ATTN: Have an EBAY account (w/ 10+ rep points OR been registered for a year+) and have Paypal?
So I haven't updated in awhile and I hate to make this a really superficial one but as most of you guys are also college students I figured that the prospect of easy money would be appealing :) Anyways I was trolling an online forum site for freebies (aiee how I've wasted my summer signing up for free stuff, so asian) and I came across this website that basically works in conjunction with ebay. If you sign up now (minded you meet the requirements stated in the title) and use their service (quick and painless) on one auction they'll deposit $20 in your paypal account. I'm going to be trying this out tomorrow and I'll post when I get the money (Countless people have already said that it works so I'm 100% convinced). There aren't any strings attached and once you've gotten the money you're not obligated to ever use their service again. So if any of you guys are interested please drop me a line. I know I'm being a tad selfish since I didn't post the link but as a registered user you get $5 per referral so obviously I want to be the one that refers you guys =D. Alright now onto other stuff.
Edit: Also, in case some of you guys didn't already know about it - ebay also has a separate nonauction place to buy stuff for really cheap including textbooks - www.half.com. If you haven't already registered and plan to buy something in the near future, drop me a line and I'll send you a coupon for $5 off a $10+ purchase (as part of their take 5 promotion) (only for new registered users). :)
Summer's really gone by fast. I can still remember graduation and all night grad party pretty well and wishing that time would speed itself so I could head on over to Los Angeles and see UCLA's campus for the very first time. During the beginning of the month of July I wasted my days signing up for free stuff (www.allure.com/beauty/freestuff => so addictive) and attempting to study an old edition of the multivariable calculus book I'll be using this quarter..I actually haven't even finished one chapter. Orientation finally arrived and I couldn't have been more ready for it. I actually didn't finish packing till the day of the flight but I managed not to forget anything important (obviously I scared myself several times into thinking I had - at one point I started hyperveniliating when I thought I'd let my orientation confirmation info and transcript at home haha). My dad and I got on the plane without a hitch (man checkin at the airport is such a pain) and I watched a japanese series (thank you Nihan =D!) called Hana Yori Dango for the entire flight. Got there and I stayed over an aunt's place for 3 days. My dad has two older sisters and she's the younger of the two - and super cool. I had a total blast at her place. My uncle and her gave me some dance lessons and we went out to a "Christmas in July" dance in the community ballroom. I was quite nervous because almost everyone there were old old old people (who were quite agile however) and I was afraid that an old man would attempt to "whisk me away for a dance." To prevent that I tried to stay as close as I could to my dad during the night (except dancing with my uncle periodically) and it worked quite well except for the fact that it came to my attention that everyone assumed I was my dad's girlfriend. *shudder* Apparently there were some quite scandalous things going on within the older community. There was one chinese man that somehow managed to dance with every woman in the room (quite the playa). In addition, one couple (an old man and an asian woman with the largest hump I've ever seen) were not *gasp* married - they were "lovers" and the woman was married. I got quite a laugh at hearing that. So after the 3 days were up my dad and I stayed at my other aunt's place. I was so psyched to see her again (she and I are both a dragon in the chinese zodiac so I'm known to her as "shao long": little dragon). Boy was I in for a nightmare. Some of you have probably already heard me talk about that "experience." I remember how she used to be so cool but I guess she doesn't age well in the sense that she's gotten so paranoid I can't stand her. When my uncle and her came to pick us up, she immediately proceeded to warn me of all the situations I might be in where I could get raped or killed. I can't describe how freaked out I was as she went on and on and on. I honestly couldn't wait for orientation and luckily my dad and I went out shopping during the daytime which made the wait go by faster. Finally it was orientation day and my dad and uncle drove me in at around 7:30am!
