What comes to mind when you picture St. Olaf College? For me the image of our school conjures up scents of Malt-O-Meal tinged with a whiff of freshly mown grass. I can envision the sweeping fields of our natural lands and hear the whooshing wind turbine. My mouth starts to water for the Cage’s sticky, sugary pastries and the Caf’s make-your-own-omelettes. My fingers begin itching to grab one of the freshly printed, sometimes-will-smudge-your-fingertips-it’s-so-inky New York Times – available for free in every dorm and outside the Caf. But that’s just me.
Now that we’re all back on campus – or maybe, freshers, you’re on the Hill for the first time – after a summer away, perhaps a semester off, or a year abroad, maybe in the interim you’ve noticed certain things that stand out to you about St. Olaf. A certain smell, a sight, a taste, a sound, or a touch that is cemented firmly in your mind under the heading “St. Olaf College.”
After surveying a smattering of Oles to find out what sparks their five senses at St. Olaf – their favorite smells, sights, tastes, touches, and sounds on campus – no two students gave the same answer. Hopefully you’ll be inspired by their responses to appreciate or experience your surroundings here in a deeper way.
A staple of any smart diet, or rather, a tasty one, is a good old-fashioned hamburger – done just right. Or so Awet Ghirmai, ’13 will tell you. An Economics major with a Business Management concentration, Awet’s determination and apparent success at crafting the perfect Caf burger admirably influenced his favorite taste.
Fav Sight: “I like the view from Regents – it’s different. You’re on top and you get to see the whole downtown of the city of Northfield.”
Fav. Sound: “I need music whatever I’m doing.” His favorite? “The “Um Ya Ya” – at the football game.”
Fav. Taste: “I love the burgers – you gotta melt the cheese! It tastes a lot better when it’s melted. With the melted cheese – Cheddar Cheese – [he puts it in the Caf microwave] with the lettuce, one slice of tomato …. You gotta put on everything – pickles, Mayo and Ketchup. Mmm. I had it for dinner.”
Fav. Touch: “The dumbbells in the weight room.”
Fav. Smell: “Malt-O-Meal – just waking up. It smells good.”
For Katie Baber, ’12, a Nursing major with a Women Studies concentration, her role as a Soprano I in Ole Choir influenced her favorite melodies on campus, while her status as a senior this year, she says, certainly has an impact on just how much she appreciates little things at the college.
Fav. Sight: “Just walking around campus in general, just looking at the grass and the trees. It just makes me really happy like, ‘this is St. Olaf!’ I love that!”
Fav. Sound: “I sing in Ole Choir and I really missed singing with them [over the summer] and hearing the songs that we do. This year, we started Psalm 50 which is really great. We started a Bach Choral today, which is really long, almost 40 pages! It’s great to be back.”
Fav. Taste: “I totally missed those chocolate cookies with the white chocolate chips in the Caf! I like all desserts.”
Fav. Touch: “It’s always kind of nice – I’m from Phoenix originally – I still love pulling out the mittens and the gloves during the winter.”
Fav. Smell: “I love the smell of Friday Flowers!”
To some Oles, the Pause, rather than Fireside, the Cage, or Rolvaag Memorial Library, is the place to be after classes on campus. Kabao Thao, ’14, a Psychology major with a Management Studies concentration, says for her and her friends, who mostly go there to hangout at night, this holds true, and influences her favorite sounds and smells.
Fav. Sight: “Outside of Buntrock because going through it you’re actually getting stuff done. ‘I gotta go the library, I gotta get food,’ little tasks that you want to get done, or you want to eat, get lunch, or meet up with people.”
Fav. Sound: “I like the Pause music at night – it reminds me of the dances, and I like all the songs from the Pause Kitchen.”
Fav. Taste: “Chicken Wild Rice Soup [at the Cage] – I like how it tastes and it’s so quick and easy! It’s like, ‘here you go!’ – the rest of the foods you have to wait really long for.”
Fav. Touch: “I love volleyball, so the volleyballs in Skoglund. I’ve played it for five years now – I had an intramural team last year called ‘Check This.'”
Fav. Smell: “The Pause Pizza – their pepperoni pizza. It does smell really good when you get there.”
It’s always nice to be reminded of home – especially when you’re a student from another state, or another country. For GT Maskalo, ‘14, a Biology and Psychology double major with a concentration in Biomolecular Science, the cafe in Regents Hall offers a taste of home – literally, and thus influences his favorite taste.
Fav. Sight: “The fall – when you’re standing in the middle of campus and you look around and you see all the trees and they’re different colors. That’s pretty cool.”
Fav. Sound: “The conversations that people are having when you’re walking from class to class. It’s kind of like people are walking in herds.”
Fav. Smell: “The cookies and the stuff from Malt–O–Meal. You get really hungry – you smell it and you’re like, ‘I want a brownie!'”
Fav. Touch: “The cool breezy feeling of Acetone when you work with it.” For non-science people GT, who recently completed Organic Chemistry, explains: “You basically clean beakers with it after you used them – anything that you used, you usually use Acetone to clean it at the end of lab.”
Fav. Taste: “Ethiopian Coffee from the second floor of Regents.” GT, who is from Ethiopia, added, “It tastes a little bit like home.”