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 equally fascinated by the human brain and storytelling, and I often think about the importance of stories when trying to understand the human mind. I also love hiking, bird-watching, climbing, and em dashes.
This week the Flora and Fauna (FnF) club (a sub club of the Dartmouth Outing Club, DOC) organized a charming indoors trip to the Book Art Center in the basement of Baker Library.
You might think that it's difficult for a club like Flora and Fauna to stay active during winter. After all, all the flora, fauna and fungi are hiding from the snow, aren't they? Well... this is not completely true. Flora and Fauna leaders can take trippees (students who sign up for DOC trips) on snow tracks ID trips and tree ID trips–but we have indeed found each other doing a lot of indoor trips.
My friend Duda leads a trip to the Rauner Library every Thursday, where she and her trippees turn the page of a really big and really expensive bird book and to see what this week's bird is. Farrar, another FnF leader whom you can see below, on the other hand, organized another indoors trip. They took us to the Book Arts Center, where we printed a very special Flora and Fauna poster designed by no other than Farrar. (Farrar has even taken classes on book printing!)
Flora And Fauna & Fungi & Fun Rocks and Friends, designed by Farrar, ready for printing.
Farrar printing the first poster!
The Book Arts Center is a really fun place to go to if you want to decorate your room. You can come up with any quote or message in any font (and almost any language) that you want to, and then you can print in on a pristine sheet of paper and take it to your room to hang it on the wall.
I visited the Book Arts Center for the first time in the fall (you can read about my visit here). Back then, I learned how to set the type and prepare my little quote for printing. This week, Farrar had already prepared everything for us, so we only had to print the Flora and Fauna Poster. Only? What am I saying?! We didn't just print the legendary FnF poster–we also decorated it with many stamps.
Ready for decorating
Our trip to the Book Arts Center was a breath of fresh, inky-scented air (I love the smell of ink) in a week that began to smell more and more like finals.
Welcome back to Open Doors—your inside look at life in the Woods! This week, Isabelle Sullivan '26, an environmental studies and geography major, showed me around her room, where we discussed Dartmouth residence halls, classes, and campus life.
There was never a single "aha!" moment of clarity when I knew that Dartmouth was right for me, yet now, it is impossible for me to imagine having chosen anywhere else.
Green Key weekend at Dartmouth was filled with concerts, free food, live music, reunions, and spontaneous moments with friends. Read on to hear why this weekend reminded me what makes spring term at Dartmouth feel so special.
Amid the whirlwind of a ten-week term, the quietest moments — studying in the sun, cooking with a friend, running through Pine Park — turn out to be the ones worth savoring most.
