 Hello everyone, we are so excited to have you all here tonight as we talk about living in Burlington, living in Vermont and highlight some other really cool opportunities UVM has right right around it and beyond. I'm Tegan, I use she her pronouns and I'm the program support generalist in the orientation office. Throughout this virtual orientation lead or rally we have a live chat live Q&A open. Our orientation professional staff and our OLS will be doing our best to answer your questions. So please, please, please use it. Some questions we might not be able to answer right now, but I encourage you to check our Instagram story tomorrow shameless shameless plug for UVM or for UVM orientation at UVM orientation on Instagram please follow us because we'll be posting your questions and answering them there. I'm getting a little tired of hearing my own voice and you came to hear from our stellar OLS not me. So without further ado, I'd like to pass it over to our orientation leaders. OLS please introduce yourself and maybe share your personal favorite thing about living in Burlington. I'll pass it over to Ellie to start. Hi guys, I'm Ellie. I use they them pronouns. I'm an environmental sciences major and I think my favorite thing is just like the accessibility just like how much is around Burlington and like how much things you can do in such a short distance from campus. I'll pass it to Jake. Hey there everybody. I'm Jake pronouns he him. I'm a health sciences major at UVM. And I think my favorite thing about coming to UVM was the people I've met. I think I've met like the most amazing people in my life so far so yeah. I'll pass it over to Ian. You say me. Alright, my name is Ian. I'm he him. I'm a microbiology major and I've just honestly really enjoyed my time at UVM so far. I liked orientation so I wanted to be part of it. I'll pass it to Sparhawk. Yeah, hi. Yeah, I'm Sparhawk. I'm a he him kind of dude and I am a humble biology major. I'm just finished my first year. I also have predictably very much enjoyed University of Vermont. And I think one of my favorites. I think one of my favorite things there's many is the beautiful weather around UVM in Burlington in general and the beautiful people. There we go. Hi, and then I hand it over to you. Hi, I'm Maggie. I use she her pronouns. I am a psychology and sociology double major at UVM just finished my freshman year and my favorite thing about Burlington and living there is also probably the accessibility. I come from a really small hometown and so it's been really nice following up at UVM to just be able to go out and do things and go places. Also on this call is my colleague Sarah who will be working the chat a lot this evening to make sure we get your questions published and answered to the best of our ability. And later in the session will also be having someone else join us from the Office of International Education who's going to touch a little bit on study abroad that's the beyond one of the beyond parts so super exciting. With that, we'll actually start it off right from right what's right in our backyard here in Burlington. So Jake, do you want to take it away and kick everything off here? All right. Yeah, absolutely. Hey everyone, I'm back. I'm going to start by talking about the waterfront because it's one of the most amazing things that UVM is nearby. I guess it doesn't have to offer but it's nearby. I think the first thing that comes to mind would have to be the skatepark because I skateboard. And if you're interested in that it's literally just a bus ride away and it's an incredible skatepark worth like definitely millions of dollars. It's a little crowded at some times but it's open to anywhere from beginners to highly talented individuals. I've been there a few times I've seen all types of different people there. Right next to that and through that I guess is the bike trail which goes into the islands that are that are in Lake Champlain. Haven't personally been on that because I don't have a bike unfortunately but I'll be looking into that for sure and I've heard a lot of things about it. A lot of amazing things. A little bit further down on the waterfront would be North Beach and Rock Point which is just a hike up the beach if you go all the way down. I know that for a fact that there's a bunch of events that students throw down on the beach or if you just want to go there and have a campfire that's okay too. I know for a fact that fires they police come out and set them down at sundown so just so you know that's there. So when you're done on the beach you go up to Rock Point it's just like a maybe a 15 minute hike. It's really beautiful so it's worth it anyway. But at the top of that there there's a little bit of a leap of faith or so if you'd like to call it that it's a 40 foot cliff drop. If you're into that or clamber down the rocks and there's a little bit little area there to swim in. There's also a 15 foot cliff like right next to that for like if you're not so sure about the 40 foot there's that there. I remember that was one of the most amazing experiences of my first two weeks at Vermont and it changed a lot. I would say. So that's what I have to say about the waterfront. If any of my other orientation leaders have something to say about that and that would be the time. But from there I'd like to go to the music and entertainment around Burlington. Luckily for us we have a lot of people at our school that just do their own music and you know there's going to be the atrium right on campus. It was behind my dorm this past semester. A lot of people go and