last day

today is my last day at mudd. i am not done with all of my classes yet, but i will just have to submit my exam and project from home. i am still awake right now, packing up the past 4.5 years of my life. i've accumulated quite a few items, so packing is taking me longer than hoped. i can't believe this is it...

false ending.

the past week has been crazy fun. on tuesday, after my only class of the day, i went to the airport to pick up my childhood friend to go to the coldplay concert, which was amazing, amazing, amazing! i cried when they played "fix you", but that song has so many ties with me that i pretty much cry even when i don't hear it live. after the concert, i decided to stay up the whole night to start packing away my room. four years is a long time to accumulate a lot of junk. i skipped my classes on wednesday so that i could be home in time for my brother's birthday. (having wednesday classes before thanksgiving is a terrible idea for a school that has so many out-of-states students.) i started cooking that night and cooked all day thursday, and the result was a pretty spectacular menu. my uncle said during dinner that it's a waste for me to go to a math and science school when i should have been at a culinary institute. haha. i actually really want to go to one later, not to start a cooking career but to spruce up my dinner parties a bit. :)

i really love being home when the whole family's there. since my brother is in the military and i'm away at college, it's nearly impossible to get all of us in one place. i had a lot of fun doing absolutely nothing with my family, and i just miss that feeling of no time constraints and no worries. today is my last day to see my brother for a long time because he's going back to iraq when i finish college. i wish i could stay at home longer, but that dreaded voice keeps reminding me that i have eighteen days left here. eighteen! geez, time flies by so fast!

i know those eighteen days won't feel like anything, but before i can be home free, i still have a lot of things to finish. i have to make some edits on my thesis, build two webpages, write a treatment for a documentary, take two finals, and piece together an hour-long documentary that i've been working on the past few months with a couple of people at pomona college. the last bit scares me the most, since all we have completed at this point is five minutes tops. it was a promising piece--the girl secured a place in the calarts film festival in january for it--but i'm scared we won't be able to complete it in time. the project changed a lot during its course, so that's why we didn't finish more. and i have too much school work now to work on it.

it felt like school was over, until i arrived at my suite door. there's still so many non-school-related things i want to do at mudd and in claremont before i leave, but i've been shooing people away because i have to keep focused. i can't stay here any longer even if i wanted to (because my backpacking trip starts in january), and i really can't screw up now. but at this moment, i am, because i'm writing this post instead of reading and researching and writing. :/

tunnel vision

i was talking with someone tonight about one of my professors (a family member of harvey mudd) who isn't too happy with harvey mudd college's affiliation with the defense industry. the guy told me that there was no problem with that, and that's what engineers do: they make bombs, and bombs kill people.

harvey mudd college is great because of its mission statement, drafted in 1956 by president platt and still observed to this day:

"harvey mudd college seeks to educate engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, well versed in all of these areas and in the humanities and the social sciences so that they may assume leadership in their fields with a clear understanding of the impact of their work on society."

but comments like the ones made by that guy make me really disappointed that maybe the meaning of the mission statement got lost over the years. a lot of students come here for just math and science, yes, but the beauty of hmc is that you can take humanities classes so that you can really learn the connection between what you're doing in your technical classes and the world.

i just hope that by the time these students finish their college career, they will be able to see more from different perspectives and really question each and everyone of their actions.

when i'm not at mudd...

...i still stay up till ungodly hours of the night. tonight, er, this morning, i discovered two wonderful cleaning products: CLR and the magic eraser. i've seen commercials for both, but i've never tried them out until tonight, and wow, they really work as they are advertised! my bathroom is spotless with very little effort, unlike the intense scrubbing days of before! it's only 5:30am cst right now, and i am on a roll! i think i might head on over to the kitchen. mom can't exactly get up and clean the house, so i think it'll be a nice surprise for her. :) i'll hit the books again tomorrow...

oh, and i realized that this blog has diverged a lot from its original purpose. but then again, i have no idea who's reading this blog. if you have questions about mudd, you can still hit me up. i think i'm only keeping this until i graduate, which is in a month (fingers crossed at this point, though, because i've missed quite a bit of work in the past week or so). :)

everything always gets better.

