Scene Fifty-Two: '14s!

Last night I performed with the World Music Percussion Ensemble and volunteered at Night at The Hop. From pottery to performing to painting, The Hop is the hub of student artistic involvement at Dartmouth and last night was a flamboyant showcase of all that it has to offer. (There were also free shirts, cookies, and cider.)

Since arriving to campus early to lead my DOC Trip, I've had more than enough down time during pre-o and orientation to meet many members of the incoming class. I must say, they're pretty fabulous. I mean, just look at these stats. And that speaks nothing of their futures here. These '14s look to be a great lot; I can't wait to see them roll up their sleeves, strut their stuff, and color campus.

© Copyright Callista Womick 2010

Scene Fifty-One: Tripz!!!

For DOC Trips '10 I co-led G902, Organic Farming, with the magnanimous Rob Marwanga '12. I can't divulge many of the niceties for confidentiality/kicks-and-giggles reasons, but here's the rough:

-We took the BFC* from Ledyard Canoe Club...
-to the Dartmouth Organic Farm...
-where we ate fresh Sungold tomatoes...
-and swam in the Connecticut River...
-and ate fresh, sweet, raw corn...
-and hiked.. a lot...
-and had the best game of Mafia of all time...
-and Trangia stir-fried fresh veggies to go with our couscous...
-and actually had running water...
-and a port-a-potty...
-although we ran out of toilet paper...
-just after we'd feasted on █████ ██████...

-and slightly before bussing to The Lodge.

Yeah, it was five days of epicness. Here are my trippees in our tarp shelter:

© Copyright Kiko Lam 2010

*Big Friendly Canoe

Scene Fifty: The Greek System

© Callista Womick 2010

A sight I never expected to see on a campus other than Dartmouth's: a frat yard littered with Keystone Light cans.

That was the only aspect of NC State's Greek scene that seemed homey, though.

On most nights at Dartmouth there are several organized parties and numerous basements open for pong. I would feel comfortable walking into any of the houses and, because almost all of our parties are open, I could. At NC State (and elsewhere) this is not the case.

While visiting a friend in the lull between most other schools starting and heading north to lead a DOC trip, we checked out some of the parties. Peering through the windows of the first house we approached, I saw a sea of cookie-cutter girls speckled with the occasional preppy guy.

"Who do you know here?" the brother at the door asked. "If you don't know anybody here, I can't let you in."

We circled around to another cluster of houses, each echoing the same sentiment.

Love it or leave it, party or not, at least our Greek houses don't check social resumes at the door.

Scene Forty-Nine: Granite State of Mind

Only seven days until I tote my bags back north and my room is still a disaster area.

I didn't pack for my beach trip neatly and I have yet to unpack from TIP, so what would be my floor is currently a tangle of suitcases, unfolded clothing, hangers, books, art supplies, and miscellany. There's a path from my bed to the door. Sort of.

Rather than tackle this task, I'm stuck on the thought that in just a week's time the floor of the Berry Sports Center will look very similar: a tangle of items brought by '14s for their section G DOC trips as they pick and choose which weight to keep and which to relinquish until their return in five days time. I can't wait to meet them. I keep hearing that theirs is the best class ever.

Classes don't start until September 22, so I'll have nearly two weeks of veritable free time on campus- excellent. Lots of time to become familiar with the 1,187 new '14 faces and help them become familiar with Dartmouth.

North Carolina is great, but I'm itching to have hiking trails, boulders, and Robert Frost in my backyard again. I hope that soon enough the '14s will feel just as at home in New Hampshire. :)

Scene Forty-Eight: The Weather

When I finally have kids, they're going to walk to school. And they're not going to complain about it. Because if they do, I'll just tell them that when I was in the fourth grade I lived in New Hampshire. And did you know that in New Hampshire if you live within a mile of your school you have to walk there, no matter how deep the snow is? One day I had to climb out the kitchen window because we got six feet of snow overnight and couldn't open the front door.

-Randy, Morehead City, NC

This is the story that I got from a new acquaintance while vacationing with my family at Atlantic beach this week. I told him that last winter was very mild, hardly any snow at all.

"Well," he said, "there's always this year."

Scene Forty-Seven: Though 'Round the Girdled Earth

Roam where you want to and Dartmouth'll be there. This is increasingly my experience, anyway. Imagine my surprise when the girl next to me introduced herself as a Dartmouth '11 during day one staff orientation for Duke's Talent Identification Program Summer Studies in Durham, NC.

We're enjoying reminiscing about parts of campus that we miss and introducing gems of Dartmouth culture to these kids. They don't really have access to the Internet, so RUA is out (that was totally a 10W thing, anyway, right?), but WAH! and Ninja are spreading like wildfire.


No actual TIPsters were filmed in the making of this clip. Actually, I just found this on Youtube, so I can't speak as to any involvement of TiPsters at all.
But wait, there's more: a girl on my hall knows Laura Cressman (one of the lovely '14s that I hosted over Dimensions) and a girl on the hall adjacent to mine is neighbors with a '12.

We. Are. Everywhere.

Scene Forty-Six: 10X

I rose at seven this morning and wove my way to Novack for a bagel in advance of my final final: Abnormal Psychology in Moore Filene. The exam is well finished and all my things are packed and stored. I sit in my bare room hoping that I haven't done anything to warrant repair charges and failing to forget that in two hours I will board the Dartmouth Coach and bid all of this farewell for the next three months.

Truthfully, not everything about Dartmouth is as I expected and not everything is wonderful.. but so many things were unexpected and so many things are wonder-filled. The odd-hour tolling of Baker's Bells. Collis baked goods. Percussion. Wishing on northern dandelions (they're different, I swear).

I feel like I'm leaving home, again.

But I'm returning to a place that for the past half-decade or so of my life was my home away from home: Duke University's TIP Summer Studies at East Campus.

From 2005-2007 I spent three weeks of summer among the most intelligent peers I'd yet encountered, under the pretense of experiencing the sort of rigorous academics that were likely lacking in our standard educations. In progression, I studied The Vampire Theme in Film and Literature, Abnormal Psychology, and Madness and the Mind (a philosophy-psychology mash-up that challenged us to define sanity, reality, and other such undefinable things).

TIPsters, both from within my classes and without, remain among my closest friends.
 
This summer I will be working as a Residential Counselor back on my home campus, Duke East. Given the large number of campuses that host the program and the high demand for RCship, I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to return to the campus that defined my TIP experience.

I'll be directly in charge of about twelve adolescent girls and less directly involved in molding the overall social atmosphere of the program. We RCs are responsible for planning evening activities for TIPsters- I need to come up with something really quirky. Suggestions welcome.

Because I am not on Dartmouth's campus and will not be as fountainous with anecdotes and observations thereabout, I'll be posting here less frequently until early September when I return to lead my DOC trip. In the mean time, I'm ever-available by blitz (at least until it goes under): cally [at] dartmouth [dot] edu.

© Callista Womick 2010

(I took the above photo from the top of Baker Bell Tower during one of the tours offered for First-Year Family weekend.)