play there just to jam out and other than that a lot of my a lot of individuals that I know had some concerts like in their basements I guess. And you can go there and there's that that's one thing but there's also more formally street entertainers in the city of Burlington on Church Street especially you can find a lot there. Not even just music but like street magic I've seen as well as like acrobatics and more more than that but that's just like to start. And then the other thing that I know is higher ground it's like a place for I guess aspiring or. Successful musicians and talented artists to come down and present their music I went there once this past semester and it was a great time and it's super spacious in there and it's pretty cheap too. And it's just about a mile from campus so yeah that's about all I have to say I'm going to pass it over to my colleague Maggie. Hi guys it's me again so I'm going to talk to you a little bit about Church Street which I feel like apart from the waterfront is probably one of the main things you're going to hear about in Burlington and at UVM. It's basically a carless street is really the only way I can describe it it's just cobblestone streets gorgeous. About a 20 minute walk or like a 10 minute bus ride from campus you can walk in the nice weather which is really fun or you can take the bus when it's freezing cold in the winter. So it's really accessible easy to get to and has basically a little something for everyone I'd say there's tons of restaurants. There's really good food down there you've got a couple movie theaters. You have all the coffee shops you could wish for muddy waters is my personal favorite you should definitely check it out. And then it's also got all kinds of like shopping places stores you've got your typical like more. I don't really know what to call them more popular stores you've got like there's an urban outfitters there's a couple other things and then there's like some really cool vintage stores. I love thrifting personally so I like to spend maybe a little too much time and a little too much money in those. But it's a really great place a lot of people will just go further with their friends for a day on the weekend meet up for dinner or just walk around and have fun because you can just walk up and down and honestly I always feel like I'm finding a new place that I've never actually seen before. So it's a really fun place to spend your time if you want to get off campus a little bit and yeah that's probably the main features of Church Street. So I'm going to pass it on and let the next person. So we actually have the opportunity to ask our orientation leaders wider than just the ones that are here on this call what some of their favorite things about living in Burlington are and they came out back with all of these really good options. Some of the things that both Maggie and Jake have highlighted but things like the waterfront great music scene Lake Champlain. It's super walkable all these really cool things from you know how it looks and how beautiful it is to enjoying all the different kinds of types of weather we come here come through in Burlington. So this is just kind of a snapshot of all of these things in a word cloud so you could hear for more than the ones that are represented here. And then some of the top tips RLLs came from the same survey that they wanted to highlight was you know so getting the transport app something really simple that's really important and learning and don't be not being afraid to use those buses early investing in cold weather gear which I know some of our wells are going to highlight soon being prepared to walk up hills it's very hilly around here. So just looking for chances to volunteer in the city just generally exploring Burlington as much as possible bringing a bike or other small wheel transportation. Get yourself a hammock I think most of the orientation leaders on this call would say that's a that's we're big hammock community here. It's fun free activities like hikes in the beach because just like any city Burlington can get expensive. And then you can get outside in the fall when it's still warm go swimming and go swimming because the rest of the year the water is going to be too cold. I mean we're in Vermont or a little bit further north and the lake temperature drops quickly utilize the waterfront and go down there for sunsets know the big street names because it helps so much. When it's time to move off campus a really big insider tip is start looking for off campus apartments ASAP really important things that all of our orientation leaders wanted to make sure that you knew. So I have this poll up here if you would like to participate feel free to go to www.menti.com and use the code 91500265 it'll bring you right to this slide. And if you'd like you can put in what is one of your favorite things that you're the thing that you're excited about living for in living in Burlington. Anything you want whether it be something that we mentioned here something that you know that maybe wasn't mentioned that you'd like to share. Feel free to participate. I'll leave this up here for a few moments to see you know who's coming through if we don't use it no worries no big deal. We can always you can always go back to it later and yeah I'll just see what comes up. Oh well do you have anything that you want to kind of touch on maybe tips or tricks in the meantime while everyone's pushing putting some questions and some things they're excited about in. Yeah definitely wanted to speak on this is Jake by the way if you can't