i am really at ease right now. no longer do i have to be on alert to make sure that my mother is breathing or that she's not in unbearable pain. i went almost a whole week with hardly any sleep, so i've been pretty much a zombie. my mom was released from the hospital this morning, and she is the toughest woman i know. even though i could tell she was in a lot of pain, she wanted to get herself up without much help. it'll take her a long time to heal completely, but the worst is over. we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

i'm flying back to claremont on the 15th, and i am starting to be a bit scared about the coursework that's waiting for me when i get back. my professors have been super nice and supportive, but i can't run from work forever. i have one more month, but i am still not very far in my thesis. i just quit two jobs so that i will have enough time to get everything completed. i know that i will probably not be 100% invested in my work when i get back, but with more time, i can finish everything and get my undergrad degree!

just ahn-cray-deeb-bluhr (incredible)!

tonight's presidential race was so very exciting!! by 10pm EST, i was already jumping for joy. the final announcement as the west coast states came in took me by surprise, though. i didn't realize that the final verdict was going to come in so soon, and i was in the middle of cooking my dinner as i heard the announcement on my computer speakers. i had to drop everything and turn off the stove so i can witness the finale. i'm so glad to have been part of such a historic race. obama gave a great speech, but mccain was very sportsmanlike in his speech, too. mccain actually earned a lot of respect from me tonight on how well he took the news.

remember, we still have to be mindful of the people around us. everyone is entitled to their own views, so don't go bashing now. one person in power isn't going to change the world. we are the change, so we have to be the change we want to see in the world. and we have to work together and respect one another. :)

i really wish i were able to watch the race in a large gathering, like in downtown LA or something. i celebrated with my suitemates, but it's still not the same as being there with a bunch of people and really basking in the moment. i had a talk with michael ho right after and he pointed out that i will never get to witness such an incredible race as this as a college student ever again.

there was a bit of family problem that i had to deal with tonight, so it was hard for me to be excited about the race and then feel really sad about what happened to my mom. the dream that i wrote about a week and a half ago almost came true today, and it scared the crap out of me. she was involved in a bad car accident this morning, but she is fine right now. she's still in the hospital, but the nurse said that she was doing well after her surgery. i'm flying out in about 7 hours so i can spend her birthday with her and see how she's doing. :( that's the hardest thing about going to school so far away from home; i can't be there during the moments my family needs me most.

under pressure!

i think i've overcommitted myself once again. i keep forgetting how much time classwork takes, and i agree to do everything that's thrown my way. i should be working on my thesis today since my critique is tomorrow afternoon, but i agreed to go film for some panel discussion group at scripps college. i guess it's not so bad that i am actually getting paid pretty well for my time.

ever since i started the countdown of how many days i have left in claremont/college (45) and listed everything that needs to be done before then, i get super overwhelmed. i'd like to just take things one day at a time, but at this point, the clock is tick-tick-ticking. i am leaving before my final exams are even due, so i'd worked out with some of my professors to move the exams around, which means all of my other deadlines get pushed up, too. i'd like to stay an extra few days, but airplane tickets are ridiculous during the christmas season. my plane ticket doubles if i fly on the 18th rather than the 17th. yikes!

wow, it's already november! time flies by soooooo fast!

and if you haven't already, VOTE!!!

have you ever woken up drenched in a pool of tears?

that just happened to me this morning, and it was scaryyyyyy. i should have gotten up and stayed up, because in that extra 45 minutes of sleep, i experienced the most traumatic nightmare. 

anyhow, in the dream, my parents and i went on vacation, and it was our last day there (the place looked remarkably like wellington city but i don't think i dreamt i was in new zealand). anyway, my parents went off to borrow car from a friend/family member (?) and my job was to walk with them to the side of a street and wait with the luggage until they come back with the car. i waited and waited, and no one came back for me. it started raining, and some of my friends showed up and took me home with them. the entire time, i kept questioning where i was going and where my parents were, and i was very convinced that they had ditched me. as i walked away, i kept looking back at the luggage sitting on the side of the road.

and then my dad showed up, and he didn't say where he's been or what he was doing, and i kept asking him where my mom was. and he was just as confused of her whereabouts. he said that he wasn't responsible for picking up the car because mom was supposed to pick him up then pick me up. we returned to my old house (i dream about this house every time i dream about something scary), and in the midst of all this, a neighbour was beating the crap out of her kid on the front lawn. i got pissed and went over and beat the crap out of her. then i walked into the house and out onto the back porch with 911 on the line. there was a bus of kids who weren't kids (?) and a creepy guy (who looked like the master in the 3 ninjas) in our driveway. the guy came up to us and told us that's there's no hope and that we should move on.

