The Hoya: The Guide: March 17, 2017

the guide FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

ILLUSTRATION BY PETER SHAMAMIAN AND MINA LEE/THE HOYA

FEATURED

GUIDE A Day in Dublin In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, here is a guide to making the most of a day in Dublin, Ireland.

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Around the World From Iceland to South Africa, Hoyas snap photos from their travels around the world.

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What Is Home?

Three students describe their hometowns and, ultimately, what home means to them.

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Stories From Abroad Travel essays discuss experiences in Ulaanbaatar, Fiesole, Bangalore and Kraków.

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SPORTS Baseball Heats Up

The Georgetown baseball team finished its spring break tournament with a 7-1 record.

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Women Make Postseason For the second consecutive season, the Georgetown women’s basketball team earned an NIT bid.

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the guide

THE HOYA

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Benjamin Disraeli once opined: “Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen.”

Whether you agree with Disraeli as a political figure or as a traveller, he hits the nail on the head. In foreign domains full of new sights, sounds and experiences, it is not uncommon for travellers to feel overwhelmed; dropping precious memories or muddling the details.

Although it is certainly exciting, enchanting and educational to travel, one of my favorite parts of travelling is returning home. The first time I left the United States, I was not even a year old. Raised in China by my grandparents, my first and oldest memory is meeting my par-

ents in the San Francisco airport at the age of three. Since then, every time I meet my family at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, I am struck by how much I appreciate my homes both here on the Hilltop and in Arizona.

Since I have come to Georgetown, I never go a day on campus without hearing passionate conversations in a melange of different languages.

Hoyas come from every corner of the globe, carrying stories of exotic locales to which they long to return or of hometowns they miss.

Whether you are a regular jet setter, a restless adventurer or even a vicarious expedition planner, we wanted to see the world through your eyes and help you remember what you have seen. We wanted to visit your home, at

least through prose and photos. On a planet that seems to grow more connected through technology, the potential for personal exploration and wanderlust is still immeasurably vast — sights to be seen, sounds to be heard, scents to be smelled.

In this vein, we have launched The Hoya’s first-ever travel issue, full of photos, guides and essays submitted by students. In this print issue, we have selected our favorites to share, but we were deeply honored to read and look at each submission, and all will be published in full online. Your submissions were honest, personal, funny and heartwarming. Through them, we traveled the world with you, studied abroad and saw your homes as you do.

friday, MARCH 17, 2017

Thank you for sharing these precious memories with us, and safe travels in all your future journeys.

Marina Tian Guide Editor

All written submissions and photos will be published in full online at thehoya.com.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @thehoya.

in Dublin, Ireland Dublin is currently experiencing a period of significant economic and cultural growth. The walkable and tourist-friendly city is a fascinating amalgamation of old and new, blending tradition with modernity. You could spend months simply exploring all the nooks and crannies of culture and entertainment that the city has to offer, but here is a crash course in case you only have a day.

ton Street, the park is insulated from the city noise and bustle by over 750 trees. In the center of the park are beautiful granite water fountains surrounded by neat paths with sitting benches, picnicking areas and colorful flowers. If it is nice out, take a stroll around the gardens and spend time learning about the significant role the park had in the 1916 uprising that led to Irish independence.

Breakfast, 9 a.m.

The Fumbally Fumbally Lane, Merchants Quay

Little Museum of Dublin, 11:30 a.m.

This museum lives up to the name: Its entirety is encompassed within a historic townhouse, just across the street from St. Stephen’s Green. The museum features a collection created by public donation — all of the pieces were given to the museum by the citizens of Dublin. There is a vast and often overwhelming array of information in the museum, which features seasonal exhibits on Dublin’s history, ranging from revolution to present day, even hosting an exhibit on U2. Book your tour ahead of time, because it fills up quickly.

Right up the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Patrick’s Park, between central Dublin and Rathmines, is The Fumbally cafe: a farm-to-table, locally and sustainably sourced restaurant serving arguably the best breakfast and brunch in all of Dublin. The restaurant scrambles its eggs with olive oil, local cheese, garlic and tomato, and serves all of its dishes on fresh bread from local bakers. The cafe has amazing vegetarian and vegan options as well. In terms of pricing, meals at Fumbally are reasonable, with all breakfast dishes priced under 5 euros. The cafe also has an amazing selection of coffees and juices, along with fresh-made pastries and granola bars, in case you get hungry while waiting for your food to come out.

The beautiful outdoor seating will satisfy all your people-watching needs.

St. Stephen’s Green, 10:30 a.m.

St. Stephen’s Green in the spring and summer rivals any of the royal gardens found in Europe. Situated in one of the busiest parts of Dublin, right off of Graf-

Lunch, 1 p.m.

Temple Bar Food Market There is food for quite literally all tastes at this food market, which is ranked one of the best in Ireland. Fresh produce, local cheese and yogurt and fresh baked breads make the Temple Bar Food market a great place to stock up on food for the hotel room. There is also a plethora of hot food vendors on site, including a tent that serves amazing black bean soup if you find yourself missing Mexican food from the States.

You will eat and buy way too much here, because everything looks, smells and tastes

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amazing, but you will not regret it.

Temple Bar Area, 2 p.m.

While you are in Temple Bar, be sure to check out the shopping area around Dame Street and Grafton Street, where you will find lots of local shops, including one where you can buy all the Irish woolen apparel of your dreams. Right off of Dame Street, explore Dublin Castle and the surrounding gardens, and, if you have time, buy a ticket and take a tour of the interior.

After walking around, pop into Queen of Tarts on Cow’s Lane and grab a scone and a pot of tea for a midafternoon snack. Stop into the Porterhouse for a pint with great views and a relaxed atmosphere.

Kilmainham Gaol, 4 p.m.

An old jail may seem to be a strange place to spend an afternoon while traveling in a vibrant city like Dublin, but Kilmainham is one of the most historically significant institutions in Dublin’s history. The jail was the holding and eventual dying place of many political prisoners throughout Ireland’s history, and it very much represented British imperialism for Irish citizens of the time.

It was here, in 1916, that 14 of the leaders of the Easter Rising were executed. Make sure to book your tour here a few days in advance as spots fill up quickly.

Phoenix Park, 5 p.m.

Cross the River Liffey over to Phoenix Park, one of the largest urban parks in the whole of Europe at nearly 1,800 acres. Rent a bike and cruise along the various roads and paths, gazing at the beautiful flowers and sculptures throughout the park.

You may even run into a herd of wild

deer, which are known to roam the area.

Bring a blanket and find a spot on one of the various open greens to watch the sunset.

Brazen Head, 8 p.m.

Brazen Head is the oldest pub in Ireland and is high on most tourists’ must-visit lists in Dublin. The Brazen Head has been a pub since the mid-twelfth century, so it is safe to say it knows its brand. The food here is fantastic, and the pints are overflowing. This is the best place to get your traditional Irish meal in — whether it be bangers and mash, Irish stew or fish and chips. The restaurant even has contemporary, vegetarian-friendly options if that is more your style. Be sure to explore all of the rooms in the building, and bring along an extra dollar bill to sign and put on the wall as per tradition.

Cobblestone Pub, 10 p.m.

Spend the last few hours of your day in Dublin in Smithfield, on the north side of the River Liffey. There is no better place to get the best live traditional music, which plays here every single night until close.

The prices here are also reasonable as it is in a part of town less frequented by tourists — you will be rubbing elbows with the locals here .

The Irish can talk your head off about everything. My advice is to let them; It is truly the best way to experience Dublin. Kick back, explore and have some good craic!

Katherine Pietro is a senior in the College.

For guides to Madrid and Mexico City, check out the Travel Issue at thehoya.com.

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courtesy katherine pietro

FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

the guide

THE HOYA

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COURTESY YASMEEN EL-HASAN

A Home of Fear, Warmth, Conflict and Joy

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y most distinct memory of the Middle East is of a soldier who did not wear a military uniform but instead a royal blue polo. I’m not sure why he was dressed differently, but he carried himself differently as well. His obsidian eyes pierced mine through the car window, a barrier that he quickly broke as he pointed an assault rifle at my head. And then there were others who were clothed in traditional army attire, surrounding me and my family, their guns eyeing us. I was 15, there was a gun to my head, and I thought I was going to die.

We were crossing the Jordanian-Israeli border, entering the West Bank to visit family. I spent the majority of my monthlong visit in Ya’bad, the old-fashioned Palestinian town where my mother grew up and where most of her family still lives.

