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Sports at BU: Intramurals

3/30/2015

One of my favorite aspects of BU is the amount of sporting activities you can find on campus; whether it be going to the gym, playing a pick-up basketball game, joining a club team, taking sporting classes, swimming, or simply jogging around, there are activities for everyone. The particular one I’d like to address in this post is the Intramural tournaments. Intramural tournaments are organized by the BU Fitness and Recreation staff for a variety of sports. Depending on the season, you can find either flag football, outdoor soccer, indoor soccer, softball, broomball, ice hockey, mini golf, or even wiffle ball. In most sports, you will find there is a men’s division, women’s division, and co-ed division, with each of them divided in A or AA league.

During my first semester in Boston, a lot of us came together to form “International Love F.C.,” a soccer team made up of twelve players of five different nationalities. The team started as all usually do, with a couple of hiccups, poor coordination, and a reliability on individual talent rather than on the strength of team. However, by the tournament’s end it was a whole other story: we started playing a single unit, no matter who was in the field and who was out, we knew what we played and what our strengths were. In that first tournament, we managed to get through the group stage unbeaten and made it all the way to the semi-finals, where we lost to the four-time champions in a 3-1 decision. Despite not reaching the final, none of us felt the season had been a failure. After all, we lost to a team that had been playing together for four years and we had only just come together two months before. The best part about joining ILFC was the camaraderie within the team; most of us quickly became good friends off the field and, even now (as most of that first team has left), we are still in touch constantly, talking not only about how everyone is doing, but also how ILFC is doing in its second season.

Having to essentially form a whole new team for this second semester was a challenge, but sports is one of the most unifying tools there are. We’ve had our hiccups for sure, but for the second straight season ILFC just finished the group stage unbeaten, and we are now ready to start the playoffs on Monday. I know that whatever we accomplish in this tournament will be thanks to the effort and dedication not only of those playing this tournament, but also those that came before them last semester and set the basis for International Love F.C.

Playing intramurals at BU has been one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences in Boston, and I’d strongly recommend to any sport aficionado coming next semester to create your own team in whatever sport you like. Trust me, it’s so worth it!

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The BU Classroom Experience

3/20/2015

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One of the most important aspects when choosing where to go abroad besides the nearby places to visit or the culture of the city is the culture in the classroom, and this is one of Boston University’s strongest points. At BU, I’ve taken classes in a vast array of subjects, from law with Principles of Criminal Justice and Criminal Law to business and economics with Business in a Changing Society, International Economics or Project Management to Philosophy with Reasoning and Argumentation to multidisciplinary subjects like Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, Leadership through Service or Introduction to American Management, Culture and Institutions. What I’ve found is that while every teacher and subject is unique in its own way the Boston University culture itself is a careful balance between theory and practice, where the teacher’s lecture will often be enriched by a thorough class discussion.

One of my favorite subjects from last semester was Leadership Through Service with Professor Chuck Agan and I would recommend to any future terriers to consider taking this course. The class itself is designed around a semester long project of community service, you are split up into groups depending on your personal interests (Do you want to help the environment, work with kids, cater for the homeless, etc.). Working in those groups you’ll have to find, choose an organization to work with and agree with them on your working hours. For my team that organization was Eastend House near Lechmere station in Cambridge, we worked with them for over 25 hours over three weeks near the end of the semester and it was an invaluable experience, one that added so much to my year abroad.

Another one of the classes I’d recommend to those majoring in social sciences is Principles of Criminal Justice with Professor Cadigan, this class will help the student understand the basis of the current justice system in the U.S. and will provide guidelines for fruitful debates about hot topic issues, like racial bias, mandatory minimums and sentencing guidelines; this class was particularly important since it allowed me to understand the history of the civil rights movement and the current issues still in existence in the U.S.

All in all the experience you’ll have attending any of the BU classes is one of enrichment, where in a collaborative effort students and professors discuss the topics and practice the theoretical concepts in real life cases.

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Going to the BU vs. BC ice hockey game

3/11/2015

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Being an avid college football fan, I thought I had some understanding of what a college rivalry meant, but it wasn’t until some of us attended the Boston University vs. Boston College ice hockey game on November 7th, 2014 that I truly understood what it meant. You see, one of the first things you learn and feel at BU is the rivalry and competing spirit that overtakes every Terrier (BU’s mascot) when BC is mentioned, and this goes back well over a century: you see, both BU and BC lie along the Green-B line on the T (for you future Bostonians who aren’t yet familiar with the local slang, the T is what we call the subway), and both universities fight to hold bragging rights over the other in every aspect of college life, and in none do they do it more so than ice hockey. Therefore, wanting to experience this first-hand, four students from MET International embarked on an adventure down to the dodgy end of Comm Ave to watch our Mighty Terriers eat chicken - I mean face the Eagles....

