University of New England: Tristian Rowe

Arrivederci

Mon, 04 May 2009 10:55:25 -0500

Well since time is only ticking before I check out from UNE for the year I figured I would write a farewell blog. All I can say is that this year has been a complete blast. UNE is a great school for all of you prospective students. College is also what you make of it. There are a few things you don't learn in life until you do/experience them and Freshman experience in college is one of them. To all of you incoming freshman I have words of advice, just to help you out along the way because the first days of school seem daunting, but things change drastically as time goes on. 1. The first few days and couple of hours of being at school you probably won't know anyone besides friends from home (if they chose this school), or your newly met roommates (or maybe not newly met, facebook is a helpful tool to meeting your roommates beforehand). However just because you don't know anyone doesn't mean you shouldn't introduce yourself to the people on your floor or building, because it only speeds up the getting to know someone process, because you're going to know these people sooner or later anyways. 2. Keep room doors open. Definitely keep your dorm door propped open whenever your in the room unless your trying to concentrate/do something important, specially in the first months of school. This way people can wander in and say hi and see what's up. This allows you to get to know more people and show that it's cool for them to come in and hang out. For the truly outgoing, I'd suggest go around to the other freshman dorms (Avila, Assisi, Padua, Sienna, and some parts of Featherman) and introduce yourselves to other people in different dorms. Some of my friends and I just went around on different nights of the weeks meeting people in other dorms, it really helps in getting to know more people across campus and to make new friends. 3. Get out of your rooms! I know sometimes it seems daunting, specially in beginning months of school but my advice is to get to know the area better, especially around campus. I can't remember the countless night I've spent with my friends just going around campus and checking out new places to go. You have tons of places to go, ranging from the cliffs to the forest, even to a few islands. Don't sit around in your rooms all day, it gets boring and theres other things to be doing. Also, joining a campus club would help get you out of your rooms and to meet new people, specially other upperclassman that are in the clubs so I suggest this greatly as well. My list could probably go on for awhile and then I'd be on my way to writing some book called "Ways to help live your Freshman Year in College", but that would take awhile, so instead I feel like these were my 3 best words of advice. It has truly been a great year and I'm looking forward to next year, and thanks to my readers for staying with me and reading some of my stories. Stay tuned for possible blog updates next year.

Closing Weeks

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:50:12 -0500

Well hello everyone, sorry I haven't been around and up to date on this as often as I should but recently I've been really sick, busy, and haven't really been around. The weekend before last weekend I went to Boston to see Flight of the Conchords and after that show I went with some friends to UVM (University of Vermont) to visit a friend and see the band Ratatat play at their campus the following day. I was already getting sick before I left but I still went and it just made it worse! Last week went by pretty quickly with most of my classes coming to a closure, such as Public Speaking where I presented my group presentation. On a side note it has been extremely nice outside lately. As I stare out the window now I can see tons of students outside BBQ-ing, playing sports, walking towards the beach, tanning, and a variety of other summer based activities. Two nights ago I went to the All Time Low and Sparks the Rescue show at The Station in Portland, it was a lot of fun and it was great seeing the local Maine band Sparks the Rescue after they're beginning to hit it big. Also last night I went with my friends Matt, Blake, Ian and Mike to go see Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship in Lowell Massachusetts, it was awesome. (Now that I look back at this I see that I've been going to a lot of concerts lately, which reminds me, tonight at 9pm my rag tag band I'm in with Matt, Ian and Blake is playing a show at the Kiosk. This is something we like to do for some students just to relieve some stress and have fun on campus, we try to keep the audience entertained). As this week dwindles down I will keep in touch, I have my last finals tomorrow and on Friday, so this weekend should be free to dedicated to seeing my friends one last time before we all part ways until the fall. Keep you posted ~Tristian

