Transcript of Podcast #24: Exercise and Outdoor Activities
In Attendance: Melisa Perut (she/they) & Seungjun Josh Kim (he/him)
Melisa: Hello everyone, welcome back to another GIC, podcast episode. Today we’re going to talk about exercise and outdoor activities. We live in Southern California, the weather is always quite nice, so there’s a lot of reason to go outside and enjoy. And also graduate school can be stressful. So we should, you know, explore other options of relieving stress. So today we have Josh with us. Josh is one of our mentors and he’ll talk to us about what he gets to do and what he recommends for everybody. So hi Josh, welcome. Thanks for joining. Can you introduce yourself as we begin?
Josh: Hello everyone, my name is Josh Kim. I am a rising second year Ph.D. student in the Department of Informatics, I use he, him his pronouns.
Melisa: Awesome. Thanks, Josh. And Josh, where do you call home?
Josh: I was born and raised in South Korea and actually came to the States about 10 years ago. Yeah.
Melisa: Nice. Did you go to high school here then?
Josh: No. So I came here when I was becoming 19 or 20, so for undergrad education yeah
Melisa: Nice, nice. And were you always in Southern California?
Josh: No, I was actually hopping around different states. Initially I went to school in upstate New York and then I moved to Michigan to start my full-time job and after that I moved to California last year to start my PhD program. So really moving around living that nomad life. Yeah.
Melisa: Yeah. Then, how do you like the weather here then?
Josh: Firstly, I really love it because I am that person who really needs sunshine basking in the sun and soaking in the sun. So California is really treating me well in that regard.
Melisa: Nice, nice. And is this your first time being a mentor, in the GIC program?
Josh: Yeah, so good question. It is actually my first time being a mentor, but I was actually a mentee last year, which inspired me to become a mentor this year.
Melisa: Excellent. Yeah, so you’ll see a lot of. Mentors or mentees and they really enjoyed, you know, this community and they’ll be back. So hopefully you’ll all be mentors next year as well. And Josh, before we begin, I know we’re going to talk a lot about your favorite activities, but what do you like to do in your free time?
Josh: That is a very good but also difficult question because I have a laundry list of things I can talk about which can take more than 30 min but just to give you a handful of activities I do in my free time. I like to do a lot of outdoor stuff, so hiking. I’m just walking around in parks, playing tennis, doing surfing, I also like do music stuff. So I make music I play the drums and I sing, so those are some of the hobbies I do outside of my research.
Melisa: Nice. Does you know, playing the drums become a problem. Are you living on graduate housing or in an apartment?
Josh: Oh, obviously I don’t play the drums, within my residency, but I easily try to find a rehearsal studio in the area and that I sometimes jam in my friends.
Melisa: Nice! Oh, well, Josh you’re doing a lot, so you have great tips. Of, things to do around Irvine then.
Josh: Hopefully, hopefully we’ll see how that goes.
Melisa: Awesome. So, can, you know, Southern California is very sunny and it’s very nice and you mentioned that you also like to do a lot of outdoor activities very sunny and it’s very nice and you mentioned that you also like to do a lot of outdoor activities. So can you tell us what are some exercises or sports people that come to UCI can do around here?
Josh: For sure, for sure. So one sport that I noticed a lot of people here play is tennis, which I also play a lot. I think it’s because there are a lot of tennis courts in the area. I think I heard somewhere may not be very very accurate fact but I did hear somewhere that Irvine has one of the most number of tennis courts per unit area. So that probably speaks to how popular tennis is and also because you can play tennis all year around because of the nice weather so that probably plays a role. And then another sport that people play almost exclusively in Southern California is surfing, which I mentioned earlier when I was talking about my hobbies. I guess that makes sense because there’s so much access to beaches. I think there may be two or three beaches you can access within 15 min by car from UCI. So that makes it easier. So those are two things that that really appear on my head off the top of my head. Other than that, I think people, a lot of people like to hit the gym or I’ll register for classes, for personal training but stuff like that. But I can probably touch upon those topics later on. (Note: Irvine and Orange County in general has a lot of athletic groups that you can join. Josh will talk later about ways to find other sports like pick up soccer or volleyball or other group sports)
Melisa: Yeah, so then you know how to surf. Did you learn how to surf here?
Josh: Good question. I didn’t know how to do it until last year. So that’s right. I came here in September last year and then I met a bunch of folks who already knew how to surf. So they were just giving me tips and just know how’s and how to surf. So that was my start of my surfing trajectory I guess but I’m still not that great yet I don’t think I’m in a position to teach someone yet, but I’m slowly getting there.
Melisa: Yeah, no, but, surfing is quite like popular. Also kayaking too or paddleboarding that things that you can actually. Don’t have to have the gear for you can just rent them at the beach.
Josh: Right. Right.
