University of New England: Alyssa Fastnacht

This semester is going pretty well so far I would say. My classes are okay. I still love French. My teacher is as animated and interesting as ever. English is interesting, but challenging and I can only imagine that it will get more challenging as the semester goes on. The best part about English though, is that I know that I'm going to learn something. Chem/Phys is alright. I am not very good at either of those subjects as I'm sure I've mentioned before, but the lab is so far not very difficult. My music appreciation class that I finally had for the first time this past Monday is really cool. It's not what I was really expecting, but I enjoyed the first day. I wrote a counterpoint (I'm not totally sure what the definition of that is- but I know there are lots of rules that you have to follow when doing it and it's really confusing). It's a lot of history of music, but music is something I love so I definitely like the class.

This weekend my friends and I went ice skating. I am no pro ice skater, but it was really fun. For college kids who don't always have a ton of things to do, having a pond right down the road from the campus is a big plus in the winter. It's $3.50 to skate and $3 to rent, so it's a cheap, fun day. These are some of the pictures we took that day out on the ice.

This is all of us on the ice together....

This is a picture of my friends Jenny, Brianna and Kelsey. They are roommates and live down the hall from me.

These are some of my other friends Erin and Sarah who are also roommates. (Thank you to Sarah for driving us!)

This is Jenny being wicked talented.

And this is me pretending to be as talented, when actually I stuck the blade of my skate into a crack in the ice so I could balance, and then grabbed my other foot. I cheated...

And this is all of us again...

Lately, I have been really busy trying to get ready for Body Image Awareness Week that is coming up March 2-6. I am trying to set up meetings with people, today I sent out five or six e-mails checking in with different people involved, and it is turning out to be a lot of work, but I have a great support system from the presidents of SHAC as well as our advisor. SHAC is definitely a really great group to get involved in as a freshman. We sponsor a ton of events from condom sales/bingo to awareness weeks to Body Image Awareness. There is so much you can bring to this group because it is still growing and if it's something that you are interested in, I would highly suggest looking into it more closely. Regardless of what you like to do, my best advice is to get involved. You don't have to do everything, but try out the things that interest you the most and I'm sure you'll end up really liking a couple or at least one of the groups that you join. I've found three personally, so that just goes to show that putting yourself out there is very beneficial.

Besides clubs and academics, I am most recently working on my application to be a Resident Advisor next year. Hopefully in a freshman dorm. I am also trying to put together my resume. There are so many people here on campus willing to help you out with anything you are having trouble with. I am meeting with a woman in Career Services who is helping me write my resume and she has been a huge help. Don't hesitate to ask questions if you need help. I guarantee you there are a handful of people here, both faculty and staff, who are completely willing to help you out.

Right now, I need to get back to working on the short answer part of the application so I will talk to you all next week! Have a good one everyone!

Posted by Alyssa Fastnacht at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Winter break is over and everyone is back at school again. The adjustment has been okay. I can definitely tell that some people are a little on edge still missing home, but overall we're all settling back in to the swing of dorm life. It's been a little different for me because my best friend here at school transferred back home to Oregon. It's strange to not be able to just walk down the hall to her room, but we chat on webcam and we text (thank god for technology huh?) so we are still in touch which makes things easier. Other than that, I couldn't wait to get back to school. I missed everyone else and I missed the independence. That's one of the hardest things to deal with when you go back home for break. Giving up the ability to leave and do just about whatever you want when you want is a tough thing. I feel like my parents loosened up with me though. My curfew wasn't as early as it had been this past summer, so I just had to worry about sharing the car with my younger brother who just got his license.

Classes started the 14th and so far I like most of my classes. I am taking French, English, Chem/Phys (which is a requirement for OT majors), and Music Appreciation (which hasn't started yet because I only have it on Mondays and this Monday is a holiday. My French teacher is very bubbly and animated. I like her a lot and the class has been pretty fun so far. We do a lot of speaking and repeating after her. My English teacher is difficult but I think that I will learn a lot from her which is good. I am horrible at Chemistry and Physics so Chem/Phys is my worst nightmare. I'm going to have to work really hard to get a good grade in that class, hopefully I'll be able to pull of at least a B-. I'm looking forward to my Music Appreciation class because I play a couple of instruments and I love music. I made my schedule so that I don't have classes on Tuesdays, so I go to the gym and work 5-11 and get my homework done on those days. Thursdays I work 8-12 and then have my Chem/Phys lab from 1-2:50.

And that's about the extent of the fun for right now!

Posted by Alyssa Fastnacht at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Alyssa Fastnacht at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)