The SayBrook Blog: Education, Scholarship, Reference Blog

Archive for Summer Updates

The Lost Post: Calah’s Summer Adventures in Spain

Here’s an old post by Calah about her summer adventures in Spain, which never got posted. I recently rediscovered it and I think it’d be a shame not to share it, so here goes. Enjoy.

.
Hola from… Spain? It´s so bizarre to think that I am living abroad for the
summer, taking classes in a language that I am rapidly discovering I just
don´t speak. This is the beginning of my second week in Leon (in the north of
the peninsula) and I absolutely adore it here. Leon reminds me a lot of New
Haven, actually; minus the sirens at all hours and the Popeyes. It´s small
enough to walk around, has amazing Gothic architecture, and is a veritable
death sentence for my wallet. Spaniards don´t just have weekend sales, they
have DOS MESES of “rebajos.”

more »

Treat Mother Nature Right

Saybrook College, You may be wondering who exactly I am and what purpose I serve for the college and for this blog. Well, allow me to fill you in: My name is Jeff Perrella and I am one of two STEP coordinators for Saybrook College, the other: Emily “Slam Dunk” Arntson. Now you may be

more »

Sa(y)ving the Best for First

Last year, Saybrook was the first residential college to send out assignments. I vividly remember answering my cell phone in Vegas (2013 speechies and debaters, I might have seen you there!). My excited mother proclaimed that I had been anointed a “Say-bruguh-ee-an?”

She was excited because it was more physical evidence that I had actually gotten into Yale (we don’t really trust technology at my house). I was excited because I had heard that Saybrook had a DDR machine, and now I had the opportunity to sharpen my skillz (like skills, but for cool people). [Editor's Note: Ted is not, never was, and never will be cool.]

A year later, my mom has mastered the soft “g”, I’ve realized I am terrible at stepping on brightly colored video game arrows in rhythm, and an email slip-up unwittingly notified the most worthy of the class of 2013 of their college status. First, again.

You would think it gets tiring always being first, the best, the be-all-end-all. But then the freshmen get to rub it in Pierson’s face when everyone trudges back to L-Dub after dinner.

Example: You walk a block to an imposing, gorgeous Gothic castle. They walk through what is generously known as the “ass crack” to what amounts to little more than a Southern plantation.

Example: You are more attractive, have more spacious rooms and dominate the lion’s share of L-Dub. They are cramped into entryways D-F, are less intelligent and have bedbugs.

Example: Your cheer is pithy, powerful and unimpeachable. Theirs is lengthy, monotonous and mind-numbingly lifeless.

So, to every incoming Saybrugian who stumbles upon this blog, welcome to the best four years of your life. I promise they will be better than everyone else’s.

Remember: Our group of randomly assigned students is better than yours.

Summer Update: Ray Xi

Greetings from Beijing!

After a long year of classes and exams, revelry and shenanigans, what do we Saybrugians do in the summer?  We keep working and partying, of course!  All over the world!  From Barcelona, Croatia, London, and Paris, to South Africa, Japan, Ecuador, and Buenos Aires, we truly are a worldly bunch.

great wall 21 Summer Update: Ray Xi

Along with fellow Saybrook 2012er, Tory Jeffay, I’ve been studying intensive Chinese at the Harvard Beijing Academy.  While weekdays are largely spent holed up in classrooms and dorm rooms studying exorbitant amounts of Chinese vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure, we use our free weekends to wander and explore the great city of Beijing.  There’s no better way to understand Chinese culture than by hacking through the “Great Firewall” with Yale VPN, bartering for $2 polos at the Silk Market, going deaf listening to Beijing Opera (Jing Ju), or getting carsick and puking multiple times over the side of the Great Wall (Asian drivers…).  And there’s no better way to practice your Mandarin than by chatting up the natives at clubs in Chaoyang or Sanlitun, or yelling at the barber after he failed to understand the meaning of the words “buzz cut.”

I’ve been here two and a half weeks now, and I’m already sleep deprived—but in a good way.  Like at Yale, the motto here is “Work hard, play harder.”  Who knew a Harvard program could be so much fun?

Probably cause half the kids here are Yalies.

yen party 3 Summer Update: Ray Xi

Incoming search terms:

Free subscriptions For You!! if you want receive our news update about scholarship, education, training, college and university please enter your email below. The articles will be sent to your email at no cost.