see. I wanted to speak on the hill and the buses because sometimes you know the buses aren't going to be there for you. I mean that might change this year because I think there was a little bit of a shortage. In that right but the hill you get used to it it's really not that bad. I've had to walk up it dozens of times just because the buses weren't feeling me that day it's just it just happens to the best of us. But it's not that bad to get used to it and honestly sometimes it's better than taking the bus because you get to have some great conversations. So my two cents on that. I'm loving these answers coming in. Look at that. Oh well is anything you want to touch on that's coming across on the screen. I was just seeing this is Ellie like some of the shopping sorry some of the shopping down on church Street. I think it's a really nice place if you just like have some free time and like want to walk down like see some of the shops. I think it has a lot of really cool interesting shops and every so often church Street will have like a little like kind of farmers market is type thing. And I think keeping an eye out for that because those are always really fun and you can find a lot of like really cool things. So I think doing things like that are cool. Also I noticed the Ben and Jerry's in there. Very good. This is you're a New England ice cream territory. We have we have the best ice cream. Oh yes even though it's called it's still it's better. Oh yeah. That's a good choice. You will get plenty of opportunities to sample that. There's some at the dining hall. Most of the time. Good ice cream. Very cool. We're going to keep on going through because we are trying got a lot to cover in a short period of time. But thank you everybody for participating in this. And you can keep on sending them and we'll actually post the final results on our Instagram in a couple of days so we can all see what everyone's excited about. So now we're into the beyond part nice and big and bold bear. We're going to turn it over to Ellie who's going to talk a little bit about what it's like to live in Vermont in the spring summer and fall. Hey guys so personally for me I love Vermont in the spring summer and fall I think the weather is beautiful. And there's a lot of really amazing things you can do right around Burlington. For me I really enjoy going out hiking and biking and the way I do this is I joined the outing club and it allows you to have access to a lot of groups that will take like trips to go hiking biking and you'll meet a lot of like minded people. I also really enjoyed how a lot of things are in walking distance to our school to get to the waterfront to get to like shopping like everything is very close which is if you're if you're willing to walk I I've done some I've done some hikes but they're not too bad. I also really enjoy just like the outdoorsy feel of our school how everyone's out hammocking some more specific things that our school is I think trying to find like events that our school holds. I know my freshman year the very beginning they had a paintball game that like I just signed up and joined I never done people once in my life but I took a bus bus with a bunch of random people and ended up making some really good friends. Left with some welts but I think just keeping an eye out to our UVM board I would recommend following them on Instagram because they post all kinds of opportunities that students can have. I also recommend trying to stop by some of the sports events even if you're not crazy into it our hockey team is pretty interesting I think it's a pretty fun thing to watch. And spring we also hold a spring fest here at UVM which I think is just like a cool opportunity to see some cool musicians this year we had Saint John. I didn't get a chance to go but I know a bunch of my friends had a good time. A couple things I would recommend for me at least I have a bike on campus I think it's really helpful especially if you're living on Redstone or somewhere farther just to be able to like get across campus quickly and to get to things quicker. I recommend a hammock we have some really beautiful hammocking spots in and around Burlington and like I always have like layers but like light layers because well it's really warm during the day Burlington will get very cold at night. Those are mostly my recommendations for around campus. And now we'll pass it over to Sparhawk and Ian we're going to talk about what it's like to be here in the winter. Oh yes the moment you have been waiting for. Yeah I'm sure those of you already from Vermont or Alaska or Canada are not going to be impressed however the rest of you yes it does get very cold. However that's a good thing that's I saw some of you were actually looking forward to that. Great that's also one of the reasons I chose to go to UVM. And let me tell you actually it's great the weather is really pretty like it's very like winter weather which is nice. It's also snow too it's not just dry and cold but anyway enough about the weather how do you survive the weather. Not actually that hard very very doable for one the whole campus is very like winter proof and so like snow removals on like on point it's everything still very accessible even in the middle of winter except maybe like directly after a massive snow storm and even then it's pretty still totally walkable about that. And then also the buildings are all super warm and well insulated like I had my room and I had our windows open in our dorm for like most of the year except like January and February. So that's all very nice as for