Entries tagged with “UML” from Hawk Talk - Hai

Oh gosh, it seems like only yesterday I was moving in for Orientation, but right now, I’ve finished all my finals, packed everything up, and am now awaiting my parents arrival. Looking back, it seems like I’ve done a lot and have lived my freshman year almost to its fullest extent. Of course, I’ve gained a lot of experience throughout the entire year, and I’ve definitely picked up on some do’s and don’ts.  It would have been nice having my own personal tip guide and I often think, “wow… I wish someone would’ve told me that earlier!” Here are some tips that I have for all incoming freshman to have as pleasant a year that I had:

-Pack LIGHT! – I remembered grabbing every article of clothing I had, a cure for every illness, decorations, toys, gizmos, etc. It turns out that many of the things I brought with me I didn’t even use. Sure decorations are nice, but not too many; preparing for the worst of weather is good, but reason through the seasons; 3+ pillows makes your bed look inviting, but when you go to bed you end up using one, maybe two. I definitely am paying the consequences right now, I have SO MANY things to bring back home. All the useless items I brought with me plus all my necessities plus all the things I’ve obtained throughout the year makes moving out a hassle, stressful, and extremely difficult.

-Clothes- In the beginning of the year I brought all my hoodies, jackets, and other winter wear, but it turns out that I didn’t wear many of them until around Thanksgiving, but by then I was already back home. So don’t bring your entire wardrobe, when you go back home to visit your folks, you can always grab whatever you need.

-Fans- Definitely definitely  DEFINITELY bring a couple fans for your room in the BEGINNING of the year. I remember the first couple months was excruciating, the heat was unbearable at times. You probably want a standing oscillating fan for the room and a small one by your bed when you sleep at night. Even then the rooms get hot, but it becomes more bearable.

-Food- I’m not gonna lie, dining hall hours on the weekends aren’t the greatest. In times when you’re up late or missed a meal during the weekend, having some food will help you get by. Ramen, Mac & Cheese, microwave dinners, Hot Pockets, etc. all are perfect options when you’re hungry and need a bite to eat when the dining hall is closed. But a mistake I made was snacking on them whenever I felt like it, which depleted my stock fairly quickly, leaving me to have to order food.

-Cash- You won’t know until you get here. Your money goes down the drain quicker than you’ve ever experienced before. SAVE money over the summer, get a job, mow the lawn, whatever you need to do to get money, get it and save it. Throughout the year you never know whenever you need to get medicine, food, etc. You really do end up going broke by the end of year, trust me. By the end of the first semester, my money levels were reaching critical levels, and I learned the hard way to spend wisely and not to blow off all my money. Learn the value of a dollar.

-Back Up Cash- Have your parents setup some sort of way you can get money when you have none and are in dire need of it. This could be giving them your bank account information, credit card, etc. I remember not having enough money when I was sick and needed to buy antibiotics, but luckily my mom was able to send me money through my bank account. Oh and the nurses at Health Services CAN prescribe medicine when needed.

-Get Involved!- If you live in Bourgeois  or Leitch, you will constantly see flyers for different activities being held some upcoming day in the common room. I attended many of these activities with my friends and was able to win many great prizes such as a digital camcorder, different school kits, etc. And a tip, if you go to these events, sign your name down in the sign in sheet, the F.Y.R.E.’s (first year resource educators) keep track of how many you go to and will give you a special prize at the end of the year. I didn’t know of this, but luckily I went to 7 of the activities and was pleasantly surprised to find out that anyone that attended 7+ got a free trip to Six Flags. So get involved, and get the prizes! Unfortunately I don’t know whether or not Fox has a lot of these activities and flyers, my friend who lives in Fox said he barely ever sees any sort of activities.

-Timing- Walk from East -> North and vice versa = approx 10mins.

                Shuttle East -> South and vice versa = approx 20-30mins.

                Shuttle South -> North and vice versa = approx 10-15mins.