Until the age of 10, I had spent many of my summers there. At such a young age, I did not understand the chaos of the region; the soldiers, checkpoints, settlements and clashes were constants that I never questioned. All I knew was that my family lived a different life than I did, and I had it easy.

Nonetheless, I considered Palestine home.

My family was there, and they were home to me.

I last visited this past summer, my first visit in five years. I was older, more mature, and this time, I was no longer naive to the situation. I went at a time of particu-

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lar unrest and was absolutely terrified. At first, this fear consumed me, but after a few days, I was mostly just angry. I was — and I still am — angry that the cozy, secure connotation of “home” is not the same across the world.

Home is tinged with fear. It tastes like the bittersweet Arabic coffee that my grandmother makes for me, dousing it in sugar so that it tastes better but never truly covering its strong natural flavor. Home smells like the strangest mix of mint-flavored hookah smoke — my uncles’ favorite — and the constant lingering scent of gasoline and gunpowder. It sounds like the guessing game that my cousins and I perfected as kids: Does that rumbling noise belong to a farmer’s truck or a soldier’s truck? And it sounds like the rumbling of our heavy metal gate that my aunt rushes to shut when we guess the latter.

Home is the giggles of young children and their exclamations of “fireworks” in Arabic after the distant boom of a gun. It is the pained glances exchanged by the adults as no one corrects them.

Home is the shock of my little cousin Hala as she asks me about the soldiers in America, only to be scolded by her older sister Zaina.

“America isn’t like here,” she tells her. “America doesn’t have fighting.” It’s Hala’s bewilderment as she turns to me and asks, “There are places that don’t have fighting?”

But home is also my mother’s warm

From Miles Away, Learning to Love Home

left Hawai‘i because it had never really felt like home to me. I was born and raised in the town of Hilo on the Big Island, and, in the first grade, my parents enrolled me in a private school for Native Hawaiian children.

As a 6-year-old, I did not understand the concept of blood quantum or ethnic or cultural identity, so I did not realize the significance of this school and what it meant to be a part of it until I was much older.

As a school for Native Hawaiian children, the school has an admissions policy that gives preference to orphans and children of Native Hawaiian descent. As you can imagine, there have been a few legal scruples in the past about whether the admissions policy was discriminatory, but it has been upheld in court, so the school is allowed to ask for proof of Hawaiian descent during the application process and make decisions based on that. Despite its controversial admissions policy, the school was one of the top in the state, with a large endowment and investments. If you were lucky enough to get into the school, it was a big deal.

As one of those lucky ones, my education was a hybrid of western and traditional education. I had math, English, science and social studies — except science meant learning about old Hawaiian fish ponds and social studies really meant Hawaiian history. Even daily activities outside of the classroom were traditional: Every single morning we would line up outside in the walkways, boys on the right, girls on the left, and stand in rows of four and oli, or chant, until our teachers decided that we were ready to enter the classrooms for the day and let us into the buildings. At lunch time, we would have to stand and sing the doxology in Hawaiian.

Sometimes, if you wanted to leave to use the restroom, you would not be allowed to unless you asked in ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i.

I began to recognize how strange this hybrid educational system was when I turned thirteen, and, instead of feeling pride as most of my classmates did, I felt different — I felt cornered. I am 50 percent Filipino, 25 percent Chinese, 23 percent Hawaiian and 2 percent German, yet the only box I would tick on a demographic from was Native Hawaiian. I felt as if my entire upbringing was forcing that 23 percent Hawaiian of me down my throat until it was all I had in me. I was at school from 7:15 a.m. to 6 p.m., and my only friends were from school. Most of my time was spent around people who were trying either to teach me what it meant to be a native Hawaiian in Hawai‘i or around people who were being taught the same thing I was. My disparate feelings just didn’t make me feel like Hawai‘i was my home and where I belonged.

When I was senior and I began applying to colleges, I only applied to schools on the East Coast and one in London. My mother was heartbroken at how far away I wanted to be, and my teachers thought that my western-Hawaiian education would cause me to be ostracized if I went that far. That,

COURTESY ALYSSA VOLIVAR

of course, only motivated me more, and I made the decision to come to Georgetown without ever having visited the East Coast.

My only thought was to get as far away from Hawai‘i as possible so that, maybe, I would actually have to chance to figure out who I was beyond a Native Hawaiian, and I might find somewhere to fit in.

When I first got here, I struggled with how to separate myself from the things that I had been taught. I did not want to be that kid who only ever talked about Hawai‘i until everyone grew sick of it, but I realized that, as much as I did not like it, it really was all I knew.

When I was growing up, calling Hawai‘i “home” felt wrong, because I had grown up with the idea that Hawai‘i was only home if you were native Hawaiian and in touch with everything that that entailed, and that definitely was not me. Hawai‘i was just the place where I happened to live.

After my time here, so far away from Hawai‘i with only infrequent visits, I realized that it is home to me. Although I may never be as in tune with my native identity as many of my classmates are, it does not change the fact that 18 years of my life were spent on that island, making memories and growing up into the person that I am today. I did not choose the type of upbringing that I had, but, no matter how I feel, it made me into the person I am today, and I could not be more grateful to call Hawai‘i my home.

ALYSSA VOLIVAR is a junior in the McDonough School of Business.

smile as she takes me to the patch of jasmine flowers that she planted when she was young, telling me again about her decision, as she watered them and watched them bloom, to name her first daughter Yasmeen, the Arabic word for jasmine.

Home is my father’s hearty laugh as his aunts and uncles tease him about getting more kanafeh, his favorite dessert. His voice shakes the windows of his mother’s old house in the village of Beit Iba, but no one tells him to speak quietly — we have learned to savor each other’s voices.

Home is my older brother’s red cheeks and wide grin as our great-aunt pulls him up to dance with the rest of us. It’s the beat of the darbuka that matches our steps and pounding hearts as we dabke — a traditional Levantine dance — and sing in the clearing outside of our house.

Home is the pride in my little sister’s cheers as she climbs her first tree in the grove behind our house, the same one that I once fell off so many years ago, and picks the fruit from the top of the neighboring tree. But it is also her trembling whispers when she shakes me awake in the middle of the night, asking whether everything will be okay.

Home is my grandmother, tears streaming down her face, as I leave at the end of each summer. Her tears are conflicted, she tells me; she is happy that my family has created a life for ourselves somewhere

stable, somewhere easy, but it breaks her heart that we cannot share that life.

Home is entangling. To call Palestine home is a heavy statement, and with it comes more implications than if I were to call Los Angeles my home, despite the truth in both statements. For Palestine to be home means that I am not only from there, but bound to it — not quite to the land rather but to the identity. Thus I, and all others who call Palestine home, seem to exist as an extension of the conflict.

Home means a lot of things that none of us ever asked for.

And home seems to be slowly dwindling away, as, with each visit, I see the settlement just outside my mother’s town crawling closer and closer to our house, the strip of land that separates us shrinking more every year. Home is becoming less centralized, as more and more of my family leave, just as my parents did, so that their children will grow up with greater opportunity. Home is hard to reach — crossing the border, as Palestinian citizens must do to enter and exit, is frightening and risky and neither entry nor exit is ever guaranteed.

Home is scary, not just because of the conflict, but because it is disappearing.

But despite it all, Palestine will always be home to me.

YASMEEN EL-HASAN is a freshman in the School of Foreign Service.

Welcome Home, Bienvenido a Casa

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t all started with the sight. Before the plane landed, I saw the soaring skyscrapers and the golden rivers of traffic lights flowing in the distance. Then, the sound followed. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mexico City.” As I got off the plane, Spanish words began to flood my ears: “Buenas noches,” “Bienvenidos,” “¿Cómo estás?” By the time I walked out of the airport, the scent arrived. It may have been the taco stands or the street mist. I have never known exactly; it just smelled like home. I could not resist buying a treat from the street vendors roaming every corner: a bag of spicy chips, a tamal with a cup of chocolate atole or some warm tacos de canasta from the trunk of a vendor’s bike. The taste brought me back. I drove straight from the airport to my best friend’s house. She was waiting for me and, as I stepped out to hug her, our embrace made me remember the touch. In that moment, I knew I was home. It felt as if I was suddenly remembering the words to a song I had not heard in years, riding a bike again after months of walking or touching the crests of my hands after wearing gloves for hours. It is something as familiar as myself, no matter how long it has been.

Home is a complicated concept. It is difficult to explain it to others, simply because of how innate and abstract it feels. Home exists through the senses. Mexico City is my sight, hearing, scent, taste and touch. It is how I perceive and understand the world around me. It was the first place I ever knew, the model by which I recognize all other parts of the globe. For over 19 years, it was the only place I could call home.

