As mentioned, you email address is in the form of
username@gl.umbc.edu, where
At this point in time it is possible to change your email address, but your logon name will always be the same. Technically you can not change your email address, but you can create multiple aliases that all by default get sent to username@gl.umbc.edu.
You can also set up your email to be forwarded to another account if you wish. I really do not recommend this other than possibly when on break for winter or summer, in which case it may be nice to have it forwarded to a home account.
To set up email aliases follow the instructions at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/helpdesk/alias.html.
Well there are really multiple ways to do this. Some of your options include...
It is strongly suggested that all CS students lean the pine email program. It is very easy to check your mail remotely via ssh, rip in source code, and is very quick and easy to use (well once you get used to it). We strongly feel that it is so important that a whole class will be dedicated to Pine and Pico.
We will be covering Pine shortly, so in the meantime may I suggest using UMBC's web based email application at http://webmail.umbc.edu. This application is very much like any other web based email program, such as hotmail, yahoo, etc... There is also a tutorial on how to use it online at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/helpdesk/email/webmail/