Article by Ming-Yu Chou
In ode of the remaining days of September, The Street decided to interview five students in Frist Campus Center to get a five-second glimpse of their summer experience.
Kalina Tsolova, Class of 2020, from Bulgaria
Q: What was the most memorable moment of your summer?
A: Me and my best friend went to Rome, as a present for prom. We got to attend a concert, which had three or four of our favorite bands, namely Nightwish, Epica, and Apocalyptica, and it was amazing. The night was very lit. All the people were singing, it was very well-organized, and the music was perfect. It was just probably the best part of summer — those six hours standing.
Q: What was the craziest or silliest thing you did?
A: One of my best friends had a party, and we were in a forest hut he had rented. There was a small stream nearby, and some of us decided that we would go there in the dark to cool off in the cold water, but apparently there was some kind of wild animal — I don’t know what [it was] and I’m just hoping it wasn’t a bear, [but] it roared in the dark. We basically just ran up the hill and left our water bottles at the stream. From personal experience: when you go to the forest at night, make sure at least you carry a torch.
Q: How would you describe your summer in three words?
A: Productive. Eventful. Bonding.
Katarzyna Kalinowska, Class of 2019, from NYC and Poland
Q: What was the most memorable event of your summer?
A: I got to visit Rikers Island [a prison] in New York City, as a part of my job, [where] I worked at a public defense firm. At one point, I was in this room where there was just a whiteboard, on which were written two lists: the header of the first list said Bloods, and the header of the second list said Crips. And I was just like, okay…?
Q: Did you travel anywhere?
A: I got to visit my family in Poland. I usually do that every summer. [I went] at the end of my internship for two weeks, and then I came back here for CA training.
Q: When did you laugh the hardest?
A: Halfway through my internship my supervisor just quit without telling anyone. It was just very funny getting his email that read, “Okay, well, it was great working with you guys, bye!” And we were in the middle of the workday wondering where he was.
Q: How would you describe your summer in three words?
A: Sweaty, eye-opening, short.
Andrijana Bilbija, Class of 2020, from Tennessee and Bosnia
Q: What books did you read over the summer?
A: I read two books… “Our Declaration” *laughs* and “The Invisible Man.”
Q: Give me a one-sentence description for each book.
A: For “Our Declaration” I would say, [it was] informative... overly informative… But still, not bad. “The Invisible Man” I’d say was thought-provoking, memorable, and definitely makes you think about what’s right and wrong in society and what to change to make things better.
Q: How would you describe your summer in three words?
A: Free, relaxing, gregarious. My friend likes to describe the summer after senior year as the calm before the storm.
Safa Syed, Class of 2017, from Georgia
Q: Did you travel over the summer? If so, where?
A: I started off in Madrid with a couple friends as they were moving in for their internship. Then I went to Italy – it was cheaper for me to go to Madrid then to Italy. Then I stayed in Rome for two months doing an IIP internship; it was with a really cool organization [called] Diversity International, and I fell in love with what they’re doing. On the weekends I traveled to various cities in Italy: I went to Florence, Naples, Capri, and some smaller cities nearby. Then I went to Venice, Munich, Prague, Vienna; then I flew to southern Spain, Grenada, Cordoba, Barcelona; then I finally ended in London.
Q: What was the most embarrassing thing that happened?
A: There’re SO many embarrassing things! Especially when you can’t speak a language… When I was in Munich, I heard that English and German were similar in structure, so I expected people in Germany to speak English. I went [to a cafe] for a cup of morning. And then they [the waiters] asked me, “Grouse or clean?” And I replied, “I don’t know, I don’t want a grouse coffee…” And I kept on talking at them, until they finally just gave me a cup of coffee. Later, I realized that they meant “Big or small?” It was so awkward they just kept staring at me like I was a strange creature.
Q: What was the most memorable moment of your summer?
A: This is going to sound so cheesy… But the moment when the immensity of my summer hit me was when I was in Florence. There are a lot of things [to do] in this tiny city, so you can go to a lot of different places in a short amount of time. I guess I was moving around all day, and my brain didn’t catch up. But in the evening, I went to this hill at the top of Florence, where you can overlook the entire city. I went at sunset... It was that moment when I thought to myself, “Woah, I’m in the middle of Italy, on top of a city, and I saw [the statue of] David today…” It was crazy to think that I was so far away from home, spending three months in Europe.
Ralph Elsegood, Class of 2019, from the UK
Q: What the most interesting dish you ate?
A: In a market in London, in Greenwich GMT where the zero-hour line is, I went to a they had these giant oysters, which was kind of strange.
Q: Almost palm-sized?
A: Yeah, bigger, it was huge.
Q: What was the most embarrassing thing that happened?
A: Nothing that bad really happened... I was interning, and my office has a casual Friday every Friday. And three weeks in a row I totally forgot and showed up in my full suit and tie. That was kind of embarrassing because I just looked like an idiot. Everyone was in jeans and T-shirts and I was in a full suit.
Q: When did you laugh the hardest?
A: I watched Jim Jeffries; he’s an Australian comedian. I watched a YouTube video of him doing a skit on American gun law, which was pretty funny.
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