People sometimes ask me how my week looks, and how much time I spend on school and football. The answer for this question varies very semester, and with football commitments.

I have done some simple addition and this is how I spend my time in a regular week. I have around 16 hours of class time, where I’m actually in a classroom. On top of this comes my studying and preparing for class time, which varies depending on the workload, but for now lets say around 2 hours a day goes with homework and preparing for class. This includes work over the weekend, where most of my time studying finds place. That brings time spent on schoolwork to 26 hours a week. On top of this I have my job at the Admission Office, where I work around 10 hours a week. Sometimes I work a bit more, but 10 hours is a realistic estimate of an average week.

Then we have football. When we are not in our regular season, we work out 5 to 6 times a week. This gives me around 10 hours of football related workout. Then once in a while we will have meetings, but lets keep that out of the count.

Adding all of these hours together, I have 46 hours split between school, work and football. On top of this, I have my commitments to St. Norbert Times and to the trips program, which then brings my total of hours up to just around 50 hours.

Now you all have an idea what it takes to stay in school and being committed to several things.

For now,

Take care,

Peter Ostergaard

The first week was freezing here! Thank god for my big winter coat and hat! If it hadn’t been for those two, I would not have made it out of my apartment, but I did and school has now officially started.

Every spring semester starts with a Football Banquet to celebrate the past season. I had a great time honoring my teammates and just seeing everybody again.

Over break I found a new motivation for doing my schoolwork. I used January to do unskilled labor at a factory, and as much as I enjoy the pay check, that is not what I want to do for the rest of my life.

This semester will be very academically challenging with 4 very tough classes: Business Law, Corporate Finance, Financial Markets and Institutions and Intermediate Macroeconomics. Four, so far, very interesting classes but they will be a lot of work. Beside this, I will have my football workouts 5-6 days a week, my work at the admission office, my upcoming service trip and my new position at the St Norbert Times. It will be a very interesting couple of months.

For now, take care!

Peter

It’s been a while since my last blog, but these last couple of weeks has been very hectic. Football has been going great. This week we are playing Lake Forrest for the conference championship and a place in the play offs. It’s going to be a great game and we hope everyone will show up to support the team. At the same time it’s senior night, which means the guys I have played with for three years now are most likely playing their last home game. I hope we are able to give them a conference championship to end their time at Schneider Stadium!

Outside of football, I have spent a lot of time with the T.R.I.P.S program. My first real assignment was to get a drivers license, so I can help with driving to Arkansas. Last Thursday I passed my drivers exam and I am now allowed to drive on two different countries, which is pretty cool!

This week in school has been really busy with a lot of tests and exams but its almost over now and my focus has been moved towards the big game on Saturday!

-Hope to see a lot of people there!

Peter

This week was homecoming weekend here at St. Norbert. Homecoming is a campus wide celebration of everyone who has graduated from here. It gives the alumni a chance to come back on campus to see what has happened since they graduated. Homecoming also equals a home football game which was a nice change compared to the last two weekends with long bus rides.

Usually there is a homecoming parade with all of the Fraternities, Sororities, and the football team, but it got cancelled due to bad weather Saturday morning. This bad weather kept on for the rest of the day and had a big effect on our football game. The mindset of the entire football team was special that day and everyone was fired up and ready to go at one o’clock for the kick off. This led to an early lead for us, which we were able to keep for the rest of the game. We ended up winning the game 79-7 which is a record setting score for us.

This upcoming week we have a bye week, which means we do not have a game next weekend. This allows the players that have been hurt to recover and for the team to improve before coming back and playing our next team. This also gives us the first weekend off since we began school!

On other news, tomorrow (Monday) I have another meeting with the T.R.I.P.S program. I have been picked to be in charge of the finances of our trip to Arkansas. This will be interesting, especially because we have a very limited budget. We also have to do some fundraising to help cover the expenses of the trip.

That is all for this week!

Take care,

Peter

We didn’t play our best game, but we came out on top with a victory, which is the most important thing.

I am finally starting to catch up in my classes after my missed days in the beginning of the year, and I am finally getting the feel of how my weeks are going to work. This is one of my most important tools for studying. Especially since football takes a couple of hours out of everyday where other students might study.

