Tag Archives: Northeastern

I get outclassed by a school dance

Major nostalgia happened last weekend.

Northeastern, every winter, holds a little event called Snowball. Formal attire. Dinner and a dance. The works. My suitemate and I, looking for an excuse to get “all dolled up,” decided to check it out.

And it’s basically a classy prom.

The event took place in the Westin Copley Hotel, which is an absurdly swanky hotel attached to the equally swanky Prudential Center. Walking there, then, took us past a number of stores made everyone feel a little more broke:

At the hotel, we were served a three-course meal. A meal whose menu looked like this:

The meal was indeed delicious, though. And classy. We even got tiny forks, knives, and spoons to eat our dessert with!

Afterwards came the less classy part of the night: the dance. A bunch of sweaty college kids crammed on a tiny floor shakin’ it up with some DJ from Europe. It was fun! Well, except for this part:

The crowd was bombed with fistfuls of glowsticks. Which is fun, until you get hit in the eye. One girl in my group got a direct hit, which hurt her so badly she fell to the floor.

Meanwhile, I was glowstick hoarding:

And my friends and I thus had a very lovely night. In conclusion? I would do it again! It was a definite step up from my high school prom, where we had self-serve buffets, not waiters, and a smaller dance floor for even more kids. (My graduating class was over 1,000 kids.) And I did note that Snowball had a distinct lack of slow songs– so there was none of that awkwardly-standing-around-while-everyone-around-you-is-making-out deal. Wow. Forever alone for me.

But it was fun anyway!

Freezing at Frozen Fenway

Every year, Fenway has a neat little event called “Frozen Fenway.” They build an ice hockey rink in the revered baseball stadium, invite long-time rivals to come and play each other, and charge the bejeezus out of the college kids who flock to see it. This year, Northeastern was going to play Boston College.

The idea is pretty neat and I had never been inside Fenway before. So I was hoping for a good time when I entered the stadium:

Pretty cool, right?

Or, more like:

Pretty cold.

The temperature was a cozy above-freezing when my suitemate and I walked over to Fenway. But as night descended, the temperature rapidly dropped and the winds steadily picked up. So, despite being dressed like this:

…my suitemate and I slowly reached new levels of coldness. It’s a process. A series of stages. That looks a bit like this:

 

To make a massive understatement, it was unpleasant. Between periods my suitemate and I would stand up and weakly stomp our feet in an attempt to warm up.

The folks at Fenway know this, too. They intelligently sell hot chocolate at outrageous prices to the fans.

 

And Northeastern lost, to boot. I have never seen so much hatred spilled on the ice as on that night in Fenway. Sad times.

So finally, the cold weather Boston is known for is starting to settle in. I haven’t even seen the worst of it! I’ll be in my Eskimo clothes for the next few months. No worries!

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.

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!

My dorm room is secretly awesome

Before I arrived to Northeastern, I had been trying forever to see what my dorm looked like. I’m living in International Village (IV), a building that’s been open since 2009. Pretty new.

In order to know what to bring to college, I wanted to know what my dorm room looked like. No such thing. Photos are impossible to come by online. When I went on a campus tour of Northeastern, we didn’t visit IV– it had a tour of its own.

Dorm rooms are notorious for being small. I’ve seen some of the dorms at other universities. The dorms are petite. Rather cramped. Storage space is hard to come by. Knowing this, I packed to maximize storage space for my dorm.

IV rendered many of these things useless:

Adjustable bed frame.

Drawers under the bed.

Closet with shelves.

Desk with drawers.

I’m in what’s called a “semi-private double.” Meaning, I’m in a double– I have a roommate– but we don’t have to share a communal bathroom with the whole floor. Instead, we share a toilet and shower with the room adjacent to us. Each room has its own sink. All the rooms in International Village are like this– you won’t find a communal bathroom anywhere here.

Desk with drawers.

So that’s the deal with my dorm! A dorm this nice isn’t the norm– IV only houses upperclassmen and honors freshmen. Visiting freshmen have commented on the cleanliness, size, and modernity of IV. Man, I lucked out again, didn’t I?

And for the incoming honors freshman– here is what the dorm looks like.

The area at the door.

Our microfridge and microwave. These can be rented, for the low, low price of $207.19 a year. In IV, you can bring your own fridge, but not a microwave. Oh, and the TV? Definitely not included in the dorm.

My side of the room!

The shared portion of the bathroom. Bathroom carpets, toilet paper, toilet cleaner, and toilet plunger not included. Also, a shower curtain is provided, but my roommate provided this nicer one.

Hopefully, with this, future freshmen will be less confused! It’s a common problem for freshmen everywhere to not know what your dorm looks like. So…

I’m so excited to live here! More on IV to come!