Hi Everybody!
Happy Blue Moon! Tonight is the second full moon of the month; how cool is that?! So, it's been about a week. Today is the first day that it's cloudy and cool. It's been sunny with clear blue skies and very hot and humid the rest of the time. I've gotten some of my textbooks, walked to Safeway, etc. I feel that I will really need my car if I'm going to make it anywhere around here. I went to a brief bbq for Founder's Hall and met a few more people, but it wasn't the most productive or social thing I've done. I did meet a few more people, Carolina and Chelsie are very nice. Even if Chelsie spells her name offensively (ha ha!) I can't wait for classes to start! Sooo, enjoy to the full moon tonight! After all, once in a blue moon there is a blue moon!
Love,
Chelsea
Friday, August 31, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Some Pictures
Hi Everyone,
So...still not a whole lot going on. Although I did get some of my textbooks, which look pretty interesting. Here are some pictures to spruce the page up a bit. The first two are taken at Anthony Chabot Park and the third one is a view from the campus near where my dorm is.
Cheers,
Chelsea
So...still not a whole lot going on. Although I did get some of my textbooks, which look pretty interesting. Here are some pictures to spruce the page up a bit. The first two are taken at Anthony Chabot Park and the third one is a view from the campus near where my dorm is.
Chelsea
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Welcome to the Cloister
Hi everyone!
Welcome to my new blog. I am starting a new chapter in my life and I've decided that it's high time I start another blog, not only because I sort of gave up on the other one, but because I really want to keep in touch with all of my family since they are the most important people in the world to me.
I decided that I'd better offer up an oath of sorts to help keep me focused on my goals. So: Even though I'm not the best at communicating my feelings (because I think through issues so quickly that I don't usually take the time voice things aloud), I'm going to enjoy writing down my experiences and thoughts here as I adjust to my new digs in California.
Just to catch everyone up, I finished up my last quarter of working at the UW on Friday the 17th. It was kind of a bittersweet goodbye. Not only did I love my job working with the student athletes, but I also love the people that I worked with. They were sad to see me go and I was sad to leave them. On my last official day of tutoring, they gave me a nice card and some UW athletic paraphernalia. The last week of work was absolutely crazy. My students had this absurd teacher who wanted them to read thousands of pages worth of material, watch the assigned films, give a 30-minute presentation, take two midterms, and write a 6-7 page paper within the span of 4 weeks. Not doable. At least, if she expects correct answers and quality work out of her students, then she needs to give a manageable workload. She also talked so much that she was 2 weeks behind and decided to extend class hours by 30 minutes for the last week of class. As you can probably imagine, I had a ton of work to do preparing my students for their final test, but I was also preparing for some tests of my own. On Friday and Saturday, the 17th and 18th, I had to take the remaining 2 portions of the CSET test, Childhood Development/PE and Math/Science. I studied hard, and luckily the tests were really easy, but between work and CSETting, I didn't have much time to do anything else.
That gave me one week to pack up all of my stuff and move out of my apartment. Did I get right on it? Not exaaaactly...I wanted to make sure that I got to see some of my friends first, so I hung out with Deshawn on Saturday and went shopping with David on Sunday. On Monday, I got to work, knowing I'd have to work non-stop until I got done. I did just that, and I'm still amazed at the amount of stuff any one person (or two) can accumulate over such a short span on time and in such a small space. I had a dinner with Chukkie, Al, and Nate on Monday night, which was a lot of fun, and then my supervisors from work took me out to lunch on Wednesday to say goodbye.
