the beginning of the end.

4 times out of 5, when someone asks me where I am during the school day, I would say "work", on my way to work, or i just got off from work. I truly spend most of my time when I am on campus, at work.

My role as the Stay-Over Program Coordinator is almost coming to a close. Today marks the last day of hosting for the 2008-2009 school year and it was quite a bittersweet moment. While I was glad the stress of processing applications and finding hosts was pretty much over, I knew I only had one more month left. All thats left to do is create a manual for next year and create statistics and demographics to see our accomplishments this year.

If you don't know what the Stay-Over Program, it is basically a shadow program where prospective high school students get to follow around a current student (usually a freshman) and get to experience the day in a life of an anteater. It's their opportunity to not only see what college life is like, but more importantly, to see what college life is like at UC Irvine. The hosts take them to classes, clubs, organizations, the ARC, take them to commons, introduce them to dorm friends, have them spend the night in their dorm room, and really have the opportunity to share their experience and knowledge. All in hopes to hopefully get them excited not only to go to college and more importantly, UCI. (sounds familiar, huh? Just need to add one more P to that acronym)

While I didn't get to do the hosting myself, which I would have like to do, it was still another experience coordinating it all. This job, different from my other positions I have had, really gave me the opportunity to be a little more personable with my role It was my little project in which my partner and I had to create a theme, order T-shirts and gifts, get paper work ready, and foster the program from beginning to end. While that gave me satisfaction, what gave me more satisfaction was when guests checked out and watching them interact with their hosts. Hearing in the halls "I had so much fun, I can't wait to go here" or "Thank you so much, I want to go to UCI now" has to be some of the most rewarding experiences.

It was also amazing to work with a partner who I clicked with from the beginning at our group job interview. It seemed like we were always on the same frequency which made the job easier. It was fun to able to share stories with one another about our favorite guests or host, as well as having a partner that supported and understood you when the job got to be a little too much.


I really feel this is a viable part of UC Irvine, because it puts UC Irvine in such a good light and is a very unique program to UCI. Not many schools offer such a program and thats what makes it so special. I leave this year really proud of what I have accomplished. While there were bumps, it seems like we did a really good job, and dealt with the increased amount of guests who wanted to participate in the program well.

and....the shirts and the bags were sick.

What would you do?

A couple nights ago, I managed to find some time to snag a TV show that I was kind of interested in watching when I saw commercials. It has different scenarios, similar to Boiling Point, but rather than testing how long someone takes to get ticked off, it instead examines human reaction in different social scenarios.

One particular example that i was very intrigued with was this particular scenario where a stranger comes up to you and ask you for not for some money, but rather, for some gas. At a time when our economy is a mess and when gas prices had climbed to almost five dollars a gallon, how would one react to such a scenario and what would you do in this position.

While this is not a scientific study, there were some interesting observation made about this experiment:
- when a male was the subject asking strangers for gas, he didn't have the greatest success rate
- however, when a female was the subject and asked strangers for gas, she had about a 75% success rate, no matter what kind of car she was driving. (they experimented to see the difference if the woman had a cheap car or a nice car.
-when a thick accented immigrant male asked strangers for a gas, there was an interesting finding. He had a very high success rate when he asked males for gas, but was rejected from every female he asked.

A thing to note about the immigrant was that he was one of the males that offered assistance to the female subject that was in the experiment earlier. He was an immigrant that had just come to the United States a year before and was someone who commuted thirty miles each way to work in a resturant. Someone like that doesn't have much money himself, but he was willing to not only give up some of his gas to help the women, but he came over to her car to help her put the gas in a tank...in the rain. When asked why he did what he did, his response was...
"Because she needed help."

Something simple as that. No strings attached. Just because someone needed help, he performed a simple act of kindness. Living in such a competitive world where everyone tries to get to the top, its easy to forget that we also live in world where other people exist . We also forget that we really can't make it in this world alone and there are so many things that aren't possible if we didn't get a helping hand from someone else.

Simple acts of kindness are underestimated. To me, if someone shows such acts of kindness, it means a lot to me.

Like the saying goes, "A little goes a long way"

Take the time out of your day to just help that other person make it through the day a little easier, and you will see how the rewards will benefit you more.

Was the juice worth the squeeze?

Tis the end of another quarter, and I don't think I can leave relieved. Most people enjoy finishing their finals and hoping for a fresh new start or something new in the spring quarter, but I'm leaving Winter Quarter with a bit of uncertainty and not quite sure what to look for in Spring. There have been so many things that have happened this past quarter, even this past Finals week that has me thinking, "what am i doing?" or "what have i done?". It's those things where you feel like you are putting so much effort, so much of you, your turmoil, emotions, time, energy, and the outcome isn't what you quite expected. You shoot for the moon, yet you still fall short of the stars. Was everything worth it?

My mom told me that this new lunar year would bring me the greatest emotional roller coaster. I will feel the highest of my highs, and fall to the lowest of my lows. I feel like I have started experiencing that already, and its only been about two months in. Uncertainty can be so thrilling yet so scary at the same time, but I guess thats what life is really like.