i called 911 again and told them what this guy was telling us, that there was a huge plane that crashed on the side of a hill, crushing all the cars below it. the guy on the other line confirmed that there was such an accident, and the hill was near the street where i was waiting. suddenly, i started crying in my dream because the creepy guy told me that my mom was probably driving there during that time and that she was probably crushed to death. i didn't believe him, but he told me to ask my neighbours because three of their family members didn't make it back driving near that hill.

and then i woke up crying out for my mom. i don't know if anyone heard me, but i was super scared when i woke up. i guess lately, i've just been missing home a lot, so it makes sense that i would dream about my parents. :( maybe this is an unconscious reflection on how scared i am to have to grow up pretty soon, that i can't just rely on my parents, especially my mom, to take care of me like they did when i was six or sixteen?

the word 'break' should be redefined.

it's the second day of fall break, and i'm at my computer, trying to write midterm papers. the prompts were only given a few days ago, so it's not like i was procrastinating. but the sucky thing is, i'm actually not really getting a break during fall break. i went down to san diego for my friend's birthday yesterday, but i had to come back this evening because of all this work. booo. and who makes things due smack dab in the middle of break? i will probably not get much sleep tonight. :(

ticketmaster is evil.

the way ticketmaster works is this: they release tickets in batches and make people think that those are the only tickets left. they create sites like ticketsnow.com where you pay a hugely inflated price for tickets that should have been sold for a "normal price" on ticketmaster. they rack the convenience fees so high that sometimes it's almost double the "price" they set for the tickets. and their search engine really doesn't search for "best tickets available".

so all you can do is gamble, hoping that if you release the tickets you currently have on hand that you will get better seats somewhere else. and it's too bad that a lot of venues only work with ticketmaster now, and it's too bad that they've become the monopoly that they are.

i've been searching online and on the phone with a tm agent all morning, and both kept telling me that the only tickets left were obstructed side stage seating on the upper terrace. i nearly gave up, but...i'm going to see coldplay in anaheim on nov. 25th! my seats are still not so fantab for the price that i paid ($100 per tickets, yikes!) but they're not obstructed! i've been really wanting to see them, and i was so sure i wasn't going to get the chance to. they were in LA over the summer, but i was in texas. and then they're playing in dallas when i'm back in claremont this semester. so when i heard a couple of days ago that coldplay was coming back to the LA area, i just had to jump on the opportunity.

yay, i'm really happy. i still haven't figured out who the second ticket's going to, but i couldn't wait around for my friends from texas to confirm, so i bought two tickets just in case. my suitemate said she'll go if i can't find anyone else. :)

good things come in huge waves.

my original plan for my last semester was to work, work, work so that i could save enough money for my trip beginning in january 2009. i started looking for jobs way before summer even ended, mostly in the restaurant sector because i thought i could rack up in tips. unfortunately, a lot of places in the claremont village want somebody more long-term (than just a couple of months) and somebody with more fine dining experience (i have about a total of 4 of the 24 months under my belt). at one point, i accepted my defeat and promised myself that i would only focus on school for the rest of this semester and not let the whole no job thing get to me.

and then...in the span of two weeks, i went from jobless (except for DOS activities, but it hardly counts as a job because it's so fun and the hours are very sparse) to more opportunities thrown at me than i can handle. 

1. i ran into prof. benjamin who mentioned that he wants me to do more media-related stuff for him after fall break (i had worked on his press kits during the end of last semester and some over the summer).
2. kevin mapp (the school photographer) said that he's looking into letting me edit together the study abroad video.
3. the girl who i'll be collaborating with for a documentary about east african arts said she found funding for me (so i'll be paid, yes!)
   
