Hi everyone! I’m Nancy Duong and I’m so excited to be writing for the UU Zot Blog! A little bit about me is I’m from Anaheim (Disneyland!) which is about 25 minutes away from UCI.
Although I live close, I really wanted the dorming experience so I’m living in Valimar in Middle Earth. Side note, people say Middle Earth is the worst housing but I honestly don’t mind it. It’s close to classes, especially SSL and ICF, and nice and quiet. There is construction going on right now, so that’s a small hassle, but it doesn’t bother me. And, you can always go visit Mesa if you want too! I do it all the time since most of my friends live in Mesa and it takes about 12 minutes. Then you’ll get your steps in. Fun fact: I average 20,000 steps a day (about 8 miles) and my record so far is 27,034 steps (11.2 miles)! UCI’s campus is huge so you’ll get your exercise in. Especially if you have 10 minute gaps between your classes and sprint across campus like me.
So I actually applied to UCI as UU because I don’t know what I want to do yet, but that’s okay! This quarter I’m taking public health orientated classes: Bio Sci 93, Chem 1A, and Writing 39C. I quickly learned that I hate biology, so public health is not for me, but good thing I’m undeclared so I can take business classes next quarter! Anyways. week 3 came up so fast. Even though I was part of Summer Bridge, I was still thrown off by the quick pace of the quarter system (I have midterms this week!) and the crazy amount of reading for each class. The transition has been a little hectic because it’s so different from high school. I would definitely recommend investing in an agenda because professors will not remind you about assignments! Trust me, I’ve missed two deadlines already… Aside from academics, I’ve joined Mustard Seeds (predominantly Vietnamese Catholic group) and VSA (Vietnamese Student Association) along with going to a few dance workshops. There’s so much going on at UCI, you’’ definitely find something for you. Try something new! I’ve never danced before and have no rhythm, but still had fun at the workshops and met a lot of new people.
I can’t wait to keep sharing my year with you guys so stick around and join me on my first year journey and if you see me around campus please say hi! 🙂
