Northeastern University: Melissa Xie

Happy Fall!

2009-10-30T05:38:14Z

In just a few days, it will be the 4-month mark of being on co-op. Just 2 more to go! Recently, I've been pretty productive at work, staying a little later than usual. I've been giving larger tasks to complete, and they've been pretty interesting to work on....setting up a newsletter, creating DHTML popups, adding deals logic to pages, and working with the Google Maps API. Tomorrow, my company is holding a Halloween party in the afternoon! Everyone's spouses and kids are invited. There will be snacks, treats, games, and contests. It should be pretty fun! Then, in December, there's going to be a TAMG (TripAdvisor Media Group) holiday party for all the Boston-area TripAdvisor companies. This should be pretty big if it's like any other TAMG event I've attended so far. Honestly, I really love a company with a fun environment and great people. It's good to enjoy working where you work. Lately, I've been thinking about what I want to do for my next co-op. After coming back from my trip to Seattle (which was just lovely, by the way!), it made me realize that perhaps I'm more ready to go out and try somewhere new than I thought I was. Not that I don't like my job at STM. I wouldn't mind going back there if they asked me to. I just think that it wouldn't hurt to try looking at farther places--more specifically, the west coast. However, I feel like this means that I really have to try harder in order to get jobs out there. I'd have to do better in classes; I'd have to sharpen up my skills and knowledge. I guess this is the part that scares me most. But anyway, for now, I'll just have to worry about this job first, I guess. There's still plenty of time to think about these things. Last week was ACM's Geek Week, and it was a lot of fun despite being sick all week! We had a brunch, bowling night, movie night, speaker, board game night, Windows 7 Launch Party (held at the Microsoft office in Cambridge), console gaming night and dodgeball! I'm Events Chair for ACM, so planning this, with some help from a few, was quite stressful, but it happened! Generally, I like to keep myself busy and involved. In my opinion, too much free time is just not that fun sometimes! However, it can definitely be stressful once in a while, and it's good to try to keep things as balanced as possible and not spread yourself too thin. Keeping those things in mind, you should try getting yourself involved and active too with something at school or community if you haven't already. Find something you can enjoy! Meet new people even! Anyway, I hope you all are doing well in getting your applications together! I know it must be a really busy time for you because it's been a really busy time for the Visitors Center recently! Now there are more tours than ever...they run every half hour, there are some extended ones that include a tour of our newest building, International Village, etc. It's also hard to believe that I was in your shoes about 3 years ago! And with that said, I wish you all luck! Until next time!

And here comes another school year

2009-09-29T22:56:40Z

Hey everyone! Long time no see! Sorry for the lack of entries the past 2 months, but I've been caught up with my co-op as well as my student groups prepping for the new school year! It's hard to believe that I will soon be going into my 4th month of co-op in a few days! So far, it has been quite the mixed experience, but for the most part, it's been pretty positive. There were some days when I didn't really have much to do, but on other days, I am just swarmed with different tasks! The levels of difficulty were varied with some being quick fixes and some taking a little longer to grasp. I think that most of my time is spent actually just investigating how something works as opposed to actually writing code. I've definitely been learning a lot though from working extensively with JavaScript. Socially, it's been nice getting to know my co-workers. They're all very different from each other, but we all get along pretty well. In late August, we had a company outing with TripAdvisor and FlipKey (we're all part of the TripAdvisor Media Group), and it was a lot of fun! We went to Kimball Farm in Westwood, MA where there were bumper boats, mini-golf, volleyball, an arcade, and most importantly, food!! Sometimes, I feel like I'm just really spoiled by my company because there are often treats! Who doesn't love free food right? Speaking of free food, this week, my team is in charge of getting snacks for the office on Friday! Every other week (when we don't get paid), a different team of the company is given a certain amount of money to spend on snacks for Friday afternoon, and usually they're themed. I don't think we have any ideas yet though. We only just realized it was our turn today. :) Aside from all the positive things going on for me at work, there were definitely days when I feel really overwhelmed either by the amount of work I have to do or by how I can't seem to figure out the issue no matter where I look. It just gets really aggravating sometimes, especially when I would try asking for help only to not get an answer at all. In a way, I think that kind of makes me stronger as a learner, but it still doesn't take away the frustration. Eventually, I am able to find the solution and everything's okay again and I feel better about work. What also helped was talking to my team leader, Chris, one day. We just sat down and talked about how we each thought I was doing so far on co-op since I'm about half-way through. Luckily, everything we said was pretty positive and we each even shared a small negative, but basically, it was just really helpful to know how I was doing. Other than work, I still do try to maintain at least somewhat of a social life even though I come home tired every day from work. Now that I have all of my roommates moved in and just more people on campus in general, the environment is a lot more fun and comfortable. My apartment definitely feels a lot more homely with more furniture and food and bodies. We often have friends over to hang out, watch some tv, play some games, etc. Good times, good times! :) At the same time, it's kind of interesting to come home seeing some of my roommates doing their homework at all different hours of the day/night while I can just relax -- most undoubtedly a perk of being on co-op! Well, that's all I've got for now! I must take some time to prep for a pasta dinner that CISters is putting on tonight. I'm super excited for food!! Come back soon!

