Best Person to Share a Desert Island With: Michael Lapadot

Most Dreamed About: Katie Bonneau

Friendliest: Taylon Johnson

Most Likely to Have a CMC Building Named After Them: Alex Berman

Poppa Power Couple: Mark Munro & Erica Libby

Most Likely to Become a CMC Professor: Jake Petzold

 

 

Most Likely to #OccupyWallStreet: Dan Evans

Most Likely to Take Over the World: Dana Staley & Drew Oetting (together)

Best All-Around: Kevin Macpherson & Elena Davert

Most Nominated: Alex Wheatley

After the dinner, the Senior Class went across Foothill Blvd. to local piano bar Piano Piano, where the above mentioned winners enjoyed free drink coupons. But what were some category suggestions that didn’t make the cut? Here are some “more inspired recommendations coming from the broader Senior Class,” as Class of 2012 President Mary Doyle puts it:

Featured image credit goes to John Faranda.

The following information is what you won’t find in your Welcome Guide.

Considerations in the week prior to Coachella:

• Have Collins pack food for you. If you talk to them ASAP and provide them with all the ID numbers of the people in your group, Collins will pack you a cooler full of food like sandwich fixings, bagels, chips, etc. I’d suggest you bring some snacks to supplement what they give you. A Costco run to get Gatorade, bottled water and granola bars is a smart idea. There are tons of food trucks and stands for food inside the venue, as well as a Farmer’s Market and other food sources outside by the car camping area. Unless you get a free voucher for those places, I’d stay away because they are insanely overpriced and the lines are long.
• Rent camping gear from On the Loose (OTL). The Claremont Colleges’ outdoors club allows students to rent camping gear for free. Head over to their location in the Outdoor Education Center at Pomona ASAP to get yours before they have all been rented out.
• Bring clothes you’re comfortable in. There will be people covered in elaborate paint designs. There will be people wearing fur vests and boots. They are all crazy. Wear materials that you feel comfortable sweating in – like cotton. Wear shoes that won’t give you blisters if your feet are sweating. Girls, no matter what they say about Coachella fashion, don’t wear your nicest dresses. You will have sweat and grass stains all over them by the end of the day. This is a promise. Speaking of sweat, bring remedies, whether it is spandex or Gold Bond.
• Leave Claremont early. It is about an hour and a half to get to Indio, and once you’re there you will wait in line for another hour and a half to get into the parking lot, which opens at 9:00 a.m. You want to get in early enough to be able to set up your camp and head over to the venue before it opens at 11 a.m. Honestly, there’s no such thing as leaving too early on Friday morning. Some people even leave Thursday night and camp out in the area.
• Arrive in a caravan of cars. Figure out who you want to camp next to and meet at a gas station or restaurant in Indio and drive in together from there. The order of camping spots goes according to the order of the procession of cars. It is way more fun if you are camping in a big group than if you are all spread out, so make sure to organize that ahead of time.
• Shade, shade, shade. Make sure you have enough shade when you’re camping. You will be dying for a comfortable space, and by Coachella standards, that means shade and only shade. Bring a tarp or some form of canopy other than a tent. During the day, the tent with be too stuffy and hot to hang out in.
• Bring more than one set of keys to your car, if possible. You will want to keep your valuables inside your car, and people in your group will want to have access to the car at inopportune moments. Some people hide their keys under their tires or in other places, but I’d rather stay on the safe side.
• Pack toilet paper. The porta potties run out often and if you’re car camping, they are your only option.

Photo credit: Caroline Nyce

Tips for when you’re at Coachella:

