MIR ROR
MAY 3, 2013
WORKING WORLDWIDE // 2 SISTER ACT: BACK ON CAMPUS // 3
SHADES OF GREEN // 4 GET READY FORE A SWEET SURPRISE // 8
TTLG: DEFINING MY OWN DARTMOUTH // 6
TYLER BRADFORD // THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
2// MIRROR
Students extend their experiences abroad and outside the classroom to include internships with companies and government agencies.
EDITOR’S NOTE
At breakfast recently, a ’13 friend joked about signing on for another year at Dartmouth because she wasn’t ready to leave, especially in the midst of uninterrupted sunshine. Even though she was only kidding, she quickly shook her head and asserted that, when the time truly came, she would be ready to go. I found this to be a very powerful and profound sense of calm. Caught up in the minute decisions of daily life, like what I should get in my omelette or how much time I should spend studying, I can’t imagine being mentally ready for the life transition of leaving Dartmouth, anchoring my ship at a new port. I don’t even know how to sail. But maybe, in the same way we perfect procrastination and work best under last minute pressure, we will find ourselves most equipped to go out into the world when it’s simply something we have to do. For some, myself included, it may seem impossible to ever be ready for real life, but when the time comes we will go. And we will have the benefit of these moments, breakfasts on Collis porch with people we love, times that a friend went above and beyond to help us and days we were sad and someone told us it would be okay. This week’s Mirror explores many institutions unique to Dartmouth, from the Green to local sororities to one very special Upper Valley ice cream shop. These are some of the many things that make our school special, and just because we’ll leave the College doesn’t mean we’ll leave them behind. They’ll always be pieces of our peace of mind. Happy Friday!
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MIR ROR MIRROR EDITORS AMELIA ACOSTA TYLER BRADFORD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JENNY CHE PUBLISHER GARDINER KREGLOW EXECUTIVE EDITORS DIANA MING FELICIA SCHWARTZ GRAPHICS EDITOR ALLISON WANG
OVER HEARDS
WORKING WORLDWIDE
Courtesy of Victor Hollenberg
B Y LILY FAGIN
On a foreign study program or language study abroad, you attend classes with Dartmouth students, live with Dartmouth students and explore a foreign country with Dartmouth students. Despite that language pledge, sometimes studying abroad can feel a lot like studying in Hanover. Holding a job or internship abroad, on the other hand, demands more thorough immersion in another culture. Most immediately, language can present a significant challenge. For Olivia Evans ’14, working for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome was made all the more complex by the mix of nationalities in her office. “It was the most foreign you could possibly get,” Evans recalled. “On a daily basis, I would have to speak three languages.” Even one language can be quite a challenge. While working in Paris for AmCham, a nonprofit facilitating economic communication between businesses in France and the United States, Bailey Johnson ’14 focused on improving her French. “Speaking the language is definitely a huge barrier,” Johnson said. “Even if you think you’re almost fluent in the languages, there are all these phrases and colloquialisms that you don’t understand.” Even working in an English-speaking country, Victor Hollenberg ’14 had to adapt to cultural differences in London without a safety net of sympathetic peers. Hollenberg, who worked at the London office of AlphaSights, a global investment firm, said that norms governing business relations are completely different in different countries. “I think it was different in that there’s something to be said for being an outsider in an office, because you bring a different perspective that you might not even realize you have,” he said. “There were a lot of things they didn’t know about American culture, so being able to share that with them and clear up a lot of stereotypes about the United States was great.” Hollenberg had the benefit of a significant community of Dartmouth students during his work experience, as his time in London coincided with both the government and history department FSPs. “I knew almost everybody who I was spending time with, and that’s kind of the wild thing about it,” he said. “In most senses I never really left Hanover.” But what about when he left the comforts of his friends’ apartments? “In the workplace, it was kind of the opposite” he said. Unlike Hollenberg, Johnson and Evans did not
’16 Girl: The life of a reporter. I’m a slave to the D...oh wait that sounded really dirty.
