Hi everyone! I'm Tess, and I live 30 minutes outside of London. I love everything Dartmouth, including the sunsets, the traditions, the classes, and the merch. I'm super excited to experience everything I read about in this blog over the next four years. Come along with me as I explore the ins and outs of life in the woods.
A course that definitely surprised me, I did not know what to expect and had very little philosophical knowledge before taking this course. It was a mixture of current and past readings, with the final project to make a group video, testing my technological ability. Professor Bumpus was amazing, and I got to know her more when I took her to breakfast at Pine through the Take Your Professor to Lunch Program.
I was recommended to take a history course, specifically a history course with Professor Lu, and it has not disappointed! This course is cross listed with Asian Studies, my major, but it has made me consider a history minor... We start every class off with a song relating to the topic of that class, and then we move on to discussion based activities.
So far, the Dartmouth classes I have taken have been all based around discussion and essay writing. As an Asian Studies and Government major, I expected that the rest of my time at Dartmouth would follow a similar pattern, but in fact a pre-requisite for the Government major is a Political Analysis class. This class involves coding, analyzing survey samples, and other quantitative methods. The professor is amazing—a friend and I got to know him better by taking him out to breakfast at Pine through the 'Take Your Professor to Lunch' program. The final group project involves making projections for the 2024 elections using past data. Although, obviously, this election already happened, some of our predictions were more accurate than the polls! It is super interesting to take a class that I can see the themes in real world news outlets.
The Organic Farm, also called the O-Farm, is a favorite spot for Dartmouth students. With its first harvest in 1996, the O-Farm has a working garden, where faculty and students can work together to conduct research, independent projects can be carried out, and the Dartmouth community can gather. Fun fact: each year, the farm grows more than 4000 pounds of organic produce! Whether it be the annual Harvest Festival—'Harfest'—a farm work day, or a First Year Trips destination, we make frequent visits to our farm. As part of the Green Key festivities, O-Farm hosted BrewHaha.
My original plan was to paddle the 2.5 miles to the O-Farm along the Connecticut River with Ledyard Canoe Club—a perfect way to start my Saturday morning. However, due to high risk of rain, the plan was abandoned. Fortunately, shuttles were running frequently from outside the library—a less strenuous, but more convenient method of transport! So, we piled into the school bus for the ten-minute drive to the farm.
Mac's Maple cotton candy!
We arrive at the farm, and the party is already in full swing. Our first stop: t-shirt printing (I snagged the last shirt). We helped ourselves to some apple cider donuts, Mac's Maple cotton candy (read this blog to understand how much I love Mac's Maple), and some King Arthur's almond cloud cookies—literally the best things I have ever tasted. Keeping with the organic theme, the options for prints were a stick of butter, cheese, carrots, eggs, mushrooms, and, my ultimate choice, some fish.
Choosing my fish print
Having made our t-shirts, we proceeded to reward ourselves with some freshly popped popcorn and then headed down to the riverside. Although we are very much 'in the woods,' the O-Farm is a perfect opportunity to get away from the busyness of campus, get some fresh air and reconnect with nature.
After some relaxing, it was time to make pizzas! From bell peppers to pesto to mozzarella, they had all the toppings needed. The O-Farm conveniently has their own woodfire oven, making the pizzas the perfect level of crispiness. To top it off, there was an ice cream truck from a local shop. I got 'The Experience'—berry ice cream mixed with brownie chunks, in a cone of course.
MUNCHHH
While enjoying our ice cream, we sat and listened to a student band play various covers, which were all amazing. After chatting for a while, it was time to head back to campus to enjoy the rest of Green Key.
Live music!
Having gotten to the end, I realize that this was more of a food tour of the O-Farm. Anyway, I love BrewHaha, and can't wait to go back to the O-Farm for food, vibes and music.
After a long winter term where everything was overlaid in snow and serenity, the weekly Norwich farmer's market is finally back—and I could not be more excited.
When I look back on my time at Dartmouth, and it is hard to believe I will be graduating in just two weeks, I know that Africa Week will always stand out as one of the moments when this campus felt most alive, most joyful, and most like home.
It's my first spring ever (!!!) and I have been blown away by the beautiful scenery that continues to bloom right in front of my eyes. Here are some of my favorite scenes from campus in spring!
