University of New England: Marilyn Tushar

Hey guys!
I am so sorry it has been forever since I have written. But, I plan on posting twice in like the next few days. So, last I left you was before Easter. And my Easter weekend was amazing! Like on Thursday I went horseback riding with Aubrey and our friend Mike. And we went after work at like 9pm and stayed till 1:45AM! But, it was super fun! And okay, so Mike is a little bit of a goofball and he was like first chasing the horse over jumps…

And running at Sysko and then from the side mounting her bareback. That was really funny, but I am not so sure Sysko was quite as amused as we were. But, we didn’t get any videos of that, because my camera ran out of memory.

Then on Friday we left for Aubrey’s dad’s house. And we went to her church’s Good Friday service and it was really awesome. Then on Saturday morning (which was like noon for us) we went to New Hampshire. It was so much fun!

This is us saying "not it", because like we were doing this to decide who would go downstairs first for dinner and then all weekend we would randomly just touch our noses... lol it was really funny!

Welcome to New Hampshire!

First, we blasted country the whole way. And her mom was just like Aubrey and also Aubrey has lots of funny pets. Her dog Belle is a major bed hog and like kicked me off the bed! Then Clara, who is a like really small dog, is a vicious beast! Not really though. She was super sweet, although, she accidently bit my finger instead of the toy once. She was so much fun to play with! Then they have this cat that will like sit outside their living room window and hunt birds! I really wanted him to catch one, but no such luck.

This is cute Carla!

This is the bird hunter!

So, Saturday night we all went and got amazing pizza and watched like the most boring moving ever! The Good Shepherded or something like that, with Matt Damon and so that was okay. Both, Aubrey and I fell asleep, but her brother, his friend and her parents got along.

Then the next day was EASTER! But, Aubrey didn’t wake up, so we missed church…But then, we had the hugest Easter Egg hunt! Turns out I am a suck at hunting and I only found 4. Aubrey found the most with twenty something. Her brother and friend found at least fifteen each. But, then we ate amazing burritos, watched Step Up and headed back to Maine.

She must have gotten some good candy!

Her balloon was getting so big!

This is Aubrey's mom, Aubrey and me in our Easter dresses! Aubrey and I dressed her mom! She looked so cute!

Back to Maine...

Then this week was International Week and since I work for The Office of International Programs I was working a lot. But to me, it was super fun! On Monday, they served a special Mexican lunch and people came to talk about immigration. Then there was a salsa dancing night. Then, there was a Japanese calligraphy lesson and a Thai cooking class and then an International Fashion Show and a Heritage program! It was awesome!

Also, we went riding again on Thursday, but this time only till midnight. And it looks like it will be a weekly thing. Today, I also went to a riding clinic with Aubrey. It was super fun watching her ride amazing! And on April 12th is one of her shows. Well, got to go. But, tomorrow I am doing something super fun with my I-POD living group (social and global justice), so I will post about that tomorrow night or Monday.
Later,
Marilyn

Posted by Marilyn Tushar at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey guys!! Okay, so I had the best spring break ever!! First, I went to Aubrey’s house and it was a weekend of NEW experiences….

First new experience was small ball bowling or in other words candlepin bowling. WOW! Who knew there was more than one way to bowl? For all of you that have no clue what that is, just like me, it is like bowling because you have ten pins. But, they look different. Like straighter. And you have three small balls that fit in your hand. And you have two chances to throw the three balls (so like six chances) and then it is the next person’s turn. But, each turn goes into two boxes. So really each person only plays five times, instead of ten. I know, very confusing. I was absolutely horrible at it. I needed the three holes, and basically I was out of my element. I would have taken pictures, but I LEFT MY CAMERA CARD IN MY ROOM!! Not a big deal, except all the dorms were locked till after spring break…. But we’ll get to that later…

Next, I had a Fluffer Nutter….Okay, so we, in Ohio, don’t have marshmallow fluff, (at least I have never seen or heard of it) and so like a couple weekends back I was playing Catchphrase with Aubrey and Marshmallow Fluff came up and I thought it was the substance that created marshmallows. Well, everyone laughed at me and Aubrey was determined to feed me a Fluffer Nutter, so here it is: My First Fluffer Nutter (which for everyone who doesn’t know, is a spreadable marshmallow cream and peanut butter sandwich)

Okay, so then some of my other new experiences were working in a nursery… yeah for everyone who doesn’t know, kids are not my favorite. I mean I like working with them when they are older, but babies are just too much fuss and work. But, I was helping with Aubrey and it was definitely interesting. Then I posted on Sysko (like riding but like going up and down with her) and it was AMAZING! I loved it and cannot wait to do it again! Aubrey is training me! Here is some photos of her jumping… it was really awesome, she had a really good practice that night!

