Blog No. BLONDE: Winter Orientation
It's about time I returned to Santa Cruz. This time I'm here on official business. Winter Orientation is basically a time where the bigwigs of the University welcome the new transfer students and the one new freshman, as well as encourage the community atmosphere, answer any pending questions before the new quarter, and to enroll in classes.
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After the train and bus trip, Kaylah and Beth picked me up for a quick trip to the Capitola Mall. There, we pretty much walked around shopping for Xmas presents. Now I would explain in detail where we actually went, but I think that will give away some of the surprise.
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After the mall, we swung by a KFC/A&W to get root beer floats for our Toys R' Us journey. We went to Toys R' Us to try and get some possible gifts for our younger siblings. Kaylah got a soccer goal for her little brother. However, walking through the aisles, we found some of our old toy things. Kaylah found all the plastic food and plastic kitchenware. I found some musical instruments, like a small xylophone and small guitar. Look at us. The three of us are full grown adults... playing in Toys R' Us at midnight. XD
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When we got to their home, we pretty much spent most of the time pulling up SNL videos. Kaylah, Beth, and Terry are pretty obsessed with a few of those, like "Mother Lover" and "Like a Boss" which took me off guard the first time they showed me those videos. The reason they pulled them up was because our friend, Paul, had not seen them yet.
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The next morning, Kaylah drove me along the path of helium filled balloons, past the wonderful scenery, to Cowell college, where I signed in and grabbed some food. I had been to this dining hall before, back when Kaylah was a freshman on campus. Since then, they have remodeled the dining hall to the point where it looks like a shiny bistro. The atmosphere was very cool, and the food was simply delicious. The food is definitely a step up from the ARC cafeteria food. XD
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I was kind of nervous of the orientation because it usually meant that I had to meet new people. I'm not really the kind of person to meet new people. It was funny though, because I sat near some cute asian girls. I was given an assignment by Dustin to find some asian girls for him when he came down. The girls I sat with were very shy, too, and I pretty much just smiled the entire time. They talked amongst themselves more though, in their own language, which made if feel so much more awkward because they would look back at me a few times... So, let the stalking of cute asian girls begin! XD
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I sat through a few informative and funny speeches. Then afterward, all the transfer students seperate into the different fields of study, and then again for specific majors. Basically I walked up with the Social Sciences group, then branched off into the smaller Econ major oriented group. There, we went to a classroom where a few of the main teachers gave us a broad overview of the 3 main majors, Economics, Business Management Economics, and Global Economics, as well as discussed what opportunities are available to us and what we still need to do to start our core classes.
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After I asked more about the Global Economics program, I walked into a Humanities lecture hall, which was rather huge and very comfortable. There, two advisers gave us the skinny of what other resources are available on campus and what not. I jotted down some notes and wrote down a few numbers for future reference.
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At this point, we had a few options as to which seminar we could go to. What I did was I basically walked back to the dining hall, had lunch, then walked around to the various booths representing the different offices and clubs on campus and took a few papers and free stuff along the way. After, I started walking to the Stevenson computer lab to look and see if I could consult with people while I registered for some classes. Unfortunately, the line was atrociously long. So, I walked back to the dining hall, where it was pretty much empty now. I sat down at one of the tables and whipped out my sister's laptop, where I logged on to the UCSC portal and searched for classes. By the stroke of 2 pm, or our collective enrollment appointments, I had signed up for all three of my classes.
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Being all proud of myself, I took a leisurely walk around campus and ended up at the bookstore. There, I walked in to try to find something for my mom for Xmas. I ended up getting her and I a shirt. After I walked out of the store, I walked next door to take a picture for my ID card, which I will get the day I move in on campus... They are putting a LOT of things on one day...
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After, I was reminded that I should look at the Apple computers on sale on the second floor. Kaylah let me know about this sale, a regular Mac laptop and an All-in-One printer for $800, and I thought it would be a good time to look into it. When I got there, there was no one behind the counter, so I just played with the display computer for a few minutes. It basically reminded me of Kaylah's computer now. It was simple to use. However, I wanted my mom in on this decision so I decided to wait. So, after I bought some more stuff, (socks for Taka, boxers for Dustin), I walked across to the little restaurant.
