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Break is almost over, and we only have six more days left to laze. Too bad my break has been everything but lazy. I go to work a couple of days a week for 8 hours, have family holiday parties, apply for summer jobs and try to fit in seeing high school friends in whatever time is left over. At the same time though, my break has been really good. My birthday was a lot of fun, Christmas with my family was awesome (I missed them a lot and I had about 4 different Christmases with different family members) and I had an awesome New Years Eve in Cape Cod with 6 of my friends. I went skiing for the first time in a couple of years with my friend Michael and my brother. I had a spanish dinner with my some of my friends from high school because one of them was spending her first year of college in Spain and had learned how to make a couple of popular Spanish appetizers.
I'm really glad that the Occupational Therapy curriculum got changed around so that it's easier for us to travel abroad now too because that's definitely something that I want to do.
My cousin just got back from a semester in England, and got to travel to a bunch of places around that area as well. He went to Ireland, Portugal, France, and London as well as a couple of other places and had the time of his life. I really want to be able to do that my junior year. I've studied abroad twice in Germany for three weeks at a time. The first time was after my sophomore year and then again this past summer after I graduated. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had, and would totally suggest doing it if you have the opportunity especially before you go off to school because you learn so much and become much more open minded. The only drawback for me coming to UNE was that they didn't offer German as a language class. I would have liked to continue studying German, but since I had taken it for four years in high school I figured that if I really wanted to I could continue studying it on my own.
Hey everyone! Hope finals week went well for everyone. I'm glad to be done, and I think my finals went pretty well, but I already miss my friends back at school and I've only been home for three days.
My first final on Monday, was in Statistics. I studied pretty hard for that one. For you prospective OT students, taking stats in high school gives you an amazing advantage, so if you have the opportunity, definitely go for it.
Tuesday was a pretty miserable day. I had to say goodbye to Nawwal because she was getting on the plane to go back to Oregon. It's really hard to watch someone leave after they've made such an imprint in your life, but we got through it and now I keep in constant touch with her via text messages and webcam.
Wednesday I had my last exam, which was Biology. My professor just took questions from our previous exams and threw them all together for our final, so that's all I had to study, and the final took me all of 20 minutes to finish.
Now, I am waiting for three more of my final grades. I'm really pleased with how my first semester went. I absolutely love this school and I actually feel like I came out of these classes having learned something. A lot of the times in high school, I felt like I could take a class and leave with no new knowledge and that really bothered me, but the classes I have taken so far in college have really impressed me. After my final, one of my roommates and I did a thorough cleaning of my room and then my mom came and picked me up.
Thursday was kind of a chill out day. My parents and I went out for breakfast and then we got my little sister two kittens for her Christmas present. We went to the Salem Animal Rescue League and adopted a white and orange kitten originally named Coconut, but we decided to change it to Oliver, and the other kitten is a calico and we named her Lily. It was so sad to see all of the little kittens in the shelter because most of them had been strays, and I can't imagine just leaving these poor animals out in the middle of nowhere. Originally we were only going to adopt one (Coconut) but we figured that he would probably want a friend and we just couldn't leave another behind so we adopted Lily too.
This is Lily. She's the baby, only about 4 months old, but so precious.
This is Oliver. He's about 6 months old, but we don't know for sure since he was a stray.
Friday was my first day back to work in 4 months, so that was an adjustment, especially because everything has changed at the rehab. There are new employees, the entire computer system is totally changed, so I had to learn the whole thing in a couple of minutes, and they threw me right in with only a little guidance. It felt like my very first day of working at a new place, but I asked questions and got comfortable with the new system after a couple of hours. It was a pretty overwhelming day, but we closed early because of the snow storm and the drive home that normally only takes me 5 or 10 minutes took me close to 30.
Today my dad's side of the family came down for our first part of Christmas, and then my older sister and I went out to do some Christmas shopping. We're waking up early tomorrow morning to finish up and Monday is my birthday, so I have some fun coming up and I can't wait for Christmas day!
