Saturday, July 3, 2010

Road Trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


8 AM was the time I woke up today. I felt ready for an adventure -- an adventure to Dartmouth College. Mrs. Bulls rolled up in her "bullsmobile" and picked us up from the dorms in the cold and chilly morning. The weather felt like home the past few days-cool, breezy, and sunny. It gave me a small amount of home-sickness but I shrugged it off in anticipation for another campus visit.


Not much happened in the car ride. The scenery was filled with trees and grassland, much, much different from back home. In the bay area, all I see are houses and sidewalks. Here in Rhode Island, there aren't a lot of houses and/or buildings. Instead, natural habitation occupies the space which makes me feel like I'm truly in a natural and serene place. Besides, the scenery, we watched some movies to fill in the 3 hour car ride to Dartmouth.


I awoke from a nice long and relaxing nap to the sunny and bright Dartmouth campus. 

The funny thing was that I didn't even notice that I was on the campus. It seemed like a small city with college students walking in it. My first impression about Dartmouth was envy because the campus was so beautiful and detailed. The ILC group met with the campus tour guide and I immediately became mesmerized by the main green (sort of the "front lawn" of Dartmouth).


Josten, our tour guide, was extremely informational and entertaining. She is a junior at Dartmouth pursuing a medical degree. Some neat facts I learned about Dartmouth are: 1) Dartmouth has a D-plan which is a plan for your academic life. You can choose the number of years you will be studying in Dartmouth, abroad, and in an internship. 2) Dartmouth has an a la carte system where you have money on your card and you have to pay for each meal. I personally believe that this is better than a buffet style since you can control your own food intake. It's hard to resist eating so much food in a buffet. 3) Dartmouth has 3 graduate schools, despite being named "college". Josten exclaimed that the "college" is put in there to emphasize Dartmouth's attitude towards the undergraduate: supportive and protective.


As I toured around Dartmouth, I began to become more and more in love with the campus and the scenery. The dorms and various buildings were stylish and looked inviting. The library impressive and seemed to be a great resource for students. Another interesting fact I learned is that students can live in fraternities meaning that people are grouped together in a house which creates a social network. I like the idea of building a social network because in the future, you can rely on this social network to achieve your goal.



After leaving Dartmouth, we decided to stop by the Connecticut and White Rivers. When I first saw the river, I didn't know the significance or the name of the river. After reading the sign for the river, I felt the severity of my mistake hit me back through embarrassment. I was blown away by the flawless sight of the rivers. The casual flow of the river-wave after wave-calmed everyone down. It was a nice break from our car ride.


After watching Avatar for 3 hours, we finally arrived back "home" in Brown with something more in our noggins-Dartmouth and its unique aspects which makes it one of the best schools in the nation. This campus tour definitely influenced me to take a broader view of colleges and what to expect from them. Until then, I'm signing off for now.



























1 comment:

  1. William,

    I'm looking at the weather report for Providence and it said it was 86 today and is supposed to be 93 tomorrow. And you say the weather today was Bay Area like weather?

    I was surprised to learn that you all drove to Hanover. I just assumed you'd be taking the train or something. The car had to be a lot cheaper, though, and maybe more comfortable.

    I don't want to sound critical, WIlliam, but you wrote about being embarrassed because you didn't know the significance of the two rivers you were seeing. Then you stopped writing about them without explaining to us what that significance is. We deserve a follow-up, don't you think?

    And that pay as you go food plan? When you're a small fry like yourself of course it would make sense but when you're a 270 pounder like me the meals could end up costing more than the tuition.

    I find it amusing, though, that after reading about the dining arrangements at Brown you're all pretty interested about the dining options at these other schools even before their academics.

    ReplyDelete