However, the last few years have complicated an already confusing idea. I have been living in Washington, D.C., for two years now, and, after a week in Mexico City, as I boarded the plane back to the United States, I was unsure if I was coming home or returning from it. A very strange sensation came over me and, suddenly, I did not know where or what home was. Was it a specific place or a familiar feeling? Was my hometown or even my home country the only real home I would ever have, or had I built another in Washington, D.C.?

On the plane ride back to the United States, I began to think about what Mexico City meant

to me, and I might have come up with a conclusion about where and what home is. Mexico City is my bits and pieces, my blurry edges and layers. This crazy, overwhelming city soothes me with a warm feeling. All the voices, the traffic, the lights and the rushing crowds bring me a deep sense of ease. It has made me into who I am, into who I always think of myself to be.

Home means the beginning, the origin of my life. But, as I thought about Mexico, I wondered: where did Washington, D.C., now fit into my life? Was the United States a temporary base and transitory feeling, or a second home and permanent sensation?

The answer came unexpectedly. It all started with the sight. Before the plane landed, I saw the marbled monuments and the symmetric greens. Then, the sound followed. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Washington, D.C.” As I got off the plane, English words began to flood my ears: “Good morning,” “Welcome,” “How are you?” By the time I walked out of the airport, the scent arrived. It may have been the trees’ smell or the tempered air. I have never known exactly why, but it just smelled like home. I could not resist heading to my favorite pizza place, 2Amys, and buying my traditional margherita with extra cheese. The taste brought me back. I drove to my parents’ house, where I have been living for the past two years with my family. My little brother was waiting for me, and, as I stepped out to hug him, our embrace made me remember the touch. In that moment, I knew I was home.

I realized home could be a place, a beginning and a familiar sensation. But mostly, it is the people, the life you create somewhere in the world, the experience you have with everything surrounding you. Without conflict, today I can say that, although Mexico City will always be home, Washington, D.C., has become home, too. They belong neither to the past or the present but to my senses. Sitting on an airplane flying between Mexico and the United States, I realized I was coming from one home to another.

DANI GUERRERO is a freshman in the School of Foreign Service.

COURTESY FRIDO SANTIGO

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THE HOYA

BIG BEAR, CALIF. | YEWANDE ILAWOLE (COL ’20)

MACHU PICCHU, PERU | ALEXANDRA BRUNJES (COL ’20)

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK | CASEY DOYLE (COL ’18)

TALLINN, ESTONIA | SPENCER COOK (SFS ’20)

LIMPOPO, SOUTH AFRICA | JOHN MILLER (SFS ’19)

Jökulsárlón, ICELAND | ALEXANDRA BRUNJES (COL ’20)

NEW YORK, YORK | PETER SHAMAMIAN (COL ‘20)

ANNECY, FRANCE | DANIEL WASSIM (SFS ’18)

IBIZA, SPAIN | AIDAN CURRAN (MSB ’18)

SNæFELLSNES, ICELAND | STEPHANIE YUAN (NHS ’19)

LAU, FIJI | OLIVIA JIMENEZ (COL ’20)

HAUKADALUR, ICELAND | RACHEL LINTON (SFS ’19)

KRAKóW, POLAND | JANINE KARO (COL ’19)

LYON, FRANCE | RUSSELL GUERTIN (SFS ’18)

guide

INCLINE VILLAGE, NEV. | SARAH WRIGHT (SFS ’18)

THE HOYA

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BUDAPEST, HUNGARY | ALESSANDRA PUCCIO (COL ’17)

CHANGI, SINGAPORE | MICHAEL LI (SFS ’17)

KRAKóW, POLAND | DEVIN SLAUGENHAUPT (SFS ’18)

KRAKóW, POLAND | SOPHIA RONGA (COL ’18)

CHOLUTECA, HONDURAS | GRACE CHUNG (COL ’20)

SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA, CHILE | GRACE LARIA (SFS ’19)

MALLORCA, SPAIN | AIDAN CURRAN (MSB ’20)

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. | CELINE CALPO (COL ’19)

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO | NAIA DANIEL (COL ’19)

CINQUE TERRE, ITALY | KATHERINE PIETRO (COL ’17)

DEATH VALLEY, CALIF. | GABRIELLA WAN (NHS ’19)

SIENA, ITALY | ELIZABETH CAVACOS (COL ’17)

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THE HOYA

the guide

Friday, MARCH 17, 2017

COURTESY STELLA CAI

Adapting to New Customs and Culture “P lease do not put your hat on the floor,” my host sister, Khaliun, says to me as she picks up my blue Patagonia hat from the floor and carefully places it on the nightstand next to my bed.

“Great, your first hour in the country, and you have already disrespected the local customs,” I thought to myself as I began to question my decision to spend six weeks in Mongolia.

This past summer, I signed up on a whim to volunteer for Learning Enterprises to teach English in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Growing up in China, I had visited the grassy steppes of Inner Mongolia, an autonomous province of China, and heard legends of Genghis Khan, the great Khan who conquered the largest area of land in history. Other than that, I knew nothing about the country or its culture.

When I told my family and friends in China that I was going to Mongolia, they all responded with, “Oh, they speak Chinese there, right?”

Not only do Mongolians not speak Chinese, Mongolia is not a part of China.

Known as the “Land of the Eternal Blue Sky,” Mongolia is a sovereign landlocked country between Russia and China, with the 18th largest land area in the world and a minuscule population of three million, half of which live in the country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar.

We were quite a diverse group of volunteers: three American, one Spanish, one Chinese and two Irish students. Each of us came from different backgrounds and had different reasons for travelling to Mongolia. Nonetheless, we shared our daily struggles to come up with a lesson plan for our students, to communicate with our host families and taxi drivers, to determine what exactly was on our lunch plates and to figure out how to decline politely the excess amount of food presented to us by our host families. We spent our mornings teaching, each of us in charge of our own classrooms; I taught the tenth grade. Most of the students already spoke English pretty well so we did lots of practice for the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language, as many of the students hoped to attend university abroad.

The students were all eager to learn, choosing to come to class even though they were on their summer breaks. Some of the students were shy at first, but they gradually became more confident and spoke up in class.

We had most of the afternoons free, so we volunteers, often accompanied by our host siblings, spent our days wandering around the city. We went to ethnic restaurants, rode bikes in the children’s park, visited many Buddhist temples, attended a Buddhist meditation session, discovered a

hidden vegan restaurant and spent many hours in Café Bene and Cherry Bakery.

During our midpoint break, we travelled to the Gobi Desert and experienced the lifestyle of the nomadic people. We stayed in gers, or traditional nomadic dwelling spaces, climbed sand dunes, rode camels and tried fermented horse milk — not my preferred choice of beverage.

I quickly bonded with my host family. Communication was easy, as my host mom was an English teacher, and my host dad had spent some time working in the United States. My host siblings became the siblings I never had; we stayed up watching Harry Potter movies, and I struggled to wake them up in the mornings. Taking time out of their busy schedules, my host parents made sure I saw all the famous sites in the city, and even drove me to Terelj to see the Genghis Khan statue and to visit the grandparents. By the end of the third week, I had met every member of the extended family.

When you travel to a foreign country, you either love or hate the local cuisine. Unfortunately, the meat-heavy Mongolian diet was not my friend. A lover of vegetables, I cringed at the plates of beef and mutton presented to me at the dinner table. Not wanting to be disrespectful, I tried to eat as much as I could. It did not take long for my host family to notice my lack of enthu-

siasm for the food, so they asked me what I would like to eat. I offered to cook for them and made some classic Chinese dishes like eggs and tomato and chicken and broccoli, which they loved.

As the weeks progressed, I picked up on more Mongolian customs. For example, at mealtimes, the eldest male family member always cuts the meat; when a family member returns or is about to embark on a journey, he or she is presented with a cup or warm milk tea; and, if you accidentally step on someone’s foot, you touch his or her hand or arm for a second as a sign of respect.

Six weeks flew by. As someone who spends most of the year away from my own family, I quickly grew attached to my host family.

Compared to some of the other volunteers, I did not look like a foreigner and, thanks to the hospitality of the people, I did not feel like a foreigner either. On the last day before my departure, my host mom cooked a pot of milk tea and offered a cup to me. After six weeks in Mongolia, I may not have grown to love the meat and dairy-heavy diet, but I have grown to love the country’s rich culture and the people’s welcoming warmth.

I gladly drank all the milk tea and, you know what? It tasted like home.

STELLA CAI is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service.