I hope you all have a nice and safe holiday season, and for all you college and high school kids, a relaxing break!
Saturday night and Sunday morning it snowed for the first time! Everyone was so excited, so when we got back from brunch Sunday morning we all put our winter jackets on and went outside to play in the snow. We had a huge snowball fight, and we tried to sled in empty cardboard boxes. The snow was perfect for snowballs because it stuck together, so we were all chasing each other around the field outside of my dorm.
This is a picture of all of us outside playing in the snow for the first time this winter!
This is Jenny, Erin and me in our makeshift sled Vernon pulled out of the dumpster for us. It didn't work too well to be perfectly honest, but it was fun while it lasted anyways.
This week I have a couple more papers to write and a few more assignments and then I am all done until finals. I have two finals next week, one on Monday and one on Wednesday. Monday's final is statistics, and biology is on Wednesday. Thankfully they're both after 12, so I'll be able to sleep as much as I want and study really hard. I don't think either of them will really be that challenging because I took stats in high school, which prepared me more than I could've hoped for college stats, and my bio exam is made up of questions taken from our past exams. Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as I am. I know a couple of people who have a couple more finals than I do, and they're a lot more difficult.
Right now I should really get back to writing my papers and doing the other assignments. I have class at 5:30 tonight, so I'm going to go get started.
Enjoy the snow everyone!
We just got back from Thanksgiving break. I had a really good weekend. Nawwal came home with me to New Hampshire, and had Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I had one class on Tuesday before we got to go home for break and it was my biology lab, but about two hours before class started the electricity went out on campus. It was out until I left for my class, so I was hoping that class would just get cancelled. We waited until 11:32 a.m., and at 11:31 the lights turned back on, so that kind of stunk, but as soon as I got out of class we left for home. I got back to my house around 3:30, and for the first time in a long time, I just sat down and relaxed. After a couple of hours, I took Nawwal out for a drive so I could show her all of the places I go on a regular basis. We drove for a while and then went back to my house to hang out.
The next day my neighbor who I graduated with called and asked us if we wanted to go over for breakfast, so we went over and had waffles and then headed off to visit my high school. I got to see a bunch of my teachers that I missed (it was nice to catch up with them) and then I visited my younger brother and sister at lunch. After we left the school, I headed over to drop my older sister off at Target and then went to my work. I got to visit my old co-workers that I miss a lot, so that was a really good time too. After that, I picked up my older sister and my younger sister and we went back home. Later that afternoon, I went down to Lawrence, Massachusetts to meet with Fr. O'Brien so that I could start a street team for Labels Are For Jars, which is a charity group that raises money for the hungry people of Lawrence.
Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving, and it was such a good day. I got to see my whole family and Nawwal got to meet them all too. We played games like Snorta and Apples to Apples and had some pretty crazy times.
Friday was a pretty relaxed day, we didn't have a whole lot going on which was nice, but I did see Twilight (it was okay for what it was, but I definitely prefer the book and it was the most awkward movie I've ever seen). I saw my friends Val, Tina, and Bonni from high school and we all hung out at my neighbor's house playing Pictionary (we lost- but oh well).
Saturday, we spent shopping at the Rockingham Mall. I got some Christmas shopping done, and some shopping of my own as well.
Sunday, we went to church and hung out at my house, watched the Patriots game, and then headed back up to campus.
It was such a good break and it was amazing to be back in a home, but I'm still glad to be back because I missed my friends here. I hope you all had a good break as well! I really should get back to my sociology homework and writing my article for the newspaper.
Sorry it's been so long since my last entry, but I never knew how busy college life could get. I've been really busy with school work and clubs lately. I just finished a nine page psychology paper that is worth 50% of my grade on a psychologist named Mary Ainsworth who worked with child development. (I learned some very interesting things.) I passed that in on Thursday, but had spent 8 hours in the library in the four or five days beforehand, and I also brought it to the Learning Assistance Center for a final proof read. They tore it up for me, I fixed what I could, and now it's done so I'm hoping for the best.
