Carleton College

Today was a big day!  We pulled up in front of the dorm and were immediately swarmed by students asking which room D was in.  The car was unloaded within five minutes and by the time I made it up the room, all there was left to carry was my camera.  I hope loading up in June, 2015, is as easy.

We met D's roommate (a Minnesota native from Red Wing) and his family, we watched the other students arrive and unpack, and we listened as the gang of students at the main entrance to campus yelled welcomes to all the cars pulling in.  Later in the afternoon, D got introduced to his New Student Week team while we got introduced to the college by the academic advisors and the financial aid staff.

Then everyone converged on a overstuffed and overheated chapel for an hour of welcome speeches from the president and others.  I thought they were the right mix and the right themes for sending everyone off (students and parents, both) in their appropriate directions.

And then everyone reconvened on the Bald Spot with the students in a large circle (well, as large as 521 freshman can make). All students were given a frisbee. And after some brief notes about the physics of flying disks from the president, all were tossed (flung, flicked, thrown, hucked) into the circle in a perfectly Carleton (and D, too) tradition.  And then everyone started hugging and crying and we said our good byes.