CTY [warning: v. v. long although cut massively]
CTY is officially the acronym for Center for Talented Youth, although there are many other less official long hand forms for writing it such as Center for the 'Tarded Youth, Center for Bad Spellers, Can't Tell You, etc. But to all who go there, it's a place full of memories. <-- v. sappy beginning.
CTY is held at a number of various college campuses and there are those whose goal it is to go to a campus in every state [going to all of them is not possible, as a student] or to go to the same campus every year. I did the latter for two years and this year I headed off to the main campus at Johns Hopkins University, the school that funds all us talented youths in our summer escapades, for a mere US$3,000. What a steal.
JHU is the figurehead site that all the brochures try to feature for the obvious reasons. It is also the most academically superior (or so they claim) and by far the strictest site. Having come from one of the most lax and easy-going student loved sites I was in for a bit of a shock. All CTY-ers wear lanyards, we get to keep them after camp and must wear them everyday while there. Your room key is put on it was well as meal cards (a la F&M though not at JHU) and other sorts of important stuff. It is mandatory that RAs (residential assistants), TAs (teaching assistants) and staff people can see these brightly coloured concoctions so they know to look out for your well-being. If you're not wearing one then... well, who the hell cares what happens to you? JHU is the lanyard nazi site. Your lanyard must be around your neck at all times, although the rules were relaxed at dances, or else. RAs will come tell you to put it on if you don't have it and swinging your lanyard is a big no no. Although there was, of course, a lanyard swinging activity on the second to last day so you could spend a solid hour swinging that baby to your heart's content. I swam instead.
Differences between JHU and Lancaster/F&M
1. Lan. has 4 cafeterias and four service counters plus a salad bar. JHU has one of each.
2. At JHU there are only two dorm buildings, AMR1 and AMR2. Girls and the main office were in AMR1 whilst the boys where in AMR2. This definitely made the social scene a lot different from Lan. because it was a little hard to go chill in the guys lounge... if they didn't have one. Same goes for their lack of balconies. If you wanted to socialize you hung out in front of AMR1 or on Gentle Slope (a little more in front of AMR1, grassy, and full of frisbee-ers).
3. You were escorted to class. I kid you not. You met at a meeting spot 10 minutes before class started (or so they told you, Kenny was late everyday except for the last week... starting on Tuesday) and your TA would come and take you away to a fun filled day of learning.
4. Study hall could be a different place from class. It was for me.
5. I mentioned how I was meal card-less right? This hurt.
6. We had computer access and the internet. I know, don't hurt me. Basement of AMR1, you technically only had 7 minutes but that varied depending on the line that day (or lack thereof if you were smart). This is, however, not enough justification to actually go to JHU.
7. Our site director's name was Joe Cox. He was just as bad as it sounds. He could've been a nazi, blonde hair-check, blue eyes-check, illusions of authority-check. He was also a massive shutter bug.
8. Our nurse was Hui Suk, pronounced hey-su, from Korea and she always said: DRINK MORE WATER! <-- PREVENTION. EAT BREAKFAST. TAKE YOUR MEDS. In fact, every dance ended with the line "Take your meds!" and whenever you went to her for an upset stomach she told you to eat breakfast, this is of course second hand info but I trust it. She was awesome though and you could go to her office for water whenever. No ice pops though. :( Couldn't even sing or beg for them!
9. Our doors beeped if you held them open too long. The dorm doors. In fact the door to my building either slammed really loudly (right next to the RA lounge) or beeped whenever I used it. I could count the number of times it didn't on my hand, v. sad.
10. I actually got into the swing dancing class! I forget most of the moves but it was fun. Unfortunately I can only do the guy part. I did try salsa but... no.
11. The number of hot guys was about 2, at most. Maybe only one... The LAX (lacrosse) camp boys did show up for a little eye candy on week two but otherwise we were deprived. ::sobs::
There's not too much to say about class other than: there were 4 girls including myself and a female TA (who looks like Kirsten Dunst, with red hair) and then 8 guys plus the teacher. It was interesting. I was really close to one of the girls and pretty friendly (not in the slutty sense!) with some of the guys but for the most part we were a bunch of people in a class called Logic. One of our boys dropped out or we would've had 9. He left the second week and he was stupid so screw him. One of the girls had originally been put down as a male so she wasn't in our hall. heh. There were 3 different RAs for the guys though. Apparently JHU's got this thing for forced socialization causing them to split up classes and put them in different halls. Okay, sure. Um, my teacher was mad liberal and emotionally dead but that's okay because we ended up discussing sex and his sex life (in study hall when he wasn't there) and that was traumatic. There's no correlation between those two statements but whatever.
This lack of class bondage led to an extremely close hall. It was mad crazy close. We ate together, woke each other up, cheered like crazy at mandatory fun (we were, by far, the most spirited hall) and we had an awesome RA to boot. She wanted us all to keep our doors open starting from the first day and I can tell you right now, it's definitely an effective bonding technique because then you don't feel as awkward just dropping into someone's room picking up a book and reading. :D Either way the girls were very cool and we will so keep in touch. I wasn't that close to my room mate since she was so different from me. Not to stereotype but she was an Eminem loving stylish asian and well, I'm not. But that's okay because she's the second roommate I've corrupted with Marilyn Manson so it's all good. Unfortunately I also like the "White America" song by EM now. Damn.
Aside from my hall I bonded with the Genetics class where my 'sister' was so that was fun as well. They were really just down the hall from us. For the first time I was in a hall that was friendly with the hall down the hall. Try saying that 3 times fast. All in all CTY was fun but I definitly wouldn't recommend JHU to anyone. :D Although I don't know if I'll go back to Lancaster either. It's my nomore/nevermore (nevermore's used at JHU) year so I'm gonna make it good. Heard Carlisle (our sister site, our meaning F&M) is good for the older kids. ;]
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