Montreal

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:12:28 -0500

Not too long ago I had the pleasure of traveling to Montreal and staying two nights with quite a few UNE students, from both the University campus and the Westbrook campus. We left Westbrook around 5 and got to our hotel in Montreal around midnight. Here's what our hotel looked like: The first night when we got there we walked around, checked out a few different clubs and even met a few people from the Canadian Army that were on a break visiting Montreal from Toronto. After that we returned back to our hotel, and at this point it was close to 4am or even later. The next day we started our day by checking out the terrace at the top of our hotel and then we went walking about town. All the people we came across in Montreal were friendly and almost everyone could speak French or English, most could switch to the correct language just based on your appearance. We got some great info of places to go later Saturday night from some employee's working at the Puma store. Here's a pic of myself and my roomies for the trip, Lauren and Rachel, this was like the fourth time trying to take this pic because we kept messing it up hahaha. and here are my friends that convinced me to go on this crazy trip to Canada, and I thank them for convincing me to go along because I had a great time. My good friend Tari who lives down the hall from me: my other friend Anna who is Tari's roommate: and my wonderful neighbor Matt who I mentioned is keeping a blog himself earlier this year: So now that I introduced my friends who were the reason I went to Montreal, let me continue my story. Later on Saturday night we went to another club and walked around the outskirts of Montreal at night, we rode the metro from our hotel to the other districts. However on our way home (at this point it was pretty late) we went to hop on the Metro but it was closed! So we began walking a ways back to the Hotel, but then about thirty minutes later we realized we were walking in the complete opposite direction. At that point in time we were exhausted so we just called a cab, went back to the hotel and went to bed. We did see some interesting things while walking though, like this: The next day in the morning before the trip back to the states Matt and I walked up the hill our hotel was on and walked through Mcgill. We were on a mission because there was a huge hill in front of us while we were walking and we wanted to reach the top of it. After walking through some paths and climbing many marble staircases to the top, we had the absolute best view of Montreal. The trip home wasn't too bad, was pretty long and we ended up taking a scenic route through the mountains in New Hampshire: I would call my first trip to Montreal a complete success. I had a great time, and going to places I've never been is always a exciting, I'm definitely looking forward to going back sometime in the future.

Spring Break part 3

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:55:28 -0500

The final conclusion to my very interesting spring break... After sleeping in the very "comfortable" car, we began our trek into the city. We found a nice parking spot in a garage somewhere, only $17 for the day for parking, which wasn't too bad. Our first stop in the city was the National Garden which included not only U.S. native plants, but plants and trees from around the world! They had a variety of species, ranging from the rain forest to the desert. From there we were just a few steps away from the Capitol building so we checked the place out and took some pictures, specially the Civil War Ulysses S. Grant memorial on the outside of the Capitol building by the pool out front. From the Capitol building we walked down "The Mall" which is the long stretch of grass in between the Capitol building and the Washington Monument. (For those that don't know, Washington D.C. is architecturally well designed, with all the streets and monuments aligning with each other in some way). Along the way walking across the mall we stopped in at the Smithsonian Museum of Middle East and Asian Art, where we walked into the courtyard after checking out the art. Then we walked to the Washington Monument, the World War II memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial, each was quite a sight. The best part was that it was the middle of March so there weren't that many tourists in the city compared to summer time so we had free reign to most exhibits and memorials without any lines or pushing. Then of course finally we made our way to the White House (security was pretty strict and there was a pretty big perimeter set up). From there we went to two more Smithsonian Museums, the one of U.S. History and the Natural History museum, both were pretty sizable and we had to quicken our pace just to get through the second one before we had to leave the city. (Also to note the Smithsonian Museums in D.C. are free of charge to the public so it's nice to be able to go in without paying some extravagant fee). After leaving the museums we headed back to the car to begin our trek back to New England. After taking turns driving and dropping my friend back off in Massachusetts we made it back to Gray, Maine at about 7am Friday morning. I can easily say that my trip to the capitol was a total success and that I am glad that my friends and I came up with such a great idea and it was executed without much hassle or misfortune. More blogs to come soon, specially with my pics from my recent trip to Montreal with UNE.

Concert in Boston

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:37:31 -0500

A few weeks after Spring Break I went to Boston to see a Bloc Party show in Boston at the House of Blues (Bloc Party is a band from the U.K. and their one of my faves). It was a great show, a smaller band Longwave opened for them and they were fantastic as well, was definitely worth the trip. I managed to snap a few pics from up close but it was cool to see everyone dancing and how packed the place was from the balcony: Also I managed to find some youtube videos of the show if anyone wants to see the recordings, the songs are pretty sweet and their upbeat mostly and great to listen to: Overall I can really say that it was awesome to be there and that people should check out this band if they're curious. I am going to a few more concerts this month so I will keep you all filled in in how they go.

