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Metamorphosis

Transformation is always a cool thing to observe, but it is even better to be a part of it. Fall quarter was truly a transformation time for me as I was transforming from a high schooler into a college student. And, you know what, it was really fun!

In general, the quarter’s been great for me. I managed to receive three As and one B which I am really proud of. This is definitely a result of a great work and big effort. The only thing that I carry out of this is that since I had four letter grades and not all four of them were As, there is clearly a room for improvement. There is no doubt I would like to keep up with that result this quarter. I will do my best to achieve an even better grades.

College is not only about grades, though. It is also about social life and making new friends. Thanks to the University Studies class I have made several new friends with whom I appear to have same classes this quarter! I am happy that things worked out like that because I was kind of sad when we had our last discussion for University Studies last quarter as I really enjoyed people there. Apart from acquiring some new acquaintances, I also hanged out with my old friends a lot. This really helps sometimes, especially when you fell frustrated and tired of studies.

After a good quarter comes a good break. That is absolutely true about me. I am very thankful to my parents that I have a possibility to travel all around the world and see new wonders that our world has to offer. This time I went to Sicily. Sicily is an island on the south of Italy, which is famous for its volcano called Etna, red oranges and very good vine. I witnessed a volcano eruption in person and this is truly an amazing experience.

Overall, my time at UCI has been great so far. Of course, there are certain things that I should improve in myself in order to become a better version of myself, but I am actively working on this an really looking forward for a new challenges this quarter has to offer.

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Finally a break!

I was really looking forward to Thanksgiving break. Not only because it implies 4-day holiday, but also because my parents came to visit me for my birthday and we wanted to celebrate during the break. We planned to visit Joshua Tree National Park.

I like traveling and explore what is around Irvine and California in general. I have already been to many places but there still much more to see. I also enjoy nature and hikes. What appears to have it at one place is any national park. So far I have visited 6 national parks in Utah, Arizona and California. I have a goal to visit them all one day. Therefore Joshua Tree was a good choice as I have never been there and it is comparably close to Irvine (about 2-hour drive)

I am usually free after 1 pm on Wednesday but this time I was actually free half an hour earlier so my parents picked me up and we headed to the park right away so we are don’t get to drive in traffic. This didn’t work, and we were moving slower that a turtle on the 55th highway.

We arrived to the hotel near the park long after sunset and just went to sleep.

The next day was awesome. We spent it exploring the park, hiking and taking pictures of those funny Joshua Trees and beautiful rocks. For the sunset I climbed the Key Mountain and took some amazing shots. We were “followed” by the biggest moon I have seen I my life. This was astonishing and breathtaking.

The next day we went to see Palm Springs cable car. It takes you to the top of mount St. Jack to at the elevation of around 8.5k feet. Wow! Those views were just “Wow!” There is also a hike on the top of the mountain that features several notches with a view so beautiful, you can’t even stop looking.

Returning back to studies and daily routine was kind of sad but at the same time I realized that I missed studies! That might sound strange but this is how it is. I am looking forward to the end of the quarter and to the beginning of the new one!

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Midterm Madness

Hey everyone! How’ve you all been? Thank you for having time to read this while preparing for your midterms! By the way, I have already had two and other two are on the way, so I’m already halfway through it, yay! I already got my scores and I did pretty well, which makes me really happy. I think, what really helped me is the fact that I have studied for it and was prepared. Now, that might sound a little boring, but the best way to succeed without hoping for any kind of luck is actually studying. It doesn’t have to be that you are staying up all night at Gateway on the day prior to the exam, instead, you better relax, revise and go to bed early. You just want to make sure you don’t ‘overstudy’ because it might have consequences. For example, my friend studied for the exam the whole night because he missed some lectures and had to study everything by himself. The next day after the exam we were discussing answers and his were so much different from mine. He was proving me wrong, being wholeheartedly sure about his knowledge, that at some point I started to think that I really might be wrong. As a result, after reading lecture notes (that I took when he was absent) and figured out that he has actually messed up a couple of things which made him pick wrong answers. Of course, I was sad because of this, but it also was a good example that night is not the best time to study as it is much harder to focus and remember everything. All in all, if it is was possible to study everything in one night, why would a quarter take 10 weeks to last, instead of having all the finals on Wednesday of week 1, for example?

It always feels better to be prepared than trying to catch up with 5 weeks of class at 3 am, right? I also think so! That is why I always tell this to myself when thinking about missing the lecture or a discussion. Again, this is boring, but it is what it is.

I hope you guys will find this both funny and helpful and will apply some of my experience to yourselves! Good luck to all of you! We got this!

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ZotIntroduction to my fellow Anteaters

What is up, everyone! My name is Nick and I am a new ZotBlogger! It is a pleasure for me to meet you guys!

Let me start off by introducing myself a little bit more than just a name. I am an international student from Ukraine, which is in Eastern Europe. Fun fact: Ukraine is the biggest country in Europe! I come from a big industrial city, not the capital, though, that is located in the Eastern part of the country and, therefore is close to Russia. The fun thing is that around 80% of the population there speak Russian as their first language, but schools, TV, radio and everything else is in Ukrainian which makes me a native speaker of both Russian and Ukrainian! I also speak English, as you may have already noticed and also know a little bit of German, so Gutten Tag meine lieben Freunde!

Ukraine`s biggest sport, as you may guess, is Soccer, so it should not be a surprise for you that I like playing it in my free time. What most definitely could surprise you, though, is that the main sport that I was doing is figure skating. I was doing it for 10 years before coming to study to the US and this is where I was able to achieve the most. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do either figure skating or soccer professionally as my main focus were studies and academic success, but I don’t regret it now as I have become an Anteater because of my academic success!

Now, that I`ve been an Anteater for 3 weeks already a can say that this is the best thing that has happened to me so far. Everything is new for me not only in terms of academics but also the culture and atmosphere. I am happy that I am involved in U/U ZotBlog. I think this is a great opportunity to see what are you capable if and to also use skills that you acquire in Writing classes. I am really looking forward to this quarter as I would like to declare my major, which I would really want to be the Business Information Management one, and continue to pursue my degree!

Thank you all for reading this piece! This is my first experience in that kind of job so I really appreciate the attention and the opportunity to try myself in this field! I wish you all a happy and successful quarter and lets ZOT this year together!