Blitz overheards to mirror@thedartmouth.com
spend much time with Dartmouth students while abroad. Evans lived independently in a small apartment — 10-by-10 and 300 meters from the Coliseum, found on the Italian version of Craigslist — as any expatriate might. “When you’re living on your own, you definitely have to learn about the culture more and you have to explore more,” she said. “You get lonely, so you have to meet people.” Evans connected with Italians in Rome more than she did with French people while on an LSA+ in Toulouse last year, particularly as her Italian improved. “On the LSA you go to class, and when you’re in class you speak French, but the second you go outside, most students break that language pledge,” she said. Outside of Dartmouth programs, the basic need to communicate, as opposed to a language pledge, holds students accountable. Because she traveled by herself, Evans spoke in Italian wherever she went. One night, while sitting at a small trattoria on a seaside cliff, Evans pushed her table together with a friendly group of Italians. “I learned so much from them,” she said. Johnson agreed, adding that she connected to people she would never have met had she been on a Dartmouth program. “Studying abroad, I wouldn’t have been able to interact with as many older, working Parisians, even though I definitely would have interacted with younger Parisians,” she said. “I think this was really cool to be immersed in a real Parisian lifestyle.” In addition to fostering interactions with locals, working abroad can also allow for more flexibility with cultural immersion. Working this term in South Africa, first at the Kiptown Youth Program and then for Mixit, a popular local social media company, Kathleen Mahoney ’15, Julia Weber ’15 and Ryan Shelley ’15 have the benefit of determining how to spend their free time. “I have never studied abroad, but I would imagine that a main difference is that we are not with a large group of people, it’s only the three of us,” Mahoney said. “This gives us more freedom, I would imagine, to form our own schedule, around when we are working of course. Not having homework or tests or any of the other responsibilities of a student also allows for more freedom.“ This might seem fairly similar to off-terms spent interning or working in the U.S., but there is a
ANTI-FEMINISM ’13 Girl 1: I wish I were Calvin Harris. ’13 Girl 2: Why? ’13 Girl 1: Then I wouldn’t have to write term papers.
’14 Guy: Shower hookups combine my two greatest loves — I love hooking up and I love taking showers.
key difference: you’re living in another country. During a night of pub trivia, Hollenberg said his team was “completely obliterated” by competitors because they lacked a comprehensive knowledge of British culture. “That was, like, day three for me in London and that’s when I realized, contrary to popular belief, that Britain is a different country,” he said. “You’d think London would be a lot like the United States, but it’s actually very different.” In the office, these differences manifested themselves in little things, from how people interacted with coworkers to the daily break for afternoon tea. On Thanksgiving, Hollenberg took the day off to celebrate what he called “the most meaningful holiday of the year.” Missing out on Thanksgiving with his family and Homecoming made Hollenberg realize the kinds of sacrifices expats have to make. “You’ll absolutely have the chance to integrate yourself in the local culture, but you’ll always carry a little bit of where you’re from in you,” he said. “I definitely missed Hanover a lot when I was there, but the opportunity to do what I did was one that I couldn’t be more lucky to have had.” Mahoney said she sees profound differences in social relations in the workplace between the United States and South Africa. “I guess one obvious point that is visible everywhere, including the workplace, is the effect of apartheid, which ended only 19 years ago,” she said. “Segregation is everywhere, and formal businesses such as the one we are working with in Cape Town are mainly dominated by wealthy white people, while informal settlements with very poor black people are situated shockingly close to developed cities.” For Evans, the most Italian part of her workday was the laidback nature of her schedule. The Italian work ethic is not at all like the American one. “It’s really interesting when your boss is stepping into the 90th minute of your lunch break,” she said. “Then there’s coffee three times a day with your colleagues.” Evans will be working for the same organization in Washington, D.C., this summer. “I’m basically doing the exact same job just in the U.S., but I feel like it’s going to be a completely different culture because you’re here,” she said.
’14 Girl: No one Tinders anymore.
’14 Guy: Isn’t the APhi basement made out of some material that absorbs beer?
Chem Prof: This species is one of the most reactive in organic chemistry. It’s like if you haven’t been on a date in 6 months, you’re really reactive and aren’t very selective.
MIRROR //3
SISTER ACT: BACK ON CAMPUS
Three Dartmouth sororities have separated from their national affiliations, with a significant effect on the Greek system. BY MYREL ITURREY At first glance, they are indistinguishable from the other Greek houses that line Webster Avenue or speckle the far ends of Wheelock Street. The hints might be the manicured lawn or the colorful flower garden in the front yard, or a tidy living room on the first floor. And yet an outsider might still be caught off guard when he descends into the basement to find that it is filled with women, specifically the sisters of Sigma Delta, Epsilon Kappa Theta or Kappa Delta Epsilon. In 1976, the Dartmouth Greek system incorporated four new national sororities in a span of five years. Two initiated a bottom-up dissociation with their letters 10 years later, and a third was replaced by an entirely new group of women. Together, these three remaining organizations, informally known as Sigma Delt, EKT and KDE, represent Dartmouth’s only local sororities. By 1988, the Dartmouth chapter of the national Sigma Kappa sorority had grown disenchanted with the organization’s policies and philosophies, including “religion in rituals and an emphasis on men in National songs and overall attitudes,” according to the Sigma Delt website. A formal split prompted the newly enfranchised sisterhood to adopt a Delta in place of the Kappa, symbolizing change. “They really paved the way for femaledominated social spaces,” Panhellenic Council president Eliana Piper ’14 said of the first Sigma Delt pledge class. “National and local sororities today benefit from the groundwork they laid.” The sisters of Kappa Alpha Theta faced a similarly difficult decision in 1992. When they ultimately separated from their national affiliation, they strung their “colony’s” letters, Epsilon Kappa, with Theta as a tribute to their national roots. “The vote was not really whether to become a local, but whether to become a national, coming into compliance with the rules and expectations of the national we’d ignored for years,” one
TRENDING @ Dartmouth DERBY SUNBURNS
Awkward that you’re so pale that even the Hanover sun makes you red.
