St. Mary's
| St. Mary's City | |
 Calvert Hall | |
| Site Information | |
|---|---|
| College | St. Mary's College of Maryland |
| Location | St. Mary's City, Maryland |
| Years of Operation | 1980-1981, 2001-2005 |
| Avg. Number of Students | 210 |
| Courses Offered | |
| Humanities | Ancient Greek | Latin I | Law and Politics in US History | Ain't I a Woman?: US Social Movements |
| Writing | Crafting the Essay |
| Math and Computer Science | Mathematical Modeling | Cryptology | Probability and Game Theory | Mathematical Reasoning | Fundamentals of Computer Science |
| Science | Introduction to Biomedical Sciences | Scientific Investigations: St. Mary's River | Archaeology | FPHS Biology | FPHS Chemistry | The History of Disease |
St. Mary's was the first summer site, running from 1979 to 1981. Many CTY (known as OTID then) traditions probably originated here, including American Pie. In 1982, St Mary's was replaced by the sister sites Carlisle and Lancaster. It reopened in 2001 but phased out again after the summer of 2005, and its students either migrated to other sites or did not return.
The site was much younger in terms of student age than most of the other sites. In 2005, for example, there were only about half a dozen nomores involved with the program at St Mary's. The Bell, always famous for going off as one walked past it, was a historic landmark of St. Mary's, and possibly the only landmark of St. Mary's. There were some pretty crazy frogs there.
Frank Wang was at St. Mary's during 05, though it is not known where he was before that. Plotting, perhaps. (Note: he wasn't nearly as notorious as he is at Lancaster)
Contents
Site and Campus Overview
St. Mary's is located at St. Mary's College of Maryland in beautiful St. Mary's City, Maryland, adjacent to Chesapeake Bay. St. Mary's is extremely humid in the summer, the dorms and buildings are ridiculously spread apart, and a walk to the dining hall is like schlepping across deserts and mountains.
Dorms
The dorms were under constant renovation, and thus, the dorms for CTY habitation have never been the same. Each floor belonged to one hall. Each floor was then separated into two sections consisting of three rooms each. Every three rooms had their own lounge, microwave, etc. There was also a bathroom in each section. Each bathroom was designed after a personal bathroom, and had an actual shower and locking bathroom door. This arrangement caused multiple fights for the bathrooms in the mornings.
The male dorms were located on Lewis Quad, which also served as the location for Meet Market. The female dorms served as breeding ground for the famously ubiquitous frogs.
In 2003, the supposed girl-to-guy ratio was roughly something like 1:10.
Food
The food was amazing. However, the walk to the dining hall was excruciating. The girls had to walk the farthest. They passed the male dorms, crossed a small desert, passed a pond, schlepped up a hill, passed another pond where two male ducks were constantly attempting to mount each other, went under a bridge, and then finally arrived at the dining hall. The total distance as measured by RA Moana in 05.1 was exactly one mile. It smelled like wetlands on the way to the dining hall.
Every day there were different types of ethnic foods and the waffle maker. Batter was set out and students could make their own waffles. There were also a salad bar, ice cream, cereal, and self-serve sandwich ingredients. Most days, there were pizza slices the size of a thumbnail. (Edit: yeah a dinosaur thumbnail! That pizza was huuuge). It was delicious, most notably the white pizza.
Traditions
During 1980, the long walks through the lush greenery between dorm and classrooms would elicit warnings about Killer Rabbits, which referred alternately to the 1979 incident where President Jimmy Carter fought off a swamp rabbit with a paddle from his fishing boat, and to a character from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
During 05.2, Gender Bender Day was removed, but during Week Two (Spirit Week) things like Pajama Day, Inside-Out Day, Toga Day, and Dress-Your-RA Day continued to occur. Cultural phenomena included Mao and the Little Green Gopher song (Serkan's hall 05.2). It had its own unique traditions, such as Sex in a Pan, and Hill Rolling Rash (Hill roll at your own risk!). Passionfruit was only established in 2005, when three alums of the program who were on staff organized it. Sadly, this tradition did not last as it began in the last year that the site remained open.
Site Closure
In 2006 the site was removed from service by Baltimore. Students hypothesize the site was closed due to the awful weather, poor campus layout, staff/administrative issues, or a lack of interest from students (despite the delicious food). No one is really certain of the exact reason for the closure. Nonetheless, they suggest the reader of this page protest and call because "Believe me, you want this site back!"
Main Authors of this Page
- Nixxi 03.1 Latin, wrote everything up to history's blurb.
- Alex 05.1 CompSci, edited this page to mention that FRANKWANG was there 05.
- Jimmy (a.k.a. Captain Spaz) edited this page to show the true greatness of St. Mary's
- Peter, The Man, fixed the gender bender comment to show the pride of the few cross-dressers
- Mike, Car '06.2 edited to show how much he loved the site.
- Sidney, STM 03.2-05.2, wrote the original page.
- Emily 05.1 Crypto added the most important details
