UCLA
And so begins another chapter of my education.
I had planned to make this a really long, detailed entry of what happened every day so far, but it's been like two weeks, so I've forgotten the majority of it. Lol.
So I moved in half of my stuff on the 24th, but didn't actually start living in the dorms until Sunday the 26th. I live in Hedrick, which is absolutely the worst hall to live in for several reasons, one of them being that it's at the TOP OF THE DAMN HILL, being the farthest dorm out of all of them from the classes, so it's like a 20-30 minute walk to classes each day downhill. You can imagine how much time is added when I have to return uphill :D. The second reason lies in the restrooms, which have non-private showers(you know.. the ones that only have only one place to put all your clothes and stuff, which is outside the actual shower division, so it's really uh.. risky) along with stall doors that don't even fit! One of them is made so that the width makes it too big to even fit correctly, and the other three have locks that are incorrectly aligned.
Anyway, enough of my complaining. I guess the plus side to living in Hedrick is the amount of exercise I get everyday just going and returning from my dorm, which is I guess about at least 2 hours of walking each day. That, along with the fact that I'm kind of starting to get into DDR now, is uh.. really good for my weight! Lol. As Wesley said in his entry, I seem to have lost a few belt sizes.
After getting into my room, it took me about 2 hours to get the whole Internet thing set up. I'm not sure if other universities require this, but UCLA requires everyone to install this really gay STC software on their computers before using the Internet. It basically acts as an antivirus program, but it's pretty clear that its real purpose is to allow them to monitor our activities. It really, really slows down my computer, but I guess I got used to it over time. The UCLA Internet service is really odd.. I can download at absolutely insane speeds, getting a One Piece episode at 1.2 MB/sec and completing it in under 5 minutes, but the send rate is atrocious. It's like.. 4-5K/sec, but when sending to other people at UCLA, it goes at like 2MB/sec. Lol.
Welcome Week was really fun, and really laidback, and I spent 90% of the time outside, which is surprising. I don't really remember what happened Monday, but Tuesday, me, Wesley, and Jinfae went to Westwood and beyond to do a bunch of things that we had to do. It was fun watching Jinfae realize that the "Big Blue Bus" really is.. a big blue bus. Hahaha. Me and Wesley had to buy a certain course reader that our Chemistry professor required us to get, which is basically a book that contains all of the notes that he's gonna put up on the overhead, so it'll be really useful, since it'll defeat the purpose of taking notes in class. Anyway, so me and Wesley go into the store on Westwood to buy it, and are horrified by the price. $34. The professor, who is named Scerri, conveniently forgot to mention that there was a price included. I guess that would make it equivalent trade, eh, after all that money we paid for books and tuition already. TOUKA KOUKAN. After getting the books, me and Wesley are then even further horrified by the contents of the book itself. It is over 100 pages of HANDWRITTEN notes.. all of which are written in very, very big handwriting, and run through a copy machine. If the notes were typed up on a computer in a regular font and printed out, I'm sure the length of the book would be less than 100 pages. Discouraged at getting utterly ripped off again, the three of us return to UCLA, and we go to a nearby Starbucks where I order a Frapp mocha and Wesley orders something.. I forget what it is. He finishes it in like 3 seconds due to more than 50% of it being ice cubes, and this is like a $3 drink. So Jinfae starts daring him to charge into the store and demand his money's worth, and I join in on the daring too, not expecting him to actually do it, but then he actually does it! I guess it's because this was just after we got ripped off so badly at the Course Reader. Wesley then walks in and says something to the extent of "Hey, this drink was $3, and I finished it very quickly, due to the ice cubes.." and he doesn't even finish his sentence, because the lady behind the counter then grabs his drink and makes another one, with less ice and more coffee, for him. So he gets his money's worth, and this sorta rejuvenates our spirits. So on our way back, near the entrance, I look across the road, and see someone familiar.. she waves at me, and I signal to Jinfae and Wesley, and it turns out that it's Grace Chen, hauling a humongous computer with her. We meet up with her, and then learn that she had just come from UCR, but accidentally took the wrong bus, wasting at least 4 hours of time, and had to be stuck in downtown LA for a certain amount of time. Can you imagine this? Stuck in downtown LA, one of the worst places to be, for hours on end, all while carrying a huge and expensive computer around with you. That is mother fucking hard core, man.
Anyway, so Wesley and Jinfae decide to help her haul the computer uphill, while I offer to help too, but they don't seem to need any, so.. ok. I don't really remember what happened the rest of this day, other than that it was really fun.