Melisa: And just like have access to these wonderful like you know, tools that and then just go out on the water, just be careful for the sharks because they do exist.Although of course it’s not a big problem, you’ll see people still serve even though there is a warning. But, because they, the lifeguards will warn you if there’s a shark in the water, but still it’s, a great, place to do all of that. So yeah, you should maybe. Maybe you can tag along to Josh once you move here. So, you know, show you a little bit.
Josh: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Melisa: You can show everybody a little bit, right, Josh.
Josh: Just, just, hit me up. I can take some folks to the beach. Newport Beach preferably to do some surfing.
Melisa: Yeah, because it’s close to. Are there any other, door outdoor activities that you recommend?
Josh: Oh, I’d also recommend hiking because, you know, number one weather is nice and number two, there are a lot of scenic spots and hiking spots here. I know, there are a lot of National Parks (podcast on National Parks) or parks that are open to the public that have very beautiful scenery and nature is stuff to do. I know, for example, Joshua Park is a very popular spot that people go for maybe one night and two days they just camp there and watch the beautiful stars at night and then come back the next day. And then if you’re willing to travel a long this since there are a bunch of national parks, towards the northern part of California like the Yosemite Park, which is pretty popular and pretty famous. So, those are some hiking spots, but even within the vicinity of UCI, there’s some less challenging hiking trails or mountains that you can try try out first to see if you like hiking so I recommend those places first. Yeah.
Melisa: Yeah, and when I first moved here, there was this idea of hiking of going into the woods and hiking. But I think the trails that are closer to us are not like that. Can you? Give everybody a little bit of context as to what hiking looks like around us. Like if they go to Turtle Rock or I don’t know if even if they go to Malibu.
Josh: For sure, for sure. Yeah. So when I say hiking trails, this is not necessarily those super challenging steep trails that you have to almost use like both of your hands to climb up. But this is pretty chill and oftentimes they have like three or four different routes you can take. Depending on the difficulty of, of hiking and how experienced you are. So if you’re a novice hiker for example you can try out the of easier trails that are marked in say like blue in the map. So you have different options to explore. And another thing I wanted to mention was if you’re going to Turtle Rock Trail, for example, it’s more like a less I don’t say it’s like a forest, but there you know small bushes here and there and It’s relatively easy to just walk around unless you’re trying to climb up the climb up to the peak of the mountain or I would, I would probably call it the hill not a mountain but there’s like that spot where you can kind of see the entire Turtle Rock village area if you go to the top of that boulder but other than that place other areas are pretty easy to navigate. So. If you’re not confident about like climbing steep trails and I definitely recommend going to those easy trails around us from UCI.
Melisa: Yeah, and I think it’s great to like try the ones around us to get an idea of what hiking looks like. Because if I went hiking in my home country, there would be no path and you just tried to survive through the woods. But here they like the path that Josh is talking about is actually like a road that people will get to walk on and because it’s a desert, it’s always like. Dirt and sand. It’s not even mud because it’s always dry as well.
Josh: Right.
Melisa: So it’s very easy to walk. You don’t even need hiking shoes, right? For certain trails, you can just like wear your sneakers and go. I’ve even seen people with sandals.
Josh: Yeah.
Melisa: Definitely something to explore. And I think we have some outing sometimes like as events so you can join one of those as well.
Josh: For sure, for sure
Melisa: And what about like, finding people that kind of have same interests and like going as a group because some of these activities I prefer to do them in groups. So are there any like classes or groups that people can join at UCI. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Josh: Yeah, so if you’re looking for like minded people who can join you with their hobby journey. I think clubs are definitely a good place to look into first. For example, I know there’s a surfing club at UCI. There’s a hiking club at UCI. So if you first come to UCI and register yourself in those clubs, I think there’s like a club or resource fair that happens in the very beginning of each quarter. Actually just a fall quarter, correct me, if I’m wrong (note: the Anteater Involvement Fair is in Fall Quarter but you often see clubs and orgs out on Ring Road giving information at other times of the year, especially the beginning of quarters), but once you go to those fairs, a bunch of different organizations and clubs will be available for you to sign up so that’s a good place to look into. And another thing that I can think of is potentially looking into platforms that facilitate your you know encounters or meetings with other people in the area. So platforms like MeetUp where people can just like meet at a designated day for talking about common interests or doing some hobbies together. So that’s another place you can look into. Lastly, but not least, I’d probably recommend. Also looking into affinity groups. So. Some people feel more comfortable going into like clubs or classes together with people with the same race or same ethnicity, same background things like that so if you’re interested in that you can also look into those affinity groups and invite people who can do stuff with you. So I think those are mainly the three venues i’d look into for finding a community.