I drove home to Port Angeles with as much stuff as my car could carry, and then turned around and drove back to Seattle with my dad on Thursday night. I still had a bunch of stuff left over (even though I'd taken 3 card loads to my parents' house over the last couple of months) and we were going to store it in my dad's truck and then he'd take it home so that it can be stored in PA until I need it again. Now, when I say a bunch of stuff, I mean a BUNCH. My dad's truck was crammed so full that he couldn't see out the back, so I had to stick my head out of the window while he was driving in order to know if he was able to change lanes safely or not. We made it to the hotel somewhere between 11:00 and midnight, and then were shuttled to the airport at 6:40 the next morning so that we could catch our "8:40 am" flight to Oakland. And this is where the adventure begins:
So, I had to pack everything that I need to live, go to school and eventually work here in California into 4 suitcases and a carry-on. It was difficult to do and it made the suitcases extremely heavy. My dad and I each took 2 suitcases to wheel around, but it was a lot of work and we enlisted the help of a baggage cart guy who was very helpful. He suggested we weigh each bag and then shift some of the items around so that only one of the bags would be overweight. That wasn't too difficult. Then, we went to check in electronically and we realized that the tickets were for 8:40 PM not AM. We'd either have to chill at the airport for 11 1/2 hours, or try to get another flight. Luckily, the extremely kind and helpful lady at the counter was able to get us a 10:10 flight. She also weighed my bags and deemed one of them a fraction of a pound too heavy, so we had to do some more shifting. Then, we went over to security. As we were going through the line, the security people kept moving my dad's stuff back and looked confused. Then one of the security ladies took his shoes to a special area and investigated them, then she came back and told my dad they had to be run through the system again. We waited until she finally returned them and she said that she had to check them because they were from different pairs! My dad apparently has 2 pairs of shoes that are similar but not the same and he mixed them up without realizing it. They were probably concerned that he was a shoe bomber or something. Anyways, we didn't have to wait too long before we flew to Oakland, got the rental car, and checked in at our hotel. Then we got some lunch at an Italian restaurant called Francesco's that looked like some place Perry Mason would have taken Paul and Della to in the 50's and headed up into the hills to check out Holy Names. We were going to go shopping and maybe drive over to San Francisco, but were too tired so we went back to the hotel towaste copious hours pass some time on our smart phones.
Yesterday morning I checked into my dorm room and we went shopping for the supplies that I needed. The school provided us with directions to Target and Wal-Mart, but their instructions were wrong. Luckily we've gotten so adept at using our smart phones that we were able to find the real directions to Target without much difficulty. We got lunch and decided to take a detour back to the dorms through Anthony Chabot Regional Park on Redwood Road. The park was very cool. It's right in the middle of the city, but it's pretty much been left to be a wilderness area, with some trails and a rifle range. We ended up doing a pretty decent spur-of-the-moment hike. There weren't a lot of animals around, aside from people and their dogs, but we did see some vultures, some smaller birds, and some teeny tiny lizards. After that we stopped at Safeway and then I was on my own.
My room is relatively nice, especially for a dorm. It's in a building designated for graduate students (and maybe a few athletes), and I have my own sink and was provided with a fridge and microwave. The school is so different from the UW. It's feels very isolated. It's pretty much just a tiny school on its own hill. I have a great view of downtown Oakland, the bay, and the hills behind San Francisco when it's clear. I don't really know anybody yet. The people in my dorm seem to know each other already or something, so I've been kind of bored all day. It also feels extremely quiet and as if nothing is going on. I know there is because the freshmen all had to move in yesterday, but it's really quiet so far. It's also a Sunday, so I figure there's churchy things going on, but I haven't seen or heard anything of the sort. School starts on Wednesday for the Freshmen, but I have to wait until the 6th so I am anticipating some slow days ahead. Oh well, once it picks up I'm sure I'll be busier. Anyways, I guess that's about it. I'll try to provide some pictures for you all soon!
Lots of Catholic School Love,
Chelsea
Welcome to my new blog. I am starting a new chapter in my life and I've decided that it's high time I start another blog, not only because I sort of gave up on the other one, but because I really want to keep in touch with all of my family since they are the most important people in the world to me.
I decided that I'd better offer up an oath of sorts to help keep me focused on my goals. So: Even though I'm not the best at communicating my feelings (because I think through issues so quickly that I don't usually take the time voice things aloud), I'm going to enjoy writing down my experiences and thoughts here as I adjust to my new digs in California.
Just to catch everyone up, I finished up my last quarter of working at the UW on Friday the 17th. It was kind of a bittersweet goodbye. Not only did I love my job working with the student athletes, but I also love the people that I worked with. They were sad to see me go and I was sad to leave them. On my last official day of tutoring, they gave me a nice card and some UW athletic paraphernalia. The last week of work was absolutely crazy. My students had this absurd teacher who wanted them to read thousands of pages worth of material, watch the assigned films, give a 30-minute presentation, take two midterms, and write a 6-7 page paper within the span of 4 weeks. Not doable. At least, if she expects correct answers and quality work out of her students, then she needs to give a manageable workload. She also talked so much that she was 2 weeks behind and decided to extend class hours by 30 minutes for the last week of class. As you can probably imagine, I had a ton of work to do preparing my students for their final test, but I was also preparing for some tests of my own. On Friday and Saturday, the 17th and 18th, I had to take the remaining 2 portions of the CSET test, Childhood Development/PE and Math/Science. I studied hard, and luckily the tests were really easy, but between work and CSETting, I didn't have much time to do anything else.