Don't really remember anything about Wednesday, but Thursday was the "official" start of classes, although I only had a discussion that day. The real point of interest this day is the Texas Holdem tournament in Sproul, which is at 8:00 PM. Me, Wesley, and one of his roommates, Aakash, go into it, not really expecting much, and then we see the prizes, which are absolutely insane. The first prize is this DVD player, and the second prize is a full Holdem set, complete with cards and chips. However, Wesley and Aakash can't stay the whole time, since they have a floor meeting during the tournament, so I have to take over Wesley's position after he leaves. After I take over, everything starts to go really well. I become the chip leader almost immediately, and even get to eliminate someone, this stupid gay guy that suddenly comes in and goes all in with his really bad hand. And then all of a sudden, this girl with a fair amount of chips joins the table, and starts challenging me a bit, and the real turning point of this is when I bet a lot of chips(I forgot how much) on my pocket 10's.. and then I lose on the flop. Lol. And of course, this is exactly the time when Wesley comes back. It's all downhill from here, though, and we end up losing.
Um.. okay, so I guess I'll skip ahead to the next week. This week is really blurry for me too, and all I really remember is going to classes, me and Wesley doing funny stuff on DDR, and of course, having entertaining conversations. Twice, me, Wesley, and a group of people go to Schroemberg to watch Wesley play piano. And he is absolutely insane. This isn't really news to me, but he is able to hear any random melody or song, and then play it exactly as they are on the piano. Not to mention his crazy technique when playing classical pieces. He's like, perfect for a progressive rock band keyboardist. However, our fun comes to a quick end on the second time there with Linda and Grace, because a security guard notices our lack of the music card, so we get kicked out.. Basically, it's required to be a music student to get a card to get permission to use their pianos, which totally sucks.
Oh yeah, that reminds me, during that session with Linda and Grace, we somehow get to talking about relationships, and here's a little secret! Apparently, the key to getting a girl is putting your arms around her. Which I think is kind of scary and FORWARD, but not to them.
Uhh what else. My roommate is pretty cool, and his middle name is the same as my first name. Lol. Me and him have a lot in common, and we even have the same model iPod and the same vitamin dispenser.
So all in all, UCLA has been really fun and great, with great food and very cool people.
Umm.. what else can I say. Oh yeah, Fullmetal Alchemist ended :(((((. One of the greatest series ever is over now, so I guess to commemorate that, my icon is now my most favorite character from the series, Lust! Isn't she pretty?
But I guess it's not too bad, as right when FMA ended, Bleach started up, which is another great series.
I guess that'll be it for tonight. I should really update when I actually remember all the details. Lol.
I had planned to make this a really long, detailed entry of what happened every day so far, but it's been like two weeks, so I've forgotten the majority of it. Lol.
So I moved in half of my stuff on the 24th, but didn't actually start living in the dorms until Sunday the 26th. I live in Hedrick, which is absolutely the worst hall to live in for several reasons, one of them being that it's at the TOP OF THE DAMN HILL, being the farthest dorm out of all of them from the classes, so it's like a 20-30 minute walk to classes each day downhill. You can imagine how much time is added when I have to return uphill :D. The second reason lies in the restrooms, which have non-private showers(you know.. the ones that only have only one place to put all your clothes and stuff, which is outside the actual shower division, so it's really uh.. risky) along with stall doors that don't even fit! One of them is made so that the width makes it too big to even fit correctly, and the other three have locks that are incorrectly aligned.
Anyway, enough of my complaining. I guess the plus side to living in Hedrick is the amount of exercise I get everyday just going and returning from my dorm, which is I guess about at least 2 hours of walking each day. That, along with the fact that I'm kind of starting to get into DDR now, is uh.. really good for my weight! Lol. As Wesley said in his entry, I seem to have lost a few belt sizes.
After getting into my room, it took me about 2 hours to get the whole Internet thing set up. I'm not sure if other universities require this, but UCLA requires everyone to install this really gay STC software on their computers before using the Internet. It basically acts as an antivirus program, but it's pretty clear that its real purpose is to allow them to monitor our activities. It really, really slows down my computer, but I guess I got used to it over time. The UCLA Internet service is really odd.. I can download at absolutely insane speeds, getting a One Piece episode at 1.2 MB/sec and completing it in under 5 minutes, but the send rate is atrocious. It's like.. 4-5K/sec, but when sending to other people at UCLA, it goes at like 2MB/sec. Lol.
