And let the good times roll...

So school started yesterday, and it's going to be a busy semester. My classes this semester are Advanced Technical Writing for Engineers, Korean 1, Microeconomics, Legal Environment of Business, Physics: Electricity and Magnetism, and Database Systems. Whew. And that's all of 22 units.
I don't know what inspired me to take 4 extra units, but what's done is done. Hopefully things aren't that bad, and I only have 4 exams during finals week which will be so nice.
Going home for winter break was both tiring and refreshing. I spent a lot of time working at Foodland Market City, and although there are better things to do than serving the greater good as a courtesy clerk, I enjoyed my time at work. I met some of the recently hired workers, and now I'm good friends with one of the new grocery clerks who moved to Honolulu from Hilo in October. Besides work, it was nice to spend time with my family and friends, although with everyone being extremely busy, it was difficult to find time to see everyone I wanted to talk with.
My most enjoyable times of winter break have to be the time I spent outdoors. You can't really go outside without breathing in pollution and smelling car oil here in Los Angeles, so the fresh air was appreciated. I did lots of hiking, surfing, paddling, and beaching. :) I think I got a little more tan too!
Well I have a diagnostic speech due for my writing class tomorrow. Topic: something you think your classmates and instructor know little to nothing about. I've chosen to talk about Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island or Isla De Pascua), one of the most isolated population centers in the world.
I'm listening to Haleakala Hula on my iPod, and it occured to me that I need to get on organizing our lu'au's student program. Great.

The eye of the storm

So I had my first final on Friday for ISE 220: Probability Concepts in Engineering, and it was somewhat challenging. I know I got several problems correct, but there were a couple that I looked at, solved, checked my answers, erased all my work, and did them again. So let's hope that those turned out okay.
Today, I am in the eye of the storm. Why?? Well, it makes sense. It's like the calm before the madness. And the madness I'm referring to is my PHYS 151: Mechanics and Thermodynamics final on Monday, ACCT 410: Foundations of Accounting final on Tuesday, and ISE 232: Manufacturing Processes final on Wednesday before heading over to LAX and flying standby to Honolulu on Wednesday evening. And to top it all off, I have one more page to write for my ARLT 100: Korean Literature and Thought final research essay. There is clearly some ultimate being that has a grudge against me.
Dad was here in LA yesterday for a few hours on a layover to Fort Walton Beach, FL. We went to Trader Joe's to pick up dried fruit and nuts for Mom and Lauren and then headed over to Koreatown for dinner. Then he had to go back to the airport so I came back to school, but then some of my APO brothers were going to go explore so I went along. We went to Crumbs Bakery on Larchmont and it was so amazing! I got a Peanut Butter Cup cupcake, and I am looking forward to trying more of their selection. The cupcakes are extremely top-heavy, so mine kept falling over in the box. After cupcakes we went to The Grove to look at the Christmas decorations.
Going home will be really relaxing, but at the same time I'll have to go to work and run errands for my parents (mainly chauferring my sister to paddling, school stuff, etc.). I'm looking forward to the semester finishing, but it's also kind of strange since I'll be 3/8 done with college. Isn't that crazy? Well, yeah. But it's about time.
Back to studying. My goal for today is to finish my K-Lit paper, even if it kills me.

It's cold and rainy and I don't really want to work...

