Ratna writes

Just wanted to drop a quick line to let you guys know what the end of a college semester looks like, and to let my parents know I'm alive under all this studying! I tallied up the number of hours I expect to be toiling away at homework this weekend, and the total quickly reached a neat 24. I have about 12 hours "free" to work this weekend when I'm not performing, in a meeting, or fraternizing with my professors and peers at idyllic spring picnics and the like. In other words, STRESS ! The stuff I'm working on is actually really fascinating, but I'll probably only appreciate that after the fact, when I have three 10-to-15-page papers printed and sitting in front of me in an aesthetically pleasing stack. The big-ticket items for each class include: A paper on meditation in psychotherapy  for my Indian Philosophy class: this will allow me to explore my interests in Vipassana and counseling, by analyzing the extent to which modern Western psychotherapy...

Saturday in the city has been such a fun whirlwind of a time! The Opportunes left their respective homes and met up around 11am to drive to Bendy's brother's Bar Mitzvah in Jersey. We had an awesome time performing for one of our most enthusiastic crowds, breaking out favorites like our Michael Jackson and Destiny's Child medleys. Singing for Cameron's 8th grader friends was a great time! We enjoyed a scrumptious lunch after our performance, and were asked multiple times how we find the time to study amidst our chaotic musical lives -- a valid question! On our way back to New York, we practiced / held an impromptu concert for our van driver, who exclaimed that he should be tipping us rather than the other way around! Apparently, he had not been aware that he had been driving a craaazy musical group around all morning! After this came my favorite part of our day -- an hour-long performance in Central Park! We pulled out our all-time favorites and serenad...

I write from the lovely living room of Leah's grandparents' magnificent apartment in Manhattan, watching Something Borrowed, Something New to unwind after a fun day driving to New York and performing with The Harvard Opportunes en route! The Opps met at 10am this morning, and after some logistics wrinkles, Car 1 was on its way with Madeleine driving, Rutna riding shotgun, the boys in the backseat, and Pilar squished into the back. Our car members took turns DJing, while we sang along, at times slaughtering the lyrics to some of my favorite Regina Spektor tunes. Early afternoon, we arrived at Meadow Ridge Retirement Community in Redding, Connecticut -- a gorgeous independent living facility developed by Leah's uncle. I would love to have my grandparents in an Opportunes audience, so it was so special to be able to sing for both Leah's and Matt's grandparents in the audience during our set today! After our performance and the acceptance of some ladybug...

As a huge fan of Latin American culture and the Spanish language, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to perform with Harvard's amazingly talented Mariachi band at their spring concert last night. Click  here  to watch the performance -- the evening totally put me in the mood for my summer in Mexico!