-Laundry- Machines here don’t use change, only bills. You can put money on a card and then it’s $1 washer and $1 dryer = $2. Bourgeois’ money adder machine only accepts $5+, but Leitch’s machine let’s you add single dollar bills onto your laundry card. Beware of broken dryers! If you’re waiting for a dryer, feel the glass, if it isn’t as warm as the other machines, most likely the machine is broken. If you dry your clothes and it doesn’t seem like it dried at all, most likely the machine is broken, try a different one. TIME YOUR LAUNDRY.  If you don’t come for your laundry, most times it will get thrown on the table with all the other clothes. You don’t want this to happen, so make sure you read the time on the machines and come back 2-3 minutes before they’re done.

-Know Campus Numbers- UML Police/Emergency = 9789342911

                                                   UML shuttle services, brings you places late at night and when the shuttle busses are done for the day – 978 934 2222

That’s all I needed or thought was important, but you get a list of numbers in the beginning of the year.

-Moving Out- Keep the room clean the entire year, and your task will be easier. The lighter you packed in the beginning of the year, the easier as well. If you brought your own car or live close, try to stagger the move-out process, bringing all unnecessary items back home before your actual move-out day to make that day so much easier.

That’s all I could really think of, but I’m sure you’ll find your own tips throughout your college life. It’s been a great year and I’m definitely looking forward for the next year!

Till next time,

-Hai

After looking back upon my first year here at UML, I notice that the school gives a lot back to their students. Almost every week, there is some school sponsored event in the common room of each building where students have a chance to win great prizes. I’ve gone to several of these events, sometimes walking away with a prize. Each time I went, they had us sign in with our names; something I thought was pointless. But , contrary to my belief, putting my name down for each event, was useful.  It turns out, if you signed your name into 4 of the school events you automatically get a free trip to six flags! My friends and I have been to about 6, so we were pleasantly surprised when we found out we could all go to six flags, FOR FREE! Such a great way to end the year, plus I found out that I got my room in Donahue that I wanted, so the end of this year is just turning out better than I could expect! Now all I have to do is survive through finals…

-Hai

  It's 4:15AM, and I just finished signing up for classes!

The 23rd-25^th here at UML is Spring Carnival! I've heard from upper classmen that spring carnival is held every year and is supposed to be one of the best events all year. Friday is a University Day, meaning there are no classes! These three days of Spring Carnival is supposedly jam-packed with fun and entertainment, and so far, its been pretty good. Thursday there was a outdoor BBQ, open mic night, comedian, and other random things going on around campus to stir up some fun.

I had already went onto the UML website and found the course catalog for next year, so all my classes have been picked out. When I went to orientation, me and my friends (we're all currently undeclared business majors) were handed a schedule, and weren't able to pick our classes. After talking to several other classmates, it turns out that other students enrolled in different majors picked their schedules. The first time I was actually able to pick my own schedule was during first semester for the current semester. It is a strenuous and difficult task; finding the right classes at the right times and with professors that had good ratings at RateMyProfessors. The first time I tried signing up, a rush of students already beat me to some classes, and unfortunately, some of the classes I selected were all full. This made it even more stressful and confusing, as I had to change my schedule on the fly as fast as I could. Fortunately this time, my friend woke me up and told me that ISIS (the system we use to sign up for classes) opened, and I was able to sign up for all the classes I picked out. I haven't officially transferred into Computer Science yet, but my classes are definitely geared towards the sciences. The reason why I haven't made the switch yet is due to me juggling career options in my head, after all, this will affect the rest of my life. It seems very likely that I will switch soon, but who knows what curve balls might be thrown in my future.

It's getting late so I best be off, till next time,

-Hai

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

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

Hey guys! Only about a week left until I can move back in, and I can't wait!

I often go to the gym and put my iPod on shuffle, but it's kind of annoying when the song that plays is a slow-depressing song and I have to change the song until I hear one that I can actually workout to. I went through my itunes library, and quickly made my own playlist that I thought I'd share with you guys! It's a mix of both rock and rap so there should it's sort of well-rounded, here are the songs:

places for my head - linkin park
one step closer - linkin park
what ive done - linkin park
bleet it out - linkin park
kryptonite - 3 doors down
I'm supposed to die tonight - 50 cent
The View From the Afternoon- arctic monkeys
Over Here Hustlin' - Birdman & Lil Wayne
The Rock Show - Blink 182
Till I collapse - Eminem
Feel Good Inc. - Gorilaz
You So Tough - G-Unit
Get Up - 50 Cent
Roc Boys (And The Winner Is) - Jay-Z
Points of Authority/99 Problems/ One Step Closer - Jay-Z/Linkin Park mix
Numb/Encore - Jay-z/Linkin park mix
Stronger - Kanye West
The New Workout Plan - Kanye West
forgotten - linkin park
somewhere i belong - linkin park
lying from you - linkin park
The View - Modest Mouse
This is the slam - toby mac
Here it Goes Again - Ok Go
Hey Ya! - Outkast
Seven nation army - white stripes
I'm Illy - T.I.
Headstrong - Trapt
Say Yeah - Wiz Khalifa

Students who attend UML are lucky enough to have access to Ruckus. Ruckus is a music downloading service that UML has a subscription to, allowing all students to download limitlessly from Ruckus' large database. The downloads are fast, 100% legal, free to the students, and a service not all schools offer. You don't even have to be on campus to download; I was downloading some songs at home via that Ruckus service, and my sister, who attends Bates, was surprised that UML offered this to their students.

On a related topic, my New Year's resolution is giving up soda!

Well that's all for now, I hope my workout playlist helps those looking for some good music for the gym!

This break so far has been great and a lot of fun, but I am dying to go back to school! I've tried occupying myself with various vacation projects, but it doesn't beat the school life.

The one thing I dislike most about Umass Lowell is the distance from my house. I know there are others who live much further away than I do, but it's still one of my number one complaints. Most of my friends are from the north shore area, so have a better chance of knowing other classmates either from sports or mutual friends. It wasn't difficult for me to make new friends, but many others already had head starts. Also, on numerous occasions, my friends will meet to catch up on each other's lives at a local restaurant or home. While it'll take them 5-10 minutes to travel, it will take me 1-2 hours without snow or traffic! It only bugs me since I have to pay for gas, but it's a manageable obstacle for me. So far, I've met up with my college friends a couple times to discuss the latest news, and just recently had to sleepover because of the horrific weather conditions.

I've already worked a couple days at my new store, and it is definitely different from my old store. Although the names and merchandise are exactly the same, I will only see around 5 customers on average at my new store, compared to the thousands I used to see at my old store. Because of the huge decrease in customers, the workload isn't as great, but most of the shift, I'll stand around trying to find something to keep myself occupied. Overall though, I do like my new store more than my old one. I've gotten numerous phone calls from managers and associates trying to ask me to come back, and I do miss all my co-workers, but I would rather stay with my new store. Since there aren't as many customers and isn't as big of a store, the overall cleanliness is better and I'm not asked to stay till ridiculous hours, like 4 in the morning!

One vacation project I would like to share is converting to Linux. If your not familiar with the Linux operating system, imagine Windows and Mac, and how they're both computers but different environments. Linux is another computing environment popular to programmers and web servers since it's almost impossible to get a virus on it. It's been known to many as the more technical environment to many, but I have found it just as easy to operate as Windows and Mac. The current “version” of Linux that I am using is called Ubuntu, a very popular Linux version that is used by bother beginners and experts. So far everything is great, and I may never use Windows again!

That's it for now guys! A little less than two weeks till move in day, and I can't wait! Till next time,

-Hai

Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays, is coming up soon, and I’m very excited! My sister attends college at Bates, in Maine, and she’ll be coming home for Thanksgiving as well. I only live an hour and a half away from UML, but I haven’t really gone home that often, so I’m looking forward to coming back home to catch up with everyone back home.  The University closes Wednesday the 26^th at 5. For people who live a distance away, I did hear that the University will be closed, but the residence halls will be open. There are several rumors around whether or not you have to pay extra to stay and whether or not the dining halls are open, but the general opinion is that you won’t have to pay extra, and the dining halls will be open.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is known as “Black Friday”, and is one of the biggest shopping days all year. I remember working at Hollister last year during Black Friday, and the memories aren’t enjoyable. Unfortunately, I got a call from my manager today asking if I could work on Friday, and I knew they would need as much help as they could get, so I agreed to work. It’s good to be making a bit of money for college, but I’m not excited about working on such a busy day.