Orientation
I was feeling apprehensive as we were driving to UCLA. There was a small fear lurking inside of me - what if it turned out that I hated the campus or the atmosphere or the people..etc. Once we were there though, I tried to stay positive and went directly to checkin to get the schedule and a huge huge survey that I had to spend about 30 minutes filling out. I told my dad and uncle that I would be totally fine and that they shoudl leave. Finally my dad gave in and "left" (little did I know that he actually stayed and watched me fill out the survey from who knows where and then spent 4 hours walking around the parking lot because he didn't want to get hot walking around campus and my uncle didn't come to pick him up till then. My silly dad). Then it came time to get into our orientation groups. I was quickly told by my orientation counselor Andrew that I was the only girl in the group of 10 guys (given that the groups were based on people's major and of course, there aren't many females in the field of engineering). I took it in good stride and finally with everyone assembled, we proceeded to do some embarrassing icebreakers and filling out more surveys and class info. Most of the guys were super quiet and dare I say it, "nerdy" (jk everyone looked so different you really couldn't characterize most of them). The biggest surprise of the day was during the introductions when this one lanky asian guy in a quiet voice said he was from ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA. You should have seen my eyes light up with complete shock. First off, my dad had beat it into my head that no other family would have parents "stupid enough to send their kids to a public California school." Second, Arlington isn't exactly the largest county in Virginia. 3rd there are 11 orientation sessions in total and somehow we both chose to attend session 104. 4th, there were 11 other engineering orietation groups and somehow we happened to both be in the same one. So I immediately responded, yelling "NO WAY ARE YOU SERIOUS?" and blah blah blah amused everyone with my over the top reaction. I think I really freaked him out as he didn't seem surprised in the least (my orientation counselor was amused because he thought the guy and I were friends and had purposely signed up for the same sesion since the odds were so slim otherwise). With that over and done, we spent the next two days basically going to tons of meetings and taking placement exams (except I didn't have to take any X]) and getting to know the campus/people. I didn't really make very many friends at all there. The several girls who I got to know a little aren't doing engineering so I'll probably never see them (they were all doing something involved with media/communications/english). It's alright, it's not like I actively tried to get to know anyone at all so I don't feel bad. Back to orientation itself, there was a talent show called Cabaret on one of the nights with acts put on by all the orientation counselors. That was such an awesome thing to watch. There was dancing and comedy and lots of USC bashing which was pretty sweet. On the second day was the departmental meeting and almost every major was meeting in a separate room to learn about requirements and such. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Engineering happened to be put in the same room (since we were such a small group I guess) and in a room of 30 I was the only girl again. Got some fantastic news from that. I learned that my 4 in chem got me out of chemistry + lab for GOOD (up until this year a passing ap score would only get me out of the class but not the dreaded 4 hour lab). Everything else was just a blur because I was in such a state of euphoria that I would be able to take advantage of all my ap scores (minus the two french ones since there is no language requirement for engineering). In the afternoon - almost midnight I obsessed over my schedule. I swear I wasn't the only one. There was a group of us who stayed in our temporary dorm's lounge area all working on our laptops furiously to configure a workable schedule. Can someone say STRESSED OUT? I was a total mess haha. We all took a break for dinner and I scarfed down my lunch before returning to the lounge to continue. At 8 I had to leave again for a scheduled appointment with my counselor where we were supposed to get to know each other a little bit. My counselor was a really cool guy so I'm glad I was in his group. I went back and finally at 12am, I was able to turn in a schedule (minus the 2 alternate schedules I was supposed to have come up with, oops). As a result I was too exhausted to participate in the scavenger hunt game going on from midnight - 2. Instead, I went to my room where I spent 10 min practicing typing in the course id number of my comp sci class which only had 3 spots left and was key to my schedule working or else I'd have no schedule (go ahead, laugh). Chilled with my roommate who had brought her two older sisters (all there taking summer classes including her). They were way cool and one of them was a mechanical engineering one who assured that being one of the few girls was a total blast and that mechanical engineering was a real party (alas I can't join her =P but she made it sound so fun). 9am on the third day I was pumped and ready to sign up for my classes and I can guarantee you I was probably the first one to take up a spot in that computer science class so booya, that practice paid off. We were supposed to sign up for classes in our counselor's room but I wanted to use my own laptop in the lounge and once I was done I went to the room where the ones who were finished were watching Family Guy. I joined them and then we were informed of the schedule for our last day at UCLA - campus tour. The campus tour was pretty fabulous as well as quite the work out. Did I mention I lost 2 pounds while at UCLA because of all the walking? (I checked the scale at my aunt's house when I came back). Haha I've gained it all back since I've been quite sedentary since my return ;[. The UCLA campus is just so beautiful, a little city. The architecture is such a work of art and some of the views were just breathtaking. I wish I'd brought a camera but I'll be sure to take pictures when I have the chance over there. I've heard that Stanford's is better but I have to say that I'm quite satisfied with where I'm going to be spending the next couple of years of my life. I'm really sad that most of my friends have already left and experienced some of college already and I'm still here with another month to go. At this point, I never want to leave home. While I was enduring the 3 days at my other aunt's place before orientation I was feeling so terribly homesick. I didn't know how I would be able to bear it but orientation itself helped me get over my homesickness. I won't be seeing much of my relatives anyway (no matter what they say) and UCLA is a place where I'm going to be able to mature and grow hopefully into a better person. I wish I'd been able to spend more time with everyone though and I'm really missing everyone. Well I guess this entry is way too long and I've run out of things to say. I wish my writing didn't always come out to be a jarbled mesh of random thoughts strung together in run-on sentences but at least I don't clog up your friends page all too often. To everyone, best of luck in the coming year!!!