And co-op begins!

2009-07-23T02:59:23Z

Wow, 3 weeks ago today, I started working at Smarter Travel Media for my very first co-op! That's such a weird feeling! It definitely does not feel like it has been that long whatsoever. So far, I really like my job. They gave me some free stuff like pen, calendar, luggage tag, t-shirt, and even an iPod nano! The people there are really cool and pretty approachable as well, fun to be with. I didn't realize how many Northeastern people where there...there are the 3 of us who are on co-op (a rising senior as a dev and a junior as a sysadmin) and then there are 4 recent graduates. I personally think that's pretty awesome because then I don't feel so "lonely". Go Northeastern! As for the actual work, it hasn't been all too bad. I started off by working on these tools called "search adapters" that are part of the search engine on BookingBuddy (http://www.bookingbuddy.com). I don't know if I've ever explained what BookingBuddy is, but it's a site where people can easily fill out all the travel information (origin, destination, dates, etc.) for flights, hotels, cruises, and other sorts of traveling on there, and then select among a list of travel websites to check for and sometimes compare prices. All the data entered on our site is pre-filled on the 3rd party sites. It's pretty cool, and I definitely recommend people using it more often. I have used it in the past before I even knew I'd end up working on it as part of my job! Anyway, after working on these adapters for a bit, I've got my hands on working with newsletters a little, and then recently I've started working on other random things that they could find for me because I was running out of things to do! Sooo I've been fixing anything that pops up on the error log and creating search widgets, to name a few...although today, I did feel pretty overwhelmed with the whole workflow process and all the tickets I had to handle...I went from a few idling tickets to a whole mess of idling and active ones. *sigh* Aside from co-op, I've just been hanging around, relaxing. I've been making food at home more often now, saving money, which is always good. Not too long ago, I finally caught up on the webcomic "Questionable Content", as well as watched all of the tv show "Arrested Development". Now that I've through those from beginning to end, I had started watching an American sci-fi television show from the mid-90's called "Sliders". It's pretty good and sometimes cheesy, which makes me dislike it once in a while, but still good. Also, I have been meaning to get back into reading for a while now, so now I'm going to borrow some books from a friend and start doing so. I'm very excited about it! Okay, enough reading, here are some pictures you can take a look at! Last month, we had a "CISters' Hometown Weekend" and a few of us went to Rhode Island for the day, which is where Liz and I are from! That day, we visited Thayer Street right near Brown in downtown Providence. It's similar to Newbury Street, Coolidge Corner, or Harvard Square with little shops and restaurants. Then, we went out to Newport, drive along the eastern side of Rhode Island, and then went to my family's restaurant for dinner. And without further adieu: Newport Cliff Walk -- 40 steps! Newport Cliff Walk The Breakers Mansion Liz, me, and Lauren...she doesn't like pictures apparently