The Persistence of Memory at Auschwitz I spent my spring break with 32 other students from Georgetown and Seton Hill University on a Holocaust Forensics trip to Poland and Belarus. My experiences on this trip have changed me and will have a permanent place in my consciousness. What I saw gave me hope for our future, but also deeply worried me.

We spent two days in Poland and five in Belarus. Although the trip as a whole was memorable, my day in Auschwitz will forever be in my mind. Auschwitz was far more than a concentration camp; it was a complex with over 39 factories. Oneand-a-half million people were sent to the complex of Auschwitz during World War II, including 1.1 million Jews, thousands of Roma, homosexuals and Soviet prisoners of war. There were almost no survivors.

All concentration camps are dehumanizing and make you question human nature, but Auschwitz was on a level of its own. A total of five gas chambers — all the size of a small building — did the work of the greatest evil the world has ever seen.

Auschwitz has the largest graves in the world, now-green fields that contain the ashes of hundreds of thousands of Jews.

Seeing the graves in person was a sad, sobering moment. No words can describe the enormity of the tragedy.

However, what I saw at Auschwitz gave me much hope for “never again.” Not all of Auschwitz II–Birkenau — the site of

slave barracks and the gas chambers — remains. Some of the land has since been sold, and regular people now have homes on the former grounds of a death camp.

If you look outside the camp, you see an ordinary Polish town. There are houses, dogs barking, a church, a playground and people going about their everyday lives.

On our visit, we walked the same path that the Jews who went straight to the gas chambers took. The first crematorium, the site of the “Red House,” is now a plot of green grass surrounded by a locked chain-link fence. On this plot of land, the Nazis built the crematorium and killed 100,000 people, before destroying it to hide the evidence at the end of World War II. After they retreated, a Polish landowner used blueprints of the gas chamber to petition for a subsidy from the Polish government to rebuild his house. It took over 100,000 euros to buy back this murder site and commemorate it.

Auschwitz was a concentration complex and a death camp. The Nazis had no regard for human life. A million Jews were gassed in five small buildings, and their ashes were scattered in mass graves the size of a football field. There are no markers pointing to these spots as the greatest evils ever known to humanity. Nowhere does it say that this was the worst crime ever perpetrated against the Jews. The gas chambers were for the elimination of the

Jewish people, but all signs seem to omit the fact that the victims were Jewish.

As our group’s leader, Fr. Patrick Desbois, said, “We look at Auschwitz and say never again. Murderers look at Auschwitz and say ‘Never Auschwitz I again.’” That sent a shudder down my spine. Auschwitz I was the original camp, which housed Polish political prisoners; Auschwitz II was where the crimes against humanity happened.

Fr. Desbois, when not teaching at Georgetown, runs a global humanitarian nonprofit out of Paris called “Yahad-in Unum.” Since 2004, Yahad has worked to find the graves of Jewish victims of Nazi death squads. Millions of Jews killed in the Holocaust did not die in concentration or death camps. They were killed in mass graves by their villages. Yahad has found the sites of thousands of these graves. “We don’t work to find big numbers,” Father Desbois said. “We work to find the graves of Anna, Itshik, David and Boris.”

We visited one mass grave in Belarus: Bronna Góra, where 54,000 Jews were killed in pits, which were dug by locals at Nazi gunpoint. The site is now a clearing, surrounded by forest with electrical poles running through it. If I did not know where I was, or what I was standing on, it could be any place in the world.

The banality of the site shows that nature has no memory; humans, too, easily

forget. Anna, Itshik, David, Boris and so many others now lay there at rest; their names, though, are often overlooked. We often think of what happened in terms of numbers, not in terms of people. The Holocaust is dehumanizing — so large, we cannot fully wrap our minds around it.

Fr. Desbois is a hero. The Holocaust was not just the attempted extermination of the Jewish people; it was a crime against all humanity. It does not matter who you are; everyone should make dedicate themselves to ensuring that “never again” actually means just that.

We are quick to forget, and uncomfortable dealing with death. We memorialize the wrong things and let politics decide what gets said: Poland now has a law which makes it illegal to criticize anything it did during World War II. The Yazidis in Iraq and Syria were murdered the same way that the Jews of Eastern Europe were murdered — in pits. We remember things, not killing zones.

I left spring break scared knowing that mass murder can easily happen again, but hopeful because of the work of Fr. Desbois and Yahad-in Unum, and because of a desire within everyone who came to make an impact and do everything in our power to make “never again” come true.

ALEXANDER COOPERSMITH is a sophomore in the College.

the guide

friday, MARCH 17, 2017

THE HOYA

B7

Finding Family and Forgoing Farewells in India

“W

ow, that’s so intense for a spring break trip!” “Won’t you get jet-lagged?” “What’s the time difference?”

These are just some of the reactions I heard upon telling people that I was planning on going to India for spring break, as if I was about to go on a vacation to a novel location. Instead, as most of my trips to India have been, this was a trip to spend time with my grandparents, not a trip to sightsee and visit typical tourist locations. Such is the reality when one has aging grandparents and cannot afford to not spend every waking hour with them.

The immigrant experience is so closely intertwined with loss: loss of language, loss of comfort in surroundings, loss of culture and loss of identity. I will never know the extent of the loss felt by my parents, who have now lived more than half of their lives in the United States. This loss also trickles down to the children of immigrants; I find myself clinging to my culture for dear life. A reason that this trip was special was that I finally felt that I was able to fit in. Dressed in my chudithar with a matching pottu or bindi, with a string of jasmine flowers in my hair, I managed to succeed at looking like a local. I hardly spoke any English, and, when I did, I spoke mainly Indian English, which requires a completely different accent and set of vocabulary: “compulsory” instead of “mandatory,” “difficult” instead of “hard,” or even the profuse usage of the word “useless” when complaining about someone.

This visit to India was also uniquely special because it was my first trip alone, because I had chosen to go. Most people with Indian-American friends have probably heard the stories of being forced on trips to India by parents and having to interact with countless unknown family members, all amidst the sweltering heat and lack of a steady internet connection.

I will admit that I have been in that position numerous times, but this trip was different. My sole purpose was to spend time with my grandparents while catching up on some schoolwork; I easily managed to fulfill the former, while admittedly doing most of my homework upon landing back in DC. Being able to spend time with my grandparents and help them was an honor. I developed a fascination with the process of

I

aging and the circle of life. When I was a child, my grandfather, or thatha, used to pick me up from my bus stop and carry my backpack as we walked home. On this trip, I would wake up multiple times in the middle of the night to help my thatha walk to the bathroom. Helping thatha after he helped me for so many years created the most surreal feeling.

I was able to accompany my grandmother, or paati, while shopping at what she calls the “bhai kadai,” or “brother’s store,” to buy fruit. Observing my paati’s strong will permeate every part of her life was both impressive and amusing: her mere presence demands respect from everyone from the bhai who sells us fruit to all of my grandparents’ countless friends.

My paati’s strong disposition conflicted with my thatha’s growing impatience, and I often was caught in between their quarrels about small things. Paati often

Courtesy priyanka dinakar

complained about so many books being scattered around the house, while thatha complained that paati’s family was never in the habit of reading books, because they were too busy making money.

Another surreal feeling was being able to have full-fledged conversations with my paati in Tamil. We compared American politics with Indian politics, talked about my paati’s investments and the effects of demonetization and also complained about small things — I suppose one can prove fluency in a language by the ability to complain in it.

This was not a traditional spring break trip in any sense; most people either go home or travel with friends to a warm climate — technically, I did both at the same time. Despite being from Audubon, Pa., if India is not my home, then why did a wave of mourning sweep over me as soon as I landed at Washington Dulles International Airport? I have never

felt this level of loss upon coming back to the U.S. and have also never felt that my English has suffered until this trip.

Honestly, though, as an Indian-American with an identity crisis, it is definitely not the worst problem! My identity crisis has been temporarily shelved: I can finally feel comfort in India, while also feeling a sense of pride and relief to hear the immigration officer say “welcome home.”

A beautiful thing about Indian languages is that there is no word which translates to “goodbye” or “farewell,” only words to express that you are temporarily taking your leave, implying that you will return. It is comforting to know that I can never truly say farewell to India, I can only say “naa varen,” because I will always come back.

PRIANKA DINAKAR is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service.