Basically yeah. When it rains in Los Angeles, IT SUCKS. Unlike the rain I'm used to in Hawai'i, the rain here is cold. Plus, the air is cold. And the wind makes everything worse. So I'm sitting in my apartment with the heater on max and the whole place to myself since the other two girls that live here are never to be found.
Today, we had a holiday party for work at the Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs division. The food and dessert was amazing! Spiral-sliced ham, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, fudge brownies, chocolate tuxedo cake, and more. Yum. But at the same time, I think that's when I finally realized I have to do work. This whole weekend, I was pretty much cruising. There was tailgating on Saturday morning, followed by the fail football game against U. of Arizona and the fail volleyball game against U. of Hawai'i. Yup, the University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team played in the Galen Center on Saturday against USC in the first round of the NCAA tournament. And sadly, the Trojans lost. Yesterday, I slept in until 12-something and then went to eat brunch at Parkside since I was too lazy to make anything. Then I came back, worked on my ISE 232 report, video chatted with an old friend, and went to meetings. Yay.
As USC tradition dictates, you are supposed to plan what you'd like to do in the summer before the fall semester even ends. So that's what I've been trying to do for the past couple of weeks. I submitted my resume to Boeing's summer engineering internships in the Seattle/Tacoma area, and made it past the first round of reviews (surprisingly). Just now, I finished writing a personal statement for the Global Fellows application, which is through the USC career center. The program places students in internships based on their fields of study in Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai. And they pay for your transportation and rent, which is pretty sweet. If none of these things work out, I might look for something at HECO, Hawaiian Air, Pearl Harbor, or Hoku Scientific back at home.
I have a Korean Lit paper due in 9 days in which I am supposed to analyze excerpts of literature from the North and the South and explain, through the lenses of these works, why the two Koreas behave as we outsiders perceive them. It's such a simple yet complicated topic that I'm beside myself. Plus I am hungry, which makes matters worse. And I should really use my meal plan except I'm sick of campus food. Oh my silly dilemmas. I should just drink some hot chocolate.

I'm on the wave

So Gita invited me to try Google Wave and I'm still trying to figure it out. It's pretty crazy, you can see typing in real time, and you can edit your chat and reply, so it ends up to be like this ridiculously long chain of chat, which is apparently called a wave. And then there are things called pings, but I still haven't figured that out. I think a ping can only be between two users, while a wave can be between multiple users. I don't know, and I'm not about to find out.
Tonight I have to complete my portion of a group presentation for ISE232, Manufacturing Processes. Our design team created a DeskTopper, which is a portable, durable, and flexible table device meant for home and recreational use. My job was to create the computer models using IronCAD software, and I did a pretty good job (in my opinion).

Besides wrapping up this design project, I'm also going to work on ISE220, Probability Concepts in Engineering, homework. It's hard to believe that there are only three instructional days left in the semester. And that I'm almost halfway done with my undergraduate degree.
My request for exceptional funding was approved by the Center for Academic Support, so I'm going to be taking 22 units next semester. Although it sounds daunting right now, I hope it won't be too difficult. I figured to do it now instead of later, before my engineering classes will start to get serious.
Now playing on my iPod is "Kane'ohe" by the Brothers Cazimero. It's a cheerful song, talking about the rains that regularly fall on that side of the island. I miss the rain. It's not humid at all here and my skin is cracking. Gross.

Blowing off the dust

"All I Have to Offer You is Me" by the Makaha Sons of Ni'ihau is playing on my music shuffle, and every time I hear a Hawaiian song I think about home. I was just there for the Thanksgiving holiday, and although the people I know don't really seem to change, the places do. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. Like my high school, Punahou. My friends that still go there are great. But my teachers and mentors are, one by one, starting to leave the institution. While I was visiting on Wednesday, I found out that my favorite teacher there, Lao Ye (Chinese 2H, 4H, 5H), is retiring at the end of the school year. And my class dean, Mr. Bowen, will go into a semi-retirement phase at the same time. And the beach off the Outrigger Canoe Club is slowly shrinking. My house is sinking into the mountain side. And my old neighborhood in Palolo Valley is experiencing change as well.
Anyway, I've decided to blow the dust off of this blog. I started a blog sort of on a whim, since Nick decided to quit Facebook (WISE CHOICE) and blog instead. And we were talking about it on Skpye one day and it seemed like a cool thing to do. But as many of my other projects end up, I sort of neglected this blog as the semester chugged on and I had other things to do.
Well it's the day before my last week of classes, so I have a little more time than normal. So much has happened this semester, way more than I can encompass in one blogpost. I joined a community service fraternity, started planning the Hawai'i Club lu'au, met many new people, had a lot of crazy moments, went to Santa Barbara, and yeah.
Last night, though, was one of the greatest moments of the semester. The annual USC vs. UCLA football game was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and it blew my mind. All last year, I had so many doubts about whether I made the right choice to come to USC. Like I loved it and everything, but I always asked myself, "Would I be having a better time at Georgetown? What about BU? Or even Harvey Mudd??" After seeing the amazing camaderie in the Coliseum, though, I was sold. I don't have any more doubts about my choice, and I can't even think about transferring somewhere else.
Anyway, this post is kind of all over the place, but whatever. Time to get back to physics homework.