Pond Hopping

While I have not participated nor wanted to participate in many of the Texas A&M traditions, there was one I wanted to complete before I graduated. I successfully fulfilled all requirements Wednesday afternoon. The tradition is called Pond Hopping. There are 6 fountains on campus, and you're supposed to get in/splash around in all of them. We started with the "hidden" fountain at the Memorial Student Center (MSC). We were very sad to find it didn't have water in it. However, we had a grand time climbing on the structure. Below is myself, Ruth Ashurst, and Rachel Condie.

Next, we traveled south to the to a part of campus I'd never been to before. I had driven by, but never actually walked there. Again, to our great disappointment, there was no water in it. It is a really lovely fountain when it's on. However, there were some areas that had been recently painted; notice the caution and blue tape in the lower right corner. We did one quick pose, then went across the street. (Ruth, Rachel, and Kate)

Our last four fountains were successful in terms of water. The next one was rather sunken. The granite was extremely slippery when it got wet, which made for some interesting maneuvering. Don't worry, we did take a picture of us sitting in the middle. (Rachel, Ruth, Kate)

Fountain #4 was the H2O fountain. Behind us is the chemistry building and apparently this fountain is supposed to look like a water molecule. You can't see it, but just beyond the Chemistry building is Francis Hall, my building where my office is. I pass the water-water fountain everyday. This was especially entertaining to play in because of the many levels and types of spraying water. A Chinese family whose son is graduating came to take pictures of the fountain too. They wanted pictures with us as well. Just think, they return to China to show their friends what crazy American college students do.

This fountain is called the Fish Pond. It is by a lot of the freshman dorms, and the freshman dining hall, Sbisa, is the building behind us. The fountain had water in it, but was not running. We decided it was high time to do our Grecian Urn pose, and I think it turned out really well. Also in this picture is Cari Cotogno, our photographer.

Our last fountain was in Rudder plaza. It's a lovely fountain, simple in design, always clean, always on, and at night they light the water and spray with different colors. It's quite lovely. I realize I did not get a picture of the spray itself and I apologize.

Up to this point I had managed to stay somewhat dry. I wasn't soaked, but in this last fountain we found it very conducive to floating, and well, we did.