Jenny Chen

The only real trip I went on was to Sandy Point Beach for a day with my family. Besides sunbathing and watching my new-fangled guilty pleasure (Love Island), I started a book by Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace. I bought it last term after her public talk and did not have the time to open it until I got home for break. I’m still working on it – it’s a fascinating novel based on a true story, but rather different from The Handmaid’s Tale.

Missing Collis smoothies had me making my own smoothies at home! Collis smoothies are one of my favorite Dartmouth Dining Service (DDS) snacks/drinks because you can personalize them and select from different fruits, juices, milk, and even protein or chia additions. This summer, the Hop dining hall is closed but luckily, Collis is still open. During the summer, usually, one or the other does not open just because there are not that many students on-campus.

I also read Educated by Tara Westover, a recommendation from my older sister. I couldn’t believe how captivating and intense a lot of stories from her life were and I ended up finishing the book in a few hours. I was reminded of how lucky I am to have received an education from a young age, and especially continuing to do so here at Dartmouth.

With all of the study rooms already booked in Baker-Berry library, my friend and I turned to the less popular Haldeman and Kemeny buildings to find a space where we could study together. Since those buildings are used by the math department, and neither one of us has taken a math class at Dartmouth, we spent a bit of time exploring around as we opened study room after study room, only to find them already occupied. We were quite ready to give up when we stumbled into this huge lecture room – an empty one, too. There was so much blackboard space to write our chemical equations and synthesis maps on with clean white chalk, it made studying bearable.  

Before heading to the aforementioned study session, we walked by Novack, where the Dartmouth Tae Kwon Do team was selling Thai bubble tea! Even though they ran out of bubbles, I still bought a drink because I had never had Thai tea before and was curious to see how it tasted. It was quite delicious! If you're ever craving a sweet treat or snack, there are usually student organizations selling goods, either for charity fundraisers or to go towards maintaining their club. 

With just a few hours before our final project for GOVT 19 was due, my group was still confused about how to calculate the standard errors for a certain term in our model, given that we had not learned it in class. Having already emailed our professor and awaiting his response, one of my group members suggested that we talk to the Quantitative Social Science (QSS) librarians, who can be found in the first floor of Berry Library. I had not even known that there were librarians that we could consult about issues we were having with our code. It’s definitely nice to realize how many resources there are when you need some help.