Scenes and Lessons at an Italian Bar

n the middle of Fiesole, there is a little bar that promises “the best Guinness in Italy” and takes claim to the time-honored tradition of the poorly lit Irish pub. The Guinness was okay; the rest of the beers were better. I did not speak a lick of Italian, the two bartenders spoke barely a lick of English, and we had a good arrangement going, speaking in grunts, gestures and the names of various beers and spirits. I spent a lot of nights there, usually just myself and a coalition of up to two more of the willing. When the program I was in offered a long weekend, everyone but me spread to the corners of the country, and I was alone with the villa to myself with nothing to do but research for my thesis.

Like any self-respecting Georgetown student, I was back at the pub before a book was opened. The place was packed beyond belief. The TVs, which I had assumed were for show, were all on, and dozens of people were crowded around them. One of the two bartenders caught my eye, and, while taking my order said, “football” by way of explanation. I was aware, in a vague sort of way, that the Euro Cup was happening. In retrospect, the turnout was about what I should have expected, but the variety of people in the bar was stunning. When I went to study abroad that summer, I found out that really meant a “greatest hits” tour of Florence, looking through old buildings and at landmarks. Interactions with the people who actually live in the place you are studying are heavily curated: tour guides, restaurant owners and villa staff.

People were pouring into this pub from their homes, from work, driving up and around Fiesole in tiny cars or on scooters to see the game. Businessmen were coming back from work with loosened ties and ruffled suits; mothers with broods of children running around and through their legs, trying to find darts to swing at each other; young couples out on dates; and me, the single, solitary, pasty schmuck who hates soccer in a sea

of teak and swarthy fans who may have had their homes on the line for how involved they were in this game. One of the many reasons I hate soccer is that it is entirely reasonable for a game to remain scoreless well into the second half of regulation time. This game was no exception, and I grew progressively frustrated as the night went on. Who were these people, I groused, who came into my smoky little pub and were raising such an ungodly racket that I could not even be miserable in peace? Eighty-eight long minutes in, Italy scored. I have been to concerts that were quieter than this bar.

A young woman on the stool next to me took it upon herself to patiently explain to me, in my own language, that Italy would be advancing out of the group stage.

I had just about seen and heard enough when the bartender plopped down a pint in front of me. I shook my head.

He pointed to an older man at the other side of the bar, who was laying down a stack of bills for the other bartender. “It’s free,” he said. I stared at the older man long enough for him to look my way, nodded my thanks, lifted my pint and set to work. After an indeterminate amount of time, once the place was finally starting to clear out, I managed to get myself to my feet and slowly, slowly, meandered back down the steep hill that led up to Fiesole. By then it was dark, and I slipped past the gate and onto the villa grounds, utterly alone. At a porch overlooking the villa and the city of Florence, I sat on one of the plastic chairs to think for a while.

When the inevitable questions came after I had come home — asking myself what I liked the most, what was my favorite church, what museum had the best art — I was shocked that no one asked about that night in the bar. It was an almost religious experience: People gathering to worship in front of those TVs, and I was the foreign observer who had no right to be there. My mind grew hazier, and the things that crossed my mind as the lights down in the

city slowly switched off for the night are now lost to me. I do remember with absolute clarity two things, imprinted in my mind as crystal clear images. First, the slow emergence of the stars as the lights started to dim and fade, cavalcade of pinpoints in the sky against the nearly full moon.

Second, the six-dozen mosquito bites that I’d gotten along my arms and legs which I didn’t notice until the next morning, the price to pay for such an image as the first, overlooking the city and the garden.

DAN DOUGHERTY is a senior in the College.

courtesy dan dougherty

B8

sports

THE HOYA

friDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

tennis

Women Split Road Trip, Men Drop 3 Straight Evan Morgan Hoya Staff Writer

Back from a spring trip to California, the Georgetown men’s (3-6) and women’s (73) tennis teams return to action this weekend with different goals in mind. While the women seek to build off a split of their four matches against top-notch competition, the men look to rebound from losing all three matches.

Looking to continue its strong start to the 2017 spring campaign, the women’s squad travelled to California for a four-match trip that included highlights such as beating previously undefeated UC San Diego (12-1) and a close 4-3 triumph over Utah State (9-5). In addition to the victories, Georgetown also lost to Long Beach State (10-2, 2-1 Big West) and Loyola Marymount (4-2).

Senior Victoire Saperstein

and her fellow top-four singles cohorts shined in the win against UC San Diego.

Following the tone-setting 2-1 doubles win, Saperstein triumphed in a three-set comeback, taking her No. 1 match 1-6, 6-3, 7-6. Junior Sara Swift prevailed in the No. 2 competition in two sets, 6-0, 7-6, while sophomore Cecilia Lynham clinched Georgetown’s victory with a 6-2, 6-2 straight set win.

The second Hoya victory — a 4-3 affair against Utah State — saw the Blue and Gray earn three points in the singles matches. Following a pair of victories in the No. 2 and No. 3 singles matches from sophomore Risa Nakagawa and junior Sara Swift, junior Drew Spinosa earned the Hoya’s third point with a 6-2, 6-1 victory.

With each squad knotted up at three points apiece, the competition reached

an unusual conclusion: The doubles match would decide the critical point.

“I’m just looking for what we did last year when we played Xavier at Yates.”

GORDIE ERNST Head Coach

Ultimately, the duo of senior Maggie Psyhogeos and sophomore Sydney Goodson cemented the Hoya victory with a 7-5 doubles win. Following the match, Georgetown Coach Gordie Ernst praised Psyhogeos, whose clutch play in her season debut contributed to the

Hoyas’ victory. “[In a] high-pressure situation, playing No. 2 doubles, she comes up with some great shots, and I couldn’t be prouder of her,” Ernst said.

Although the men’s team struggled in its trip out West, earning three out of 17 possible points, the Hoyas did well in an area that Ernst has emphasized all year: doubles competition. Facing UC Irvine (5-8), the Blue and Gray picked up their sole point in the doubles play of their 4-1 defeat.Junior Peter Beatty and senior Jordan Portner took their No. 1 match 7-6, while No. 3 doubles pair of sophomore Michael Chen and freshman Ian Witmer clinched the point in a 6-3 victory.

Following this doubles success, which Ernst referred to as a “moral victory,” Georgetown faced staunch competition in singles play as the UC Irvine lineup stole

the analyst

a 4-0 win. Although Loyola Marymount triumphed over Georgetown 4-2, Ernst believes the Hoyas were a few good breaks away from taking the victory.

“Loyola Marymount could have gone either way. We had already played Utah State in the morning so my guys were tired, but they responded, they fought,” Ernst said.

Capping off the trip to California, Georgetown battled Utah State, which completed a clean sweep, taking the competition 6-0.

This weekend, both teams return to action as the women look to continue their strong season against Hofstra (4-9) on Sunday, and the men take on Xavier (39) on Friday at Yates Field House. Coach Ernst hopes for an effort reminiscent of that against the Musketeers a year ago.

“I’m just looking for what we did last year when

we played Xavier at Yates.

We played with great fire and energy; we were very competitive knowing that a higher seed is on the line when it gets down to the Big East Tournament,” Ernst said.

When identifying the key to the two teams’ success this weekend, Ernst noted a need for the men to bring more consistent focus and energy, which have been strengths for the women’s team this season.

“Every girl is laying it out on the line every match, win or lose, and the guys haven’t done that yet, but I know they can. And I’m hoping this’ll be the match they do it,” Ernst said.

The men’s squad takes on Xavier on Friday at Yates Field House at 11 a.m. before it takes on Hofstra on Sunday at 11 a.m. The women face against Hofstra on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Women’s lacrosse

America Loses Baseball Edge Hoyas to Start Big East Play

E

very four years, the World Baseball Classic reminds baseball fans around the world that the United States no longer owns baseball.

It is a well-known fact that countries such as the Dominican Republic and Japan embrace the game and consistently produce extremely talented, big-name Major Leaguers.

But American fans often overlook the culture and passion surrounding baseball in these nations. Sure, Major League Baseball recruits hundreds of foreign players, but the sheer volume of these unbelievably talented players is the product of a culture that exists alongside or even separate from American baseball.

In truth, the prowess of baseball leagues all over the world has not only bolstered, but also arguably shaped, Major League Baseball as a whole.

The WBC embodies this phenomenon: The tournament, originally sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation but organized by the MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association, showcases the elite skill of numerous baseball players from around the world. Some of these players, such as José Bautista, Robinson Canó or Andrelton Simmons, are known to Americans as major leaguers. Other lesser-known names represent the depth and strength of various countries’ leagues of men who never reach the MLB. Since the tournament began in 2006, Team USA has failed to make the championship series, while other countries with notable baseball programs — such as Japan and the Dominican Republic — have taken center stage and dominated.