FINALS
Courtesy of Rauner Special Collections
No, certainly not ours, here at dear old Dartmouth where any test that isn’t a final is a midterm. But for many of our semestersystem peers, 2012-2013 is officially drawing to a close. Bring on the whiny Facebook statuses.
The College has hesitated to bring new sororities, local or national, to campus in recent years. sister argued. As charters were revoked and national bank accounts were frozen, these fledgling organizations began to design the constitutions they felt would best embody their ideals. They established new rituals, restructured officer election procedures and reworked pledge education to provide a framework that allowed their sisterhoods to flourish. Morgan Flatley ’96 recalled the formation of KDE’s inaugural pledge class, when the Panhellenic Council decided that the first 50 women to sign up via blitz would become the sisters of a new house set to replace Xi Kappa Chi, formerly known as Alpha Chi Omega. “We had everything from women who never would have joined a Greek
CECELIA SHAO // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
In their early years, local sororities relaxed the membership process in order to bolster the ranks of these new houses.
house through rush, to women whose mothers were devastated that they didn’t join the national chapter they had been a part of,” she wrote in a memoir. “There was no clear identity or personality to that first group of women, except that we were all extremely excited about the idea of creating our own space.” Indeed, local sororities are distinguished from their national counterparts because they are not beholden to the rules of a national body. Though this means less funding and a smaller network of sisters, it also endows them with the ability to serve alcohol and host parties that are open to campus. The privilege of having an influential social presence on campus is one that is otherwise reserved for Dartmouth’s male or coed fraternities. Twenty years ago, Flatley and her trail-blazing peers could have told us that the fight to give women their “own space” was long from over. Many of today’s local sorority members were drawn to their respective houses because they wanted to help cultivate these female-dominated environments. “The idea of a basement run by girls on campus seemed like a unique place that I really wanted to be a part of,” Emily Uniman ’15 said about her decision to join KDE. Uniman said the College should make an effort to incorporate more local sororities to increase the number of women in the highly congested Greek system and minimize the disparity between basements managed by men and by women. “As was clearly demonstrated by the Dimensions protests, there are spaces on campus where students don’t feel safe or respected,” Sigma Delt president Maya Schechter ’14 said. “A greater number of local sororities would provide a wider variety of places to socialize and might mean that more students find
a home on campus where they feel comfortable.” Last year, the Panhellenic Council and the administration tabled plans for a new sorority. The College has always had reservations about bringing new locals to campus, Piper said. “The College’s first priority is safety, so the hesitance toward bringing in more local sororities has to do with accountability,” Piper said. “There is a belief that having a national organization as an umbrella keeps a sorority more accountable and makes it less of a risk to the school.” Many have argued that more local sororities could help dismantle the gender hierarchies perpetuated by the current imbalance of the Greek system. Piper indicated that this dialogue has made the administration more open to the idea. “If we were going to incorporate a local sorority, we would first look at our preexisting community to see if a national wants to go local,” she said. Piper emphasized that a new local sorority would be best equipped to improve social dynamics if it had a strong sisterhood and campus presence from the get-go. Aside from vastly different institutional structures, the line between national and local sororities is often blurred on our campus. We have has a funny way of infusing its tradition, culture and spirit into each new organization to create an entity that is peculiarly Dartmouth. “You’ll often hear upperclassmen women in sororities say that they would never have been in a sorority at another school,” Seanie Civale ’14 said. “I think that speaks to the fact that sororities here, whether they be local or national, are different from the perceived national norm in a pretty special way.” Staff writer Iris Liu contributed reporting to this article.
YOU FORGOT THE BLUEBERRIES
As YouTube videos go, this is a pretty important gem that’s earned its place along such greats as Scarlet Takes a Tumble. Be patient — what seems like an instructional video made by children is really so much more.
BUCKET LISTS
Vespoli isn’t the only one with a nagging to-do list. Seniors everywhere, given a black and white day count to graduation at Daniel Webster dinners, are springing into action to finish those last minute must-dos.
