Patrol boats and battleships


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August 24th 2008
Published: August 24th 2008
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Albion College is a small liberal arts college in the southwestern part of Michigan hidden away in the rest stop side roads off of I-94. Chances are if you’re heading west down 94 and you’ve made it past Ann Arbor, you’re likely headed for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, or possibly down into Indiana and across to Chicago. Likewise, if you’re heading east, you’re most likely headed for Ann Arbor or into Detroit. No matter which way, the signs for Albion will be in your rearview mirror before you have a chance to consider the city, or the tiny college tucked away. Perhaps if you have to pee, or you’re like me and are lured to the Siren’s song of the McDonald’s golden arches, you pull off to relieve your bowels and fill your stomach with a dollar menu buffet, but you still think nothing more of Albion than another small highway exit town. Little do you realize that 10 minutes down the road lies a college where Richard M. Smith, the Chairman of Newsweek magazine, attended school, or the alma mater of Cedric Dempsey, the former head of the NCAA. Regardless, you’ll zip up your fly, perform creative geometry to shove your large Coke into the cup holder, and head back on your way.

The joke about Albion College is that everyone knows someone who knows someone who has gone to Albion, but really knows nothing about the college. “Yeah, a buddy of mine at the bar, his nephew I think goes to Albion,” said a coworker of mine a couple summers ago. “My neighbor’s daughter goes to Albion,” my dental hygienist said. You see, there are a handful of small, mostly liberal arts colleges in Michigan, mostly in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) or the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA), that most people know someone who knows someone who has a nephew or neighbor who attends one of the colleges. The GLCA and MIAA colleges are the patrol boats of the Battleship game board of colleges; small and hard to find. If you played Pokemon as a kid, they are the Teddiursa or Phanpy’s of the Gold and Silver versions of the collegiate world. All of the colleges exist and, believe it or not, offer an education on par with the air craft carriers of the state, Michigan State and Michigan, but chances are the entire student body of each MIAA and GLCA School combined would barely total the number of freshmen at Michigan State.

The beauty of these patrol boat colleges, as I’ll refer to them, is the family vibe. I don’t mean family vibe as in “that new Disney movie has the perfect family vibe,” or the student section at large universities that all show up in the same colored shirts. I mean the helpfulness and roles of everyone at Albion. When I was going through my study abroad application process, I needed two professor recommendations, and the two professors I asked to write my letters both talked to me about my impending trip as if they were going on it themselves. Even though I hadn’t had either professor since first semester freshman year, I freely entered both their offices and discussed my semester with them. They both took on the parent role; overseeing my letters, keeping in touch regarding my application process and inquiring about my application status for the semester. Additionally, part of Albion’s application process required us to meet with an alumnus of our study abroad program. Only two Albion students had gone to UCT in recent years. One of the students graduated the previous spring, so I met with a girl named Amy, whom I’d never met before, yet she talked to me about South Africa as if we’d been next-door neighbors our whole lives. Amy showed me pictures from her semester as well as the Cape Town area on Google Earth. That’s how students are at patrol boat colleges; your next door neighbor, and always willing to share common experiences with one another.

Because of my experience at my patrol boat college, everything about the big campus of UCT was new to me. My History of the Southern World lecture hall had probably 300 students in it, nearly big enough to fit my entire graduating class at Albion, and my professor probably didn’t even know I existed, let alone my name. At Albion, professors not only know your name, but many end up knowing your major and a few tidbits about your life and goals through casual discussion and open office hours. My UCT professor didn’t even bother telling us office hours, but he was nice enough to point out the course web on the UCT website and telling us not to contact him during research hours.

An air craft carrier.

The classes, at the halfway point of my semester, weren’t any more difficult or strenuous than classes at Albion, but never the less I was ready for my big spring break adventure. 2 Way Travel offered a reasonable price on a 10-day overland trip across Botswana and Zambia, and I pounced on this opportunity. Big overland, “Africa” trucks, the Okavango Delta, game walks and, at the top of my list, white water rafting on the Zambezi River. I’d seen the friendly smile of cosmopolitan Africa in Cape Town, now I was ready to face the teeth of Africa in the bush.


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27th August 2008

I'm glad you wrote "coloured" folk so Grandma Gillis would know who you were talking about.
2nd September 2008

Risk motif
I'm glad that you thought it necessary to "fortify" your troops to cut off their supply- it's the only way to get things done, lol. Looks like you're having a good time down there :)

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