And though Team USA has hardly lacked in talent, they

have been consistently bested by the international players both from the MLB and from leagues in their home countries.

One could argue that the United States shoots itself in the foot every few years when many of its pitchers fail to join, due to the scheduling of spring training and fear of arm injuries due to overuse.

Amanda Christovich And while this decision is completely understandable considering an MLB team attempts to maximize its World Series opportunities, it shows the lack of national pride in America that international baseball provides for other nations.

Take last Saturday’s game in Miami, where the Dominican Republic squared off against Team USA. The Dominican Republic battled back from a fiverun deficit late in the game to win amidst an electric crowd clearly dominated by Dominican fans. Both the Dominican players and fans exhibited raw passion and excitement for their triumph over Team USA. They illustrated that the game considered “America’s pastime” was not quite so; Americans were apathetic, but Dominicans put their hearts and souls in to win.

And this global claim on baseball is growing beyond the nations known to love the sport — in this year’s Classic, Team Netherlands sports a number of stars they call

their own. Some, like Xander Bogaerts and the Yankees’ Didi Gregorius, are familiar MLB faces. Others, however, have played either primarily in Dutch leagues or have delved into leagues in Japan and the Minors. Regardless of where these players are known, they have formed a competitive, cohesive and talented ball club with a legitimate shot at winning the tournament.

Of course, baseball is not the cultural pillar in the Netherlands that it is in other countries in Latin America and Asia. It is overshadowed by not only soccer but also speed skating and field hockey, to name a few. But the increased number of quality players from this European country proves that baseball’s global popularity is growing.

The WBC shows us the passion other cultures and countries feel for the game. Sometimes, especially in the face of baseball’s increased criticism, we forget the ability the game has to not only captivate an audience, but also to invoke joy.

On Saturday night, the tournament witnessed pure love for baseball as a source of national pride — national pride for a country other than the United States.

We have known for a while that the United States, though claiming the game to be our country’s “national pastime,” does not own baseball. What we can glean now from other nations’ treatment of baseball is a way to rediscover the joy and excitement that America has arguably lost.

Now, it truly is anyone’s game.

Amanda Christovich is a sophomore in the College.

THE ANALYST appears every Friday.

Dan Crosson Hoya Staff Writer

Coming off a 14-6 loss to No. 12 Pennsylvania on March 11, the Georgetown (2-5) women’s lacrosse team travels to Indianapolis. This Saturday to face Butler (16) in its first Big East game of the season. Georgetown Head Coach Ricky Fries looks forward to the start of conference play.

“One, it changes the level of excitement because it is a Big East game, because there is more at stake. Butler is a first-year program, so they’re, frankly, competitively not going to be as strong. Our message is going to be this is about what we do, this is about conference and we’ve got to be sure to take care of that business,” Fries said.

Running into a hot Quakers team (5-1, 0-1 Ivy League), coach Fries attributed the Hoyas’ loss on Saturday to a lack of focus.

“The Penn game was going to be a lot better matchup. They outplayed us. They played harder than we did, and when things started to not go our way, we didn’t have a very good response.

They kept rolling. We have got to correct our own mistakes and not focus on what the score is, who the opponent is but just how we’re playing, and we’re going to work on continuing to improve as a group,” Fries said.

This weekend, Georgetown faces the Butler team (1-6), which is extremely young with only five juniors and seniors out of its 28 team members. The Bulldogs have been outscored 115-61 so far this season.

Redshirt sophomore midfielder Haley Hallenbeck

FILE PHOTO: STEPHEN COOK/THE HOYA

Sophomore attack Morgan Ryan ranks third on the team with 11 goals in addition to two assists. leads the Bulldogs with 19 goals while contributing three assists on the season.

Other top scorers for the Bulldogs include junior midfielder Madison Christian with 12 goals and freshman attack Journey Fischbeck with 11 goals. Junior goalkeeper Allie Storke has 44 saves and 69 goals allowed in six games played.

For the Hoyas, junior midfielder Georgia Tunney leads the team with 14 goals. Sophomore attacks Taylor Gebhardt and Morgan Ryan follow closely behind Tunney with 13 and 11 goals, respectively. Sophomore midfielder Francesca Whitehurst leads the team with nine assists. On the defensive side, senior goalkeeper Maddy Fisher has 54 saves and 61 goals allowed in seven games.

Coach Fries attributed the Hoyas’ 2-5 record thus far to a lack of discipline

and their youth. He has mentioned poor mental execution after previous losses this season, and he said that although he has seen some improvement, more work needs to be done.

“The biggest thing we have talked about so far is discipline and mental toughness. We allow a few mistakes to turn into more mistakes. One of the things we are focusing on in practice is focusing on the next plays and being accountable that we did do right or wrong. Hopefully, that will start to come to fruition. We are a pretty young group. We are relying on a lot of young players. With that is going to come some mistakes, but we’ve got to start making some improvements consistently. We’ve made some improvements but not consistently.”

The game is scheduled for 1 p.m. this Saturday.

baseball

GU Catches Fire During 8-Game Spring Break Trip Mitchell Taylor Special to the Hoya

The Georgetown baseball team spent its spring break participating in the Snowbird Baseball Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla., where the team’s offense heated up. The Hoyas went 7-1 in the Sunshine State while averaging over nine runs during the eight-game stretch.

Senior first baseman Jake Kuzbel led the offensive charge for the Hoyas, helping the team improve to 11-6 on the year. Kuzbel hit .550 over the final five games of the tournament, going 11-for-20 at the plate with eight runs batted in, seven runs scored and three extra base hits.

His efforts earned him the Big East Player of the Week award.

“It was nice to get down to the nice weather in Florida, playing baseball every single day,” Kuzbel said. “It’s so easy to play in those conditions.”

Four of Kuzbel’s hits came in a late-inning comeback victory against Western Michigan (7-6),

when Georgetown scored 10 unanswered runs to win 12-8 in the 11th inning.

“I’m standing out in the field on the sixth inning thinking about what I’m going to say to the kids when we’re down six or seven,” Georgetown Head Coach Pete Wilk said.

“Obviously, that speech changed drastically after we put up 10 runs.”

“If we can be back to who we are, I think we will take care of ourselves this weekend.”

Peter Wilk Head Coach

The game also happened to be on Kuzbel’s birthday.

“The baseball gods were on my side,” Kuzbel said.

“I just tried to do my job, find a good pitch to hit and trust the guys after me to do their job and get

me in.”

Kuzbel’s Player of the Week award marks the second consecutive week a Hoya has taken home the Big East honor. Junior center fielder Michael DeRenzi won the award March 6. DeRenzi continued his hot hitting in Florida, batting .444 (16-36) with 12 runs batted in and his second grand slam of the season. “[I’ve] just been trying to get a good pitch to hit,” DeRenzi said. “I try to put the ball in play hard somewhere, not necessarily trying to hit a great slam or smoke it to the fence. Just put the ball in play, have a quality at-bat and get a good pitch to hit, as always.”

Georgetown’s successful Snowbird Classic run was also the result of strong starting pitching. Senior starting pitcher Simon Williams, junior starting pitcher Kevin Superko and sophomore starting pitcher Jack Cushing all went 2-0 during the Florida tournament, with Williams notching a careerhigh 11 strikeouts in the

series opener against Lafayette (2-14).

“We had some really good outings,” Wilk said.

“Simon had two good outings down there, not unexpected. It’s who he is. Superko had a tremendous outing against Ball State, that was terrific, and even threw well against Lafayette.”

Up next, the Hoyas have a weekend series at Gardner-Webb (7-11).

Wilk hopes the Hoyas’ recent success continues in North Carolina.

“I just hope we can get back into our rhythm,” Wilk said. “We were obviously in a nice rhythm coming out of Florida.

If we can be back to who we are, I think we will take care of ourselves this weekend.”

The three-game series against the Runnin’ Bulldogs begins Friday at 6 p.m., followed by Saturday’s game at 2 p.m. and the series finale Sunday at 1 p.m. All games are scheduled for Bill Masters Field at John Henry Moss Stadium in Boiling Springs, N.C.

COURTESY GUHOYAS

Junior catcher Richie O’Reilly has driven in seven runs on eight hits in 17 games this season.

SPORTS

friDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

the water cooler

the Mustangs are a No. 6 seed despite having 30 wins, a regular season and conference tournament championship and top 15 rankings in all three polls mentioned above.

The RPI ignores important basketball information that more modern statistical rankings account for.

