At New College, most students refuse to let learning become a chore. They choose to pursue the things they care about and let that curiosity fuel their academic prowess. Picking up facts, strange anecdotes, new concepts and weird histories is an exciting part of college. Throughout the week, I asked groups of NCF students what they learned this week.

It could be something insightful, something funny, something scary. I received information ranging from mildly depressing to truly uplifting.

“All of Roman playwright Plautus’s plays are essentially Greek to Roman translations, where characters were just culturally adapted to Rome’s audiences.” – Bob Lawlor

“Broccolini, uh, exists. It’s like asparagus and broccoli, and it’s ugly. Long uncomfortable broccoli. Props to whoever wants to eat that but..”

“Also… brocollini? That name! That’s cursed!” – Rocio Ramirez Castro

Later, I met someone who also learned about the existence of brocollini, with a counter argument.

“It’s good as shit, lowkey looks ugly but highkey tastes good. Who needs presentation when you’re getting nutrients.” — Emma Claire Todd

“I learned what cytoplasmic streaming in plant cells look like under a microscope. Also, that setting slides to view under microscopes is tedious and sucks.”  — Jared Plasencia

“BFE means “Butt Fuck Egypt,” referring to something that is very far away.” – Jaden Maryanopolis

“This week I learned that you could order Quesadillas at Boar’s Head, and that my name means Ecstasy of Wine.”  – Laylah Cortijo

“Henry Ford developed a moving assembly line in 1913 that reduced the production of cars from 12 hours to 30 minutes.” – Irene Hanabergh

“Sharks have survived multiple major extinction events.”  – Jaden Maryanopolis

“Black out and erasure poetry are becoming more popular.” – Ash Howland

“There’s a conductor, Jean Baptiste Lully, who died from Gangrene because he was conducting with a long staff. It hit his foot and he died.”  – Aniston Hoffman

“In the Himalayas when people die, they get cut into pieces and vultures eat them.” – Klerissa Zolcika

“Bananas make a great pipe. For artistic purposes.” – Nick Beck.

“You can treat kelp to make a leather substitute.” “Klether.” – Tommy Finnan.

“In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, I learned that if someone is mounted on top of you, you build a frame with your wrists and push against them. Prevent their hips from getting on your chest with the frame. Push using the “Shrimp motion”, then you’re free to get up and walk away.” – Harold Gonzolez

“At the Feminist Fridays pronoun workshop, I found out the gender neutral term for Mr and Ms is Mx.” – Bella Shuler

“English is a bit of a hotchpotch, primarily Germanic language. In 1066, when William the Conqueror arrived in England, many French terms were introduced and they were considered a higher tier of words.” – Oscar Vaughn.

“In my Buddhism in Himalayas class, the frequent pilgrimages to visit the spirits that inhabit the mountains have led to a sort of “Tourist season”, where a lot of shops open up on the mountains.”  – John Sapp

“The word in ancient Greek for traveling through the air is now the modern Greek word for airport.” – Margie Freemon

“The C’s in Latin sound like K’s, so the name Cicero is actually Kikero.” – Emily Lovett.

“In Quantitative Political Analysis 2, I learned to find the slope and intercept from a regression table. One of the easiest things. I hate math.” – Kallie Delis

 “In my microeconomics class, I found out there is a correlation between hours worked and the amount of CO2 produced by a nation.” – Madi Markhal

“Seeing the big picture of what I have to do in one moment makes me feel like I can’t do it all. If I take it moment by moment, it becomes manageable.” – Babs Monteiro