• Stay hydrated. The sun is your biggest enemy. As someone with fair skin and a hereditary predisposition to fainting, I cannot stress this enough. You won’t be able to bring water into the venue (they probably suspect it’s all vodka), but there are water fountains available to fill up your bottle inside. You can also buy water bottles in the venue, but again, they are insanely overpriced. My suggestion is to hydrate as much as possible while out at your car, then bring an empty bottle with you into the venue.
• Don’t forget to eat. It sounds ridiculous, but it happens so often. Coachella is a world with no schedule other than the band lineup. They don’t schedule “lunch time” into your daily activities, and you’ll be so amped on music or something else, that you will forget. And the moment you realize you forgot to eat is five minutes before you pass out. Between the desert sun and the copious amounts of ecstasy, Coachella has seen many people pass out. Don’t let that be you. With the exception of a few health conditions, passing out is completely preventable if you stay hydrated and eat throughout the day.
• Give in to consumerism. Earlier I mentioned food vouchers… You will quickly notice the juxtaposition between the “Almost Famous” lifestyle and the exorbitant amount of consumerism at Coachella. Even the most anti-consumerism Coachella-goers find themselves herded into the traps of giant companies because the benefits of participating in their little marketing ploys are far greater than the costs. For example, last year, State Farm had a tent set up in the car camping lot where you could get rides on a golf cart to and from the venue if you signed up to receive promotional info. They would also enter you into a lottery to receive free meal or general store vouchers, and the odds were highly in your favor. The State Farm tent was a Coachella game changer, to say the least.
• Use a group texting app to communicate with friends. It is really handy to be able to communicate with your whole group at once, to plan a place to meet up or to find out if a set being played across the venue is worth leaving the one you’re already at. My favorite thing about the group text was the sentimental messages sent on the way home, departing notes from friends who had just shared an epic weekend. The most memorable sentiments from last year’s group text: “When I die, I want my ashes to be buried at Coachella.” As it says in the Welcome Guide, Coachella is promoting GroupMe as the app to use, and Voxer is also an option.
• Be smart with your phone. The cell reception in the venue is often shotty because there are just so many people. Also, there are various charging stations in the venue and in the parking lots, but there is usually a long line for them. To beat this, change your settings so you don’t waste so much battery life. If you have a smartphone, turn off your 3G/4G and your cellular data. Also, bring a car charger.
• Shower at night. In the car camping lots, there are shower trailers that aren’t so bad if you know what to do. First of all, wear a bathing suit and flip flops. Second of all, don’t be a dummy like everyone else and try to shower in the morning. You will spend hours waiting in line just to get extremely sweaty right away. Try to shower at sunset, when it’s still light out but the temperature is cooler. There will be absolutely no line at all, and you won’t feel gross immediately after showering.

Finally, I have two more pieces of advice that I think are most important (other than stay hydrated!).

• Have the experience you paid for. Go to see the artists that you bought your ticket to see, regardless of what your friends are going to. For the really big sets, like the Black Keys or Radiohead, it is probably best to have some buddy system in place. But for the most part, be smart and do what you want to do. Right away you will realize how many personal needs you have (you drank so much water and now you have to pee; you’re dying of thirst; you are starving for food; you need to go take a nap back at the campsite; you’re going to punch someone if you have to listen to any more dubstep). Listen to those needs.
• Don’t do anything you don’t want to. Contrary to popular belief, Coachella is not a good place to try something new. If you’ve never done something before, the best place to do it is not in a crowd of hundreds of people with the desert sun beating on you as you jump up and down. Those who know me would attest to the fact that I am never one to shy away from a party. But last year, Coachella was the most fun weekend of my semester, and it was absolutely my most sober weekend. Don’t think that you’re not getting the full experience if you’re not doing some kind of crazy substance. Coachella is a world entirely of its own, and the way to make the most of it is to just do you.

#ClaremontCoachella2012!

In fact, Italy isn’t really all that different from the U.S. There is a McDonald’s down the street, the teenagers are loud, and you’re not cool unless you have an iPhone. But surprisingly enough, this similarity between cultures has taught me quite a lot. Maybe it’s the fact that I can identify with their lifestyle that makes me more aware of the nuances. I find that many of the things they do in Italy are the same things we do in the U.S., Italians just do them a little bit differently. Their McDonald’s has a café inside, their iPhone plans cost an arm and a leg, and the teenagers – well they’re still just teenagers. But it is the small differences that have taught me so much.

