Student Blog

This is Mt. Meru, as seen on a safari I went on two days ago as a part of my orientation for studying away in Arusha, Tanzania.  I can see Mr. Meru from my apartment window!

Today I found myself smack dab between two African men, holding my backpack on my lap as we hurdled down the left side of the road in the daladala (a van that functions as a bus) to my first day of my African culture course.  The other five girls in the daladala and I exchanged smiles, and watched women wearing beautifully vibrant dresses and men in suits (and regular clothing too) get on and off the daladala.  We get on the daladala at one of two traffic lights in the city of Arusha, and ride for 25 minutes before we arrive at Makumira University.  I am mad excited for this course, because I will get the chance to play drums, learn African dance and even travel with a Maasai choir.  This course is one of four, including Women in East Africa, Contemporary Issues and Conflicts in East Africa and Introduction to Kiswahili. 

These past few days have been a whirlwind of jetlag and new sights and sounds.  I arrived on Feb 4, but it feels like I've been here so much longer, especially given the amount of stuff that they've packed into our days.  I'm staying at Arusha Resort Centre, and I'm living with two roommates in our own apartment complete with kitchen, a king size bed (I got a single!), a bathroom and a common space.  I am living in Arusha, a town of approx 270,000 people, according to wikipedia. Everyone here speaks Kiswahili, and a lot of people in Arusha speak English.  All higher education is in English, and as a center for tourists many residents are fluent (or fluent enough to ask me to buy something).   

We get charged an arm and a leg, and I still haven't mastered the art of bartering.  Luckily, the exchange rate is in our favor.  A good meal at a restaurant is about $2.50, a taxi ride is $3-$4 and bottled water is about 40 cents.  Being white (they call us mzungu) there are locals who badger us to buy things the moment we get onto the street, because they assume we have money.  Taxi drivers are eager to take us places, and the daladala drivers practically carry us onto the vans to get our patronage.  When we come out of an ATM, there are people there waiting. 

This past week has been orientation week, where me and the other 12 people in my program (now 15, three east african students have joined us!) get shuttled from one thing to another.  We've had walking tours, seen our classrooms, discussed safety and we went on a safari.  Today was the first day of classes.  Because of the elevation and proximity to Mt. Meru, Arushua is actually relatively (for Africa) cool.  The weather was nearly perfect for our safari.  We went to the Arusha National State Park, and sat in a van, whose top can be lifted to make a sort of canopy.  I saw hippos, monkeys, warthogs, buffalo and giraffes (to name a few.)  The highlight was most certainly the giraffes.  We got to see one that was ten feet away.  It just stood there majestically, chewing some leaves, and looking at us a with a benign look.  Absolutely amazing.  Unfortunately, my camera ran out of juice before we saw the giraffe, but below are a couple of classic pictures! 

Kwaheri! (good-bye in kiswahili)

--Tiama

By Maia Bittner, 2011

I think I've decided who I want to be here! That might sound odd, but it's something that's been bothering me the last couple months (that is, who I want to be in Copenhagen) and it was particularly bothersome yesterday, as here I was, existing in Copenhagen before I had figured it out. Without a goal, I had no direction to aim myself in, nothing to work on, no way of gauging progress. Remember my last post on how I was sad to leave Boston when I didn't even have a reason for going to Copenhagen?

Questions running through my head...

Do I want to be really into school (socially & academically) and organize my life around that? I'm certainly not that way at home, but this might be a good opportunity to do something different. Do I want to meet and get to know as many different people as I can? It doesn't seem like hanging out with other exchange students would neccessarily be worse than Danish students, as they're all new and from different countries, and they're also more eager to speak English and make new friends. Should I make friends with Danes outside of school? Do I want to learn Danish language and culture? Or do I want to be a loner and just enjoy the city, accepting myself as an outsider here? (I'm pretty good at being a loner. I like books and sitting in my apartment with tea and candles on Friday nights.)

Dear Prospective 2014er,

While sitting in my room, staring down this week's vector calculus homework, my mind wandered to approximately one year ago, when I was [all too frequently] roused from slumber by dreams of swirling envelopes. Some large, some frighteningly thin, but all seemed to deliver the same thing -- my academic fate. Back in the present, I glanced at one of five calendars in the room and was startled by the date. Candidates' Weekends approach. Not so long ago, dear Prospie, I stood in your shoes. We all get it. Waiting is difficult, even agonizing, excruciating, vexatious, dreadful, caustic, and downright unpleasant.

