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.)

Scene Forty-Five: Of Formal Wear, Plastic Spoons, and Going Home

It's that season: As thick as the air is with pollen are evening walkways thick with lavishly clad ladies and dashingly decked gentleman.

I got into the formal spirit on Friday with Phi Tau's backyard shebang. Flames, friends, and fresh air- shared with the finest company I've found at Dartmouth. And to dance! It isn't a party until people are breaking it down to Ke$ha and swaying to Cyndi Lauper.

Saturday night Amarna hosted a showing of The Room (2003) written, directed, produced by, and starring Tommy Wiseau. It's the sort of experience that should never be had alone. Very interactive. Think Rocky Horror shout-outs and a lot, a lot of spoons.

Afterward, walking back toward campus in the thick fog of midnight with (WAIT.. this was my last full week of classes?

I leave in a week?

As in, I won't be at Dartmouth anymore?! I don't feel good about that.)

Anyway: walking back with Rebecca: we encountered an abandoned button-up shirt. Striped. Quite nice. It is ours now and we shall share it. After it's laundered, of course.

...I'm sorry, I'm pretty hung-up on this leaving-campus-not-to-return-for-the-next-three-months thing.

I mean, I have friends whose D-Plans dictate that I won't see them again until Sophomore Summer. I have friends who have been off adventuring since Winter term that I won't see again until Fall, at best. I have unrealized plans and unexplored interests and unfinished business and it... all must wait until September?

Don't get me wrong. I'm super-excited about my summer plans. I have a great job. I'll get to see my family and friends from home. I'll get to enjoy some real heat. Not to mention Southern cooking... But it isn't here.

I rather wish I could stay.

Scene Forty-Four: Learn the Alma Mater

It can only improve your life.

Dear old Dartmouth, give a rouse
For the College on the hill,
For the Lone Pine above her,
And the loyal ones who love her.
Give a rouse, give a rouse, with a will!
For the sons of old Dartmouth,
For the daughters of Dartmouth.
Though ‘round the girdled Earth they roam,
Her spell on them remains.
They have the still North in their hearts,
The hill winds in their veins,
And the granite of New Hampshire
In their muscles and their brains.
And the granite of New Hampshire
In their muscles and their brains.

Dear old Dartmouth, set a watch,
Lest the old traditions fail.
Stand as sister stands by brother.
Dare a deed for the old mother.
Greet the world from the hills with a hail!
For the sons of old Dartmouth,
For the daughters of Dartmouth.
Around the world they keep for her
Their old undying faith.
They have the still North in their soul,
The hill winds in their breath,
And the granite of New Hampshire
Is made part of them ‘til death.
And the granite of New Hampshire
Is made part of them 'til death.

Props to the marching band for this rendition.

Scene Forty-Three: The River

Here's where I began my DOC Trips leader training at 8am this morning.

The Connecticut River
© Callista Womick 2010

Doesn't it just beg Ledyard Challenge?