detailing the inner-workings of the Camorra, a powerful mafia organization from Naples. As you can imagine, taking on the Italian mafia is no breezy feat. Saviano now lives in a secret location and will have round-the-clock police protection for the rest of his life. But none of this is really why he came to mind when I decided to wonder about what is most important in life. Rather, I was reminded of a YouTube video I saw of Saviano talking about “10 cose per cui vale la pena vivere,” or, “10 things that make life worth living.” From my perspective, Saviano’s list embodies what Italians consider to be most essential. Here is what he shared:

(the translations are of the intended message and are not word-for-word)

Maybe I haven’t done anything during my time studying abroad that is going to change the world, but living in Italy has certainly changed me. I cannot provide you with deep insight into the events of the world today. Half of me wishes I could. But instead, I have been given a different kind of insight – the ability to understand myself. Okay, not completely, but unquestionably better than before. In terms of exploring the self, Italian culture has inspired me in a profound way. If nothing else, I will bring with me back to Claremont an awareness and an appreciation for the important things in my life. My list is not the same as Saviano’s. I’m sure yours is different, too. But if you ask an Italian, the important thing is that you have a list. That you take the crucial moments to recognize the things that make your life worth living. On behalf of my wonderful Italy, I encourage you to take the time while you’re walking to class, going for a run, or falling asleep to think about what makes your own life worth living. You don’t have to be in Italy to appreciate everything that is wonderful. L’amore da Italia, la vita è bella!

Alex Wheatley ’12!

Runner-Up: Sam Jolly ’12

While Alex and Sam showed their ultimate dedication to the cause by growing authentic mustaches, many of the artificial ones donned were quite commendable as well. Take a look!

(Photo credit: Jessica Dang ’13)

First, some playlist highlights:

“First Day of My Life” by Bright Eyes narrates that sweet kind of love every little girl dreams of and every guy denies its existence until it jabs him in the heart. Yours is the first face that I saw. I swear I was blind before I met you. Bright Eyes mastermind Conor Oberst describes that life-changing moment when you recognize you have fallen into something truly special. 

“No One’s Gonna Love You” by Cee-Lo is a cover of the popular Band of Horses song. Of course, all of you indie aficionados are probably wondering why we would choose the cover over the original. In our perspective they are equally great, but Cee-Lo’s rendition has a heart-wrenching music video to accompany it. Cee-Lo’s video narrates the decomposition of a relationship in the most raw emotion possible. You may be thinking that this isn’t exactly something to be celebrated, but Valentine’s Day celebrates love of all kinds, and what is more real than this?

“Red Right Ankle” by The Decemberists is much more interpretive. Some don’t even believe it to be a love song because it can be understood in many different ways. But for Valentine’s Day, lyrics like This is the story of the boys who loved you, who love you now and loved you then speak to a deep history between two lovers. The imagery of “muscle, bone and sinews tangled” describes a love so embedded in their beings that it exists underneath their skin.

Lastly, the song “Slow Show” by The National may be an unconventional one, as it depicts a much darker scene than would be expected from a Valentine’s Day anthem. Matt Berninger of The National is a true poet with his lyrics, and this song is a clear example of that. In “Slow Show” Berninger sings I wanna hurry home to you, put on a slow dumb show for you, and crack you up, describing the familiar feeling of being in an uncomfortable setting and longing for what is so natural and exhilarating. This song summarizes the “best friend” aspect of a relationship, when two people are so in sync and familiar with each other that they long for the comfort of each other’s presence. It is almost as if their familiarity with each other is born from a fated connection. The repetition of You know I dreamed about you for twenty nine years before I saw you at the end of the song sounds almost like a lullaby. I missed you for 29 years reinforces that sentiment that from the very start they were always meant to be together – that no one else could ever compare.

Featured image photo credit: Antique Soldiers

Before we get to the playlist, we want to share one of our favorite new songs we found during our exploration of contemporary Christmas music. “Boots” was the single released by The Killers as part of a charity for Project RED. As they have for the past four years, The Killers are donating all proceeds from their holiday single to fight AIDS. Therefore, we encourage you to buy the song on iTunes rather than download it for free. “Boots” is an incredible song but the tear-jerking video is what really puts it at the top of my list. See for yourself.