The weather here is drastically getting colder and colder. I remember moving in and the first couple weeks here; the heat was almost unbearable, but, as of now, I can’t even go outside without a jacket.  The wind makes it worse, making my face sting, my lips chapped, and the temperature feel even colder. Even though the cold isn’t enjoyable to brave through, the winter is one of my favorite seasons. I like snuggling up in my bed and under my covers to keep warm; whereas in the summer I’d suffer trying to fall asleep in the sweltering heat.

That’s it with updates for now! Till next time,

-Hai

Finally found some time on my hands today, so I decided to update you guys!

This past Wednesday, November 5^th, there was a soccer game against Le Moyne. It was a big game for the Northeast Conference tournament, and my friends and I went to cheer on our fellow classmates, as we’ve done for all of their past games. The game was extremely close, going into overtime with both teams having a goal. After the first overtime period, both teams were still tied, so the game went into double overtime. Unfortunately, Le Moyne scored a goal in the second overtime period, sending the UML team to defeat. All the fans were upset that we lost the game, but the guys did a great job and still have games ahead of them.

The UML guy’s and girl’s basketball squad held a kind of pep-rally event called, “HoopFest” that night as well. HoopFest was all about the fans, with a lot of free giveaways such as Nike gear, gift cards to local business, and a lot more. They even had raffles for great prizes, and someone walked out with a flat screen T.V.!  The main reason why my friends and I decided to go to the event was the school spirit costume contest. Contestants dressed up in their best school spirit outfit and the first three winners received cash prizes. My friends and I decided to paint our bodies again for this event, and thought we had a pretty good chance of winning the first place 300 dollar prize.

Picture from the Lowell Sun!

 

Much to our disappointment though, we won second place, which received a 200 dollar cash prize. We weren’t disappointed with the cash prize we got since something is better than nothing, but we were disappointed however with first place going to an RA of someone in our group. Afterwards though, the coach of the basketball team, Coach Herenda, brought my friends and I to his office to propose an idea. He liked how much school spirit and excitement we had, so told us he wanted us to create a club called the “UML Boyz”, where the members would go to every basketball game body painted and be the loudest fans. We took tremendous pride in being offered the proposal, but we haven’t yet decided if we were actually going to create such a club. The whole event overall was fun and it was great how they gave away so much stuff, a lot of which being very expensive!

The next day, Thursday, was the first game for my intramural soccer team. We had our first game a week before, but the team we faced forfeited so this was our first game we got to actually play in. We played in a gym on South Campus that felt like they had the heat on full blast. It was extremely hot, which made playing more difficult, but we braved on and did what we could. This was the first time many of us played for a while, so everyone was very rusty with skills, but I could tell we all still had lots of fun. The team we faced had all seniors on their roster, while we had all freshmen. We ended up losing the game, and our team left disappointed, but ready for our next game on Sunday the 16^th.

Right after the soccer game, me and another player on our soccer team had to rush over to the Tsonga’s for our intramural hockey game. Being the assistant coach, I didn’t play, but getting to stand in the player’s area in the Tsonga’s was still great.  Our team looked very strong and skilled, but had to definitely work on endurance. We faced the champs from last year’s intramural hockey team, and ended up losing, but 3 to 1 was not bad at all, considering they were ex-champs. Our next game is this Thursday the 13^th.

On Friday, there was a Hockey game with UML vs. BU. My best friend from high school attends BU, so we decided to meet up during the game. Unfortunately my friend became ill and couldn’t attend. BU is 3^rd ranked in the nation for Division 1 hockey, so we came into the game anticipating a loss. We actually did not fare too badly against BU, but did end up losing. The next day, Saturday, was another Hockey game with UML vs. University of Vermont. Seeing as the team just played the game before against a 3^rd ranking team, our boys looked very tired out on the ice. UML ended up losing the game as well, and the whole week just seemed to be full of losses.

Although the whole week was full of losses, all the events my friends and I attended were entertaining and enjoyable. We were extremely happy with making it in the paper and winning the contest, and we’re sure that the next week will be full of winning!

 

Till next time

-Hai

Since I've gotten to UML, I've found that there's hardly ever a boring and dull moment; there's always something to do around campus.

