politics and things

Hello hello!

Well, since I last blogged, many things have happened, and many things are about to happen, even though it's only been a week and a half.

First of all, in the image above, I'm sitting on the sofa in my living room, wearing the MUSE shirt that I love and adore, from the MUSE concert. I love them. :)

Now, moving right along;
Nothing really happened during the week after I last blogged on 18 October. Life was life, consisting of classes, studying, food, friends, the usual.

On Friday 22 October, I went to a USC v UCLA football (soccer) game, received a free scarf, and left the coliseum without even setting foot in the main area where the game was happening. Obviously, I just went to get the scarf. I don't have it with me right now, but next time I blog, I'll take a photo of it and show you. :)

Also on that day, Obama came and spoke at USC, as part of his nationwide rally. I wanted to go see him, but the line was more than two miles long, and I didn't feel like it was worth it... So I sat in my living room and opened the window to my balcony, and his voice came in. He gave a pretty decent speech, it was the one where he says that when you want a car to go forward, you put it in D (democrat), and when you want it to go backwards, you put it in R (republican). Ha. Very silly.

Anyway, this week on Monday was the birthday of one of my friends. Her name is Rachelle, and she's not really a close friend, but I met her a while ago and we're... acquaintances. Anyway, a group of about 25 people jumped up from behind a low wall while she was on her way home, and we all shouted, "SURPRISE! HAPPY BIIIIRTHDAAAY!!!" at the top of our lungs... It was very nice, she was very happy. Her close friend Elie made homemade carrot cake FROM SCRATCH, it was probably one of the most delicious cakes I'd ever tasted. I'm happy to do this kind of thing now, while we can, as opposed to fifty years from now when that sort of thing is probably a legitimate health hazard. Heh.
Oh and after surprising Rachelle, while we were standing around talking and eating cake, I met my first korean at USC! Haha. His name is Josh Woo and he's a broadcast journalism major, and he's korean! However, he's like me, where his face and body is korean, but inside he's completely white. Amazingly, he speaks much, MUCH less korean than I do, and can't even hold a very simple conversation. Furthermore, his korean accent is even more terrible than mine. It was mindblowing.
Now, I'm proud of myself for whatever level of proficiency I have at speaking korean.

On Tuesday, in one of my classes the professor started to show us an amazing documentary about the immigration debate that's raging rampant through the USA right now, and I was so intrigued that I watched the whole thing. It's a beautiful and extremely informative documentary, and I strongly recommend it to everybody. Here are links to the whole thing:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKNV26f-KHM
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHLLGulxGHo
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTivOsv6mR0
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_pSdYow4Qw
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHG4_vdCqH4
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp1DZodl_o
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAmfN9M76a0
Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4Imq3ujxU8
It made tears come to my eyes more than once. :)

Today, today being Friday 29 October, I taught my first class for PHE! It was at the Health Services Academy, and I think it went really really well. I love teaching! I'm definitely doing PHE for the rest of my years at university.

Tonight, I'm going to Unviersal Studios with my friends Cameron and Ivanna for the Halloween Horror Nights tonight... Apparently it's really scary, haha, I'm very nervous. Hopefully it's not too bad, and we'll still have fun, and I'll survive to tell you about it! Haha.


Election day (which is also Albert's birthday! Yaaaaay!) is in five days, and of course I'm going to vote, so I've been reading a booklet that the state government sent to all registered voters. It's extremely helpful and informative, and I'm glad I can make an educated contribution, however small, to this country and state. :)

Alright, I do believe that is all I have to say for now, so I'll blog again very soon! This weekend is going to be quite busy, with a USC v Oregon American football game tomorrow and HARD Haunted Mansion on Sunday! So I'll blog again soon...

Until then,
michelle.

^_^

long time no blog!

Hello! I have a lot to write about, as I haven't blogged in a very long while. Here's my face, as you can tell. Behind me, though you can't see very much of it, is my kitchen. Yay kitchen! :)

Anyway, right to it!


First of all; I ordered my guitar on Wednesday 6 October and received it in the mail on Monday 11 October! It's a Takamine Jasmine S34c NEX, and looks like the one in the picture. I like it, it sounds beautiful. ^_^

Also, on 10 October 2010, I made donkatsu with my friends, and it turned out great! It was delicious, probably because the bread crumbs we used weren't plain, but italian style. That apparently means that they have extra seasonings in, like oregano or... something. In any event, our donkatsu turned out great.