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I called up Piper, telling her about the offer. I remembered she hated Macs, so I wanted to get her POV on this deal. I also texted Abril, seeing as she was a Mac lover, to get her POV as well. After calling Terry and asking when they were returning home, I went back into the bookstore, having remembered that I should get a onesie for Lennox and a pullover for Piper. The register lady was laughing at me, asking if I was a new transfer student. She was pretty cool. XD
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Bookstore---(Bus)---> Home
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Dan welcomed me in. I hadn't seen him the last couple of times I visited, even though he, too, lived at that apartment with them. Last time he saw me was back when they were first paying for the apartment, when Piper came to visit. He was still as proper and artistic as ever. He called my new haircut "almost Tim Burton like, but in a good way." I looked at a few of his cartoons, which were pretty good. Corey had arrived, too, from out of town, and she was still as random as ever. XD
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Just a few minutes after I got home, Terry and Beth arrived, too. We also decided to meet Kaylah at her work and go to dinner from there. By "meeting her at work" I mean walking from their house to just outside of downtown Santa Cruz at night. At least it worked up an apetite.
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Did I mention Red Robin? We drove to Red Robin from Gigi's Restaurant. There isn't a Red Robin in Santa Cruz. The closest one was in San Jose. So... we basically drove for an hour for burgers... Kaylah ordered a tower of onion rings, and for Beth a basket of mozerella sticks for our appetizers. The appetizers alone were very delicious. I ordered a "banzai burger" which was basically a teriyaki slathered meat with pineapple, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. It was AWESOME. The trip was definitely worth it!
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Now, Beth had "excused" herself to go to the bathroom. Little did we know, she actually told the Red Robin staff that it was "Kaylah's Birthday" which it was kind of true seeing as it was the first day of her new cake line at Gigi's. So, basically the waiters and waitresses gathered around our table and sang happy birthday to Kaylah, giving her a free sundae. Hooray for free ice cream! XD
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After Red Robin, we decided to go and see some Xmas light displays. There was a park that gets closed down during this time of year for this kind of thing, where cars are able to drive through the various displays at night. That's where we basically were for about an hour. All of the lights were really neat and inventive. There was a pirate ship that had a Xmas light cannon shooting off every few seconds. There was a section dedicated to festive dinosaurs as well, for some reason.
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After the drive home, we immediately fell asleep, after a six minute black out of course... Then Kaylah drove me to the bus stop at 6 AM, where I took an early bus back to Sacramento.
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Yes, though this trip was a quickie, it was a fun trip nonetheless. XD
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Surprise Blog: F12 Holiday Concert
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The Santa Cruz Quickie transitioned really well with the F12 concert, seeing as I came back early just for that.
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F12 is the band that Taka, King, and Yowty plays in for their church. Last time, Parkarr and I went to their concert and sat in for a sermon, where they talked about one of my favorite passages in the bible.
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This time around, F12 had their Xmas rally at the same place, where Parkarr, again, gave me a ride to.
I had left Lomo with Taka before I left, just so that I wouldn't worry about him while I went to Orientation.
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Lomo happened to be with a row of Mienh people in front. A couple of them turned around to get my attention and handed Lomo off to me. Some how they knew who I was. I only recognized one of the girls from a video Taka showed me of her French Mienh friends... At least I think that was her... XD;
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Parkarr and I pretty much stood the entire time they were up there. I had Lomo on my shoulders and helped him move around to the beat. After their set, there was another sermon. The lady pretty much compared Xmas gifts to the gift of worship, where she had her husband give her an empty Xmas box to prove the point that if you just left the gift unopened on a shelf, the gift given might as well not be there at all. Summarizing, she's basically telling us to utilize God's gift to us.
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Following that, F12 played a few more, holiday themed songs. They all had Xmas hats on, which reminded me that I need to find my old Xmas hat somewhere...
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After, Parkarr and I helped them break down the stage and set it back up for the following day. I finally met Chiam, or "Fake David" as I choose to call him. For some reason, everyone calls him David. He was pretty cool. The thing I most remembered about him was that he told me that, whenever I saw Taka, I need to pinch her cheeks, which was where he demonstrated how hard I should do so. XD
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Most of us had hit the McDonald's up the road, like last time. I paid for Parkarr's food, seeing as he was broke and had not eaten for 2 days. I just got my usual chicken nugget meal with a hot fudge sundae as dipping sauce. Lomo got stuck with nothing, again. And yeah... Taka, Parkarr, and I just pretty much got caught up in our conversation. It was good that I arrive back in Sacramento earlier than usual, for these small moments with newer friends that are about to run out...
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A good note to end on. C:
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