4. i had a two-hour interview/chat session with a local filmmaker and her friends tonight about projects i can work on for this semester. some of them sounded really interesting, and hopefully i'll get decent pay, but i'm not very experienced. if i were hired, she's going to let me get my feet wet in all areas, but i will probably edit under this guy. i actually worked for her step-daughter in texas this past summer. it's crazy how small the world is! you really get help from connections.
5. i have an interview next tuesday for cloud 9, which is a paper shoppe in the village. this is the least relevant job to my field, but i love paper! it might sound crazy, but i actually design cards and other goodies so i have a stock of cute paper supplies for my crafts. i'm not that great, but i like to dabble in things. i really believe that now is the time for me to have odd jobs so that i can see how things are done.

i should not forget that i still have school going on though. i still have a thesis to finish. i still have my independent study project, which remains untouched. and i only have a little over two months left in claremont. i can't believe how fast time is whizzing by!

oh, the people you meet!

i consider myself a pretty lucky woman. (i think i'm allowed to call myself a "woman" rather than a "girl" at this point, right? i'm definitely old enough.) harvey mudd college has not been the easiest of paths i could have taken, but in the past four years here, i've really gotten to find out all the great opportunities that were thrown at me. i won't go into detail of everything, but i'll fill you in on what happened spring 2007: i got a chance to study abroad in wellington, new zealand. those short five months changed my life. that fall, i came back to mudd raving about my experiences. and then i got to thinking...

the way study abroad works at mudd is a little peculiar. you pay the normal tuition, room and board, and any student fees to harvey mudd college during your absence. mudd then takes that money, pays your study abroad program, and gives you an allowance for air transportation to and from your destination. if you do not use the program's room and board option, mudd also factors in an allowance so you can survive somewhere else. sometimes, your program costs less than mudd. sometimes, much more. but the cool thing is, if you were to get any financial help from mudd (which is about 80% of the mudd population), the aid still applies to your program. 

i'd been receiving help from the mudd family, most notably, from ms. elise mudd marvin. when i got back that fall, i randomly ran into pat who works in the scholarships department and thanked her and asked her to thank my donor for the opportunity to go abroad. words spread and the next day, i was informed that i could actually thank ms. marvin in person. luck would have it that the office of development were visiting her the very next day and my proctor training schedule was empty that morning. she was very sick and could barely prop herself up, but i got a chance to tell this woman how a stranger has changed my life. i spoke mostly to her daughter since ms. marvin had no energy to speak, but after the conversation, i felt even luckier. i will never forget the words that her daughter said to me, because they made me feel very alive and damn proud of who i turned out to be.

anyway, enough of that story. flash forward to this semester. i am taking two media studies classes at pitzer college from the same professor. she's an academy award winning documentary filmmaker (re: broken rainbow) and just an all-around fascinating person. yesterday, we sat and had a chat after class. i had asked her to help me with my senior thesis (i'm trying to work on a documentary), so i wanted her to critique where my project works and where it doesn't. the conversation moved from my project to my life and my plans for after graduation. i am embarking on a four-month trip with my best friend around japan, vietnam, thailand, new zealand, and fiji, and i told her that i got hooked on traveling after studying overseas. i can't keep to one place, and i find any means possible to fund my travels, including recently selling my car and possibly more of my possessions in the near future. she got to hear of all the instances where i just decide to take a few days off and fly to visit friends, and it was really great that she was so understand. and then, out of curiosity, i asked her if she was at all related to the harvey mudd whom my school is named after (i call her professor mudd, if you couldn't already tell).

and yes, she is. she's actually his granddaughter. i know it's not that coincidental that i'm going to the claremont colleges and taking classes from a professor who's closely affiliated with the colleges. the crazy part is, part of my scholarship last year actually came out of a fund she and her siblings help set up in honor of their mother, and i had written this woman a "thank you" note before (i didn't realize this until she pointed it out)! i think it's great that the same woman who's making it possible for me to complete my education is the woman whom i admire for her work. needless to say, the conversation lasted much longer than planned, and i left feeling really, really wonderful.

who would have thunk? the first two years here consisted of me cursing the place and wanting to leave as soon as possible. i stuck it out (not too happily at first), and now, i've gotten to say "thank you" to the key players who've made a difference in my life and letting them know that they've done so. i'm not the smartest person you'll meet, but i'm really happy with the education i've gotten here. i didn't retain much from any of my math and science courses, but i think i fulfilled the last part of the hmc mission statement: i've definitely developed as a leader, and i can judge the impact of my actions on society.

new lapstop, courtesy of hmc

i am writing this post from my brand-new tablet pc. well, it's technically not mine, but it is for the next semester! thanks to an IBM matching gift program, barry olsan, and joseph vaughan and his team, harvey mudd college was able to receive eleven lenovo thinkpad tablet pcs to rent out for the semester. in exchange for the laptops, we have to agree to help the CIS department by providing feedback as to what works for future students, if they decide to take this out of the pilot program.