On 6 October I went to get another California State ID made at the local DMV, since I lost my old one. It was a pretty quick process, since I'd made an appointment online. Therefore, I didn't stand in any lines, and was done in about half an hour. Yay for appointments! I felt and feel bad for people who don't know they can make appointments at the DMV and avoid the lines.

My volunteership with Peer Health Exchange (PHE) is going well, we have started going into the classrooms and teaching now. On 15 October I observed what a lesson in a classroom would be like, and wow. Honestly, I felt so bad for these two girls who had to not only keep quiet, but also teach a lesson to this class of 25+ students who couldn't care less. Not only that, but they were ninth graders, which apparently is notorious for being the most loud and difficult age to deal with as a class. Sigh. Haha. I teach my first lesson next week on 29 October, bright and early at 9:45 in the morning! Haha. I'll let you know how that goes.

Also on the 15th was the inauguration of the 11th President of the University of Southern California! His name is Chrystostomos L. Nikias, and he's Greek. The ceremony was from 10:00 until 13:00, and then there was a free picnic offered by USC, but I couldn't go to that because I had to go observe the PHE lesson in the local high school.

Anyway, here's a photo of the free booklet given out at the inauguration ceremony...

It's very fancy, you can't see it in the photo but the paper is thick, like card paper, and in total the booklet has 53 pages. The letters on the front are embossed in gold, and there's a random gold-colored elastic holding the thing shut. I wonder how much money the university spent just printing these financial abominations, considering there were definitely thousands of them at the event. -_-'

For the Red Cross at USC, I am now officially a part of the Blood Drive Committee! Every year USC holds a rivalry blood drive with UCLA, to see which school can collect more units of blood. This is great, as it supplements the great need for blood by patients around the time of the holidays, when college and university students are at home and don't donate as much. Thus, I am now helping to organize the blood drive, which this year will be from 29 November to 3 December 2010. Our goal is to get 350 units of blood from USC, and hopefully an equal number from UCLA, giving a total of 700 units from both schools! Not too shabby, huh? Hopefully we reach our objective!

By the way, I finally changed my major! I went to speak to the neuroscience advisor, and we had a nice long talk about the major, and where I want to go in life, and what sort of thing I want to do... And afterwards, he officially changed my major to neuroscience! Therefore, I am now working towards a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience, and as of so far, I am doing pre-Health courses, because I want to do the graduate program in Biotechnology at Johns Hopkins University, and it seems to require some of the pre-Health courses at USC as prerequisites. I figure I may as well do all of them, no? Here's the URL of the Johns Hopkins about the Master's program;

http://biotechnology.jhu.edu/graduate-education/ms-in-biotechnology/index.html

Tell me what you think!

So, since I last blogged, I have been to two more concerts, both at the Greek Theatre in Hollywood.
The first concert was the group Train on 30 September 2010... One example of their music is the popular song "Hey Soul Sister", which you'll find here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpv8-5XWOI
They were pretty decent, but not the best live. Considering they've been a band for fifteen years, they could really have done much better. However, the show was not too bad, and the performers did have stage charisma for sure. The opening act was a band called Needtobreathe, who were alright, but not as good as Train, who were already not that great, so... Needless to say, this isn't the best concert I've ever been to, but it was still entertaining. After the Muse and John Mayer concerts though, I don't think my mind will ever be blown away by a concert ever again.
On 9 October 2010, I went to see Maroon 5. Here's their song "Sunday Morning":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8nJ-KAiBeo&feature=related
Maroon 5 was a better show than Train, as their music was generally of better quality, and they were better performers as well. Since they've been famous for a while, the show was better, and they were nice to listen to. :) Their opening acts were Ry Cuming and One Republic. The first guy I'd never heard of, but he was definitely alright to listen to... And relative to their success, One Republic was remarkably mediocre live. Ah well. Nonetheless, it was a good concert overall.

Finally, big news! Obama is coming to visit USC! On 22 October 2010, Obama will be here at 13:30 to make a public address! Apparently his people contacted the university and asked if it would be alright for him to come speak... Haha, how amazing! I look forward to seeing him, if I can even get a spot! :)

Well, that's all for now, so... Until next time, peace and love!

michelle