Melisa: Yeah, no, that’s great. And it’s great way to make friends as well because you don’t like meet up and just like talk about you know, each other, but you get to talk about the activity that you’re doing or like the interest, the same similar interest that you have. So it’s much easier and a much more laid back environment to make friends as well. So it’s It’s a great opportunity I would say. And also in terms of classes, I think we mentioned this in a previous podcast, but I think it’s a good idea to mention it again. There are classes for credit that you can take that are focused on different activities like dancing or any kind of martial art. And I think there is also art classes that you can sign up for like two credit and you can just go and you know take a class you get to learn and you get to like experience it with other people from UCI, you might have a lot of undergrads in these classes. But it’s still, a great way. We had one, mentor who was all about these classes and would always sign because it helped them incorporate an exercise into their schedule because they had to go through this class. So what kind of tips would you give to people that want to incorporate exercise or outdoor activities into their schedule, how do you do it? How should they manage their time?
Josh: Yeah, that’s a great question. But even if I go into that I just want to add on to what you just said about classes. So on top of those formal classes that you do for credit, there are also these outside of class, I guess like classes that are less formal that are offered outside of a classroom setting. From residential communities, for example. Or from the arc, which is the. Anteater Recreational and sports facility for students. So for example in the ARC there is this program called F45 which you can sign up. I think you just have to pay 40 or $45 per quarter and you can just go. An unlimited number of times and participate in the 45 min session where you’re constantly doing different postures and like workouts. With 1 min interval of resting. That’s why it’s called F45 because it lasts for 45 min. So that’s one popular program that allowed my friends to. If you also receive emails from the housing communities, you will see that they offer free exercise or activity classes such as zumba and meditation and yoga, pilates, these kinds of classes are also offered in community centers. So you should definitely look it to that. Then moving on to, the actual question about how to manage your time well to fit all these things into your schedule. As for me, I tried to set exercise as a priority, so I just do it the first thing in the morning. Because otherwise, you know, different things arise throughout the day. So even when you plan to do exercise in the afternoon, some of their schedule might conflict with it, or you might get tired at the end of the day and when might be disincentivized to work out. So considering those things, I like to just put it as my very first activity of the day, so I usually go to the gym at like 7 or 7 30, get it out of the way. I mean, not that I’m saying I don’t enjoy it, but. I made it seem like I don’t enjoy it but I actually enjoy it but just wanted to make sure I do it consistently. Another benefit to going to the gym, I guess, or doing exercise in the morning is that it’s less crowded anywhere you go. For example, if you’re going to ARC to work out, there’s definitely less people working out at the time so you have less competition for machines and dumbbells and whatnot. So, that’s one way to do it. And then I’d probably say yeah, having a workout buddy or exercise sports buddy. Definitely helps because sometimes you’re feeling lazy and you just don’t want to get out of your bed but if you have a friend whose you know taking you to the gym or to the tennis court for example then it makes it more fun and then there is actually a reason why you should get out of your house because of that friend so. That’s another way to do it, I think. Just finding a community and setting like a recurring schedule with your friend to do something together. So those are two things I can think of for now, but unless you have personal tips for this question.
Melisa: So for me, one way I love going in the morning because yes, obviously it’s my time and I also take my mornings for myself. So I go to the gym and I have my breakfast. That’s my own personal like time. But sometimes I use workout as an excuse to stop working. Because if I have signed up for like a membership for like let’s say F45 the last class is that 6:30. So I have to finish my day, my work. So that helps me actually, you know, pull myself away from work, get stuff done. Sometimes I use it in that way. Just like to make myself stop working because sometimes I have to work a lot, we have deadlines and, that’s one way of incorporating it.
Josh: Right
Melisa: Another way that I’ve seen, some of my colleagues do is, they use it as an excuse to, you know, take a break during the day. To go on a walk or you know do something that’s different so they get some fresh air. So like during midday around 12 or one, right before their lunch break or right after their lunch break, they’ll take a walk. So they incorporated as like their time to take some time for themselves. But you should try different versions of what would work for you and see. Because throughout your time here, you might have very busy times or you might have like classes that conflict with the morning sessions or in the afternoon sessions. So you just have to be flexible, learn to be flexible. And be willing to incorporate exercise and other kinds of outdoor activities into your schedule that fits for you and that can change.f it like when it comes to, you know, hiking and things, I usually try to schedule them either on a Friday or a Saturday because if I need an extra day to rest. I don’t want that to be a Monday. When I have
Josh: Yeah, that makes sense, yeah.
Melisa: A lot of emails..So that’s how I kind of have to, you know, program myself as well. I find hike,hikes, to be a challenging sometimes because it gets so hot and sunny. But that’s my way of doing it. Do you have any other ideas, Josh?