That gave me one week to pack up all of my stuff and move out of my apartment. Did I get right on it? Not exaaaactly...I wanted to make sure that I got to see some of my friends first, so I hung out with Deshawn on Saturday and went shopping with David on Sunday. On Monday, I got to work, knowing I'd have to work non-stop until I got done. I did just that, and I'm still amazed at the amount of stuff any one person (or two) can accumulate over such a short span on time and in such a small space. I had a dinner with Chukkie, Al, and Nate on Monday night, which was a lot of fun, and then my supervisors from work took me out to lunch on Wednesday to say goodbye.
I drove home to Port Angeles with as much stuff as my car could carry, and then turned around and drove back to Seattle with my dad on Thursday night. I still had a bunch of stuff left over (even though I'd taken 3 card loads to my parents' house over the last couple of months) and we were going to store it in my dad's truck and then he'd take it home so that it can be stored in PA until I need it again. Now, when I say a bunch of stuff, I mean a BUNCH. My dad's truck was crammed so full that he couldn't see out the back, so I had to stick my head out of the window while he was driving in order to know if he was able to change lanes safely or not. We made it to the hotel somewhere between 11:00 and midnight, and then were shuttled to the airport at 6:40 the next morning so that we could catch our "8:40 am" flight to Oakland. And this is where the adventure begins:
So, I had to pack everything that I need to live, go to school and eventually work here in California into 4 suitcases and a carry-on. It was difficult to do and it made the suitcases extremely heavy. My dad and I each took 2 suitcases to wheel around, but it was a lot of work and we enlisted the help of a baggage cart guy who was very helpful. He suggested we weigh each bag and then shift some of the items around so that only one of the bags would be overweight. That wasn't too difficult. Then, we went to check in electronically and we realized that the tickets were for 8:40 PM not AM. We'd either have to chill at the airport for 11 1/2 hours, or try to get another flight. Luckily, the extremely kind and helpful lady at the counter was able to get us a 10:10 flight. She also weighed my bags and deemed one of them a fraction of a pound too heavy, so we had to do some more shifting. Then, we went over to security. As we were going through the line, the security people kept moving my dad's stuff back and looked confused. Then one of the security ladies took his shoes to a special area and investigated them, then she came back and told my dad they had to be run through the system again. We waited until she finally returned them and she said that she had to check them because they were from different pairs! My dad apparently has 2 pairs of shoes that are similar but not the same and he mixed them up without realizing it. They were probably concerned that he was a shoe bomber or something. Anyways, we didn't have to wait too long before we flew to Oakland, got the rental car, and checked in at our hotel. Then we got some lunch at an Italian restaurant called Francesco's that looked like some place Perry Mason would have taken Paul and Della to in the 50's and headed up into the hills to check out Holy Names. We were going to go shopping and maybe drive over to San Francisco, but were too tired so we went back to the hotel to
Yesterday morning I checked into my dorm room and we went shopping for the supplies that I needed. The school provided us with directions to Target and Wal-Mart, but their instructions were wrong. Luckily we've gotten so adept at using our smart phones that we were able to find the real directions to Target without much difficulty. We got lunch and decided to take a detour back to the dorms through Anthony Chabot Regional Park on Redwood Road. The park was very cool. It's right in the middle of the city, but it's pretty much been left to be a wilderness area, with some trails and a rifle range. We ended up doing a pretty decent spur-of-the-moment hike. There weren't a lot of animals around, aside from people and their dogs, but we did see some vultures, some smaller birds, and some teeny tiny lizards. After that we stopped at Safeway and then I was on my own.
My room is relatively nice, especially for a dorm. It's in a building designated for graduate students (and maybe a few athletes), and I have my own sink and was provided with a fridge and microwave. The school is so different from the UW. It's feels very isolated. It's pretty much just a tiny school on its own hill. I have a great view of downtown Oakland, the bay, and the hills behind San Francisco when it's clear. I don't really know anybody yet. The people in my dorm seem to know each other already or something, so I've been kind of bored all day. It also feels extremely quiet and as if nothing is going on. I know there is because the freshmen all had to move in yesterday, but it's really quiet so far. It's also a Sunday, so I figure there's churchy things going on, but I haven't seen or heard anything of the sort. School starts on Wednesday for the Freshmen, but I have to wait until the 6th so I am anticipating some slow days ahead. Oh well, once it picks up I'm sure I'll be busier. Anyways, I guess that's about it. I'll try to provide some pictures for you all soon!
Lots of Catholic School Love,
Chelsea
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)