First Week of College
THIS WAS ALSO WRITTEN OVER THE COURSE OF 2 DAYS
Yes, while some of you guys are putting your dorms together, and as others are cramming their last items and memories into their luggage, I'm writing from the same old place, but about something that you will soon be going through. Yup, I'm talking about college, w00t!
For those who don't know, I decided to attend Saddleback College. Luckily, it wasn't that big of a choice for a couple of reasons:
1)I only got into UCI (applied to Cal and UCLA too), so it was Irvine or Mission Viejo;
2) by no means me or my parents are in financial shape to afford little Rodrigo to go to a UC;
3) I kinda wanted to either go (far) away, or stay put in Dana Point, enjoying my new house/own bedroom. Unfortunately, Irvine isn't really far away.
4) My immigration status doesn't really allow me to get financial aid and/or public scholarships, so yup, no money!
The choice was easy. I think I did well in High School, I could've done better, and I could change some things if I could go back, but now it's too late and there's no time to look back.
So yeah, I had everything early...ER than everyone else. Registration, Matriculation, Orientation, getting my classes, buying the books and yup, CLASS...
A QUICK THOUGHT: Why does Saddleback start a month earlier than the UCs and we all finish the same day? It's that way for the first semester at least...
So last Monday, the 21st of August, I officially became a college student. My first class was Humanities 10B, from 7-10 pm. I was really happy to see a familiar face: Jason Bradshaw was there to add the class, and the professor did add him. The rest of the people are all new to me, and most are older. More than half of them seem to be in college because their parents don't want them at home, or something like that. It's like going back to non-AP classes in Aliso, and I kinda consider that a step back. But hey, the class is good, even though the students aren't. The class was long, yet interesting, but after working 9 am to 4 pm that day, I kinda was begging for it to end. We got out at 10 (not a minute earlier) and that kinda pissed me off, since most classes are dismissed earlier.
Tuesday morning I was up by 6:30, ready to get to school early to avoid the parking madness (the day before, I drove around for 20 minutes before settling for a parking lot 3,000 miles away from the building I was supposed to go.. btw: thank you Jason for the ride to my car :P). I did find parking, and Y was waiting for me, so we chilled out for a while before class start. Math 11 started at 8 am and it finished at 10:20, 10 minutes early. This class brought something completely different. All new people, most of them older than me, but something really weird: everyone, even the stupid looking jocks and the blond girls, ALL OF THEM KNEW THEIR MATH. It kinda hit my confidence a bit... I'm used to being the old, smart guy in my math classes, and now, I'm the rookie who needs to do the catching up. For some reason, I think the class is tough. The professor taught 2 lessons, and it was all on functions and stuff, all applied to business... cost, revenue, supply and demand, break even point, market clearing price, proft... WOW, it fried my brain. Right now, before writing this I was studying for a quiz that I have tomorrow, and I know that I'm gonna have to work hard if I want to get a B on the class. The only other time I was in that situation was in AP US... with sweet little Mrs. Burdyshaw!
Then I met Y again, and my friend Santiago, and we decided to go to Golden Spoon, because Y and I had Humanities 10A at noon, and Santiago had to be back by 3. So we left, had some frozen yogurt (all free since Y and I work there :P) hung out for a bit, and then back to class. The class was interesting, but the desks and the chairs were soooo uncomfortable that they took my usual neck pain to a whole new level, and I couldn't focus much. We kinda introduced ourselves, got the sylabus and the hw, and got dismissed 20 min before the stipulated end of class (1:10 instead of 1:30).
Then I went to have lunch at Island's with Brad Ivanicki and Y. I had never been there, and it's a pretty cool place to go and eat.
.... I capped off the day by working from 5 to 12... go me!
Then I woke up , Wednesday the 23rd, after a good 10 hrs of sleep, did my hw for thursday (I NEED A MATH TUTOR!!!) and then worked 1-5. Came back, took some coffee and left early for Saddleback again in order to get good parking. Since I had some free time to kill, I called Matty Dy and I met him before class, since his class is like 10 feet away from mine, and they're at the same time (7-10 pm). Ah yes, the class...SOCIAL PSCYCOLOGY 30. I'm interested in Psych, but 3 hrs of it seem a bit of a stretch... too much deep stuff. Good things: the professor is pretty cool and we got dismissed at 9:30 (matty left his class at 9, I hate him).
