Viva Italia!

Once upon a time, a girl travels to Italy. She sees ancient Rome, walks romantic streets at night, eats delicious and breath taking food, meets a lovely Italian boy, meets amazing friends from around the world.

I don’t know how I got so lucky, to be that girl, but somehow it happened. This summer I am in Italy, wwoofing (a program that connects volunteers with organic farms), sightseeing, traveling, and otherwise gallivanting around. I went straight from freshman spring finals to Milan, where I traveled to Venice (Venezia in Italian), and Umbria with my mother. I then worked on my first organic farm, which was a fruit jam and juice farm. I spent my days weeding lampone (raspberry) plants, pitting apricots, and attempting to substitute our gigantic summer workout by sprints up the hill. After meeting some amazing fellow wwoofers and the host family, I went to Rome for a week for some quality sight seeing. I was lucky enough to be able to stay somewhere for free in exchange for teaching English for two hours a day. The mother of the family that I stayed with was a communications director for swanky clubs in Rome, and she was incredibly generous and took me out with her every night. I must admit, amongst the ancient ruins and late night disco’s I slacked on my work out routine. Now, however, I am at my second farm and am starting to pick it up again. I have no choice, preseason starts in just 1 month! The second farm’s name is Podere Amarti. Amarti means ‘to love you’. It is a perfect place. They host vision quests, meditation and yoga retreats. I think that it was fate that I showed up here, it is made for me. I’ve been starting my day with homemade yogurt and the lemon-apricot jam we made the day after we arrived. I’m going to be here till the end of July. After that, I have 10 free days, the first week and a half of August completely free. Hopefully I find something spectacular to do, I’m sure something will pop up out of the blue and become another integral part of this adventure. And after that, preseason starts on the 15th! If I didn’t miss the team and volleyball so much, I don’t know if anyone could get me to leave.

Viva Italia!

Lucia

Class of '14 Sophomore Summer

Sophomore Summer! What every Dartmouth student looks forward to. I was somewhat hesitant going into this term- simply because I love summers at my house in California. However my reservations have already been put to rest. Though we have only been here for about a week, I can already tell that this summer is going to be a blast. Tanning by the river… Reading some casual novels and essays on the Green… Getting destroyed in workouts… Watching White Collar with Rose in our room… All wonderful activities. However, my favorite aspect of the term so far has been seeing almost exclusively my classmates on campus. Most of the people on campus right now are sophomores (obviously) and knowing people wherever I go has been really fun and comforting. Whenever I go to a dining hall or to the library, there is some friend or acquaintance around that I can talk to. Always someone to hug, share fun story with, complain to about all the reading I have, etc. Though this exclusivity may not lead to the most diverse social interactions, it has already lent itself to incredible bonding within my class. I have already started to get closer to classmates I did not really know before. Think a forced closeness that you actually enjoy. It feels as if everyone has decided that since we are the only ones here, we might as well all become friends! Everyone seems to be more outgoing, friendlier, more willing to put themselves out there and form new bonds. It’s the infamous Dartmouth community at its best- everyone being easygoing, having fun outside, and making new friendships every day.

- Meghan Cooney '14

While the rest of the campus may be relaxing in the summer sun, the four of us (Cooney, Viv, Rose, and me) have a different focus in mind – preseason. With preseason just seven short weeks away, it’s time for us to get into serious shape. Luckily that’s not too hard when you are on for the summer and have the Dartmouth athletic facilities and staff at your disposal. Our preseason training began this Monday at 9 am. In addition to this being our first workout of the summer, it was also our first workout with Jeff, who joined the Dartmouth Athletic staff at the end of the spring. Needless to say, none of us knew exactly what we were in for. Getting used to a different style of lifting definitely has its negative sides, mainly the whole ‘can barely walk down stairs I’m so sore’ side. After surviving the first week, it’s clear what the positive side is – preseason will be a breeze after training up here all summer. While Cooney Viv and Rose are participating in the athlete runs – a sophomore summer tradition where all the athletes on campus do competition based sprint workouts, I’m off on my own doing my rehab training. Luckily for me, being on this summer has more plus sides than just getting to work out in nice gyms, it also means being able to use the Alter-G, Dartmouth’s new anti-gravity treadmill. The Alter-G lifts the runner up using air (after you get zipped into the tent-like covering on the treadmill) so that you are only running on a certain percentage of your body weight. It’s a great machine for people like me with chronic stress injuries, as it allows me to be able to get a sprint work out in while still keeping my rehab on track. After our cardio, we all join back together for lifting. We are currently focusing on developing technique and building muscle mass so that we can start training even harder as preseason gets closer. While it won’t be easy, with the long awaited season coming closer every week, we’ve got all the motivation we need.

- Elisa Scudder '14