End of Summer 1

2009-06-23T23:29:42Z

Hey all! Happy summer! Although it hasn't really seem like it in Boston for a long time now, even when it officially became summer a few days ago. Make the clouds and rain go away! Today was the last day of finals for Summer 1 courses, and I had my one and only exam yesterday afternoon for Calc 2. It went alright. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Regardless, I'M DONE WITH CLASSES UNTIL JANUARY! Yay! :) This week, I've got nothing planned except for some work and relaxation (contradicting, no?). Then on Thursday night, I'm going home for a few days, coming back Tuesday night, and then starting my new co-op job on Wednesday! I'm super excited about just working full-time and not have to worry about schoolwork. It has honestly been pretty difficult this past year balancing between work and schoolwork. It's certainly nice to make money while in school, but if your job actually takes a lot of effort, it can get hard. With only having to working on weekdays, I'll have my evenings and weekends free. I'm hoping that with at least with my weekends, I can do some traveling done. At some point, my friends and I would like to go to Canada, and later, we may go to Seattle and/or San Diego to visit our friends who are co-oping out there. I'm very much looking forward to these trips! Around this time, a bunch of people have either left or are leaving soon, and it's quite said to see some of my friends go. I'm definitely going to miss their company while they're away, but hopefully, I can hang out with those are still here or returning. Everything's just so quiet right now! 3 out of 4 of my roommates are moving out, and new ones will come in...although myNEU tells me that only 1 is. Odd. However, I'm mostly excited for when my friends will move in for the fall. It's going to be a lot of fun! Which reminds me, if you haven't already, you probably should be getting your housing info soon, which I know is a very exciting time!! I think I tried calling my roommates the moment I received my letter in the mail. It was slightly awkward, but still cool at the same time. However, I think a couple of them hadn't even received the letter yet, so I think it was a little weird for them. >.< Also, I know that this week is the first week of orientations. Perhaps you attended this one or maybe you have one coming up. I remember my orientation. It was quite an interesting and exciting time. Although it wasn't all that much fun sitting through those information sessions, it was definitely nice to meet so many people, especially those in your orientation group, who are really going to your peers in the fall. (They group students by college.) I also found it exciting to set up my schedule as well, as weird as that sounds. :D Next week, I believe, is the first week of orientation that will include the CCIS groups. During your advising period, there will actually be some upperclassmen hanging around just to talk to you and stuff. I attended a few last summer, and it was a good time getting to know some of the freshmen, now rising sophomores. Unfortunately, I can't go to the orientations this summer, but I'm sure whoever's there will be great to talk to! Anyway, this is all I've got for now, but I hope you all have a blast at orientation, and maybe I'll even see you around campus somehow! Until next time!

Mid-Semester Update!

2009-05-30T02:22:13Z

Hey all! Your last few days of school are probably rolling right up and you must be so excited!! Hope you're all having fun finishing up these last days of high school! It's so hard to believe that I was in your shoes just 2 years ago, and now I'll be going into my middler (third) year! Scary! Well, between my last entry and today, I've been doing many different things while in Boston for the summer. One cool thing about Northeastern is that they put together a series of events for Summester. Basically, there are just a bunch of events and trips that students can pay for at a discount. For instance, last Friday, I paid $5 to go on a trip to NYC. My friend Anne-Marie and I just wandered around the area a lot: Times Square -- Hershey Store (w/ M&M's Store right across!) Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum (where we saw a few short Broadway performaces) -- A view from across the street. It was Fleet Week, so it meant that all the marines and navy people were around and we were able to check out the ships and submarines. Museum of Modern Art -- Campbell's Soups Another example would be that today, I went to Six Flags, and it was only for $10! Above is Anne-Marie and me with a few of the Looney Tunes characters! Then, within the next few weeks, I'll also be seeing the Blue Man Group perform, as well as go on my very first Boston Duck Tour! I'm definitely excited for these since I've always meant to do these things since I've started going to school in Boston. :D Anyway, yesterday, I had my midterm for my Calc 2 class, which is just insane to believe that it was our 4th week of the semester! Only about 3 weeks left! Currently, I think I'm doing really well in the class, which is good. However, my professor just assigned us a project to do that must involve applications of calculus, which I'm a little iffy about. It's kind of a short project, but he said it has to be good. Talk about no pressure, huh? The good thing, though, is that it's not due until the end of the semester, so I *do* have some time to work on it. This is either 10 or 15% of my semester grade, so I'm really hoping to do well on this, as well as for the other parts of my grade too of course. :) Recently, I've found out that my first day of work for my co-op job will be Wednesday, July 1st. My last day of work for The Conference Exchange is Friday, June 26th, so I'll only have 4 days off in between! I definitely don't mind though as I like to keep myself occupied. I'm most certainly looking forward to going on co-op, especially since it'll just be six months of working and *no* classes plus the fact that I do *NOT* have to pay for tuition. Phew! That is definitely a great advantage. I'm just really excited to be learning new things at a different place and different people. Now that I've already caught a long glimpse of one possibility of what I could do with my major, I think it's time to move onto something else. In a way, it's kind of like I actually get the chance to go on 4 co-ops, which is a cool thought. Hey, the more experience, the better, right? As the day comes around for starting my new job, this also means the same for many of my friends. This time, a good number of them are actually doing something out of state -- the West coast, mostly. A few are going to Intuit in San Diego, CA and a few are going to Amazon in Seattle, WA. At the same time, for the most part, some of these people are ones that I have just gotten to know recently, so it'll be kind of sad to see them go. :( On the brighter side, there will still be some friends who are co-oping in the Boston area. In addition to that, those who went away for co-op this past Spring will be returning to Boston for classes, so in a way, I suppose this is a fair trade-off. Anyhow, that's all I've got for now. I haven't gotten any questions in a while, so definitely hit me up with some! If not, I hope you have a blast finishing off the year! :)

First Summer in Boston!

2009-05-10T05:30:48Z

Hey everyone! Happy summer! Well, at least for Northeastern anyway. By this time, you all should've made your decision as to where you'll be attending college in the fall. Wherever you may have chosen, I'm happy for you! It must be a really exciting feeling to know you're going to college, so you must also be really anxious to graduate! I know the feeling, trust me! :) Also, at this time, I'm already back on campus and taking classes while I know some of my friends at other colleges are either still in finals week or just finishing up. Northeastern was done WEEKS ago, so when I went home for about a week, it wasn't all too exciting because everyone else was still in school! :( But now they're about done and I'm already gone! Well, I had just finished my first week of Summer 1 classes, although I am only taking one class (Calc 2). However, after class, I work! At the moment, I am *still* working for The Conference Exchange. In fact, as of this past Thursday, it has been a year since I've started working for them! That's unbelievable! Anyway, during the summer, most students take only two classes...they are either every day from Monday through Thursday for an hour and 40 minutes long or twice a week (MW or TTh) for 3 and a half hours each. For my class, it's every day at 8am, and honestly, I have not taken an 8am class since my Fall semester of freshman year for my College Writing class, so this is definitely a weird feeling! So far, it hasn't been too bad getting up for it, and hopefully, it'll stay that way! :) For the summer, everyone is taking different classes and seems to be doing their own thing mostly, unlike how the Fall and Spring semesters are. There aren't very many Computer Science classes going on during the summer, so everyone's around to take a science, math, writing or some other kind of courses. However, regardless of the courses my friends and I taking for the summer, we still manage to find time to hang out with each other, which is great! Since people only take two classes as opposed to the typical four during other semesters, there is a lot more time to do other things. For example, today, I went out to Harvard Square with a few friends for lunch. We ate at Mr. Bartley's, which has some amazing burgers, but I had never gone there before, so it was an interesting experience! I ordered "The Mitt Romney" which was a burger with Swiss cheese and onions and it came with a HUGE pile of onion rings...totally super! I used up sooo many napkins! After we ate, we just kind of walked and hung around the area, enjoying the nice weather -- quite relaxing, I'd have to admit. Then, at some point, we decided to catch a movie, so we saw "State of Play". Interesting fact: we actually bumped into one of our professors and his wife a few times today in Harvard Square, which was pretty cool and interesting to see professors outside of campus. Apparently, he lives nearby! Well, I hope you all are having a good time finishing up school...most of you should at least have until the end of the month right? It's something like that for one of my sisters who's currently a senior in high school. Her graduation's around mid-June (how scary that she's graduating!). Once I get my camera back, I'll definitely try to post up some more pictures of things going on since I haven't done that in a while. Until then, have fun!

End-of-Semester Fun!