And now for that Christmas playlist I mentioned…

If you can’t get enough of the indie Christmas music, there’s tons more out there. Check out Indie Shuffle and Hype Machine‘s offerings for a hipster holiday, and definitely don’t miss Can You See The Sunset‘s 12 Days of Christmas MP3′s for 2010 series (which is actually 14 days, score!).

And because CMC’s student body is far more diverse than just containing those celebrating Christmas, we feel it necessary to share, for the enjoyment of anyone of the dreidel-spinning persuasion, the ingenious hilarity that is “Candelight” by the Maccabeats. (Note: we would have included more Hanukkah songs but it seems they are not as easy to come by as Christmas music. And we can lump Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah song in there with Run DMC, Mariah Carey and N’Sync).

If you have any songs to add including those from winter holidays other than Hanukkah and Christmas, please do share. Happy holidays everyone! Build a snowman and enjoy our time off.

Chris and Zach's home for eight weeks.

How many people in the world do you think live on less than $2.50 a day? The answer: Almost half of the world. This figure seems even more staggering when compared with the typical CMCer’s daily tab. We spend about $15.21 every time we swipe our card at Collins.

Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple ’12 noticed something a bit funny about this difference. These zealous CMC students lunged at this issue with all the economic knowledge they could muster. Their solution? Microfinance, the provision of financial services to people facing poverty, especially in third world countries. Okay, Zach and Chris didn’t invent microfinance themselves, but they did put this revolutionary idea into practice in a unique, inspiring way.

Along with two other college students, Chris and Zach spent eight weeks this summer living on less than a dollar a day in a rural Guatemalan village with the objective of understanding what it means to subsist on such a meager sum. With camera in hand, the four boys started their project, Living On One Dollar-A-Day. CMCers may have noticed Zach and Chris when they appeared in our Facebook inboxes during the summer to update us about their experiences via video blogs.

Zach Ingrasci '12 hangs out with un niño in Peña Blanca, Guatemala.

In a tropical village on the other side of the equator, Zach (“Sr. Campesino”) and Chris (“Sr. Microfinanzas”) developed relationships with the local people and carefully observed the way they made ends meet on less than a dollar each day. The first realization that struck Zach and Chris was that “living on a dollar a day” does not mean you can expect to get one whole dollar every day. For Guatemalans, there is not a guarantee that each day will present a work opportunity and the pay that comes with the chance to labor. The boys simulated the unpredictability of income by drawing a piece of paper from a hat each morning. Each paper slip noted the amount of money the guys would receive that day.

By living frugally and unpredictably, they learned how crucial (yet difficult) budgeting such a small amount of money is. Everything had to be planned for and the guys kept a ridiculously detailed daily budget. The question at the forefront of their study quickly became clear. After short-term expenses for food, medicine, clothes, and emergencies, how can an individual save enough money for long-term opportunities like schooling or new business pursuits?

Chris Temple '12 and some friends.

Each day brought a new adventure and a new lesson. Zach and Chris learned the importance of planning for the future and relying on one’s community. The guys also realized the profound difference between their own lives in the United States and the lives of the Guatemalan village people with whom they interacted. Zach notes in the guys’ seventh video that although there are many parallels between the two lifestyles, it’s the things we take for granted that are the things these people depend on to survive every day.

Zach was particularly moved by the grave disparity between his experiences and those of two Guatemalan men working in construction. “I work eight hours a day and they work eight hours a day,” Zach explained, ” But when I go home, I eat a full meal and have a great bed to sleep in. When they go home, they get rice and tortillas. For someone to live on a diet of that, or less, and to be able to work how I work at home, or more – that just made a huge impact on me.”

Zach and Chris remain hopeful for the futures of their friends in Guatemala. A common theme throughout all of their videos is the resilience of character within the community’s individuals. Microfinance has empowered the village people to start businesses and send their children to school.  Most importantly, these people have hope for a better future without the hardships of poverty. Zach and Chris witnessed how microfinance transformed the spirit of a community and walked away from the experience with valuable insights.

