Posted on

Dear Week 0 Nancy

Dear Week 0 Nancy,

You’re going to love week 0 so so much. Don’t miss out on the hypnotist show because that was so crazy and I’ve never seen anything like that. Take advantage of the Anteater Involvement Fair and get involved in clubs. Go to all their week 0 events and get free food and meet new people! Be a little uncomfortable and go to the dance workshops, even though you have two left feet. There’s so much free time during week 0 because you don’t have classes so take advantage of every second, because there isn’t going to be another week like this.

Please don’t fall behind. I know you’re gonna do it, but please try not to because ten weeks goes by SO fast. Before you know it, it’s midterms season and it’s gonna be crazy. You’ll be okay though because you have an amazing group of friends in your hall to help you cram for bio and chem which helps so much when the final comes around. I didn’t skip any classes this quarter, and I’m glad I didn’t because you need to go to class. Don’t kid yourself, you’re one of those people who needs to have a teacher explain it to you. Also, please read your bio textbook, otherwise the lectures will make no sense, learned that the hard way.

Take advantage of late night! Having Pippins and the Anteatery open until 12 is honestly a blessing, especially if you plan on staying up late, which you will. Pippins usually doesn’t have much, but it’s only an 8 minute walk across campus to the Anteatery. Take some of your hall mates and it’ll be your own little adventure/study break.

You don’t think much of it now, but you’ll love your card holder phone case. Honestly, I had to survive without it for a week because I broke it, but it’s a lifesaver. Always having your credit card, ID, and room key with you is the best because you never have to worry about remembering to grab any of those things. The week I broke it, I got locked out three times and couldn’t eat because I didn’t have my ID. I ordered one right away!

It’s only been a quarter into the school year but I’ve grown and have so much advice to give. Like for high school, please take as many AP classes as you can handle! I regret not taking more because more AP credits gets you a higher standing and earlier registration windows to make sure you’re on track!! It doesn’t sound like a big deal but when your friends are scrambling for classes, you’ll be thankful you took so many and entered UCI as a sophomore.

Wrapping up this quarter was hectic, but now I get to enjoy my three weeks off before winter quarter starts and I take classes for my new major, business economics! Wish me luck and happy holidays!

Sincerely,

Nancy

 

Posted on

Farewell to Finals, For Now

Dear Brandon ten weeks ago,

What’s up dude what’re you up to? I bet you’re playing video games huh. Stop playing video games and start studying boy you know better. Just kidding keep doing what you do and you’ll be fine, but please try and take better care of yourself during finals. We got through and did pretty well, (hopefully) but eating only a sandwich and coffee cake  because you can’t be bothered to stop studying really isn’t a good idea. You already eat so little already, any less and you’ll turn to dust. Grades are important but you know they don’t matter in comparison to your health, even though at times that idea may be hard to comprehend. Oh, and sleep more! Yay, no morning finals, that doesn’t mean you should sleep at 5 am every night. I wish I didn’t get into such a bad sleeping habits because the effects are tangible. You may be tempted to stay up all night studying. but don’t do it! It’s not worth it! Try not to let the stressful atmosphere of finals get to you either. I feel like there’s such a negative atmosphere that consumes UCI when finals come around, and I suppose that’s for a good reason, but for me personally seeing everyone else stressed makes me feel more stressed. It’s awesome seeing how the school tries to address it though. At middle earth at least they brought in puppies and offered free scantrons and other amenities. Kudos to the school for supporting the students like that. Well, I’m about to take off for San Jose. I’ve never written a letter to myself before so I’m not sure how I do this… I guess until the next time, have fun and study hard.

Sincerely,

Present time Brandon

Posted on

Finals Finale

Its been a tough week, full of studying, late nights, and not much fun if I’m being honest. But the most important thing is that ITS OVER. We all managed to survive our first finals here at UCI and I wanted to share some of my more memorable moments with you, the readers. Overall I had only two finals that I had to study for, one being the Environmental Engineering 60 class and the other being Math 2A. So I guess I was lucky since I could leave UCI and go home by Wednesday.

Studying for the Environmental Engineering final was essentially deciphering the PowerPoint presentations of our professor as well as reading over our notes. The PowerPoint presentations seemed to be more geared towards helping the professor remember what topics she needed to cover in class rather than for the students to use as study material. At this point I should also mention that there was no study guide but the final was not cumulative, meaning that it would cover material that was from the second final onward. When I heard that the final was not cumulative I felt so relieved because the amount of information I thought I would have to cover just became halved if not less than half. Either way, I was pretty confident going into the final but when the test came out, some of the questions made me question my understanding of English. Some questions were worded so badly that if someone didn’t read it over at least 5 times they would be confused as to what the question would be asking. That actually happened to my friend because he never heard the term “canary in the coal mine” before. The question was essentially asking what species of animal was the “canary in the coal mine for DDT. For those who don’t know when someone calls something a canary in the coal mine they mean “Something or someone who, due to sensitivity to his, her, or its surroundings, acts as an indicator and early warning of possible adverse conditions or danger.” So the species that indicated that DDT was bad for the environment was actually the Bald Eagle and I chose that but my friend was unfortunate enough to never hear the idiom “canary in the coal mine” in his entire life so he told me he probably got that one wrong. Regardless, the test was not the most fun thing to do because of the wording of the questions, so I guess be prepared for that?

