Green Key 2012

"The time has come," the students said, "to skip our Friday classes: with Greens – and keys – and block parties – with dancing drunken masses…"

I handed in my Linguistics test, stupid vocabulary mistakes and all, and ran out of the lecture hall through the warm, sunny campus.  There was no climactic dismissal bell like the last day of middle school, but all of my anticipation for this term had been building up to the moment I stepped outside.  Spring holiday had begun!  No homework was to be completed until Sunday.

I met Pranam at the Hop for lunch, checked out the Phi Delt block party, had a hotdog at the Tabard, met Meili to window shop at the Dartmouth Coop, explored at bit at the Dartmouth bookstore, enjoyed some Morano Gelato, took a short rest to recover from the week, and joined some floor mates in McCulloch’s basement for quesadillas and pie.  Concealed by an empty outer room, my floor mates pre-gamed in my room while I lazed in bed, and within the hour we walked (some were already staggering) to Frat Row.  I broke off to Alpha Theta tails and then danced for a while somewhere else (??) until someone badly bruised my left foot.  It was really neat – half the dance party was outside on the lawn!  Back in the dorm, I learned that tragedy struck on McCulloch 3.  Two people got “Good-Sammed,” which means that they were deemed drunk enough by Safety & Security that they had to be taken away.  Meili told me it was a pretty emotionally scarring ordeal.  We all lost a lot of sleep.

The next morning, bright and early, Meili, Pranam, Bryan and I walked over to Ledyard Canoe Club by the river to embark on the first DOC Adventure Race!  With the sun already beating down on us at 10 AM, we began a 3-mile canoe route to the Organic Farm.  Bryan, our strongest, was seated in the front, and Pranam was in the back.  After some failure, Meili moved to the back since she was actually experienced at ruddering, while Pranam and I were useless in the middle.  At the farm, we quickly found a pineapple (apparently Pranam was familiar with this from DOC trips) and started a 2-mile down the road.  Pranam flew ahead of us, and I spent some quality time wheezing and jog-walking with Meili and Bryan, which included almost drinking water from a resident’s tap and going to the bathroom at the food Co-op.  At the destination, we threw wood.  Bryan was boss, Pranam NRO’ed, and Meili and I lugged a few over as well.   From there, we took a clue about Dr. Seuss and ran together to the parking lot behind Dartmouth Medical School, where Bryan and Pranam would miss the target at archery and get passed on to the next challenge.  We climbed the hill to the BEMA and split up for some more whimsical activities.  Meili and I danced the Salty Dog Rag, Bryan climbed something, Meili memorized Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice,” Pranam balanced on a rope to obtain cheese with his mouth, and then Meili, Pranam, and I worked on eating the cheese.  At last, we celebrated our last-place victory (pretty sad since we started 2^nd) with a barbeque back at the Canoe Club and then some relaxing showers.  It was as if I had completed the DOC trip that I never experienced… in only 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Even after all of this, we had more activities.  Meili’s amazing friend Eric brought us to West Lebanon for some mini golf.  Not willing to pay for both, Pranam and I followed them around the last couple holes after practicing on the driving range.  I felt so awesome leaving campus!  I must say though, it was strange to ride back up Main Street to the green, especially because it was not my mom driving!

And that concludes Green Key weekend.