Summer Vacation Vacation

Soooooooo since my last post (yesterday) I have decided that it is time for a visit to Bates…a summer vacation vacation. Luckily for me I have friends who are working at Bates for the summer, either beginning research for their senior theses, playing with lab rats and such; or friends who have just graduated and have recently become fully employed by Bates. Some people just can’t stay away from Bates even for the summer, or after they graduate. Even more luckily for me, my friend Tess, who just graduated, and my friend Colleen, who will be my roommate next year were also really excited about visiting and will join me for the ride up.

One of the best parts about going up to school, in my opinion, is the drive. Although the car ride is very long from where I live in New York, I would not travel any other way to school. I tried flying once and it was just not the same. My car missed me too much. There are also so many places to stop in New England on the way up to Maine that you would be missing out if you did not drive. It is especially convenient to get in some shopping time at my favorite J.Crew outlet in Freeport, which offers student discounts by the way. Your pit stop in Freeport will ensure that you have everything that you need to enjoy your vacation at Bates, in case you forgot a bathing suit for your trip to Range Pond, or a light sweater for the chilly evenings and mornings. If you are like me, you will probably leave Freeport full from lobster rolls and clam chowda and will not want to be in a bathing suit ever again!

Although I have not yet set a date for my summer vacation vacation up to Bates, I can assure you there will be pictures when I finally get it together and get to Maine!

Summer Vacation

Hi everyone!

I know that it has been quite a while since I have written a blog post 😦 I have been very busy settling in at home with my summer internship, and even more busy trying to reconcile with the fact that I am not at Bates right now…something that is very difficult for me! 

I have been thinking about Bates a lot recently. Coming home for summer is always difficult for me. I wish I could move my family and my house to Bates, or that I could move Bates to my family and my house! When I got home the first thing that I did was try to find a job in Maine so that I could spend the summer at Bates (very pathetic, I know). The second thing that I did, once I realized that was kind of a ridiculous idea, was to (TRY to) count the weeks/days/hours/minutes/seconds until I get to go back to Bates. This did not go very well and I got very overwhelmed once I realized how long it was!

Anyway, after a few days, I settled back into my routine at home as I always do and have been really enjoying myself. I have especially been very busy with my internship at a consulting firm where I work 10 hour days. MUCH different from the relaxed schedule that I was keeping during short term!! However, no matter how busy I get my mind always wanders back to Bates and my friends there and the classes that I’ll be taking and how I might decorate my room. To me, it is refreshing that no matter how caught up I am in everything that I am doing at home–which, by the way, involves a LOT of hanging out with my friends from Bates–I always miss Bates in a very happy way.

keep hearing stories about friends of friends, or coworkers of friends who could not be more happy to be home and do not want to go back to their schools at all, which I think is a shame. During my journey as a transfer, which can also be thought of as my search for the perfect school, I wanted nothing more than to be at a school where I never wanted to leave and where I always wanted to go back to. However, I never imagined that I would actually find that place, and I am very lucky to have found it! 

More VERY soon!

Short Term! (An Introduction)

            If you haven’t heard about Short Term at Bates, then you NEED to know about it right now. Last week was the first week of Short Term! Short Term is arguably one of the best features of Bates College. Whereas some schools (like Colby…ugh) have “Jan Plan” where they take one class in the middle of the winter, we have Short Term, where we take one class beginning at the end of April and runs through the end of May. Students HAVE to take at two short terms, and generally take three, but many people find a way to stay for all four. Because I transferred, I am lucky enough to not have to worry about taking four short terms. This year, I am taking a class called “Literacy in the Community,” which is predominantly dedicated to tutoring local students three times a week. This month long semester is really just a great excuse to enjoy all of the amazing things that Bates has to offer other than its amazing (but also challenging) academics. The classes offered during Short Term are generally more unique and less scary and serious than classes offered during the semester. It is a great time to be able to take a class that you might not be able to take during the fall or winter semesters.

