Alex Showerman's blog

I wanted to take this time to sing praises of the North Country, the community I have come to call my home these last four years. Last weekend I traveled home to Vermont to visit my Dad. On the way back to school I found my self out of cash and out of gas (unfortunately, this happens as a broke college student!)

On tour when I mention playing squash I often receive one of two responses:

"Squash? Like the vegetable?"

Or

"What a great game!"

At the beginning of the summer I was the first of the two responses. Until Al Gotsch, the admissions counselor for northern New York, VT and NH, made it his mission to teach all of the admissions interns how to play.

In honor of my first successful completion of running a class IV rapid, I thought I would post about some of the best white water kayaking places around Canton as well as talk about our amazing outdoor program.

I first got into white water kayaking two years ago, when I attended a white water kayaking clinic through the Out Door program. This progression program that first teaches you basic white water strokes, then to role, then takes you play boating. The best part about these clinics is our school actually owns all the gear, so you don't need your own!

One thing that is great about being in Canton is we are incredibly close to Ottawa. In fact, we are the closest American University to a foreign nation's capital. Unfortunately, this is only the third time I have been to Ottawa. I went once for a tour of parliament with my First Year Program (Check out the FYP here). Then another time for a Penguins vs. Senators playoff hockey game.

A summer that has had me traveling all over Western Europe to study the European Union, has also finally brought me to our nation's capital to celebrate Independence Day. The journey began Thursday at two o'clock in the afternoon, When Abid (one of my fellow interns) and I hoped in my car to make the 8 ½ hour road trip to DC. We arrived at the hostel at quarter to eleven, fifteen minutes before they closed for the night (Close!!).  We were offered a free night if we stayed on the couches in the lounge because they overbooked that night, and as any self respecting college student would we took the deal. After checking in we headed down to Capitol Hill to see my future place of work.

I hopped in the car after work on Monday for the relatively short hour and fifteen minute road trip to Canaras, our Conference center on Saranac Lake. Canrars is a summer vacation destination for SLU Alums and family. It is also a great summer work opportunity for students and I was stopping by to visit some friends who are spending their summer in this Adirondack oasis.

I have found that St. Lawrence is a university steeped with tradition - fun things like the Quad Experience, Peak weekend, bag pipers at matriculation and commencement, the drums and singing of "When the Saints Go Marching In" at hockey games and countless others I will write about this year. One of the more noticeable SLU traditions is the ringing of the chapel bells at 5:00 p.m. every day.