Welcome Week was really fun, and really laidback, and I spent 90% of the time outside, which is surprising. I don't really remember what happened Monday, but Tuesday, me, Wesley, and Jinfae went to Westwood and beyond to do a bunch of things that we had to do. It was fun watching Jinfae realize that the "Big Blue Bus" really is.. a big blue bus. Hahaha. Me and Wesley had to buy a certain course reader that our Chemistry professor required us to get, which is basically a book that contains all of the notes that he's gonna put up on the overhead, so it'll be really useful, since it'll defeat the purpose of taking notes in class. Anyway, so me and Wesley go into the store on Westwood to buy it, and are horrified by the price. $34. The professor, who is named Scerri, conveniently forgot to mention that there was a price included. I guess that would make it equivalent trade, eh, after all that money we paid for books and tuition already. TOUKA KOUKAN. After getting the books, me and Wesley are then even further horrified by the contents of the book itself. It is over 100 pages of HANDWRITTEN notes.. all of which are written in very, very big handwriting, and run through a copy machine. If the notes were typed up on a computer in a regular font and printed out, I'm sure the length of the book would be less than 100 pages. Discouraged at getting utterly ripped off again, the three of us return to UCLA, and we go to a nearby Starbucks where I order a Frapp mocha and Wesley orders something.. I forget what it is. He finishes it in like 3 seconds due to more than 50% of it being ice cubes, and this is like a $3 drink. So Jinfae starts daring him to charge into the store and demand his money's worth, and I join in on the daring too, not expecting him to actually do it, but then he actually does it! I guess it's because this was just after we got ripped off so badly at the Course Reader. Wesley then walks in and says something to the extent of "Hey, this drink was $3, and I finished it very quickly, due to the ice cubes.." and he doesn't even finish his sentence, because the lady behind the counter then grabs his drink and makes another one, with less ice and more coffee, for him. So he gets his money's worth, and this sorta rejuvenates our spirits. So on our way back, near the entrance, I look across the road, and see someone familiar.. she waves at me, and I signal to Jinfae and Wesley, and it turns out that it's Grace Chen, hauling a humongous computer with her. We meet up with her, and then learn that she had just come from UCR, but accidentally took the wrong bus, wasting at least 4 hours of time, and had to be stuck in downtown LA for a certain amount of time. Can you imagine this? Stuck in downtown LA, one of the worst places to be, for hours on end, all while carrying a huge and expensive computer around with you. That is mother fucking hard core, man.
Anyway, so Wesley and Jinfae decide to help her haul the computer uphill, while I offer to help too, but they don't seem to need any, so.. ok. I don't really remember what happened the rest of this day, other than that it was really fun.
Don't really remember anything about Wednesday, but Thursday was the "official" start of classes, although I only had a discussion that day. The real point of interest this day is the Texas Holdem tournament in Sproul, which is at 8:00 PM. Me, Wesley, and one of his roommates, Aakash, go into it, not really expecting much, and then we see the prizes, which are absolutely insane. The first prize is this DVD player, and the second prize is a full Holdem set, complete with cards and chips. However, Wesley and Aakash can't stay the whole time, since they have a floor meeting during the tournament, so I have to take over Wesley's position after he leaves. After I take over, everything starts to go really well. I become the chip leader almost immediately, and even get to eliminate someone, this stupid gay guy that suddenly comes in and goes all in with his really bad hand. And then all of a sudden, this girl with a fair amount of chips joins the table, and starts challenging me a bit, and the real turning point of this is when I bet a lot of chips(I forgot how much) on my pocket 10's.. and then I lose on the flop. Lol. And of course, this is exactly the time when Wesley comes back. It's all downhill from here, though, and we end up losing.
Um.. okay, so I guess I'll skip ahead to the next week. This week is really blurry for me too, and all I really remember is going to classes, me and Wesley doing funny stuff on DDR, and of course, having entertaining conversations. Twice, me, Wesley, and a group of people go to Schroemberg to watch Wesley play piano. And he is absolutely insane. This isn't really news to me, but he is able to hear any random melody or song, and then play it exactly as they are on the piano. Not to mention his crazy technique when playing classical pieces. He's like, perfect for a progressive rock band keyboardist. However, our fun comes to a quick end on the second time there with Linda and Grace, because a security guard notices our lack of the music card, so we get kicked out.. Basically, it's required to be a music student to get a card to get permission to use their pianos, which totally sucks.
Oh yeah, that reminds me, during that session with Linda and Grace, we somehow get to talking about relationships, and here's a little secret! Apparently, the key to getting a girl is putting your arms around her. Which I think is kind of scary and FORWARD, but not to them.
Uhh what else. My roommate is pretty cool, and his middle name is the same as my first name. Lol. Me and him have a lot in common, and we even have the same model iPod and the same vitamin dispenser.
So all in all, UCLA has been really fun and great, with great food and very cool people.
Umm.. what else can I say. Oh yeah, Fullmetal Alchemist ended :(((((. One of the greatest series ever is over now, so I guess to commemorate that, my icon is now my most favorite character from the series, Lust! Isn't she pretty?
But I guess it's not too bad, as right when FMA ended, Bleach started up, which is another great series.
I guess that'll be it for tonight. I should really update when I actually remember all the details. Lol.