Meanwhile, certain teams from power conferences appear to be overrated in terms of seeding. For instance, Florida State (25-8, 12-6 Atlantic Coast), a No. 3 seed, racked up many quality wins in December and January. However, the Seminoles played .500 basketball against a subpar schedule for the season’s final month and have AP, Coaches and Pomeroy rankings that suggest the team should be closer to a No. 5 seed.

While seeding debates may appear to add fun to college basketball and March Madness, the mistakes are a result of outdated measures.

The largest culprit is the Ratings Percentage Index, or RPI, which attempts to account for a team’s record through its strength of schedule. Critics point out that the formula, conceived in 1980, is arbitrary as it ignores important basketball information that more modern statistical rankings account for.

In essence, RPI emphasizes a challenging schedule

above all else, even though individual programs are given significant say over their yearly schedules. Coaches face a choice: play easier during reasonably challenging games to get their team into the swing of the season or risk early losses by playing the power five blue-bloods.

Strength of schedule should definitely matter, but it is hard to blame Wichita State for a weaker schedule when Kansas outright refuses to play them during the regular season.

Kansas (28-4, 16-2 Big 12) plays a reasonably challenging schedule given its conference while Wichita State does not. Nevertheless, if the top-tier programs will not engage the top mid-majors, then the strength of schedule becomes a recurring tool to victimize the mid-majors.

In order to correct both the human biases of the committee and the coaches and athletic directors who schedule games, a definitive method must be used to determine the best teams and seed them properly. With the abundance of data and advanced analytics that have enabled Ken Pomeroy’s rankings to become the near-industry standard, the NCAA can improve upon the status quo. When statistical pioneers met in January to discuss future updates and replacements for the RPI, one thing became clear: There is no perfect measure.

That is largely true. Even a composite index taking into account scheduling, winning, margins of victory, offensive and defensive efficiency and the like will never fully satisfy everyone, but it would probably improve

B9

women’s basketball

Seeding Lacks Clarity IPPOLITO, from B10

THE HOYA

upon the current status quo.

Seeding is, at least theoretically, supposed to reward better teams in the early rounds by allowing them to play weaker opponents.

However, when a No. 10 seed is predicted to have a 70 percent chance to win against its No. 7 seed opponent, as Wichita State is against Dayton, the process is clearly flawed. In effect, this adversely affects Dayton (24-7, 15-3 Atlantic 10) and also Kentucky (29-5, 16-2 Southeastern), as they would have to face Wichita State in the Round of 32 should both the Wildcats and Shockers advance.

Strength of schedule becomes a recurring tool to victimize the midmajor schools.

COURTESY GUHOYAS

Junior guard Dorothy Adomako averages 14.7 points per game on 41 percent field goal shooting in addition to 6.3 rebounds per game.

Hoyas Host NIT Kickoff FORDHAM, from B10

The one game variance in college basketball is high enough that the upsets that make March Madness so great would happen anyway; the selection committee does not need to let human error further distort an already random tournament.

Using an ineffective 1980s tool to solve a 2017 problem makes little to no sense.

While the NCAA is generally averse to change, remaining set in past ways would truly be madness.

Michael Ippolito is a senior in the College. The Water Cooler appears every other Friday.

softball

going to accept the box out. She’s going to run a loose ball down. So we just have to really limit her,” Adair said.

Supporting Davis is senior guard/forward Danielle Burns whose 9.2 points per game ranks her second on the team. As a team, Fordham commits 13.7 turnovers a game, a statistic that an aggressive Georgetown defense — ranked first in the Big East with 9.7 steals per game — can use to its advantage.

Adair stressed the importance of utilizing Georgetown’s defense to create offensive chances.

“We want to be disruptive,” Adair said. “We are a team that can get after it defensively. Our defense creates our up-tempo transitions, so I just want us to play with maximum ef-

ily, in front of your fans, what message are we going to send them. This is kind of new energy, new life, new season,” Adair said. “Our seniors have put us on their back in a lot of areas this year and I just want it for them.”

In terms of points of emphasis for her team, Adair noted the importance of making extra effort plays in the postseason.

“You watch all the games now, it’s who’s running out of bounds to get that 50-50 ball, who makes that free throw in crunch time, who gets that one defensive stop. It’s the best time of year for me. It’s March Madness for a reason and we want to leave everything on the floor,” Adair said.

Tipoff against Fordham is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday night at McDonough Arena.

fort and energy.”

The backcourt trio of junior guards DiDi Burton and Dorothy Adomako along with sophomore guard Dionna White continues to control the Hoyas’ offense. White leads the team with 15.2 points per game and Burton dishes out a team-high 3.5 assists per game. Adomako is one of three Hoyas to average at least 14 points per game, scoring 14.7 a game.

In the frontcourt, senior forward Faith Woodard remains Georgetown’s strongest force, grabbing 7.8 rebounds per game to go along with her 14.6 points per game. Adair spoke to the possibility of this being Woodard’s final game in a Georgetown uniform as one of the three seniors on the team.

“For our seniors, to have another opportunity to have in front of your fam-

Men’s lacrosse

No. 13 Duke to Test GU DUKE, from B10

COURTESY GUHOYAS

Junior outfielder Theresa Kane has started all 19 of Georgetown’s games and leads the team with four stolen bases. Kane is tied for second on the team with 15 hits.

Offensive Struggles Persist SOFTBALL, from B10

sophomore infielder Olivia Ross drove in freshman catcher Sera Stevens in the bottom half to give Vannicola, and the Hoyas, the win.

Elvina, sophomore leadoff hitter Mallory Belknap and freshman first baseman Noelle Holiday have been consistent sources of offense for Georgetown.

Elvina is batting .295 at the plate with five doubles and eight RBIs. Holiday powers the middle of the lineup with three home runs, seven RBIs and a slugging percentage of .500. Belknap’s hot hitting has continued, posting a .444 batting average, .476 slugging percentage and .485 on-base percentage with three stolen bases on the year.

On the rubber, Pacha and Vannicola continue to carry the team. Pacha is posting a 5.92 ERA with three complete games and 61 strikeouts while holding opponents to a batting average of .254. Vannicola has four complete games and has recorded two saves, compiling 25

total strikeouts.

Coach Conlan said there is a clear difference between the games the Hoyas lose and the ones they win.

“We’ve put complete games together in our wins. Good pitching efforts, solid defense and good quality at bats,” Conlan said. “When you can get the trifecta there, you have a pretty good chance to win ballgames.”

The offensive element of the game continues to be an issue for this young Hoyas squad, especially in its closer defeats. Three of the team’s recent losses have come in the form of one-run games. The Blue and Gray are 0-10 when scoring less than three runs, and 1-12 when giving up the first run in the ballgame. In its 7-6 loss to The University of Texas at San Antonio Roadrunners (9-15), the Hoyas fell behind by four in the first and left a total of six runners on base during the game.

“We’ve had opportunities in many games with our top two hitters on and not been able to bring

across runs,” Conlan said.

“We’re leaving a lot of people on base. We’re doing a pretty good job of getting people on base, but we’ve got to come through in the clutch a little more and start driving in those runs.”

The Hoyas are 4-7 in games decided by two or fewer runs. As evidenced by the game against UTSA, being able to drive in that extra run can be the difference between a win and a loss for Georgetown.

“That’s a play here and there, a hit here and there, and all of a sudden we’re in a very different situation as far as our record goes,” Conlan said.

Georgetown begins its final tuneup before Big East play Friday, with a 10 a.m. matchup against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies (6-12), followed by a 5:30 p.m. game against the UMass-Lowell River Hawks (5-8).

After the tournament, Georgetown will open its conference schedule with a three-game series at home against Creighton (6-13) starting March 25.

“We were playing the ball harder, and we also had a bigger emphasis on [the fact that] the defensive possession doesn’t stop just by getting the ball back — we actually have to clear the ball, get it to the attack and make sure our offense has possession of it, and that’s when our job is actually over,” Ford said. “We tried to put a little more emphasis on getting the ball on the ground or making a stop and clearing it right away.”

Georgetown’s offense capitalized on these opportunities, as its 16 goals Saturday are a season-high effort.

“Our offense has been on fire recently, which is awesome to have. They’re definitely rewarding us when we make a stop [on defense], which is a good feeling,” Ford said.

Carraway contributed four goals and an assist against Robert Morris and a goal and an assist against Hobart. Sophomore attack Daniel Bucaro also had an outstanding week for

Georgetown, recording two goals and two assists against Robert Morris and six goals and two assists against Hobart. Bucaro’s game-high six goals tied his career best and helped earn him a spot on the Big East weekly honor roll recognition.

