University of New England: Marilyn Tushar

Okay, so I should really say Happy Belated Thanksgiving, because Thanksgiving has come and gone. Tommorow I am heading back to school and it is kind of a bummer. It was really nice to spend some time with my family. We didn't even do a heck of a lot, but it was so much fun! One night we ate at this really awseome burger joint called The Buckeye Beer Engine and they make all their burgers vegetarian if you ask and so that was sooo yummy! They make the burger part out of black beans and it is truly uncomparable!!

Then you of course I spent a great amount if time with my fabulous friends! One of them, Nick, who I call a cousin, because we are so super close, went shopping with me. But, instead of hitting the malls, we went to the tiny little whole-in-the-wall places. And in the back of this dingy, hippie shop I found the cutest hat ever!!! It is so warm and adorable and well-made (I think) and so cheap!!! So I was super excited about that find!

The pink hat is the hat I found!!

The resr of Thanksgiving was uneventful and then I flew home....dun dun dun...
my plane was like 4 hours delayed from Cleveland and then I missed my flight in Phillie and then my new flight was another 3 hours late and they lost my luggage and then I missed the train from Boston so I waited like 4 hours in the train station and then I had forgot my UNE ID in Ohio, so I had to call security and the R.A. and finally plopped into bed at quarter to 2AM!!!! ahhh....now I am taking the train home for Christmas to miss airport chaos...14 hours on a train...verrry interesting...we'll see how that plays out!

One more thing to talk about is this Hope in Darfur event I went to today. There is this club at UNE called We Are Responsible (WAR) that tries to get the word out about the genocide in Darfur and their event was soo cool tonight! They showed a short video and had refugees that live in Portland, that came from Darfur talking. It was really sad, but eye opening. One guy was saying how he still had family in Darfur and didn't know where they were...it was so sad!
But then the group sang and danced and it was so enthralling! Then we joined them which was fun! There were drummers and all the women were wearing outfits. I loved it!

Here is one of the speakers!

The performers from Darfur.

Here they are dancing!

They had some posters that were really awseome! The photos were so vibrant! Look at the picture of the woman, it is just so capturing!

If you want more information about the genocide in Darfur check out Posted by Marilyn Tushar at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey everyone!!
I hope your weekend went well! I spent it away from campus, which was thoroughly exciting! I love campus, but it is really nice to get off sometimes and since I am carless, me getting off does not happen often. But, anyways I think I mentioned that my friend, Aubrey, has a horse, well we went riding, which was awesome!

That’s Sysko and Aubrey. Sysko was really dirty and it was really cold outside!

Aubrey was actually cantering...while I was merely attempting to do so...

Picture
Just Sysko and me!

Here is me trying to canter…usually we jump, but the ground was too cold and hard. and actually I wasn't even really cantering on my own, I realized after a while, that Sysko was responding to Aubrey's whip, not me...lol

We had to wake up really early for her to teach a lesson, but her student was a no-show, so she gave me the lesson instead, which was wicked fun, but I don’t think I was the best student…apparently, my heels were totally up (are they are supposed to be down?) and I was pulling too hard (which I thought was how you were supposed to stop…lol) No matter, it was a great way to spend a Saturday!

We also baked and cooked, but it didn’t turn out so well, since, I am definitely not a chef. I was the designated ingredient reader, but I forgot that certain ingredients go in at different times, so instead of reading how to add them, we just added them all together….haha oops….but the ginger bread turned out amazing anyways!! : )

Yesterday, I went to another big event! Basically, The Maine Mall in South Portland claimed Habitat for Humanity as their charity for the year, so all these events throughout the year, at the mall are supporting Habitat, and yesterday was Festival of Giving. So, last night we sold these $5.00 tickets that gave you like tons and tons of discounts and sales. But, it was not a real huge turnout, so we ended up just sitting there and talking. My group was in front of Sears, but Sears was not participating, so like an hour in, all the lights in and around Sears turned off, so it was pretty dull. Overall, though every bit counts and we did make some money.

Other Maine Mall habitat fundraisers are the Rockin’ Shoppin’ Eve’s concession stand (so if you are there stop by and buy some hot cocoa from UNE habitaters!!) and, something that I don’t know much about, but will definitely keep you posted on, Hunks for Habitat, which is apparently a male auction that benefits us 100%...I know quite interesting, huh?

Finally, I said I’d mention the Sex Show, which I am helping planning with Hall Council, and the new info is that it is on November 30th and that John Tumiel is hosting. It should be really fun and the advertisements are so funny, so the event should be hilarious!

If you wanna chek out more on The Maine Mall, here is their website: www.mainemall.com/

Well, hope you have a nice Thanksgiving and talk to you later! Oh and next time I will definitely have a podcast, but I am still getting used to the equipment…so, yeah, something else to look forward to!
Marilyn

Posted by Marilyn Tushar at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey! Okay, first let me formally introduce myself. My name is Marilyn and I am 19 and a freshman from Lakewood, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland). I am kind of unsure about what I want to major in and keeping hopping around. I am definitely still trying to figure what the perfect career is for me. As for my life here at UNE…it has been so crazy! There has been just so much going on lately! It is already close to Thanksgiving and after break we only have 2 more weeks of classes before semester ends. Which I am so excited about, but still it there is a lot of work looming ahead. For this blog I guess I am just going to try and catch you guys up a little bit.

I moved into a triple in Avila, which is truly the place to be. If anything is happening, it is happening there! Just utter craziness. It is really awesome though, because your floor really becomes your family! I loved living there, but unfortunately my roommates and I disagreed on the room environment so I decided to leave. But, I still adore Molly and Michelle (my old roommates) and we talk all the time! We had so much fun while living together and I don’t think I could cut all ties with them. One night we even rushed to Portland at close to 10 at night to get piercings, which was the funniest and most random experience ever! We had only thought of it like 15 minutes before and it was just hilarious, because we ended up in a tattoo parlor above a Chinese restaurant with this older tattooed woman and her pug! I got my nose pierced (can you see it?), Molly got her belly, and Michelle got her inner ear.

That is Molly, Me and Michelle in our room.

Then I moved to Featherman and the rooms are so big! My new roommates are Fallon and Stephanie and they are so funny!

They are best friends so it was really awkward at first, because it was them and then me, but now we are all pretty close. Leaving my floor was really hard, because a lot of people thought that I just didn’t like them, which of course it wasn’t at all! My new floor was hesitant as well, but I think they are all really friendly now and I think they are used to me. The interesting thing about Featherman is that it is all Interest Pod Housing. This is a program where you live in pods of dorms with people that have a common interest with you. There is a religion pod, a leadership pod, a sport pod, a music pod, and I am in the social/global justice pod. So far we watch movies every month like, Hotel Rwanda and we go to school programs about global justice. It is pretty fun and Featherman is so nice! It is brand new and the walls and ceilings are so great! But, the best part is the showers!
They are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! : )
The old showers are like cubicles with very dirty, thin plastic or cloth curtains. The new ones are a whole room. You step in and there is an area to get ready and hang up your towel and another large area for the shower. The room locks and says occupied when you are in it. It is so awseome! I love them!
Here is a comparison of my two rooms:

That is my old room!

This is my new room. As you can see there is an obvious improvement as far as space!

The good part about moving at UNE was that the housing department was supportive the entire time and because this is such a small campus you really get individual attention from everyone!!

What else…
Well I also am involved in so many organizations. I am in Habitat for Humanity and I have been doing lots of fundraising for that. We had a bake sale and did gardening and tonight we were selling these tickets at the Maine Mall for a mall fundraiser Sunday. All the money goes for our spring break retreat in which we will go to…. ARIZONA!! Ahh I am so excited!! A week building houses in warm, sunny weather with the most awesome people around! What else could be better? I am also in Earth’s Eco (a really fun club that promotes environmental awareness through awesome events) and Make-A-Wish and Hall Council. I also work 2 jobs, I am an office assistant in The Environmental Studies, Chemistry, Physics, and Art Department and I work in The Study Abroad Office. If you ever go on a tour, you go right by study abroad, so stop in and say hi!

I also love love love to swim! I have this goal with my friend Aubrey...

The goal is that we will swim a mile straight by the end of the semester. So, far we are sucking. See a mile doesn’t seem like very long, and it is super fun, but it is also so hard. We get all dressed up in our nose plugs, goggles, swim cap and flippers and try and swim as much as we can daily. We look so ridiculous! If you only you could see a picture of us in that getup… AAs for actually completing our mission, well I guess we'll just wait and see!

Another awesome thing to mention is what I did last weekend. My friend Adrienne and I…

...went to Boston for the night to go to this international Bhangra competition called The Boston Bhangra. It was so much fun! We caught the UNE bus to the station and then took the train which is actually really cheap, only 20 bucks and then the subway to go to this really old tiny theater in Boston. We ate Indian food and watched all these college students from all over N. America do bhangra, bhangra being this traditional dance from India. I loved it, it was so colorful and it was so upbeat! After caught the train back and took a cab back to campus. Here is some photos:

Mostly, it is pretty convienent to get off campus. There is this new UNE bus that takes you to town or the train station and it’s free and the city bus takes you to Wal-mart and the shopping centers.But, even though we are lucky to have those buses, I would still advice you to bring you cars if you have them!!

Okay, well I think I have given you enough to think about…usually my blogs won’t be this long…
But I had a lot to talk about. This week I am going to be studying for a HUGE bio test and have a paper due, but this weekend I get to go to Aubrey’s house! Which means I get to ride her horse Sysko…did I mention she was like an almost pro-rider? So, she has her own horse and own jumping area, it is really awesome! Also, coming up is the annual Sex Show, but more about that later! Have a nice week and talk to you later!!

Posted by Marilyn Tushar at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)