Math 2A was a whole different story as the math department actually gave out sample finals for the students to prepare. That being said, when it came time to take the final, the entire thing seemed to be on special cases like log and e^x. So the practice finals actually helped for around 20% of the final. I finished my test with about 5 minutes left on the clock and when I went to turn in my test, I looked around and couldn’t spot the other people I came in with so I assumed that I took too long. As I was going back to my seat to grab my stuff the proctor said that he needed everyone to sit down for the last 5 minutes of the test, even if you were finished. So there I was, exhausted beyond what’s humanly capable and really forward to sleeping my stress away, but forced to wait for the last five minutes in the room. I couldn’t access my phone or talk so I just sat there staring at the second count down for 5 minutes. I gotta say it was similar to those movies where you see the kid just staring at the clock waiting for the bell to ring, just multiply that by a millennium and a half. Regardless, I eventually made my way out and managed to catch up with my friends to go grab some well-deserved ramen at the University Town Center mall.

I gotta say, finals in college is definitely not like the ones in high school. The ones in high school you could pass by just cramming the night before, but in college if you try and do that I can tell you right now, you are gonna have a bad time because there so much material to cover that it would take at least a couple days to fully remember the information. After finals though, you feel like you worked hard enough to deserve the break. That’s where I’m at right now, at home, relaxing, reminiscing about finals preparing for that day that every kid loves, Christmas.

Merry Christmas Readers!

-Josh

Posted on

Thanksgiving Break

First and foremost I would like to apologize to the readers for being late to write this post, but on an entirely different note my Thanksgiving break was pretty traditional. My mom made food for my whole family, we went over to my uncle’s house in Chino Hills, since it was the only house large enough to accommodate everyone, and we stuffed ourselves full of turkey, ham, and other foods we would feel guilty about later. This year my mom brought mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, turkey with stuffing and ham, while one of my uncles brought either stingray or skate and seafood pasta. The stingray or skate was seasoned with what tasted like Cajun seasoning but I was not 100% sure and the pasta had shrimps and surprisingly large scallops mixed throughout. With all this great food I was expecting to be eating lots but that was not the case this year, but my time at UCI, eating at the Anteatery, caused my body to not be able to take as much food as it did before. Granted, this is probably a good thing since I am also not as active as I once was so it helps to keep me in shape.

Besides the food, my oldest cousin actually brought her boyfriend to this year’s Thanksgiving which was a nice change from the usual crowd. Also, I personally found some enjoyment when he tried to challenge a different uncle to a drinking contest. It was later that I would learn that the uncle the boyfriend challenged had the highest alcohol tolerance in my family. From there, the table started to shrink as people would move to the couches or beds upstairs to fall into their various stages of food coma while many of the younger people stayed at the table making small talk. As it usually does every year, the question of “do you have a girlfriend?” got asked to both me and a cousin of mine. My cousin, being the more personable of the two of us talked for a while about his preferences and how he hasn’t found the right girl and stuff. Then when it came to my turn I tried my hardest to avoid the question and ended up stammering out an answer that seemed sufficient enough to just get me past that question.

The conversation then changed to sports, both e-sports (which I had the most knowledge about) and traditional sports (which I knew nothing about). This was where the uncle that owned the house we were having Thanksgiving at, chimed in that Lonzo Ball is having his house constructed somewhere nearby. Since there was some basketball fans at the table we hopped into a car and drove over. When Ball’s house came into view the first thing that struck me was the color, I’m not sure if they just chose the first color that was on the options sheet or decided to get cheaper paint since the house was so big, but either way it looked about the same shade of orange that our president is comically depicted to be. Even though the house itself covers 3 acres of land I personally wouldn’t live there.

After we returned from the house, it was time for dessert followed by packing up the leftovers. Dessert was nothing special just a tiramisu cake my mom also brought but it was good regardless. I wasn’t part of the leftover division committee so I just chilled on the sofa and thought about what I was going to do once I got back to UCI. I know that finals are quickly approaching but it was definitely a well deserved break to recharge and prepare for the end of fall quarter. That being said, I have a problem with breaks because I go a bit too crazy when I have no obligations to do especially when I have a computer that can run a game or two (which the one I am currently typing on can). What it boils down to is that I managed to mess up my sleeping schedule to the point where I can’t fall asleep until around 3am. And since I wake up on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 8am for class, its probably not the best idea to be running on 5 hours of sleep. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my Thanksgiving break; a time for turkey and troubles with circadian rhythm.

 

Zot On!

Posted on

Thankful for the Rest

To be honest, I’ve never really been a fan of Thanksgiving. Turkey’s okay, but without gravy it can be pretty dry and bland. I also feel like the day is usually pretty boring in general, with a lot of sitting around and small talk. This year wasn’t really different in any way, but I found that I enjoyed the event much more than I had in previous years. After being away from family, and having to eat Pippins food for months now, (not that it’s terrible or anything) I was more than happy to eat turkey and mashed potatoes and listen to my grandparents talk about unknown topics in Korean.

Thanksgiving this year was like a rest point in a long road trip, and it was really nice to touch base with everyone back home. When I was back in nor cal, it was like I had never left. I felt however that everything was much better than I remember it being. I think it has to do with perspective, and as cliche as it is, I definitely appreciate the conveniences and comforts of home a lot more now. It was so nice being able to walk literally two feet out of my room into the shower, without having to wear flip flops or anything at all. It probably doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but it’s the little things like this that I feel make home so comfortable in a special way. My room, my neighborhood, and the atmosphere all brought back a lot of nostalgia for me. The night before my flight back to Irvine, I was actually not looking forward to going back. Not because I dislike Irvine, quite the opposite. I was just sad to leave home again, maybe even more so than at move in.

I know it’s only been about three months that I’ve been away from home, but it still feels like a long time since I haven’t spent that much time away from home before. Even though I’ve adjusted to dorm life fully at this point, I still really enjoyed being home and kind of going back in time for a bit. Of course I still had finals in the back of my mind, but for the short break, I was thankful that I was able to forget about my worries and enjoy the familiarity of my family and home.