The last few days have been quite crazy on campus, especially for us freshmen, and it will continue to get crazy until the last days of the semester. All the clubs and organizations on campus are selecting their new E-Boards and setting up a direction for next year. For some clubs such as AFC, PIRO and ISA, entire e-boards will be replaced because of graduating seniors and an entirely new approach will be made for next year. Because of my unnaturally large involvement on campus, I will be seeing a lot of changes.
Along with all the extracurricular activities, my stay at the University changes as well. Last Thursday at midnight (or Friday whatever…) I registered for my classes and chose my housing for next year. My classes were okay, no 8am’s, no cluster of like 5 classes in one day and no massive lag from every freshman going on the website at the same time. But my housing is something to work on. I have wanted to live in the apartments on campus, but because of the unexpectedness of more 4-person room combinations than any other this year, all my top choices were taken by other people and I ended up in an off campus apartment. The Regency Apartments, 2 miles from campus, shuttles and/or car on campus required.
Now that isn’t an entirely bad thing because I heard the Regency apartments are luxurious, but the problem I find is that living off campus may negatively impact my involvement on campus. Meeting times and events scattered all about, shuttle back and forth and of course the end of service at midnight, it is crazy. However, I have always wanted to live the ‘typical college life’ where you have your own kitchen and stuff and you have to take a shuttle to class, so I will improvise and I will let you guys know of my experiences when that time comes.
Other than the craziness of planning for next year these few days, there was also a lot of fun. The ISA held its International Festival on Saturday the 18th and it was a success. I don’t know the numbers, but there were probably like 200-300 people in attendance. There were 14 countries being represented from Iran to Nigeria to China to the USA along with a lot of food and culture. Many International students were dressed in their traditional clothing and were walking around, talking to their fellow countrymen and us non International students. It was really cool.
The best parts of the International Festival, I believe, were the entertainment and Malaysia. I was quite surprised when I found out that my family’s country of origin Malaysia was to be represented at the International Festival. I found it overall to be a great presentation with all the food and flyers and I was glad Malaysia won ‘Best Cultural Display’. The entertainment was great as well. From the traditional Lion Dance, this was sweet, to dances from Russia, India to Saudi Arabia. Overall, I liked it a lot and next year, I think I will emcee it, it sounded fun.
In addition to the International Festival, PIRO had its annual ghost investigation. Now I loved it so much as it was so interesting. I got to use the cool equipment from the Infrared Thermometer to the K2 Meter and some of us got some really interesting evidence of the paranormal, from dog growling in a basement to unknown footsteps to some recordings with a little girl’s voice. I want to do more!
And then there was Sunday. A nice lesson to some of you mall-goers, remember that the mall here closes at 6pm on Sundays and remember the UNH shuttle schedules. I took the bus to the mall with my roommate after dinner to look for a good flashlight and voice recorder (all for future PIRO stuff) and we found out all the stores were closed. But when we went outside to wait for a bus, we realized that the bus we took there was actually the last one. Not wanting to gamble to find out if the UNH shuttle was around or not, we decided to pull the unthinkable; we decided to walk from the mall back to UNH. 6 miles, 2 hours, lots of fun. Well, that’s the last time I go to the mall on a Sunday.
As for the days ahead, I can’t wait. Spring Weekend is approaching really quickly with the bands and the carnival. The Six Flags Great Adventure trip is coming up and classes are going to end soon.
The Summer awaits…
