Undecided/Undeclared Anteaters Blog

Archive for March, 2011

Let’s say you’re having a hard time during the day, with classes nonstop and studying in between, and no time to just relax in quiet peace and read a book or listen to music or anything recreational; aka, you only have time to work. Don’t you want that break? Even if only for 30 minutes, maybe 45 or a whole hour if you’re lucky, wouldn’t that break from the rush of things be nice?

Well I think it would. ahahah And trust me it is. But where can you find this little alone time, when you’re surrounded by a school that houses around 24,000 students and professors and faculty? Where, if anywhere, is this wonderful abode?

Mesa Court! Well, okay, it might be in Middle Earth too, but I wouldn’t really know, cause I’ve never done this at ME. Anyhoo, in the dining facility at MC, commonly known as “Commons”, they have a schedule of meals that isn’t the usual Breakfast, Lunch Dinner. Instead they have Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Light Lunch, Dinner, and then Late Night. Wow! lots of options. If you’ve taken a look at dining plans, you might see that there’s a 150, 120, and 100 meal plan. Who needs more than 100 meals, right? Trust me, and some of my friends (the ones who ran out of meals), extra meals don’t hurt. But then again, I’m on the 100 and I still have 20 meals left and less than 2 weeks to go. I’m good.

Anyways, back to the main issue at hand: the de-stressing and relaxing of yourself. Main meal for this: Light Lunch. Light lunch gets served 2-4, so you got a nice 2 hour window to get this meal. Usually the only food is pizza and sandwiches, and some fruit, so don’t go expecting to have a hearty lunch. But the sandwiches they make are pretty varied and it’s healthy, so it doesn’t hurt to just grab a small bite.  Prime time to go and get Lite Lunch: 3-4. Lunch ends at 2, so if you went, people who grabbed lunch would still be there, and it’d still be a little crowded and noisy.  By 3 however, most of those people are cleared out, and it’s just you, maybe 5 others, and the food. Yea, you’re only allowed into one dining area, out of the 4 that they have, but it’s pretty spacious and has a nice view of outside, so it’s not bad. And if you were wondering, no they don’t kick people out. They just stop serving food at certain times.

So how does this relate to art? 1) finding a place to yourself in this hectic campus, is, in itself, an art. Like, you can go out to Aldrich Park, and just lay on the grass and nap, but people are still walking around you. You can go out on your halls’ balcony, but that won’t work, cause people will pass by and talk to you. At light lunch, you can separate yourself from all the people and problems around you, and just reel away in a book or music, and no one will bother you. And if you’re worried someone you know will interrupt that happy place, think about this: who wants lunch at 4? No one. That’s so close to dinner, not many people are going to bother to eat lunch at that point. 2) If you’re in a slump, or just want to focus on creating music, reading a book, getting an idea for a story, getting an idea for a drawing or picture, or any thing art related, sometimes a quiet place is just what you need. Plus, it just helps when you’re too stressed.

I know I went over a bit about the dining here at Mesa, so if you have any questions, you can head on over to the other Zotblogger who focuses on food, or you can ask right here. we’d both be happy to help

I forgot to take a picture before my friends and I devoured the pizza!

Hey there Zot Blog readers! This week I’m going to cover somewhere that I’m sure most of you should be familiar with, regardless of where you come from (unless, of course, there’s none near you.) Domino’s Pizza! While there are places to get your pizza fix on campus (Bene’s Pizza & Pasta, and Topio’s,) sometimes you just don’t want to leave your dorm or the places may be closed. That’s were Domino’s comes to the rescue.

While I haven’t been to the physical store, I have ordered pizza for delivery. The entire reason why I’m blogging about Domino’s this week is because… a) you can use Zot Bucks to pay! How amazing is that?! and b) to share with you the greatness of ordering online.

What I love about ordering from Domino’s is that you can use Zot Bucks to pay. I haven’t ordered through the phone, but when ordering online, simply choose “Cash” as your payment type and then call the store right after and give them your Student ID number. They’ll run it through the system and you’re good to go!

Another thing I love about ordering online is that there are so many amazing things I never knew you can get on a pizza. Did you know instead of the regular tomato pizza sauce you can get marinara, bbq sauce, or white sauce?! White sauce is my personal favorite. It tastes kind of like alfredo sauce~ Yum!

Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes... Mmm~!

You can even track your order online. That way you know exactly when your pizza’s going into the oven and when it’s being delivered to your door!

One thing I can’t stress enough though is to tip the pizza delivery guy! From experience, it seems people think that the delivery charge they tack onto the price includes the tip to the delivery guy. Sadly, that’s not the case. I’m not sure how much the average tip is supposed to be. I’ve gotten responses from anywhere between $2 to $5.

Well, that’s it about Domino’s. Being able to pay with Zot Bucks, having a pizza with white sauce, and being able to track your order online? I’m definitely a fan of Domino’s.

