While only taking one class during JanPlan, many of the College’s students find themselves with a lot more time on their hands, compared to the typical fall and spring semester schedule. Students have been spotted packing cars to go skiing at various mountains, sledding down Chapel Hill, and ice skating on Johnson Pond. JanPlan on campus offers students the chance to enjoy Maine winters and the snowy weather. That said, JanPlan on campus also offers us the time to get off campus and explore Maine, something that takes a bit more effort in a more demanding credit load. We spoke with a few students to hear what they got up to off-campus in Maine during this JanPlan.
During the second week of JanPlan, Nar Peterson `29 and her friends went about three hours north of Waterville, to Lubec, Maine. One of Peterson’s friends that she went with has a relative with a cabin up there, where they all stayed. While her friend usually visits the cabin in the summer, they all wanted to go during this especially snowy January.
In Lubec they hiked the snow-covered Bold Coast. Peterson remarked on the scenic views. “It was beautiful,” she said. “I’ve never seen stars like that around here, even though I live in Maine … We have friends who have really never seen stars like that anywhere, so that was really cool.” This trip was also Peterson’s first time hiking in the winter: “I think my friends definitely had hiked in the winter, because they’re a bit more sporty than me, but I had not.”
When asked whether she gets off-campus more during a normal semester or during JanPlan, Peterson said, “I definitely did get off-campus more [during JanPlan]. I went to Lubec the first weekend, and then went to Montreal a couple weekends after, and drove to Portland a couple of times … During the semesters, I’m more busy.”
Summer Woo `28 was also on-campus for JanPlan, and tried something new. With the Colby Ice Fishing Club, Woo went to Echo Lake in Mount Vernon, Maine to go nighttime ice fishing. Woo was out fishing from around 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., where she caught trout.
While Woo said she had fun “learning techniques of how to fish and how to ice fish,” that was not the only thing she enjoyed about her trip to Mount Vernon: “I enjoyed the community and the people in the club that made it fun. It made the time go by quickly.”
Like Peterson, Woo remarked how she gets off-campus to explore Maine more in JanPlan than in a typical semester. Woo mentioned that last year she went to Sugarloaf a lot and visited new towns in Maine, and this year she visited new lakes near Waterville.
From skiing, to winter hiking, to ice fishing, JanPlan on campus is a great opportunity to explore Maine and the winter weather, while also being a great time to try new things. Peterson and Woo both had a fun time getting off campus and enjoying winter in Maine, which they both noted is more difficult to do in a normal credit hour semester. Overall, with the extra free time, JanPlan on campus is the perfect time to explore what Maine has to offer and to dabble in new activities.
~ Haley Hegarty `28
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