Last Thursday night was also the Sex Show. It's a question and answer session with a woman named Gina who owns a sex shop in Portland, ME called Nomia, and a representative from Planned Parenthood and I'm pretty sure his name was Glen. Our own Daryl Conte was the em cee, so you can only imagine how entertaining that night was. I staffed the event for Hall Council so I was handing out cups with condoms and lube to anyone who asked a question and we raffled off a couple of sex toys and books such as "The Guide to Getting It On." Overall, the event was a pretty good success. There were a lot of students and it was definitely a night to remember, especially after Gina showed us the "doggie style" position with a volunteer from the crowd, but it was all in good fun and everyone really enjoyed it.
Two weeks ago, my Meme, Pepe, Uncle Ron, and Auntie Jan came up to visit me. We went out for dinner at the Olive Garden (my favorite restaurant- good thing it's only 5-10 minutes away from campus). It was so good to see them. I miss my family so much, and it was a really nice break from the constant nagging of the notebooks staring me down on my desk saying, "Hey, remember me? I'm homework and I'm due in a couple of days!" But I got to chat it up with the family, and they came back to see the dorm afterwards. Everyone at school got a kick out of my Pepe. They all thought he was so funny, and let me tell you, he is. After they left, I went into the lounge and watched a movie with my friends on the fourth floor, as per usual.
This past weekend, I went down to Boston with my friends Nawwal and Jenny. We stayed with my sister who goes to school at Northeastern, and hung out with her boyfriend and his roommates. We took a two hour train ride into Boston and my sister, Kailyn, met us at North Station. We followed her all through the subway to get to the Prudential building and then went to Shaw's to pick up some stuff for dinner. When we got to Kailyn's boyfriend's apartment, we made deep dish pizza. About twenty minutes into cooking, my neighbor from back home and another kid that I graduated with walked through the door. That was a fun surprise, so we all hung out for a while and talked and watched TV. We stayed there for a while and then headed back to Kailyn's apartment to go to bed. We blew up a couple of air mattresses and then crashed. The next day we woke up around noon, Kailyn's boyfriend made us omelettes and we all got ready to head out to Quincy Market. It was so cold. Much colder than Maine has been anyways. They already have a Christmas tree up and decorated and there was a dance studio having a little Christmas show. After walking around Quincy Market for a couple of hours, we hopped back on the T and headed towards Fire and Ice for lunch. Fire and Ice is a really cool restaurant in Boston where you go up and pick whatever food you want and pile it all into a little bowl, bring it up to the chefs and they cook it right in front of you. We were all sitting at the table and I saw a girl that I knew through my best friend at home, so I talked to her for a little bit. After dinner, Kailyn took Nawwal, Jenny, and I back to North Station and we hopped back on the train to Saco. We had a really fun weekend and here are some pictures!
This one is a little blurry, but it's a picture of the Pru at night when we had first gotten to Boston.
This is Quincy Market starting to get decked out in Christmas decorations.
This is Nawwal, Jenny and me with the random shark that was walking around. (There was also a sea turtle, but we have no clue why they were there.)
This is the three of us again in front of the huge Christmas tree.
Okay so as I was saying before, upper classmen get to live in beach houses if they want to because the University only offers housing for freshmen, sophomores and juniors. You can live anywhere you want really. I know people who lived further down Hills Beach Road, Old Orchard Beach, and Fortunes Rocks Beach. Personally, I will be moving up to the Portland campus after my junior year at the Biddeford campus because that's where the Occupational Therapy intensive classes are, so hopefully I will be able to move into an apartment or a house in Portland when that time comes. I'm really excited for that!
As for other things that have been happening...well, on October 25th, UNE had it's annual Rave. The Rave is a halloween dance where everyone gets dressed up and piles into the Multi Purpose Rooms in the Campus Center. There's a best costume contest, and from what I heard (because I didn't get to go) it was a lot of fun.
Another big reason I decided to come to UNE was the fact that it's really not a "party school" persay. Of course people do drink, the freedom gets to them, but it's not something that has become a problem in my experiences so far.
The next weekend was Halloween weekend:
A favorite past-time for me and my friends is our bi-weekly trip to Target. This happened to be the day of halloween, and Kayleigh (hiding behind the shield), Kelsey (with the weapon behind me), and I (middle) decided to battle long enough for Jenny to take a picture. We always end up turning these trips into adventures. None of us have our cars on campus, but there is a bus that runs and takes you to the shopping plaza downtown where there's a Target, Old Navy, Best Buy, Olive Garden, Payless, TJ Maxx, and other stores, so that's how we get there. It's free for UNE students to take it, so why not, right? When we got back from Target that night, we rented The Omen and had a scary movie night. For a movie that I had been petrified to see, it really wasn't as scary as I was expecting. It was definitely creepy, but the only scary parts were in dreams. Other than that, it was just strange.
For the most part, when there isn't much to do on the weekend, or we don't have a lot of homework to do, we watch movies out in the lounge. Almost every Friday and Saturday night, a bunch of girls from my floor take over the lounge at some point and watch a movie. Sundays are football days, so Jenny and I watch the Patriots game and sometimes other games that are on afterwards if we don't have anything else to do. I don't get bored too often. I have my days just like anyone else, but more often than not I have things going on. A lot of it is because I'm involved in so many clubs, but it's nice to be busy most of the time.
So that's about all that's been going on with me since the beginning of my freshman year in college, and here are some more pictures like I promised.
This picture was taken on the beach down Hills Beach Road. It's a 5 minute walk down the road and then you just walk on the beach from the public access area. We spent a couple of hours down there collecting shells and walking on the rocks and looking at the boats. It was so nice out that day. I love those days.
These pictures were taken right outside of Featherman a couple of weeks ago. The leaves are pretty much all gone now, but it was a gorgeous day out, so my friends and I decided to go out and work on some homework. When we finished our homework, we sat out there and just hung out for an hour or so. It's one of the most relaxing places on campus in my opinion. UNE has a lot of little areas to go out and sit to work on homework or just watch the water while trying to unwind. I think you can see why I love this school so much. As stressful as college can be, there are plenty of places to go and get away. There's a trail that goes along the Saco River. I saw that trail for the first time when my environmental issues class went out to do some nature journaling. My professor took us down the trail and I had no clue it even existed prior to that day. It's a short and peaceful walk if you just want to get away.
p.s. in my last blog the pictures got mixed up so obviously, that is not a picture of my room, but I will put up the actual picture in my next blog.
This is my room- or my area of the room- I call it my "nook". I try my best to keep it clean, but sometimes that doesn't happen. Usually when I have a lot of work to do it gets messy, but as soon as I'm done stressing out everything gets cleaned up again. I don't function well in a big mess in such a small area.
So, a lot has happened in the past couple of months, and I should probably start at the beginning. Move-in day could have been very hectic but thankfully I got here before either of my roommates and was done moving in completely before they even came. Advice to you incoming freshmen: Get here early, move in quickly and just unpack stuff that you need to unpack, then get out and unpack the rest later. It made for a much easier day. It's a little scary first meeting your roommates, but it's really not that bad. I like both of the girls that I live with. We all get along well and I don't know too many people who have had real problems with their roommates...so far so good. The first week was really exciting. There was a lot for us to do, and since I was in Germany this past summer during the summer orientations, I had my orientation the first few days of school. We did the cheesy ice-breakers, and the "What's Your Name? Let's Get to Know Each Other" games, which were pretty boring, but we all have to do it. After the first two weeks went by is when I got the most homesick. I missed my friends from home a lot and of course my family, but after I got through that week, it has been smooth sailing.
