The Five to Nine @northeastern-pamstravitz - Tumblr Blog

Meet me this month!

Hey admitted students!

Congratulations on your acceptance! I will be in California this month to share my Northeastern experience at two admitted student events. If you’re from NorCal, join me in San Jose on March 24 or San Francisco on March 25.

You’ll get to meet students like me, admissions officers, and even a professor. We’re so excited to share why we love Northeastern and think you’ll be happy here, too.

As a student from the Bay, I’ll give you my hometown perspective. I’ll tell you how different Boston is from our home and give you my best advice for moving across the country.

Head here to register or find admitted student events in your area!

You and Me GoT a Whole LoT of HisTory

Will I ever stop posting about the T? Probably not.

Most Northeastern students don’t know the history of the T, like that there used to be an A green line (replaced by the 57 bus) or that the E line (our sweet line) used to go all the way to Forest Hills (now the 39 bus). This gif that I found at https://www.vanshnookenraggen.com/_index/2012/04/an-animated-history-of-the-mbta/ is the perfect way to learn about the train systems and what the heck it’s gone through to look like it does today.

“Time may change me But I can't trace time” - David Bowie

#MBTA #trains #numtot #Boston

The History of Valentines (according to NU)

This is the content we didn’t know we needed.

https://news.northeastern.edu/2019/02/14/a-short-history-of-the-long-and-sometimes-bloody-story-of-valentines-day/?utm_source=News%40Northeastern&utm_campaign=3db9653618-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_14_01_58&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_508ab516a3-3db9653618-278003557

Courtesy of News at Northeastern

#valentine #oldiebutgoodie #getit

The Routes of All UnEvil

I often joke that the only form of public transit in my hometown was on the back of a horse. Some KY schools even host “drive your tractor to school” days, though mine was not one of them. Instead I drove my beaten down third-Stravitz-generation ‘99 Oldsmobile, which I loved. However, and I’ll put this lightly, I am not the best driver and I always prefer riding passenger. One of my favorite things about Boston is how it’s big enough to get everything you need, yet small enough to get anywhere you need to go by public transit or walking.

In the last 4 years, I’ve been loading up my Charlie card, riding on buses, trains, and commuter rails, and I’m constantly surprised by the number of people I meet who have never taken a bus in Boston before. The sheer number (100+) may be more intimidating than the four traditional rail lines, but you just need to get to know a few routes well and the confidence to ride any route will come naturally. If it helps, go with a buddy or six before any solo rides!

Today I’ve assembled that squad of the most useful bus routes for Northeastern students based on what you might get your first tattoo, where you might co-op, and where you might go for great Chinese food.

THE NUMBER 1

Route: Dudley to Harvard

Bus length: smol

Crowd: Usually busy

Highlights: Boston Symphony Orchestra (get on here!), Newbury St, Smoot bridge crossing!!, MIT, Central Square (go to HMart), Harvard Sq

THE NUMBER 8

Route: UMass Boston to Kenmore

Bus length: smol

Crowd: Usually busy

Highlights: Ruggles (get on here!), Longwood (co-op baby), South Bay Plaza (UTLA, Target, Olive Garden, the whole gang’s here), Fenway Park

THE NUMBER 39

Route: Forest Hills to Back Bay

Bus length: long boi

Crowd: Pretty empty

Highlights: Northeastern (get on here!), Flour on Dalton St, Trader Joe’s on Boylston St, Central branch of the Boston Public Library (great place to study), Centre St in Jamaica Plain (go to City Feed and the best Goodwill in Boston)

THE NUMBER 47 (the 47 and the 8 share part of their routes between Ruggles and Longwood)

Route: Broadway to Central Sq

Bus length: smol

Crowd: Pretty empty

Highlights: Ruggles (get on here!), Longwood (co-op baby), Boston University, Central Square (seriously go to HMart), South End, SOWA (markets during the summer!)

