I'm Kalina, a '27 from Sofia, Bulgaria. I love books (I love reading and writing them), and I particularly love fantasy (i.e., I'm an expert on Middle Earth and Hogwarts studies). I'm fascinated by the human brain and the real-world magic of science. I also love hiking, bird-watching, climbing, and em dashes.
Instead of taking a normal Writing 5 course, I decided to fulfill my first-year writing requirement by taking HUM 1. This course helped me strengthen my relationship to literature and writing. It changed the way in which I thought about classics, both books and movies (we saw Wall-E, by the way). And it also changed the way I thought about academic writing and literary criticism. A third of the course was made up of lectures by professors from different departments, while the other two thirds were discussions with a single professor and a small group of 15 students.
Intro to Neuroscience was the first course I was truly excited about. It wasn't an easy course; we had a weekly quiz of ten to thirteen questions covering the lectures from the past few days, but it was very interesting and also very funny (Professor Winter's humor is legendary). We learned about the human brain at the level of individual cells. We also studied it at the level of different systems, from the olfactory system to the parasympathetic nervous system. And last, we learned about cognition: learning, attention, language. We saw a real human brain with formaldehyde dripping from it. We saw a real sheep's brain. And a rat's brain. And we pocked each other with paper clips to determine the sensitivity of our touch receptors.
Journalism with Professor Alexis Jetter was an enjoyable class, sometimes challenging but very satisfying. We covered a lot of US history through the lens of the media, and we started every class with a discussion of the current news and events (thanks to these discussions, I feel like a real adult now—not so lost when the conversation turns toward politics). Several guest lecturers—from former students of Professor Jetter who're now journalists to a New York Times war correspondent—brought us real stories from the field. In the middle of the term, each of us had to find someone over 30 years old in the Upper Valley, spend a day with them, and write a profile.
SummerSofia, Bulgaria
I'm spending my first summer back home, helping my family care for my newborn sister. In my free time (changing diapers takes a lot of time!), I'm doing research for the cognitive neuroscience lab FINN Lab, preparing for my classes in the fall, and working on a new book.
People often ask me, "So how many Bulgarians are there on campus?"
Um, five?
And the reaction to this answer almost always is, "Oh, that's a lot. So do you have something like a Bulgarian Association?"
We don't have an association. We don't even have a common group chat, but neither of these things really feels like an issue to me.
It didn't stop us to get together and make Martenitsi (the red and white bracelets, see header image) for the first of March. Neither will it stop us when we'll be painting eggs and baking kozunak for Easter. Dinners at eight thirty with my Bulgarian friend, Nasko, at abandoned Foco (Dartmouth's dining hall) because Bulgarians dine very late and everyone else is already gone, are community enough for me. The occasional lunch with Mimi, who sought me out after her professor told her there was a Bulgarian freshman girl, is another proof I've got a friend watching my back. One day (soon, I promise) I will make us a group chat called "The Bulgarian Association." I'll also be the person seeking out new Bulgarians once Mimi graduates this year. But despite our lack of organized Bulgarian community, Dartmouth feels home enough to me.
International students often worry that they'll have a difficult time finding a community on campus, and while I can't speak for my friends, I have never felt out of place here. During international orientation week, I met a group of Brazilians with whom we're still close friends–I even carry the title an Adopted Brazilian. Throughout the year, on DOC trips or at club meetings, I met many other international students, but what I love about Dartmouth is that you don't really need to seek out the international students to find a community. So many people have unique experiences and interests, no matter whether they are from the US or abroad, that you never feel different or misunderstood. You're just one of many Dartmouth students.
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
