the weather has been gorgeous all week, so it is fitting that we exercise more! Typically, almost every day from last semester, Nessan Harpur and I will play basketball and lift afterwards. In addition, there have been around 10 other ESTEEM students who have been regularly playing some intense pickup basketball. Luckily, I have motivated myself to run an 8-9 mile run exploring the Holy Cross and St. Mary’s campus, and St. Mary’s is a beautiful area to roam. Hopefully, I will be in excellent shape for the Holy Half and ESTEEM bike trip in the next few months.
Also, I have begun ballroom dancing for this semester. On Tuesday, we were learning how to waltz, and on Wednesday, we tackled the Mambo (a formal version of Salsa). I would highly recommend it for anyone. As Ellen Degeneres sums it up perfectly, “You can only be happy when you are dancing!” On Friday night, I decided to go to LangLab for Latin dancing, which is mostly Salsa and some Bachata (sideways Salsa). For Saturday, we performed at Tanglewood Senior Center- they are truly the most engaging and best audience in the world.
On Mardi Gras, Nessan, his Portuguese classmate, and I celebrated the Brazilian Carnival at Legends. They had incredible food and awesome music. Since Lent is approaching, many of us have pondered what to give up and/or what good deeds should we do? In the past, I have given up cursing, forced myself to use my left hand for everything except for tests, and stopped using Facebook for 40 days. Although giving up something will make us a better person, I believe doing something for others will not only improve ourselves by others as well. As a result, I will volunteer for Catholic kitchen on Fridays/Saturdays.
During the weekend, Constanza, a few Russian graduate students, and I ate the free graduate dinner every first Friday. In addition, I had the honor of playing Chess against the former #1 player in the 16 and under division from Russia. Fortunately, I was not crushed since I used to be a competitive Chess player. On Saturday, the Irish crew and Brendan Hughes planned an early St. Patrick’s Day theme party at the infamous Irish House. As usual, we all had a blast! As the Silicon Valley trip approaches, we begin to straighten out some logistics for the next two weeks.