Sam Curry
currysam@grinnell.edu
Photo by Rae Kuhlman.
Campus has taken on a celebratory mood as the spring extends its rosy fingertips across Iowa, opening up outdoor opportunities that the frost and winds of winter prevent. The rites of spring in Grinnell are as varied as the activities and interests on campus. On South Campus, arts, music and barbecue help residents welcome in spring with open arms as students play acoustic guitars on the loggia and throw around Frisbees on the grass. There is perhaps no stronger sign of the return of spring to Grinnell, however, than the return of all the members of the men’s and women’s Frisbee teams to Mac and Ward fields.
To Tulah Fuchs ’19, the return of spring is especially significant because it means the end of the Frisbee team’s night practices in the Bear.
“It sucks to leave the Bear at 11 p.m. when it’s dark and you’re cold and sweaty, but you have to take a shower, but then you’re awake and you can’t fall asleep,” Fuchs said.
Like flowers blooming and the sun shining past 5 o’clock, the changes to the Frisbee team’s schedule seem to happen organically and as a result of a perfect storm of changes.
“Usually it’s spontaneous. Frisbee people are kind of like magnets as they tend to hang out in the Grill area, and you see a lot of people, and they’re like, ‘Let’s throw,’ and you’re like ‘That sounds great’,” Fuchs said.
The change in weather doesn’t just affect organized athletic activities or on-campus events, however. The spring season also presents a great opportunity for students to get off campus and explore the surrounding area. The shining sun particularly opens up the variety of biking trails in the Grinnell area that run through the fields of corn and soy that encircle town. Joshua Tibatemwa ’19, an avid biker, has been overjoyed at the chance to return from the activity that is often prevented by cold winds and icy roads. These trips and the club’s collection of bikes are facilitated by Grinnell Outdoor Recreation Program leader Prabir Pradhan ’18.
“Usually we bike around ten miles. Sometimes it’s to Rock Creek,” Tibatemwa said. “I just follow Prabir. I get on the bike, and get behind Prabir. He knows where he’s going.”
Although spring brings the elation and relaxation of exercise, it can also sometimes bring danger, as Tibatemwa can attest. GORP has eight bikes, but only two are size “large”, so Tibatemwa was stuck with a medium bike when his group decided to go off-road.
“It was already hard to control [the bike] and then we reached a steep hill … and I can’t brake, and we were going downhill, so I just whiz past everyone,” Tibatemwa said. “Literally everyone thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to die.”
The warm weather can also bring solace, especially for first-years that have now survived their first Iowa winters.
