Winter Quarter 2012

I just submitted my last assignment for winter quarter and it was a final paper assignment. I must admit that this final season felt very exhausting. But, I remembered to take big breaths here and there. I don't really know how I did on my classes as of now, but I really hope I did better than I thought. I just have to say that winter quarters always seemed most stressful and intense for me ever since I was a Freshman.

I took 4 classes this quarter, so I won't be behind on double majoring and having a minor, and so I can graduate this Spring. In fact, I think I have taken four classes ever since sophomore year, so that's about 16 units every single quarter. I really hope it pays off. It was a lot of work. Next quarter, however, I believe I only have to take three required classes, so only 12 units! And, that's all the classes that I plan to take for credit! I can't have my last quarter filled with a lot of work. I just don't want that.

I want to take a language class--either German or Vietnamese. But, those classes will not be taken for credit. The Vietnamese and German class are assigned on the same day and day, so I can only choose one. The Vietnamese class is funded by a grant provided by Associated Students of UC Davis and I think textbooks will also be provided.The Vietnamese class is for beginners, which works well for me since I have no knowledge of Vietnamese. I only know a handful of vocabulary like "Pho Ga," "Saigon," and "banh". And, I only know what "Pho Ga" means and only learned that word because I love pho. The German class is one of those classes offered by International House Davis and it is conversational for all levels. I also only know a handful of phrases, such as "Guten Morgen," "Entschuldigung," "Guten Tag," "Ich Bin Dein Gummibär," and lederhosen. I think learning German will be fun and I been wanting to do that for a while, especially since I really want to travel to Austria and Germany in the nearby future.

I'm also going to continue my two internships next quarter. Also, next quarter is when both of the internships will start adding on more work.

I finished winter quarter and my second last quarter of my university life. Kind of difficult to believe. Now, one more quarter left. Luckily, there is spring break in between the two quarters!

Memory of taking School Buses

It was about the time that I reached high school that the school district buses stop providing transportation to school in the morning and back home in the afternoon for the majority of the students in the community. However, before that point, I have taken the school buses during middle school. I like taking buses if it was a good experience, but there were many awful memories that related to the buses during middle school.

I would have to wake up early in the morning just to walk and catch the bus. I, along with a few other students waited in a certain spot for the bus to come. The waiting spot to catch the bus to middle school was in a spot that was in the street area that was behind homes. At times, it would be very windy and the dirt or whatever else in the ground would be picked up by the wind or the passing cars and we would have to turn our heads, so that the dirt or such wouldn't get into our eyes.

I remember this one specific bus driver we had, she was always late. I hated it. She wasn't late by like 5 or 10 minutes. It was so much longer than that. There were times that she didn't even come until like 30 minutes to 1hr later. That meant, that me and other students were the last ones waiting in front of the school, while other buses already came and left. We just had to sit there and hoped that a bus would come soon. Once she came, she always had this stern face on her and I don't ever recall her apologizing for her lateness. I remembered this one time she was angry with some of the students in the bus, so she made us sit three per seat. I disliked that since regularly it was two people to a seat and it felt really tight and we were all so close together.

I also didn't enjoy the busing experience because some of the students on the bus would be very rowdy. I also noticed how there was bullying that occurred in the buses or that people didn't want to sit with a certain person.

I didn't like that although my home is less than a 10 minute drive from the school, I would arrive home much later. I would have to wait for the bus to come and stop at the first destination.Then, eventually, stop at my destination, which happened to be last. Then, I would have to walk for a good 15 minutes before I actually came to my home.

On the other hand, I did like that the buses provided us transportation. It helped provided a lot of students a ride to school, especially for those students who had parents who had worked early or just couldn't get a ride to school by means other than walking. My mother didn't find it necessary to drive me to school most of the time since there was already free transportation that took me to school.

When the buses were proposed being cut, there were many who opposed. I remembered a statement from someone who opposed the cuts recommended saying something along the lines of "would you want your own children taking the walk to school?" to the board members. I just thought it was a powerful statement. It helped me realize that taking the bus, was in part something that had been provided to the students and is a part of their safety.

It was hard to realize that the bus system that I had available to me wouldn't be available to my younger siblings. I would be the only child that had the bus experience. Nowadays, my younger siblings don't take the bus and are provided a ride by car or my dad walks with them to school up until middle school. During elementary and middle school, my younger siblings won't know what it's like to walk and have it suddenly rain on your without no umbrella and all you can do is keep walking. I'm glad that my younger siblings won't be presented with the same conditions I had and that they have reliable transportation to school and home.

Revisiting my Dorm

Just this year, I found out that my former dorm building was being destroyed! I used to live in L building in Tercero. I visited the dorm complex today and the building is still there, but the whole building will be gone soon enough. Other old dorm buildings will be destroyed as well. I couldn't walk very near or see much because of the wall and fences, but I still managed to get a few glances here and there.

The dorm was a place for a lot of my university memories as a freshman.

I remember the time when we left the window open in our dorm room and all of a sudden these small flying bugs came into our room. And, by that I mean, bugs that seem like they were coming by the hundreds. So, how did we handle the situation? Well, it seemed that they were attracted by the light so, we closed the light in our room. Also, we tried squishing them with napkins and such, but there were too many. Then, we thought why not spray them too. With my roommates permission I asked to spray one of my perfumes since she can't handle strong odors. I ended up spraying the army of little tiny creatures until there were no more. What a night.

I liked that there were other people living right across and in the upper floors. It was convenient when I had the same class as some of them. I also met my housemates for my sophomore year in the dorms.

Oh, and there was the first week of class. My foot felt very itchy and didn't discover the problem until I came back to my dorm room. It was a very huge bug bite, which happened to be a allergic reaction to some bug. I have not had a bug bite that size before. It was very itchy and I just wanted to bite it off.

This mural lead to the laundry room in the first floor. Some people found it creepy. I just found weird. I think better murals could have been there. And, while I was still living in the dorms, there was talk of designing murals. But, I guess that hasn't happened and won't be happening any longer.

The bike parking lot! I rarely ride my bike to campus. I enjoy walking! Oh, and I lived directly across from one of my classes building during my freshman year. It was very convenient!

Yes, the L building. It stood for Ladies building. Only ladies occupied this building, so I didn't really get to meet that many guys.

And, after all those memories, the old dorm buildings are being destroyed!

Fence around the old dorm buildings.

A very huge wall that covered the dorm buildings. It was a very tall wall. I couldn't see anything over it, except the trees.

Another view of the construction.

I knew that the dorm building that I lived in was pretty old. But, I didn't think it was old enough that it was going to be torn down for new buildings. I guess that's good for the upcoming generation of university students. The university has changed from when I first came and it will continue to change. Gosh, I'm just thinking of how it would look 10, 15, or 20 years from now. That's kind of hard to take in and that the future awaits.