THE NUMBER 66

Route: Dudley to Harvard Sq via Allston

Bus length: smol

Crowd: Busy busy

Highlights: Mission Hill (get on here!), Stingray Tattoo (everyone and their mom goes here to get piercings ask for Bradde!), Coolidge Corner (BIG trader joe’s, awesome little shops, great Jewish deli, and a neato oldschool theater that plays Miyazaki movies like once a month)

“Heyoooo River!” - Portlandia

#Boston #publictransit #mbta #bus

northeastern-alyssalukpat

Northeastern Secrets Only Students Know

I’ve learned a lot of random facts about this school. Now you can learn these secrets before you even begin your freshman year.

Don’t worry about going to a local pharmacy for a flu shot. You can get one from University Health and Counseling Services, or UHCS, free of charge and without an appointment.

Need to print a giant (and I mean GiAnT) poster? Club Snell has printers for that.

Dialogue of Civilizations is the literal best thing ever. Participants get credit for two classes and go on the international adventure of a lifetime. Cannot recommend this enough!!

Richards Hall has a fancy golden mail chute. It actually works, so you can drop off letters #retro

Going on a global co-op? Apply for the Presidential Global Scholarship (it’s the quickest application ever) and you might receive between $1,000 and $6,000 from the university to offset your living costs abroad.

When you’re applying for co-op, we’re not just going to throw you to the wolves. NU students get access to our very own job database: NUCareers. Employers add job postings for co-ops and full time jobs. Even better, when you apply, you usually submit a resume that’s already in the database. Easy as pie.

It’s not the best kept secret, but you can get someone to take notes for you during class. The Disability Resource Center hires notetakers who will send you notes after every lecture.

Thousands of us students share jokes about our school on a secret Facebook meme page. If you commit to attending, you’ll learn what I’m talking about.

Every holiday season, campus gets decorated with festive twinkling lights.

I will keep adding *secrets* as I think of them. Some of them are buried in the deep recesses of my mind.

The 5 Northeastern Things You Need to Change in Your Phone Before Autocorrect Lays You Out

Hello hello!

As more and more of you are getting your admit decisions, it seems like the perfect time to prepare for the anticipated troubles between Northeastern and your iMessage. Certain words are gonna make your keyboard say “wtf is that.” Stay ahead of Apple this year!

1. “Ruggles” - This beloved Orange line T station often gets corrected to “ruffles.” Many a meme has been made of this select occurrence.

2. “IV” - “I’ve” been bothered by this false contraction for 4 years now.

3. “Speare” - iMessage always seems to lose the “spare” e in our res hall Speare.

4. “Snell” - As often as I’ve heard a “Smell” Library joke, my phone likes to insult the stacks all the same.

5. “Steast” and “Stwest” - Who even knows what kind of loop you’re gonna throw your phone through with these two. However, if you eat food, especially at either of these dining hall nicknamed locations, you will find some great autocorrects.

6. “MFA” - Similarly to Ruggles, many messaging programs lack the Boston knowledge of the Museum of Fine Arts initialism. Instead, you will likely get “Mea,” which in actuality, is not a real word either.

You may find many more, but trust me! Autocorrect will learn all the halls, buildings, and acronyms you’ll need. Siri on the other hand...

Well, good luck, Charlie.

In honor of the Super Bowl...

Ever wonder what it’s like to live in a city that’s constantly winning HUGE national sporting events?

Lots of storming the Common and big Dunkin discounts.

northeastern-alexishester

The Rankings You Won’t Find on US News

College rankings are used to evaluate all aspects of the college experience - from professors to classes to job offers after graduation. There’s a lot of things that typical rankings can’t cover, though. For those more day-to-day aspects of college life, I asked people what kind of non-academic things they based their college decisions on - and figured out how Northeastern ranks on these ever so important items.

1. Squirrels

Northeastern Ranking: 7/10

My cousin spent her college tours learning about class size… and counting squirrels. She wanted to go to the school with the most squirrels. How would she feel about Northeastern, then? Well, we’re in a city, so I’m sure we don’t rank quite as high as a rural school would. But we still have quite a few squirrels on campus - in fact, a squirrel was my first friend. 7/10.

