Winter wonderland

I'm sitting in the Tower Room right now - it's a pleasant, sleep-inducing room with green velvety chairs and nice woodwork (it all looks very Ivy League collegiate, if that makes sense). The above pictures are me, obviously not studying, and the view from my chair in the Tower Room.

It snowed a lot last night, and it finally looks like I imagined Hanover winter would. I love seeing the tree branches covered in snow, but then they drop clumps of it on you when you're not expecting it. Later I'm going to go out onto the Green or the area right in front of the library and dance around for my parents on the Baker Tower webcam.

Steam tunnel

Last week I had the opportunity to tour the steam plant and take a walk through the steam tunnel. It was actually one of the coolest things I've done at Dartmouth. The heat on campus is steam-powered, so next to the Hopkins Center is a plant that churns out a ton of steam - there's a huge smokestack that comes out of the building that's always spewing steam into the air.

To get to the tunnel, our tour guide, who if I recall correctly was the plant manager, opened a hatch in the ground that looked like the entrance to a bomb shelter. So down we went, probably about 10-15 underground. The tunnel runs all the way from the power plant to the Moore Building, and runs right next to the Green and Baker-Berry.

The tunnel was about the size of my dorm hallway (relatively large, I thought) and there were big pipes that carried really hot steam to different buildings. Apparently the tunnel pays for itself because it has made it so much easier to get heating to new buildings on campus.

And we saw a little white mouse right when we got down there and our tour guide speculated it had gotten away from a science building.

Winter Carnival!

It's Winter Carnival this weekend and I'm loving every minute of it. Every year there is a snow sculpture on the Green (you can read my article in The Dartmouth about its history if you'd like) and this year we have our very own replica of the Colosseum, to match the theme "I Came. I Saw. I Carnivaled."


The opening ceremony for Carnival included a performance by the Cords, who are one of my favorite a capella groups on campus, a speech by President Jim Kim (with some pretty funny references to the Hanover Police Department's new alcohol policies), ski team members holding torches, and fireworks. I went to FoCo (aka Food Court) afterward for dinner and President Kim and his family were there. His baby is adorable and President Kim was incredibly friendly when students came up to introduce themselves, even though he was eating dinner with his family.



There have been lots of fun parties this weekend and today I went to the Occom Pond Party, which is an event set up for students and the community on Occom Pond. There were so many wonderfully cute little kids and we went for a sleigh ride and took pictures of the different little ice sculptures. My friends and I also got to go up in Baker Tower, which was awesome because we got breathtaking views of the campus.



Yesterday I did the Polar Bear Swim, which involved waiting in line for two hours to jump into a hole cut in Occom Pond. It was exhilarating and the weather was beautiful and then I went and picked up a care package from my parents. All in all yesterday was an excellent day, as was today.


P.S. I know my neon orange crocheted swimsuit from the thrift store makes you jealous! And hopefully by now you realize the picture of the person jumping into the pond isn't me; that's my floormate Harry.

Dartmouth haikus

Today is sunny.
So pretty - frolicking time?
Still below freezing.

The tests never stop.
Midterms are way too often.
Just call them exams.

Winter Carnival!
I am psyched for this weekend.
Dartmouth is awesome.

Procrastination.
Oh dear, my chem lab is soon.
Better get to work.

Mr. President

Dartmouth students are unbelievably creative and talented. This is a video created by two senior members of the Dartmouth Chords, one of the a capella groups on campus. The love for President Jim Kim on this campus is amazing. I saw him once walking out of Parkhurst (the administrative building) and we smiled and waved at each other and it made my day. I still smile just thinking about it.