Posted on

Blogger The Explorer

Zot Zot Anteaters, I hope you’ve all been well. Here today we’re going to change things up a bit, instead of our usual Ted talk about my life here on our beautiful campus. I’ll actually be talking about the places of our beautiful campus, as of now not many of you are going to know where this is but if you’re feeling adventurous ask around. I remember taking my time to explore the campus, so trust me you are in good hands. I could recommend you the most popular places on campus which you know that I know the admins are definitely going to beat me to. Instead, what I decided to do was be a little bit more adventurous/spontaneous and find somewhere cool and different. Unfortunately, the results weren’t really great. Our options were either unsafe/too far/unsafe and I really don’t want you guys going anywhere dangerous. Although I could sit here and tell you how I went through a swarm of bees and multiple creepy trails, it was all worth it because I had fun. Limiting every option that are rated R, I would like present to you:

DOOR NUMBER 1: Aldrich Park

Dear Anters, as much as I would like to tell you something else other than this. It’s really all that good, I spent most of my time at Aldrich. Here’s why because if I really wanted to have some ME time not to far from my dorm, Aldrich is definitely your best bet.

DOOR NUMBER 2: CONTINUING EDUCATION BUILDING

See what we have here is a sitting area for a calming and relaxing area for our education majors. Most of you who are curious as to where this is, it’s through the Continuing Education Bridge. Which you can easily look up on our helping navigation tool, “ZOT Finder”. By using this not only can you have a helpful guide to your classes but also a reliable map on our beautiful campus.

DOOR NUMBER 3: The ARC’s Zipline.

Sorry the picture is upside down, -_- for some weird reason it keeps rotating and I can’t rotate it. Just turn your computer around and you can see the picture just fine but basically, I don’t really know much about this unfortunately. I do know that the Arc handles this and can be a good source of information, also there are other activities that are being down here for anyone interested. That includes Dance, Boxing, Yoga, Karate “HIYAH” and everyone’s favorite weightlifting (physical labor, sorry gym bros).

Unfortunately, that is all I have for you.

Until next time take care and have a Zotti day (I’m so sorry this is cheesy).

Gotta blast…. BYEEEIIIII

Posted on

Walking for Self-Care

Every morning, I have the opportunity to smell the freshly-cut grass outside and feel a blanket of cold air against my cheeks. Walking my dog in the morning has become a vital part of my daily routine, and I now consider it a form of self-care. I find that waking up earlier than I typically would to take a walk creates structure for my schedule, as opposed to waking up a few minutes before my first class. In my experience, what I do in the morning can set the tone for the entire day, so practicing self-care at that time – by taking a walk, in my case – can be conducive to a productive day. 

Even if the walk is as brief as 15 minutes, you can still reap the benefits that exercise brings, such as decreased stress, improved mental health, and enhanced physical health overall. While I walk, I tend to observe my surroundings in order to take my mind off of the stresses that the coming day might bring, focusing on the birds chirping, the people passing by, or the other dogs that we might encounter during our walk. Alternatively, I sometimes treat the walk as a time to mentally plan out my day and prepare myself for the events and tasks I will have to attend to later. Either strategy, or a combination of both, can be used to make the most of the walk.

I looked into the UCI trails that friends on campus can take advantage of:

https://www.campusrec.uci.edu/stepup/trails/ant-trails.pdf

The guide above, courtesy of the UCI Campus Recreation Center, includes routes for long or short walks. While I have not followed these specific trials, as I do not live on campus, I would recommend them to anyone who seeks to incorporate walks or runs into their routine and support their self-care.

Your friendly neighborhood Undeclared major,

Sabrina

Posted on

Winter… New Quarter!

In the fall of 2021, I came to UCI, the big family I will live in for four years. Everything is new and attractive, but also confusing. After a quarter of exploring the campus and adapting to the courses’ tempo, I feel more confident about my life in Winter 2022. Instead, I lost a lot of opportunities to make new friends when in-person classes went online because of COVID-19. Now I just hope that the epidemic will get better soon.
 
In the fall quarter of 2021, my grades did not reach my expectations, which even made me doubt my decision on the future major for a period of time. However, I choose to stick to my belief that one failure is not enough to deny me, and I will work harder to prove myself in the following quarter. I plan to make appropriate time management and schedule for my life in winter to improve my efficiency. I think one of my biggest problems in the fall is that I did not properly adapt to the pace of life and reasonably plan my own time. In the winter quarter, I will make my life more fulfilling and compact through a more reasonable planning schedule.
 