2009-04-21T19:55:27Z

Hey everyone! As of around 1:45pm today, I was OFFICIALLY done with my Spring semester! :) Let the summer begin! :D So last week was actually pretty eventful for me! Tuesday the 14th was my last day of classes, so that was exciting! That night, my CISters group went out for Mexican & Cajun at Border Cafe in Harvard Square. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it, but I had to attend my friend Eric's Berklee senior recital, which was just amazing! There, I also got to see some of my high school friends and even a couple of teachers, so it was fun! Also, I definitely think you should check out Eric's stuff! Later in the week, several officers of ACM and I went out for dinner to celebrate a successful year, and after that, I participated in a chat with the accepted CCIS students, along with other current CCIS sudents. I remember that when I did this same chat last year, I met one of my now good friends and future roommates, Liz, on there, so it's most certainly fun to do these things. While doing this chat, I was also attempting to finish up my Theory homework (homework assigned for *after* classes are over? Yeah, that's right, unfortunately.) Well, Friday came around, and that's when my finals started. They were for Theory of Computation, which took me all 2 hours, and Linear Algebra, which actually took me 3 hours. Wow, did I feel so brain-fried that day! Good thing I had a nice fun-filled weekend! On Saturday, I went out to eat dim sum in Chinatown at China Pearl Restaurant with some friends. It was definitely a lot of fun, especially since I was trying to teach my friend Thao some Cantonese. (She's going to study abroad in Hong Kong next fall!) After food, we went to a Chinese supermarket, and I helped another friend of mine order eel from the seafood section! That...was insanely difficult because I had NEVER done that before. I've always seen my mom or my grandparents do it, but man was it kind of weird confusing! The man who helped us wasn't speaking very clear Chinese to me, so that just made it all the more difficult, but in the end, we still got it! A whole eel! Later that day, I FINALLY got a chance to go to Border Cafe, and it was with my friends Ken and Liz. That place is absolutely awesome! It's just a really cool place and it has some great food. Definitely going there again sometime. Basically, Saturday was my food coma day. Sunday was pretty fun as well. I did the student panel for CCIS Welcome Day (maybe I met some of you!). Then I went out for lunch at the dining hall (it's nice to go back there once in a while) with Alex, Liz, and Ken, and later Liz and I spent the rest of the day going to Tufts for an a cappella concert, an Indian restaurant in Central Square for dinner, Coldstone Creamery for ice cream, and then back to campus for some studying. Today was my last day of finals, and I actually got out of them about an hour early each, which is kind of cool because I got extra time to either study or just relax. Then at some point, I had to gather with the Logic TAs and tutors to grade some of the Logic & Computation final exams half of the freshmen took today. Other than that, not much went on today and not much will go on for the rest of the week except for work and some relaxing. Going home to RI on Sunday for a week! Yay! :) Anyway, perhaps you weren't really all too interested in what I had done within the past week, but I think that it's a good way to show what kind of things I do around campus and Boston. I definitely had done so much in a long time, so it was undoubtedly a great time for me. This makes me all the more excited for the summer when I'll have more time! Well, I hope you've been able to catch some good glimpses of what goes on in the life of a CCIS student so far. As always, I'm open to any questions and comments! So go for it! :) And on that note, time for some sushi and free Ben & Jerry's today!

