INSIDE Now That You’Re Cheers & Jeers – Freshmen Live Here – Leave! a News 02 It Large During Welcome Week Useful Guide for DOUGLAS MILLER Tional and Social Events
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THE RETRIEVER UMBC’s Student Newspaper Volume 40, Issue 1 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 August 30, 2005 INSIDE Now That You’re Cheers & jeers – Freshmen live Here – Leave! A News 02 it large during Welcome Week Useful Guide for DOUGLAS MILLER tional and social events. These Joseph High School graduate said, the Carless Retriever Weekly Editorial Staff include the “Extreme Socializing “Everything has been pretty fun; Playfair,” a presentation entitled “R- everyone has been really nice.” Pekich AMY SEGRETI Warm bodies returned to the E-S-P-E-C-T: Find Out what it also expressed optimism about his Retriever Weekly Editorial Staff UMBC campus as the freshmen class Means at UMBC,” and Tuesday’s new home: “There’s a very good rep- of 2005 filed into long-vacant dormi- Convocation ceremony. utation about this school,” the future It’s the first week of school tories last week in preparation for a While UMBC’s “Woolies” seem computer science major said. “It and most new students are fresh Learn the State of life potentially full of new opportuni- genuinely enthusiastic and the seems like a good honors university.” out of their parents’ minivans, still ty and responsibility. Welcoming Week festivities appear to “Everybody told me it was a nice wondering where they can get toi- the University August 27-September 5 marks offer variety, some freshmen are school, and I’m happy with what I see let paper (the front desk). In a few “Welcome Week,” UMBC’s annual enjoying the attention more than so far,” said freshman financial eco- weeks the local Giant will be dis- new student orientation period, others. nomics major Sam Eyassu. covered, and then a week later developed by the Welcome Week “Awesome reception, awesome However, a few interviewed upper-class friends with cars Planning Committee, which aims to food, good support, and a lot of fun freshmen seem a little more jaded. might venture to turn right Opinion make adjustment for freshmen as activities,” reported future computer “[I] haven’t been to too many instead of left, whereupon the 06 simple as possible. science major Lauren Anthony. “I’ve activites,” one freshman reported, intrepid new student will find the Guided by Welcome Week met a lot of people – I don’t remem- who was hanging out in The local Blockbuster, and all might be Leaders, or “Woolies,” the student ber all the names – but I remember Commons while most of her peers well from there on out. But what body’s newest members are encour- the faces.” about students who want to aged to attend a variety of informa- Joe Pekich, a Mount Saint see FRESHMEN, page 4 explore outside of UMBC and the surrounding Arbutus area? As it turns out, they can get anywhere in the world from UMBC, with- out a car. Thoughts on the Almost anywhere in the Gaza pullout and the world. Without a car. war in Iraq Which really means that you can get to BWI from here without a car, and so therefore, yes, any- where in the world that the planes at BWI can take you to. But there Features 14 are other methods of transporta- tion besides airplanes, and various shuttles, buses, trains and metro rails, some free and some cheap, can get you to the closest areas of non-campus fun, particularly Baltimore and D.C. But before thinking about what to do in the two major cities that UMBC students are so lucky Summer vacations, to be close to, the new student expert career advice, might want to look at UMBC’s and a new foreign cor- own transit system. From their respondent fully updated and redesigned web- site you can check out any of their File Photo [Retriever Staff] nine lines, all designated by color. Freshmen Having Fun: Enduring Welcome Week dining lines. Sports 23 see TRANSPORTATION, page 2 Spinning The Globe: Sweden ROSSI IROBALIEVA way.” enough to study in English and students here this semester. Most of Retriever Weekly Staff Writer I am currently living in the city there was no way I was going to sur- them are from all around Europe. of Västerås, located about 100 km vive in a German classroom. I want- There are big Spanish, German, Hello UMBC! Greetings from west of Stockholm (the Swedish ed to go somewhere different, some- French and Austrian groups, as well Sweden. Yup, you read that right - capital) and I am attending where I could still take my science as Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, UK, New Lax coach and SWEDEN. I know, it probably Mälerdalen University. I am resid- courses in English, while immersing Finland, Holland and Switzerland low volleyball scores sounds completely random. After ing in a student dormitory in a spa- myself in an entirely new culture. (perhaps a few more that I am for- all, why would anyone want to go to cious 19 sq. m. room (with my own I had a choice of Sweden, getting). And then, there is me - Sweden? It’s supposed to be cold bathroom!) and sharing a kitchen Denmark, Finland or Norway. I from USA. As one out of three and dark there, isn‘t it? Well, not with 12 other international stu- chose Sweden and Mälerdalen exchange students from the US, I quite (at least not just yet) and dents. University because there are courses have a lot of responsibility on my besides there are positive things So, why did I choose to come here that I want to take and also shoulders - I am an ambassador for about it too. I will be here for a here? Well, even though I have because UMBC and Mälerdalen all 50 states and the District of semester and through this column I spent a few years studying German just started a collateral program this Columbia. And believe me, it is ALSO: hope to give you all a glimpse of the back home, as a science major I fall (yes, I am the guinea pig). tougher than it might seem. Swedish culture and the “Swedish knew that my courses were tough There are about 170 exchange classifieds 26 see FEATURES, SWEDEN page 20 Four Day trw.umbc.edu 410.455.1260 Forecast tues: 79/73o wed: 85/70o thu: 83/64o fri: 85/61o 2 News August 30, 2005 THE RETRIEVER Baltimore round-a-bout from TRANSPORTATION, page 1 and Lombard or Greene and Pratt, and bam. You’re in the city. The shuttles, as they are called, although There are two Maryland Transit buses some of them are full-on buses at peak that also run to UMBC, although you will hours, are free if you have a UMBC ID. The pay a bit to ride them. They are the 31 and site shows the Fall schedule from Aug. 27 – 77; 31 goes to Giant and then on down- Dec. 1, the locations of each stop and PDF town to Charles and Fayette and Penn maps (some more helpful than others). Station, 77’s use is limited, except if you’d Using these lines, you can get to vari- like to visit some friends at CCBC or at the ous areas of Arbutus, Rt. 40, Catonsville, other designated intersections. the Inner Harbor, the University of There are a couple options for getting Maryland at Baltimore, and Arundel Mills to Washington, D.C. First you want to take Mall and Muvico. Most importantly, the the UMBC shuttle to BWI. From there, you Express Line goes to BWI, but it has very can either take the Marc train (at $6, the limited times on the weekends (only three most expensive ride you’ll pay for in your departures from campus); however, it venture) to Union Station, or else you can departs seven times between 8 a.m. and take the BWI Express Metro bus to the 9:15 p.m. on the weekdays. Note that the Greenbelt metro station. On the D.C. Arundel Mills Line and the Harbor Line Metro System, if you can get to one station, only run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, any one, you’re set. From there you can ride but if you want to go to the city during the the Metro to an abundance of places in dad’s minivan in May (which you will) after sink, at least you’ll be able to tell them all of week after classes, there is a way to get D.C., on very little cost. cleaning out those his-and-her sample boxes the academic research you did in the around this: take the Gold Line to Greene Now when you go back into mom and (still neatly packaged) from under your archives of D.C. Renowned 30-year UMBC Public Policy How to get places: www.umbc.edu/transit - here’s where you can find all the schedules that will take professor Dr. Lou Cantori retires you from umbc to surrounding areas includ- ing Baltimore city and BWI JOE HOWLEY for a club sports team amongst the faculty. “He vision of affairs in the Middle East,” Hrabowski www.mtamaryland.com – bus sched- Retriever Weekly Editorial Staff tries to promote our team,” Wisniewski said, “as said. ules (check out 31 and 77 for from-campus well as impress upon everyone that crew is “It has everything to do with his belief in access) and all other Maryland transporta- important.” excellence and the life of the mind.,” tion can be found here, including the light Young and old, friends and colleagues of Cantori also served in the U.S.