Hey all! My name is Kalina, and I'm a '27 from Sofia, Bulgaria. I'm interested in literature, the natural sciences, and foreign languages, so I'm considering majoring/minoring in CS, Environmental Studies, and Comparative Lit. I love writing and reading fantasy (i.e. I'm an expert on Middle Earth and Hogwarts studies). I also love hiking, bird-watching, and learning random words in Portuguese from my Brazilian friends. I'm so excited to share with you my Dartmouth journey!
Academic Program
Undecided
Favorite Thing Right Now
The 25 pictures of family/friends from home on the wall in my dorm
Welcome to the woods! I'm Kalina Duncheva, a '27 with too many interests to pick a major. I'm going to be one of your guides as you embark on your virtual journey across the pages of People Places Pines!
How am I so prepared to take you on an adventure through the New Hampshire woods, you ask. Well, I'm coming from the woods, albeit the Bulgarian woods and not the New English ones.
I grew up in a log home in a mountain village near Bulgaria's capital, Sofia. I used to ride the bus for an hour or so to Sofia every day, the city being the epicenter for everything in my life—school, friends, shopping, you name it. People often found my desire to live that far away from the city rather baffling. When I was seven, one kid was so shocked by the fact that you can live in the woods with no TV or internet connection that she asked me wide-eyed, "Kalina, do you really live in a cave?" I have no idea why she thought I was living in a cave, but I believe the place where I grew up explains loads of things about me—from why I chose Dartmouth to why I love the things I love.
The second thing you should know about me is that I love books. I love writing them, I love reading them, and I love talking about them (just so you know, I'm a Gryffindor and would love to live in the Shire). Maybe I developed my love for reading and writing simply because there wasn't much to do in my "cave in the woods" but read and write. Who knows?
All that said, you can trust that I'll be telling you loads of stories about the things that happen here in Hanover. I have to warn you, I won't be covering the flashy stuff; The Dartmouth (the oldest college newspaper in the country, by the way) does a much better job at that than me. The stories I'll be telling you will be about the little things—like that time when I accidentally put three spoons of butter into my soup instead of cheese (American butter looks just like Bulgarian cheese), or when I went on a hike with Flora and Fauna (subclub of the Dartmouth Outing Club) and saw ten deer and a blue mushroom!
So final words: I solemnly swear that I'll be on the watch out for good stories to tell you about my time at Dartmouth, so you can hopefully find your own place in the woods, too.
What do you do when you want to do too many things? Dartmouth offers so many clubs that I faced this question before my first week of classes had even ended. I tried to do everything. Don't try this at home. It was too much. (Try it at Dartmouth.)
Hello! I'm Cal, and I'm a '27—that is, a member of the class of 2027—at Dartmouth. I hope that you will get to know a bit more about me through this post!
As I settle into a new schedule of classes and extracurricular activities, I have taken inspiration from the many icebreakers that defined last week by compiling a list of my roses (void of any thorns) from my first week back at Dartmouth.
I'm Michal Tvrdoň, and I'm a future engineer and enthusiastic climate activist. I am from Slovakia, but I lived in Tanzania for two years as a UWCer. I am very active so my blog will be filled with a mix of sports, academics, and adventures.