Edit: Also, in case some of you guys didn't already know about it - ebay also has a separate nonauction place to buy stuff for really cheap including textbooks - www.half.com. If you haven't already registered and plan to buy something in the near future, drop me a line and I'll send you a coupon for $5 off a $10+ purchase (as part of their take 5 promotion) (only for new registered users). :)
Summer's really gone by fast. I can still remember graduation and all night grad party pretty well and wishing that time would speed itself so I could head on over to Los Angeles and see UCLA's campus for the very first time. During the beginning of the month of July I wasted my days signing up for free stuff (www.allure.com/beauty/freestuff => so addictive) and attempting to study an old edition of the multivariable calculus book I'll be using this quarter..I actually haven't even finished one chapter. Orientation finally arrived and I couldn't have been more ready for it. I actually didn't finish packing till the day of the flight but I managed not to forget anything important (obviously I scared myself several times into thinking I had - at one point I started hyperveniliating when I thought I'd let my orientation confirmation info and transcript at home haha). My dad and I got on the plane without a hitch (man checkin at the airport is such a pain) and I watched a japanese series (thank you Nihan =D!) called Hana Yori Dango for the entire flight. Got there and I stayed over an aunt's place for 3 days. My dad has two older sisters and she's the younger of the two - and super cool. I had a total blast at her place. My uncle and her gave me some dance lessons and we went out to a "Christmas in July" dance in the community ballroom. I was quite nervous because almost everyone there were old old old people (who were quite agile however) and I was afraid that an old man would attempt to "whisk me away for a dance." To prevent that I tried to stay as close as I could to my dad during the night (except dancing with my uncle periodically) and it worked quite well except for the fact that it came to my attention that everyone assumed I was my dad's girlfriend. *shudder* Apparently there were some quite scandalous things going on within the older community. There was one chinese man that somehow managed to dance with every woman in the room (quite the playa). In addition, one couple (an old man and an asian woman with the largest hump I've ever seen) were not *gasp* married - they were "lovers" and the woman was married. I got quite a laugh at hearing that. So after the 3 days were up my dad and I stayed at my other aunt's place. I was so psyched to see her again (she and I are both a dragon in the chinese zodiac so I'm known to her as "shao long": little dragon). Boy was I in for a nightmare. Some of you have probably already heard me talk about that "experience." I remember how she used to be so cool but I guess she doesn't age well in the sense that she's gotten so paranoid I can't stand her. When my uncle and her came to pick us up, she immediately proceeded to warn me of all the situations I might be in where I could get raped or killed. I can't describe how freaked out I was as she went on and on and on. I honestly couldn't wait for orientation and luckily my dad and I went out shopping during the daytime which made the wait go by faster. Finally it was orientation day and my dad and uncle drove me in at around 7:30am!
