Study Abroad Blog

To those of you interested in following my summer abroad in London, check out my study abroad blog! http://meghandelman.tumblr.com/

Hello London Town

My first blog post from London! I have officially been on my study abroad trip for a week now. It began with a couple of bumps in the road..our flight was rerouted to Chicago 3 hours into the plane ride and then cancelled due to mechanical problems. So we arrived a day later than planned, but still just as excited for our trip.

We are living in South Bank about 1 block from the London Eye. Our walk to class entails a picturesque view of Big Ben, Westmister Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and St. Paul's Cathedral on the other side of the skyline. The class building is in a prime location- right off of Trafalgar Square and a 5 minute walk from downtown Picadilly Circus. 

So far, we've done a ton of walking and visiting both tourist spots and local haunts. A few of my favorite things were climbing 528 steps to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral to look out over the city, visiting the Chelsea Flower Show (and failing to understand the British obsession with gardening), walking through Hyde Park and looking out for Princess Kate at Kensington Palace, and, of course, finding classic British pubs throughout the city. I was able to find some good, cheap restaurants in the Soho area. There were also a lot of interesting boutique stores as well as a couple of awesome record stores. Covent Garden is another fun spot to walk through, although many of the stores there can be found in America as well.

This weekend, I am traveling to Scotland to visit Edinburgh and St. Andrews. Look out for more pictures from that trip coming soon! :)

'It's definitely a rule that gets broken a lot'

Watch me go behind the scenes to uncover how women feel about parietals at Notre Dame.

For my final video project, I decided to answer the question: How do women feel about parietals at Notre Dame? Notre Dame's visiting policy regarding members of the opposite sex staying in the dorms at night is called Parietals. Throughout this project, I explored how the policy impacts the lives of undergraduate women and the hall staff in a women's hall on campus. I was specifically interested to learn how parietals impact in the social culture at Notre Dame, if they can have a negative impact, what the benefits of the policy are, and how the social culture would change on campus if the policy didn't exist at Notre Dame.

This project opened my eyes to many sides of the issue that I did not consider previously. The women I interviewed brought forth strong points that both supported and opposed parietals. They made it clear that the policy has a noticeable impact on social culture and gender relations at Notre Dame. Through interviewing multiple subjects, I found that parietals hinder friendships between men and women on campus more often than relationships. The women spoke about an underlying assumption that the policy is in place to prevent sexual relationships. In reality, the policy cuts in on the time men and women can spend building friendships by creating a blatant division between sexes. It also puts in place an assumption that any relationship carried on between a man and women in the middle of the night must be a sexual one, and leaves no room for heterosexual friendships to grow.

After completing the project, I came up with a few suggestions for how University could improve the policy. First, as Sr. Mary Donnelly suggested, would be to raise the number and quality of 24-hour spaces in the dorms, giving men and women a good alternative location to spend time together after parietals go into effect. Second, I suggest the University extend the policy to 2a.m. during weekdays (the policy currently requires students to vacate dorms of the opposite sex by midnight), which would allow slightly more time for men and women to hang out or study together at night without a curfew that can get in the way. By 2a.m. it is late enough that the curfew would be less of a nuisance.

This project also clarified the ways which parietals and the dorm culture at Notre Dame have fundamentally played a role in how our community is shaped. While the rules can be annoying at times, the hall staff that I interviewed for the project pointed out strong benefits of the system. She argued the policy helps to solidify relationships between women in residence halls by allowing them a time to comfortably just "hanging out with the girls."

The policy remains a fact of life at Notre Dame, and likely will for a long time. Although the rules now seem outdated and hinder social dynamics, there are ways the policy could be updated to serve the student body better while still maintaining the values of the University at the same time.

Fisher Regatta

Watch coverage of the Fisher Regatta!

Listen to my suggestions for building a winning regatta boat!

‘Favorite day of the year’

This year’s Fisher Regatta set records in a series of categories: temperatures, fun and attendance.

Fisher Hall hosted the annual regatta last weekend, the most outrageous dorm event at Notre Dame.

The regatta, held on St. Mary’s lake at Notre Dame, is a one-on-one boat-racing tournament. Each boat entered must be homemade.

“This is my favorite day of the year by far,” Charley Berno said. “Everyone has a great time being outside, watching the races, and hanging out together.”

A resident of Fisher Hall, Berno said that he and his fellow hall-mates look forward to the regatta all year long.

Drawing over a thousand spectators, people lined the shore of St. Mary’s lake to enjoy the free food, music, and catch a glimpse of the racing boats.

Most dorms enter at least one boat to race in the regatta. Non-dorm boats may compete as well.

Susan Nichols, a resident of Pangborn Hall, helped build a boat for the event last year.

“Our boat won last year, so it was an especially exciting year for Pangborn,” Nichols said.

Fisher Hall took the victory last Sunday. Four “Fishermen,” residents of Fisher Hall, who rowed their hearts out for the win, drove their speedy plywood canoe.

“Winning the regatta is a big deal for us,” Jack Souter said. “This is the first victory for Fisher Hall since 1992. I am beyond proud.”

The second Fisher Hall boat was a raft supported by hollow pylons that supported the raft. Five residents of Fisher Hall steered the raft from the North shore of the lake to the West shore finish line.

