Category Archives: Vermont

The Solar Decathlon

This year I’ve been working on the Middlebury College Solar Decathlon Team.  The Solar Decathlon is a Department of Energy sponsored greenbuilding competition that challenges college students from around the world to design and build 100% solar-powered homes.  Last year, a team of students from the College submitted a proposal and was selected as one of the 20 finalists!

We’re competing against 19 teams from all over the country—California, Florida… and the world—China, Belgium, and more.  Middlebury is the only small-liberal arts college to ever compete on its own in this competition, and our home is named “Self-Reliance,” after the essay by Emerson.  I’ve been planning events for our team, including the Fall Family Weekend Open House, the Homecoming Weekend Open House, and am looking forward to some events in J-Term as well.  In a few weeks, our design sketches and architectural renderings will be on display in 51 Main, and in January and February we’ll be featured in Town Hall Theater for the “Home in Vermont” exhibit.

This project epitomizes the liberal arts to me.  There are over 70 students involved in the project, majoring in over 20 different departments.  We have physicists, chemists, writers, economists, architects, political scientists, athletes, musicians, and artists working on this project.  We have $500,000 to raise.  We have less than a year to build this house, and construction starts in April.  We’ll finish it over the summer, and then it’ll get trucked to Washington, D.C. and reassembled on the National Mall in just seven-days’ time.  We’ll compete in the ten competitions of the Decathlon, and then bring our home back to Middlebury, where it’ll be a permanent fixture on campus.  We don’t have a graduate level architecture or engineering program like many of the other competing teams do.  We’ve never taken on a challenge like this before.  But the interdisciplinary approach that we’re taking to this competition is our biggest strength, and I’m enjoying this project more than any other activity I’ve ever gotten to be a part of on campus.  Tomorrow we have an enormous portion of our design due to the DOE, and I am so proud of everyone who’s working hard to make this all come together. I couldn’t be prouder of the other students I’m working with—Middlebury kids really know how to rise to the occasion, and this is such a clear example of the talent, drive, and energy that makes Middlebury what it is.

For more information about the project, please visit our (student designed and managed) website!

http://solardecathlon.middlebury.edu/

I LoVermont

Coming from Scottsdale, Arizona the winter weather and the New England culture took some getting used to… but after I learned how to appropriately bundle up in the cold and once the snow melted into Spring, I fell in love with my new surroundings and this beautiful new state that I can call home.

Here are my Top 5 reasons why I LOVE VERMONT:

1. Fall Foliage

Fall has always been my favorite season… but in Arizona I never got to truly appreciate the change of seasons. As soon as late September/ early October rolls around I am obsessed with the magic of fall. The trees on campus and in the mountains are alive with bright yellows, reds, and oranges… it is impossible to look away!

2. Open Roads

Nestled comfortably between Route- 125 and Route-30, Middlebury is at an intersection of a world of open roads ready to be explored. Every road and every path that I have taken has lead me on a visually stunning tour of the beautiful Vermont landscape. From the rolling hills to the flat farm lands ever turn brings a new unseen beauty! While the roads may not be full of cars… I am never alone. It is not unusual to be riding along side a field of horses, cows, or sheep… or to even be driving next to a tractor cruising down the road.

3. Burlington/ Montréal/ Boston/ New York

While the 8,000 or so people in the town of Middlebury can seem small, Vermont is located at the heart of New England. It is so easy to travel anywhere on the East Coast from our location.

Burlington, Vermont’s largest “city”, is only 45 minutes north and is a great place to have dinner, shop on Church Street, or just watch the sunset over Lake Champlain.

Montréal is actually the largest major city to Middlebury and located only 2.5 hours north. If you want a little taste of Europe, Montréal is your destination. From cafés with crêpes to late night dance clubs, Montréal can be the perfect weekend or vacation destination!

Also, let us not forget that New York is only 5 hours away and Boston is 3.5 hours away (by car). Coming from Arizona all of these distances do not seem that far… when I think about how it takes 6 hours to get from Phoenix to Los Angeles … but with NOTHING in between! At least driving in Vermont is filled with open roads with small towns and stunning view of its natural landscapes!