Both guys have continued their adventures abroad this semester. Zach has spent his fall semester in Ecuador studying and working for Freedom from Hunger, a microfinance organization that provides health education. Chris is exploring Spain and has “gained back the 20 pounds” that he lost in Guatemala, and “fought off any lingering e-coli, giardia, and flea infestations.” Between adventures, both guys are helping the filmmakers transcribe interviews for the final documentary and working on creating more awareness for their video blog.

On November 12th, the first post of their video blog series was featured on YouTube’s global homepage. Within four days, the video received 417, 625 hits. They will soon be featured in an online article by YES Magazine and a Connecticut-based television station will broadcast their video blogs. These two CMCers have come a long way since the fateful Monday evening last spring when they stood before our Student Senate to request funding for the only expense of their trip – the camera needed to shoot the documentary.

If you have a few spare minutes, dedicate it to watching Chris and Zach’s videos. Fortunately their video blog is just a sample of their documentary, which will premier at the Athenaeum this spring in partnership with the Claremont International Relations Society.

All photo credit goes to Sean Leonard and Ryan Christoffersen.

There are 282 members of the Class of 2013–Connor has set himself a pretty hefty goal. Following through with The Meal Project will be a lot of work, so why is he doing it? After a conversation with Connor, it is apparent that his motives are unrelated to popularity. “I firmly believe that everyone has something to bring to the table – no pun intended – as no two persons’ perspectives, personalities, or life experiences are exactly the same,” says Connor. “I want to take full advantage of the opportunity to get to know each of [my peers].”

It seems that we are in certain friend groups because we ‘naturally gravitate’ towards the people we choose to hang out with. But for freshmen and sophomores, it’s important to take a step back and ask yourself whether the people that you go to every meal with are really the people you connect with the most, or if they are just the people that were on your W.O.A.! trip, or the people that you live next to. We have heard it a million times that if we just branch out a bit, we’d be surprised to find how much similarity we have with other people. The reason that we hear that so often is because it’s true, and Connor has figured it out first hand. “I love to hear peoples’ stories: who they are, why they’re here, what they want to get out of this college experience, etc. It is always interesting to me to find out what things you’ll have in common with random strangers.”

After going on the Sophomore Leadership Experience sponsored by the Kravis Leadership Insitute, Connor realized how often we as people create artificial barriers between ourselves. Once he returned to campus, he recognized how those human divisions apply to CMC’s social culture. Through the Meal Project, Connor wants to personally rid his social life of some of those distinctions, feeling that “we are such a small school already, we don’t need any more divisions.”

Not only does Connor’s Meal Project cross the barriers created by individual friend groups, but it is also enlightening to experience the difference between sober and non-sober social interactions. As Connor says, “With the exception of Wade Vaughn, pretty much everyone is quieter and more conservative at dinner than they are at TNC.” Connor is quick to say that he loves our typical weekend social life just as much as any other CMCer, but questions whether or not the “friendships” created at TNC are the kind that we would benefit from most. “It continues to surprise me how outgoing CMCers can be at TNC – never hesitating to make an introduction or dance on a table – but just can’t push themselves outside of their comfort zones in everyday life,” says Connor. As “silly and paternalistic” as it sounds, Connor just wants everyone to get out there and meet new people while sober.

Before leaving for Fall Break, Connor was five weeks into the Meal Project and a fifth of the way through all of his classmates. He has started with all of the contacts in his phone, which he notes is an interesting test to see how many of his contacts he actually would feel comfortable asking to have a meal with. When his phonebook is exhausted, he will turn to Facebook and e-mail to reach out to the remainder of his peers.

The Meal Project is Connor’s personal means of accomplishing his goal, but he hopes that others will join in this pursuit. Branching out does not have to be as extreme as starting your own Meal Project. Rather, Connor just proposes that we make a little more effort to be aware of, and challenge, our own social tendencies. If Connor can have a meal with everyone in our entire grade, then each of our own individual attempts to branch out are comparatively easy. In Connor’s words, “I challenge everyone who reads this to introduce yourself to one new person today. Use this article as an excuse to strike up a conversation with that cute guy or girl you always pass on the way to Statistics. If you need a talking point, try The Meal Project.”

Photo Credits: Connor Barclay