To be a Dartmouth student is almost essentially to be drawn too thin by time commitments, and my Halloween weekend was no exception. On Friday, October 30th, with a pillow under one arm and a backpack over the other, I boarded a bus bound for the Great Issues Scholars retreat along with about thirty other students. We had met as a group but twice before (both times over the context of food), yet off we went to spend half a weekend sharing quarters and discussing the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Through a series of discussions and lectures, we addressed issues ranging from foreign aid to military intervention, from Sudanese history to victimology. Fueled on s'mores, hot tea, and the group's synergy, we talked late into the night.
At midday on Halloween we concluded in an appropriately inconclusive way and scattered to collect our belongings. I hurriedly changed into a latex ballgown, uncertain whether I would have time to don my costume on campus before boarding the Collis Center-sponsored bus to Salem, Massachusetts for which I had purchased a ticket earlier in the week. The bus was to leave campus at 3:30pm; we left the Hulbert Outdoor Center at 3:00pm. Amy Newcomb, Student Programs Officer for the Dickey Center and coordinator of the Great Issues Scholars program, graciously offered to transport another scholar bound for Salem and myself in her personal vehicle in an effort to diminish our chances of missing our bus.
We made it! Still toting our overnight bags, we boarded the bus without trouble. Three hours later we stepped from the bus onto Massachusetts soil and Halloween began.
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| Salem Street at Midnight, Halloween © Callista Womick 2009 |
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