2. Fountains

Northeastern Ranking: 3/10

Look, are fountains amazing? Of course they are. Unfortunately, they are rather lacking on Northeastern’s campus. While brainstorming with my roommates, we only came up with three whole fountains on campus. You can do better, Northeastern. 3/10

3. School Colors

Northeastern Ranking: 6/10

The colors you’ll be repping for the foreseeable future are definitely an important thing to consider. Are you going to look good in your school apparel? Northeastern's red and black is a nice, classic option which goes well with pretty much everything. That being said, it’s not quite as fun as the school I visited whose color was purple, so I am going to have to dock a couple points for that. 6/10

4. Muffins

Northeastern Ranking: 10/10

This whole post started because a student on my tour yesterday asked my opinions of Northeastern’s muffins. She compares schools based on their muffins. Luckily, our campus grocery store Wollaston’s has AMAZING muffins. Seriously, the chocolate chip muffins are so. good. (I really hope that student agrees). Anyways, if you come to campus, make sure you get a Wolly’s muffin. 10/10

5. Puppies during Finals Week

Northeastern Ranking: 11/10

Yes.

What kind of things do you judge college visits on? Let me know!

northeastern-alexishester

Just before class this morning, I got accepted to Pitt Med School

And then an hour ago, I got accepted to Tufts Med

To say that it’s been a BIT of an overwhelming day might be an understatement!

northeastern-pamstravitz

This here is my ROOMMATE! I’M SO PROUD. Even if it means she may be leaving Boston!

Boston Foodie Flagships

Hi-dee-ho.

I am back with yet another map. I’m a super visual person and specialize in data visualization, so expect tons more of this! Today, I’m showing a few things that make Boston special: flagship stores. While Boston isn’t known for being a foodie city, in the last 10 years, it’s been building up with some of the best sandwich shops and burger shacks. After living here for three years, here are my favorite places that I suggest visiting when you come to the city. I’ve marked their extra-special flagship stores as well as campus at the heart. You’ll know where to go as soon as you get here!

Blue: Pavement Coffee HQ. 415 Western Ave, Allston. Founded 1998. (Their original location was out of a bagel shop, but this one’s less than half a mile away from the spot!)

Purple: Tatte. 1003 Beacon St, Brookline. Founded 2007. (We also have one on campus!)

Yellow: Boston Burger Company. 37 Davis Sq, Somerville. Founded 2009. (Guy Fieri has freaking been here!!! He loves the mac&cheese burger.)

Red: Tasty Burger. 1301 Boylston St, Boston. Founded 2010. (They really are tasty. Take it from an in-n-out born and raised fan.)

Orange: JP Licks. 659 Centre St, Jamaica Plain. Founded 1981. (Fact: The JP stands for Jamaica Plain, where the flagship is located. Go take a pic with the huge cow head out front--can’t miss it!)

Green: Star Market. 53 Huntington Ave, Boston, next to the Pru. Founded 1915. (The first location was a small grocery store in Watertown.)

Turquoise: Flour. 1595 Washington St, Boston. Founded 2000. (Other fact: Best. Sandwich. In. Boston. Get the lamb sandwich, grilled. Trust me.)

What you mean you don’t eat no meat? That’s okay, I make lamb. - Aunt Voula, My Big Fat Greek Wedding

#boston #flagship #restaurants

Puddles of Northeastern

As snow and a myriad of mixed precipitation befall our city, I believe it’s time to point out the perpetual puddles of rain water on campus. They do not dry. And campus is lucky enough to be made with shallow ravines and cobblestones in true Boston fashion, creating the perfect storm (pardon the pun) for a perpetual puddle. This cute little map I made shows where they live. Much like a Mercator, puddles are not drawn to scale.

