you call this snow?!

I don't think that the champagne powder of Hanover, NH is going to be quite as easy to shovel this winter! I guess that I might be just a bit spoiled!

Women in the wilderness

The morning after lodgaween, I was signed up for a Franconia treck. The only problem was that after the really boring night, everyone slept in a tad. Instead, we decided to summit Mount Moosalake, a sizable haul right outside the lodge. It was a good thing we decided on Moosalake because the foot snowdrifts probably would have been waist deep on top of Franconia Ridge!

Lodgaween

More Dartmouth lingo! Lodgaween is a haloween celebration at the hiking club's biggest cabin, The Lodge! Pros: great food, company, dancing, and music. Cons no insulation and no heat. The combination made for a really interesting night!

Rise and shine

As a smart college student, I should take every chance I get to sleep in, right? Of course not! That would be too logical, instead as a new coleader in the hiking club, I decided to lead a sunrike, otherwise known as a sunrise hike. Dartmouth really has a way with abbreviations, let me tell you.

We parted school at 6AM sharp on a short hike to the Gile fire tower with beautiful views of the valley. The only problem was that there were no views to be had and no sunrise to be seen. We did see the first snow out of everyone at school. I don't know who threw the first ball of slush, but by the time we got back to campus, we didn't even bother to get out our raincoats.

Sleep is so overrated!

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?!