Thursday, the 24th, didn’t start too well. Woke up at 6:30 am, had trouble putting on my contacts, and left my house around 7:15, making it to saddleback about 7:35. I reviewed a little bit my math lessons, and went to class. I did well on the quiz we had, and I understood the lessons, though they are really hard, at least to me. The professor dismissed the class at 9:49 (supposed to end at 10:30), so I had a lot of time to chill till my next class at 12. I found Y, and then we walked around (we got our picture IDs in the process) till we found Jason and Josh Thieme. We hung out for a while, and then Jason, Y and I went to get some information about transferring in order to burn some time. We pretty much did nothing but talk and walk around and find people on the way (Ricky Giordano, Payal Shah, Jozef Colomy). At noon, Y and I went to our class, Humanities 10A, which is basically an easier version of Biggs’ AP Lit class. The only difference: I’m actually talking a lot, participating and everything… yup, welcome the new and improved version…aka Rodrigo 2.0. After that, we left campus, had lunch at Del Taco and I came home, wrapping up a very consuming week of school. Good thing: I don’t really have that much hw =)
To wrap up this entry, I’d like to add a few random observations:
1) I see a ton of people smoking, and it kinda makes me sad. They look pathetic.
2) Finding your car at 10 PM after 3 hrs of class is not that easy, especially when everything looks the same at night...
3) I've seen some people I know from Aliso, and some actually recognized me: Tasha Billings, Payal Shah, Josh, Jason, Ricky, Jozef, Calvin and some other people that graduated in 04 and 05. There's not that many that I actually talk to, but I should get in contact with them, I think, it won't hurt to actually talk to someone other than Y, Matt and Brad...
4) I've never seen that many blonds together in my whole life
5) I've never been in a class with 5+ Japanese kids who go by their real name/last name. I think people should use their real names...but that's just me. I like making people's life miserable when they have to pronounce my name =)
OK, That’s it =). If you read it, congrats, you’re probably as tired as I feel right now while writing this. Please accept my apologies :P
Rodrigo Azurmendi
Yes, while some of you guys are putting your dorms together, and as others are cramming their last items and memories into their luggage, I'm writing from the same old place, but about something that you will soon be going through. Yup, I'm talking about college, w00t!
For those who don't know, I decided to attend Saddleback College. Luckily, it wasn't that big of a choice for a couple of reasons:
1)I only got into UCI (applied to Cal and UCLA too), so it was Irvine or Mission Viejo;
2) by no means me or my parents are in financial shape to afford little Rodrigo to go to a UC;
3) I kinda wanted to either go (far) away, or stay put in Dana Point, enjoying my new house/own bedroom. Unfortunately, Irvine isn't really far away.
4) My immigration status doesn't really allow me to get financial aid and/or public scholarships, so yup, no money!
The choice was easy. I think I did well in High School, I could've done better, and I could change some things if I could go back, but now it's too late and there's no time to look back.
So yeah, I had everything early...ER than everyone else. Registration, Matriculation, Orientation, getting my classes, buying the books and yup, CLASS...
A QUICK THOUGHT: Why does Saddleback start a month earlier than the UCs and we all finish the same day? It's that way for the first semester at least...
So last Monday, the 21st of August, I officially became a college student. My first class was Humanities 10B, from 7-10 pm. I was really happy to see a familiar face: Jason Bradshaw was there to add the class, and the professor did add him. The rest of the people are all new to me, and most are older. More than half of them seem to be in college because their parents don't want them at home, or something like that. It's like going back to non-AP classes in Aliso, and I kinda consider that a step back. But hey, the class is good, even though the students aren't. The class was long, yet interesting, but after working 9 am to 4 pm that day, I kinda was begging for it to end. We got out at 10 (not a minute earlier) and that kinda pissed me off, since most classes are dismissed earlier.
