Oberlin Blogs

My first few thoughts on returning to Oberlin after a year studying abroad.

I am here to take Intensive German in an effort to shove enough grammar and vocabulary into my head to take German 102 in the coming semester.

I don't know what it is about giving a speech that makes it so affecting, its ability to connect with and instill hope and pride in the hearts of listeners. All I knew at the time was that it was something I had to experience doing.

I know your parents don't want to hear this, but Oberlin students use a bunch of dirty language. One of our favorites is work .

When I was at college, back in the Pleistocene era, I always wondered what happened to my small college town outside of Boston when I wasn't there.

It seems only a few weeks ago that I was trying to get myself psychologically prepared for the start of the academic year, and now suddenly I'm in the last throes of paper-grading. (And no, I don't actually teach chemistry. Bear with me on this.)

Once people get over the novelty of Dorothy jokes and tornado questions - inevitable, I've learned, when I'm outside of my home state and meeting new people - it's actually pretty cool to be from somewhere unusual. Especially when I get the opportunity to share my hometown and state with other Obies, many of whom have never even been so far west.

The hard part of Finals is ... finishing them.

Aahhhhhh! (that's 'Ahhhhhh' like the sound you make after taking a satisfying drink of Coke Zero™, not like 'Ahhhhhh please don't lock me in that iron mask for years because I look like my brother the king')

I’ve been having fun reading about everyone else’s paths to Oberlin, so I thought I’d throw my own story into the mix.

It is fitting that even in my last semester here at Oberlin, I am fortunate enough to be taking advantage of one more opportunity that this school has offered--one that is wholly unique to graduates of Oberlin. For two years, I will be teaching English in the northern Chinese province of Taigu through the Oberlin Shansi two-year fellowship program.

The sun is out for the second day in a row, the thermometer out back says 0 degrees, and it's so dry that five miles to the west I can see the snow-frozen Rockies as clear as if they were a Bob Ross...