This Halloween was the first time I didn't go trick-o-treating, which is disappointing, but I guess I was getting a little too old for that anyway. My friends and I were dressed up the whole day as South Park characters; not many people dressed up during the day, but almost everyone had a costume by the evening.



Sunday was a very exciting day for me as well. During the day, my friends and I went to the UML vs. Bentley soccer game to cheer on our fellow classmates. Everyone had a great time being as loud and boisterous as they could, and bringing home a 4 to 1 victory was awesome as well. There was a lot of rough housing between some of the players (no fights actually broke out, although it was close), and I'm not being biased, but it was mainly from Bently's side. Later that night my friends and I took a train into Boston and accompanied by some of our Wentworth friends, we all had dinner at Fire and Ice. If you've never been to Fire and Ice, you should definetly go one day, It's an all you can eat bar and grill where you can pick and choose any mixture of food available and the chef's cook it right in front of you. We had a great time, but due to a mix up in our rides, we didn't end up getting back on campus until 1 in the morning!

I had a blast this Halloween weekend and I'm kind of dissapointed that the weekend is already over, but I'm sure I'll still enjoy the week.

Till next time,
-Hai

I know it’s very late, and I should be sleeping, but I was up late, studying for a couple midyears that I have tomorrow. I hope I’m not scaring any prospective students because most of my friends don’t even think that my math and politics midyear will be very difficult, but just to be on the safe side, I usually try to throw in some extra studying in.  Since I was up late and had things to write about, I decided that I would blog about things that happened recently.

This past Wednesday (October 22^nd), there was a Hip Hop Live concert, with stars such as David Banner and, one of my favorite rappers, Talib Kweli.  Tickets were 10 dollars if you bought them before the concert and 20 at the door, which is cheap considering David Banner and Talib Kweli are very well known and famous rappers. Since money is scarce in college and I didn’t buy tickets beforehand, I ended up not going to the concert. A couple of my friends that did go said it was amazing and everyone at the concert got free Sony headphones.  I’m kind of jealous that I didn’t go, but anything that saves money is O.K. with me.

On Thursday (October 23^rd) there was a captain’s meeting for all intramural sports from 9PM-11PM. In efforts of staying in shape, getting ourselves involved around campus, and just for fun, my friends and I decided to create an intramural soccer team. Last time I played soccer competitively was in middle school, but I’m pretty confident I still have some skills left. The team consists of 7 players, including myself; 3 guys and 4 girls, and our name is “The Incredibles”. We’ve all had previous experience playing, so I’m sure we’ll do at least an O.K. job on the field. Our first game is this Thursday at 9:30PM, which is late, but I’m more of a night person myself anyways.

Friday (October 24^th) was the first hockey game, which is a big deal around campus and to most students. Before the game there was a BBQ, and any food freeing me from my 14 meals a week is welcome.



My friends and I all had all gotten Mohawks for the game a couple weeks earlier, but we decided to shave them off after a while because we didn’t like them. Before the game started, we all painted our entire upper body to be true super fans, and were extremely excited to be the loud and boisterous cheerers. Much to our displeasure though, we soon came to find out that shirts were required in the Tsongas Arena. We had our shirts off for 2 seconds before we were told by a worker that they prohibited such activities, but we were given a voucher for free popcorn and soda for our efforts. Putting that aside, the game was fun to watch, almost all of UML was there to watch, including alumni and parents, and to make it even better, UML  defeated Providence  4 to 1.

This weekend was open house weekend and I’ve seen flyers around campus about the different activities. My parents aren’t coming up this weekend, but there were some events that I was interested in, so I decided to drag my friends along with me to check it out. A couple of my friends’ parents came, but just going with my friends and without my parents was fun too. It turned out to be entertaining, there were many activities for both young and old. There was free food, horseback riding, a rock wall, free pumpkin decorating, professional artists that did caricatures, and plenty more. CAPA was handing out free live fish in tanks that you decorated yourself, and I ended up getting two fish that I named Tonka and Katie. I was told by an R.A. from Leitch that they had fish as well last year, and her fish lived until May.

This past week was a pretty eventful one, packed with activities. I’m looking forward to my first intramural soccer game this Thursday, and will definitely write about how that turned out. But now, I must head off and get some rest before my midyears.

Till next time,

-Hai