Tag Archives: college

Fighting the freshman fifteen

The freshman fifteen. That rumored fifteen pounds people gain as a new college student. We all know what it is. We know it’s coming. Heck, Wikipedia even has an article on it.

I didn’t exactly start off strong, either. I totally gained weight in Germany. And, I’m in love with dining halls. Every time I visited my sister’s college, I always asked to eat in the dining hall.

College doesn’t take it easy on you, either. First of all, dining halls are classically all you can eat.

Which means all you can eat cookies…

…ice cream…

Or, technically, frozen yogurt.

…pizza…

…and general junk food.

Dining halls often include healthy dining options as well. But keep in mind: these are options. Options that often look like this:

Secondly, the meal plan at NU works like this: you get, by default, 15 meals a week. If you don’t use your meals by the end of the week, they are null and void. 15 meals might not sound like a lot– about 2 meals a day– but trust me, two meals a day in an all-you-can-eat buffet is more than enough.

Because of this system, I often do this:

Finally, the NU meal plan comes with a set amount of “dining dollars,” or money that can be used at various food vendors near or around campus. My plan comes with $165 a semester. These dollars can be spent at places like:

Taco Bell.

Wendy's.

Three...

...different...

...Dunkin' Donuts.

I love all this. I love food, and eating, and eating at different places. But man, these meals plans make sure, for sure, that nobody starves. A surplus is more like it.

So I’m a little antsy. I fear the fifteen. But I gotta fight it! By doing stuff like:

1. Eating healthy (easier said than done)

2. Working out (goal: every other day! So far: not happening!)

3. Taking the stairs! (Which, in IV, you really have to go out of your way to do. There’s only one stairwell that can be used without setting off the fire alarm.)

This is not going so well. Oh goodness. I’ll try my best; we’ll see in a couple of months.

And then I unexpectly became an office assistant

I have a job!

A completely unexpected job. I barely expected to get employed my first semester of freshman year. Inexperienced college freshman don’t get jobs. There are more qualified upperclassmen all around us, after all.

But I lucked out! On the day I moved in, I, by complete chance, met one of the heads of the NU Procurement Office in the dining hall. Later I saw her again at the student employment fair. Some paperwork, some phone calls, some e-mails, and bam: I have a job. A job that no less than 230 people applied for!

If you know me, or my friends, or my career-oriented family, then you know I’m often like this:

So this is quite a stroke of luck for me. Extremely so; I need the professional experience for when I search for future jobs.

Thus, the gaps in my schedule will be filled with filing papers, sending faxes, and answering phones! I apologize in advance if I can’t update this blog quite as often. My goal is, at the very least, once a week! But, naturally, school and work come first.

My calc professor scares me

I took the AP Calc AB and BC exams in high school, so I can exempt the classes at Northeastern. However, bio majors have to take a year’s worth of calculus anyway– a specific course engineered to teach calculus as applied to biology.

Calc is my worst subject. Always.

And this is how my calc professor introduced the class:

He went on.

He went on.

By the end of his speech, I looked like this:

This class is gonna be a good time.

College kids inexplicably love Target

Kids pack for college. They move in. They forget stuff. It’s the inevitable fate of the college freshman.

Target knows this. Target capitalizes on this. They’re allowed to. It’s a free-market economy. So, as part of “Welcome Week” at Northeastern, we had this:

Target sets up special times where they invite students from one college to come to Target. It’s only kids from one school. There’s sales, they said. There’s music. Free coupon books. The day before, they had workers on campus handing out little Target bags and coupons. It’s enticing.

Which is why, at the time of Target night, we had this down at Forsyth Circle:

Target had ordered 12 buses to ship kids back and forth from campus to their store. My roomies and I had managed to slip into the front of the line, so we decided to go.

And when we got there? It was a madhouse.

It was crowded already. And got more crowded as NU kids started to file in. As Target had promised, there was music…

and free samples…

He gave us both two for our trouble. I continued to walk by that booth the whole night.

…and even a mascot.

But truly? Target night at NU is a tad overrated. For one, we might have been the only college there at the moment, but we sure weren’t the only college there that day. The shelves were ravaged. Some, empty. My suitemates failed to buy a full-length mirror because they were sold out.

Shower liners are in high demand, it seems.

Nothing was on sale, either. Those coupons? Not too good.

But it was a good time anyway. Nothing is more exciting than the atmosphere of rampant consumerism! Kids loaded up with Target goods. My suitemate bought over $200 dollars worth, I believe. I myself bought some Q-tips, makeup remover, and a box of crayons. This sight was common as we got back to campus:

My dorm building is also secretly awesome

Living in International Village is actually pretty nice.

As I said in this post, International Village is a two-year-old residential hall open to upperclassmen and honors freshmen. It’s a bit isolated from the rest of campus, requiring a short walk across Ruggles Station to reach the rest of campus. Thus, Northeastern apparently designed International Village to be a sort of “campus of its own.” I wouldn’t exactly call it that, but it’s got some nice perks.

I mentioned before that the dorms are nice, but the building itself is too. We’ll start with the basics: International Village, unlike many of the residential halls at Northeastern, has air conditioning.

There’s a miniature gym for students’ convenience.

There’s a gorgeous bamboo courtyard nestled between the IV towers.

International Village is 22 stories high. It’s essential that we have multiple nice, fast elevators.

With 22 stories also comes a nice view. You can actually see Fenway Park from the upper floors of IV, whose bright lights stand out at night:

Those bright lights are Fenway Park, as seen from the 22nd floor of IV.

Boston in daytime. There’s a laundry room on the 22nd floor for kids to do their laundry and enjoy the view.

Every floor has an common area with a flat-screen TV.

Every even-numbered floor has a pool table.

But my favorite part of the whole building? Hands down the dining hall! IV’s dining hall, in my opinion, is the best on campus. It’s a certified three-star green restaurant (whatever that means) but more importantly, it’s unsurprisingly international-themed. The dining hall serves a variety of foods, including daily wood-oven pizza, Indian and Italian food, and my personal favorite…

Though I also dig that there’s sparkling water. I’ve missed it since Germany! However, the hall often runs out of milk, which is unfortunate.

Other features of International Village? A small computer lounge by the dining hall, which is nice. There’s some classrooms, though I have no classes here. IV is also “LEED Gold certified,” meaning it has green features such as “motion-sensor lighting, recycled building materials, low-flow showers and faucets, and a roof garden.”

So I rather like International Village. As my roommate aptly put it, Northeastern is “pampering” we IV kids. But hey, I enjoy it! Keep going NU!

I decide over decorating that my roommate is cool

On the second day at Northeastern, I had settled well into my room. All that was left was to set up some decorations.

My roommate is so awesome. It’s not like she’s one of those geeky, anti-social recluses, either– she’s mad social and friendly! I got lucky yet again, it seems.

Especially considering the posters I have on my wall.

Two Pokemon, two Final Fantasy, and two One Piece posters. I recently added some Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time cutouts, too. Oh, and that's a map of Berlin.