NAPS ON THE GREEN
Bring a blanket, a snack, whatever you want. Just please don’t waste time pretending to get work done.
HIKES
4// MIRROR
SHADES OF
GREEN BY TROY PALMER
W
hen I scoured the Internet as a high school junior, lost in the wilderness of college decisions, my Googlepowered soul search came to a screeching halt when I arrived at the Dartmouth College Wikipedia page. Enthralled by the promise of First-Year Trips, the Dartmouth Outing Club and the Green, I began crafting my application. Naturally, as something of an outdoorsman myself, Dartmouth seemed like a mecca. I envisioned idyllic autumn days spent scaling Mount Moosilauke and traversing the Connecticut River, and, needless to say, the allure was enough that I found myself in Hanover this fall. While not all of my friends will corroborate my rugged exterior and naturalist tendencies, what is unanimously accepted is my inability to separate myself from sunlight during the spring months. For those of us who presumptively fancy ourselves a more refined brand of outdoorsmen, the Green becomes a staple for all tanning-related activities. It serves as the hub of social, gastronomical and academic
life. Coffee dates, Collis lunches and ill-fated study sessions are relocated to the most verdant patches of the Green while guitars and ukuleles emerge from the dormitories of the musically inclined. At the risk of sounding overconfident, I would characterize myself as an aficionado of the Green life. Even so, despite my frequent respites on the Green, rocking coral shorts, boat shoes and Ray-Bans while casually perpetuating stereotypes, I find myself shockingly ignorant of its history. Conflicting stories from friends and classmates left me doubting who really owned the Green. My uncer tainties were shor t-lived. Though many students insisted that the Green remains the property of Hanover, town manager, Julia Griffin set the record straight. “The town does not own the Green,” Griffin said. “It is College property.” Despite laying that first mystery to rest, my knowledge of the Green’s past remained incomplete. After a quick trip to the Rauner Special Collections Library, however, I was well on my way to becoming a history buff. According to a 1978 thesis by University of Virginia student Vanessa Patrick, the Green was originally a pine grove that sloped into a swamp in the
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BLAST FROM PAST //
southwest corner. Though the area wasn’t officially cleared and maintained until after the College’s founding in 1769, town proprietors incorporated it into plans for Hanover. They sought to unify the town around a central location to avoid the administrative problems they had faced in their other landholdings. My brief voyage through the storied past of Hanover was not without surprises. According to Patrick’s research, Eleazar Wheelock intended the College to be centered approximately a quarter mile northwest of its current location. But as he searched for an optimal location to begin construction of College Hall, the lack of underground springs in the area redirected his efforts to the southeast, closer to the current location of the Green. The history of the Green is interspersed with contention between Dartmouth and Hanover over ownership and legal rights. After a small conflict in 1775, nearly a century passed before the town made any further encroachments upon Dartmouth’s claim to the land. But in 1873, the town of Hanover seized part of the Green in an effort to widen the road along the southwest corner. In response, Dartmouth students burned down the fence cordoning off Hanover’s portion of the Green. The two parties reached an agreement when Hanover cited the town’s
earlier founding date to substantiate their claim to the land. Respecting the consensus between the College and the town, students rebuilt the fence and the Green was reduced to its current size. The students’ passionate defense of the Green, even early in the College’s history, belies its significance. Today, the Green still holds a vital role in campus culture. Jim Alberghini, the town manager of conferences, who oversees all events on the Green, said students and organizations are always eager to use the space. “People are very frequently coming to us with ideas,” Alberghini said. “But if we allowed everything to move forward, there
MIRROR //5
CECELIA SHAO // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
would end up being one or two formal events on the Green every day.” Nearly every event proposed must be reviewed and approved by the conferences and special events office. Alberghini also ensures that the Green is properly maintained for the annual events exempt from the review process. Commencement, the Homecoming bonfire, Powwow, Winter Carnival, Green Key and the town’s Fourth of July celebration all contribute to the deterioration of the grounds. The northern end of the Green is subsequently roped off and fertilized early in the spring. “The Commencement ceremony places particular demands on the northern half of
the Green, and we want to ensure that both ends of the Green are about equal in use and appearance afterward,” he said. Alberghini said his primary goal is to preserve the Green’s accessibility to students and members of the community. “It is intended to be kept open for informal use as much as possible,” Alberghini said. Dartmouth students are acutely aware of the significance of the Green. “I simply couldn’t imagine Dartmouth without the Green,” Evan Curhan ’14 said. Like many students, Curhan considers the Green integral to campus social life, especially when the weather is warm. “Whether they’re playing Frisbee or just
hanging out, everyone seems to congregate there,” Curhan said. The Green’s centrality catalyzes togetherness and fosters a greater sense of community amongst students. “When spring finally comes and everyone goes outside, at Dartmouth, everyone goes to the Green,” Curhan said. “At other schools, there isn’t as much cohesiveness.” Many recognize the importance of the Green in forming the public image of the College and its students. “The Green is an iconic part of Dartmouth,” Walker Sales ’16 said. In the same way that the Green aesthetically unites the campus, it also brings all mem-
bers of the Dartmouth community together in a common space. Its capacity to do so is of utmost importance when the strength of our community is called into question. Even if only symbolically, the Green reminds us of our shared experiences and common purposes. It would seem there is no other place our community is so fully manifest. You can always find me on the Green, logging as much facetime as humanly possible and donning my most ostentatious pairs of sunglasses and egregiously neon shorts. Stop by, listen to our classmates’ music drifting across the Green and think of those who walked here before you, and those who will do so in the years to come.