1. West Village A North, street side

2. Centennial Common, circular path to Ruggles on right.

3. 407 Huntington, intersection of Huntington Ave and Fencourt Rd

4. Latinx Center, service road towards Rebecca’s

5. Cabot, between bike racks and Hayden west entrance

6. Krentzman, south side of Huntington Ave facing Ell

7. Mugar, bottom of ramp towards Curry

8. Sculpture Garden, towards Columbus Garage

One feels like a duck splashing around in all this wet! - John Mulaney

The Bangles Didn’t Plan for This

Just another manic Monday. For some reason, on days like this, I remember some of the most absurd ways I tried to establish my intelligence over the years. This story comes to you from an 8-year-old Pamela and hopefully shows that even a manic child such as she can thrive in college.

John, a tall, lanky Bieber-haired boy was wrong once again. He was, however, my best friend. In Mrs. Maldonado’s fourth grade class at Garden Springs elementary school, we were placed into groups of four students and given the opportunity to name our teams. John and I led the Albino Alligators to victory regularly. What was victory, you ask? As we kept quiet, read aloud, and memorized state capitals, we earned points. The team with the largest amount of points at the end of the month became a part of the squad known as the lunch bunch, who sat at Mrs. Maldonado’s side in the classroom during our 25-minute lunch period, which started at 11 am. The only reason to remember this fact was that we would also get to watch TV and the only things appropriate for 9-year olds that were on at 11 am was The Little Mermaid TV show or Golden Girls. We chose the mermaid. We always got to choose the food we wanted and we always chose McDonald’s; Mr. Maldonado would stride in carrying bags of chicken nuggets and fries and each of the four of us nearly sighed in harmony. I still love French fries. It was during such a win that John swooped his hair to one side using enough force to give himself whiplash, and began talking about how old the earth actually was. Mrs. Maldonado did just give us a lesson on geology and it didn’t match John’s previous thoughts, given he was a devout, angstsy Christian tot. Then again, so was I. But Bill Nye had just told 1993 through the TV that the earth was 4.5 billion years old, and I believed him in 2006. However, John wasn’t about to be undone by a man with a theme song, and so did the math, calculating the age of the earth based on biblical characters of the Old Testament. From Jesus’ birth in 1 AD, John traced back to the first important figure before the birth of Christ, adding the figures final age, supplemented by the Bible and Google, the other bible. He did this for each important man or woman written about; he added their ages until he reached the beginning of time, which he claimed was just about 4,000 years ago. John assumed that as soon as one figure died, another would be born that same year, like the Avatar, only these figures had no elemental powers or Prince Zuko. He also assumed that there was never a gap in between important figures’ births, a, shall we say, biblical rest period. Only his final assumption was one I could partially agree with: you only had to go so far back as Adam because Adam was the first human, created on day 6 of God’s 7-day plan, to be “over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” I kid you not, thanks to creation.com. I only remember the assumptions he made because they were bull. I alerted John of his bull, and responded with my own consolation for my fears of the earth’s mortality: the earth was billions of years old, but many of those billions of years passed by during God’s first seven days creating the world as in Genesis. Time moved differently because he’s God. (This is also when the dinosaurs came and went, I told myself. Because Genesis doesn’t mention the super cool and super real dinosaurs.)

John didn’t believe me. He had math on his side and I had science; since when were these opposing forces? After arguing and going nowhere, no doubt throwing a few French fries at each other, I said it didn’t matter. He was wrong and he was allowed to be. I didn’t want my friend to be dumb, but my parents let me be dumb, so it was kind of the same thing. It was the first time I remember learning that you can’t win every arguing because you’re right. And I learned of the cruel grip of subjectivity in human belief. This early lesson made more sense as I got older, as John admitted to his theory’s faults, and as super-intelligence and being right lost their luster. Communication became the most valuable thing in my life, sharing information and ideas in a way that introduced people to new thoughts instead of selling them on “the one truth.” If you haven’t yet experienced the value of great communication, college is the most important place to do so. I hope to impact that value here, to you.

