March 2009 Archives

As spring break was coming to an end, a big event for UML came. I knew that our hockey team was in the Hockey East semi-finals, but unfortunately I wasn't able to make the game because of work. Right as I was getting out of work though, I received a call from a friend who was screaming with excitement. "WE MADE IT TO THE FINALS!", was the only thing he kept yelling into the phone, and I knew that we had won the game. This would be the second time UML has made it to the Hockey East finals, so this was a pretty big deal for us. We would be facing Boston University, and my best friend from High School happens to go to that school, so this was just all one big coincidence. Everytime we had faced Boston University in the past year, the games would be close, and usually ended with the teams only being a score behind, so although Boston University is #1 (or #2?) in the nation, we still had a good chance.

I was able to take Saturday off to go to the game, so I was pretty excited to watch the game at T.D. Banknorth. This was also going to be the first time that I've seen my friends since the start of break, so I knew it was going to be fun. I brought along my video camera and was able to film some parts of the game, but unfortunately I forgot to charge it and wasn't able to get some later parts of the game. Sadly enough, we ended up losing 0-1. It was still fun and a good time, but it would have been better if we had won. The train rides back to South Station was ridiculously packed with both students and parents.

Being only a freshman and being able to see our hockey team go all the way to the finals was pretty exciting, and makes me wonder how far we'll make it in the years to come.

Sunday was move-in day, and usual I came extra early to beat the crowd. I'd recommend coming a couple hours before they say to, I've done it for orientation, move-in day, and everytime we come back for break. By the time I've settled in and unpacked all my roommated come back and are fumbling around and dodging each other trying to unload all their belongings.

It seems that I've misplaced a couple cables for my video camera, so I'll upload the video of the game in the next entry. Thanks for reading,
-Hai

Every year, it always seems that I catch Bronchitis for some reason. Before college, I always had to go to the doctor’s around this time of year and get prescribed with antibiotics to alleviate my bronchitis. As scheduled, I began to show the symptoms again, and right away I knew what it was. But since I was at school, I had no idea what to do, I knew there was a Health Services, but I wasn’t sure if they would be able to prescribe medicine. My parents offered to drive me home for a doctor’s appointment, but missing classes and driving such a long way for medicine just didn’t seem like a better option than toughing out the virus. With Health Services looking like the best option, I called them up for an appointment and was extremely pleased to find out that the nurse practitioners there were able to prescribe. The very next day, I went in for my appointment and left with my prescription. Luckily, there were many pharmacies around campus, so getting my proper medicine was a breeze.

Fortunately for me, I felt 100% right before spring break started. I always heard of people going to all different places to spend their spring break, but I decided that it would be best to just stay home so I could work. When I was in high school and short on money, I could always depend on my parents to spot me here and there, but in college they’re not around to help out. It definitely helps me to become more independent and learn the value of what’s necessary and unnecessary.

That’s it for now, hopefully I can still enjoy my spring break!

-Hai

Yesterday (Monday), I was happy to wake up and find that I had received a text message on my phone from “MassHigherEd”. Whenever I get an email in my inbox or text message on my phone with that person as the sender, I already know that there is either a delay or cancellation in school. Who doesn’t love a three day weekend? I had class that day at 9:30AM, so being able to sleep in longer after I woke up was extremely nice.

This weekend my friends and I left Friday to go snowboarding at Wachusett Moutnain, but unfortunately it started raining that night. We had tickets to go for an “overnight” skiing, where you can ski from 12AM till 7AM, which would have been fun, if it didn’t rain. We were already all packed and had our snowboards and gear at my friends house, which was an hour away from campus, but since the weather was bad, we decided instead to go visit Umass Amherst. We all have friends that attend that University, so we were going to sleep over at the Amherst campus. It was a nice experience seeing a different Umass campus, but there are a lot of differences. Amherst had A LOT of people, which is nice, but I like the smaller environment here at UML. The dining hall seemed to have the same exact food and even silverware, but again, was a lot more crowded. Overall we had a fun weekend, visiting old friends and a new campus, but I’m still dissapointed that we didn’t get a chance to go snowboarding. My friend’s car is still packed with our gear, so hopefully we can go this weekend!

If you haven’t had the chance, there’s also a new and more modern looking HawkTalk homepage for current and prospective students. It’s undergone a major overhaul from the last design and looks a lot better, with the latest blog entries and youtube videos created by students.
Heres the link:
http://www.uml.edu/admissions/hawktalk/

That’s all for now though, till next time,

-Hai