Spring Break part 2

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:28:43 -0500

(The continuation of my Spring Break Episode) Well after leaving Massachusetts and Rhode Island we began driving through Connecticut, it was here that we swerved off an exit to Mystic Aquarium (we saw the sign so we just had to check it out). We got there as they were closing and it was a tad bit expensive to get in, so we just posed outside. We also checked out the Nature bird reserve in the area (kind of like the Audubon society). We didn't spend too much time there for a few minutes later we went walking through the woods of Connecticut haha. From here we entered the long section of our journey, where I drove at least 6 hours without stopping. We went through NYC and New Jersey,stopping in NJ to snag some food to eat to re-energize ourselves. As we approached our destination we needed to find a place to sleep. Earlier that day we decided to conserve our very limited amount of money we wouldn't get a motel room, so we ended up sleeping in the car. Finding a place to sleep though proved a task because we tried finding a rest stop but we ended up at a pay to park parking lot by an airport outside of D.C.! After a few maneuvers and getting on another highway, we found a welcome to Maryland rest area where we decided to call it a night (it was about midnight at this time). Parking our car, we checked out the area, grabbed something to drink from the vending machines, and went back to the car to sleep. Unfortunately when we got back in the car my friends Isaac and Ben knocked over two 1 galleon jugs of water/juice spilling it over the back seat floor (making it even worst sleeping conditions). By the time we got all situated my friend Johnny decided to just sleep outside, kind of by the side of the highway, which was fine with us, more room in the car. We woke up very uncomfortably at 7 and went to go find Johnny. Here's a pic of him when we woke him up. After getting ourselves prepped, changed, and finished brushing our teeth, we packed up and started our drive, now only minutes from Washington D.C....

International Fashon Show

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:17:11 -0500

We interrupt the wonderful story of my spring break for a special segment in the blog. Such an interruption would be the great UNE International club fashion show which occurred last week. They had international dances like the Salsa, which was elegantly performed A variety of different clothing styles from across the world, modern and traditional. They had a variety of student speakers and even more clothes, colors ranging from the most basic earth shades to vibrant colors. Then everyone that participated got on stage and danced (most of the audience knew the dance but since I arrived late I had to catch on). It was a great show and another fine job done by the UNE International Club.

Spring Break part 1

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:35:07 -0500

Just thought I'd go into some detail about my past spring break a little. The beginning of break was quite relaxing, I hung out mostly in my hometown in Gray, Maine (a small town where not too much goes on, but then again it's Maine so a majority of all towns are small heh). Then Tuesday night around 10pm my friend Isaac and I came up with the idea of visiting Ben, our friend that is also on break, who lives in Massachusetts. It sounded like a great idea, so we asked our friend Johnny if he wanted to come with us, a likely response, he said "Of course, I'm down", So at midnight the three of us left Gray and drove two hours to Ben's house. The best part though was that we didn't even tell him we were coming, we just checked with his friend to make sure he was at his house that night. So around 2:30 in the morning Ben got a phone call that was asking "Hey, do you wanna hang out"? He said "shut up" cause he thought we were joking, but really we were outside of his front door haha. He was so glad that we showed up, because he break hadn't been too eventful. Now this is where my friend Johnny and I initiated phase 2 of our trip. We didn't tell our friend Isaac until we were on the highway going to Ben's but the real plan was to go to Washington D.C. on a very very impromptu road trip, and he had to come since he was already in the car! Johnny and I told Ben he had to come on our road trip with us, no excuses. We really didn't have a plan, Washington D.C. was our goal but we were just out for the adventure, saying we could stop wherever on the way and turn back if needed. So at noon the next day the four of us left Dracut Massachusetts (Ben's House location) to head south. (As a side note we brought along an old guitar we found at Ben's house and pretended it was Ben's little brother Mike wherever we brought it. It was missing a string so we made it apart of the road trip criteria to find a string for it). After leaving Dracut we stopped in Walpole to visit my friend Michelle (who goes to UNE) who lives there, and coincidentally after we parked and got out of the car, there was a music store right beside us and we went inside and got the guitar string we so desperately needed). Here's a pic of the guitar. Then we followed Michelle to my friend Stephanie's work because they were about to leave and go on some semi road trip as well. After saying adios to them, Ben, Johnny, Isaac and I started driving again and entered Providence, Road Island, and that's where the long leg of our trip began...