Photos Courtesy of Rauner Special Collections ALLISON WANG // THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
6// MIRROR
Through the Looking Glass
DEFINING MY OWN DARTMOUTH B Y JUN BUM SUN
Dartmouth is America for me. My entire American experience consists of my three years in Hanover, plus several minor excursions to other pockets of this giant countr y. I understand that an Ivy League institution with 4,000 high-achieving college kids is a rather misrepresentative sample. But ever y time I leave the Dartmouth bubble to find the “real America,” I am left more and more confused as to which image of America holds the truth. Portland, Ore., is nothing like Hanover, and in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills exists side by side with Koreatown. Soon I gave up the futile pursuit of one, true America. I decided to construct my own America, based on what I found here at Dartmouth. It didn’t take long for me to realize that there was no such thing as the “real Dartmouth” either. A Dartmouth Dining Ser vice employee’s life seemed to have little in common with that of a fraternity bro; computer science majors lock themselves up half-underground in Sudikoff Hall while studio art majors get inspired in the Black Family Visual Arts Center. And needless to say, a rape sur vivor’s Dartmouth is poles apart from a rapist’s Dartmouth. Ever yone has their own Dartmouth, and no Dartmouth is more “real” than others’. My Dartmouth is as unique as ever yone else’s, but in a quite unusual way. I am not particularly “social” here. The set of rituals required to be “social” seemed ver y strange and foreign to me. I am from South Korea, where a student’s job is, surprisingly, to study. Friday is just another day before Saturday and on Saturdays we have classes. I do not believe there is a Korean expression for “hanging out.” I found it bizarre that my friends here felt the sacred duty to be out on Friday nights. Fraternity culture did not strike me as beautiful, and I never found pong fun or a good way to consume alcohol. This is not to say that all Koreans are like me, but many of us who come to Dartmouth straight from Korean high schools, or the so-called “FOBs,” do feel this way. As a result, I hardly went out and stayed unaffiliated. I knew I was missing out. But I did not want to be what I was not in order
REBECCA SCHANTZ // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Jun said the discourse surrounding the Dimensions protests demonstrated an important example of democracy at work at Dartmouth. to be part of something that I did not really enjoy. On weekends, I jammed with my band, the Shas, went to movies and concerts at the Hop, chatted with a handful of my friends over a bottle of beer (literally, as I am a notorious lightweight) or Skyped my girlfriend in Korea. Naturally, I felt alienated from the Dartmouth social scene. For the first time in my life, I was an outsider. But an outsider also has the most time to observe, philosophize and criticize. The most fundamental question in my mind was: Why did I come all the way here for a college education? What was so great about Dartmouth and America that made
HUNTER VAN ADELSBERG// THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Jun has spent much of his time at Dartmouth in alternative social spaces, communicating with his girlfriend in Korea and performing with his band, the Shas.