The Very Last Stretch

2009-04-09T16:03:27Z

Three days! Three days! Of classes that are left after today, that is. It's definitely hard to believe! Most of you probably still have about another month or two before you're done with school, but don't worry, the day will come soon enough for you too! =) Spring break's around the corner, isn't it? At this point, I actually really don't have any work to do for my classes, surprisingly. I remembering having a million things to do until the very end for my previous semesters. However, I will definitely have a great deal of studying to do for my finals coming up. Speaking of classes, I realized that I never mentioned what classes I've been taking this semester! Well, I am taking two computer science courses, a math course and a social science elective: Systems & Networks, Theory of Computation, Linear Algebra, and Principles of Microeconomics. Out of these four classes, I would say that Theory of Computation is the most interesting, but it's also the most difficult. In this class, we learn about the different models of languages and computation including finite state automata, push-down automata, and Turing machines. Recently, we've been discussing the running time of algorithms (big O notation) and NP-completeness. It's just really cool to learn about how machines work, how simple or complex they could be and the problems they can or cannot solve. Exciting stuff! Let me know if you want to know more (about this or any other of my classes)! Recently, some of my friends have been registering for their Fall semester classes, and honestly, it's just a really weird feeling knowing that I didn't have to do so. I mean, I've been so used to going to school in the fall every year since head start (preschool), but now that I'm going on co-op in July, that's going to change--I'll only be going to school in the Spring (through the first half of the summers), but that's quite alright. I've probably said this already, but I'm very much looking forward to this summer aside from co-op. During Summer 1 (May-June), I'll be taking Calculus 2. Unfortunately, it's an 8AM class, and I haven't had an 8AM since Fall semester last year, so this should be interesting...On top of taking class, I'll be continuing to work for my internship at The Conference Exchange and perhaps lab-proctoring again. In addition to that, hopefully, I'll be schedule to conduct campus tours again after taking a break from it this semester. There's definitely a lot of cool things going on, and I'm *very* excited. I'm not sure if I've mentioned my internship in my previous posts, but I worked as a developer intern last summer at The Conference Exchange. It's a pretty cool company that deals with professional organizations, helping them organize their annual conferences. I was one of eight developers there, and there's a slightly larger team of support staff. This was located in Cumberland, RI, which is only 20 minutes away from my home in Cranston, so it was quite convenient for me! Everyone there and just the environment in general was very relaxed and fun, and we had casual dress code, so it's great. After working there for four months in the summer, I decided (and they allowed me) to continue working for them part-time while I'm in school. Let me just say that I am *extremely* glad that I was able to have this internship opportunity. I didn't have any programming experience before coming into Northeastern, so this experience plus the material I've learned in class definitely helped boost my resume for when I search for a co-op. I learned a whole lot, and at the same time, I had a lot of fun. I definitely recommend that you take advantage of your free time or your summer and do something productive if you don't have anything else planned. It's really good to gain some hands-on or "real world" experience and of course at the same time, make some money! But I guess if you just want to be a beach bum, that might be ok too. ;)

Three Weeks Left!

2009-03-25T14:18:51Z

Good morning! and Happy Spring! Since coming back from break, I've been moderately busy...an exam here, an assignment there, a bunch of meetings, events, grading everywhere else. Right now, it is definitely hard to believe that the *last* day of classes is only THREE WEEKS from today! Within the next few weeks, I've got a few more assignments, I believe, a couple of quizzes, and a final draft of a paper left, nothing too huge. Finals begin on April 17th, and my four exams are split half and half over two days, April 17th and 21st. They're either at 8am (too early!) or 1pm. After all of that is over with, SUMMER! I'm so excited! Moving on...By now, admission decisions should be out or maybe just slowing rolling out. I just want to congratulate anyone who has been accepted not only by Northeastern, but also by any other colleges as well, so "CONGRATULATIONS!" =) Deciding which college to attend can definitely be a hard decision. I applied to only 4 colleges--rejected by 1, wait-listed by another, accepted by the rest. For me, it was a clear choice between the two schools that accepted me. However, if I remember correctly, I *did* wait until I had received all 4 of my decisions first before making a final call. While making my decision, I considered two factors that were most significant to me: location and finances. Location was an important aspect for me. I've spent all my life in the suburbs and I really felt that I should try putting myself out there in the city, and in this case, Boston. Providence just didn't count. Honestly, I don't want to go to a school that's "out in the middle of nowhere", and I really wanted to be around a lot of people. I would like to be able to go where I want, when I want to (for the most part) without having to drive at least 15-20 minutes outside of campus. When you're in a larger city, you have many more options, and hey, I like options! One of my friends says that "Boston is his campus", and I can't agree with him any more. The financial aspect was a biggie for me, and it still is. Seriously, who *wants* to pay for school for the rest of their lives? Definitely take a look at your financial aid package and consider your other options as well--outside scholarships, loans, etc. You really don't want to work all the time trying to pay off for school. You need time for yourself!...to do your homework! Oh, and to have fun too! :) "Education first." My parents say it. My head developer says it. Don't let the whole money thing get to you too much. Sure, you can work and bring in some money, but don't overdo it. Leave all the working to when you go on co-op! Once you do, you get more of a chance to pay for your expenses, and not to mention, if you take out loads, you typically don't have to repay your loans until 6 months after you graduate anyway. You have time. That's my point. So spend it wisely! College should be enjoyable! Like I said, these were the most important things *I* looked at when trying to choose a college. I'm sure there are many other aspects to consider as well, and that's fine too! You should look at the overall package! As I've mentioned in my previous entry, try taking another campus tour if you haven't already and/or somehow set up a time when you could perhaps talk to a current student (one who's studying your intended major would make the most sense). Get more of a feel of each of your choices. Regardless of your final decision, I wish you the best of luck! As always, feel free to post questions and comments! I've already had one so far, so I'm looking for more! Out.

