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How to see Events

“Individually we are one drop but together, we are an ocean.” (Ryunosuke Satoro)

When I was younger, I rarely watched any kind of sports games, not understanding why others would get so riled up, excited, or enthusiastic to watch and look forward to seeing their team’s games. That was until my high school marching band made us perform on the side as a pep-band for our home football games. At first I was just bored and confused, having one of my friends explain the rules and the plays during the game. And fans around us on the bleachers cheered for each touchdown, yelled with the cheerleaders, and sing along with whatever our band played, I was soon moving and cheering with everyone else, charged with the buzzing energy everyone seemed to bounce back and forth on our stands. Now I show to the games, a fan, a loud supporters for the Huskies!

Now in college, there’s practically club and program events every day; and with a school so diverse and large, who would’ve guessed otherwise. Each and every event is a way to show to a group that enjoy and support a common idea or cause. Each a different way to show pride and unity for what they enjoy, each a way that show’s everyone a part of our school’s pride. Currently, we have two huge events known and participated across campus. That being the highly anticipated basketball games and the new, revolutionary TA Strikes happening around campus. Both strong ways to show how we stick together, one being us against another university, to us standing together with other universities. These programs all have a power to them, an unspoken kind of aura that makes you only able to stand with them and work to a common goal. Big and changing or small and entertaining, events and programs at UCI are definitely something you’ve got to experience!

Hope I can see you at one one day,

Nicholas Chou

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Christmas Time is (almost) Here

First, it was the Christmas decorations showing up in stores. Then, I saw Christmas decorations in my friends’ dorms. And yesterday, I decided to join in on the fun and help decorate my dorm’s floor lounge. Christmas season is officially here. 

I would highly recommend going to your dorm events, especially so if your RA’s are as good as mine (shout of Santi and Sofia). At the event, there was everything needed to fulfill my festive desires. There was a TV playing Christmas tunes, free hot chocolate, an inflatable snowman, and of course, decorations to be put up. It was a lot of work but incredibly fulfilling. We put the lights up, inflated the snowman, and rounded the lobby out with little decorations. To make things even better, though, Clinton Kane, one of my favorite artists, released a cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” just after the event. The event activities were fun, but hot chocolate with Clinton Kane in the background was definitely a highlight of the night.

Our new and improved floor lounge ft. Caelan
Clinton Kane 😊

This winter break, I plan to go back home to finally see my family again. UCI is fun, but I have felt a little homesick at times, and I especially miss having a big bed to sleep in. But as of now, all I can do is focus on these last few weeks of the first quarter. Next week, my Chinese Association (CA) family is going to have a dumpling wrapping event, and I’m really excited about that. Past CA events, such as going to the arcade and painting tote bags, have been really fun, and going to events like these have helped me connect with other people and forget about the impending doom of finals for a while.

Hope everyone has a happy holidays!

Ian

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Club Activity Challenge Sport Thing

So I am apart of a dance crew: CADC or the Chinese Association Dance Crew and we are a competitive team. But like the name suggests, we are also a branch of the Chinese Association and as a branch, all of the dance team members have to be apart of the club. And I say “have to” because I did not want to be part of the Chinese Association itself because it meant club responsibilities and fams and the usual club stuff.

So as you can probably tell, I did not exactly approach my membership with overwhelming ecstaticness. My responsibilities became real in a few weeks after I joined the team. At the end of October-ish, my dance crew cabinet members required us to attend a Chinese Association event in support of the organization and I don’t even remember what we called it. I only remember hearing that it was “mandatory” and at that word, I was already dreading my attendance and drafting a super creative and undeniable excuse just so I could skip the event.

A week later, the sports day thing (which I later found out was called “CA Constituency” or something like that) was coming up and, despite my efforts, I did not have a super creative and grand masterplan to get out of it. The night before was also a beach bonfire with my actual team members (whom I adore) so I decided that I might as well just see how I feel and decide if I should just, I don’t know, call in sick. But I attended the bonfire and it turned out to be pretty fun and so I found myself looking forward to seeing my team again the next day.

So fast forward to the actual event, I put on a cute outfit and grabbed my book and a blanket (I knew it was at a park and I figured if I anything I’ll just break my ankle or something and just read and have a pretty, aesthetic afternoon). But when I got there and the games actually started, I found myself having a lot of fun. Like a lot of fun. We played a group game where we had to sing songs as a group on the spot based on a theme and I confidently carried my team with some other of my friends. I didn’t realize I had such a competitive side to me and it was exhilarating just screaming out of adrenaline. We played some other games too like charades telephones, which is exactly what it sounds like, and some relay race thing .