me leave my family and friends back home? The most obvious answer was that the U.S. is the most powerful countr y in the world, and it was ver y reasonable for me to attend one of the most prestigious schools in the countr y. The English language is power, and so is the Dartmouth diploma. But why is the U.S. the most powerful countr y at all? If I were born in Korea 100 years ago, I would have applied to a university in Tokyo; 200 years ago, I would have gone to Beijing. Of course, my histor y classes have offered me many convincing explanations as to how the U.S. became so powerful. But militar y budgets, nuclear arsenals and a liberal-capitalist world order did not satisfy me. I wanted to be sure that I came to America not just because it possessed the greatest amount of wealth and capacity for mass destruction. I wanted to convince myself that I came to Dartmouth for something more than the diploma and a six-figure salar y. And, fortunately, I got the answer I wanted during my last term here at Dartmouth. The series of events that followed the protest against the Dimensions show, for me, proved the greatness of Dartmouth and America. One may think this ironic. Didn’t the protesters declare that “Dartmouth has a problem”? Didn’t the hateful comments on Bored at Baker reveal the ugliest side of Dartmouth? Of course Dartmouth has a problem. But what matters is how the community deals with a problem, or whether it deals with it at all. And Dartmouth has shown some admirable reactions to the problems it faces. People cared. People spoke, wrote, cried and tried. Hundreds voluntarily came to the speeches
and teach-ins last Wednesday to share their opinions. Students and faculties of all color, class, creed and culture gathered together to fix the community. The administration provided the environment in which discussions could take place. The newspapers reported, and people agreed and disagreed. In short, I saw American democracy at work. Witnessing all this, I came to understand how such a vast, diverse countr y like the U.S. can still be one countr y. I finally felt the existence of the “Dartmouth community” which I had thought was purely imaginar y. I realized how it was possible for an outsider like me to still feel part of the campus. It made sense how so many Korean immigrants, including some of my relatives, could find themselves at home in the States. If there was anything worth calling the “real Dartmouth” or the “real America,” it is a culture of self-criticism, awareness and progress that keeps things from falling apart. On the soil of careful thoughts and concerns, love seemed to blossom. As a Dartmouth student, I was proud. As a non-American, I was envious. The most amazing thing about Dartmouth for me is that I have emerged out of it a ver y different person than I used to be, although I hardly took an active part in it. To be honest, I came to Dartmouth a homophobe, a sexist and an ultra-nationalist. But three years of listening, obser ving and reflecting at Dartmouth set me free from such bigotr y. I don’t think I made much of an impact at Dartmouth, but surely Dartmouth has changed me a lot, hopefully for the better. To the voices of Dartmouth that kept me questioning myself — Vox Clamantis in Deserto — I am deeply grateful. This is my Dartmouth, and my America.
MIRROR //7
COLUMN
COLUMN
MODERATELY GOOD ADVICE
THE BUCKET LIST Sweating It Out
WITH
GARDNER DAVIS
BY
LAUREN VESPOLI
AND
KATE TAYLOR Dear Gardner and Kate, All my friends have been complaining about their theses for the last eight to nine months. Soon, they’ll all be done with them. I fear a good part of our friendships have become centered on my listening to them and intermittently shaking my head as they talk about their unresponsive advisors, ill-advised topics and how much work they have. What will we talk about now? — Sympathetic Sara ’13 Gardner: First, don’t get too far ahead of yourself. It’s crunch time for thesis writers, the time where the gap between people writing theses and happy people becomes the largest. They will surely need your benevolent headnodding and shoulder-patting in the next two weeks. After they finally reach the land of milk and honey that is senior spring without a thesis, any human interaction should be enough to get them excited about your friendship. If you’re really lacking conversation topics, I suggest the weather. Kate: Even if you’ve intently listened to discussion of land disputes between North Kenyan pastoralists for months, you need to stick it out to the finish. Ignoring a mass blitz to attend a thesis presentation will be viewed as a personal attack. It doesn’t matter if you are just now stumbling through Spanish 3, and the presentation is entirely in Arabic — you better be there, smiling in support at the appropriate pauses. Google translate a lay-up question for extra friendship credit. The presentation also offers a means of transitioning to postthesis life. Immediately sweep your friend off to Molly’s, Murphy’s or to take shots in the Novack bathroom. Then, refuse to allow your friend to discuss anything academic the rest of the term. You both have earned this. Dear Gardner and Kate, When is it appropriate to not wear sleeves? Is it acceptable to literally only wear tanks? — Senior Spring Sam ’13 Gardner: I’m a bit more conservative than the traditional “Sun’s out, guns out” rule of thumb. It seems necessary to wear sleeves to class, meetings with professors and dinner with your significant other’s parents. Kate: If you are wearing sleeves at any other time, grab the nearest scissors or shard of broken glass and cut them off immediately. Same goes for jeans. Dear Kate, I need help with room draw. I literally know nothing — where do sophomores even live? — Homeless Helga ’16
Kate: As a resident in South Fay my senior spring for reasons I can’t really explain outside of an Unbreakable Vow, I’d say sophomores dominate the Fayerweathers, Mass Row and Gold Coast. It’s tempting to approach your floormate who has the best housing number with a nervous, “So, I was thinking about housing...” However, you need to think about other factors. Rushing, pledge term, freshman floor separation anxiety and a tendency to take everything a little too seriously make sophomore fall uniquely dramatic and occasionally traumatic. Find your most relaxed friend and make an Excel document of rooms ranked by size and closeness to Collis and/or KAF. Half the sophomore class is off in the winter anyway, so even a one room double with a wifed up roommate in Topliff can be endured as a temporary setback.
word “flitz” as well. It seems like two words put together but which two? Flakey Ditz? Flannel Ritz? Flabbergasted Fritz? I don’t know why you’re writing us for advice, it seems that you have it all figured out during freshman spring with your clever Dartmouth-specific language!