            Anyway, enough about classes; Short Term is also a time to wind down and spend time with your friends outside…hopefully. During this month the weather really starts to improve, and it is so nice to see everyone outside in bright and springy clothing. It is also a great time to explore Maine. For example, yesterday (on a Sunday) my friends and I (and many, many other students) went to watch Bates baseball beat Colby at the Sea Dog’s stadium in Portland. Afterwards, we continued our outing at the Sea Dog Brewery restaurant, which was delicious. The best part is that despite the fact that it was a Sunday, none of us had to worry about getting back to the library to study for a million tests because its Short Term!

            Who would not want to experience Short Term?! It is almost too exciting and fun to explain, and I am so happy that I get to partake in such a unique and rewarding academic schedule. Because Short Term is so much fun, and because there are so many things to do, I will indubitably write about it again in my blog posts.

 

Baseball Game

My friends and I at the Sea Dog’s Stadium for the Bates Baseball game against Colby yesterday!

Location, Location, Location!

At first, Bates might seem like it is located in the middle of nowhere far from everything. However, I do not seem to agree with this sentiment. I think that the Lewiston-Auburn area is a really great place to go to school in and that it has everything we could possibly need. Furthermore, there are so many places to go that are close to Bates. In this post, I am going to write about places that I like to go both in Lewiston and away from Lewiston.

The Lewiston-Auburn area has great places to eat, other than 6000000 Dunkin’ Donuts, although that is a bonus for me in and of itself! These restaurants include sandwich places for lunch, like Heidi’s, sports bar/restaurant chains, like Buffalo Wild Wings, great places to get burgers and fries, like Gritty’s, and fancier restaurants, like Fishbones or Fuel. Those are just a few of my favorites! Not to mention there are also restaurants that have great sushi and awesome pad thai! Even though the food in Commons is absolutely amazing, it is definitely nice to know that you can get off campus for a study break or to celebrate a friend’s birthday. For example, on Thursday night, the night before my last final, some of my friends and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings at 10:30 PM to watch the Bruins game (even though I am not from New England, most of my friends and the other students at Bates are) and to take a break from studying. When we got there, there were about three other tables of Bates students doing the same thing and it was a great way to blow of some steam and gave me motivation to finish up my finals!

Bates is also very close to other really fun places in Maine, including Freeport and Portland to name a few, which are both about 45 minutes away by car. However, I find myself going to Freeport more than Portland for the outlet shopping! Both girls and boys love going to Freeport because everyone enjoys a good shopping trip! One of Freeport’s biggest attractions is its GIANT L.L. Bean store, which is open 24/7! It is honestly hard for me to not find a use for most things at L.L. Bean, and I find that I have to stop myself from buying a duck hunting vest, or other things that are useless to me pretty regularly. I promise that if you come to Bates, you too will have a hard time doing this too, especially in the Winter months when all you want to do is buy Bean Boots in every color and height. Aside from the shopping and the countless amazing restaurants that specialize in clam chowder, lobster rolls, and other quintessentially New England dishes, Freeport is always bustling with people and different seasonal happenings. Below, you can see pictures of two fun seasonal affairs hosted by Freeport! In the Fall, thousands of carved pumpkins lined the walls and areas around L.L. Bean, and in the Winter when I stopped in Freeport on my way home, they had sled dogs for visitors to pet and to look at.

Just because there are so many fun things to do and beautiful places to go in beautiful Maine, that does not mean to say that you are not close to places outside of Maine! I know a lot of people, like myself, who frequently visit Boston for a one-day adventure, or for a weekend getaway! It is an easy 2-hour train ride from Portland, or a two-and-a-half hour drive from Bates! My brother goes to school in Boston, so I try and visit him as much as possible, and sometimes my parents even come up to meet us! Just the other week I went to meet my aunt and brother in Boston to go to a Bruce Springsteen concert. I’m sure all of your parents would be jealous, but we were definitely the youngest people there! Don’t let people get to you when they say “oh my gosh, you’re going ALLLLLLL the way to Boston JUST for one day?!” I promise you, it really is not that far!