4. Summer!

If you are student at Middlebury I would highly recommend spending a summer on campus… either working for an office on campus, doing research with a professor, or participating in a Summer Language Schools Program. Two years ago I spent the summer at Midd working for the Careers Service Office. During that time I really got to explore Vermont and know the town of Middlebury. I tried to blend in like a true Vermonter and searched for local “watering holes” and ate lots of Creamees (which a strictly Vermont term for soft serve ice-cream or frozen yogurt). My favorite place to relax and swim after work was at “Dog Team Road”, a small river beach just 5 minutes north of campus. I also made use of the wonderful summer agriculture! Every Saturday morning I went to the Middlebury Farmer’s Market at Marble Works. From delicious local goat cheeses to hand picked organic strawberries and blueberries I was constantly immersed in a culture of local foods!

5. Small Towns

While I still believe that Middlebury is the quintessial New England town driving through Vermont is like exploring a foreign country. Each small town has its own feeling and established way of life. From Vergennes to Bristol each town hosts its own Main Street with local restaurants and shops that are unique to that community. My favorite roadside town is Woodstock, VT which on Route- 4 south of Middlebury. The first time I passed through Woodstock they happened to be hosting their annual summer music festival. So naturally I stopped to get out and participate in the events! Not only does Woodstock have a beautiful Main Street with classic New England buildings and delicious cafés, but for this event they had closed the streets and hundreds of the members of the community were all dancing in the streets to the beats of the live music in the background! It is small towns like this that truly make me appreicate the sense of community and life-style that is unique to Vermont.

Weekends

Middlebury students may be in the library on Sundays, but Fridays and Saturdays are a bit of a different story.  One of the things about Middlebury that most surprised me as an incoming first-year was the fact that most students do not leave Middlebury on the weekends, with some exceptions such as in-season athletes travelling to compete.  I thought that I would be spending a decent amount of time in Burlington (45 mins) and Montreal (2.5 hours).  I’ve only been to Burlington a few times and Montreal probably the same amount.  Other than those few short trips, I’ve spent my weekends here.

What can a town of 8,000 (Middlebury) offer that an international metropolis of 2 million (Montreal) can’t?  A good place to study, you may joke.  That’s true.  However, Middlebury realizes that it doesn’t have 2 million residents and that it has to work harder to keep students entertained.  To this end, the College and students themselves take it upon themselves to offer a wide range of weekend activities for students with a variety of interests.

Take this past weekend, for example.  Friday night, Inception was screened three times in Dana Auditorium as part of the Free Friday Film series.  The Free Friday Film Series is a series of recently released films offered free to students by MCAB (Middlebury College Activities Board), the student-run activities board.

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After Inception, my suite hosted the pirate party, an annual tradition of the Sailing Club.  The Sailing Club is a three-part program: it runs a PE class, offers a recreational sailing program that allows anyone to get out on the water, and competes in regattas as a member of the NEISA (New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association).  The team is incredibly tight, even when they’re mock fighting in pirate garb (witnessed Friday night).

Saturdays are usually fairly relaxed.  This past Saturday, you could’ve gone down to Alumni Stadium, gotten involved in a tailgate and watched the football team end their season with a win over Tufts.  On any given weekend, you could grab a few friends, hike Snake Mountain and spend a while admiring the beauty of the Champlain Valley.  You could also explore town, pick up some fresh cheese at the Farmers Market, grab a sandwich at Noonie’s and eat it overlooking the falls on Otter Creek.

This past Saturday night, MCAB brought us Yeasayer.  They gave a great show with the crowd going especially wild for one of the lead singer’s jumpsuit.  MCAB is able to bring a lot of great acts here for concerts.  In recent years, we’ve seen: The Roots, Girl Talk, Regina Spektor, and many more.

Scene in Nelson on Saturday night

This past Sunday, a lot of people skipped the library (at least for a while) to watch the mens’ soccer team win the NCAA DIII regional championship.  The soccer team will advance to sectionals next weekend, hopefully moving onto nationals after that.  The team is no stranger to the NCAA DIII National Championship, having won it in 2007.

As you can see, Middlebury doesn’t give students much reason to want to leave campus.  That said, I will be going up to Burlington tomorrow to see the midnight showing of the latest Harry Potter.  Pumped.

