Pictures tell a thousand words...

... and because my blogs are usually more than a thousand and I am way too exhausted to do that, I am going to tell my story about today with pictures (and some descriptive words to explain the pictures).

I had a terrible nights sleep last night. I woke up around 4 and tossed and turned for about an hour until I started going in and out of dreams. I was having the kind of dreams that seem so much like reality that you think they really happened once you wake up. I kept dreaming that my roommate had to leave for work early. We would even discuss how she got called in and we would say good bye. When I would wake up, I would think to myself, "Yes! Now I can press snooze without worrying about waking her up." I proceeded to press snooze and attempt to fall asleep only to hear her rustling around in her bed. I was so confused. This kept happening until I looked at my phone and noticed that I had about ten minutes before I absolutely had to leave for class. I slapped some clothes on, grabbed a Luna bar and headed to class:

This is bike traffic at UCSB on my way to class.















This is what I studied in my first class.

I went home, filled out some flash cards for Primate Behavior, and was off to Plant Diversity. We discussed how Angiosperms use pollination to reproduce.

After Plant Diversity was Primate Behavior. This is an Aye-Aye. It is just one of the several primates we talked about today. I suggest you all look up pictures and/or videos of this primate. It is so ugly (I don't say that about many animals) and it has this really creepy, long, skinny middle finger that it uses when it eats. It's creepy.













After classes were over, I went home and snacked before leaving with my friend Emily for this hip hop class she takes every week. She told me about it a couple of days ago and she said that it is more of a cardio hip hop class than it is a dance class. She said that you sweat like no other. Well, before I left for Santa Barbara, I was going to a Buns Abs and Thighs (BATs) class that I deemed the hardest, most intense class out there. Let me tell you, BATs doesn't even hold a candle to this class. Granted, BATs is still challenging and an amazing work out, but this hip hop class was a whole other level. After this one and a half hour class, my hair was curly with sweat, my t-shirt was twice the size than it was when I first walked in, and I was emitting this body oder that I had never experienced before (I realize that's gross but I have to make sure you understand the intensity of this class). One time, I almost slipped on my own sweat that had accumulated on the ground beneath me. I am not exaggerating. This is me about 20 minutes after the class ended:

I ate some leftover dinner from the other night and then cracked down on physics. This is me 2 hours in:

This is me 4 hours in:

Not a pretty sight! This is what physics does to me. Well, now I am showered and ready for bed and I am not going to waste another second on not sleeping. Blog ya later! Good night moon.

College in full force...

With the combination of being tired, bored, and frustrated with my computer, I am not going to take the time to describe my weekend in detail. This will be a mere overview. This weekend has been extremely eventful. So, my last post was Thursday morning. I'll take it from there.

Thursday day/night:

Since I dropped my jogging class and only have lab once a week, I only had one class on Thursday. What did I do with the free time I had suddenly acquired? I studied. I had to! I wanted to go star gazing with the excursion club later. I've made a few friends from the excursion club now and some of them wanted to meet up and "pregame" (which means drink before attending an event for those who didn't know). I wasn't intending on being intoxicated while stargazing but, at my eagerness to get to know more people, I jumped at the opportunity. (Keep score, readers. So far, that is 2 nights in a row that I drank with friends.) Afterwards, we met up with the leaders and other members of the excursion club at Embarcadero Hall. We mingled for a while before heading up the mountains in our separate cars. My DD (sober, I promise) ended up losing the car we were following, we got lost. After about 45 minutes of trying to find our way, we gave up and found a spot on the side of the road that over looked the city and still had a beautiful view of the stars. It wasn't what we came up for but it was still amazing. I hung out with some friends once we got back for a little while and then, eventually, headed up to my place and went to sleep. 

Friday:

Friday-day was normal. I went to all 3 of my classes and was exhausted through all of them. I tried to study in between my classes because I was convinced to go out with some people that night. (Last wednesday a couple of sweet girls introduced themselves and, when they found out I haven't gone to a party despite the one I went to in my complex a week before, told me I had to go out with them that weekend) I said no at first, with the pressures of studying at hand, but like I said I don't want to turn down too many opportunities to get to know new people and experience new things. I was eventually convinced. Around 7, I went to a mass curry dinner. The cook made, what I thought was a vegetarian curry for me, only to be told later (during drunk banter) that he used chicken broth... it got ugly after that.

Anyways, after the dinner sabotage, I went out with the girls and a couple of my guy friends to Del Playa (night 3 of drinking with people). This is the party street that everyone at home was telling me to avoid because it's right on the bluffs and drunk people fall off occasionally. This is, also, the party street that everyone here was telling me I needed to go to. I decided I wanted to experience it. I definitely chose the right people to go with. They know everyone and everywhere to go. I met so many people, they have all turned into one big blur. It was a stimulus overload! There were hundreds of people walking on the streets, there were strobe/laser lights, fog machines, D.J.'s. People were dressed up or barely dressed. EVERY apartment was having a party. I don't know how they do it every weekend. It was an awesome night, needless to say. The El Dorado (my apartment complex) crew all met back up in the end and headed to Freebirds for some community nachos. It was a bonding moment ;). 