Then I headed to Arizona. It was AWSEOME! We stayed at this really nice church in Avondale and the weather was like 80 and sunny! And the first day we were exhausted, but ate this amazing Chinese food (best tofu I have ever had)! And then throughout the week we worked till like 1:30, from like 7:15 and we painted, put up drywall and insulated houses. I also calked a living room and loaded a truck twice with roofing tiles. Everything was new, but I really learned a lot about building a house. And of course it was for an amazing cause! For all of you that do not know Habitat for Humanity does not give houses away. They make houses affordable with a no interest mortgage for families that do not need a hand out, but a hand up. (Someone said that this week and I really liked the saying). And the families have to work like I think 400 hours on their house and another person’s house. This week I met 4 homeowners. It was really cool, because one of the homeowners was the one we had dry walled and he was just so appreciative and you could tell what this meant for him! This really changes their lives and it is just an awesome organization!

One of the houses we worked on in Peoria, AZ

This is me hammering in a nail.

This is the complex we worked on in Surprise, AZ.

This is the closet that Rachele, Jen and I dry walled!

Some of the better moments of the trip were when while painting the ceiling with a roller attached to a pole; the roller somehow unscrewed and fell on my head!! My whole head was covered in eggshell white paint and still is!!!

Then we also got to see Sedona, which is this really peaceful and supposed to be spiritual town. All the canyons and rocks are this really dark red color. We hiked there and it was just breathtaking. Then in the middle of all these huge rock formations is this church. It is really thin and glass covers it so that you can see everything around. We went there and it was also amazing!

Beautiful Sedona!

This is from a ledge off of a huge mountain/rock thing.

This is the church I was talking about.

We also went to the Phoenix Symphony which was nice and to a spring training game for the San Diego Padres versus the Oakland A’s. It was nice to be in the sun and a cool event to go to, but everyone really was burnt like tomatoes!!

Someone hitting for some team, during some part of the game!

Finally, we saw the Grand Canyon! It was so amazing! Breathtaking and like way better than I expected! We traveled 8 hours total to get there and it was so worth it!

Me at the Grand Canyon.

So, overall going to Arizona for spring break and working for Habitat for Humanity was better than any other college spring break I could think of!! Plus, the people that went although… very different… were awesome! We really learned to be a team, especially during insulation day. It was the best because although insulation is such a horrible and tedious job, it made it better than our team was kick butt!!

Some of us at the Grand Canyon.

Anyways, I hope your spring breaks are as good, or were as good as mine!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Marilyn

Posted by Marilyn Tushar at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey guys!
So, this week has been boring (like I said it would be), but really stressful too! I had so many tests, one I got an A on, another not so much...but whatever! You just have to try hard and I did. What else? Oh, I was supposed to do serious swimming one night with Aubrey, but ended up just sitting in the hot tub and sauna (so much easier and relaxing!) then, I worked like almost every day at the phone-a-thon and it as usual was super fun! One night 4 of us earned over 2,500 in less than an hour!! woot woot!

Actually, I am supposed to be working now... lol. But, instead I am just posting…
What I am supposed to be doing is creating this brochure for The Study Abroad Office, for their new global citizenship program. See, you need to get certain citizenship hours (like volunteer hours) before you graduate, but now they are starting up this new program where you can get those hours during a week in the summer in Mexico. And you learn Spanish and about the culture and have home stays and it is just a really awesome program that gets you those needed credits. And I guess since I don’t have much to talk about right now, I could talk more about studying abroad.

Firstly, I work here, because studying abroad is something you NEED to do before you graduate. I know that and I try to convey that to everyone else. I am a pretty big advocate for the department. Plus, Trisha rocks and our office is pretty big with so many opportunities and is really just growing. Studying abroad though is just such an amazing experience and no matter how many people tell you that, you will not understand how true that is until you experience it yourself. I studied in The Slovak Republic last year as a senior in high school and it really was the best year of my life. I now have friends from Mexico, Germany, Brazil, Taiwan, Canada, Czech Republic, Slovakia and all throughout the U.S. I also traveled to over ten countries and saw a good chunk of Europe. I do not have a ton of pictures on this computer, but here are a few: (of my year abroad)

This is our whole exchange group of some sixty students who were placed throughout Slovakia and the Czech Republic. We represent over six countries!!

This is two of my best exchange friends Maike, from Germany and Molly, from Taiwan (and me in glasses, lol) This picture was actually in The Garden of Versailles!

This is Alayna (from Alberta) and Kique (from Mexico) and I in the center of NItra (my town in Slovakia) and they were 2 of 4 other exchanges placed with me in that town. You can kind of see Nitra castle in the background.

This a HUGE dinner that the NItra exchangees cooked (everyone made something from their own country) and this is all the Nitra exchanges (plus some) eating it at a host-family's house. It was in the spring and so hot and nice!

This is my mom, my best friend and my Aunt and I and my best friend's mom at the airport. Another good part of studying abroad is coming home. =)

Lastly, here is a video that Kique made of one of our excursions to Prague (capital of CZ) I don't know, it is pretty cool, so you might find it interesting or you might not, whatev! =)

So, yea and there is a lot of pictures of UNE students and information about our UNE programs and future and past falculty led trips (there might be one to China next year) at our website:
http://www.une.edu/cas/abroad/, please check it out!! It is so worth it! And please next year make an appointment with Trisha! She is so aweome and just really a nice person and she really works to make every exchange program awseome and there are scholarships and almost anyone who wants to go, CAN go if they apply.

And yeah... that is my whole shpeel... it is just really important to me, because I know how much it really impacted my life and I really wish that upon everyone else!! So, you should definitly check it out now and then talk to Trisha when you get here next fall!

Okay, well now I must get back to work... haha. Then off to try and zip up my suitcase (oh my) and off to Aubrey's till Sunday and then a week in ARIZONA for SPRING BREAK!!! AHHH... we will be painting and drywalling and we are for sure going to the Grand Canyon and the Pheonix Symphony, but other than that its a mystery! woohoo! I'll tell you about it all when I get back!
Have a nice break (if you are on break) and have a nice average week (for those who aren't)
-Marilyn

Posted by Marilyn Tushar at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey guys!
So, this weekend I went to the spa! Well, kind of… My friend Aubrey’s church was having a spa weekend. So, they hired masseuses and manicurists and it was a lot of fun! Like we got there and put our feet in to these foot bath massagers and there was a pedicure table set up. Then we ate lots of food, like crackers and cheese and chocolate fondue! And cake and more chocolate and stuffed mushrooms and more chocolate and kettle corn and even more chocolate! (Chocolate being the staple meal) And of course we got massages (my first massage and it felt so good!) and we made our own jewelry and got our nails done (first manicure and my nails are so freaking cute!). And we ended the night with this woman comedian who was so freaking funny! Oh and we played games, like Catch Phrase, which is such a fun game! Like you have a word and you have to get your team to say that word without yourself saying that word. The funniest hint of the night was, “you are being chased by Indians and you look to your family and say…” The phrase we were supposed to say was “head for the hills”, but the guesses were “help” and “I love you” and we could not stop laughing for like at least 10 minutes afterwards! Then we all slept in the attic in our sleeping bags, it was so much fun!

Aubrey in the really nice foot bath!

Aubrey and her friend Kathryn.

Aubrey getting her nails did!

My nails! You might not be able to tell, but they are like a rich pink color with black and silverb 'fireworks' on them. But, I think the nail art looks like flowers. No matter, it is wicked cute! Aubrey got the same nail art, but with this deep blue polish. It was pretty too, but mine was better! :p

My fantabulous new earrings and I!! [really bad picture btw]

Then yesterday I sat for 5 hours in Shaw’s selling baked goods….
Yeah not so fun, lol. But, going to Arizona in a week is, so you gotta do what you gotta do. [5 days till SPRING BREAK!]

And of course my crazy roommates were up to something. Steph walks in last night and is like, “I have sorbet on jeans AND they just ripped!” So she grabs scissors and just starts going at her jeans in this rage, but it was so funny! So she ends up cutting them into shorts and then still mad she cuts her other jeans into capris. It was really hilarious!

The first cuts... dun dun dun

In the middle of the rage.... haha

The final creation!!

Well, that is where I’ll leave you. If anything exciting happens this week I’ll post, but more than likely my next post will be about my AMAZING spring break building houses in AZ! So, stayed tuned for that!

Talk to you later,
Marilyn

Posted by Marilyn Tushar at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)