As we are approaching the end of semester, you can feel the tension on the campus. Everyone is under a lot of pressure; projects, tests, presentations, and finals preparation. All these are, of course, followed by a lack of time. You can see a lot of tired faces on campus, hear about many all-nighters and notice a slight fear in the eyes of students. All these symptoms are present mostly in freshmen. After their first semester, things will change. Students will know what to expect at the end of semester, accept the situation and start planning accordingly, and eventually living through the end of a semester as through any other day.

Having all that in mind, students really appreciate Thanksgiving break that always falls two weeks before the finals. That is the last chance to relax, and if necessary catch up with all the late work. That is how I use Thanksgiving break. Since I am an international student, I usually stay on campus while everyone goes home to spend Thanksgiving with their families. That means the campus is empty. Nothing happens, no one is around and it is very, very quiet. Every year so far, I applied to be on RA duty during Thanksgiving. Oh, don't worry, I am not a workaholic. Duty nights are usually shorter and there is nothing going on. Furthermore, you receive a great appreciation from your American colleagues. Other than working in the evenings, I use those free days to work on some projects that are due in last two weeks of semester. That really helps, since that significantly decreases a workload in last weeks. That is what I did this year, too, and again I am very happy that I did that. There is only one day during Thanksgiving that I don't do anything. That is Black Friday. On that day, I use to go all over Boston and check all the sales. You can get huge discounts on anything you want: electronics, clothing, food, cosmetics... This year, I did not buy a thing, but I did the shop screening, made a list and got ready to do some shopping before I go home for the Winter break.

Well, that is how things are these last days of the semester. I am finishing this now, so I can continue studying.

P.S. I gave up on buying a car in this semester. I reserved a rent-a-car and we'll see what will happen when I come back from the break.

Posted by Dejan Petrovic at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every year, at the beginning of November, group of Resident Assistants organizes a Hockey Luau. It is a celebration of the beginning of hockey season. This program changed names in years, and this year the name was Wentworth Pride Day in order to address all of the Wentworth Athletics.

This year, our wonderful organizers prepared a huge barbeque with burgers and hot dogs, coffee, sodas and hot chocolate to warm us up in the cold November night. While waiting for their piece of this feast, students were entertained by sounds of hip-hop and dance music played by our faithful DJ's from WIRE (Wentworth Internet Radio Experience) and raffles that were conducted by Wentworth Student Government president, Adam Palmer. Among the prizes were T-shirts, bags, cups, golf-balls, hats, and many more.

After the BBQ, that lasted for almost 2 hours, everyone got together and left to support and cheer for Wentworth Hockey team in their first home-game of the season. The bravest ones were body-painted in WIT colors despite very cold weather. Since Wentworth does not have a hockey arena, all home games are played in the arena at the nearby Northeastern University.
At the end, this was a great night. Our team won 5-1 to Western New England team and hopefully, this was a start of a very good season.

P.S. I still did't buy a car. Bear with me, it is a difficult process. :)

Posted by Dejan Petrovic at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You might ask what this is, now. Well, as you know I got the Coop position last week. Nevertheless, my coop company is 35 miles away from Boston, and I need to buy a car (no public transportation operates to this place). I did not know how difficult is to search for the car when you have limited funds and so many things to take in consideration. Every person that sells the cars, describes the car with attributes like 'runs great', 'mint body', and 'like new'. However, these cars, cars that I can afford, are 12-15 years old, with >100,000 miles on engine, and bunch of other stuff, so you know those attributes cannot be true.

I created a list of 10-12 cars with decent description and price. Now, the other problem is that these cars are located all over Massachusetts. I need to create a plan in order to check them all out in one day, with the least time and fuel consumption for my friend that will take me there. Ok, so you think that is not that hard, but wait, that is not all.

After buying a car (with a million prayers that it will not break during next year), you need to register it in DMV. That requires additional costs for registration, title transfer, inspection, sales tax and of course insurance. I am an international student, and even though I have a driver's license for 12 years now, out of those 12 years, only 1 year is here in Massachusetts. I needed to check the insurance quotes in order to see if I can afford all that. Couple of days ago, I did an online estimate for insurance for the best type of car that I could get for the money I have. Yesterday, I got a call from insurance agent and the information I received was very encouraging. I guess that they accounted those 12 years of owning a driver's license.

Ok, so costs are calculated and I know what my upper limit is. But, when I presented my list of 12 cars to a friend of mine that is good with cars, my choice got cut to 5-6 cars. RWD means rear-wheel drive. RWD means that I would be all over the road when the first snow hits Boston. So, that one is off. AWD means all-wheel drive. This is the best option for winter, but that is the option I cannot afford. The last and actually the only option I can afford and would be good for me is FWD. Of course, now you've guessed, front-wheel drive.

Now, that you've read all the problems I am encountering, please, wish me luck. I will, of course, let you know about the outcome of my adventure.

Posted by Dejan Petrovic at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Being a student at Wentworth involves at least two semesters of mandatory co-op. It means you will have to find a job in relation to your major and work full time for a whole semester. During that time you do not take any classes, just doing work. It is a paid job, and it is a requirement in order to get your diploma. For majority of majors, the first co-op is in Spring semester Junior year, and the second one is in Fall semester Senior year. As you know, I am a Junior and this semester I've spent a lot of time preparing for a job search, writing resumes, cover letters and going to MOCK and real interviews. Luckily, this week the results of my efforts came through. I got a job offer from CISCO company. They opened a position in their offices in Boxborough, Massachusetts, which is 35 miles away from Boston and I was the one to get it. Working in a company such as Cisco is a great opportunity to learn and create foundation for employment after college. If you do not have previous working experience, this should prepare you for the real world. I can't wait to start working and learning.

Beside the job search, as a Senior Resident Assistant I had other obligations, too. I was in charge of organizing one large scale event together with 10 other Resident Assistants. The name of the event was World @ WIT, and the main purpose of the event is to present countries where international students at Wentworth came from. This year, we presented 14 different countries like Dominican Republic, Colombia, Serbia, Armenia, South Korea, Italy, Australia, Lithuania, Haiti, and several others. In addition to beautiful posters and power point presentations, our guests were also able to try some international food samples and enrich their experience with some exotic flavors.

That was all for this week. Now, back to studying and we'll see what the next week will bring.

Posted by Dejan Petrovic at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)