Since you are not able to go on campus or in dormitories to see what dorm life is like this year, I hope that I can bring some to you. Below, you can find some photos that I have taken in the past few weeks during my time on campus.
Let's start with my dorm room! This semester I live in Moore Dormitory, which is right next to the dining hall. It's in such a great location, close to the art building, Beneski natural history museum, and just a small walk to the first year quad, which houses the library. Here I have a single, and it has super super tall ceilings and a giant window. The room reminds me of an apartment studio loft. I brought a few (well, 11, to be specific) plants from home to sprinkle throughout the room.
Now we enter the hallway! Hmmm...I can't think of much to say here. It's a pretty functional hallway.
Here is a bathroom in Moore. For some reason when people tour dorms, they always like to peak into bathrooms and closets and stuff. A piece of advice: please don't make your college decision based on what you thought about the bathroom. Nonetheless, here is a photo, in case you are interested. There's four bathrooms on my floor, and it has been PLENTY. I've yet to experience a time where I could not shower or use the sink because the bathroom was full. Moore has super hot water, by the way.
All of the bathrooms on my floor are gender inclusive, meaning all folks can use it regardless of their gender. There are no women's or men's bathrooms on my floor, but some other floors have them. When filling out housing forms, you can select whether you would prefer to be near a gender inclusive bathroom, a women's bathroom, a men's bathroom, or have no preference.
Here is the lounge on my floor! It has a working fire place, three tables, and a random coffee table. The views out of the window face the beautiful mountains. My friends and I like to eat meals here (since currently we cannot eat in the dining hall due to covid).
This is a photo of my breakfast from the dining hall, which I ate in the lounge with my breakfast buddy. We try and get breakfast every weekday at 9:15am, which we consider early compared to some of our other friends' wake up times. I have a much harder time waking up that early on the weekends. The bubble tea is normally not a breakfast regular, but it was leftover from late night that they gave away for breakfast.
Now we enter the third floor lounge. It is awesome. It is really large with long hanging lamps, arm chairs, and a pool table. This past Friday I played pool with three others and it was really fun.
As we walk down the stairs, don't forget to take a peak out the window at the beautiful sunset over the small mountains surrounding Amherst. What color do you think the mountains are? I heard that Amherst's color is purple because the mountains glow purple at sunset, but don't quote me on that.
Okay this is a horrible photo, but I could not walk into the first floor lounge because there were people in it! In that little "pit" there were people playing some sort of video game, and in the larger common room people were projecting something onto the wall. The environmental studies major in me has to note the beautiful compost, recycling, and trash bins in the photo.
Now we walk into the dining hall, where I frequent 3-4 times a day. One time I walked in and saw a cardboard cut out of Trevor Noah, who was invited to speak to us and a few other schools a few weeks ago! I watched the livestream with my friend in my dorm. He is so precise and simple when talking about such big topics. He said we laugh because we find a truth to what the person said. I had never thought about laughter in that way. I believe that we laugh because we get very quickly scared by something but then recover when we realize we are safe, and we release by laughing.
Now we walk a little ways to the first year quad. I took this picture of a tent because I thought it showed the strange sights of going to school during a global pandemic. Here is a classroom tent, complete with a white board, outlets, and desks, exposed to deep snow. But hey, whatever it takes to keep learning on campus, I'll take it!
Now we journey to the Powerhouse, which is a versatile event space. We are playing mini golf, hosted by student activities. It took 20 minutes on a Saturday evening and it was super sweet and fun. It just felt good to be in a space with loud music and a decent number of people after being in quarantine for so long.
Here we come to the last spot for today. This isn't really in the dorm anymore, but it is technically on campus, so it counts. I am taking a hydrogeology class this year, so our lab this week was collecting data in a river! We got to put on hip waders and shuffle into the icy cold water. Nonetheless, it was so awesome. I walked there and back with some juniors and they almost persuaded me to double major in geology. Almost.
Well, that comes to the end of the tour! I was thinking of doing a second tour of some fun academic spots around campus, so be on the lookout for that!
Here is a map of where you were "taken" on this tour. Not included is the trip to the river, which is far off the map down and to the right.