Dorm Life; A Gather Blog (Come Tour My Campus!)

As I promised, I am now giving a tour of my campus. But first, I must ask this:

If you happen to recognize any of these buildings/structures, please do NOT leave a comment saying, "hey, isn't that such and such school?". I like to have a bit of anonimity about where I'm going to college, so I'd appreciate it if you sent me a private message instead. Thanks. :D

Alright, now that that junk is out of the way, let's get to the tour!  We'll start at the most obvious place, the place that I start at most of the time: my dorm!

So this is where my days start, right here in my warm bed.

It's not usually this messy, I promise, I just happened to take this picture after I'd gotten back from spending the weekend at home, so I was in the process of putting things back and everything. I swear!

Here's my side of the room. Pretty bare and blend, but that's how I wanted it. I've only got two pictures to my name here: one of me and my little sister, and the other of my boyfriend and I at prom.

My roommate, however, is all for the decorating thing. Her side of the room looks really festive and pretty.

And look, there's a message on the fridge for all you friends and family from back home!

Alright, enough of that. Let's get some fresh air.

This little bench circle is right outside my dorm. It's really nice for meeting with people and such. A real good place to gather. There are spots like this all over campus.

Oh, and bike racks, too. Because there are 150+ acres on campus, a lot of people opt to bring their bikes instead of walking, so there are a ton of bike racks just about everywhere.

You want to see more of campus, don't you? I can tell. Well, here, follow me across the street a little ways. Don't forget to watch for the walk light. There's a little voice that will tell you when it's ok to go. "Walk light is on". Don't walk until then!

Oh, and look at the pretty flowers there to the left! Looks like someone's out watering them right now.

Take a quick glance to the right. See the little park right there? I'm not exactly sure what it's for...it's pretty small and doesn't give at all a park atmosphere, but I think this was the school's attempt at making a nice, relaxing park. I think they failed. Everyone just laughs when they see the attempt, especially at the little bridge that goes over nothing but a ditch.

And up a little further on the right is the tree swing. I've never tried it, but some of my friends have and they say it's really fun.

What's the big buildin gbehind it, you ask? Why, that's the main building on campus where admissions and everything is. It's also the oldest building on campus, dating back into the 1800's.

Alright, we're here now. This is one of my favorite structures on campus. It's called "The Flame".

I'm not sure what the sculpture was originally meant to represent (maybe the flame of knowledge?), but it's very popular around here for a completely different reason. You see, once you're a student here, it's a tradition that some time in your four years here you run "The Flame". "The Flame" is where you run from your dorm to this statue of the flame and then you run around this statue a couple of times back to your dorm. Sounds easy, right? Now add in the fact that you have to do it naked--and not get caught or you could pay indecent exposure fines up to $500. Not so easy now, right? The great thing is, though, that many of the current professors here were also alumni here, so there is actually pictures of, for example, my advisor, the chemistry teacher, running the flame during his stay here. Doesn't get better than that, does it?

Of course, for those that are strong of heart, there's also the trifacto. This is a bit more than just running the flame. First, you run the flame. Then, you're supposed to swing on the Focault pendulum in the building next to it.

Then, you go jump into the fountain on the other side of campus (which I did not get the chance to photograph). All of this has to be done naked, of course. Trouble is, each of these acts is worth up to a $500 fine, so the trifacto could, in all essence, cost you $1,500 if you're unlucky enough to get caught.

Since my dorm is way across campus, not one of the ones right near the flame, there's no worries about me doing that this year (or any year, really, because it doesn't really interest me, but still).

Alright, this right here is the last stop. Yes, it's a giant bug statue. That's my school for you.

It's hard to see in the next picture, but there is actually a good sized trail of raised grass that leads up to this bug and it is supposed to represent the long path and eventual emergence of knowledge.

Apparently when the bug was made, they held a competition between all the departments about their ideas on the emergence of knowledge. The physics department won, and so the top bears inscriptions of physics symbols and all the other departments' symbols got carved on the under side of it where no one will ever be able to see them. Good planning, right?

I'll leave you with one other little tidbit about this bug. The campus is rich with fossils (some on display in one of the school buildings, actually), and so a lot of them were unearthed while building the route to the bug, and such. The common fossils that were found had their marrow extracted from them and it was rubbed on this statue to represent the blending of the past with the present, the new with the old. By now that's probably long worn off, but it's still pretty neat.

Oh, and you can stop laughing now just because I almost killed myself taking that last picture. The trees have shed these strange little nut type thingies. Better watch where you step!

Thanks for taking this tour of my campus with me! I'm really glad to have had you along. Before too long I'll also have up a tour of my new apartment, too!

For those of you who haven't been following my adventures at college and would like to, here are how my previous days went:

Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six
Day Eight
Day Thirteen