Hello! This is Oraaaaaa. There are only around six more weeks left before winter break. With about semester’s worth of experience, we, first years, are starting to be able to explain Grinnell the way it is.
In English, there is the idiom, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” What truly accounts for the characteristic of Grinnell College that I didn’t account for when choosing to go here was the scenery. Of course, I was aware of the large differences between urban Tokyo and the empty, rural town of Grinnell. That was all I assumed about the landscape here. What took me by surprise when I first came here was the multitude of squirrels scampering around. Although I am slowly getting used to it, occasionally, there are moments when I can’t help but stop to take pictures of the bizarre actions those squirrels are taking.
In October, こうた and I biked to Rock Creek Park. Although the hills to the state park made the travel a painful, 30-minute bike, the view there made it worth going to.
Later in the same month, I went with my IPOP group to Uncle Bill’s Farm. IPOP, which stands for international pre-orientation program, is a two week period before regular classes start where first year Grinnell students enjoy various activities to get used to the new atmosphere. An IPOP group is made before classes start to get to know other students. Each student is assigned to a group and is with that group during most of the New Student Orientation.
Since it was close to Halloween, there were many pumpkins lying around the field. In this farm there was a corn maze, which took a fair amount of time to complete.
When I chose to apply to Grinnell, I did not have many visual resources that helped show what kind of place the college was. I relied mostly on the explanations of Grinnell College that could be seen in the official college site. This valuable feature of being able to see beautiful landscapes is something that was not written on any of the pages I had read.
I hope these pictures help show Grinnell College and its surroundings better than the prolonged descriptions that I read about this college.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
