Best thing about dartmouth?

Leaving for Bowdoin.

Why did I come here again?

On the eve of my final exam for the fall term I ask myself why I chose to come here again.

If you're looking for humor, this is not the post to read.

I thought I could find something better than Bowdoin. I though I could find something more interesting, more hands on, something that would let me take part in something bigger than myself. I thought to make new friends and explore new subjects, to expand my horizons and all that other bullshit they tell you about when you first get to college. I thought it would be freshman year all over again. The freedom of freshman year combined with two years of college experience and a new social scene, what could be better?

I look back now and can definitively say that I could not have been more wrong. I have spent more time working, less time sleeping and socializing than I have at any other point in my college career or my life for that matter. I worked harder for shittier grades and less education. I "learned" about group dynamics; the only thing I learned is that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself because your roommate is likely out fratting.

Did become part of something bigger than myself? No. I became a slave to my work. I woke before 7 everyday and went to bed past 1 every night. I learned to live on 3-5 cups of coffee a day. I learned to give up any semblance of a social life. For a month I did nothing but eat and work. For what? To invent something that would help millions? thousands? hundreds? even one person? No. To make something that couldn't even melt one inch of snow? Yes.

For the record, a snow melting helmet is the dumbest fucking idea for a project ever.

I sincerely hate it here. I question why I even bother to try anymore. I actually devoted 100% of my time to my schoolwork; something I had never had to do before in my life, to see a return of this $!@%. Barely scraping a B-? I know I deserve better. I know I can do better. But faced with a situation such as this, what should I do?

Ask yourself, if you truly devoted yourself to something, only to see it fail; if you truly put all of your time and effort into something without any appreciable return, is it worth pursuing? If you give up everything you enjoy for two years in pursuit of a degree which may or may not get you a better job, is it worth it? Is it worth leaving your best friends behind for the bleakness of New Hampshire and the bullshit traditions of drinking keystone in a frat basement?

These are the questions I have wrestled with in the past several days.

I think something is wrong if the part of the day that I look forward to the most is going to sleep. I could understand feeling this way every now and again, but everyday? I am so rundown, I have no resistance left. I am left with my neutral emotive face but only for total lack of energy. The occasional text or chat with friends is literally the high point of my day. I just don't care anymore.

Someone get me out of here. I can't wait.

I made a mistake leaving Bowdoin. I made a mistake coming to Dartmouth. I pride myself in being able to handle anything that life throws at me but right now....

I

am

running

on

empty.

*insert bullshit inspirational phrase here*

I hate Dartmouth

Facing the mounting stress and work that come with the end of the term, I have decided that, I must eliminate all non-essential internet usage . This means I will be off the blog until at least Dec 5, at the earliest. If you need to contact me, I will still check email/text messages. I hate Dartmouth.

Triumphant Return to Bowdoin

After an arduous three and a half hour drive from Dartmouth, I finally arrived at Bowdoin.

In short, it was the best weekend I've had since last coming to Bowdoin.

Things I did this past weekend:

Raged too hard on Friday in X, which led to a tactical chunder, but I felt great the next day.

Made potato rosti with Vivaan

Watched Bowdoin Women's volleyball crush colby and trinity on their way to winning the NESCAC championship. Go bears.

Chilled in E while watching football and snl.

Went to Shere Punjab aka the Poon. Great meal, as always.

Dartmouth is no Bowdoin, that's for sure, and I'm already counting down the days until I get back. I miss everyone already.

-BHL

Best Parts of Homecoming Weekend

1. Seeing two drunk kids arrested for touching the fire. Every year they have a huge bonfire on the Green and the freshman run around it. The upperclassmen surround them in turn in a big mob and encourage them to touch the fire. It is definitely illegal and definitely funny.

2. Seeing oldddd alums getting blackout and playing pong in frat basements. Not like 20's or 30's, but alums who graduated in 1971....Hilarious

3. Working on my ENGS 21 project for most of the day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday....jk this part sucked

-BHL

fraats

new goal. try to dance with two cutr asian girls each weekend.

-BHL

Looking Back...

I love the smell of fall in the air...however...

It's been a pain in the ass week so far...let me explain.

For me ENGS 21 class, we have find a problem, figure out a solution (that's a device), and make it. This sounds fun, but in reality the class turns into the biggest time sink ever. In the words of Heorot brother, ENGS 21 "is like pledge term for engineers". Anyways, my group had a 10 pg paper (due Monday at noon) and a proposal (Wednesday during class). This is why I could not come visit Bowdoin this weekend. UGH.

This meant that Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday evenings were all spent either writing/editing the paper or working on the presentation powerpoint. On top of this, I had 2 lab writeups, a problem set and a SOLIDWORKS (3d design program) design all due Friday.

So my week was quite busy. "But Ben," you say to yourself, "Surely the pace of this madness that is Dartmouth academics will slow down. You have earned a respite, have you not?"

You would be wrong. I have an ENGS 33 midterm this Wednesday (Oct19th), another midterm the Tuesday (Oct 26th) after that, and another ENGS 21 progress report and presentation two days later (Oct 28th).

C'est la vie at Dartmouth.

On to more interesting happenings...

In the world of pledging, my roommate continues his journey to becoming a brother at Chi Heorot. Part of his pledging involves him wearing the same Heorot t-shirt every single day until they tell him to take it off....it's over a week so far and still counting. He also must attend "meetings" every Wednesday at the frat house. These meetings have a five drink minimum. The latest meeting was presided over by someone who was simultaneously playing Edward Forty hands. They also make the pledges clean up the groadie basement. Ah, the lengths one will go to for social acceptance....

As for my weekend, I went to Fuel on Friday (a Bowdoin pub equivalent I guess), where the woman checking ID's looked at mine, gave it back and gave me an over-21-you-can-drink-here-and-we-won't-look-at-you-funny-wristband. I drank 5 beers fo' free (good beers too, some sort of IPA, not that horrid excuse for a beer they call keystone). I also listened to some decent Indie Rock band (can't recall the name right now), not a bad Friday night.

That's my week in review...stay thirsty my friends.

More to come.

-BHL

Rushing

My roommate decided to rush Chi Heorot this weekend.

Marcus also decided to rush Chi Heorot this weekend.

When the brothers came to give Ari his bid, he had to chug an Old English on the spot. He also had to get a carrot for some reason today....

I'll keep you updated on the hijinks of pledging.

More to come.

-BHL

A haiku about rain

Rain rain go away

Come again some other day

Yes, it's a haiku.

It's rained the entire weekend...ugh

Things I don't understand about dartmouth...so far

1. Feathers in girls' hair as a fashion statement.

2. "A Bathing Ape" t-shirts

3. Sperry's....so many sperry's.....

4. No to-go cups for coffee/tea in FOCO- a criminal offense

5. Walking behind two '15's yesterday. Overheard this snippet of their convo.

-Kid 1: Yea I don't understand

-Kid 2: Me neither, I didn't even know "modernity" was a word....

Yes, this conversation occurred at an IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL! WTF!?!

More to come.

A Recap of Last Night

Last night was the first night I really "went out" at Dartmouth. What follows is as complete of an account as I can recall written in a stream of consciousness. Enjoy.

7:45-I head to dinner at FOCO (short for Food Court, the old nickname of the dining hall. It used to be called Thayer Dining Hall. It's now called The Class of 1953 Commons, but if you call it that you'll be a social pariah) in violation of the Holy Burnett Commandment of Eating-Dinner-at-Five with my friend Ryan, an ex-marine who just got out (he's 24). We eat and recap our weeks in the somewhat awkward manner of people who have only known each other for a couple of days. We polish off some coffee saying, "We're gunna need the energy."

8:30PM- We head to Ryan's room where he mixes some Rum and Coke's for us before we head to my room to continue pregaming while playing Black Ops.

9:00PM- We realize that the season 4 premiere of Fringe is on NOW. We change the TV over to Fringe while I frantically try to explain the premise to my roommate, Ari. Delos, the '14 in the room next to mine swings by and has no idea wtf the show is about and I just stop trying to explain. Ryan's lady friend Jackie (some hot asian '15) stops by for some reason before leaving after making some awkward conversation with us. Pretty sure Ryan and her hooked up that night, but no confirmation.

9:30~10PM-Ryan, Ari, and I crush more Rum and Coke, and some beers before Fringe ends. Ryan heads out (to meet up with Jackie?) while Delos, Ari, and I head to a frat. Upon reaching the door at end of the hallway, we realize it's pouring rain outside. Fuck.

10PM~10:05PM-We head to Phi Delta Alpha, "Phi Delt". The basement floor is covered in what I can only call grime and filth; a layer of sweat, beer, dirt, spit, and other unmentionables. It houses a bar with a lively game of dice going on and three pong tables. We ask for the line on the tables and the brothers flash four fingers. We would be fourth in line? Fuck that. We leave to get some 'tails at another frat (Delos assures us of this). The name eludes me at the moment...

10:05~10:10PM-We head to the frat right next door and go up to the second floor, following Delos' lead. We enter a dorm room filled with random asian guys and a mysterious red mixed drink on the table in a pitcher. Delos hands us cups and we proceed to chug. I realize only after drinking some that we lost Ari in the crowd. I head downstairs to the basement and run into Ari coming up the stairs. Apparently the line is super long here too. Ari and I agree that we need to find some beer fast. I crush my red-drink and we head back to Phi Delt.

10:10~10:11PM-It's still pouring outside....fuck.

10:11~??? This is where the narrative becomes a little hazy. After arriving at Phi Delt, the following things occurred, not necessarily in the forthcoming order. To the best of my recollection here's what happened.

1. Ari and I proceed to learn dice. It's kind of like indian poker-I shake 5 dice in a cup, and without looking I call my hand. I say "Two three's". The person to my left can call my bluff by dramatically lifting the cup off the dice to reveal what's there. If it's anything higher or the same as what I called, they have to drink a 12-ounce clear plastic cup of keystone or the 'Batch'. If it's lower , then I have to drink. If it doesn't make sense, it doesn't matter-they'll tell you if you need to drink. The person to my left can also play it safe and only peak at the dice if they think I'm not lying. They then pass the dice on and make a call of their own. This goes on for quite a while.

2. Ari leaves with some indian girl. I don't see him for the rest of he night.

3. I leave to use the bathroom. Clearly, someone did not know how to aim.

4. Coming back, I spit in a trashcan. I was accosted by a brother who shakes me by the shoulders. "What the fuck dude", he yells. "You spit in the 'Batch'". "You have to drink all of this!"

....

I'm clearly not drinking all of it. It's a huge fucking trashcan of their homemade concoction. I spit in the trashcan out of politeness (didn't want to add to the grime on the floor) and this is what I get. Despite my profuse apologies, he threatens me further with dumping it all on me. Luckily some girl comes over and calms him down and I take the chance to escape...and play more dice.

5. At some point I finally get on the pong table with a brother from Alpha Chi who I met through Ryan. We lose by about six cups, but at this point I was beyond saving.

6. Somehow I stumble home, manage to take of none of clothes and pass out in my bed.

7. Ryan comes to room and finds me passed the fuck out sleeping the wrong direction in my bed fully clothed and decides that there's something wrong here. He gets me some water and tells me I've got shit on my clothes and I gotta change. Somehow I manage this and pass the fuck out facing the right direction in my bed. This part I have gleaned from a conversation I had with Ryan this afternoon.

In conclusion, I went too hard. I did not have my Burnett tolerance and paid for it in the morning with a ferocious hangover. I was woken up by concert techies blasting "Party Rock Anthem" in a soundcheck for the concert. And that's that. You stay classy Dartmouth.

More to come soon.

another thing...

First beer at Dartmouth wasn't a Keystone Light; it was a Blue moon. Yay for breaking some stereotypes!

Differences

After wandering around Dartmouth for almost a week, I've started to notice some differences. Before I launch into them, some updates on my life so far.

1. Fuck orientation. There is little to no support for transfer/exchange students, and even less of one for 3-2 Engineering students.

2. My roommate seems like a cool guy.

3. The main dining hall here, "Foco" (short for Food Court) recently underwent major renovations and now offers an all you can eat meal plan (same as Bowdoin), which I am quite happy about.

4. The first night here I felt like the scene from Animal House where Flounder is shoved in a closet with total randos. Yea my dorm is entirely transfer and exchange students.

5. Speaking of Animal House, I've seen the frat it's based on, Alpha Delta. They pee on the walls downstairs. Go figure.

Below is a handy comparison chart of differences I've noticed so far between Dartmouth and Bowdoin.

Dartmouth---Bowdoin

"green"----"quad"

"Frats/Sororities"---social houses

'15,'14,'13,'12----freshman,sophomore,junior,senior

Preppier---Not as Preppy

"Pong"----Beirut

Flip Cup---Flip Cup

More Cute Girls----More cute blonde girls

Emphasis on "traditions"----????

Keggy the Keg----Polar Bears

Green----Black/White

More to come.

Last day in Maryland (haiku)

I will miss my dog.

Wishing to travel far north

I wait anxiously.