For information about her background and enormous accomplishments, as well as video and other content, look to the website, here. Bates did an incredible job coordinating the unveiling of our newest leader, including providing a feed of the event online, as well as live-tweeting from the long dormant @batescollege twitter account.

Here’s my big shocker, though. I know Clayton Spencer. I have known her since I was six or seven years old. And I was just as surprised as everyone else when this was announced! Both of our families live in Winchester, Massachusetts and in elementary school, her son was very close with my older brother. Our parents got along well, and we even visited them at their vacation home in Maine once. I was on the field hockey and track teams with her daughter in high school. I always thought of her as extremely intelligent, but she was in some ways, just another mom in parental sphere of my younger life.

Clayton with her kids, Will and Ava.

I was watching the live feed from my room on Sunday afternoon, doing some homework as the speeches were given in the background. I was very interested, especially as all of the impressive qualifications were detailed. “Wow,” I thought. “We really got a good president for ourselves.” And then when she walked out on stage and her name was announced, it immediately clicked. I called my mom and yelled into the phone “CLAYTON IS THE NEW PRESIDENT OF BATES!” and she said that I had to immediately go find her, and congratulate her. She also laughed because she had run into her at Starbucks recently, and Clayton had asked her “Nora goes to Bates, right?” and my mom dismissed her unexplained question because they were both talking about what their kids were doing, but in retrospect, the secret upcoming announcement was the real motivation. Cool!

I really encourage you all to read up on President-elect Spencer, and prepare for great new things to come to Bates College.

Watch videos here

The very exciting webcast here

And maybe the most important/cool: Keep an eye on the trending topic “#batesprez” on twitter for the social media response.

*Photos from Bates.edu

(It looks like this. Check back after Friday at 4pm when this is due for more tales of how I learned to live in the library and had to carry around two bags because I had so many books.)

Part II:

It was hard. It was so so so hard. I’ve never written anything that length before, so I guess it was a good exercise considering I’ll be writing thesis next semester. Though we wrote and passed in ten pages of the paper in October, I had to scrap all of them because my argument and ideas changed. I’m glad, though…I am happier to have been stressed writing a paper that I feel really good, confident about versus one that was thrown together and easy. I spent nearly all my time in the library over the past week– even came back early from Thanksgiving break to work on it. But I feel incredibly accomplished, and a lot less stressed out. This coming week is the LAST WEEK OF CLASSES of the fall semester! I still have two final papers and a final exam, but I feel like the happiness finishing my term paper is going to propel me straight towards the end. And now I’m an expert on sexuality and criminality in Victorian England, and Dickens’ fond feelings for reforming prostitutes!

Tuesday afternoon my yoga class was cancelled– my teacher did it to encourage all of the students to attend the Andrews lecture, where Scott Belsky would be speaking. Scott is a really, really cool guy. He is articulate and intelligent and creative. Give his website a look to get a better idea of him here – lucky that the first thing you see on that page is a giant photo… I totally had a crush on him. He’s so smart! And so cute! Anyway… he gave a talk about “present tense” — how we’re all so plugged in to the  constantly updating feed of information that our lives have become entirely reactionary. Coming from the business world, he didn’t propose anything outrageous or impossible– he acknowledged that connection is neccessary and that communication is integral to effective business. He simply suggested being mindful, maybe by creating boundaries to keep yourself unplugged for at least a little bit each day. He was a great speaker, and fielded questions afterwards.

The next day, I was really amped up to unplug. Using my clock radio to wake up was a little silly at the beginning of the day, but I felt really free. I kept my phone on, but it was in my backpack the entire day. I told most people that I would be unplugged, so it didn’t create too many issues. I really enjoyed it. But it DID make it hard for my work (on twitter and facebook for the theater department). I’ve always been very interested in technology, social media, the internet, online communications etc in more than just a “i like to use facebook to stalk people” way. The possibilities for connections and keeping up correspondence despite being worlds away are incredible. I wrote my college essay about the internet and using it to connect with people; now, as I zero in on careers, social media has become one of my most utilized and demanded skills. There it is: self-proclaimed social media addict. And I unplugged. And you can too!

You don’t have to do it for a week, you don’t have to unplug across all platforms. You could try merely not checking your facebook for one day and it would still be effective. It will bring you away from being reactionary, and your creativity and free mind can help you be a little bit more proactive about your life.

I understand this may sound a little wonky, but I found a lot of value in the experience, and I’m so glad that Bates (from all different angles, departments, and organizations) was supportive of the experiment.

The first is “Inside Out Bates” – a student run site dedicated to gathering all campus event listings to one page. This is a noble endeavor and not an easy one, to be sure! Bates constantly has different opportunities for students and faculty: events, concerts, lectures, workshops, meetings, performances, the list goes on… The idea behind Inside Out is to engage with student leaders to help bring their events to the student body in a streamlined, managable, and accesible manner. Way to go guys!

The second is the new and improved social media presence of the Bates Theater, Dance and Rhetoric department. This happens to be my doing– I developed and implemented the strategy recently. It’s still all pretty new, but “like” us on facebook to hear about what’s going on in the department, here. We are also on Twitter, @BatesTheater. Its a fun daily task to get a sense of what’s going on around the department and share that with current students, alumni, and hopefully prospective students (that’s you!)!

There are some links. Happy November!

