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Well here it is, Monday morning of finals week. I luckily have escaped an extremely brutal beating with finals, most of my exams I have already completed or I have papers instead (which let me tell you, are good to start early). I had the "pleasure" of typing of an entire final paper recently, came out to be like 10 pages...no easy task.
We lost power this weekend at school, was a bit chaotic because everyone was prepped to begin studying and then *poof*...no power. Many papers were due through for upper classmen by sending them through email, so students flocked to the campus center since they had a generator, unfortunately the Wi-Fi was down. All the outlets were plugged in to the max at the campus center, power strips had to be brought in. I did enjoy my impromptu lunch though; the school administration was doing a fine job at keeping everyone fed and suiting peoples needs.
Around 1:30pm I got a phone call from the widespread emergency notification service the school has (it's one of the reasons schools ask you for your phone numbers when you register). The call said that at 4 all students were to report to the campus center with sleeping bags/blankets, and toiletries for students were to spend the night at the campus center where there was power.
Not to say that I do not love spending my night with an assortment of UNE students, many being my friends, but some of the people on my floor and I decided to go to a new location for the night. So we set off to Kennebunk to spend the night at a friends camp house. The trip (avoiding downed power lines and an extremely hectic Wal-mart) was a success. The night went just as smooth.
We got back to campus the next day, power was thankfully returned (to dismay to others, for there was a rumor going about if power stayed out for days on end then finals would be canceled).
So here I am now, Monday morning, sitting around waiting to go to my final American Poetry class to hand in my paper (take this class if you have some free electives, Glenn is an awesome professor with a great sense of humor). It is also a nice day outside...I think today is going to go smooth.
A little over a week ago I attended the International Chocolate Festival hosted by The International Club (which I may add that they are a bunch of cool peeps).
The event was a nice way to spend one of my weeknights, I showed up a little bit late (I planned on being there on time...I swear...). By the time I got there, they were prepping to begin their first rounds of a trivia game based on different categories where the answers were different locations around the world. There were questions like "What is the primary ingredient of chocolate?" or "Where is this building located? (then it showed a picture of a famous temple in some country somewhere, I forgot exactly where).
Let it be known though that these questions were not answered lightly. After the question and power point slide were read or shown, teams had a "flag runner" that would run to the center of the room from a perspective box on the ground, and then run back with the flag, hooting and hollering to be called because their team knew the answer. I won't say favorites were picked...but my team did lose in both rounds hahah.
The prize for the winning team? A brand new car!!! Just kidding, that would be sweet though. It was in truth a basket full of chocolate to take home.
Since it was the chocolate festival, in between trivia rounds there was plenty of different chocolates from around the world available to gobble up. All of them tasted wonderfully, more so if your a chocolate loving person.
The mad running for the flag and teams
Chocolate to eat wooo!
My friends and I checking out the chocolate fountain. I had just picked up a crazy sweatshirt the other day at the mall so I kind of stand out in that neon article of clothing second from the right haha.
And then the rest below are some assorted pics, the bottom one being a group shot of the International Club together.
It was a very fun time there, and on my way out they had me sign their clipboard so now I am a member. I am looking forward to more future events from the International Club.
This past past week has been a busy week let me tell you. I forgot to mention that this fall I have been acting with the UNE Players, and that this past weekend we had our first shows of the year. We presented Agatha Christie's play: And Then There Were None. It was an awesome show to perform in and I really loved working with the cast, tech people, and our wonderful director Bob Pecchia (who actually works with admissions here at UNE, so prospective students hit this guy up, he's really funny and is a good guy).
Here are some photo's of the play from Saturday night (we put on two shows, Friday and Saturday.) I snagged these from the admissions website, there is a slide show of the play on their website if you want to look at even more pics.
I played the old man sitting up in the chair to the right in the above pic. General Mackenzie, a good ole fellow.
I must say that I had fun doing this play, and that any of you that come to UNE should feel free to get a hold of the UNE Players if you are interested in acting or assisting with productions. There is always some club or activity on campus for someone, and if there isn't you could always make one. We have clubs that are made every year and most of them are still around and tend to grow into successful productive ones.
I will have some other stories soon in regards to my other endeavors this week. Hope you all have a good vacation wherever you are, and enjoy Thanksgiving (and if your really adventurous, then the early morning shopping on Black Friday, it's chaotic).
As a pre-celebration for Thanksgiving, UNE had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner tonight. We had faculty and students waiting on us, bringing us a variety of wonderful edible products. These edible objects ranged from cold drinks, hot apple cider, hot coco, and they even brought us dessert (Apple pie, chocolate cream pie, blueberry pie, pecan pie, and the wonderful Thanksgiving pumpkin pie).