So, despite the fact that you might be under the impression that Maine is the middle of nowhere, it really is not. I grew up in a city, and I absolutely love being in Lewiston and feel like I am perfectly located close to anywhere that I would need to or want to go! Also, don’t worry about not having a car! You will inevitably have at least two friends who have cars, and Zipcar is a really easy and convenient way to rent a car at short notice right from campus!

Gala!

If there is one thing that I would tell you about the social life at Bates it would be that it is very relaxed! This was one of the qualities that I was looking for when I was exploring schools to transfer to, so the social life is perfect for me.  We have no fraternities or sororities, girls don’t wear high heels to go out on the weekends, and boys don’t typically get dressed up either. In fact, it is acceptable to wear almost anything you want to wear out and no one will give you a funny look! Trust me, I have even seen my friend come to a party with her backpack on!

That being said, even though Bates is very socially relaxed it is always really nice to have an occasion to dress up for. I know that this is coming from a girl, but the boys also get really excited to dress up, too! This one big occasion to dress up every year is called Gala. It is always in March and there is a HUGE build up to Gala. Everyone thinks about what they are going to wear months in advance, and wonders what the theme will be because it is such a special occasion. We all take so many pictures beforehand, because everyone looks exceptionally nice and done up. That is not to say that people don’t look nice everyday though! Gala is an event that everyone from school goes to, including some professors and deans and it is held in the Gray Cage (our big gym) and Alumni Gym (where the basketball games are played). Every year Gala has a theme, and this year’s theme was Royalty. The food that they have at Gala matches the theme, so this year they had little tea sandwiches, which was very “English.” Everyone knows that dessert is the best part of any Bates event, and a staple of Gala is the chocolate fountain, which is located in its own area.

While the food is definitely a huge part of Gala that everyone looks forward to, there are also other activities. There are dance performances, like ballroom dancing, singing performances, like the gospel choir, and other music performances. In between all of these performances there is music playing and everyone swing dances. I know that this all might sound a little bit like it is made for old people, but everyone gets involved and it’s actually really fun. It is nice to have one formal affair per year that makes us all feel mature…I guess.

If you need a break from the swing dancing and the eating, and also if your feet are tired, which if you’re a girl wearing high heels is VERY likely, there is a fun photo station. This year they had a backdrop that was Bates Royalty themed. The picture of me and my friend, and roommate for next year, Colleen is in this post. These pictures were all conveniently located on facebook, along with other pictures of Gala. I’ll also put the link to the photo album in this post in case you are interested in seeing what Gala is like.

Gala is a great example of how the faculty and staff at Bates—and that includes the people who work in Commons, Security, maintenance our deans, our professors—really care about the students and want them to be happy and comfortable at school. They put their all into making Gala an event that the students and faculty and staff are proud to attend.

 

The link to the facebook page of the photo shoot: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.282965965114881.64532.184289171649228&type=3

These are the pictures on the Bates Student Activities facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bates-College-Student-Activities/212193545507479

The Housing Lottery

Okay, so I’m going to be honest, the housing lottery can be pretty stressful. However, I am only writing this post to show that it all works out in the end. I apologize for the length of this post! I will try to keep it as concise as possible, but I think that this is important information and I just want everyone to get the gist of the housing lottery. I am not sure if any of you have thought about how housing might work when you get to college, but it is definitely something to think about and to know about!

At Bates there are many options for places to live. As a freshman, you will be placed in one of the following dorms Smith, which is a dorm that is comprised of all quads, and it is known as the most social freshman dorms. You could live in Rand or 280 College Street, which are right next to each other. Rand is older, and 280 College Street is often referred to as “New Dorm,” “New Rand,” or “280.” 280 is one of the quiet dorms. You could be placed in Parker, which is located on right in between the quad and alumni walk, which is a very central location on campus. You could be placed in Page, which has mostly doubles and a few triples. This is where all of my friends lived freshman year, and is where I spent my nights when I visited before I transferred into Bates. You could also be placed in a number of chem.-free houses if you select that option on the housing survey. Don’t worry about your roommate! Bates is really great at placing students in rooms with people who they will get along with! A lot of my friends became friends freshman year when they lived with each other. Even if you do not become best friends with your roommate, the likelihood is that you will get along and it will not be as big of a deal as you think it will be! So don’t be nervous!