This past weekend we had our first conference away game against our rivals from Ripon. I made the travel team, which is the first time in my years of playing here. This is a big step for me personally and now it’s just to keep fighting to stay on the travel team.

We ended up winning the game with 12 seconds left after we blew an early lead in the game. We came out on top and are now ready to face Carroll on SNC day this upcoming Saturday. This is an important game for us since Carroll is undefeated right now and a win could put us up among the top teams in our conference.

As you might be able to see out of this blog, most of my time outside of classes is spent on football. As a college athlete you have to make a huge time commitment for practice, studying game film, and meetings. Friday is our only day off and it is only used when we have long travels. The rest of the days we have practice and on Saturday we have our games.

Two mornings a week, Monday and Wednesday, we have to get up for morning lifting at 6.30. So far, it has not been too hard to get up in the mornings which is really nice, but once it gets colder outside it might be a bit harder to do that 5 min walk to get to Schuldes which is where our workouts are.

That’s all for this time. Take care!

To keep my blog relevant to those of you planning to come to St. Norbert, I have decided to address some planning tools before you board the plane to come to Wisconsin. These are from my experience so they might differ for people coming from elsewhere.

Before you leave this summer remember that you are most likely going to be away for several months. This mean the weather is going to change; a lot! When I arrived on campus in August, the weather was warm and very humid, and when I left for the winter break it was really cold. So, when you start packing the things you need, remember that the weather is going to change. Bring summer clothes and winter clothes. And by winter clothes, I don’t mean just a pair of long pants and a shirt, but bring a heavy winter coat that can keep you warm and a good pair of winter boots. Remember, people handle weather temperatures differently so you are likely to see some of the local students walk around in shorts when it is freezing outside.

When I packed my things I did not have enough room for all my winter stuff, so my parents sent the items I needed for the winter. I ended up having two big suitcases and a carry-on suitcase with clothes. I also brought along a lot of everyday items like toothpaste and shampoo. This weighs a lot in the suitcase, but I was happy that I didn’t have to use my money on it over here. Of course, you can buy toothpaste and shampoo here if you need to or want to try new products!

It’s a good idea to set up plans on how to get to campus. I always fly into Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB) in Green Bay.  This airport is located around 10 minutes from campus. One of the things you can do to get from the airport to the campus is to let the Center for International Education (CIE) know when you will be arriving. They can help arrange for St. Norbert staff to pick you up and drive you to campus. This is by far the easiest way to get from the airport to campus, especially the first time you get here. This person will also most likely be willing to give you a tour around campus when you arrive depending on the time of the day. Walking around campus gives you a good feel of where you are, and where you are going.  It also helps jet lag!

When you are on campus, everything is within walking distance. It takes about 7 minutes to walk from one side to the other. You don’t need to have a car for anything on campus. But as time goes on, sometimes you might want to go somewhere outside the campus and then it’s a good idea to have local area friends because a lot of students from the area have a car. It is really nice to be able to go to a local store to buy some things and go out to eat somewhere else once in a while.

I hope this can help you a bit before you come here!

So long!

Peter

This weekend I went to the men’s hockey game with some of my friends and we had a blast. The Green Knights won the game and advanced to the Frozen Four in New York later this week. After the game I hung out with some friends that hadn’t left for break yet and we had a fun night.

In my first blog I talked a lot about our intramural basketball team and how we were excited to win a lot this year. Well, that didn’t happen. The first team we played were mostly guys that had been on the basketball team at one point so it’s safe to say that they outplayed us pretty badly. The next two games were a bit better from our side but we still didn’t manage to get a win. Our last game of the season we won (the other team didn’t show up). For us, a win is a win and we ended our season 1-3. We sure hope to do better next year.

That’s it for this time people. I’ll update the blog a bit more often.

- Peter

On another note, school has now been on for almost 3 weeks and I feel like classes are off to a good start. I’m still working to keep my grades up so I can get an internship for the summer. I am working on a couple of things right now, but only time will tell. Aside from school and work much of my time is spent working out and preparing for spring (American) football later in the semester. I will keep you updated about both football and the rest of my life!

Stay Safe!
- Peter