Relay for Life

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:03:22 -0500

Heya everyone, sorry it's been so long, have had quite a bit of school work to do (actually I still do, I have 3 exams this week and am doing this blog during a study break haha). In the coming days I will do a blog over my spring break and recent events but my post today is about something important that happened on campus Friday night into Saturday morning: Relay for Life. Last Friday night UNE participated in the Relay for Life. For those of you that don't know, the Relay for Life is a fund raising event hosted by the American Cancer Society, for the fight against cancer. Teams are formed beforehand pledging to walk a certain distance or walk all night on the track, with money being donated per teammate and team. The rules are that there must be at least one person from each team walking at any given time. This event goes on mostly all night long till daybreak so many people bring sleeping gear that way they can rest while another member of their team walks. The event can get pretty emotional for some, specially those who have lost family members or friends to Cancer (I have and I'm sure many of you have also). By chance while I was walking towards the Campus Center where the event was being held, I walked into the Luminaria ceremony which honors those who have either passed away or have survived the fight with cancer. The ceremony has guest speakers, those associated with the area and those representing the American Cancer Society organization, and those who are well familiar with loss to cancer. It was a pretty emotional sight, with sad songs playing in the background. Outside the Campus Center was the lanterns made by people to honor cancer victims. The best by far though was the lineup of lanterns to spell, it was magnificent in person. On a side and hopefully more uplifting note...I don't think I've mentioned it but this semester our floor got a new RA because our former RA went to Study Abroad. Our new RA this semester Stephanie totally rocks and is really cool. She doesn't mind hanging out and talking with the floor and is always interested in what we have to say (as long as we don't wake her up from a nap, she doesn't take too kindly to that hahaha), Here are some pics I snapped while we were hanging out last Friday night while she was on duty. More to come from the interesting Assisi 3rd floor.

Basketball

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:45:35 -0500

This past Saturday night was the UNE vs Colby Sawyer basketball game to decide who would be going on to the NCAA tournament. The game started at 7pm and doors opened up at 6, however the lines started forming outside the door before 5, which was impressive. My friends Chris, Rob, Tom and myself got in line at about 5 and we waited outside for the hour, in the cold, was quite a wait. Security counting off the time until we could go inside over the microphone School Spirit Chris freezing while waiting outside hah When we got inside it got better, you could feel the energy and anticipation in the air. Then the game started, was an intense game, it stayed basically tied for the entire first half, but then in the second half UNE began pulling ahead and eventually won! Daryl Conte always cheering on UNE activities, even with pom poms After winning there were some celebrations and the entire gym cheered (well they stood up and cheered the entire game, but this time we were victorious). I had an awesome time going, and it was great to see basically the entire campus out supporting their team.

What a week.

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:00:20 -0500

Although this week has been breezing by in terms of speed (not as fast as bad news though...if you get the reference), it has in fact been a busy week. In Biology lab we finished doing probably the most important lab of the semester, testing respiration, and we were assigned a huge lab report to do with it. Now I am not a huge fan of lab reports, but I guess doing one in Biology LAB was going to come up at some point huh? Hah. Then I've been hit with a slew of exams this week, from Statistics with Ryan Hedstrom (who is a good professor, I'd recommend him for you up and coming freshman or current students), to a Psychology exam with Killian Garvey (I'd also recommend him, he tries to keep class entertaining which always earns points with me). Bio exam next week! woo! It's ok though, spring break is approaching but more importantly the weekend is, which gives me time to hang out with friends and accomplish some things on the side. I didn't have my camera yesterday but I did go for a magnificent walk along some of the paths UNE has in the woods, was a lot of fun. I attempt to go for a daily walk but sometimes it doesn't work out, but when I am outside, it makes it so much better than being cooped up in my dorm room. Everybody has their own things to do to get out of their rooms, some people work out every day and have a routine, other people volunteer in town or on campus; I go for walks. I'm reading a series by Sergei Lukyanenko, translated from Russian only a few years ago. It's called The Night Watch series, the first book is called Night Watch, and currently I am on the second book called Day Watch. It's a great series for those that like to read for enjoyment (I know, a lost ability almost right?), specially if they like the fantasy genre. I'll get some pics up of what I've been up to next time, haven't really had my camera on me lately.