Proctor Love

In response to Ben Weitz’s post about the food on campus, I want to talk about my affection for another spot to eat. Middlebury College has fantastic food options, and I eat almost every meal at Proctor Dining Hall, which is located near Mead Chapel.

My first year here, I fell in love with Proctor Dining Hall. At Proctor, we are blessed with panini machines, fantastic salad ingredients, homemade peanut butter, local maple syrup, Vermont apples, vegetarian stir-fries, wild salmon… the list goes on. It is hard to be bored by the food there. A large spice and dressing rack plays a major role in students’ creations of sandwiches and salads. And there are always great desserts and ice cream.

The spaces to sit in the dining hall are a big part of my love for Proctor. The dining hall has been renovated since my first year, but it has retained its cozy feel with the booths in the back, the outdoor tables, and the Woodstove Lounge (that some people refer to as the ski lodge) in the front. Depending on the time of day, these spaces can be very peaceful and quiet or full of energy and socializing.

Another factor in my affection for this dining hall is that so many of my friendships at Middlebury have developed over long meals at Proctor. From weekend brunches to weeknight dinners, meaningful relationships have grown out of our countless hours at booths and round tables. The atmosphere of Proctor fosters the shared understanding that work, obligations, and responsibilities can be put aside for some time while open conversations and bonding take precedent.

*Snow*

Princess Snow White came a little bit earlier this year. So excited to see snow flakes flying around during Halloween weekend! They gently kissed my face and shyly disappeared. Although it lasted only a few minutes, Middlebruy was HAUNTED. Beautiful white winter is coming! Many mountains  in Vermont have already got snow caps– lovely white peaks. It was chilly these days, but the trees still stayed colorful. Under them fallen leaves and petals lied in profusion, with some acorns rolling around waiting for squirrels.<3

Every time I led info session I would ask the families if it was their first time being in Vermont and  what their impression on Vermont was.  Some said “beautiful”, some said “trees” and some said “snowy and cold”. Fall in Vermont is breathtaking. In early October my classmate and I drove to Waterbury to meet with a community partner of our class project (Environmental Studies senior seminar on Environmental Health) in Vermont Geological Survey. It was the most pleasant one-hour trip I’ve ever had. The mountains were covered by layers and layers of colorful trees, with birds singing and flying around in the clear blue sky. The scenery was way more beautiful than an oil painting.

The most beautiful season is almost over, but something more exciting will take place. Our own snow mountain called snow bowl will soon be filled by active student athletes, or clumsy but brave amateur like me 😀 . The ice hockey season will start soon as well. I love our Olympic-size ice rink, the wonderful games among NCAA, and of course, the super handsome ice hockey players… 😛

I look forward to Jterm fun already. Hard to choose Jterm class… So many good ones! Remote Sensing, Paleolimnology, Intro. to Architectural Design, Vermont Waters, or Evolution of Human nutrition?Wish I could have more Jterms on campus!!!!!!!!

Back to Middlebury

After having just spent a year abroad, it’s wonderful to be back at Middlebury.  I had an amazing year in South America—one semester in Montevideo, Uruguay, and another in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  I had the opportunity to travel, my Spanish improved significantly, and I really took to the lifestyle there.  While abroad, many of the other international students enjoyed a new routine: we ate dinner at 11pm, we were chronically late to everything, and we moved around the city like locals after a few months’ time.  But after a year of “different,” I was looking forward to coming back to the familiarity of my best friends, the push of Middlebury academics, and the beauty of New England.

While some parts of Middlebury I knew I had missed—my friends, a reliable internet connection, and vegetarian options—I’ve realized that there were so many other aspects of living here that also make it a place where I love to be.  I love walking to the Saturday Farmers’ Market and sampling cheeses, chatting with the orchard owners, and watching the little kids pet the farm animals.  I look forward to the Thursday environmental studies colloquium lunches and all the fascinating speakers and topics.  Class has never been more enjoyable than when my Natures’ Meanings course goes out to the organic garden to discuss that week’s readings under sunny skies.  These are the things that “make Middlebury” and the reasons I’m already starting to fight the creeping feels of nostalgia that this is our senior year!  I’m hoping the leaves take their time in falling off the trees and that the fall lasts as long as possible.