“This was my first year actually riding in a boat, or on the raft I guess,” Garrity McOsker said. “It was crazy. The boat felt like it was sinking and we had to try and balance it from every side.”

The regatta brought out all different types of boats, constructed with materials ranging from Styrofoam to wood to plastic to concrete.

Many of the boats even capsized in the water, leaving the students to swim their boats to the shore.

“The water is pretty nasty,” Jasmine Moxley, a freshman spectator, said. “I would definitely not want to be riding in one of the boats. The water looks cold too!”

The day, however, was beautiful. One of the first sunny days to hit South Bend in springtime, Saturday’s regatta was scheduled for the perfect day.

“This year, the weather made a huge difference,” Chase Mlarnik, a Fisher Hall junior, said. “Last year the rain was too bad. The regatta is always fun, but the sunshine made it an especially great day.

Notre Dame students flocked outside to enjoy the sunshine, and this meant record attendance for the 2013 regatta.

Music was blasting from a DJ booth behind the lake, and students took advantage of the opportunity to dance and hang out, enjoying the scene.

Allie Gerspach, a sophomore in Welsh Family Hall, said this day felt like what college should be like all the time.

“It feels like summer and I love being here with all of my friends enjoying the party,” she said. “This is my first time at the regatta, but I am already counting down until next year.”

In fact, the Fisher Regatta has been placed on ESPN’s list of Top 100 College Events. The legendary day is filled with good food, fun boat races, loud music, and marks the beginning of Spring for Notre Dame students.

One thing is for sure, the Fisher Regatta is a signature student event that Notre Dame undergrads don't want to miss.

SOTD 4.30

Colder Weather, Zac Brown Band

Ring by Spring

Listen to my report on to see how the shifting face of marriage has changed the Ring by Spring tradition at Notre Dame.

"Ring by Spring" is a marriage tradition dating back to coeducation at Notre Dame. The term refers to couples who become engaged before graduating from college. As the legend goes, a couple will take a romantic walk around the lakes, the boyfriend will propose to his girlfriend at the Grotto, and their wedding will take place at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. These three steps complete the Ring by Spring tradition.

At Notre Dame, where traditions abound, Ring by Spring is perceived to have been wildly popular in the past. I interviewed different parties at Notre Dame to get the inside scoop about Ring by Spring. Kailyn and Mark, seniors who became engaged last December, discussed their reasons for wanting to marry. Professor Pamela Butler, an expert on the history of marriage in America, discussed the implications of marrying at a young age and how Ring by Spring fits into the larger history of marriage in this country. Lastly, Freshman Katie DuFour shared the results of the study she did at Notre Dame about whether or not people are interested in getting engaged at a young age and her opinions on the tradition.

I came to the conclusion that Ring by Spring is not as common as it is perceived to be at Notre Dame. While there are still a number of undergraduate couples who are engaged, they are in the minority of their class and often judged by their classmates for choosing to get married so early. Most importantly, their motivation to get engaged is not at all connected to an interest in carrying out the Ring by Spring fantasy. Kailyn and Mark insist that the Ring by Spring tradition had nothing to do with their motivation to get engaged before graduation. They feel they are simply ready to settle down and live their lives together.

In history, marrying young could benefit women especially. Many of them attended college looking to obtain an "MRS degree," basically on the lookout for a future husband. Once becoming engaged, they gained the security the marriage provided. In the present, this reality no longer exists. In fact, marrying young can work against the potential economic prosperity a women will have in her career. Especially at Notre Dame, where a large majority of women are career focused and capable.

Marrying young has shifted from goal to a happenstance.

"Day at the Notre Dame Grotto & Lakes"

"Day at the Notre Dame Grotto & Lakes", a set on Flickr.

For my photography project, I exposed what it would be like to spend a day at the Grotto at Notre Dame. Arriving at 6:20am, I watched the sunrise over St. Joseph’s lake at 7:02. It took the sun 19 minutes to fully rise above the clouds sitting on the horizon and become fully visible. At 7:21, when the sun had fully risen, St. Joseph’s lake was quite choppy but St. Mary’s lake was as calm as glass.

The average person spent between three and five minutes at the Grotto. The majority of visitors did not give a donation in the collection box. As a matter of fact, no students donated money before lighting a candle. Very few visitors did. The average adult visitor lit two candles. The average student lit one. Eleven people stopped to place their hand on the rock from the Grotto at Lourdes and say a prayer. Of the visitors that came to the Grotto, about ninety percent of them knelt down to say a prayer after lighting a candle. Four people prayed with a rosary.

At 12:09 an elderly man rode up the path toward the Grotto on a blue and silver bicycle. He opened a cabinet beneath where the candles are kept and pulled out a pair of blue gloves. He began disposing of the burnt out candles and threw away the wooden sticks used to light the candles that were used up. He then pulled out a broom and began sweeping away the ashes, dirt and leaves on the Grotto floor. He then lit a candle himself, walked out of the gated area, got back on his bicycle and rode back down the road at 12:28.

It began raining at 6:48pm. The 5 people visiting the Grotto at that time quickly dispersed. For the rest of the night, only 8 people visited the Grotto. Because of the rain, none of them knelt down to pray. They spent an average of 2 minutes there.

The following photographs were taken on a DSL-R camera and edited using iPhoto. The photos are arranged in the order they were taken. The project was done on April 17, 2013.