Back in the States!

After five and a half months of 90 degree weather and lots of Pad Thai, I arrived back at Dartmouth on the Thursday of Green Key. The first place I went on campus was Floren for an early morning reunion with my teammates. It was so good to see everyone. Later that day I was already suited up and in the gym dusting off some of the rust with our new coaches.
Being back on campus was amazing. You really don’t realize how much you miss Dartmouth until you’re gone. What also amazed me was how easy it was to come back to the people at Dartmouth and feel like I haven’t missed a beat. I think since it is a common thing for Dartmouth students to be off for a term or even abroad, it is easy for people to relate to how you are feeling when you come back and it really eases the culture shock. The welcome back to Dartmouth was more than I could ever ask for.
After two individuals and observing a lift and participating in one, it was very evident that the team has worked extremely hard this term, harder than I’ve ever seen in my past two spring seasons. I was also incredibly impressed with the new coaches and all of it makes me so excited to get back to Dartmouth next August (August 17th to be exact).
Now I am back at home and enjoying the time I am able to spend with my family before I fly out to California to start my summer internship with a pharmaceutical/biotech company. Luckily, this summer I won’t be far from a few of our incoming freshmen and hopefully I will be able to visit Annie and Kendall since they will also be on the west coast. I can’t wait to get back into a routine of working and working out and really getting ready for next season.

- Amber Bryant '12

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

It’s finally here: the end of my freshman year. It seems like it has flown by, but I have so many amazing memories. All of my friends from home repeatedly ask, “How do you like Dartmouth?” and I only have one answer: “I absolutely love it!” So now that the year is coming to a close, I have been reflecting on some of my favorite memories from each term.

Fall: My first term was pretty busy because we were in season. We traveled almost every weekend, so we spent a lot of time together as a team. Some of my favorite memories from fall term were on the bus. A few of our bus rides were pretty long, so our team started watching the Friday Night Lights television series. We would all (even our coaches) get really into it and yell at the characters. We even started looking forward to bus rides because we were excited to watch the show.

Winter: Winter in New Hampshire was a completely new concept for me because at home, it doesn’t get below 45 degrees. Elisa and Vivian started laughing at me the first day it snowed because I was so excited. My favorite day in the winter was when we went iceskating! Elisa, Vivian, and I went to Occom Pond with some friends, and we rented skates. We spent all afternoon skating around the pond (I struggled a little bit) and watching some students play pick-up games of ice hockey.

Spring: Now that the weather is starting to warm up, everyone is taking advantage of being outside. It seems like whenever the sun is out, everyone flocks to the Green. On this past Thursday, it was sunny and 75 degrees. Being from southern California, I miss the sun, so I spent all day outside! After conditioning in the morning, I had breakfast outside Collis with Meghan, Annie, and Alissa. Then while they had class, I did some of my reading on the Green. Eventually Elisa came and joined me, and we took a nap under the sun. We later even took our lunch outside to the Green. In the afternoon, I went to my seminar, and our professor allowed us to sit outside for class. I’m happy to say that my arms and legs got a little darker that day (even though they still look pretty pale from being covered up all winter). Hopefully summer will take care of that!

- Rose Dicovitsky '14

Bday with the Besties

Tuesday, May 3rd, was my birthday: turned the big two zero. Yes, believe it, I made it through those teenage years. As every college student comes to realize sooner or later, spending a birthday away from your family can be tough- missing the overwhelming love and birthday dinner traditions. (I heard Annie’s family even shoves a little cake in her face on her birthday every year.) However, being able to spend this day with my team, who has undoubtedly become my second family/best friends made it an extra special one. Celebrating with this group of girls was more than I could’ve asked for.
On the day of my birthday, I walked into the locker room to see my locker decorated with streamers and stuffed full of balloons, not to mention my picture of dreamy Ricky Rubio was even touched up with a little graffiti. After practice, the entire team took me to my favorite restaurant in Hanover, yummy Yama, and then we headed to the Collis porch for a little Lou’s chocolate cake and some public birthday singing. Maddy’s makeshift candles constructed out of wooden coffee stirrers made for some extra excitement. To remember this day, I will always have my birthday card that has Coach Hirsch’s (aka Mayo’s) birthday rap recorded inside.
Having my teammates do all these memorable things for me on my birthday made me realize that sometimes I take the Dartmouth Volleyball team dynamic for granted. I could not name another team on campus that is as close as our team. Maybe it is due to the fact that there are only nine of us, or maybe it is due to the forced, close proximity in our van rides to spring games, or maybe even our unified goal to PTD on the reg (aka regular). Whatever it is has created irreplaceable friendships and bonds that I treasure. Everyday, I look forward to the locker room dancing, the trash talking through the net and the (not always) friendly competitions in the weight room just as much as I look forward to the life updates over impromptu Collis dinners, the team blitzes of whatever youtube video is making Vivian laugh at the time, the continuous facebook pokes from Kendall, and the occasional texts from Annie asking me to do little favors for her “on my way to the weight room” (which are really starting to add up). All these little nuances, on and off the court, make our team dynamic so special. We know each other so well that it can get a little creepy at times. Occasionally, outsiders even question the way we interact sometimes.
All in all, I want to say thanks to the team for making my 20th birthday a memorable one, but more importantly thanks for being my teammates and best friends. Like Drizzy Drake says, “Man I love my team and I love my team. I would PTDie for them …”

- Alissa Santa Maria '13

Sunshine and Spring

Now that we’ve finished all of our official spring games, and team practices are coming to a close, the Big Green is moving outdoors – to volleyball on the Green. The men’s club volleyball team has been setting up a net for some outdoor volleyball, and we’ve been all too happy to play against them. It’s finally getting consistently warm, and it’s the perfect sunny spring temperature for some grass volleyball. After a long day of conditioning and lifting, there is no better way to relax and prepare myself for the library than getting some sunshine and playing volleyball.

We even had a guest visitor to our game yesterday – Dartmouth’s president, Jim Yong Kim. We were playing a friendly game of the women’s team verses the men’s team when President Kim walked by, and offered to serve the ball in for us. After giving the men’s team a tough serve (and after winning the point) he high fived all of us and went on his way.

Most other Colleges are getting out of school, but I couldn’t be happier to have more time on campus, and have the chance to really enjoy the New Hampshire spring. I look forward to more outdoor activities, but especially to being on the green with my team.

- Elisa Scudder '14