I did something that I have finally got to do. So much time bottling it up and pretending that it was okay and finally allowing it to be released. I don't know where this is going to lead to, but I hope to find some kind of conclusion to it. It's not done. However, from this point, I ask myself, "Was the juice worth the squeeze?"

A New Way.

"The greatest thing is not so much where we stand, but in what direction we are moving."
-Oliver Wendall James, Jr.

It'll be interesting where this new direction is going to take me...

I can't wait.

Karma

So i was taking a midterm the other day and the person's stomach sitting right next to me started growling. It would happen multiple times and it was kind of distracting. I remember laughing to myself and thinking, "Damn, I guess someone should have ate lunch while they studied."

Ten minutes later, my stomach started growling. Twice.

take a second.

The other day, I was walking through the Student Center's bottom floor where all the conference rooms are and a flashback just struck me. I remembered a sea of incoming freshmen, spots of a golden t shirt here and there, signs that read Camino or Bahia raised above the crowd and of course, long tables in the middle of the lobby filled with the same food I had eaten so many times already.

I then continued to take the elevator to the third floor to partake in an interview I had done two times before and was now going for a third time...

What a split second can do for you.

My A-Z Happy Book

So while talking to a friend on a cold night, the topic of hot showers came about. We were talking about how cold we were and how much a nice hot shower would feel. He told me that if he had a happy book, that Hot Showers would be in it. Then I said, if I had a happy book, then garlic would be in it. That is when the idea came to my head...wouldn't it be interesting if i made an A-Z Book of what makes me happy? This is only made possible because I am on winter break right now and this is what helps keeping me busy besides work and the book I am reading....hope you enjoy and maybe get you inspired to make your very own.

Apples....growing up, apple based desserts have always been something that i seem to drawn to. Whether it be apple pie, apple crisp, caramel apple, or apple filling and pie crust with cold stone ice cream, the taste of cinnamon and apples has always brought me comfort. I would usually always prefer and apple dessert over any chocolate one.

Biology...Okay, forgive my moment of nerdiness. This is actually a recent discovery I had made and I hate to say this now but it was a "little too late" discovery for me with me three years into college already. Ironically, I thought I pretty much hated biology up until about a year ago. My sophomore year biology teacher in high school was such a douche that it made me really hate biology. I applied as a chemistry major because my first chemistry teacher in high school made it so interesting. Little did I know when i took my first biology class in college is when i discovered how much I like biology so much more than chemistry. Mostly, I enjoyed physiology and how everything worked together to make sense. One of my guilty pleasures is finding really cool biology animations on youtube and learning from those.

Cleaning...the thing about cleaning is that it's not the act of cleaning that makes me happy, it is the result of cleaning that makes me happy and keeps me motivated to keep cleaning. I like to see a difference in things and noticing the difference is what makes me happy. Like seeing a messy room suddenly have so much more floor space, or go from dirty carpet and being able to see the lines after your vacuum, cleaning and seeing the difference gives me a great sense of accomplishment and plus its always nicer to live and work in a cleaner space.

Disneyland. Honestly, everyone should have this in their happy book. I don't think I ever fully appreciated what this place could be until I bought my first annual pass. during February of my first year. Given the first fact that amongst the stress of college, it was a good escape to go to bring you back to your childhood and bring out the inner child in you. It was nice that it was only a fifteen minute drive and if you felt like you had a really bad day or were just looking for a fun place to go with your friends, you could rely on your Disneyland pass (given you weren't blocked out). I think the moment I truly discovered what Disneyland really meant to me and the true reason why Disneyland is in my happy book occurs for a couple weeks during the holiday season when Disneyland transforms into something truly magical. Just looking at the lit up castle, the huge Christmas tree, decorated main street, and watching the most amazing fireworks show really brings me to an entire new place where it just washes away all my worries and stresses.

E....:) Just Kidding. well...kind of. haha

Friends and Family... nothing makes me more happy than the people I choose to surround myself with. Theres nothing more I can say, but I feel like i have been able to associate myself with some of the best people ever.

Garlic - Everything just taste better with garlic don't you think? Well, not everything, but garlic does taste good with a lot of things. I like to even eat cooked garlic by itself. I used to hate the smell of garlic on my fingers after I had cut them up, but I've grown to appreciate that smell now. Yum...garlic!

Hot showers - I think this is the inspiration behind me starting this A to Z Happy Book. It's especially relevant during these cold times when nothing feels better than a nice hot shower when you are freezing your ass off.

Ipod... I've had my Ipod for about two and half years now and although the battery life isn't too long now , it's still serves as great company for me. It's those short moments where I'm walking from class to class, or I am waiting by myself for something, or I'm driving my lonely self in my car that it's there for me to keep me company with my favorite songs playing. It makes that walk, wait, or drive that much better.

Jon and Kate plus eight. This is probably my greatest guilty pleasure on television. When there is a Jon and Kate marathon on TLC, I can be glued to that television the entire day. I don't know what is so fascinating about that show, but i seriously can not get enough of it. It's probably the fact that I'm so intrigued of how that family functions with so many kids or that those kids are the cutest things that has ever existed. Whichever it is, I'm stuck. It's amazing how the two of them can run a household in such order with 8 kids running around recklessly. Omazing.