A Hectic Week After Spring Break

2009-03-10T15:00:05Z

Hello again! It's the Tuesday right after Spring Break, and I'm just totally swamped with work to do! =( This week, I have 2 midterms, a paper, and of course the usual homework assignments as well to get through. I'm pretty nervous about all this work because there is just a TON of material, so wish me the best of luck! Anyway, I went down to Florida for Spring Break, and it was just great! It was definitely pretty nice to have gone back again after about 5 years since the last time, which was also my very first time. Three of my friends and I flew to Orlando late Friday night, but still able to wake up and drive down to Fort Myers. There, we caught a Red Sox Spring Training game against Northeastern with the final score being 14-0 Red Sox. Other things we did in Florida included visiting Englewood Beach, spending a couple of nights in Miami Beach, going on a bunch of rides in Universal Studios, and just walking around Downtown Disney. During Spring Break, I also met up with a prospective student and his father, who came all the way up from Atlanta, Georgia! If I remember correctly, he's actually current a junior in high school. Regardless, a fellow classmate, Daniel, and I gave them a tour of West Village H (home of the College of Computer & Information Science) as we discussed with them many of the things going on here at the college. We had filled them in on the freshman experience, since it was only last year when we were in that position, and informed him of the different student groups we have. Both the son and the father seemed extremely pleased and excited for this college and really the university in general, and in turn, this makes me really happy as well. If you're really interested in finding out more about CCIS or Northeastern, coming up here and visiting is definitely a good idea. Doing a campus tour is a good start, but actually talking to the current students one-on-one is even better. You'll get so much more out of discussion than just reading all the pamphlets and materials from the Visitors Center or the website. I've done several open houses, welcome days, and many other prospective student events, and I honestly can't tell you how much I love talking to these prospective students and their parents! Although at these events, they're split up into the 6 different colleges and I only participate in the CCIS portion, I really love discussing what it's like to be a student here, and I mean everything I say! Also, I know that admission decisions are coming right up, so I wish you all the best of luck! Wherever you decide to attend! Once again, I definitely recommend visiting campus and talking to students here at Northeastern, or just wherever else you're looking at too. Oooh, in other news, I GOT A JOB OFFER from Smarter Travel Media! Not from FlipKey however, but I'm totally fine with that because either company would be a great place to work at it seems. They're also both in the same industry really. Anyhow, I'm still very excited, and now I just kind of want the semester to be over... =X Well, I should really get back to my work now, but please, please, *please* feel free to leave some comments or questions. Let me know what you want to hear about! :)