“I thought they did a really good job of sticking to who we are and what we need to do to have success.”

Kevin warne Head Coach

Following Saturday’s win, Georgetown enjoyed a longer week of practice as it prepares for Duke (5-2) tomorrow afternoon. The Blue Devils enter the contest on a four-game win streak extending back to late February.

Duke’s latest victory was against Jacksonville (0-6)

on Monday, in which two separate unanswered fourgoal runs helped propel the Blue Devils to a 13-6 win over the Dolphins. The game marked Duke Head Coach John Danowski’s 376th win, the most in Division I history.

In Georgetown and Duke’s meeting last season, a prolific shooting performance from Duke proved fatal to Georgetown. Although both teams took 33 shots during the contest, Duke capitalized on a greater number, ultimately outscoring Georgetown 20-6.

After a hard week of practice, Warne said he is confident the Hoyas will deliver a strong effort in the upcoming matchup.

“We’ll take it one day at a time, but the one thing I have been very proud of with this group is that they have been consistent in their effort,” Warne said. “I know we’re going to play very hard, and there’s a lot of fight in this team.”

Opening faceoff is scheduled for noon at Cooper Field.

FILE PHOTO: CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA

Senior defender Michael Mayer leads the team with 22 ground balls and has caused a team-high 12 turnovers. Mayer has appeared in all six of the team’s games.

SPORTS

Women’s Basketball Georgetown (17-12) vs. Fordham (21-11) Friday, 7 p.m. EST McDonough Arena

FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

TALKING POINTS

WOMEN’S LACROSSE The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team opens up Big East play against Butler on Saturday.

See B8

“

NUMBERS GAME

I know we’re going to play very hard, and there’s a lot of fight in this team.”

HEAD COACH KEVIN WARNE

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

2

The number of consecutive seasons the women’s basketball team has earned an NIT bid.

MEN’S LACROSSE

GU Offense Comes to Life ELIZABETH CAVACOS Hoya Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO: DERRICK ARTHUR/THE HOYA

Senior forward Faith Woodard leads the team with 7.8 rebounds per game to go along with her 14.6 points per game on 46.8 percent shooting from the floor. Woodard has started in all 29 games this season for the Hoyas.

Hoyas Prep for 2nd Straight NIT SEAN HOFFMAN Hoya Staff Writer

After finishing with a 4-27 record in her first year at the reins of the program, Georgetown Head Coach Natasha Adair has successfully turned this program around as the Hoyas earned their second consecutive National Invitational Tournament bid and host the Fordham Rams at McDonough Arena on Friday night.

“It’s a group effort, you don’t turn it around by yourself” Adair said. “It starts with our administration and their support.

Our AD from day one talks about the process and he’s been with us every step

of the way and just being supportive. But I think you look at the kids and their buy in.”

“It’s a group effort.

You don’t turn it around by yourself.

It starts with our administration and their support.”

NATASHA ADAIR Head Coach

The sixth-seeded Hoyas (17-12, 9-9 Big East) enter the tournament after suffering an 80-66 loss to the eventual Big East Cham-

THE WATER COOLER

pions Marquette Golden Eagles (25-7, 13-5 Big East) in the first round of the Big East Tournament on March 5. While the tournament did not end on a high note for Georgetown, Adair looks forward to the team’s next opportunity, citing the 12-day period between games as an advantage.

“You’re disappointed with the way it ended against Marquette, but now we came back refreshed. It has been a great week of practice. The energy in practice has been phenomenal because now we talk about it being a new season. That season is over, but we have another opportunity,” Adair said.

A

nyone who follows college sports should know that the judgment of the NCAA is, more often than not, highly questionable; Selection Sunday only furthered this mindset.

Although most, if not all, of the at-large teams could be generally agreed upon, the seeding and bracket seemed warped beyond belief. Undoubtedly, picking brackets, squabbling over seeds and trying to predict the mismatches and upsets in the round of 64 makes March Madness the year’s best sporting event. However, given recent strides in basketball analytics, the NCAA selection committee’s methodology is outdated and its choices in seeding reflects that lack of modernity.

The selection committee abides by a host of guide-

lines and balloting procedures to craft the field of 68. Because the champion of each conference tournament gets an automatic bid, the committee has 36 at-large bids to hand out on an annual basis. In general, the committee does a fine job; and even with a somewhat soft bubble this year, most — outside of Syracuse at least — believe the committee did a quality job.

Seeding the teams is a precarious task, evidenced by this year’s seemingly nonsensical seeds. A 30-4 Wichita State (30-4, 17-1, Missouri Valley) team is extremely underseeded as a 10 despite being in the top 10 of the Pomeroy rankings and the top 20 of the AP and USA Today Coaches Poll. The same could be said of SMU (30-4, 17-1, American Athletic Conference); See IPPOLITO, B9

COURTESY GUHOYAS

Junior goalie Nick Marrocco has started in all six of Georgetown’s games and sports a .532 save percentage.

Squad Aims to Continue Progress Special to The Hoya

NCAA Selections Remain Outdated

See FORDHAM, B9

See DUKE, B9

SOFTBALL

JOSH ROSSON

Michael Ippolito

Fordham (21-11, 11-5 Atlantic 10) returns to the NIT after missing out on all postseason tournaments during the 2015-16 season.

Junior forward G’mrice Davis anchors the Rams’ offensive and defensive efforts, averaging a doubledouble this season with a team-high 14.4 points and 12.6 rebounds per game.

Adair highly praised Davis, citing her work ethic as her biggest strength.

“She is relentless, and that’s the word I used when I described her to the team. She’s relentless on the boards. She gets extra possessions for her team and for herself by just not accepting it. She’s not

Following two consecutive wins last week, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team hopes to use its momentum in a home matchup against No. 13 Duke this Saturday.

Georgetown (2-4) defeated Robert Morris (4-2) 12-7 at home last Tuesday, and then followed with a decisive 16-6 road victory over Hobart (3-4) on Saturday.

Head Coach Kevin Warne said he was pleased with the team’s focus and consistent efforts despite having a shorter turnaround time between games.

“We had a really good week of practice, and the guys came out focused and really disciplined against some teams that like to play a little helter-skelter,” Warne said. “In order to combat those teams, you need to be disciplined, and I thought they did a really good job of sticking to who

we are and what we need to do to have success.”

Several Hoyas stood out in last week’s contests, including junior goalkeeper Nick Marrocco, who earned the Big East Defensive Player of the Week recognition for his efforts in the net, and freshman attack Jake Carraway, who was named the Big East Freshman of the Week.

On the defensive end, Marrocco notched 12 saves against Robert Morris and 14 against Hobart for a .667 save percentage between the two contests. Hobart’s six goals during Saturday’s game are the fewest Georgetown has allowed this season.

Senior defender and cocaptain Charlie Ford, who tallied an assist against Hobart, said that Georgetown’s defense has been working on playing more aggressively and clearing the ball to the offense more effectively.

Nearing the halfway mark of the season, the Georgetown softball team looks to find some luck in its tournament over St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Wilmington, N.C. The Lafayette Ford Lincoln of Fayetteville Showcase is the Hoyas’ (4-15) final chance to make an impression in tournament play before the team’s conference schedule kicks off at the end of the month.

After enduring a ninegame losing streak to start the season, the Blue and Gray bounced back with four wins in its next nine games over a span of two tournaments. In each win, the Hoyas scored five or more runs, demonstrating the importance of run support in games all decided by a narrow margin.

Georgetown Head Coach Pat Conlan said she likes what she has seen from her team in recent games.

“I really don’t think our record is an indication of the kind of team we are right now. I love so many of the things that we’re doing,” Conlan said.

“We’ve made great strides in our last two tournaments.”

Georgetown’s most recent win came in its first

game of the Texas A&M Invite, a 7-6 extra inning comeback victory over Prairie View A&M University (3-16).

“I really don’t think our record is an indication of the kind of team we are right now. ” PAT CONLAN JUNIOR FORWARD

Senior catcher Gabriela Elvina led the way, going 2-4 with two RBIs. Freshman pitcher Anna Brooks Pacha got the start on the mound, giving up four hits and three earned runs with seven strikeouts in five innings pitched.

The Hoyas’ offense, which was unable to score in the game’s first six innings, came alive in the bottom of the seventh, scoring six runs to even the contest and force extra innings. Freshman pitcher Katie Vannicola came in the top of the eighth, and See SOFTBALL, B9

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COURTESY GUHOYAS

Sophomore infielder Olivia Russ has started in 13 of the team’s 19 games and has reocrded five hits on the season.