Yesterday

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:18:59 -0500

Last night I went into town to pick up some things for my room (Adam bought an X-box 360 yesterday, so I figured I'd buy some things to go with it like a few games and another controller). Before I went into town though I stopped in at the Hang (where quite a few events at school take place). The UNE Idol event was going on. I hung around for a bit at the hang (pardon the pun), and listened to a few students sing. Most were pretty talented, and some even sang their own songs they wrote themselves. I snagged a few pics on my cell phone, the quality isn't so good but then again I was just in the right place at the right time I suppose. Before the event started, the guy wearing the headset on the right is Dan (Simon), who was one of the judges for the night From what I saw of the event it was quite a blast, something to check out while on campus. One of the incentives included cash prizes for you starving musicians of students out there. The Hang usually has something going on every week, so while your here I suggest you check it out. The bands that play there are pretty cool also.

back in town

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:50:07 -0500

Well I regret to say that our fish tank is dwindling down. Yesterday my fish died and the day before while cleaning the tank our catfish died (rest in peace Master Splinter). Then last week Chris's goldfish died. It has been a rough week for the fish. This past weekend I journeyed with a friend to The University of Vermont, was a long drive but the weekend was a lot of fun, visiting friends and meeting new people. That is one thing that I must say about college that adds a certain positive spin, that you are consistently meeting new people. Everywhere you go, whether your at a big University or a small knit one like UNE where your relationships are tight and personal; you gain more friends. Winter is still raging outside, everyone's been skiing and snowboarding lately, snow shoeing is also a crazy adventure for those that have a pair of snowshoes. There's a cool lecture and discussion tonight on race and relations, I'm going to try to go, but I have class late, so we will see what happens.

hanging about

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:31:22 -0500

Today's been a very chill day so far, not too much is going on, just waiting for classes to start. I have Bio at 4:30, then Public Speaking afterwords. Went to my first Biology lab yesterday, seemed ok, even though I have a slight feeling it may be harder than my actual biology class (funny how that works, with it being worth less grade wise)...the large menacing packet I received at the beginning of class didn't help my assumptions hahaha. It will be fine though. This semester I am just working out the required core classes for all majors (science with a lab, a math, some philosophy/psychology class). I appreciate the science fields and understand the concepts, but I have no interest in pursuing them, not my cup of tea (or is it coffee now? I've seen tons of different flavors of coffee now a days. Oh well, I don't even drink coffee). We have an approaching snowstorm tomorrow, should make all of you that love skiing, snowboarding and sledding (who doesn't like sledding down an extremely steep hill?) happy. I'll try to get some pics up of the incoming storm when it comes through. I am a avid movie watcher, figure I'd let you all know. So after I watch a few movies I'll give a little review perhaps. Although I will say, people shouldn't just read or listen to movie critics, they should get out and see the movies themselves. Individuals have different senses of humor and personalities as others, so certain movies may appeal to them. Well guess I should get going to class soon, I'll catch back up later.

Our companions

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:27:51 -0500

I've been thinking about chiming in on this topic for a bit but I figured I'd wait. Good intuition because recently my roomie and I picked up new fish. Fish seem to be all over UNE, ranging from the marine bio classes to the marine center, and finally even in the dorms. Fish are one of the very small amount of pets we can have at UNE (I think we can have lizards, turtles, frogs etc, any small amphibians). Last semester Adam, Jim (my roomies) and I bought a fish tank with three Oscars. Now for those that do not know what Oscars are...They are fish that range from 3 inches to over a foot in length that eventually grow so big that they can eat mice (they eat feeder fish and meat of sorts). Well over Thanksgiving break after having the Oscars for a few weeks we all went on break. Yet before break Jim broke the filter somehow (he was the last one to leave for break)... So being the first room mate back from break, I opened the door (the floor smelt a little funky when I got up to my floor). I opened my door and I was hit in the face with some of the worst series of stenches I've smelt in my life. The Oscars and all of the feeder fish we left them with over break died, stinking up the room because they were left in the tank! Later that night at like 1am when Jim got back to school we disposed of the tank and fish. What a night. Here are some pics of the unfortunate incident: The Oscars... The feeder fish... So this week I went around taking some pics of peoples fish on our floor: (Kara's Fish) Then comes to our pride and joy, our fish tank: My roomie Adam's fish, a new, small oscar: Chris's fish (Chris lives down the hall): Anna's fish (She lives down the hall also): Robs fish (He lives with Chris): And finally...my fish, named Blitz: So as you can see, you need not be lonely at UNE, keeping a fish aloft is a task in itself, and they are fun to watch. Also on a side note, one does not need to be a student blogger at UNE to speak of their experiences, my friend Matt blogs regularly as well on private blogs, along with many of students here at school, feel free to speak with others about the school. His blog is at: http://buotte.blogspot.com/