the laptop runs on vista, and i get really, really confused. i could manage my way around windows xp okay, but vista...wow! i'm a mac user, so this is going to be somewhat of a transition for me. i was surprised that my application even got approved. joseph wants to know our goals and intentions with using these laptops, and my statement was that the tablet would be very useful for my videos because i can actually draw things in my videos. i have a wacom tablet but i hardly ever used it because the sensors are very poor. so i am definitely very excited about this tablet pc!

seriously, though, since the day i arrived at mudd, i've felt that this institution really spoils its students. or maybe it's because mudd places a lot of trust in its students. i don't know where else would a student be allowed to "rent" out a laptop, do whatever with it, and doesn't have to sign tons and tons of liability paperwork (all i had to do was give the CIS department my name). i'm not complaining because it really makes me appreciate mudd that much more.

it's been a while, huh?

i'm back on campus to start my last semester of college. woohoo! things have been a little overwhelming, but that's normal adjusting from the slow summer life to the fast-paced college life. this semester, i don't have any classes at mudd so it makes me feel a little weird being on campus but not venturing into the academic side at all, maybe just to visit some professors and staff members.

my summer was great! i got an internship with a video production place, so i got to test out my media studies major. the internship was in texas, but my boss was super familiar with the claremont colleges. i think it's surprising that more and more people are familiar with claremont and its colleges, which is great, because this means more open doors. before i got to mudd about four years ago, it was really hard for me to explain to people where i was going. "what? you're going to a community college?" was the general inquiry i received. harvey mudd college is a very rigorous institution, but it was still pretty unknown to the masses, even if they only lived ten minutes down the street in upland (yes, i've ran into people in the surrounding areas who have never even heard of claremont). now, instead of always answering, "i got to a small private college in southern california," i will sometimes say "harvey mudd college" to see if people actually have heard of it.

although i'm hesitant about being back for an extra semester of college, i'm sure this semester will fly by quickly, and i'll be left wishing i were back at mudd. i'm going to be spending the majority of this semester figuring out what to do with my life in the next few years post-graduation, so i've decided on a very light load to help me ease into the transition period. i think these next few months will be a little frightening and super exciting!

there has to be something else after this

this past semester has been a really great semester. it made me remember that my decision to switch was a really good one. i took six classes totaling 18 units (science/math education, intermediate video, silent film, handmade film, feminist concepts and strategies, and history of photography), and it was, by far, my best semester ever. it really makes a huge difference when you are doing what you love, and i don't regret that it took me until my senior year of college to realize this. i am grateful that i had that epiphany because i can see myself being really miserable later on in life had i continued on with my original path.

i have two classes left to take to complete my new major, so i'll be back in the fall to finish them. it's weird that i won't be taking any classes on the hmc campus, but i still don't associate myself with any of the other 5c. on one hand, i just really want to graduate already and jump start that next stage in life, and then on the other hand, i think i'll really miss this place.

graduation was last sunday, and i got to walk with my friends. at first, i hesitated to do so because i just felt weird not actually being finished, but my professors and friends convinced me otherwise. i'm really glad i did that and got to celebrate with the friends with whom i entered college. the end was just weird, though, because it really hasn't hit me that i won't be seeing most of these people again for a while. people were running left and right attending to their families (mine included) so it was difficult to find everyone to say the goodbyes. i can't believe four years have passed already. after my sophomore year, time decided that it'll just accelerate tenfolds and leave me in the dust.

i would upload some pictures from graduation day, but i don't have my card reader. i'm staying at my parents' friend's home while waiting for my car to get fixed so i can head back to texas for the summer.

i think it'll definitely hit me once i get out of this state.

humanities

i said in my last post that i was going to write more about that feminism class. first off, i'd like to state that although i go to a math and science school, my favorite part is that i get to take humanities courses. in fact, they usually are my favorite classes. (thus, it just made sense to me to switch my major last semester to do something i really truly love.) this is not to say that i regret going to mudd, because i don't. i've said this a lot lately, but the past four years at mudd has really helped me learn about myself. this place is hard, and it's definitely not meant for everybody. in fact, for the first two years, i was really convinced that i don't belong here. i didn't think i was nerdy enough or smart enough. but i am really glad i stuck it through. actually the dean of academic affairs and my professors were the ones who told me that i could make it. they were there to support me through my rough patch. and they advised me that i needed to be more involved and busy for me to be able to make it. and they were right. i am definitely the kind of person that the more busy i get, the more efficient i become. else, if i have nothing to do, i feel myself rotting.

