Hamilton College Admission Journals: Amanda Pooler

Class and Charter Day

Sat, 10 May 2008 16:06:04 GMT

Class and Charter Day is the last day of classes every year, and it includes several different events. Historically, it was begun in 1950 as a day of festivities and awards. That tradition has continued, and each year there is a big awards ceremony. Three of my roommates received big awards this year. Erin and Liz each received an award for excellence in art, and Katie received awards for comparative literature, music and Phi Beta Kappa (we're very proud). Faculty members also receive awards at the ceremony, and Austin Briggs gave an excellent speech about his fifty years at the college and the future of the College.

Class and Charter Day is also the date for Hamilton's triathlon, HamTrek. A few of my friends participated this year, and luckily the rain held off. Students, faculty and visitors all participate. Some people are ambitious enough to do all three parts of the triathlon, and some teams break it up into parts.

If you ask any student on campus what Class and Charter Day is about, they will probably answer with a slew of stories about past years. Perhaps the most concise answer to the question is "partying." My roommates and I woke up about 9 a.m. and made chocolate chip pancakes in our kitchen. Erin's parents had brought a few bottles of champagne for the senior art show, so we made Mimosas. At 11 a.m. we walked over to Carnegie to hang out with the boys in their quad for an hour.

Apparently, Jack and Quinn had gone to math class from 10-11 a.m. During class they had an exam review and went over potential questions for the test. At the end of class, Quinn raised his hand and said, "I just have one more question... Why is it so hot in here?" Jack took his cue and stripped off his clothes to reveal a Speedo. He then did a little dance before walking straight out of class and to his dorm. Quinn had to collect Jack's clothes and books to bring back to the room. Incidentally, Jack did say it was embarrassing walking outside in a Speedo. This sort of thing could only happen on Class and Charter Day — because it is the last day of class and because everyone is automatically in a sparklingly happy mood. Quinn said the math professor just laughed and shook his head at Jack's striptease.

At noon we attended the awards ceremony and then the campus-wide picnic on Dunham Green. After the picnic, we migrated to G-road, a group of college-owned apartments located near campus on Griffin Road. Upperclassmen live there, and each Class and Charter Day there is a big party on the lawn. Think Woodstock. The Head Band played shirtless. There was a slip n’ slide set up on the hill. Solo cups and water bottles littered the grass. People were splayed out on the lawn, sunbathing and catching up with friends. For underclassmen, Class and Charter Day is the last day to hang out with friends before exams and then summer. For seniors, it is one of the last days to see their underclassmen friends.

We stayed at G-road until about 5:30 p.m. The evening was spent leisurely, the whole campus recovering from too much fun.

The Last Week of Classes

Sat, 10 May 2008 15:26:28 GMT

The last week of classes passed in the usual end-of-the-year mode of wrapping up. In Jane Austen, we finished presentations. In French, we listened to French music performed on Bastille Day at the Eiffel Tower. In drawing, we worked on our portfolios. Creative Nonfiction was spent on individual meetings about our portfolios. In each class, we discussed the final exam (or portfolio) and what was expected.

The week passed very, very quickly, partly because there were so many events. On Tuesday I attended a dinner for Phi Sigma Iota, a national foreign language honor society to which Hamilton belongs. It was a nice dinner, and there were several hundred students inducted into the society for studies in every language from Greek to Japanese to Hindi.

Afterwards, I ran over to the pub for the last school-wide trivia night of the year. For the past few weeks I have been getting increasingly competitive about trivia night, largely because my team has never won. As a result, I have been "studying" a bit-— no I did not read encyclopedias. Instead, I watched the news and went to CNN.com a few times. Every week, there are multiple questions about current events, so I wanted to be on top of my game. For instance, this week there were questions about Myanmar and Stephen Colbert, both of which I'd read about online. Becoming more engaged in current events is definitely trivia's best consequence for Hamilton students.

However, despite my studying, we have not been winning trivia;: we have almost won a few times. We have smashed our friends in the standings lately, a victory made sweeter by the participation of a professor on one of their teams. This week's trivia was particularly frustrating because we never fully missed a question. There were several questions with two parts, and each time we got one of the two parts. For example, when asked which two sports have been cut from the Olympics this year, we answered baseball and rhythmic gymnastics. The answer was baseball and softball. In the end, not winning trivia was not too terrible because we were the third place team for the month of April. There is a special senior week trivia night next week to look forward to.

On Thursday, there was an acoustic coffee house — Colin Hay. I'd heard his music before on the Garden State soundtrack, so it was nice to hear him live. The concert was really good — though I skipped out a bit early to watch Grey's Anatomy. Thursday night there were the two rival student bands on campus, Applewagon and The Head Band, playing in the Annex and in the pub. My friends and I went to hear both bands and danced, though it was not a crazy evening; everyone on campus was resting up for Class and Charter Day.

Café Opus

Tue, 06 May 2008 18:20:26 GMT

Last night, my roommate lamented to me, "Oh no… I won't be on campus Thursday. I'm going to miss the last Mango-Brie Panini!"

Reader, you may not believe it, but this is a true travesty. My roommates and I have met at Café Opus for lunch every single time they have served Mango-Brie Paninis this year. I offered to save a panini for Erin in the fridge — and she almost accepted. Though a cold, hard Brie sandwich has nothing on the toasty deliciousness of a fresh panini at Opus.

Café Opus is located on the first floor of the Dark Side arts complex. It's a big, open room filled with plush armchairs, comfy couches and a few tables and chairs. When you have reading to do, there is no better place to go.

The Café itself is by far the tastiest place on campus. Though Opus is not part of the meal plan, the prices are very reasonable and they accept all-campus cash as payment. Opus is famed for their cookies (Oatmeal Raisin, Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter), which are giant, cheap and frequently hot out of the oven. The muffins are also delicious and they offer fruit and candy as well.

