Seniors Reminisce: End of Freshman Year

Some things never change. via redbubble.net

If there’s one thing seniors love to do, it’s remember freshman year –  after all, there’s nothing quite like thinking about the sweet, innocent child you were just four years ago to make you realize how haggard you’ve become. Today, I forced some fellow seniors to remember the end of their freshman year to rub it in just a little more.

“The power went out in McBride when I was moving out, which was very stressful because I hadn’t started packing and my mom was coming in, like, 3 hours. I made my boyfriend help me do it. There was also garbage everywhere in the hall during move-out – it was like no one had taken their trash out for a month.”

Places that maybe you haven’t heard of: Murnen House

Welp.

Ok, so you probably actually have heard of Murnen House. But in case you haven’t, you’re looking at the single sketchiest, most dilapidated building owned by the college. Located behind the KAC and formerly home to the Bike Co-Op, Murnen is now…uh…maintained by the film department, who use it as a set for student films.

How to Be a Person: Being Sick

 

via stylepinner.com

Confession: I’m a huge germ-phobe. I get irrationally angry at people who come to class with more than a cold. Combine that with the fact that February is a veritable hellscape of pathogens just waiting to infect unsuspecting students, and you’ll find me ready to Clorox wipe nearly every surface into oblivion.

That said, this influx of disease is avoidable (or at least reducible) if we would all learn to be reasonable about it. Here’s how:

Remembering Natalia Olshanskaya

Natalia Olshanskaya was one of the most influential people in my life.

I rewrote that sentence ten times because the phrase “Natalia Olshanskaya was” does not make sense to me. The idea that she’s gone, that I cannot say “Natalia Olshanskaya is” anymore, makes me a little dizzy, and after talking to other students who took her classes, I know I’m not the only one.

When I first came to Kenyon, I was anxious and had little to no self confidence, especially after a language placement test showed that despite four years of high school Spanish, I still didn’t know enough to study at the 200 level here. I stumbled into an academic fair meeting for the MLL department, and Professor Olshanskaya was the only professor who showed up. Disgruntled with her colleagues, Olshanskaya answered questions for a while before announcing,

“Listen, people say that languages like Russian are hard, but I could teach Russian to this table if it wanted to learn.”

It sounded good to me, and apparently it did to everyone else in the room, too. Before drop/add was over, she’d signed in at least five students over the registration limit for Intro Russian. Even today, several of my classmates site this interaction as the reason why they signed up for the class.

Clearly, she knew what she was doing.

Dorm Cookin’: Fancy-Looking Gnocchi for Two or More

Peirce is a wonderful thing, but occasionally you’ve just got to have a home cooked meal. Unfortunately, anyone who would usually cook a meal for you isn’t around: you’re on your own, with just a dorm or apartment kitchen at your disposal. Not to fear! For roughly $10 (or less) and 20 minutes of your life, you can have really friggin’ good gnocchi that would make mamma proud.

Also, it’s vegan!

*Note: Most dorms have cooking utensils available. Ask your CA!