Saturday:

My day was dedicated to O chem reading. I am proud to say that I really did study all day. I went to the coffee shop and left my computer behind so I wouldn't be distracted. I even continued to study once I got home. I even told the people I went out with the day before that I wouldn't go out because I was in the mood to study. I continued to study while I was cooking for my roommate and me. I was so proud of myself. Then, my roommate got bored and really wanted to go out. I eventually caved and called up my friends who were out and about and told them we were going to meet up with them. We did. Four nights in a row people!! I never do this... EVER! I've done this once before while I was traveling, but that's it. I hope I have more will power to turn down a night or two in the future. I now understand why everyone calls this the party school. Anyways, we did the same thing. We party hopped. I got to go up to some balconies to overlook all the people which is insanity. We didn't stay out as long but we had our trip to freebirds afterwards again and met up with the El Dorado people. I hung out with everyone until I could not any longer.

Sunday:

Because I didn't get to study as much as I possibly could the days before, I punished myself by not going on the hike to the three pools I've been looking forward to all week and turned down an offer to go surfing. I cleaned my kitchen and bathroom and then studied immediately after. Around 5:00, I went for a sunset run. I thought my run would help with my lack of motivation to deal with my crappy internet and crappy physics, but it only made me want to shower and curl up in bed, only to fall asleep to a comforting movie. I tried to fight it but I have just been staring at a pile of unopened notebooks and textbooks for the last 3 hours. I took this unproductive moment to catch up on blogging an now I'm giving up and going to bed. There is no use in studying in this state of mind, I won't retain anything. Therefore, I am going to curl up in bed and watch Amelie now. Tomorrow is a start of a new week... a new, productive week.

Here's a picture of Del Playa to give you an idea of what goes on:

Granted, this is on Halloween, so this is more exaggerated then going on a regular weekend night. Picture this but with gaps in between the people... and less people.. and a little less costumes. I've decided that Isla Vista is Neverland. It's the land of lost kids with no parental supervision. This is the reality check to every kids' "world without adults." To all my elders who are reading this blog, don't worry about me. I still have my responsible tendencies. I am still the one at these parties who ends up taking care of the fallen, whether I know them or not. I am still the one that brings the bandaids and goes on water runs. I am Isla Vistas "Wendy." You have nothing to worry about.

Good night party people. I miss all of you guys.

work, play, work, play, play, play

I'm trying not to let too much play interfere with my work, but it's becoming challenging. I almost liked it better not having anyone to hang out with, I got a lot more done.This week has gone by so quickly. I know I said that last week went by slowly, which it did feel that way, but now the days are flying by; I can hardly keep up.
Tuesday was a good work day! I laid out a strict schedule for myself and, for the most part, stuck to it. I've really been trying to catch up, even get a head, and Tuesday was a productive day for sure. I came home after physics and blogged (keeping up with blogging is a challenge as well), and then went straight to Caje to study. I deliberately left my computer behind so I would have no distractions. I got all caught up for Primate behavior. My primate behavior teacher is starting to scare me with her "discipline" talk. Her words (read fast and in a british accent), "I hope you are all doing the reading because you will have questions from your text book and your reader, as well as from the lecture on your test, so if you fall behind in your reading, you will fail miserably. And, I grade harshly. Us british folk laugh at your hippy grading system. We do not grade on a curve, we grade harshly. So, you need to follow instructions to a T or I will be marking you off for every thing you do." I believe her too. There are always those teachers who try to scare you with this talk but turn out to be softies. I do believe this teacher though. She means business. Anyways, I am caught up with that class but not ahead. The rest of the day was really dedicated to doing my physics homework. My midterm is next week and I am definitely nervous. Fortunately, my professor is having a 2 hour study session next week and he gave us some problems to work on that will help us on the exam. Also, I found out that my neighbor, Anthony, is in the same class and he is really good, so I will probably be at his apartment everyday until the test. He's probably going to regret offering to help me. Later in the evening, I went to the excursion club meeting and that's always fun. Again, they have so many amazing things planned for this week, including some hiking trips this weekend of which I think I will be doing. Unfortunately, because I have fell behind slightly, I have cut myself off from further excursions until I feel like I have caught up enough to reward myself with one. After the meeting, I came home and continued to work on physics until I went to bed.
Wednesday was not as productive and I did more playing than working. I did work on my physics homework pretty much all day but that's because I was having a hard time with it. This also prohibited me from moving on to any other subject. By the time I finished my homework, I was over the idea of reading for Ochem, so I went to the BBQ that was happening down by the pool. I didn't stay for long because I couldn't think about anything other than how much physics frustrates me and I felt like I couldn't contribute to any of the fun. Later, after finally calming down, I went with some friends to go stargazing with the excursion club up on the watertower. We were fully aware that there were clouds covering the stars but we still thought it would be fun to hang out. Apparently, the excursion club didn't just want to "hang out" because they postponed the trip. We ended up hanging out later anyways which I probably should have just went home and studied... but I didn't. I'm glad I didn't though, it turned out to be a really fun night with some new people.