We've had some really fun events here so far. The first that comes to mind was the clash bash, which is a dance where everyone wears clothes that don't match, so we all looked pretty goofy. I'll try to get some pictures up of that soon. A couple of weeks later, my best friend from home came up to visit me and that was the weekend of the Big Big Event. The lawn outside of Alfond was buried under blow up obstacle courses, jousting rings, laser tag domes, and a velcro wall. That night we had the Glow-in-the-Dark dance, so we all colored white t-shirts with glow in the dark paint and highlighters and danced all night. Then, a few more weeks went by and I went home for the first time on October 3rd to go to one of my co-worker's wedding. It was so good to see my family because it had been so long, and the wedding was beautiful. Sunday, before I came back to school I went apple picking, baked apple pie and apple crisp and then went to my neighbor's tail-gating party that he has every year for a Patriot's game. He had a huge blow up slide and there are field goal kicking competitions to win free Celtics tickets. It's a lot of fun, and it was nice to see everyone from home. After the game was over, my parents drove me back to school. The next weekend was the fall long weekend, so my little sister and her friend came up for a couple of days to visit. We went down to the beach and hung out for a couple of hours and had a lot of fun. A week later was family and friends weekend, so my parents and my younger brother and sister came up for the day. We went to the volleyball game because one of my friends from home plays for WPI and they were up playing our team so I got to see her that day. The next Friday, one of my friends from work came up to visit me. She came to my bio class and then we went down to Fortunes Beach, which is a gorgeous beach a little further down rt. 9 where upper classmen can live in beach houses.
Sorry to cut this short, but both of my roommates are in bed and I should be too. So I will pick up from there in my next entry, hopefully with more pictures.
Hi everyone! We're finally up and running, and I wanted to take this time to welcome you guys to the page and introduce myself. My name is Alyssa, I'm from Salem, NH (not the witch town- that's Salem, Massachusetts). I am an Occupational Therapy major here at UNE, but originally I wanted to be a Physical Therapy major. I changed my mind for a couple of reasons. Of course, both the OT and PT programs here are awesome, but I got to work with an OT (who actually graduated from UNE a couple of years ago) back home at an outpatient physical and occupational therapy clinic called Salem Sports and Rehab and on top of that, my aunt who lives in Connecticut, is also an OT. Between the two of them I learned enough to realize that I really wanted to pursue OT instead of PT. (Besides, PT is another two years of school and that doesn't sound too appealing to me to be honest). My ultimate goal- as of right now- is to become a Sensory Integration Therapist, which is basically an OT who specializes in helping children develop their senses if they weren't developed correctly. I really want to work with children and I think that to be an SIT would be really rewarding. I absolutely love the OT faculty on campus. They are all really nice and very helpful; honestly, I don't think that you will ever meet any nicer and happier people.
As for other random things about me...I am involved with a lot of clubs here on campus. I am the features editor for the school's newspaper, I am co-chair of Body Image Awareness Week next semester for the Student Health Advisory Council club, and I am a floor representitive for Featherman (which is the residence hall that I live in) in Hall Council. I also have another job at the Windward Cafe over in the brand new George and Barbara Bush Center, and will hopefully be starting there in the next couple of weeks.
So far my experience at UNE has been amazing! I love the location of course, but there is so much more to it than that. The most beneficial thing I've done is gotten involved. I've met some really awesome people by joining all of the clubs. I've made so many new friends here, and have already learned so much about being independent. For me, the independence is the coolest part of living away at school. I have an awesome dorm room, and some really cool classes. I'm taking most of my gen-eds right now, so I have Environmental Issues, Elementary Statistics (which, for you OT majors, is the only math class you'll have to take in your college career! Good news for me!), Biology and a Lab, Introduction to Sociology, and Introduction to Psychology. My favorite classes are Bio and Psych. I love my professors for both of those classes and the material is just fun.
There's a lot here for us to do, and I'm going to post some pictures of a few of the events we've had here, as well as some from just hanging out and walking around campus as soon as I figure out how to...
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