Academic
Waste Water Treatment Plant
For this beyond class activity, I toured the wastewater treatment plant here at UNE. This was very interesting as it taught me many valuable lessons about the environment and where waste goes. One lesson is about bleach. You should never send too much bleach down a drain because bleach can kill the bugs in the plant making the water contain more bacteria. I got a personal tour of the plant from the operator of the plant, Tim Baker. Mr. Baker was very nice and gave me detailed information about every part of the plant. He has worked in this profession for over forty years and is an expert. The first thing he showed me was the sludge pit. The sludge pit was filled with foam containing what experts call bugs, these bugs eat all the bacteria in the water to clean it. For the first part of the process, the water is filtered by screens and an auger to remove solid objects. The water is then moved to another filter that ensures that there is nothing but water. After that, the water is mixed with the bugs to eat all of the bacteria and ensure that the water is safe. Then the water is sent to tanks. Once the water fills to twelve feet, the foam and sludge are drained out and the water is filtered one more time. Now the water is ready to be sent back into circulation.
Extracuricular / Social
Pumpkin Painting
For this beyond-class activity, I attended the pumpkin painting event that was held in the commons. I went with my girlfriend, Ashley, and her roommates. I walked in with pretty high confidence in pumpkin painting considering I did well on the pumpkin that I painted in class last week. Everybody who attended was given a free pumpkin and supplies like paintbrushes, plastic eyes, pipe cleaners, and glitter. There was free food and drinks as well. In class, I drew a big Bruins logo on my pumpkin, so I wanted another sports logo to match the other pumpkin in my room. I decided to draw a Patriots logo. I figured this would be a simple draw. I was wrong and the pumpkin did not look remotely close to what I thought it would look like. The logo looked like it was painted by a child learning how to paint. It was so bad that everybody gave it a nickname, they called it “Discount Pat” Even though my Patriots logo came out terrible, I enjoyed the experience because it showed me how relaxing art can be. I have never sat down and made art in my free time before. This has gained my interest and I would like to learn more about art and try to get better at it.
Other
Free Skate
For this beyond-class activity, I went to free skate at the forum. I went with my girlfriend, Ashley, and all of our friends from our dorm. We had this planned a week before and we were all really excited about it. When we got to the forum, we went to get our rental skates. To register for the event, you must make an account for an app and find free skate at UNE and reserve a spot. This process was ridiculous because it took all of us over twenty minutes to make accounts and register so we could get our skates. It would have been much simpler to have us swipe our I.D. cards at the desk. Once we got our skates we got on the ice and everybody’s skating skills were exposed. I have been skating my whole life and I used to play hockey, so I knew what I was doing. Ashley did well but she is still learning. One of our friends was not able to take their hands off the boards the whole time we were skating. There were a few times when one of our friends fell down. After we had shaken the rust off, we decided to have a race. The rules were, you start at one blue line and sprint to the next. This became difficult because there were so many people in our way. We decided to have a timed race instead. Whoever had the fastest lap around the ice won. I won by beating my roommate by seconds. After that, we were just about out of time. While we weren’t about to skate for long because of how long it took us to register for the event, we had fun with what we had and we are planning on going more.
Football game
For this beyond-class activity, I went to a UNE football game. This weekend was parent weekend, so I was able to spend time with my family during the game. My parents arrived at 10 am and we headed to the forum to tailgate. We realized that we needed pre-purchased passes to park at the forum to tailgate and we did not have any. My Dad did not care, and he somehow convinced one of the traffic directors that he had a pass to park there. Once we parked, we were able to start tailgating. We had a barbeque going and made burgers on it. We played cornhole against my roommate’s family and listened to music. When game time came, we went inside to get seats. We were too late because every spot was taken in the bleachers. We decided to walk to the other side of the field and stand next to the opposing team’s sideline to watch the game. This turned out to be a great idea because we had a better view of the game because we were basically right on the field. We were so close that we could hear what everybody was saying and we could hear every hit. There was also a dog with a family next to us that we got to play with. He was a Border Collie, and his name was Banana. During the game, the mascot for UNE came up to us and we took pictures with him. The football team played Curry and had a great day. UNE played mistake-free and easily won the game with a final score of thirty-seven to twenty-one. It was a very fun day and I was happy to spend the whole day with my family because I do not see them much anymore. After the game, we went to dinner at a restaurant in Saco.
Hockey game
For this beyond-class activity, I attended a hockey game. I went to the game with all my friends from my dorm. This was exciting for me because I come from a family that is very much into hockey. My brother played hockey his whole life and won the state championship at TD Garden in Boston during his Junior year of high school. Watching the game made me feel nostalgic because almost every day growing up I went to all of my brother’s practices and games so being at an ice rink helped me feel at home. I played hockey for a few years but I ended up quitting to focus more on football in high school. My father also played hockey up until college. The game was great and the energy in the building was electric. UNE played Western New England. UNE was dominating the entire game. The star of the game was the goaltender, Billy Girard. Billy had a shutout and made many incredible saves on shots that should have been goals. UNE’s offense was unstoppable and scored ten goals. At one point in the game, a small fight broke out between the players behind the goal. You could tell that UNE was getting in the Western New England players’ heads and won the mental aspect of the game. UNE also won the physical aspect of the game. There were lots of huge hits from UNE players. It seemed like everything that the Western New England players tried did not work out. The head coach was furious and was screaming at his players until the game clock hit zero. The UNE head coach was in a totally different mood. He was cheering his players on, and it seemed like he had a smile on his face the entire game.