Orientation
I was feeling apprehensive as we were driving to UCLA. There was a small fear lurking inside of me - what if it turned out that I hated the campus or the atmosphere or the people..etc. Once we were there though, I tried to stay positive and went directly to checkin to get the schedule and a huge huge survey that I had to spend about 30 minutes filling out. I told my dad and uncle that I would be totally fine and that they shoudl leave. Finally my dad gave in and "left" (little did I know that he actually stayed and watched me fill out the survey from who knows where and then spent 4 hours walking around the parking lot because he didn't want to get hot walking around campus and my uncle didn't come to pick him up till then. My silly dad). Then it came time to get into our orientation groups. I was quickly told by my orientation counselor Andrew that I was the only girl in the group of 10 guys (given that the groups were based on people's major and of course, there aren't many females in the field of engineering). I took it in good stride and finally with everyone assembled, we proceeded to do some embarrassing icebreakers and filling out more surveys and class info. Most of the guys were super quiet and dare I say it, "nerdy" (jk everyone looked so different you really couldn't characterize most of them). The biggest surprise of the day was during the introductions when this one lanky asian guy in a quiet voice said he was from ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA. You should have seen my eyes light up with complete shock. First off, my dad had beat it into my head that no other family would have parents "stupid enough to send their kids to a public California school." Second, Arlington isn't exactly the largest county in Virginia. 3rd there are 11 orientation sessions in total and somehow we both chose to attend session 104. 4th, there were 11 other engineering orietation groups and somehow we happened to both be in the same one. So I immediately responded, yelling "NO WAY ARE YOU SERIOUS?" and blah blah blah amused everyone with my over the top reaction. I think I really freaked him out as he didn't seem surprised in the least (my orientation counselor was amused because he thought the guy and I were friends and had purposely signed up for the same sesion since the odds were so slim otherwise). With that over and done, we spent the next two days basically going to tons of meetings and taking placement exams (except I didn't have to take any X]) and getting to know the campus/people. I didn't really make very many friends at all there. The several girls who I got to know a little aren't doing engineering so I'll probably never see them (they were all doing something involved with media/communications/english). It's alright, it's not like I actively tried to get to know anyone at all so I don't feel bad. Back to orientation itself, there was a talent show called Cabaret on one of the nights with acts put on by all the orientation counselors. That was such an awesome thing to watch. There was dancing and comedy and lots of USC bashing which was pretty sweet. On the second day was the departmental meeting and almost every major was meeting in a separate room to learn about requirements and such. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Engineering happened to be put in the same room (since we were such a small group I guess) and in a room of 30 I was the only girl again. Got some fantastic news from that. I learned that my 4 in chem got me out of chemistry + lab for GOOD (up until this year a passing ap score would only get me out of the class but not the dreaded 4 hour lab). Everything else was just a blur because I was in such a state of euphoria that I would be able to take advantage of all my ap scores (minus the two french ones since there is no language requirement for engineering). In the afternoon - almost midnight I obsessed over my schedule. I swear I wasn't the only one. There was a group of us who stayed in our temporary dorm's lounge area all working on our laptops furiously to configure a workable schedule. Can someone say STRESSED OUT? I was a total mess haha. We all took a break for dinner and I scarfed down my lunch before returning to the lounge to continue. At 8 I had to leave again for a scheduled appointment with my counselor where we were supposed to get to know each other a little bit. My counselor was a really cool guy so I'm glad I was in his group. I went back and finally at 12am, I was able to turn in a schedule (minus the 2 alternate schedules I was supposed to have come up with, oops). As a result I was too exhausted to participate in the scavenger hunt game going on from midnight - 2. Instead, I went to my room where I spent 10 min practicing typing in the course id number of my comp sci class which only had 3 spots left and was key to my schedule working or else I'd have no schedule (go ahead, laugh). Chilled with my roommate who had brought her two older sisters (all there taking summer classes including her). They were way cool and one of them was a mechanical engineering one who assured that being one of the few girls was a total blast and that mechanical engineering was a real party (alas I can't join her =P but she made it sound so fun). 9am on the third day I was pumped and ready to sign up for my classes and I can guarantee you I was probably the first one to take up a spot in that computer science class so booya, that practice paid off. We were supposed to sign up for classes in our counselor's room but I wanted to use my own laptop in the lounge and once I was done I went to the room where the ones who were finished were watching Family Guy. I joined them and then we were informed of the schedule for our last day at UCLA - campus tour. The campus tour was pretty fabulous as well as quite the work out. Did I mention I lost 2 pounds while at UCLA because of all the walking? (I checked the scale at my aunt's house when I came back). Haha I've gained it all back since I've been quite sedentary since my return ;[. The UCLA campus is just so beautiful, a little city. The architecture is such a work of art and some of the views were just breathtaking. I wish I'd brought a camera but I'll be sure to take pictures when I have the chance over there. I've heard that Stanford's is better but I have to say that I'm quite satisfied with where I'm going to be spending the next couple of years of my life. I'm really sad that most of my friends have already left and experienced some of college already and I'm still here with another month to go. At this point, I never want to leave home. While I was enduring the 3 days at my other aunt's place before orientation I was feeling so terribly homesick. I didn't know how I would be able to bear it but orientation itself helped me get over my homesickness. I won't be seeing much of my relatives anyway (no matter what they say) and UCLA is a place where I'm going to be able to mature and grow hopefully into a better person. I wish I'd been able to spend more time with everyone though and I'm really missing everyone. Well I guess this entry is way too long and I've run out of things to say. I wish my writing didn't always come out to be a jarbled mesh of random thoughts strung together in run-on sentences but at least I don't clog up your friends page all too often. To everyone, best of luck in the coming year!!!