Off-campus programs

I know I said I would post things I don't like about Dartmouth but there's something else I want to do instead so I'll do that later. Applications for Foreign Study Programs and Language Study Abroad trips are due February 1 so I have to figure out if I want to do one next year and if so where I want to go. Here are ones that sound interesting to me:

• Anthropology/Linguistics FSP in Auckland, New Zealand
• Spanish LSA in Barcelona, Spain
• Geography FSP in Prague, Czech Republic
• Religion FSP in Edinburgh, UK
• Asian and Middle Eastern Studies/Women and Gender Studies FSP in Hyderabad, India

Ideally I would do an off-campus program during the winter so I could avoid the cold and such, but apparently they are very competitive. Upperclassmen have told me it's a good idea to apply to a lot that interest me to up my chances of getting one of them. Technically I'm exempt from the language requirement because of all the Latin I've taken, but I still want to take a spoken language at Dartmouth which is why the Spanish LSA appeals to me. But honestly that all sound good. I don't know how I'll choose!

If you'd like, you can peruse Dartmouth's off-campus programs yourself.

I ♥ the College

Since I've been home for break I've seen a lot of friends who are currently seniors in high school. They're all in the midst of the college application process and I am definitely happy I'm past that. At the time it seemed like everything was do or die, but now that I'm at Dartmouth I see that I was applying without that much knowledges of where would actually be the best fit for me.

I came into Dartmouth knowing what I had been told by the Admissions Office, which is solid information but doesn't tell about the little intricacies that make Dartmouth so wonderful. So here are five unexpected things that I love about Dartmouth, and later I will post three things I don't like as much, just to be fair and balanced.

Likes

1. Most people at Dartmouth are excited about awesome goofy things. If I want to dress up in flair (crazy clothes), I know I'll be able to find someone to join me. If I want to have an impromptu study break dance party in my room, someone will dance with me. If I want to randomly do cartwheels, someone will do them with me.

2. Most people at Dartmouth are excited about cool intellectual things, like debating and research opportunities and our new president Jim Yong Kim.

3. The campus is beautiful. Sometimes when I walk around I just get this overwhelming feeling of being lucky to be at Dartmouth.

4. Upperclassmen are excited to meet freshman. I went to a high school where upperclassmen disdained freshmen, but at Dartmouth we were welcomed enthusiastically. I got blitzes from upperclassmen during the first few months of school that said that they want freshmen to go to lunch with them and ask them questions and such. It was very nice.

5. There are great resources across the board. In my classes first quarter, my profs were accessible and gave us a variety of tools to help us study. Career Services is great and there are tons of service opportunities. My UGA (undergraduate advisor - equivalent to an RA at other schools) and my GA (graduate advisor - basically a UGA but she's a grad student and can help us with resumes and such) are great resources too.

Seattle

I'm writing this from my bed in my house in Seattle! I wouldn't say I was homesick fall term, but I definitely missed my family and my friends and my dog (shout out to Koko) and the city itself. Being back is strange - nothing has changed so it feels like I haven't even been gone, and yet I was away from home longer than I ever had been before.

The one annoying thing is that most of my friends aren't back yet since most schools are on semesters and not quarters.

Tonight I went to an alumni holiday party thing that current and former Dartmouth students of Western Washington were invited to. It was fine but I felt sort of awkward since it seemed like a lot of the alums knew each other and there were no other current students there.

Here's a video of interviews with '13s that was filmed at the Baker-Berry open house during orientation. I was interviewed and then Jim Kim happened to be walking by so they filmed me and my friends being interviewed by him too!

Snow!

Yesterday was the first real snow at Dartmouth this year! I thought upperclassmen would be used to it by now but I was studying for my education final with a junior who was literally yelling and jumping around and clapping her hands because it was the first snow of the year. At first I wasn't that psyched because we have at least three more months of snow to look forward to and I'm dreading the winter a little bit, but it's hard to stay unexcited for long when other people are giddy and blitzing out (aka emailing everyone they know) about the snow every 4 seconds.

I went into my education final at 3pm and it was snowing but not sticking and when I came out at 6pm there was snow on the ground and all over my bike and such. In case you don't actually care about snow and are more curious about my education final, I think it went well. It involved a lot more writing than I expected so my hand cramped up a few times but there are definitely worse things that could happen during a final. Like not knowing anything.


Anyway, the snow. Turns out there's a tradition of a giant campus-wide snowball fight on the Green at midnight when the first real snow falls. I got a bunch of blitzes about it, including one from Dr. Seuss' alumnus account. It felt very cool and mystical to get a blitz from Dr. Seuss, even if it's not actually him (though I like to think he's blitzing out from the grave). The snowball fight itself was awesome. There wasn't that much snow and there were a ton of people there, so soon it felt like we were just throwing ice chunks and it started to hurt. After that I went back to my dorm with some people and we threw snowballs at people's windows until they came to the window and said hi to us (don't worry, ORL, they were soft snowballs and no windows were in danger of being broken).

Back to studying! I have my human biology final on Monday. I'm actually listening to a podcast of one of my professor's lectures now. He gives us a lot of great resources for studying so hopefully all will go well.

One more snow thing:
There's a webcam in Baker Tower and it looks out over the Green, and as soon as it snowed people started drawing things in the snow for people looking at the webcam.