Tuesday morning I was up by 6:30, ready to get to school early to avoid the parking madness (the day before, I drove around for 20 minutes before settling for a parking lot 3,000 miles away from the building I was supposed to go.. btw: thank you Jason for the ride to my car :P). I did find parking, and Y was waiting for me, so we chilled out for a while before class start. Math 11 started at 8 am and it finished at 10:20, 10 minutes early. This class brought something completely different. All new people, most of them older than me, but something really weird: everyone, even the stupid looking jocks and the blond girls, ALL OF THEM KNEW THEIR MATH. It kinda hit my confidence a bit... I'm used to being the old, smart guy in my math classes, and now, I'm the rookie who needs to do the catching up. For some reason, I think the class is tough. The professor taught 2 lessons, and it was all on functions and stuff, all applied to business... cost, revenue, supply and demand, break even point, market clearing price, proft... WOW, it fried my brain. Right now, before writing this I was studying for a quiz that I have tomorrow, and I know that I'm gonna have to work hard if I want to get a B on the class. The only other time I was in that situation was in AP US... with sweet little Mrs. Burdyshaw!
Then I met Y again, and my friend Santiago, and we decided to go to Golden Spoon, because Y and I had Humanities 10A at noon, and Santiago had to be back by 3. So we left, had some frozen yogurt (all free since Y and I work there :P) hung out for a bit, and then back to class. The class was interesting, but the desks and the chairs were soooo uncomfortable that they took my usual neck pain to a whole new level, and I couldn't focus much. We kinda introduced ourselves, got the sylabus and the hw, and got dismissed 20 min before the stipulated end of class (1:10 instead of 1:30).
Then I went to have lunch at Island's with Brad Ivanicki and Y. I had never been there, and it's a pretty cool place to go and eat.
.... I capped off the day by working from 5 to 12... go me!
Then I woke up , Wednesday the 23rd, after a good 10 hrs of sleep, did my hw for thursday (I NEED A MATH TUTOR!!!) and then worked 1-5. Came back, took some coffee and left early for Saddleback again in order to get good parking. Since I had some free time to kill, I called Matty Dy and I met him before class, since his class is like 10 feet away from mine, and they're at the same time (7-10 pm). Ah yes, the class...SOCIAL PSCYCOLOGY 30. I'm interested in Psych, but 3 hrs of it seem a bit of a stretch... too much deep stuff. Good things: the professor is pretty cool and we got dismissed at 9:30 (matty left his class at 9, I hate him).
Thursday, the 24th, didn’t start too well. Woke up at 6:30 am, had trouble putting on my contacts, and left my house around 7:15, making it to saddleback about 7:35. I reviewed a little bit my math lessons, and went to class. I did well on the quiz we had, and I understood the lessons, though they are really hard, at least to me. The professor dismissed the class at 9:49 (supposed to end at 10:30), so I had a lot of time to chill till my next class at 12. I found Y, and then we walked around (we got our picture IDs in the process) till we found Jason and Josh Thieme. We hung out for a while, and then Jason, Y and I went to get some information about transferring in order to burn some time. We pretty much did nothing but talk and walk around and find people on the way (Ricky Giordano, Payal Shah, Jozef Colomy). At noon, Y and I went to our class, Humanities 10A, which is basically an easier version of Biggs’ AP Lit class. The only difference: I’m actually talking a lot, participating and everything… yup, welcome the new and improved version…aka Rodrigo 2.0. After that, we left campus, had lunch at Del Taco and I came home, wrapping up a very consuming week of school. Good thing: I don’t really have that much hw =)
To wrap up this entry, I’d like to add a few random observations:
1) I see a ton of people smoking, and it kinda makes me sad. They look pathetic.
2) Finding your car at 10 PM after 3 hrs of class is not that easy, especially when everything looks the same at night...
3) I've seen some people I know from Aliso, and some actually recognized me: Tasha Billings, Payal Shah, Josh, Jason, Ricky, Jozef, Calvin and some other people that graduated in 04 and 05. There's not that many that I actually talk to, but I should get in contact with them, I think, it won't hurt to actually talk to someone other than Y, Matt and Brad...
4) I've never seen that many blonds together in my whole life
5) I've never been in a class with 5+ Japanese kids who go by their real name/last name. I think people should use their real names...but that's just me. I like making people's life miserable when they have to pronounce my name =)
OK, That’s it =). If you read it, congrats, you’re probably as tired as I feel right now while writing this. Please accept my apologies :P
Rodrigo Azurmendi