An Excursion Off Campus
Nov 6th, 2009 by Admissions Counselor
One of Goucher’s great assets is our setting and location. Though our campus is a bucolic 287-acre forest, we have the bustling suburb of Towson at our doorstep, the busy cities of Baltimore and DC just a short drive away, and the entire East Coast within a car, bus, train, or plane ride. A few months ago, we asked our students to blog about a typical weekend on campus. This time, we’re featuring a weekend trip that a few of our students took to celebrate Halloween.
Many people say that the community at a small college is like a bubble, but I see it as a very inclusive and nurturing environment. There is so much activity within our “bubble” that there is hardly ever a need to pop it in order to find fun activities. However last weekend for Halloween, I popped the bubble and journeyed with my friends from Goucher to Philadelphia and New York City to partake in the Halloween festivities. After classes on Friday, Lauren ‘12, Mejj ‘11, Yolanda ‘12, and I (Senior!) drove to Philadelphia to spend the night at Lauren’s house. We hung out with her family and dogs, and put the finishing touches on our homemade Halloween costumes. Then we ate dinner with Lauren’s family- a delicious home cooked meal (and actually very similar to the high-quality food served at Goucher).
We got an early start the next morning, eager to get to New York and meet up our other Goucher friends who were taking the bus up later. We’d also be seeing my mother, as I’m from New York originally. We traipsed around my neighborhood, SoHo, and then met my mother for lunch at Hoomoos Asli, one of our favorite local Israeli restaurants. My mother, who’s an artist, had set up some crafty projects to keep us entertained. It was nice to be home!
Later on, we took the subway up to Port Authority and eagerly awaited the arrival of our friend Britt ‘10, who had just finished swimming in her second home meet of the season. We picked her up, and then ran back downtown to throw on our costumes and line up for the Annual New York’s Village Halloween Parade. I was so excited to share a part of my city and childhood with my friends who had never experienced New York on Halloween. We ran into a crew of our friends from Goucher who had apparently shared our desire for a weekend getaway, and together relished in all of Halloween’s offerings.
By Sunday afternoon we were back at Goucher, leaving just enough time to finish the last of our homework and make it Heubeck, our favorite dinning hall. It felt good to get back into our Sunday routine. Although the memories of our fast paced city weekend will be cherished, it was reassuring to be back in our nook, good old Goucher. - Rachel L. is a senior from New York City