my main tip for you would be get the proper gear for even just walking around campus. You really want warm like I only had a bunch of t shirts but I'd wear to I wear like a get like a good winter jacket or for me it was like a normal jacket and then like a really nice windbreaker and raincoat. And then you definitely want hat gloves coated face mask sort of double that's like just a warm face mask so that was like a nice little silver lining of that. And you want like good boots that can like survive like a snowy sort of slushy arena and like warm pants and everything so you know cold cold weather gear though you don't necessarily need like snow pants and everything do get good gloves. Especially if you're going to bike if you plan on biking get nice gloves that like break the wind otherwise it will be not as fun. As for other than that the yeah so living like in Vermont in the winter is actually really nice super pretty and everything's still totally accessible. As for there's also a lot of activities all of the activities you could do in warm weather 90% of them you can still do in cold weather they're just either inside or they were already inside. So again super fun to great wake up to I found I had a lot of 8am classes my first semester and you know what I was very awake for those. There is there's a tunnel that goes below like the main street I don't that goes directly into the Davis Center use that if you're on athletic campus or coming from Redstone also use the buses if you're farther away. Pro tip like that's that's a life saver right there. Let's see anything else we got gear we got the preparation for weather and all that other than that you can also enjoy it a lot it's I loved it actually it was perfect weather for me and there is snowball fights. There's not too many snowball fights but when you want them. They're there build snowman stuff there's lots of funny looking snowmen all over the place after especially after it snows. I think now I should probably hand it off to my partner to talk a little bit about some of the activities activities you can do like the winter activities that I'm sure you're looking forward to like skiing and stuff. So have at it. Yeah I know. So there's plenty of opportunities to like get out of like the campus area to actually do stuff in the winter. The skiing snowboard club at UVM is pretty good. You got to make sure you're on the sign up sheet though. Like there's an online form that you put your name on to get on the buses. And like you need to fill your name in within the first few minutes of it being there. But there's other ways to get out there like the Nordic club in the snowboard club. They have their own like smaller ways of getting out they'll have group means and Facebook pages stuff like that. They'll talk to the upperclassmen they'll go out on the weekends and sometimes they'll give you rides if they're nice. And if you're trying to get into winter sports. They can be really expensive. But there's this place downtown called outdoor gear exchange. They have winter gear and it's a gear exchange so there's plenty of cheaper stuff but there's also newer stuff if you're really trying to invest into getting some better gear. But that being said. You will still have to go to school no matter how cold and snowy it is. There are no snow days, which is really annoying as a person who has lived in the northeast my entire life. Snow days are like part of my culture. Snow days no longer exist at UVM. I don't know why but get ready to be cold. Put on a jacket. It's fun. You feel adventurous. I just wanted to tap in real quick here and share a little something about those snow falls that will happen. If you're a skier or snowboarder there will be a bunch of spots where people are setting up rails and boxes and etc. For you to just go hike to and like it's free. You can walk right there and then back to your dorm when you're too cold. So that's what I did for the most part because I was kind of too busy to go to the mountains. They're like 32 an hour away and I just wanted to get out real quick and do some practicing. But that's just another option with the snow. Another thing that's really great about the location here in Burlington is that we have a lot of northeast cities that are in reach from our campus. So first I want to highlight Montreal because it's actually the closest city. It's about an hour and 45 minutes away. The best way to get there is to drive. So make friends with some upperclassmen. It's a good way to get out and maybe go to some different places. Whether you need a visa does depend on your country of citizenship. But if you have one, please bring your passport because we're so close to Canada. Another one is Boston. So Boston is about four hours away. The best way to get there is either by bus or to drive. The bus companies that are the most common that do the connection to Boston are Megabus or Greyhound. Another great place that you can get out and visit for a weekend. If you'd like, highly recommend it's a really cool city. For those of you who are local to that area, you know a lot about Boston. For those of you that are coming from far, it's a great city to explore. Another one is New York. So we are lucky that we are, you know, close enough to New York City. It's definitely more of a weekend excursion than a day excursion for sure. The travel time depends on the type of travel you're deciding to use. You can get there whether by driving by the train or flying even there. Burlington Airport does do flights directly to the New York airports and so does Amtrak. So