Tourists

Every day I feel like I'm in the middle of a huge tourist attraction. Before 8am, there is already a crowd is taking photos of John Harvard's statue. On my way home, a lost group stops me to ask for directions. As I exit the gate, there are three gigantic tour buses parked outside. Walking into the Harvard Coop, I hear several different foreign languages being spoken. When I reach the bookshelves, the first books that greet me are "50 Successful Harvard Admission Essays" "How to get into Harvard Law/Medical/Business/..." and so on, surrounded by families with children discussing the possibility of admission. I guess the Harvard students get used to it every single day, but coming from Rice, where the campus feels so much like our own little home, I am again surprised by the visitor smorgasboard each time I walk through.

But one thing bothers me even more than just the huge numbers of people. The myth is not true--touching John Harvard's statue's foot doesn't help you get admitted. I've never touched it and neither have many other students here. The real reason why the foot is golden is not simply from being rubbed by tourists from around the world (I will not go into the explicit details). Yet whenever I walk past, there is inevitably someone touching the foot, and I have to really restrain myself to keep silent and let the tourists enjoy their visit.. So please, if you come here, DON'T TOUCH JOHN HARVARD'S FOOT!