Korean Food - Nothing can warm up my body up quite like Korean Food; its like my soul food. Whether it be scarfing down all you can eat Korean BBQ or eating Kim Chi Ji Gae and Soontobu on a cold day, Korean food has the ability to always make me feel better. Plus it taste pretty bomb dot com.

Laundry...this is probably my favorite chore to do. I like several aspects of laundry, from the aspects of getting my clothes cleaned, taking out warm laundry from the dryer to refilling my shelves and closet with my clothes.

Mean Girls ...as much as we all had to admit, this is definitely the movie of our generation. I think it really describes our generation in a very satirical, but truthful way. I think the majority of us can relate to it because either we were those characters on the show or we knew people that were characters on that show, plus they are just some classic lines in that movie that I use all the time in my daily life. "GOD KAREN, YOU'RE SO STUPID!"

Noodles - I've always had a thing for nooodly-typed foods. Whether it be friend noodles, chow fun, pho, ramen, or udon, its my choice of carbs over rice.

Omelettes - one of my favorite breakfast foods of all time. I really miss the omelettes from commons that i would always go eat on the weekends at brunch with my hall mates. Those were the morning after meals after a night of drinking where we would share our drunken stories. But in general, an omelette is a great comfort food for me

Pals- My Pals in MCIA are really the best and I didn't really get the whole idea of Pals and how exactly I would fit in with my Pals, but after hanging out and spending time with my Pals, I think i was truly placed in the right pal line and couldn't have asked for a better group. We as pals have our crazy "Good But Bad" fun, but when it comes down to it, I can depend on them to be there when i need them, even if its just someone that can listen to me.

Quiet - amongst my crazy and busy life, when i get a moment to have peace and quiet away from it all, nothing feels better.

Rain Driving - Despite the fact that rain usually brings on the cold and wetness, there is one aspect of the rain that really soothes me and calms me. I've always enjoyed driving in the rain, except on the freeway, that just scares me. I find it kind of therapeutic the sound the rain makes when it hits your car and how my windshield wipers wipes off the water. It goes back to that whole cleaning thing where I feel like my windshield wipers are wiping clean the water off my windshield.

SPOP. This was the most obvious one for me. This is probably the biggest thing on this list that makes me happiest. Ever since I started college, my life has been pretty much revolved around the world of SPOP. I fell in love with UCI because of my experience as a spopper, then I became a spop staffer for the next two summers. There is no way i could describe the experiences I went through going from a spopper to a staffer and ultimately, a returner this past summer that would amount to what this program has meant to me and what it has done for me the past couple of years. I have had so many memories, made some of the most amazing friends, learned so much from my experiences with the program. I have been so lucky to be a part of this program thus far and i will cherish everything i have gained from SPOP.

Texts - there usually nothing that gets me a more simple happiness than having a conversation over texting. its just unfortunate that i don't have unlimited texting.

UCI - Going into college, UCI wasn't one of my first choices. I was the typical story of wanting to go to UCLA or Berkeley but only got into UCI. Plus, my brother was already going to UCI so I knew I would be living in the shadow of my brother when i first entered UCI. Little did I know how much I would fall in love with UCI and everything that UCI has offered me thus far. I know now that this was the college for me and that i couldn't imagine myself anywhere else.

VEGAS....pool parties...Fat Tuesdays....bomb buffets...the Strip...steak and eggs...just wait till I turn 21. haha.

Wicked...for the longest time, I have heard stories of how amazing the musical, Wicked was. I was never a huge musical fan so i was skeptical when i went to go watch it. When i finally went to go watch it this past year, the musical had lived up to my expectations and so much more. It truly is as amazing as everyone says it is and i am so happy that i got the chance to see it before it left LA. Although, I am so down to watch it again.

Xmas Season.. I think if it weren't for this holiday, I would hate the winter season all together. I hate the cold and the winter season is all about being cold. However with Christmas, it brings along lights, trees, gift exchanges, Christmas at Disneyland, but most importantly this season is all about giving and cherishing your time with your loved ones.

Yucaipa, California...that places makes me happy because it has to do with something that I have been involved with for a very long time. It is where the Red Cross Leadership Development Center camp is held every summer and something I have been a part of since 2002. It's just a program that has always held a special place in my heart that can never be replaced. Although I did take a break from the camp this past summer, LDC has always been something that has made me happy and the people I have been able to meet through it has been people who have been the most supportive in my life.

Zyrtec...well I've actually never tried Zyrtec but I know it would make me happy if i ever did need to take it. My allergies are bad. Wait, thats an understatement; my allergies are the biggest bitch in the world. While most of the world gets annoyed and sneeze and gets runny knows, my sinus clogs everything and my body complete shuts down. If you catch me on a day when my allergies get to me, you will see me at the lowest of my lows and probably at one of my most miserable moments ever. That is why taking any medication that can help relieve my systems would probably make the the happiest person and since I think my body is immune to Claritin so i will take zyrtec now. My boss told me it works better.