The actual feast was fantastic, we had turkey (alternatives for vegetarians or vegans!), stuffing, potatoes, peas, corn, biscuits, salad, and to pour all over it...gravy! Was quite a gravy train indeed.
All the faculty waiting tables were friendly, and absolutely hilarious, at one point we were even cheering names and chanting (yeah, I love my friends and the table I sat at).
Well I did love the wonderful table I sat at
That's what it looked before hand...needless to say when we went to leave (we barely made it out before next wave of dinner eaters approached the cafeteria. We were like those groups of "people" that stay in restaurants still eating after closing hours.) the table was an absolute piece of artwork. It had a variety of designs, ranging from chocolate stains to pumpkin pie derailings...but the food was just so tasty.
A few pics of the dinning room all set up nicely
All we needed was some lit candles, rose petals, and some Kenny G and it would have been quite a romantic evening...Maybe next time.
(A little aside from my first days at UNE story I've been telling...)
For over the past week UNE has been working on a food drive. There have been many volunteers, ranging from students to faculty. They have all devoted a little of their time to such a wonderful prospect. So this is thanks to them for helping the community and those in need. Today was the final day of the food drive, and I happened to get some photos of the food drives resolution. Even though we are all college students and money can be a challenge, there was still a significant amount of cans and goods donated by students.
I hope that my readers will keep this in mind: even if your not currently attending UNE, keep in mind that there are local food drives and alternative ways to assist your community. We are all in this together.
Now for some pics of the food drive.
When I first visited UNE it was actually on the way home from an orientation at another college. I decided on the way back that the other school I was visiting was nice, but I wanted to check out UNE. Well I called and spoke with one of the wonderful admissions representatives, and a meeting ensued. (On a side note: I had been speaking with UNE admissions representative Eliza for weeks on end, discussing the school, she was excellent help).
On the way home, I stopped in and had a meeting with the admissions office. They handled all my questions excellently and they gave helpful advice and suggestions about the school. After the meeting, I walked around campus, and saw how nice the ocean was right beside the school (I think the ocean made a good choice on deciding to settle beside the wonderful UNE).
A week later I decided finally to attend UNE. So I made a phone call and sent out my final information, everything became signed and sealed with a candle and wax. So began the wait for move in day.
(A month or so in summer passes, memories in my life form and I age a tiny bit...)
Move in day I arrived kind of early with my family, I ended up bringing my car with me (the price was a little high for a freshman student: $300, but I will say the car comes in handy, specially if you need/want to leave the state on weekends/days off and holidays). First place you need to go is the campus center when you move in, that way you can get your room key and your id card if you haven't received one yet.
From there I proceeded to Assisi, one of the freshman dorms in the quad. Climbing the stairs to the 3rd floor (3rd floor is where life is at! Not to discriminate between my 3rd floor and other floors and other buildings...). I unpacked some of my stuff, then went to go get my car and bring it to the building to unpack more stuff (Always arrive early or extremely late in the day to unpack, there was a ton of cars full of freshman students and their parents). When I got back to my room, my roomie Adam was in there with his girlfriend and parents. A fun first meeting, everything went well.
After everything was unpacked, I saw my family off then returned to my room. Adam and I chilled out for a bit...Our third roommate Jim hadn't arrived yet, and it was like 4pm, pretty late. But of course Jim arrived later that afternoon, always fashionably late (it suits him). He was unpacked in like 5-10 minutes, large t.v. on the dresser and everything. It was then the first night on campus and everything was going well. Met my roommates and some people from my floor...
Good evening readers of this wonderful blog website. Thought as a first post I would delve into some detail about myself. This way you (the readers) will have a better understanding of who I am, and it will allow you to know myself and the school on a more personal level.
My name is Tristian Rowe, I'm a Communications Major at The University of New England (you probably already know that, but hey, why not the formalities?).
I am from Maine, so I have not traveled too far out of my nest, I am still in the same forest, to sort of speak. (On a side note, the forests in Maine are a wonderful aspect of nature and everyone should check out some of the national parks and campgrounds in the surrounding areas in the state).
I first took breath into this world on January 7, 1990...Wait, so you don't want to hear about those sections of my past? Alright...
...I first heard about UNE (University of New England, I am going to abbreviate it to save some time and key strokes.) from a friend at my high school. He was applying for the Pre-Med program which is competitive at this school and a challenge to par take in. He suggested that I should inquire about the school and possibly take a tour. Well I did just that. I contacted UNE via email and a week later I received information in the mail (which reminds me, always thank your postman/woman, they work hard to bring those college letters, bills, credit card scams, and postcards from a family relative in some tropical location, to your house). That is where my UNE story begins...
More to come soon (keep the popcorn popping, the next bit should be tasty).
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