I am a person who likes to concentrate on studying in the evening, but due to the covid and other reasons, I am trying to change my living schedule. In my previous blog, I introduced my favorite place, The Court, which is a large, 24/7 study room that provides a great place for me to study at night. But because of COVID-19, its opening hours were shortened dramatically so I have not been there since the start of the winter term. Therefore, I adjusted my study from evening to the daytime, and fortunately, I have adapted to it well so far. I hope I can continue this well-maintained daily routine all along this quarter.
 
To my great delight, the start of the winter quarter has been perfect for me. It even surprised me, except in the case of the more severe spread of COVID-19. I am so glad that I can choose all the courses that I want most, and even the professors that I want most in these courses. The course selection and planning that began at the fall quarter made me somewhat prepared, but the fierce competition in winter caught me off guard. Fortunately, the final result is satisfactory, and I also hope to get good grades in these courses in the following study.
 
Finally, I hope that all UCI students and staff be healthy and safe through the new quarter without being harmed by COVID-19.

A new self-study area just discovered last week… Love it!
Posted on

OH Clues!!! OH Clues!!!….

Its been a while since I’ve been staying at UCI and I love it. The campus is so lively and active especially at night, I’ve only been able to go to a few events because of how busy school work is and mostly because of the distance. Although I haven’t been able been to join any clubs, if there is one thing that I’ve learned from my time at UCI is you don’t need to be in a club to have fun.

I believe it was around week 6 when my roommate told me about the escape room that was hosted by the school near crescent bay. The only problem that I didn’t realize was that I needed to sign up for it which I probably would’ve known if I checked my email often. Due to my unawareness that I was supposed to sign up for the event, me and my friend were going to sneak in till we realized there was a whole group of people on the side in the same boat as we were. After a few minutes of waiting turns out a whole group didn’t make an appearance, so not only were we able to get in, we were also able to play together.

We walked in to what looked like a conference room that had just been knocked over by a hurricane, leaving seats all over the place and caution tape everywhere. On the tables were folder that were number accordingly and the goal was to solve them and get the passcode to win and escape. Unfortunately for us the biggest mistake we made was to mix in the folder because that made it difficult for us to know which code was for which case. Since we were timed we didn’t have the luxury of blaming each other, although I really wanted to (JK!!!). We retraced our steps and used our hints for the last few and were down to one more number, as the end was right around the corner so was the time quickly catching up. We put all the numbers for each of the cases and kept repeating it, while changing the missing number and escaped with 5 minutes to spare.

It was very fun and challenging, I was able to make friends with my brothers/sisters in arms. I definitely recommend this to any other student interesting in mysteries and puzzles or maybe your just trying to socialize and make new friends, either way its a win/win. This is your very own blogger coming at you live from homebase base signing out….

Posted on

Eating Wings and Attending Games

Throughout my time here at UCI, I’ve been able to attend many events that are held here on campus. Some sports events, club meetings, performances, etc. During weeks 7 and 8, I was able to go to two events: an in-person hall event and the club lacrosse team’s scrimmage.

In the Telperion-Laurelin towers in Middle Earth, RA’s host hall events that help bring everyone in our hall together. So far, my hall has had three events (all that have been super fun). The most recent hall event was last Friday; it was called “Don’t Wing It.” We were invited to have some chicken wings from Wingstop and listen to a presentation. At the event, my RA’s presented some tips and tricks about different topics. Since enrollment for the winter quarter is coming up, they shared some information about general ed classes available to take. They also reviewed how to enroll in classes and find our enrollment window. Finally, the RA’s shared some information about housing options for next year.

“Don’t Wing It” was probably my favorite hall event that we’ve had so far. Not only do I love Wingstop’s lemon pepper chicken wings, but I loved how I was able to learn more from my RAs. I appreciate them taking time out of their day to create an informational presentation about some useful tips. I didn’t know much about housing options on and off-campus for seconds years. Now, I have an idea of where I could start looking for housing. I highly recommend attending a hall event if your hall holds one!

My hallmate has been practicing with the club lacrosse team for the past 8 weeks, and just had his first scrimmage this week. I went to the game with a few other people in our hall. The game was at the ARC (the recreation center if you’re not sure what it is) at the backfields. It was my first time seeing a lacrosse game. It was cool learning about the sport and supporting the team. I learned a lot about lacrosse and how it worked. I recommend attending sporting events and games because of the fun energy! I’m looking forward to going to basketball games now that their season is currently happening.

If you see an event either on social media, campus groups, or your email that you’re interested in, don’t be shy to attend it! It’s a great way to explore UCI and meet new people.

If you’d like to see what else I was up to during weeks 7-8, check out this week’s vlog: