THE END

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the dissolution of the freshman class for the
summer.  We've shared a lot of experiences together and it will be a sad day when
we part ways until next fall when we take on the ominous task of being sophomores.
So in memoriam of our freshman year, I've taken it upon myself to make a list
of some of our most exciting activities and achievements:
1. Making it out alive: We all passed or freshman year, and as far as I know no
one has failed any classes, although we did have two casualties (izzie dropping
psych in the winter and annie dropping chem in the spring. Its unfortunate because
now they have to take either three or four class terms for the rest of their career).
But other than that we don't have any broken bones, no felonies committed, and
no really upset parents
2. Getting Fish:  In the fall, annie and nattie were at walmart and decided to
get three fish.  Bjorn, Ralphie, and Moose.  Iz's fish moose died, so to replace
him davey stole a gold fish from Gilman, the building which the biology department
hails from.  We think we're going to return them all back to Gilman, although
hopefully Bjorn and Ralphie don't get intitimated by the other genetically enhanced
fish that will soon become their brothers.
3. Looking normal by spring time:  as is tradition, we all had either green mowahks
or hot pink hair for the Dartmouth Carnival.  The boys had it easier, although
they all looked like sad babies for a little bit because they were all bald.
The girls on the other hand began the painstaking task of getting their hair back
to "normal".  Izzie took the good route and just cut it all off, and she looks
fabulous.  Annie's hair was a shocking red for awhile, but after a second fixing
she's back to a more natural blonde.  And Natalie now as sunset orange hair but
it started out a good dark brown.  Elise took the route of letting it all fade
out, and we just redid it with a box dye from CVS, and Laurel took the smartest
route and only did her tips, so didn't have to go through the hell that was getting
hair back to normal.
4. Making Friends:  We all made friends with eachother, and we're the bestest
class ever (no matter what John says).
5. Muffins:  Everyone learned how to eat a muffin correctly, and it was a big
day for the Dartmouth ski team.  Bottom first.

Now I have to go study for exams, so as not to negate the first point on the list.
LOVE,
ANNIE

Bowling

Today I went bowling in White River Junction. Martha has been telling me come do Special Olympics Bowling since the beginning of the term and I finally got a chance to go this week. It turned out to be a blast although I think I was worst bowler there. My bowling partner was Josh. He was really enthusiastic and made a great partner. He helped me find a nice 12-pound ball, which I think might have ended up being a little too heavy because my fingers got really tired by the end and started slipping out. I had a great first game getting three strikes and a few spares for one of my best games of bowling ever with a whopping 136 points! However, it was all downhill from there. I managed to beat Josh in the first game by a few points, but he picked it up in the next two games just I started to throw gutter ball after gutter ball. I think the high-score of the day went to Haley with 197 points. Maybe if I practice everyday for the next few years I could match that. Everyone there had a great time, and I hope to go again soon

Also, I have been recovering from giving blood quite well. The day after I felt pretty bad running and went ridiculously slow, but I think it was mostly in my head. I kept imagining my veins being nearly empty of blood and was worried I would pass out if I went much faster than a snail. I don't really feel any different than normal except for when I try to go a little harder up hills. I had basically forgotten about my shortage of red cells completely until I went to the gym today. I felt stronger than ever during the workout, but then I tried to do a couple repeats on the Ski Erg at the end. I wanted to do 4 times 500 meters at around a 2:00 minute pace which normally feels pretty easy. I struggled through the first one and it felt much tougher than normal. Half way through my second repeat I decided I was too tired and just stopped. I guess I'll just keep working out like nothing's wrong and hopefully within another few weeks I'll be back to normal. Goodnight!
Davey

Saving A Life

I saved someone's life today by donating blood to the Red Cross at the blood drive on campus. It was pretty cool and feel really good to be possibly saving someone's life. It was really easy to do and the whole process only took about an hour. First you get there and have to read a bunch of stuff to make sure you can give blood. Then someone asks you a bunch of questions to make sure you don't have AIDS or something else that would make giving blood dangerous. They also took a small blood sample to check my hemoglobin which was 13.0, which was over the 12.5 limit, but a little low for males my age. Basically they want to make sure you have high enough levels, so you can safely give up a pint of blood which is about a tenth of your total blood volume. I think I might start taking iron supplements for awhile to make sure I have enough iron to replace all my lost red blood cells. Apparently it can take up to two months to fully replenish all the red blood cells which is amazing considering the body makes 2.4 million red cells per second.  I'm hoping the donation won't affect my training too much. Luckily, I won't be training too hard for at least a month. I've always wanted to give blood and figured Spring was the best time. I asked Ruff and he said it wasn't a bad idea. We'll see tomorrow how I feel when I go running.

A nice guy named James sat me down in a lounge chair and had me wait while he finished up another patient. First, we were going to use my left arm but switched to the right as it had a bigger vein. He had me squeeze ball to pump up the vein then plunged the needle in. Blood sort of squirted out and it hurt quite a bit when he put the needle in. Then I had to squeeze the ball every five seconds help the blood flow. Within five minutes the bag was full of blood and I was free to go. They told me to make sure I drink plenty of fluids and that I shouldn't exercise for a day. I've already pissed like four times in the past few hours so I should be fine. I did feel a little light headed afterwards, but the whole process was a lot less painful and scary than I thought it would be. Giving blood is really important, so if you get the opportunity to do so, you should take it. Remember you could be saving someone's life!

      

Here's my arm after taking the bandage off and washing it. Only a little mark and no bruising. No big deal!

DAVEY

Ski Team Final and Swimming

It's been a busy week as midterms are just finishing up.  I had had my economics exam on Wednesday, and it was hard, but I'm just glad it's over. I had an even more important test on Tuesday.... the Ski Team Final. This was an eight page exam that Ruff gives at the end of every season to make sure we paid attention during his Camp lectures. Unfortunately, I had struggled to stay awake in just about every night's lecture since I was exhausted from all the skiing we were doing. Also as a freshman I already knew I was fucked for the exam. No one does well on their first try. I didn't even have a clue on the first question. What the hell is "ragging" supposed to mean? I ended up guessing on most of the questions, and left quite a few blank. The one section I thought I might have done well on was the quotations, but I realized afterwards I got them almost all wrong. Turns out just hearing Ruff say "I want medals!" doesn't mean he was actually the one that said it. Anyway, we get our scores back next Tuesday and I'm hoping I can still be on the team next year even if I failed the final.

On Wednesday the warm weather finally arrived and that meant the first swim of the season. The grass is getting green, the flowers are coming up, and the buds are coming out, so campus is looking pretty. The temperature reached the mid 70's and it was sunny for most of the afternoon, so I went for a bike ride with Izzy. We did a loop through Norwich then over to Thetford and then came back along the river. It was nice, but also hot and humid, so we decided to stop and put our feet at the river. The water was colder than I was expecting and I could only keep my feet in for about thirty seconds before it became too painful. I guess melted snow makes cold water. Despite the cold water, we decided to go for a swim. We waded in then quickly dove in.  I got out as fast as humanly possible, but the warm air quickly warmed me back up and I felt completely refreshed. Then on the way back we passed some girl out for a bike ride. She then proceeded proceeded to sprint back by us on the way up Chieftan. I was tempted to chase her back down and pass her again, but I resisted the urge. However, if that girl is reading this I want to let her know that I totally could have caught her, and I would love to settle this with a race anytime. I am way better than her.
Davey

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody! I am currently enjoying Easter at Caldwell's house. It's really nice here today, and all the snow from yesterday melted. Anya and Natalie are here too now. This morning I went to play tennis at the park with Austin and Izzy. I wasn't very good, so my team lost all three games. Then Izzy and Austin had a playoff and I got to be the ball-boy. They split the first two games, so it went to a tie-breaker. In the end, Izzy came out on top and gets bragging rights because Austin had been talking trash all morning. Now hopefully we are going to have an egg hunt.

Davey

Sustainability and Social Justice Dinner

Tonight I attended the Sustainability and Social Justice Dinner. The dinner was delicious and the speakers all had diverse perspectives on combining sustainability and social justice. Stephanie Crocker was one of the guest speakers and she described her work with Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineering. She has been working in Tanzania to spread the use of cookstoves rather than the traditional three stone stoves. The benefits of these cookstoves the DHE has developed are twofold. Not only do they replace the inefficient wood-burning traditional stoves which emit large quantities of black soot but they also help reduce indoor air pollution and the related respiratory ailments common in Tanzania. However, she warns against some problems with the spread of cookstoves. Many of the current designs are complicated and could easily break, but would be difficult to fix. This means after a few years the broken stoves would be abandoned and people would revert to traditional methods. She stressed the need to use local resources such as clay to build the stoves, and mentioned one town that had 700 unusable cookstoves because they were all missing a required metal plate. Stephanie did a great job with the talk and I was very impressed with her work and public speaking skills. Other speakers mentioned the problems faced by Alaskan Natives who are losing their homes due to melting permafrost and the need to combine sustainability with religious faith.

After the speakers finished we started discussions at our tables about what we could do about sustainability on campus. Much of our discussion focused on the lack of knowledge common on campus. It's not that people don't care about the environment they don't know what they can do, and we make it too easy to make the wrong choices. Everyday heaps of recyclable or compostable items are thrown in the trash or students buy bottled water rather than filling up a reusable water bottle at the fountain. One student mentioned the impact we could have simply by replacing Keystone cans with kegs at the frats, or at the very least remembering to recycle the bottles instead of throwing them in the trash. While these changes aren't enough to fix all our problems, they could be a start. It would be cool if everybody at Dartmouth whether an economics or environmental studies left with a concern for the environment. We could be doing a lot more without making much of a sacrifice.  Well that's all for tonight.

Davey

First Post!

Hi Everbody,
This is my first post on my first ever blog! Probably no one is reading this cause no one knows I even have a blog except for like three people in the room with me now and I don't think they even care. So today I went to play Squash at the gym with Izzy and Nat. They had never played and I'm still a beginner, so we weren't very good. I taught them the rules and within a half hour they were both challenging every game, and Izzy even beat me twice. Then just as we were leaving Sam and Nolan Kasper arrived and persuaded me to keep playing with them. Nolan gets 2nd in World Cup's and is naturally talented, so I was too afraid to play him, but I must say I toasted Sammy beating him in four straight games. Squash is really fun and simple to play even if you are just a beginner, so if you've never tried it go out and play a game. They have balls and racquets you can borrow for free, so there are no excuses not to play.

On another note, despite hearing that Organic Chemistry is quite a bitch of a class, the models they have look quite fun to play with. Bobo even made me a molecule of caffeine today. Also there is laser tag going on later tonight, so that could be really fun, but I have a Biology Quiz tomorrow morning and I should probably do some studying for it, so I don't know if I can go. I hope you enjoyed my first blog post. Make sure to subscribe and keep checking for updates, as I hope post pretty regularly. I'm excited to use this blog to keep all my fans out there up to date with my latest crazy adventures. Until next time!
Keep it real,
Davey