anyway, back to the whole humanities thing. mudd requires that everyone takes at least a third of their classes in humanities. not everyone likes this rule, but i love it! initially, i wasn't too fond of this, because like most people, i came to mudd for the math and science, not the arts or sociology or the likes. however, i found that through these classes, i was challenged. my views and opinions were challenged, and i was forced to think on other levels. for example, i had to take a media theory class for my new major. since my schedule was so packed this semester, i decided that i want a class that doesn't meet very often, so i picked the one that worked best for my schedule: feminist concepts and strategies, which meets once a week from 2:45pm to 5:30pm. not too bad, right? except, before i started taking the class, i was scared because of the stereotypes i've heard from people about feminists and about feminist classes (especially at scripps). i thought that i wouldn't be able to last in the class for more than a month. so i definitely came into the class with a bias. and then reality hits, and so did the assignments. not only was this class an art production class but it was really heavy in the reading material. i was assigned about three hundred pages to read just for the first week of class, and the rest of the semester didn't look any lighter. i was really sold that i would not enjoy this class at all.

however, i was wrong, and it is now one of my favorite classes i've ever taken in my life. i've learned to look and treat others in a more positive light.

i know i'm rambling on and on now about this class, but i just really want to reiterate how much i love humanities courses. and it's so sad to me that a lot of people don't take that opportunity to go explore many of the hum classes offered by the five colleges. most people take as many economics classes as possible and try to skip out on the rest. and as helpful as econ classes can be, it doesn't really challenge you to look at things in a different light. well, that's my take on it. haha.

walker, satrapi, and nafisi...some really powerful women

last wednesday, i got to go to l.a. with my feminist concepts and strategies class (more on this later) to see some really amazing and inspiring works.

first, we visited the hammer museum for kara walker's "my complement, my enemy, my oppressor, my love" exhibit. i think walker might be one of my favorite artists, if not my favorite, right now. she uses a variety of different mediums, but she's most well-known for her amazing silhouette cutouts. her works really question the notion of race, gender, and sexuality. she challenges the conventional narratives of american history and the antebellum south. in other words, her works can create tension and uneasiness in the viewers, but i just absolutely love, love her works! she's at the hammer museum at ucla until june 8, 2008, and then the exhibit moves onto the modern art museum in fort worth, texas, after that! i am excited because i'll be in fort worth during the summer, and i did not have enough time to really take in everything.

these are my two favorite pieces from her. keep in mind that these pieces were adhered directly to the walls, and they are massive in scale:

"gone, an historical romance of a civil war as it occurred between the dusky thighs of one young negress and her heart" (1994)

"cut" (1998)

after dinner, we made our way over the ucla's royce hall to hear a conversation between marjane satrapi and azar nafisi, lead by alicia anstead.

 satrapi & nafisi 

marjane satrapi is the creator of the wonderfully humourous and heartbreaking graphic novel, "persepolis", which is basically her memoir of growing up in iran during the islamic revolution. when i first picked up "persepolis", i could not stop reading it. i had to get my hands on the second book and finished both without stopping to do much of anything else. i cried, i laughed, and i fell in love. i really recommend everyone to read this. it's such an easy read, yet it allows the readers to be exposed to some serious matters in a very light-hearted way. and if you don't like to read, a movie was just recently made from the graphic novels.

unfortunately, i don't know very much about azar nafisi. she's best known as the author of the national bestseller "reading lolita in tehran: a memoir in books", which is her account of the struggle she and her students had to go through during the islamic revolution. i definitely would like to pick up this book when i have time over the summer, because from hearing her speak, i can only imagine how wonderful the book is.

the conversation between the two women were hilarious. they talked about everything, from people losing imagination and creativity to people connecting throughout the world to enjoying the simple things of life. i am not doing justice to the very amusing conversation between the two women. all in all, i had an incredible night.

it's not the ending yet.

the past few weeks have been super draining on me. since coming back from spring break, the workload has significantly increased.

