cacoethes scribendi

I opened my eyes to Andrew's smiling face, and thought "Great, it's 6 o' clock."

Adhering to the policy of punctuality, Andrew and I prepared ourselves quickly and made our way to the hotel lobby dressed casually for the long day ahead. We met with the girls; Erin, Erinn, and Kathleen who were patiently waiting on the comfortable lobby couches. We all watched the clock to see if Ms. Larson would make her 6:45 AM deadline, and either our watches were a little fast or...

We traveled together to get a quick breakfast from Starbucks. There, we all ate food until our blood sugar levels were sufficiently off the charts. I also took note that Erin's strawberry smoothie looked extremely good.

After leaving Starbucks, we reentered the car and began our long journey to Dartmouth. As always, I slept in the car. I slept through the Boston traffic, which--after I awoke--Andrew and Ms. Larson filled me in about. I didn't know what to expect at Dartmouth, but I looked forward to the tour nonetheless.

The vestibule of Dartmouth's admissions office was fashioned with a ballroom-style staircase. We had entered the building from the scorching heat of New Hampshire and immediately went to sit in for an information session about Dartmouth.

Dartmouth seemed interesting and appealed to Erinn and Kathleen the most. I was amazed by the fact that their performing arts teachers provided free lessons for vocal performance and instrumental performance. That's a huge benefit of the school, in addition to their profound collection of historic items.

After our tour guide Elise dismissed us, our group solicited Hanover, New Hampshire until lunch time. We visited Barnes & Nobles, where I purchased a Spanish dictionary to occupy myself on the 4-hour drives. Erinn purchased the next volume in her series of books, and everyone relaxed while Ms. Larson filled her role as bodyguard, meticulously guarding the Barnes & Nobles door from crooks.

We were accompanied to our dinner by John Beck, an admissions officer of Dartmouth, and Peter Chau, a Dartmouth alumni and member of the (then) in-development ILC.

We learned a lot from these two gentlemen. We were all very inspired to start our applications now and to hit the ground running. The most important thing I took from their advice was to be genuine in your essays, not to write up a story to stand out.

They showed us the interior of the university, and we were able to see multiple paintings of past school presidents, as well as "The Epic of American Civilization," a Jose Orazco mural. We relaxed on campus until we met up with Ms. Larson near the car.

We parted from Peter, got in the car, and began the long trip back to Hotel Providence. I fell asleep.

Upon arriving back at Providence, we ordered Chinese food from Dragon 2000. The restaurant receives Frank She's golden seal of approval. They pass the genuine Chinese food test.

We ate, and then worked off the calories at the Fitness Center in the Hotel. Hopefully Erin posts a picture for your viewing pleasure! I am currently charging my camera now, and promise to embellish my next update with pictures.

Until tomorrow.