Pre-Spring Break

2009-02-23T20:13:59Z

Hey all! Hope you all are enjoying the nice but chilly weather recently! Well, up here in New England anyway... So! It is the last week before Spring Break, and it can't possibly go any slower! I'll be leaving for Florida Friday evening, and I simply CANNOT wait! I haven't been to Florida since my freshman year in high school (about 5 years ago!), so I'm definitely looking forward to this trip. Not too much is going on for me as far as classes go since apparently, my two midterms and paper due date are AFTER break. :( However, recently, I have been going to interviews in search for a co-op! As of today, I have interviewed with two companies, Smarter Travel Media (part of Expedia, does BookingBuddy) and FlipKey (vacation home rental service), but I have no others lined up. My first one was with Smarter Travel Media on Friday, and that went alright. Getting there was a little tricky, and the interview process was longer than I had expected, but it was okay overall. I realized that the work might a little more intense than I thought it would be. Today, I interviewed with FlipKey, and I thought it went really well. I got things right that I wasn't able to for my other interview, which is good! Everyone I spoke with (there were 3, for both companies, in fact) was pretty cool to talk to for the most part...very relaxed and laid-back. Anyway, I'm really anxious to find out if I'll get an offer from either companies! Otherwise, I'll have to wait until the second round of sending out resumes to companies. *sigh* Two weeks ago, some members of CISters and I went out to "celebrate" Valentine's Day. There were seven of us--4 freshmen, 1 sophomore (me!), 1 junior (i.e. 4th year). We went to P. F. Chang's China Bistro for dinner at the Prudential Center, and it was a really great time! Here's a picture! Just a random tidbit, but two of those "CISters" above are actually going to be 2 out of 4 of my roommates for next year! As a total, there will be the 5 of us: Lauren (one of my current roommates, a middler), Liz (a freshman, 3rd from the left in the picture), Anne-Marie (a freshman, leftmost in the picture), Leighann (freshman, not pictured), and me! I'm really excited for this since most of us, if not all, know each other already, and we're all computer/information science majors living together! It's going to be a lot of fun hanging out together and maybe even doing the same work together. Well, more so for Anne-Marie, Liz and Leighann really, but Lauren and I could at least help. ;) Just in case you haven't picked it up, after freshman year, you can choose to live with anyone (usually in apartment style), so that's why there's a mixture of us. I did student panel on Friday for the CCIS Welcome Day. Basically, it was like an information session for early admitted students and their families, and four students, including myself, were there to answer any questions they may have. Later, we gave the students and other guests a tour of West Village H (home of CCIS). Maybe I've met you there! Anyway, I guess what I'm getting at is that I haven't received any questions on here yet, and I definitely LOVE answering questions, so feel free to post some! I'll get back to you as soon as possible, I promise! But until then...see you all after Spring Break! :)

Beanpot Championships

2009-02-10T06:00:48Z

Hey again, everyone! Hope all is well for all of you! Just a couple of hours ago, I came back from this year's men's ice hockey Beanpot. The Beanpot is basically like "the city cup" for those of you who might be familiar with that term back at your high schools or just sports in general. Last Monday, Northeastern played against Boston College, and we won 6-1, which was awesome because NU hadn't made it to the Beanpot finals since 2005! Tonight, we played the championship finals against Boston University, who had beat Harvard last week, but unfortunately, we didn't grab the title. :( But hey! It's totally okay! We're *still* in first place for Hockey East, so no worries! *thumbs up* Anyway, last time, I promised some pictures and perhaps some videos, so here they are! Before the game begins I think there are about 7-8 sections worth of us (i.e. NU) up here in the balcony seating area Some playful fighting between Paws (of NU) and the BC Eagle in between periods We won! :) Well, I think that's all I'll post. Haven't completely figured out the video-uploading part yet, so I'll just save that for next time. ;) Anyway, I really do love hockey here at Northeastern, and it has become a big part of my college experience so far. I think that it's at these games where I just find and feel so much school spirit. It's just an amazing feeling to cheer on the team and be so proud of something NU has accomplished. It's a fun and exciting time for my friends, me, and a good portion of the Northeastern community here! Signing out!

Spring Semester

2009-02-03T18:59:52Z

Hey everyone! This is my first blog post, and I am really hoping to help you readers to get a feel for what it is like to be a Northeastern student. Right now, I am one month into the Spring semester of my sophomore year. For this semester, I am enrolled in classes, working part time, and still heavily involved with student groups, so without a doubt, I have plenty of work to do! I don't mind it since I like to be busy! I'm currently computer lab proctoring/monitoring in West Village H, then right after, I have a class, and after that, I have three meetings to attend. Also, mid-semester is just rolling around the corner, and things will get even busier! One of the meetings I have to attend tonight is called Seeking New Assignments. It is required for anyone who is going on co-op for the Summer2/Fall session (July-December), which I am doing. After attending this meeting, I get clearance to go out and look for jobs! I am very much excited to work full-time for 6 months, so I cannot wait to see what's out there for me. The other meetings that I will be attending are for CISters and ACM. Just to give you a little info, CISters is a group here for any females who major in computer or information science, and we like to put together events that would bring females in our field together, but it doesn't mean that the guys can't join us! ACM is the Association for Computing Machinery, and we bring in speakers to give our CCIS community talk, organize workshops, or put together a whole week of geeky/nerdy/fun events called Geek Week. Well, this is all I've got for now, but I am open to any questions, comments and suggestions. I'd love to know what you readers are interested in learning about, and I'll try my best to answer all of your questions. I went to the Beanpot last night, and I have some info, photos and videos from the game that I will post for next time. See you then!