It's not quite the beginning of Second Trimester yet, and so I, like most Carleton students, am on Winter Break.

You may think that this means I have had no new Carleton-related experiences to post about.

If you think that, you are partially right- but not completely right, because, brought to your computer screen by me at my home in snowy Grayslake, Illinois, I now most proudly present (drumroll)...

A Book Review (Sort Of) Of Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

-or-

I Read a Fantasy Book About Carleton!

An Epic Story of my finals experience.

By "Epic," I mostly mean really long.

You have been forewarned.

AHHHHHH!!!

My homework load clears up a bit, I write a theatrical play which is actually a virus, and I register for classes.

English projects, snowstorms, giant sapient lizards. Need I say more?

Yes? Really?

Well, okay, if you insist.

Also, I take the most impossible test of my life. Yes, one impossible thing can be more impossible than another impossible thing, and this test was up there in the topmost reaches of impossibility, just under lifting a rhinoceros with a hairdryer.

Sires, siblings, Settlers, Set, sublimely silly stageplay.  Super!  Seriously.  See straightaway!

For those who are interested in the academic side of the first-trimester freshman experience, I, Collin Hazlett, proudly present a chronicle of my triumphs and travails in getting adjusted to the unusual schedule.

In this post I go to an astronomy club open house in Goodsell Observatory, and am awed by the incredible telescope, which I proceed to use to find Andromeda. ... Oh man, I didn't mean to spoil the end for you just now. No, no, you should still read it. Maybe I don't find Andromeda! Maybe I look at the Ring Nebula instead. Or maybe Goodsell Observatory is locked and I don't get in at all. See, now you don't know what's going to happen, and you can go ahead and read the post now. I won't say anything more until you open it up.

It’s been a few weeks since I started classes, but I simply cannot write about what freshman year at Carleton is like without describing the experience of moving in. So here I go...

About an hour ago, I set out with a few adventurous confederates on a short journey. Our destination was a place called Dacie Moses House. None of us had ever been there, but we had heard stories about it--fables about what goes on within its walls, and legends of what awaits those who make the pilgrimage there...