Hello! I have so much to say about things that have happened since the last time I blogged!
First of all, here's a photo from the beach, as I told you I'd show you...
Unfortunately, my memory card destroyed all of the other image files, so this was the only one I could save. :(
Alrighty then! I think something of note to say is that in the early morning on Thursday 14 April 2011, I participated in a community service activity that Delta Delta Sigma (DDS), my pre-dental honor society, does once in a while...
The activity is part of what is called the "Spread the Smile Campaign". As part of it, every week DDS members go to local elementary schools and teach about different aspects of dental health... This time, I taught about nutrition, and why it's important to eat well to not only keep your teeth healthy, but the rest of your body too! Unfortunately, this was the last SSC of the year, but next year I'll participate in many of them, yay!
Oh, sorry for backtracking, but I forgot to mention; on the evening of 12 April, the USC Red Cross had a Japan Benefit Concert, which was amazing! It was held at Ground Zero, which is a nice little venue at USC which is particularly famous for its milkshakes. They designed a special recipe for our event, which was called the "Red Out Milkshake", and had strawberries, chocolate chips, a Chips Ahoy cookie, and vanilla ice cream in it. Though I really don't like milkshakes in general, this one was pretty good! But ugh, I get really tired of how THIRSTY milkshakes make me, I have terrible cottonmouth every time I drink one. Haha.
This was my favorite act of the night, her name is Caitlin Notey and her voice is breathtaking! I was literally hypnotized during her entire act, I hope you can see why when you watch the video!
On Friday I registered for my classes for next semester, here's my schedule:
(you can click on the image to make it bigger)
The classes on there are as follows;
FREN-220 : French 3 (USC Language Requirement)
CHEM-203Lxg : AIDS Drug Discovery and Development (General Education)
HP-230 : Nutrition (Pre-Dental)
COMM-204 : Public Speaking (Pre-Dental)
Good stuff. 8:30 class on Wednesdays and Fridays, fabulous! Haha. It'll be nice to breathe the fresh morning air before it gets really warm at midday. ^_^
OH MY GOODNESS! ON MONDAY 18 APRIL I GOT A CALL FROM THE JOINT EDUCATIONAL PROJECT (JEP) HOUSE AND THEY OFFERED ME THE POSITION OF PROGRAM ASSISTANT THAT I APPLIED FOR!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I'm so so so happy, I can't believe I actually got the position when I was so sure I wouldn't! I suppose the lesson in this experience is to never give up, and never give up hope, even if I think I won't succeed. Because you never know, right?
As part of my JEP Program Assistant position, I'm attending a barbeque at the JEP House on this coming Monday (25 April 2011) to meet the current and incoming Program Assistants, who will be my colleagues next year! Also, on August 15-18, ie next year prior to the start of classes, all of the Program Assistants have a training retreat at Palm Springs, where I guess we'll get to know each other better, and... get trained? I'm not really sure what we're going to be doing, but I'm sure it will be fantastic, and I can't wait!!!
This Wednesday I handed in a three page paper, on Thursday I handed in a seven page paper, whew, lots of paper writing happened this week! And on Thursday evening, DDS had an end-of-year BANQUET, ON A BOAT! It was so elegant, the food was delicious Italian food, and everything was fantastic. ^_^
Here are some photos from Thursday...
This is the majority of the members of DDS.
This is me with Joanne, a good friend I recently made who is in DDS with me, as well as two of my classes! What are the chances, right? Haha. ^___^
This is the boat we were on, the SS "Zumbrota"! It was such a pretty boat, to be sure.
And then... the food...... :o
YUMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYY!!!
All in all, it was a fabulous evening. However, I was SO TIRED and exhausted from the rigorous week prior... I'd planned to take a nap before going to the banquet, but that didn't end up happening, so at the party, I drank three cups of strong coffee in a vain attempt to keep myself awake and energetic.
... I still fell very deeply asleep basically as soon as we got in the car on the way back to school. Lovely. And then as soon as I got back to my apartment, I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and then was unconscious for twelve continuous hours.
What I think had happened was, I was feeling a little bit ill during the week beforehand; I'd been sneezing and somewhat weak and with a little bit of a headache... On top of that, I had been working and studying really hard, and just in general hadn't been sleeping enough to let my body get better. So on Thursday night, my body just refused to wake up after 8 hours like it normally does, and slept for a solid 12. WHEW. When I woke up, I felt so much healthier and alive than the night before! Thank goodness for the body's restorative capacities. ^_^
Friday 22 April, which was yesterday, I just had a normal day, went to class, and once again had a pretty eventful evening! For dinner, I went to Nak Won in koreatown with one of my friends, and we had dolsotbab and La-bokki! DELICIOUS, I LOVE KOREAN FOOD! Haha. Then we came back to campus and went to this on-campus concert where the bands really weren't all that good... However, the headlining band, known as "Down to Funk", were amazing! This is a video of them with a different singer, at a different performance:
The singer in that video, her name is Lara Johnston and she's amazing, but not really for funk. She was at the USC Red Cross Japan Benefit Concert too! But during the performance of Down to Funk that my friend and I went to, the vocalist was this gay black guy who was AMAZING at singing! I wanted to run up on stage and give him a giant hug because he was so incredible, but Security probably would've mauled me if I had. It's a real shame my camera is having difficulties right now, which means I couldn't take any photos or videos. :(
After that, another friend told me to go to this USC hosted event known as a "Rouge & Gold" ball. However, I didn't know it was a ball, so I agreed and arrived... In short pants and tee shirt. Haha! Whatever. I still had fun and danced to my little heart's content. I love dancing in the middle of a crowd! Heehee. ^_^
This morning (the morning of Saturday 23 April), I had delicious waffles for breakfast with another friend, and then spent the whole day studying and reading research papers for a presentation I have to do on Wednesday. Exciting business! My research papers are talking about the genetic inheritance of Huntington's disease, which is basically what I initially wanted to spend my life working on... I still find it such such fascinating subject matter, so I'm really enjoying reading these papers.
Tomorrow morning at 9:45, I'm heading to the "Downtown Women's Center" with the Community Health Involvement Project (CHIP) group for two hours, and we're going to be offering blood pressure and blood glucose screening to the people there. Very nice stuff, I love offering these services to people! I feel like these are vital pieces of information that everyone should know, but can't obtain without going to an actual doctor's office or clinic first, at least while in good health. At least, if someone offered to read my blood pressure and glucose for free, I'd take readings every single day! Therefore, I'm glad to be helping in the effort to keep people aware of their health.
Besides that, I'm just going to be working away tomorrow, chiseling away at those research papers, sleeping some more, studying for finals, and feeding myself! Haha. Next week is the LAST WEEK OF CLASSES OF THE SEMESTER! Then we have a week off to study for finals, and then I have my finals on Monday and Tuesday the 9th and 10th of May!
Wooooooooo it's time to study study study!
For now though, I really have to go sleep, otherwise I'll be too tired tomorrow to do anything! Haha.
So, good night world, and I shall blog again... Whenever!
Be at peace, everybody.
michelle. xx