Now, more importantly, in March of your freshman year the housing lottery occurs. This is when you get to choose where you want to live and with who you want to live for sophomore year. This housing process is stressful and exciting all at the same time. You now have more freedom regarding where you want to live and whom you want to live with and even how many people you want to live with! However, because of the way that housing lottery is organized, which I will explain, you miiiiight not get your first choice your sophomore year.

The housing lottery goes like this. Everyone in your class gets randomized and then you get a number. These numbers are posted on the Garnet Gateway, which is where you register for classes, check your account balances, fill out course evaluations, and other really important things. When you get your number, do not be surprised if you are disappointed with how high it is. People get lucky, I am telling you! After you unwrap the surprise that is your number, you then get to decide what type of housing you want to live in. Bates has suites of four, six, and one of five people; triples; doubles; and finally singles. The suite lottery happens first as a separate event, and then the regular housing happens. Everyone is gathered in Chase Hall, and there is a giant room, which used to be the dining hall, where all of the floor plans are laid out on tables, so you get to see which rooms are available and where they are located. Sitting at these tables are the Resident Coordinators for each dorm, who are all really friendly and helpful when choosing a room. Keep in mind that you can view all of the floor plans for the dorms beforehand online.

If you and your friends decide that you want a suite you put your names into the suite lottery and your numbers get averaged, dropping the lowest number (don’t worry). There are two main places where suites exist: The Village, and J.B. The village is a group of three buildings known as V1, V2, and V3. Each village has suites of four or six people. The full name of J.B. is John Bertram Hall, but everyone just calls it J.B. This building only has suites of four people. All of my friends lived there this year and it is a really fun and social place to live! Mainly juniors and sophomores live there, but as a senior I will be living there with my friend Colleen in a double in the basement.

If you decide that you do not want a suite, then you go into the normal housing lottery. This lottery is divided by grade. They do the rising seniors first, and then the next day they do the rising juniors, and finally the rising sophomores. You can now decide whether you want to live in a double with a friend, in a triple with two friends, or in a single by yourself. If you want to go into a double or a triple, you take the highest number of your friend and go into the room with them where all of the floor plans are laid out, so that even if you have a bad number you don’t have to worry about it! There are so many options for this!  There is the quiet dorm, Adams, which has doubles and singles and is in a really great location right near everything on campus! You can also live in 280 or Rand. There are also rooms in Page and Parker for upper classmen. Or you can live in one of the Houses on Frye Street or Wood Street. Frye Street is a really fun community of a lot of different houses. However, Bates is doing a lot of renovations to the campus for the 10-year plan, and the houses on Frye Street will be out of commission! But the good news is that there will be new dorms open very soon! Although there will be changes made to the living situation on campus, I just wanted to give you all a sense of how many options there are for places to live and how much Bates cares about students being able to have a multitude of choices!

I have included a link to the Bates College Campus Map, so that you can get a sense of where all of these dorms are located in reference to Commons, the gym, the quad, and all of the other dorms:

http://www.bates.edu/about/map/

Sports at Bates

I should preface this post by saying that I am a huge sports fan. I am not only a professional sports fan, but I also love following and supporting the sports teams at Bates. This post is in honor of the beginning of the spring sports season, and also in honor of the first lacrosse game that I went to this season. One of the perks about going to Bates is that because it is such a small school the students interact with the athletes all the time. This might seem obvious, but at many schools, even midsized schools (schools that have around 7,000 undergraduate students), the athletes are fairly separated from the rest of the students. This was definitely the case at Tulane, the university that I transferred to Bates from. So when I came to Bates I was very pleasantly surprised to find that while there is definitely a strong body of people who play sports, the athletes are just like all of the other students. At Bates the likelihood is that there will be a significant number of people who you are friends with who play on a sports team. This makes going to the games especially fun and exciting because you actually know the people who are on the field, or on the court, or on the rink, and you probably see them a million times a day in commons, in the library, at the gym, or anywhere else on campus. Good luck avoiding them.