if you're looking to get away and explore a little bit more of these cities, there are options for you to be able to do that. UVM also has some really cool opportunities that are in the United States that go a little bit deeper than like a weekend trip or exploring a city. So just to highlight a few, there are so many, but I just chose to pick a few here right now. With the colleges and schools, you can go to Washington DC. You can do semester in the city in Boston. You can do arts and action in New York City all with CAS. With Resner, you can do Texas and Florida. They do programs and CES does a program in Hawaii, which is really cool. And like I said, there are more opportunities than just these ones, but I thought I would just highlight a few opportunities like maybe you're not necessarily ready to do like a semester away for like studying abroad and going overseas. But there are opportunities here in the United States for you to get out and exploring. Another option for that is alternative breaks. So alternative breaks, UVM actually has an alternative breaks club and org that facilitates breaks that are predominantly done around service opportunities. So it's a great way to, you know, go to a different community in the United States, learn a little bit about that community and then give back to that community in some sort of way. If you're interested in any of those things, please keep an eye out on the different ways that you can travel across the United States with UVM. Another big part about going beyond, beyond, beyond Burlington and UVM is the option to study abroad. So study abroad has a lot of diverse opportunities. I am not the person that's the professional to talk about this. And I know Carolyn will do a much better job. So Carolyn, can I hand it off to you here? Absolutely. Thank you so much. Hello, everyone. My name is Carolyn Boudreau and I'm one of the study abroad advisors at the University of Vermont. I am also a UVM alum. And so it's been really great to hear all of the suggestions I echo a lot of what orientation leaders have shared. And so my role as study abroad advisor is really to guide students through the process from, I think this might be something I want to do to all of the preparations you need in advance. I'm getting on a flight supporting you while you're in country. And when you come back, really unpacking that experience and talking about it in a way that is marketable in careers and on your resume, how to talk about it in interviews, et cetera. But UVM, we have over 700 approved programs for students. It's a lot to fit through. We use a system called go abroad. And what's really cool about this system is you can search in a variety of different ways. You can do a math search and search based on where in the world you want to go. You can also search using an advanced search. And this allows you to put in different parameters. Like, you know, I am a chemical engineering major or whatever it may be that you're putting in your major, your minor or academic disciplines you're looking to take while you're abroad. And that can really shift through all of those and filter those 700 plus programs based on where you want to go what you want to study what your current GPA is. And so that's a really great way to kind of narrow down the options. Sometimes you meet the students who know exactly where they want to go. Other times they're feeling, you know, okay, maybe I want to go if I can fit it into my degree plan. At UVM, you can study abroad for a couple weeks or a full academic year. I have seen students do fall semester in one location followed by spring semester in a different location, or you could do a full academic year in one location. My biggest advice to students and I'm so excited to be connecting with you all to tell you this before you even arrive to campus is plan early. If this is something that you're interested in doing, when you get to campus, first and foremost, get settled, get the lay of the land on campus in Burlington, but also be chatting with your academic advisor early and often about any of the opportunities that you're interested in. That extends to not just study abroad, but any research opportunities or the internships you might want to do, etc. And so trying to fit those into your four year plan and figuring out when is the best time for you to go because that will depend on what you study and what your degree plan looks like. Some students may have more flexibility or sophomore year, other students find junior year is easier for them to go. I saw a question pop up about affordability to study abroad. So we do have a lot of programs where you can bring your financial aid with you abroad. And there are some programs where all of the programs you can bring state and federal aid with you and institutional aid can travel on a good number of our programs as well. So things that are not going to be included within kind of that price tag of the original program is going to be things like planning for your flight and do you need a visa and what is your experience in country going to look like? Is your plan to jet-fed and hit a bunch of different locations because obviously that ends up quickly, right? But we also advise students with a lens of finances early and often to let you know the different financial scenarios of the different types of programs so that is part of your program selection process. I mentioned that advanced search. You can also search by yes, I want my UVMA to travel with me and that will filter and show you just those programs as well. So we do try to be really