Overall it was a really fun time and we got free pizza at the end so I was pretty content. I guess the moral of the story is that being closed minded is for losers. Okay that might be too rough but I am sure you get the point. What I mean is that we, and when I say “we” I mean “I”, need to be more open to new experiences and new things. My initial dread became a feeling of gratefulness; a feeling that transformed when I looked back to what a good time I had. So yay to new college experiences! I will be sure to add this to my life lessons list and I am glad it contributed to my growth. From now on I will be sure to be more open minded and more willing.

For this post’s song which is just whatever song I am feeling in the moment that I am typing…

It’s: “PSA” by SZA which is technically still unreleased. I was just listening to SZA for like the entirety of my afternoon and it was such a good vibe. I am so excited for her album oh my lord finally after 5 years a new album. So yeah go listen to it if you like RNB and even if you don’t; it is just a really sick song.

Okay bye.

Callabunga,

jaden chung

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Always read your UCI emails! 

Hello Anteaters! I would like to start off by saying that you, yes you, should always read your UCI emails or any student email on a daily basis. Why am I saying this? Well, if I had not read my emails, I would have missed the opportunity to go to the special event, Dinner with the Anteaters. 

Back in October, The UCI Student Alumni Association sent an email about spending a meal with UCI alumni and other UCI students. I thought this would be a great opportunity where I could meet new people and take a much needed break from homework to learn about UCI alumni and their personal journeys and stories. I also had never heard of an event like this before. I also believe college is always about taking advantage of new opportunities and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. I ended up signing up and about a month later, I got a response saying that I would be attending a dinner on November 5th. The dinner was with two alumni and UCI students at St. Pepperoni Pizza, Irvine Location. The sound of pizza really stood out to me and it was a no-brainer that I would be attending ( I am kidding, but jokes aside, I was really excited to attend this event!)  

I think what really stood out to me from this event was how welcoming the UCI alumni were to us guests. They were just as excited as us to spend an evening together and gladly shared their college and career journeys.  One of my favorite parts of the evening was listening to all of the alumni’s advice. One of my favorite pieces of advice was to always ask for help and take advantage of all the opportunities available at UCI. This piece of advice stood out to me because as a first year, the whole college journey is new and scary at times. After listening to the ladies, I learned that everyone, including those who already graduated, walk through life with the same fearful thoughts as a first year. If one asks for help in the beginning, one saves themselves hours of stress. There is nothing wrong with asking for assistance, even if one desires to be a perfectionist and figure things on their own. 

I am so glad I went to this event! 

And remember to always read your emails!

Until next time, ZOTZOTZOT!

Yummy pizza!! 

HUGE gumball machine! I mean huge!

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Warm Hands, Warm Hearts

I’m the type of person who always has to be doing something with their hands– in high school, I had three primary outlets: the first was a hairtie that I’d absentmindedly contort into strange shapes; the second was a lump of putty that I’d squish and squeeze; and the third was a ballpoint pen that I’d spin around my fingers much to the chagrin of many of my teachers when I would accidentally drop it and make a loud sound.  At some point, I decided that I might as well use this restless energy for something productive, and that was how I fell in love with doing crafts (specifically crocheting, but that’s a story for another day).

Because of this, I was instantly drawn to the Made With Love club when I saw their booth at the Anteater Involvement Fair.  It’s basically an arts and crafts club, but with a philanthropic spin, as the club provides a space for members to try out new and different crafts, only for their creations to be donated to a charity.  The event I attended focused on sewing handwarmers (basically bean bags filled with rice that would hold warmth if microwaved).  I’ve only had a little experience in sewing, so it was definitely a learning experience.  But, in the end, I managed to make a functional handwarmer.

I’m sad to say that I finished at 8:30, I had told my ride that I would be done by 8, and in my haste to get home as quickly as possible, I completely forgot to take a picture of my work.  This is unfortunate in some ways (I texted my friends and asked them to wish me luck before I tried a new craft in a moderately high stakes environment and had nothing to show for it after).  But, it’s also a bit fortunate because my handwarmer was not the prettiest thing in the world, so you can all just imagine that it was much nicer than it was.

I had a lot of fun doing it though!  It was nice to leave my comfort zone but stay within the bounds of fun; I feel proud knowing that I could sew something if needed and fulfilled knowing that I was able to contribute to a good cause.