The Feeling of 20-Something

Peter Pan never had to worry about growing up or, for that matter, paying for the upkeep of ginger hair dye. For the rest of us unnatural redheads and people in general, we must grow up. Whether that is physically, emotionally, or professionally, “becoming” an adult is an enigmatic event that most people dream about in their youth, and seldom fail to then call a foolish desire upon adulthood. At least, that’s what Walt Disney’s Hollywood taught us. Pinpointing this transition from youth to “grown up” is difficult, with varying phrases to take its place such as “young adult” and “adolescent.” For some, the transition happens during puberty – I am an engineer. I will not tackle this one. Talk to your kids! Thanks!—but for others, it comes once a sense of responsibility is introduced.

We are heartbroken when a dad isn’t in the picture and the eldest son or daughter has to adapt to help support the rest of the family. And it’s painful to recognize a small child of single parent assuming responsibility because we see it as a loss of potential childhood experiences. And no, it isn’t fair. But what if those of us that have a choice take advantage of this transitional time instead of steady anticipation, followed by the realization that you’re haunted by childhood FOMO? Roald Dahl, for example, gave us characters that grew up through difficult and exciting circumstances. Willy Wonka was a middle aged man making candy, trying to fit an entire meal into a piece of gum, among other disturbing things. Matilda had to teach herself how to cook and use the Yellow pages because her parents neglected her, discovering her powers through anger, but training them with music, dancing, and schoolroom chalk. Though fictitious, these characters serve as an inspiration for those of us who are aware that the child-to-adult transition is coming or is already here.

Mine started when I had to feed myself. Not, like, when I first lifted a fork to my mouth, mind you—I wasn’t a Matilda-child. My mom made my lunch almost every day, putting in my favorite chips or pretzels, a sandwich, and some fruit. She even understood when I wanted to switch from my L.L. Bean lunchbox to brown paper bags in ninth grade because cool girls didn’t use lunch boxes. (Sorry, environment…) We ate family dinner every night when my father got home from work. We ate late, we discussed our days, even when my sister went off to college and even when Dad was on a business trip, the rest of us sat down to pray and eat. We stole an extra crouton or spaghetto from someone else’s plate when their heads were bowed in prayer. It was consistent and warm and I took that for granted.

When I came to Northeastern in the fall of 2015, I was thrilled. My double bedroom was shared with a New Zealander, Amy, who introduced me to rugby and Tim Tams. We connected over food and ate in the dining hall together some nights. Often though, because she liked to try new vegan restaurants, I sat with new people, made friends from class and from meeting on the elevator. I noticed immediately that we all ate something different because there was so much to choose from in the dining hall. I didn’t steal from someone else’s plate because I could go get my own if I wanted to. We didn’t do dishes together and put away condiments; someone else did that at the end of the night. And I didn’t taste leftovers for months. It seriously sounded like a dream. But quickly, I realized that those were the moments I had missed the most. I took no responsibility for wasted food, dirty dishes, or the cereal monotony I had created. (Rice Krispies any day.) I was taking care of being fed, but I wasn’t feeding myself well. My sophomore year, I moved into an apartment, with a traditional kitchen and a budget for groceries. I fell back into another spell of eating the same things, which made leftovers present, but much less exciting. I no longer wasted food, yet couldn’t wrap my brain around “cooking for one” nor meal planning. As a junior, I let go of my meal plan and used the savings to try new restaurants where I got to choose. With limits! I got to take home leftovers from the North End and tell my mom “it’s not as good as yours.” I was happier, not only because I got to be out in Chinatown and Brookline, but because I found how mealtimes became fun, where the food changes, but the company stays the same.

Of course, I’ve learned responsibility in other ways, but this one sticks with me more than any other because I’m still not back to that consistency and warmth I associated with dinners at home as a kid. My roommates and I have cooked one family meal in the last 12 months we’ve been living together and at that time, we’d almost set off the fire alarm with bacon smoke. I realize that I have a choice right now whether or not I’ll adopt new traditions into adulthood. I’m in the middle of it, it’s still a transition, and I could continue eating the same thing four nights a week, while my roommates do the same without any additional effort. Or I could want more--more than just seconds.

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