Even if you don’t play a sport, like me and like many other students at Bates, it is very easy to be supportive and get involved in Bates athletics. However, I should warn you someone who does not play a sport at Bates is often referred to as a NARP, or a “non-athletic regular person.” Embrace it! I have. Anyway, aside from going to games, one of the ways that I have been involved in Bates athletics is by managing the men’s lacrosse team. I know that it may seem a little weird, but it is a really fun way to be a part of a team even if you do not want to play a sport. I started managing sports teams in high school when I managed the lacrosse and basketball teams and had the best time. When I transferred to Bates I told myself that I was going to throw myself into everything that the school had to offer and I really wanted to be involved in different aspects of the school. I know that as an entering student, whether you are a freshman or a transfer student like me, getting involved in different clubs, committees, jobs, classes, friend groups, and everything else can definitely be intimidating and somewhat daunting, but it is definitely worth it! So, I decided that I was going to continue managing lacrosse. I contacted the coach, Peter Lasagna, who is an awesome person and he was happy to let me manage the team.

You might be wondering what managing entails. Essentially I am the statistician for the team, which means that during the games I sit with a scorebook and record components of the game like goals, assists, penalties, face offs, ground balls, etc. It is definitely really busy during the game and I don’t have a second to take my eyes off the field while the clock is running! I also get to travel with the team to their away games, which is fun because I get to experience what it is like on the bus with the team and I get to see other schools and other teams. Managing has not only been a way for me to feel like I am somewhat part of a team, but it has also been a great way for me to get to know a group of people that I may never have gotten to know so well. I definitely feel a sense of accomplishment and pride when they win that is different than what I feel when I go to a game of a team that I am not as invested in.

If you were wondering, the lacrosse team won their game on Tuesday against the University of New England Nor’easters with a score of 6-4. It was my first game of the season and it was a really exciting and a really well played game. The Nor’easters were undefeated so far this season until they played the Bates Bobcats!

In case you are interested in the men’s lacrosse team I am giving you the link to the team’s website. I am also leaving you with the link to the Bates athletics homepage because it is fun and easy to browse.

http://www.bates.edu/m-lacrosse/

http://www.bates.edu/athletics/

My First Post!

Hey everyone! Welcome to my first blog post ever! I am very new to writing a blog, but  I love to write, and I REALLY love to talk, so hopefully this won’t be too difficult!

As most of you know (I hope) it is still technically the winter, and I am sure that all of you have heard about how brutal the weather is here at Bates during the long winter months. However, from my experience of being at Bates there are sporadic days at the beginning of March when the weather is much warmer than usual. I’m talking like 55, 60 degrees! When it’s this warm everyone at Bates knows that it’s time to put away the boots and take out the shorts! But then again, it really isn’t that strange to see people wearing shorts when it hits 40! Going to Bates enables your body to adjust to freakishly cold (at times) temperatures so that what might have once seemed cold, now feels like summer. So today was one of those summery days and it was amazing. Everyone on campus was in a good mood, there were pictures and tweets and facebook posts about how amazing the weather was. It felt like Short Term was within reach. However, it also made it difficult to go to class.

I guess for you to understand how exciting it was that Short Term felt so close I should probably explain what that is. Short Term is a period of four weeks that happens after April break where students only take one class. To make matters better, many of these classes are really unique and really fun. For example, I have a few friends who have taken a short term class called “For the Love of Dogs,” which was an English class with a service learning component where one of my friends volunteered at a kennel for 6 hours a week. “What’s not to love?!” my friend, Val just said. What makes matters even better (if that’s possible) is that during Short Term everyone spends most of their free time outside with their friends. It gives us hardworking students ample opportunity to participate in Intramural Sports teams, to go on an adventure to Range Pond and play in the sun, and to do so many other things!

Anyway, now that it seems that spring is upon us, it is a great time to come and visit Maine. Not that the winter isn’t gorgeous too. Nothing is prettier than walking across the quad as a blanket of snow is falling upon the Bates campus, like the one that is in this picture that I took just two nights ago!

Snowy Quad