Josh: No, I totally agree with everything you said and, you know, people have the tendency to think, oh, like, I don’t have time to do work out. I don’t have time to outdoor activities but maybe it’s ironic, but actually incorporating exercise into your schedule increases your productivity after you work out. So instead of just sitting down on your desk for, 24/7. Personally, I get more things done when I incorporate exercise in between. Because that, as you said, acts as some, I guess mental break from my work. And then I come back refreshed and then I can focus on my work better and get work things done. So I definitely recommend people to incorporate it into their schedule. And not be scared of losing their time, it’s actually earning time.
Melisa: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And do you think anybody needs any particular gear or items for any of these activities? What would you recommend?
Josh: Yeah, so, depends on which activity you’re talking about. For surfing, as you said, there are a lot of rental shops out there, so actually you don’t need any gear that you own but eventually if you’re thinking of going surfing more frequently. Then I think it’s worth it to buy some personal gear. So one gear you need would be a wetsuit which is that black, thick polyester clothes that you wear, that covers your entire body. Obviously it’s for protecting your body and then especially as do a weather gets colder as we progress towards winter, the water gets super cold as well. So wearing it makes a huge difference. And then some I know some people buy their personal surfing board as well. Because it costs a lot to borrow it every time. And then for tennis, obviously you need a racket. Some people purchase tennis shoes and then tennis outfit, but I don’t have them. I only half racket and some balls. I just wear sneakers and that wear gym clothes to play tennis. So probably the outfit and the shoes portion are not prerequisites for tennis. And then for hiking, I know people wear hiking shoes, but if you’re going for more chill trails as Melisa said, some people even wear sneakers or sandals to go to those trails. So depending on which trail you’re going to. You may not need that much gear. Other than that, it really depends on which activity. You are aiming for and feel free to reach out to me if you’re curious but I think those are some of the examples I can give for now.
Melisa: Yeah and since we live in California in the US. It’s very easy to get access to any kind of item or gear that you might need, for any activity. You can order most of them from Amazon or, you know, online retail stores. REI is a great, store to go and get any kind of, you know, work out or activity gear. And they have sales. So one trick, when you start living here is to make sure that you know the sales and to be able to do that you can sign up to your mailing list. And every year these, companies or these stores usually have like one or two sales. Like scheduled sales and then they also have sales on like special days I don’t know like Memorial Day, for example, they have these sales. I always tried to buy stuff, during those times. And I got my surfboards, from like a sale that was really cheap. So I think it’s a good idea to like look out for them to find cheaper you know prices for certain things. But other than that, I think if you need anything, you can ask people and they might have something to give away. That’s also another trick I had. I know friends that found surfboards from other people because they were moving out and they don’t want to carry their surfboards where they were going. So yeah.
Josh: Yeah. Those are great tips, yeah. Always look into Facebook Marketplace or Facebook groups, where UCI students are involved and oftentimes, especially during moving out season, you’ll see a bunch of items that you might find useful. And you can purchase, usually purchase them at cheaper prices.
Melisa: Yeah, and also if somebody has a gear that they can share like a basketball, you can just, you know, if you see someone playing basketball or volleyball, you can just ask to join and then you get to benefit from their gear, right?
Josh: Yeah, for, sure, for sure.
Melisa: Yeah, but do you have any other like final tips for us, Josh?
Josh: I think we covered a lot of topics so maybe the last thing I would say, kind of, kind of like a takeaway, but. Yeah, just get the most out of it from California. It’s one of those blessed states where you can do a lot of outdoor activities no matter what the season is because it’s usually sunny and the weather is quite nice, As Melissa said. When I was living in Michigan I think one-third or maybe half of the entire year was snowy and frigid, frigid cold. So It was kind of difficult to be able to play something outside but here you got all the weather resources. They can relish, so make the most out of it. That’s probably one thing I would say.
Melisa: No, that’s great, Josh. Definitely, you’re definitely right. So for everybody, if you are interested at any activity and you’re looking for a buddy, you will find many mentors or other mentees in the GIC community that can, you know, join you. So don’t be afraid to ask. Your mentors or when you come here when you meet us just say like hey I want to try this because I know I one previous mentor still owes me, a skydiving class because we agreed that we would go skydiving together. And you know you can find people that can do very interesting things with you. But thank you so much, Josh, for joining us. Again, if you have any other questions, please reach out to us. Josh will be your personal surfing trainer, so don’t worry. Just reach out to us. So you need any support, Josh will be there for you.
Josh: Well, probably you’re not in the right hands if I teach you surfing, but if you really don’t have anyone else, then feel free to come to me. Yes.
Melisa: Okay, oh no, well, you have to, you know, practice a little bit and learn, right? So, thanks a lot, Josh, for, taking the time and yeah, we look forward to going on infectious for taking the time and yeah we look forward to going on adventures altogether.
Josh: Thanks.
Melisa: Thanks everyone. Awesome!
Josh: Thanks for your time Melisa
Melisa: Yeah sure of course!