Dear Gardner and Kate,
My fraternity currently has three dogs. Should we get a fourth?
How do I tell my DFMO (dance floor makeout) from last night who flitzed me this morning that I just want to be friends? — Indifferent Ira ’16 Gardner: First of all, thanks for clarifying what “DFMO” means via parenthetical statement. Kate and I were utterly clueless regarding your acronym. If only a similar parenthetical statement had explained this strange
Kate: Say, “I just want to be friends,” and don’t make out with him or her again. Or, you can make things really awkward by not responding and pretending not to recognize your DFMO buddy until you try to run it back sophomore summer. If that’s not obnoxious enough, reply with ambiguously flirtatious messages before cutting off communication midconversation. Then, complain to your single friends and advice columnists about how difficult it is to have people who want to make out with you. Dear Gardner,
— Canine-loving Charlie ’14 Gardner: If you only had two dogs, I would be opposed to a new dog. However, the possibilities of four dogs are endless. You could have a table going in the basement with only dogs. You could dress them as the Fantastic Four for Halloween. You could even make the best fraternity Green Key t-shirt of all time with the four dogs’ faces on Mt. Rushmore. Plus, everyone loves a new puppy.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES FALL COURSE
NATURE WRITERS ENVS 72 · 13F: 2A Terry Osborne
“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea,” goes an oft-cited quotation by Danish author Karen von Blixen-Finecke. If this is true, then maybe the reason hot yoga classes at Bikram Yoga Upper Valley in White River Junction have become a trend amongst seniors is because, by spending 90 minutes drenched in our own sweat, we are trying to cure ourselves of the reality that lies five short weeks away. Perhaps, in this humid room 15 minutes from campus, we are letting Dartmouth seep out of our pores, shedding this place like a skin. At 9 a.m. on a recent Sunday morning, I attempted to grasp my slick, sweaty ankle in order to bring my foot to my inner thigh in a tree pose. The room was filled with 34 women, college-age to grandmother, and a lone man. The combined body heat probably boosted the temperature of the room, which for Bikram is generally as high as 105 degrees. We obediently stretched our muscles into balancing stick pose, cobra pose and camel pose as our young instructor paced the room, giving gentle yet firm instructions. “Abandon all those excuses, the ‘I can’ts’,” she encouraged. “Focus on what you can do.” Bikram Yoga is a 26-posture sequence practiced in a hot room, selected and developed by Bikram Choudhury in the 1970s to work every part of the body. The “torture chamber” — his term for the hot room — allows for deeper stretching beyond your normal limits and flushes out your system through profuse sweating. Choudhury, born in Calcutta in 1946, began practicing yoga at the age of four and believes it cured a knee injury he sustained at 17 from a weightlifting accident. European doctors predicted he would never walk again. Starting with a small studio in the basement of a bank in Beverly Hills, Bikram became popular with celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Madonna and, naturally, spread to the Upper Valley. At Upper Valley Bikram, a beginner can pay $12 for the first class, or $20 for an intro package that gets you unlimited classes for 10 days. Experiencing the “torture chamber” early on a Sunday morning might not have been the wisest choice I have ever made. It was shocking I made it through the whole hour and a half. We finished the class relaxing in the Savasana, or “corpse pose,” laying on our backs, palms toward the ceiling, completely still save our breaths. The early morning and oppressive heat made me drowsy. The room was now dark, my eyes closed. Weak with hunger and dehydration, my mind wandered. I had yet to experience graduation anxiety until attending my Daniel Webster dinner — a free Hanover Inn dinner for seniors put on by the Office of Alumni Relations — where they so thoughtfully reminded us that we would become alumni in, 47 days. Forty-seven days until they could ask us for money. Since this dinner put a number on my remaining time at Dartmouth, I have begun to greet each day thinking in strict numerical terms about how much time I have left in Hanover. But this is a mistake. We can’t think only numerically. We can choose how we want our time to expand and contract: it can stretch, seemingly endless while we sit in a canoe on the Connecticut, or it can vanish in a beer-soaked blur of long nights and wasted days. The way we fill the hourglass is up to us. Then my thoughts stopped making any sort of sense. I imagined myself walking across a stage, in front of thousands. I’m wearing the black gown and the mortarboard, and I’m about to shake the hand of a person with former College President Jim Yong Kim’s face and Interim President Carol Folt’s hair. Conan O’Brien is standing at the podium, calling names. He winks at me. I come down off the stage and am greeted with hugs from my best friends Mindy Kaling ’01, Connie Britton ’89 and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ’88. We whoop and cheer, and everything fades to black.