It was a warm Saturday afternoon (remember those Boston?) when we decided to jump on the T and head down towards BC. The car we jumped on was filled with white and red jerseys of fellow Terriers on their way to cheer our boys on: you see, this game was particularly important because for the last couple of years BU decided to take it easy on the Eagles and had lost a couple of games against them, losing the last three games these sides had played, but this was the year when BU was to make it right again. So there we were, finally getting off at the last stop, right across from the BC campus. We made our way inside, not knowing what to expect: would it be a horde of belligerent fans, jeering at us on our way to the arena (did BC even have an arena?); would there be Eagles mascots all over the place to try and intimidate the visiting fans? Soon enough it became quite obvious that BC fans are actually pretty decent losers and don’t take it out on the winning fans when their team gets utterly owned by a superior side, but I jump ahead. After walking around the campus (which, by the way, should have better signs to guide visitors around), we found our way into the arena. Fortunately our seats were almost exactly next to the BU student section, providing us with an excellent vantage point to take in the whole rivalry experience.

The game (which I won’t describe for two reasons: first of all, at the time of watching this game my knowledge of hockey was close to 0, and number two, despite attending a number of hockey games since then, my knowledge of hockey has only slightly improved), was filled with excitement and chants from both student sections. Besides the family safe songs of “safe school, backup school,” or the traditional and exciting, “GO-B-U! Let’s GO BU!” the most entertaining cheers were some of the ones I can’t write on this blog, due their colorful language. The experience during the game was unlike anything I had ever experienced: you could feel the student spirit in the atmosphere. The BC band and student section (unsuccessfully) cheering their boys on and trying to silence us were faced with dismay when they realized they couldn’t; the shouts of excitement at every BU goal coming from the fans in scarlet were an ice bucket on an arena that had failed to intimidate our Terriers or their fans. The way the arena bounced as the BU students jumped with every goal our team scored, or the deafening sound of pure joy when we won the game are memories that will stick with me forever. But the most amazing thing was realizing the connection shared between the student section and the team, which is just a reflection of the way BU students are connected to their university here.

It took me a while to realize that’s what the rivalry is about: it’s not about hating the other side, it’s about being a part of yours, loving it, and cheering it on despite and against all odds. BU won the game 5-3, but the thing I’ll take away with me is the way the student section made me feel: proud to be there, proud to be a Terrier, and very proud of choosing BU for my semester abroad.

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Why Boston is a wicked place!

3/4/2015

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When I decided on Boston University as the place I’d attend for my year abroad, people kept telling me the same four words: “you will love it.” I’ll be honest, at first I very much doubted them, but after the 50th person said the same thing, I started to believe there might be something special about this place. It didn’t take me long after arriving from Mexico City to realize they were right. Boston is a unique city, one with over 80 universities and over 250,000 college students, 8% of which come from abroad. The numbers themselves, though, don’t tell the whole story.

The first thing you notice upon arriving here is how nice people are: welcoming, polite, helpful, and very warm. The second thing you’ll find out about Bostonians (by the way, everyone here, no matter where they’re from, eventually becomes a Bostonian), is how proud they are of their city, their local teams, and even more so of their universities and, yes, their students. As soon as you’re enrolled here, whether it be for a 4-year major, as a 2-year post-graduate student, or an international student here for only 6 months, you become part of Boston, its culture, history, and local customs.

After the initial impression of Boston, it was time to meet my new home, Boston University, and boy was I shocked by what I found. First of all, BU doesn’t have a campus per se; its campus is Boston, or more specifically, Commonwealth Avenue. And no matter what Boston College says, Comm Ave (like everyone here calls it) belongs to the Terriers (more on that later). The first thing that you realize about Boston University is the diversity, particularly visible in the MET International program. In under a day I had met people from three continents and had already agreed to form a soccer team with most of them. Little did I know that we’d grow into a fantastic group, one that would care for each other, go together on our own particular adventures around Boston, and even have our own International Edition of Secret Santa. But more importantly than that, we became a group that one way or another will probably stay connected, despite the years and miles between us.

This is the end of my first post - sorry to you dear reader on the lack of details, but it was just meant to be an introduction to my first impressions of Boston (which occurred in August 2014). Most of the following posts, however, will cover my experiences in this, my second semester in Boston. I hope you enjoyed reading this - see you next time! (When I’ll explain why BU rocks and BC... not so much!)

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Sports at BU: Intramurals

The BU Classroom Experience

Going to the BU vs. BC ice hockey game

Why Boston is a wicked place!

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