Welcome to the woods! My name is Matt Catrambone and I'm super excited to be joining the People, Places, Pines team as a new blogger. As of now, I am majoring in biology and quantitative social science (QSS), but who knows where I will end up! I will be sharing my journey as I try out classes, activities and research opportunities in various departments. Outside of the classroom, I like to listen to music, hike, ski and explore the surrounding area with my friends. Nice to meet you all!
Hi everyone! I just finished week 4 which means that we are in the heat of midterm season at Dartmouth. To de-stress and take some "me" time, I've been relishing in the beauty of New England in the fall, whether it be by myself or with friends. Here's what I've been up to!
As you may have gleaned from my other blog posts, one of my favorite things to do here is running and hammocking in Pine Park. It has a few interconnected trails that run along the Connecticut River and beautiful fall foliage. To get there from my dorm, I have to do a "Woccom" which is a pretty famous term around here. It means, you've guessed it, a walk around Occom Pond that takes about 30 minutes. It's a great way to destress in between or after long study sessions, or a way to connect with a friend that you may not have seen in a while. Highly recommend it if you're ever visiting campus!
Doing a "woccom" with friends.
It's common here for student groups to host social events so that you can better get to know the club members and build mini "communities" across campus. Last Sunday I went apple picking with the club ski team at Riverview Farm which is about 20 minutes from campus. There's super easy access for clubs to transportation and funding, so taking these trips is usually free! I enjoyed meeting some older teammates and getting to know my fellow '26s. It's always great to leave campus once in a while and explore the Upper Valley. I still have many apples left if anyone wants some!
Went apple picking with ski club.
A fall blog post couldn't be complete without mentioning Gile. The fire tower on Gile Mountain is a very famous Dartmouth tradition and a popular photo-op on many students' Instagram feeds. And who could blame them? Especially at sunrise (a "sunrike") and sunset (a "sunsike"), it's a stunning way to get a 360-degree view of the fall foliage. A friend visited me this weekend, so we decided to drag ourselves out of bed and make it for sunrise in a Zipcar by 6:30 AM. It was totally worth it! The Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) runs sunrike and sunsike trips very often, so you have no excuse to not try it out.
Gile!
Taking advantage of Dartmouth in the fall doesn't mean you have to leave campus. Every day I try to do something for myself, whether that be doing homework on the Green with friends, painting pumpkins at the New England Harvest Dinner, or getting coffee and going for a long walk. Everything is super easy and accessible which is one of my favorite things about Dartmouth: it's all right in front of you.
Every Dartmouth student is required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. Here's my experience navigating the language requirement!