transparent with students about regions or programs that may or may not be, you know, some of them can be really economical. Others can be astronomical. It's really kind of depending on what type of experience are you looking for. What's included in the program is going to be really important as well. When you get to campus we host weekly information sessions called Study Abroad 101 and these are an awesome opportunity to connect with our office and learn all of the ins and outs. I know this is, you know, a lot today to digest. But I will encourage you to attend one of those Study Abroad 101 sessions where we can get into a lot of detail and hear from you about what you're interested in doing where you might want to go and share with you what some of our UVM students are doing as well. Thank you so much, Carolyn, for joining us and giving us a little insight to Study Abroad. I had, for those of you who might have attended one of our Admitted Students Day, I had the opportunity to sit right next to Carolyn like every single Admitted Students Day. And my favorite question they would add, when someone would come up, they would be like, where in the world can we get you? So they're a great resource. If you're interested in studying abroad and I would highly recommend stopping in and having a conversation with them because they are ready to help you and get you where you want to go. With that, before we have a lot of extra time here, so I'm actually going to turn it over to questions. We have a bunch of questions that are coming into the chat. So, Sarah, I don't know if you're seeing any questions that are coming in that you want to propose to our orientation leaders or OLs. If you have seen something come through quite a bit that you want to answer, please feel free to use this time to do so. Actually, we have another question for Study Abroad. Do students studying abroad usually travel in groups or alone? Awesome question. It's going to be a mix of both. So UVM has introduced in recent years some exciting new programs called UVM in programs. So we currently have two online, a third coming online soon, and that would be UVM in Auckland, New Zealand, UVM in Galway, Ireland, and coming soon, UVM in Cape Town, South Africa. And these are cohort programs, meaning that we enroll a group of UVM students to travel to this location altogether. We also offer a UVM field studies program in Costa Rica and Panama. And that is run through the Rubinstein School that students from any college are welcome to participate in. So those are going to be kind of UVM specific cohort group programs. We also offer exchange programs, which are really exciting opportunities that both allow our students to study abroad economically and invite international students to come to UVM. So that's a really exciting opportunity on exchange. You might be traveling with other UVM students. You might be the only student from UVM as well. Those are going to be what we classify as a little bit more independent for programs. And then there are also what we call external programs. Those are approved UVM programs, but operating through a different institution or a study abroad provider company. Oftentimes, depending on the location, we are sending a group of students to certain programs. But again, there are going to be instances where you may be the only student on that program. So the semester before you jet off, we host a pre-departure orientation for students. And during that session, we actually seat students by country or region. And it's an awesome opportunity to get to know people who are going to the same country or the same region. Oftentimes, I see students taking out their phone, exchanging information so that they can connect beyond and kind of get excited for their travels. Thank you so much for that, Carolyn. Sarah, any other questions coming through that we might want to highlight? We got a grundle question, which is... Yeah, so I was just about to point out. I'm going to turn it over to the OLs because they've been fantastic at answering. So take it away. So yeah, the grundle is a thing that exists for you that will be living on athletic campus. You kind of have to take it with the good and the bad. I think it's kind of a lifestyle. Some days, it's amazing. They've had many churros. Sometimes they had egg rolls. And then sometimes they had like dry pork that was almost... Maybe it felt like it was kind of three days old. So you kind of just got to roll with it. I promise it's not that bad. The one thing... My one complaint, though, my biggest complaint would have to be they use cinnamon on a lot of their things, like from asparagus to rice to steak. Like every... It's everywhere. It's everywhere. So just be careful for that. But I honestly loved the grundle. I was there three times a day, sometimes more. I had a blast in there. There's a lot to do. So yeah. I went to the grundle. I was in the dorms that are attached to the grundle. So if you're in Harris-Millis, the grundle is going to save your life. It's really nice to go down there. And plus it stays open a little later than the other ones. But don't eat the clam strips or the seafood. Just avoid it like the plague. It's bad for you. My only tip. I also recommend, if you're a picky eater for dining halls, is looking online. You can see all the meals per day. I mean, for me, I lived on an athletic campus, but there's three main dining halls. Central, Harris-Millis and Simpson. And when I was like, oh, I've had Harris-Millis a lot this week. I'll just take a quick walk to Simpson. The campus isn't that