"Those Who Know" seem to simply overflow with wisdom at such times and are eager to share any and every thought they may have on the subject, and I do think I hear them all. But the most beneficial piece of advice I received during the waiting process was to, "Forget about Olin and all those other schools. You're [hopefully] only a high school senior once." I forced myself to focus on the here, the now, and with a bit of helpful distraction, managed to make it through the process alive. This vector calc business may nullify such an accomplishment, but that's a story for another day.

For now, I offer you some things to ponder as you wait to plan for the fall. Thanks to a lively group of fellow classmates, I am never at a loss for *ahem* stimulating ideas.

This past Wednesday one of the best-known professors at Olin passed away after a long fight with lymphoma. Dr. Michael Moody had many titles, but what perhaps best described him was simply "Dr. M."


Rest in Peace, Dr. M. You will be missed.

By Maia Bittner, 2011

My move to Copenhagen, despite many logistical difficulties, keeps creeping closer, and I can't deny that I'm nervous. I don't have a clear reason for going, and I feel like I'm giving up so much here. I keep trying to remind myself that I've done this before: I moved by myself to San Francisco, a city I'd never been to and knew no one in when I was just 18. In many ways, Copenhagen should be easier -- I don't need to find jobs or housing like I did in SF.

But truth be told, I haven't done this before. When I moved to San Francisco, I didn't have a life I treasured near as much as I do now. And so all the wonderful things in my life have become bittersweet, as I can't forget how soon they'll be gone.

For these awkward 5ish weeks between the end of Olin's Fall semester and the beginning of my study abroad semester, I've been working full-time at HubSpot, the super awesome internet marketing company I started interning with this past Fall. I'm redesigning (and implementing the changes to) a microsite they own, which is dangerously close to my dream job.

Dan, Bennett, and I ride the T on January 10th, 2010

By Jessi Murray, 2010

I didn't blog much this semester, as you may have noticed. I've been one of the writers for this little project since my freshman year-- now three years ago. I knew I should be writing more posts. I took pictures for them, I wrote them, one I even published before taking down later (for NDA reasons). I guess what stopped me from writing a lot of the time was the fact that, despite getting lovely GPA-raising grades this semester, this was one of the toughest I've experienced on a personal level possibly ever.

I didn't want these feelings to come through on a blog that is supposed to attract prospective students. I didn't want to be the person who was a poor reflection of the school. However, these situations are reality, and from them some positive things did stem.

(Even if you don't care about this post, you should click through for an awesome video of a bunch of Olin students doing the Thriller dance.)

-- by Mike Hughes '10

Fall 2009 saw Olin host a stellar group of exchange students.  There were 7 overall, hailing from faraway locations like France, South Korea, and Maine (surprise!).

Here's a group shot of the exchange students and several Olin study abroad veterans who served as hosts and friends.

All of the exchangers last semester were super friendly and very fun. We'll definitely miss them come January.

I had the privilege of living with Chad (from Korea) as a suitemate this fall, with two other Korean students also in my hallway. I had a blast showing Chad around Boston, struggling together on our C programming projects until the wee hours of the morning, and getting to know Korean food and music.  I especially liked our dance parties where he and Joo-Pyoung introduced me to several Korean girl groups.

Chad plays in a rockband back home, so my friends and I convinced him to take the stage for a going away party we threw at the end of the semester. Check it out.


More photos after the jump.

I'm sitting in terminal C at Logan International Airport, waiting to go home, thanks to a timely snowfall in Milwaukee. Everybody here decided [simultaneously] to take advantage of the holiday-time free WiFi, and my poor computer just couldn't take it any longer. Quite contrary to my standard practice, I decided to do something mildly productive (After forty-six minutes, Facebook status-stalking does not qualify as "productive.") while waiting out the snow.

Now, all that's left is Expo to celebrate!

Today I saw more of my classmates' legs than I could have ever dreamed.

 

Through the magic of a tiny campus and an even tinier teaching staff, some 2013ers learned that one of our professors celebrates the day of his birth on the fourth of December (annually!). There was no way that this day could pass by unrecognized. A flurry of preparations ensued, culminating in a presentation to rival the Highland Games. Did I mention that our professor is Scottish?