now what you all probably don't know is i'm a senior who is graduating in december 2008. that means, i am taking a semester longer to finish my degree, which is not bad for someone who just switched her major last semester. up until i left to go study abroad in new zealand a year ago (spring 2007), i had been taking regular math classes for my math-tracked degree. but i knew even then that i didn't want to do anything with my math degree after i graduated from college anyway, because i was more interested in things like event planning or arts and crafts, and the math degree was just to prove to people that i do have a brain. but i was struggling with it. boy, was i struggling. i didn't have as strong of a math background as other kids coming into harvey mudd, and i could have still finished the degree had i chosen to do so. however, my passion didn't lie there, and i figured this out when i studied abroad. but of course, i was too scared then to switch, and it took coming back to harvey mudd and signing up for six math courses in one semester that did me in.

but i don't regret any part of that journey. right now, i am doing what i love, even if i'm not sure this is what i want to do after i graduate. okay, i digress. this wasn't what i was going to write about. i just wanted you to know that i have that extra semester, that's all.

one semester isn't much, but i keep forgetting that most of my friends will be graduating this may, as in, in a month! in a month, we will all go our separate ways. in a month, they'll all either start their new lives in their new jobs or grad schools or some other options. and i'll still be at mudd for another semester. but what gets to me, is that until the end of the semester, i still have a lot of work i have to complete, including making four different movies for my classes. since i have to do those on top of my normal assignments, it leaves me little time to actually spend with these friends before we all disperse. i don't know when i will be able to see these folks again, since we all came from different parts of the country or the world. and i still have to find a job for the summer, which i haven't been too successful looking for a graphics designing job or a video editing job. so i think the purpose of this post is just me worrying about how i'm going to juggle everything until the end of the semester and how i was going to prepare myself for graduation day. i think i blabbed too much.

spring break is a time for complete detachment

it happened way too fast. yes, it's still technically spring break, but it feels like a normal weekend now, except with even more work to turn in because they piled up over the break. i did manage to get some rest and relaxation (finally!), but now, i'm craving for summer vacation already. i didn't get to spend my spring break in korea, but i had a lot of fun still in california. i never knew how pretty california is, and that's because i don't take the opportunity to go explore the state during the school season. the weather was super gorgeous this past week, which made the week off ten times better.i was going to take off as soon as break started, but i had to do some work on campus, so i spent the first few days of break with my freshmen. i took them to hollywood on one day because they've never been, and then we tried to go sledding on mt. baldy (the mountains closest to mudd) the next day, but the snow was mostly melted.yeah, these kids are a special bunch, but i love them. they're so much fun, and they put up with their crazy proctor!

after those few days, my friend, paula, and i took off on a four day road trip up the central coast. it was a very pleasant trip, and paula was a great travel buddy. she trusted me enough to go with me for four days without a schedule of what we were to do and where we were to go; we made up the route as we went along. we were going to camp, but we couldn't find a tent for the both of us, and i only had a one person tent with me. we were able to get free accommodations, however, from a friend in westwood and a friend i met while in new zealand who lives in goleta, just right outside of santa barbara. so we got to see a bit of those two areas.

here's proof as to what i mean by california is beautiful. look at that green hill!


we stopped in guadalupe and played in the sand dunes. unfortunately, most of that was blocked off due to plover nesting season, but we did manage to get some great rolls down the dunes. here is paula jumping up with joy on the beach, and i'm standing on the dunes (it was really, really cold). the walk to the dunes was long but well worth it!



we brought along trash bags and large plastic lids to go sliding down the dunes, but the part we were allowed to go on was not very steep. so we used the trash bags to catch the wind instead.


after the dunes, we went wine tasting. unfortunately, our timing was off so all the vineyards were closed and only the tasting rooms were opened. i had a bit too much to continue driving (the guy at the last place kept pouring a lot of wine into our glasses and didn't have anything for us to dump the leftovers in), so paula and i had to take an hour or so to sober up.

on the way back to goleta, we ran across a lavender farm! i looooooove lavender. love it! and of course, we were there after it was already closed. but luckily, the owner pulled into the farm right before we did and allowed us to come in and smelled the yumminess. i've never seen a lavender farm before. the place was so cute!


we also passed by some strawberry farms, so of course, we had to buy a whole box of strawberries. i feel bad for getting them for so cheap ($10 for a huge box that is equivalent to ten of those containers in the supermarket) because look at how hard they're working. the guy said that he had to get rid of them or else they spoil, so i shouldn't feel too bad?


at the beginning of our trip, we saw a sign that said ten avocados for $1, so on the way back to claremont, we just had to backtrack our route and hunt that stand down. we didn't find it, and of course, since we took the coastal route most of the way back, we landed in traffic once we got to la. so the trip back from santa barbara took us almost four hours, and we didn't get any avocados. :(

i can't wait until senior dead week. seniors get a week off while everyone else takes the finals because we have to take them earlier for graduation purposes. i want to do another long trip again. thank goodness this week is only four days long. i don't know how i can get back into the groove now, but i think i can manage for four days.

when plans don't fall through

today hasn't been exactly a great day. i know it's pretty early to say so considering it's only 8:45am right now, but i had to wake up really early to cancel my trip that i had planned for so long. i was supposed to fly to south korea on saturday and meet up with a japanese friend during my stopover in japan, but plans didn't fall through. it wasn't exactly the brightest of plans because i was leaving for spring break a whole week early and that's a lot of classes i'd be missing, but i needed a break. i had already worked out with most of my professors to turn in all my assignments at least a week early, except for one professor who wasn't happy with my departure. anyway, i am now really ahead in all my classes, and i think some good things will come out from not taking this trip.

i am at that point right now where i need to find satisfaction in what i do, as in, i need to believe that i will not be working in an office after i graduate, that i'll find something more meaningful and useful that i can do with my life. so i am trying anything and everything to reach that goal. when i left to go study abroad in new zealand back in spring of 2007, i had made a promise to myself that i would do everything completely from how i do it when i'm at mudd (ie. spontaneity vs. structured), and i just loved how things turned out for me then. so i want to go back to that promise and make the most of the rest of my college experience. it's a bummer that i couldn't be adventurous and go on this trip, but a lot was at stake. i'll just leave the explanation at that.

maybe my day will become fantastic by the time it ends.

we were so close!

sontag has never really gotten very far in terms of the intramural sports here. we did beat some people at innertube waterpolo once. but this year, things have definitely changed!

tonight was the volleyball championship tournament for all the 5C dorms (or the teams that made it to the tournament), and after a couple of hours of nonstop playing, we landed in the finals. all the other teams we played against held up very well. they kept everyone on their feet. anyways, the team we were competing against for the title was the scripps team, and they were amazing! we beat them for the first game, and we were pretty far ahead during the second. then, i got hit. HARD. in the face, with a volleyball, going however fast, i do not know. the sad thing is, my glasses broke in half! and i bought these glasses for a reason, so that incidents like these don't happen when my glasses are flexible. these flexon glasses served me well, but now, i have to replace them.

anyway, enough about the glasses. we didn't win. but we came in second, which is still pretty awesome. it gets the sontag name out there (because, up until now, other dorms assume that we're athletically challenged). pssh! we are anything but!

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars

I just came back from a really awesome concert with Prof. Martonosi (a Math professor) and three other students. I didn't know anything about the musical group before I went, but I trusted Martonosi's good taste in music, especially since she did spend a good chunk of her time in Africa volunteering for the Peace Corps. Anyway, the five of us drove to UCLA for a very nice surprise.

The evening began with a documentary about the group and the situations that they (and other Sierra Leone refugees) faced. Needless to say, there were heaps of tears. The documentary was very graphic during some scenes, which I was not prepared for. I don't want to tell you the whole story, but I highly suggest you go check the documentary out. These people are amazing! Not only do they not let anything tear them down and apart, but they use their music to spread joyous peaceful messages, starting first with the refugees living in their refugee camp.

What follows was a live performance by the group. We were in UCLA's Royce Hall, which was way too formal for a live music performance. It was fine during the documentary showing, with people situated in their assigned seats, but it didn't allow any room for people who want to get up and move to the beat. But that didn't stop anyone. The SLRAS's music was so contagious that so many people flocked to the front to dance their hearts out. The people sitting in the few front rows were pissed, though. Haha.

Anyway, you should totally check them out, and if you have a chance, go see them live.

hello!

hello there, world! or, more actually, hello there, prospective students! let me give you a little bit of an introduction. i'm trang, a senior at harvey mudd college, off-campus majoring in media studies and on-campus minoring in mathematics. right now, i am a proctor at sontag dorm (best dorm ever!), and i'm part of the activities planning team for the dean of students office. we plan at least one study break each week for the entire campus. yes, it's an incredibly fun job. i'm really glad to be writing this blog to let you all see a little more on what it's like to be a mudder. so hope to catch you soon! if you have any questions, please ask away! :)