8 // MIRROR
PROFILE
Get Ready Fore a Sweet Surprise Ice Cream Fore-U has been a frequent destination for students and locals alike for 15 years. BY LINDSAY KEARE LINDSAY KEARE// THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Popular Ice Cream Fore-U flavors include Deer Tracks, Maine Black Bear and Strawberry Cheesecake. If ever yone seems to be offcampus in the afternoon these days, there may be a simple reason: Ice Cream Fore-U is back open for the season. The uber-popular ice cream destination, inconspicuously located across the parking lot from Home Depot in West Lebanon, is one of the hidden gems of the Upper Valley. Fortunately, most Dartmouth students are in on the secret and flock to the stand in huge numbers, some going many times per week. For those who have yet to experience the wonder that is Ice Cream Fore-U, here are the basics: the shop is part of the larger Fore-U Golf Center, which opened in 1984 under Peter Johnson. The complex now consists of batting cages, a driving range and two mini-golf courses. Ice Cream Fore-U opened in 1998, when his daughters Meredith Johnson ’98 and Jennifer Johnson decided to tr y their hand at running an ice cream shop rather than lease the space out for a restaurant, which the site plans would have allowed them to do. “We had never had any experience, but it was a fun challenge,” Meredith Johnson said. With challenges can come rewards, and what a reward it has been. Dartmouth students were immediately attracted to the low prices, crazy flavors and variety of sundaes, splits, shakes and floats. Consequently, Ice Cream Fore-U became a fun and delicious way to take an excursion off campus. The array of options is impressive, and the cheapest ones are priced at only a little more than a dollar. Ice Cream Fore-U also offers drinks, hot dogs and other savor y munchies, though they’re not as
big a draw as the ice cream. I decided that in order to get the true experience, I had to order something fancier than a simple cone with cookies and cream, my general go-to. I shamelessly ordered a brownie sundae, which came with my choice of ice cream flavor (Snickers), topping (Oreos), whipped cream and a cherr y on top. It was delicious, as expected, and I was even more impressed by the size (gargantuan) and cheap price for such a size (normally five dollars, but I got it for $4.50 since Snickers was the flavor of the week). My fellow taste-testers were equally impressed with their choices: a thick cake batter shake and a vanilla flurr y with gummy bears. Fans of crazy flavors like Dinosaur Crunch and plain chocolate fans alike will be delighted by the array of options for them. “The Chocolate Lovers’ Chocolate is really good,” Rose Dicovitsky ’14 said. Though a car is crucial in getting to the site, students are undeterred by the 15-minute drive. “We come here even though there’s a gelato place in Hanover,” John Elliott ’14 said. And not just any gelato place, a place that’s been called “the best in America” by Forbes. Indeed, despite the presence of Morano Gelato on Main Street, there’s just something about Ice Cream Fore-U that keeps students coming back week after week, or day after day. Courtney Karol ’13 is one such multi-weekly visitor who, along with Julia Danford ’13, invented and completed the Ice Cream ForeU Seven-Day Challenge during her sophomore summer, making a
LINDSAY KEARE// THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
The ice cream shop is part of a complex consisting several sporting facilities, including two mini golf courses. pilgrimage to the ice cream mecca ever y day for a week. Each trip featured a daily theme that dictated her order, including Funky Flavor Friday, Soft Ser ve Saturday and Sundae Sunday. “The challenge is the ultimate ice cream aficionado’s experience,” Karol said. “It’s a celebration of Ice Cream Fore-U.” Unfor tunately for those who frequent Ice Cream Fore-U, the store is closed from the third week in October until the end of March. This withdrawal just makes loyal
customers all the more ecstatic when the store opens again in the spring. “I think people are excited to have soft ser ve after the winter when they’re getting ice cream from the grocer y store for the most par t,” Meredith Johnson said. “So it’s kind of a novelty item that makes you think of spring and warm weather.” Ice Cream Fore-U’s busiest months are, unsurprisingly, July and August, due in no small part to all the sophomores on campus.
The abundance of tables out in the sun makes Ice Cream ForeU an ideal place to come for any kind of weather and event. Throw in mini-golf and one can make an afternoon of it. If our warm weather continues, which is never a guarantee in temperamental Hanover, the stand is likely to see a steady stream of business throughout the summer. For veteran eaters, it’s the perfect place to tr y a new option, and if you’ve never been, ever y old favorite has a first time.