big. So if you don't find something you like, it's pretty easy to get across campus. Or you can bus across to a different dining hall because all dining halls offer different things. So if you're not feeling like having pasta for the fifth time that week, go somewhere else and find some other things. Because there's a lot of options on campus. I don't think you'll ever go hungry. Yeah. If you get the unlimited plan, dude, you have infinite food. Infinite food, including soda and dessert. It's great. I'm the high priest of the grundle. It's good. I'm also pretty picky. Actually, legitimately, I was a little nervous. Like, oh, am I going to have food that I'm going to like there consistently? Yeah, I can't complain. I can't say it's the best food I've ever had, but it was pretty good, pretty consistently. So you know what? I'm not complaining. It's a pretty good deal. Yeah. There's also the Marchet. You can get retail points and stuff. There's this skinny pancake that's like a creperie. It makes like crepes, and it's very good, too. So that's save up on your points. They eat only crepes for the last week, finals week. That's my tip. That's what I do. Just real quick, all of the workers that are in the dining halls are fantastic people. They might be a little snappy towards you just because they might not like their jobs too much. But that's where we come in and we can make it a little bit better for them. And I know that that was one of the highlights of my weeks sometimes. So yeah. I also recommend if you're looking for a job on campus, I work in the dining halls. And let me tell you, they pay me $14 an hour and I stand at the front and I push a button to let students in. It's wonderful. It's very flexible because the dining hall needs workers always. So I work two days a week, but getting paid $14 an hour isn't anything I would ever complain about. So I'd recommend if you want a job on campus looking into that because they always need more workers and it's a pretty easy job. And they're pretty laid back with the hours. If you want to work a lot, they'll let you work a lot. But you can also work like five hours a week and they would still love and appreciate that. Oh, well, the question that's in the chat is how do you access the underground tunnel from Redstone campus? Walk. It's like on athletic kind of. So you just go from where you are on Redstone. You just walk a long way and then there's a door next to the ROTC building. And that's the best we can do for you. Good luck. And then there's a lot of questions about food recommendations here. So good vegan food, good Indian food, favorite restaurants. Oh, what do we think? There's this place called Geku Ramen, which is absolutely delicious. If you want ramen, that's a really good place. But there's plenty of restaurants that you can go to. I know Pokiworks is also really good. There's this place called Linguiz Bistro. The restaurant is too expensive, but right across from it. They have a little like a little store. It's like Linguiz Petit Bistro. Sorry if anyone speaks French. I killed that the worst way. But they have some really good beignets. So I would definitely recommend getting that. But really just explore the food. If there's something that's worth spending money on in Burlington. I think it's food because the dining hall is giving you something livable. But I wouldn't exactly call it good. I also, I'm just going to shout out the ramen place. It's delicious. I love eating there. One thing I would say about food on and off campus is just be careful. Because last semester I spent far too much money eating off campus. By mid-semester I was very tired of the dining halls and I was like, it's fine. I just buy myself food three times a week. And probably wasn't the brightest idea. The dining halls aren't always amazing, but they will feed you. You will not have a shortage of food there. Especially if you have the unlimited meal plan. Usually you can find something. And just as a like budgeting recommendation because I know it can be kind of hard to suddenly have to like. Actually control your own spending when you get off to college. I would limit like church street food to like once or twice a week at the most. Just because it can get pretty expensive down there. And then suddenly you have nothing in your wallet. And that can be kind of stressful, especially when you're on your own for the first time. Very exaggerating. The food's good. I like the food. All right. And I had the unlimited plan and then I infinite food. So like, yeah, no, don't worry about it. It's more it's popular to make a joke about the grundle tasting bad, which is there's a grain of truth there. But like it's fun to exaggerate as well. Yeah, dining halls could be worse, but it could be better. Can you talk a little bit about what the job opportunities are like on campus and in downtown? Anyone have anything they'd like to share about that? I would like to say I think getting a job on campus is really easy and kind of convenient for me. My commute to work is a three minute walk out of my building and down into a kitchen. But you can also work in our rec department so you can work at the gym. I know a bunch of people do that, which I think is really easy. Most of the time to look for job opportunities. I know I think I found mine online or I got it through an email that they were looking for workers. So it's not very hard to find them. And I know a bunch of my friends work downtown. I just think that one is a little more difficult because it's a little bit more of a commute. And since freshman year, you don't