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.
In the spring, I almost missed one of the most heart-warming Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) traditions. It was late in May; the final exams were just a couple of days away, and everybody—okay, maybe it was mostly me—was feeling like they wanted to be done with the term and just go home. I think it was exactly this feeling of being done with everything that made me think I had no time for DOC meetings or end-of-the-year traditions. Thankfully, my close friend Astrid '27 talked me into taking a break from studying and walking with her across town to the last feed and meeting of the Flora and Fauna (FnF is a subclub of the DOC). (What's a feed? you ask. Here's a blog post to explain.)
As soon as I walked into the house and I saw all of my FnF friends, many of whom were seniors and graduating, I knew this was an event I didn't want to miss. There was fresh food prepared, and everyone was seated in the sofas or armchairs around the two small coffee tables, or even better—some were perched on the arms of the sofa like little cormorants.
"Should we start with the bequests?" Wyatt Cummings '24, one of the Flora and Fauna's co-founders and former chair of the club, asked once everyone had a plate of rice on their lap.
Full transparency here: English is my second language, and I didn't know back then what the word "bequest" meant, so I didn't know what was coming—and what I had been about to miss out on.
"Okay, who wants to start?" Wyatt prompted, and Jack Roney '22, who graduated at the end of the fall term, pulled out of his backpack a deer antler.
"Tristan," Jack said almost theatrically, "this is for you." He then explained the story behind the deer antler and why Tristan Wells '25 was the best person in FnF to have it.
That's how I realized what the bequest tradition was: the seniors gave out some cherished possessions to current FnF members, who will now look after these items until they graduate and then pass them on.
Duda Freitas '26 and Ethan Greenberg '26, the current FnF chairs, received from Wyatt (among other items) two maps of the Upper Valley that mark the bird and plant species that can be found in New Hampshire and Vermont. I was a bit jealous of their bequests, to be honest, but it turned out that I was about to receive some, too.
The scrunchie Farrar left me. I'll have to track down for the record the senior to whom it belonged before Farrar had it and then gave it to me.
Ada Marotzke '24 had chosen for me a moose shirt. On all of our trips to the Grant, I always complained about wanting to see a moose but never seeing any, so Ada thought I need a moose shirt. She also told me she was leaving me with the challenge to see TEN moose before I graduate.
The moose shirt Ada gave me.
Both Ada and I signed the shirt - I hope one day when I'm a senior, I'll be able to pass it on to another moose-lover and have their name underneath.
And finally, inspired by my People Places Pines blog, Wyatt gave me a nature guide, so I could learn about New Hampshire's nature and write more Flora and Fauna blog posts in the future.
The book Wyatt left me to inspire me for future FnF trips and more People Places Pines blog posts.
Signing my name under Wyatt's felt like Flora and Fauna history in the making.
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!