So, that's been the last couple days of my life. I have been asked by a few people for pictures. Just to let everyone know, I'm terrible at taking pictures. I don't mean talent wise, I mean the sheer action of taking pictures. I always forget my camera and even if I do have it I forget that I have it or I just don't want to do it. However, I will show you a picture of Caje the coffee shop I go to to study:

Pretty cool huh? Yeah, I like it. Alright, time to get some work done. Later gators!

Thursday's extravaganza

Alright people, I'm starting to fall behind and  midterms are next week so I am going to try to make this brief (which I usually strive for but never really works). I do want to talk about about last Thursday because it was such an amazing day. However, because it is now Tuesday, I'll probably have a hard time remembering what I did, thoughts I had, or even things I noted throughout the day that deemed important to blog about. Regardless, Thursday was a good day.
It started out normal. I tried to wake up early so that I would make it to class somewhat early and wouldn't have to climb on laps and grab onto someone's hair if I feel like I'm falling into the abyss of legs and backpacks. Physics was... physics.. not much to say there. I rushed home afterwards, so that I could jump into studying. Not that I was eager to study but, like I said before, I need to stay on top of my work, so that I can justify going on excursions and today was the day I was going surfing. By the time I got home though I was so exhausted, I laid down and could not muster up the energy to even open my eyes. I later realized I was trying to find an excuse not to open my o-chem book when I suddenly had the energy to sweep, mop and do all of my dishes, even my roommates dishes. After I was done mopping, I looked at the time. "Oh no! I can't study now. I have to go borrow a wetsuit and get ready for surfing." I rode my bike down to the "excursion house" and tried on a wetsuit. When I found one that "suited" me, I had to hurry back to my apartment to get my board. I should have driven because it was so muggy outside, it was hard to ride anywhere in a hurry. Anyways, I did make it back in time to suit up and walk down to the beach with the rest of the herd.
Surfing was awesome to say the least. I didn't stand but I still had an amazing time. I did catch a few waves, I even caught some without being pushed into them. I just couldn't stand in time. Everyone out there was having fun, especially the leaders. The leaders of this trip were so goofy that it made the times when the water was flat fun. We were in the water for 2 and a half hours. By the time we were getting out, I was freezing. My lips were purple and my teeth were chattering but it was so worth it. I could not stop shivering. I immediately got in a scalding hot shower when I got home. I just stood there, under the water, for probably 20 minutes (those who have lived with me can testify that this time frame is not exaggerated).  I got out, got dressed and got on my computer with intentions of studying. Of course, those intentions didn't work out. I've become weak for Family Guy. I realized a little while back that I haven't been watching the last few seasons, so there are several episodes I haven't seen. I am not proud of this. I feel guilty the entire time but can't get myself to turn my computer off.
Around 9:00 pm my friend, Alex, came up to invite me and my roommate to his party. I knew he was having a party and I wasn't planning on going, but I with an invitation, and the fact that I was just laying on bed watching Family Guy, I decided to go. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I finally went to my first college party. I even played beer pong...and won. Apparently, you really do have to go to these parties to get to know everyone. I met a bunch of people that night and have established some good, I should call them, acquaintances. I now have people to have movie nights with and wednesday BBQ's with, to go surfing with and go on other excursions with. I'm having good times here in Santa Barbara.
The good thing about that party was that I went at 9:30 and was back by 12, so I went to bed at the same time I do every night, which is good seeing how I had O Chem at 9:00 the next morning.
As for Friday, I had class all day and my whole day was centered around getting ready to leave for Redlands directly after class. It took me almost 4 hours to get home. To give you an idea of how miserable that was, it took me less than 2 and a half hours to get back. Yeah, that drive was not fun for me.
The weekend was great. Everyone knows I can't get enough of my family and friends, especially my niece and nephews. Needless to say, I didn't get much studying done over the weekend (hence the first sentence of this blog). Now, I have to make up for it. I will blog later tonight before I go to bed, if I am not beat from reading all day. Here's a picture of what it looked like towards the end of my surfing trip:

I know. It's gorgeous. I'm very lucky. Good...afternoon everybody!

I'm sorry...

...for the lack of blogs. I will be writing to make up for it tomorrow morning. I have officially run out of energy today and I am calling it a night. A new one should be up sometime midafternoon.