The best time to be at Opus is lunchtime. Monday through Friday, they serve a different vegetarian meal for $3.50. Mango-Brie Panini day is by far the most popular. They also serve Spinach and Ricotta Calzones, Onion Quiche, Quesadillas, Falafel Pitas, Mediterranean Platters, Apple-Cheddar Paninis and wraps.

Several professors frequently eat lunch at Café Opus as well. It's a good place to have lunch meetings or conferences with both students and professors. Opus is staffed by Hamilton students, so the music is always young and fun. It's a fairly coveted job on campus.

Since the Science Center opened, we have a new Opus on campus — Opus 2, or O-2 to most (get it? O-2? A science joke... yeesh). It has a different feel compared to the first Opus — the room is much more sleek, and there are many more small tables to work on.

Though I still prefer the original Opus for most of my work, O-2 is a great alternative to the library in terms of study spaces. Now that finals are nearing, every study space on campus is filling up. It's nice to go to one of the more informal spaces to study. Later today, you can find me at Café Opus reading for French and drinking ginger-peach iced tea.

Thesis Season

Thu, 01 May 2008 03:12:24 GMT

As an English major, I am blessed with not having to do a thesis. Some English majors are invited to pursue an honors thesis in English, but I decided not to write one. That's probably one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.

For the past few months, my friends have talked increasingly about their theses. Murph is writing a psych thesis on how freshman adjust when they go away to college. Jack is writing about the YouTube phenomenon for government. Dan is writing about some crazy compounds found in insect development (it's for biochemistry, don't ask me).

Although I do not have a thesis of my own, I've been thoroughly immersed in the thesis season. Erin, my roommate, spent the past month manically finishing her sculptures for the senior art show. The week before the show, I spent several hours in the middle of the night gluing leaves onto burlap. Erin, our aspiring artist, was making replicas of leaf forts she built as a child. She dipped thousands of individual leaves into hot bees wax to preserve them. She then built wooden frames for the forts and covered them with burlap. The final process? Getting as many friends as possible to glue the leaves in place. Now, I pass her sculpture every day, proud of the small part I had in its creation. Truthfully, I think it's the coolest piece in the Senior Art Show.

But that's not the only part I've had in theses. Liz, another roommate, is a sociology major. Because I don't have too much work to do in comparison, and because I'm an English major, I've been proofreading her thesis for her. Her research is on how students express themselves through their dorm room decorations. It's really interesting, and actually made me think a lot about my own room decorations.

Obviously, at any senior lunch table, the word "thesis" is said several times each meal. Now that it's almost May, people are really cranking out their work. However, everyone has also been really supportive of each other. I was disappointed when I missed Murph's psych thesis last night. Tonight, Dan was supposed to begin his thesis presentation at 7:20. I got there right on time, and there was a group of five of our friends waiting to go inside to hear his presentation. When we went inside, several more of our close friends were already there. Dan looked nervous in a shirt and a tie, and he was clutching his index cards for dear life. Although I didn't understand a word of his biochemistry jargon — I have no idea what "blasting" means for example — I was very impressed by how professional he sounded. For the first time it dawned on me. Dan is going to be a doctor. He's talked about MCATs and med schools before, but I never really thought of him in the medical realm. Now that I've seen him in his element, I feel like I understand him better as a friend.

It will be really interesting to see where everyone ends up in their future careers, though I doubt many of them will ever use their theses. As for me, I'm happy with a normal workload in my final semester. Helping out and supporting my friends has been quite enough of a thesis season for me.

Sunshine and Softball

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:18:42 GMT

When it snows for half the year, you really come to appreciate nice weather. In the past week, the student population seems to have tripled. Everyone is emerging from their dorms with Frisbees, flip flops and sunglasses. Though the forecast calls for more nice weather next week, I have had an ominous feeling that it's just too good to be true. Thus, I've spent every waking moment outdoors.

A few days ago, I took a walk down the hill and got a mango iced tea from a cafe and then sat down to read my French homework on the Clinton Green. Today I took a walk through the Root Glen, now blooming with tiny blue and white flowers. For almost every meal, my friends and I pick up our food to-go and sit down at the picnic tables outside to eat. At any point of the day that do I go inside, I find myself immediately walking outside again minutes later, if only to lounge in the grass reading or throw a football with one of the guys.

Perhaps the most repeated incentive to go outside has been softball. My super-athletic team for basketball and soccer also fields a softball team. I don't actually play on the softball team (softball brings back mortifying memories of me striking out as a 4th grader). However, I've come out for every game to sit in the sun and cheer. Our team has won every game so far, though all of the teams have been pretty decent.

The games are held on Minor field, in the middle of a sea of people. On any afternoon, there are 50-100 people sprawling out on the grass in bathing suits. They bring blankets to lie on and guitars or boom boxes. You'd think it was a day at the beach.

Today, I filled my water bottle, cut up some oranges and grabbed a blanket for the 3 p.m. game. As I got to the field, I noticed there was no opposing team — sadly, they didn't show. You might think that our team would be relieved and trudge back to the library to work on theses. Not this team. They split up into three teams of 4 people each. One team batted while the two other teams played in the field. I was reluctantly put on a team and walked out to right field where I would do the least amount of damage.

To my surprise, I had an awesome time playing. I put on my straw hat, borrowed a glove and tried to pretend I was not a horrible player. I did not make any amazing plays — I almost made a really good play, but Jack plowed into me as I was about to catch the ball. Still, I didn't strike out, and it was nice to spend the day in the sun with my favorite people at school. Summer is approaching fast, and I plan to enjoy every minute of it.