Oh! And just for the record, here’s the number: 949-222-0333

Buy me a pizza the next time you have a chance? I’ve been pretty obsessed eating them lately. ^^ ;

~ Charmaine

If you guys are interested in helping your community and sharing your caring heart with others, you guys will love the club I visited this week! I went to a Helping Hearts for the Homeless meeting this week, where I learned a lot more about what I can do to help the homeless around our area. As the name says it, this club is dedicated to bringing together caring people and finding ways of facilitating the lives of the homeless and giving them hope of a better tomorrow.

This time around I felt very welcomed at attending a meeting, much more than usual. Everybody, especially the officers, seemed very happy to see a new member join them. I was introduced to a couple of the members that were there already, and started a few conversations with them, too. The reason why I felt very welcomed is that everyone is open and the officers make the meetings very fun. They are extremely funny! I think I laughed more at their meeting than I had laughed throughout the whole day.

One thing that I loved about Helping Hearts for the Homeless is that they start each meeting with a game. But what surprised me the most, however, is that the officers founded the club just this year!! What’s more, they have more than 60 members, which is a great achievement!

This meeting was pretty much a wrap-up of the quarter, and although I had no experiences or stories to share about being in the club and helping the homeless, I was able to hear the stories of other members and decide that this club was truly for me. We also started planning events for next quarter, which could include a trip or two to LA or to a homeless shelter, an Awareness Week on campus, definitely fundraising, and other possibilities.

So if you were interested by what I found out and would like to now join us, their website is http://helpingheartsatuci.weebly.com/index.html and on Facebook: Helping Hearts for the Homeless. Meetings are every Thursdays at 6:30 – 7:30 pm in ET 202! Hope to see you there!

Image taken from http://www.housing.uci.edu/sop/guest_get_the_most.asp

As the students here at UCI approach finals week of winter quarter, high school seniors statewide are approaching the deadly weeks of college acceptance letters. It always falls around this mid-March time period, however there are also letters coming in early for those who turned in early decision or other types of applications. These past two weeks, Irvine freshmen have been hosting recently admitted students for a day and a night, showing them exactly what it is like to be a college freshman here at UCI. The program that coordinates this is the Stay Over Program. For all of you considering UCI, you can actually still sign up for this program even if you haven’t received information on your application yet by going to http://www.housing.uci.edu/sop/guest_how.asp and filling out the application. There you will also find the costs and list of various items you will need.

These students are paired with a same sex freshman here at UCI and get to spend the day as a student with them. This includes eating at our dining hall, sleeping over in a dorm, and visiting our gym, the Anteater Recreation Center (ARC). I actually got the chance to meet a SOP student myself and help the host (who was a friend of mine) bring the student around. I met the SOP high school student, named DJ, at the dining commons. We then met up later that night at the gym, where we decided to grab a late snack and walked of over to our University Town Center to introduce DJ to the various grub spots at UCI. It ended up turning into a feast, with visits to a yogurt shop, a boba tea place, and then a final visit to Wendy’s. Needless to say, it was a ridiculous food excursion, but it really did introduce DJ to the various places students can go to eat and hang out with each other. This was just one adventure that occured during DJ’s stay here, but he also got to experience working out at the ARC, sitting through a college class and college quiz (which he actually took, just to try it), sleeping in the dorms, being introduced to his host’s hallmates, and much more.

Each student will have a unique experience if they choose to do this program, but no matter what happens, they will still receive a look at the lives of UCI freshmen as well as our advice, since we were in their shoes a mere year ago. This program was something I had never heard of until my friend decided to host a student for it, and I think it is  a great thing to have. It does so much more than a campus tour or orientation can do for you, like introduce you to the hang out spots or let you sit in on a class. It gives you a completely different angle to consider in your decision process, and I really appreciate that UCI does that for its prospective students. If you are seriously looking into being a student here at UCI, I suggest checking this campus resource out. Until next time, everyone.

It’s not everyday that people practice some Filipino Martial Arts. I’m sure most people have heard of Karate, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and even Taekwondo, but Filipino Arts is one form that people have not even heard about. Originally formed by Leo Giron, a LEgend and Filipino who redefined the the arts, the “Giron System” aka Filipino Martial Arts is all about the defensive side of fighting. Offered at the Anteater Recreation Center (ARC), Filipino Martial Arts sure is a great way to relax and de-stress oneself from the hardships that school has on students. It is most similar to yoga, where one eases tension and relaxes the muscles little by little. With all these midterms over with, and with finals coming up, I’m sure most students, if not all students, are dying for some type of relief from studying and stressing out once in a while. If you want to let out some anger, stress, anything at all, Filipino Martial Arts is a great way to go. This style of art is a weapon-based and a self-defensed type of art where Instructor Kirk McCune guides “students through the essential elements of this effective system.” Not only that, but while you learn defensive type of martial arts, you can even get some insight into the rich Filipino culture and history of the country.

This class and workshop would definitely be a great opportunity for someone who enjoys learning about other cultures while actually working out and relaxing.

To register for this awesome class, click here!

Until next time, ‘Eaters!