really have a car. It's a little more difficult if you have like really early shifts. I had a friend who had a shift at like 6 a.m. and had to like run down Church Street at like 5 30 in the morning. So I recommend trying to find jobs on campus. I think they're pretty easy to find because UVM always needs more workers. And I think they pay pretty well. So it's not too bad. I'll also just jump in from a supervisor perspective and study abroad advisor. We do hire study abroad peer advisors. And those are study abroad returnees or students who are interested in studying abroad as well. And those students are working in our front office, leading our information sessions, helping out at tabling events. And as a supervisor, I always tell my student employees that you're a student first, and then you are a student employee. And so we really do prioritize your coursework over your work hours, which I think is really just a pro for on-campus employment. Obviously, there are a lot of opportunities in the Burlington area as well. But A, on-campus is just really convenient. And two, we just recognize that you are first and foremost a student and peer to study and kind of set our job expectations accordingly. We are going to continue answering some questions as they come in and I'll continue to read them out. But, you know, we're kind of getting to the end of the session. So I'll leave this up for a few minutes again if you want to participate with us and go to menti.com and use that same code as before. And, you know, tell us a little bit about what you're excited about for UVM and just jump on there and just so we can get to know a little bit about what you want to see for this incoming class. A question that I have in the chat is, how is biking in the winter? It's a little rough. I'm not going to lie. I'd recommend getting some, like, biking glasses or something because it's not the ground that's going to take you out but trying to bike through the cold and the wind hurts the face a little bit. But our ground gets salted pretty regularly. I wouldn't recommend trying to go your fastest down bombing hills. Like, probably go a little slower, be safer. But I'd just recommend having some good facial protection while biking because you will not be able to see if you try to go through the winter, or if you're cold with nothing protecting your face. I actually did three times a week, both semesters. And you know what? It was totally fine. It was good gloves. That's the key because your hands are on the front. And yeah, face mask is usually good. It keeps you warm. But I actually didn't need eye protection for most of it. So it might vary. But I mean, maybe don't bike in the middle of snowstorm or something. But like, I bike like after dark, uphill, downhill. Like, it's totally doable. Just don't, yeah, just don't go like stupid fast. You know, you can tell if it's unsafe and it's always very well salted. Another question that I'm hoping one of our L's could answer because I don't know the answer to this. Oh, someone just said, are succulents and stuff they sell at the greenhouse expensive? Any L's want to talk about that? I think I got one, I got two for like five bucks, but they died because, well, that's on me. But they're cheap, yeah. Yeah, I don't think they're expensive. I know a friend of mine actually took seeds from the dining hall and started growing pumpkins in their room. So if you've got a good green thumb, it's free with your meal plan. They also do, at least while I was there, in the spring they have sometimes the greenhouse has a plant sale where you can go and you can get like a bunch of plants that are even cheaper than usual. They were also selling sometimes outside in the Davis Center, outside of the cat paws, which is like their little student convenience store place. They'll have like little, little tiny succulents. And my roommate and I got one of those last year and actually kept it alive. It's still alive, so. You got me B. Thank you everybody who is participating on this live chat. I'm going to go ahead and share with you a little bit about what you're interested in for UVM. We're kind of coming to the end of our time together. And I just want to highlight you all have been asking questions in this live chat. We have been taking notes of them and we will be, if you don't already, go please follow us on Instagram. It's at UVM orientation. We'll be posting a little bit tomorrow. Any questions that we didn't have a chance to answer tonight or maybe don't necessarily know the answer. We'll be posting a little bit, posting those throughout the day tomorrow. So follow us to get the answers that you need. It's also a great place to get to know some of the OLS that are going to be your leaders this upcoming year. So we'll be highlighting all of our OLS and you can learn a little bit more about them and what their majors are, what their interests are, and my shameless plug for following us on Instagram. But with that, thank you everybody for coming today. I'm sorry you can see my cat who just jumped up here in the background. Thank you everybody for coming today and hanging out with us and we are excited to welcome you here to UVM this upcoming August and we're really excited that you're here and engaging in our virtual sessions. So and also a big shout out to all the OLS and Carolyn for coming in and working with us today and putting on this really awesome session for you all. So with that I'd say we'll close out a little early and give you a little bit of your evening back. But thank you very much for being here with us today.