Mocha Mondays

I just returned from an event sponsored by the Programming Board called "Mocha Mondays," at Rosey Jekes Cafe, a small cafe located a few blocks from campus in downtown Hanover. One of the neatest aspects about student life at Dartmouth is that many events are sponsored by the Programming Board, an organization whose sole purpose is to organize entertaining events for Dartmouth students, ranging from concerts (The Roots were here in the fall) to ice skating at Thompson Arena (the hockey rink). Currently, PB is running a coffeehouse series at Rosey Jekes which started tonight and will continue for the next six weeks with a variety of different professional performers.

As a member and executive of the Programming Board, I was at Rosey Jekes to help staff the event, and it was packed! There were tons of Dartmouth students there; there were so many people that everyone was standing along the walls and anywhere that they could find space. The performer, Tom Sartori, was incredibly entertaining as he told stories about his life in between his songs, and students were able to enjoy coffee and pastries from the cafe with free vouchers while they sat with their friends and listened to the great music and stories.

Some people think that Dartmouth is in the "middle of nowhere" and aren't interested in coming for that reason, but there are always so many different events, shows, and things going on that I rarely hear students complain about being bored.

The Programming Board is just one of a host of organizations that plan events for student entertainment; at least one a cappella group seems to perform at some point each week, and we have two different improv comedy groups that do a show at least a few times per term. And that doesn't even include all of the movies and live performances held almost nightly at the Hopkins Center (known as the "Hop" amongst Dartmouth students) - a few weekends ago, a group of my friends and I went to see Borat at the Hop for only $5.

One of the great things about Dartmouth is that there's always something to do, and I'm rarely bored.