I was acting in “The Pond,” a new original piece written by Bates grad Sam Leichter ’08. Cool huh!? The first three shows were short and silly, and then our show was longer and much more serious. The 25 minute piece was a fun thing to jump into this fall, though less of a time consumer than a full length show!

Though the one acts are over, “The Pond” will be performing again the weekend of November  5th for the Robinson Players 90th anniversary celebration. The playwright will be coming up, along with other old rob players, to celebrate and see some theater. Kind of nerve-wracking, but hopefully wonderful! Can’t wait.

(In the play, I was 8 months pregnant. Here is an early shot from rehearsal, the first time I tried on my fat suit belly!)

While I was abroad last spring, the Bates Yoga Kula came into existence– some really enthusiastic (and inspiring!) students who love yoga decided that there needed to be more on campus! This year, there are FREE classes 5 days a week offered by different instructors in different styles of yoga to the entire Bates community. Talk about amazing.

I’d never done yoga before, but had to complete a final PE credit for graduation. I signed up, assuming I’d just go two days a week, as is required. I totally fell in love. This semester is a crazy busy one for me, with FOUR classes in the English department keeping me utterly occupied– always reading and writing! Going to yoga every afternoon at 4:30 is my daily break from my super stressed world. The classes here are really well attended– the radiant vinyasa classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays usually brings out around 90 students and staff! Thats a LOT of sweaty people manipulating their bodies and breath in one room. Very cool and very uniting. The classes are held in Old Commons, where Batesies used to dine before the new facility was built.

Anyways, the kula (or community) organizes more than just classes each day. There are workshops and field trips– one such being the retreat! We headed out to Bates’ property near Popham beach, Shortridge, on Friday afternoon. We had 5 cars full of happy yogis ready for some relaxation, meditation and serious yoga. A diverse group of students, of all class years, genders, and friend groups, we all came together and had an amazing weekend. Filled with classes, meditating, games, conversation, silence, eating, beautiful weather, and an unforgettable 7:30 AM beach trip, I am so happy with my decision to go. I felt empowered– both physically, due to my mastery of some of the more strength-intensive poses that I’d yet been able to do, and mentally, after maintaining silence for an extensive period of time and conquering barriers in my mind as well.

Such a great trip– but now i have a LOT of reading to do, and my body is aching from all the yoga I’ve done in the past few days!

Here are some photos, all taken by Hannah Zweifler.

Pretty lovely right?? Ah, the joys of a beautiful day in Maine…

Here is a photo of me taken by dean Keith Tannenbaum while I sing my heart out. It’s a great moment! (i’m in the bottom right with the colorful squares on my shirt). Rock on.

Because of my involvement with the BOC, the past three years I have been on set-up crew: I volunteer to get up at the crack of dawn and load up the trucks with food, drive out to the site and generally prep things. This involves a lot of heavy lifting (…of ketchup bottles and cookies) but it is always a lot of fun to bond with the BOCers. We had amazing weather this year, which is lucky because last year’s clambake was a cold and drizzly event.

Here is a few of the set up crew as we prepare to dig pits in the sand to cook the lobsters!

While contemplating how to cut up watermelon for two hundred people with, unfortunately, nothing but a swiss army knife, our brainstorming took us in a rather artistic direction and thus, mr Potatomelonhead was born.

Clambake is a great tradition that brings Bates kids off campus to get one last beach day in before the wonders of fall unfold. I’ll certainly miss this next year!! Lucky for me, the BOC holds two clambakes a year– there’s another one in short term!

Schuyler and I ready for a fancy dinner with her parents at Patois– yum yum! Not to be confused with this picture from last year.

We went to the zoo! I love zoos (and aquariums, too!)

Schuyler is READY for the zoo– we even parked next to the ZOO MOBILE!

Check that bird!

Who was hotter, that black bear or me?

Ducks roamed freely– as did peacocks

I was being really silly. There are LOTS of monkeys at this zoo, however, because of the heat, they were all napping in the back of their cages. I was forced to improvise…

I thought that this picture of me and an elephant’s butt was really important.

Clearly a big fan of statues…

Schuyler was too!

And last but not least, we found a bobcat. Go bates college!!

After a long day of walking around the zoo, we stopped for lunch at an incredible restaurant called Couchon. BBQ with a hip, fresh flare. Guess what I had? ALLIGATOR. Guess what it tasted like? Chicken.

Later that night, Schuy and I sampled local cuisine. We got milkshakes…

Which was not the only milkshake I consumed — in fact, the next day we breakfast at Slim Goodies Diner  and I had a delicious vanilla milkshake too! Look how serene I am…

We tried walking the french quarter– through the market and bourbon street, etc, but it was just too hot. We attempted to cool ourselves down with cold drinks, but it wasn’t doing the trick.

It was hot hot hot, but then again what can you expect from N’awlins in August? It was a great trip — other highlights included lunch at La Petite Grocery , sampling ceviche and rubbing elbows with the elite of NOLA at Cure, and apparnetly barely escaping food poisoning at Nacho Mama’s (unfortunately, our companion Taimur was not so lucky…).

New Orleans is just such a fascinating city. There’s so much to see, so much to do, so much to eat, to drink, to learn. It’s definitely a place I would like to keep visiting; each time I go, I experience completely new things!

And it’s back to Bates on Friday!