Pitzer Outdoor Adventure

Jenna Florio- Queens, NY

So now that it has officially hit October I can truly say we are in my favorite month of the year. Why you ask? This is because not only is the weather down from 85/90°F every day to a cool 75°F but also the first break from school is approaching in 1 week! Students are all feeling the stress of classes now that midterm season is among us. Fall break marks the beautiful reward we give ourselves for completing the transition of summer back to school and completing our first midterms again. For fall break some students stay on campus, some students who live close enough go home, and the rest of us take advantage of Pitzers best club, POA, and go camping!

POA stands for Pitzer Outdoor Adventure. This is the biggest club on Pitzer’s campus.  The reason for this is because this club encourages students to get outside the Pitzer bubble and go explore all the beautiful nature that the giant state of California has to offer. Students go the weekly meetings propose any trip they want from surfing at crystal cove to camping at Joshua Tree. Once they propose their trip as long as they keep two spots in their form of transportation for any other Pitzer student to join them last minute and post on our student email thread when you are leaving then POA will reimburse your gas money. We also have a gear closet that students can check out any gear they need from sleeping bags and hiking backpacks to camping stoves. This is a really great resource for students like me, an inner city kid, who want to explore the outdoors but haven’t had that many opportunities to do so.

POA really came in handy during my first backpacking trip last spring break. Me and a few other friends decided to go drive the 324 miles up to Big Sur and go camping for a week. I agreed to do this because it was time for me to explore one of California beautiful natural wonders and also bite the bullet and actually do some real physical activity for once: backpacking. As the backpack I borrowed from POA was placed on my back I started to feel the jitters of my first time carrying this much weight and hiking at the same time. The last time I had gone hiking before this was 7 years ago when I was at a camp in upstate New York designed to take kids out of the city into the country side. Besides a few blisters on my feet and hips the 20 mile backpack into the beautiful hot springs was actually not as challenging as I thought. I survived the four hour hike into the redwood forest all in one piece! If it wasn’t for Pitzer students being so welcoming to “first timers” when it comes to nature and POA giving me the opportunity to take part in these trips than this city girl probably would’ve never have wanted to even take part in this experience unless I got to sit in a car the whole time. Usually I dread any physical activity but because of my amazing experience last spring break this fall break I’m going back to Big Sur to do it all over again! Hopefully I’ll get fewer blisters this time.

87 Degrees is a Cool Day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jenna Florio – Queens, NY

Why would any East Coaster leave the collegiate hub that is the East Coast to go to college?

 

The first answer that comes to everyone’s mind is the weather of course! Well here I am in Claremont on the first official Monday of classes and everyone is ecstatic today is considered a cool day. Today’s high was 87°F and it is considered a cool day?!? Okay so I probably shouldn’t complain. Unlike hot days in New York when you walk outside damp with sweat only to be overwhelmed by the smell of melting garbage at Pitzer not only are you surrounded with blooming flowers growing out of cacti and students happily sunbathing in between classes but you get to have an escape from the damp, smelly, heavy pool that is humidity.  This was the most shocking thing for me to experience: actually enjoying a 90°F day. Standing underneath the beating sun you can feel your skin melting off but once you find that shady spot under a tree while also experiencing the mist from the fountain (which looks like modern art takes on old faithful) it feels like there is a drop of about 10°F. Unlike East Coasters being anti-social on hot days were they hide out in their tiny air conditioned apartments or refuse to go outside unless ever step to travel to their destination will be air conditioned at Pitzer you will find people playing around in the outdoors every day of the week.

 The only time you’ll ever see student not lounging around outside is the 2 to 3 times a month it drizzles out here. In my opinion a light rainstorm in southern California is equitant to a heavy snow storm on the East Coast. You’ll see student bundling up and complaining about having to go outside. If only they knew the horrors of waking up at 8am to a dark sky for a whole month in the middle of snowy New England winter. The few times a month it drizzles (emphasis on the drizzle because rain storms are pretty inexistence in the dessert) at Pitzer are some of my favorite days of the year. Those are the days you can pinpoint where every student grew up before Pitzer just by their reaction to the rain. The hardest transition for me was changing my east coast mentality of “Oh, it’s a beautiful day! I need to drop all my plans to take advantage of the outdoors” to “Oh wait a minute every day is beautiful!” I feel fortunate that I have experience all the horrible weather on the East Coast so I can truly appreciate the beauty of Southern California. So when people say, “Oh, Southern California. How do get anything done? You must love the weather” I smile to myself knowing that we go to school in one of the most perfect places in America.