Nothing beats a hike

Mt Cardigan was beautiful, if not a tad chilly. The leaves were in their full glory and the outing club group that I went with was great. As I said, there is nothing that beats a hike. It energizes you and lets you blow off some steam, so that when you realize that you haven't done any work over the weekend, you don't freak out too bad!

Homecoming

What is/was/will be homecoming for you? A big football game? Some drinking? Fun? Well Dartmouth's homecoming certainly had all those important elements, but decided that it wasn't enough. We needed some crazier tradition, so what comes to mind? A bonfire the size of a small mansion, of course!

If not, then I will fill you in on the entire spectacle. For two days, freshmen build and decorate a bonfire that is designed by engineers not to fall while burning, then run around it their class number + 100. That means that as a freshman, I was supposed to run 115 laps around a bonfire so hot that if I stopped running the embers would have singed my shirt! Meanwhile, upperclassmen surround the fire egging on the freshman to touch the fire, which is illegal. Instead of trying to describe it, look for yourself below.

Studying

The way it should be done!

I don't know about you, but out of my entire midterm study week, my most productive hour was spent with a dry erase marker and a bus window. Laugh, but seriously, that is the way studying should be - with plenty of fresh air. How cool would it be if the side of schools was whiteboard material?!

Super Supportive

I know everyone is rolling their eyes right now, but after signing up for the overnight shift for supporting the 50, my crew and I became super duper supporters. Every year, the Dartmouth outing club hosts a 50 mile endurance extravaganza from campus to Mount Mousilake, which is, by definition 50 miles away. Teams hike between 15 (running) and 40 (ouch!) hours through the night along the AT trail with their only respite being the support teams every ten miles or so. My crew and I were stationed at Atwell Hill, an overnight station with groups supposedly arriving between midnight and noon the next day.

There is a tradition for support crews at Dartmouth - you need to have an awesome theme to go with your hospitality. Some crews go for trippy themes, but since we figured that the hikers would already be tripping by the time they arrived at our station, we went for a much calmer bed and breakfast theme - The Cow Pie Inn.

Our crew arrived at eleven at night to set up our inn in the pouring rain (thank god I wasn't hiking in that!). After that we prepared our stove for some serious egg mcmuffin making and tuned the guitar. By midnight we were both ready and overtired, having woken up for classes that morning. For the next six hours we alternated between sing alongs like wagon wheel and teaching each other to dance. Needless to say, we were thoroughly bonded before the first hikers arrived with stories of waist deep mud at six am.

For the next seven hours, we manned the egg griddle, patched blisters and gave foot/back massages to the weary hiker who came through. By the time we headed for a celebratory dinner, our group was indistinguishable from the hikers as far as sanity went. That day set a record for me. Well two actually. I don't think that I have ever sang so much in my life and 50 hours without sleep is definitely a record I am not keen on breaking any time soon.

That is until next year when I complete the hike!

Surprise!

What does it take to coordinate a surprise birthday party in college? Well for starters, you need a birthday boy (duh!). Add in some smart parents, and a determined group of friends and you will have a killer party. That is as long as you can get the person you are holding the party for to show up!

After some persuasion and a few threats, we were able to adequately surprise Alex with a giant cake!

Urban Climbing Dartmouth style

Or maybe it is just rural climbing...

Either way, there is a pretty long, football fieldish dry laid rock wall between campus and the river and since the outdoors weather might be coming to a close, we decided to attempt a traverse. One move at a time, gripping the granite of New Hampshire, we inched along, trying not to end the streak. Abby fell first, which may or may not be the result of wearing flip flops. Nearing the end, I got sloppy and stepped on moss and couldn't help but slide off. Andrew, within ten feet of the finish fell as well. I guess there are some things you just can't do on the first try as a freshman (along with efficiently navigating the jungle of a food court).

Burly Bowls

Every farmer's market may look the same and smell the same (kettle corn anyone?), but the individual artisans always have a story to tell. With my parents up for a visit, we decided to see the gallery of one such artisan, a bowl shaper. What made this guy different was the fact that he not only made traditional salad bowls, but he also crafted bowls on the lathe from hardwood with burls. Burls are the knotty part of a tree where it has been attacked, a branch has been removed or at the base.

After meeting the guy at the market, we knew that his shop was going to be an adventure, but we didn't expect to see a pile of burly hardwood that could burn down a sizable city. As a fellow woodworker, I ogled over his collection of old school lathes, including a junker from the 1800's, and tried to absorb as much of the process as I could. He takes green (live) wood, fits it to a lathe bit, gives it a rough shape then lets the wood dry slowly in as humid a place as he can find. After a few years of sitting he then reshapes the bowl, since it has warped, and gives the piece a finish.

His finishing process is just as interesting as his junkyard. Instead of coating the pieces, he fills each bowl with the finish, until it runs all the way through. That way when he puts on a coat on the outside of the bowl, he isn't trapping air and humidity inside and the finish will never wear out. Now that I have seen such beauties, I am chomping at the bit (get it?) to get into the campus shop and give it a whirl (all day!) myself!

Farmer's market

Every wednesday, there is an excellent farmer's market on the green at school. Everything from bread to crepes and every item and vegetable in between. This week, all the stalls set up shop without their awnings. It wasn't that they were confident in the weather - on the other hand the fall breeze had turned into more of a gale!

Engineering-what!

Out of pure curiosity, I attended the Darmouth Humanitarian engineer's first meeting. The group has many project and one of which is to install water turbines in communities in Rwanda. Those turbines then power houses' electricity for cell phones and light bulbs.

As a member of the DHE team, I will be spending a lot of time in the metal shop. I guess it is just destined that I be a shop rat. The funny thing was that when all the new members (freshman) were asked whether they had any experience in a shop, I was the only one... I guess that makes one thing for sure, I may not have tested into calculus 32, but I can at least build the stuff that my math skills can draw!

Crispy

I know, I know. College can do a lot of bad things to freshmen. The availability and ubiquity of all you can eat junk and dessert food can be a hard thing to resist. No need to fear, my crispy experience was not one of giving into the french fries and burgers, but the creating of a Sunday get together for my floor: baking. This week we made apple crisp. Our inspiration for the recipe came from fo co, or in normal speak, the food court. With baskets upon baskets of local apples for the taking, we decided to scavenge all of our ingredients from there. All week we collected apples and smuggled out brown sugar so that finally we could enjoy the savory taste of fresh baked cinnamon-apple goodness.