UC Santa Cruz!

About a week ago, I spent the weekend with my friend Jennifer. We went to visit her friend Rick, who owns a lot of animals: baby snakes, rattlesnakes, tons of mice (he breeds them for a living), turtles, lizards, a dog, etc. I got to see a sidewinder, my favorite rattlesnake, eat! I wouldn't recommend everyone watch this video, but I think it's interesting:

We couldn't do much that night because of the blackout, but the next day we went to the zoo. We had a great day seeing all the animals.I spent the rest of last week saying goodbye to friends and family. I'm going to miss San Diego and everyone I love, but I am very excited about starting a new chapter of my life. Wednesday morning my Mom, Tony, and I left for Santa Cruz. We made great time and made it up to the campus by about noon. Move-in went well; I thought I had a lot of stuff but many people beat me! (Which is good, because my roommate and I ended up on the corner room, which is a lot smaller than the others.)








My cute little cactus and view from my windowBeautiful berries from the farmer's market in town
Since move-in, I've been extremely busy with "Welcome Week" activities: night hikes, karaoke, a dance, orientation events, workshops, campus tours, etc. Yesterday I took the city bus into town to explore the shops. I ended up buying an inexpensive half-size guitar so I can join in on all the musical activities. Today my friends from San Diego are moving in, so I'm going to visit them and go out to dinner in downtown.

Things I dislike (will take some getting used to) about living up here:
-The dorms are pretty loud, especially since my dorm room faces out towards the "quad", which is always filled with loud activities or music.
-Sharing bathroom space with a large group of girls and boys can be... interesting!
-Not sure how I'm going to handle the fast pace of the 10 week quarter. I'm getting a little stressed just thinking about it, but I have plenty of resources to take advantage of if I need help or support.

Things I LIKE about living up here:
-The food in the dining hall is delicious! All of it is locally purchased from farmers or small businesses. The salad ingredients are grown here on campus.
-The campus is very green... they even recycle styrofoam, practice trayless dining, and discourage the use of plastic bags at the stores on campus.
-I've already become acquainted with the campus deer population. I like to visit them every night around sunset. The other night they took me to a beautiful meadow overlooking the ocean. The view was astounding.
-There is ALWAYS something fun and/or educational to do.
-The campus offers tons of resources: a career center, 2 huge libraries, tons of different types of academic advisers, clubs, places to rent sporting equipment, and much more.
-My roommate is very considerate and I think we'll get along pretty well throughout the year.
-Living in the dorms makes it easy to make friends. Everyone has a different history and it's been interesting spending hours walking and talking with new acquaintances.
-The campus is HUGE. I'm still learning how to navigate the buses and walking (more like hiking) trails.
-Oh, and of course:
Trees are EVERYWHERE.
Miss you all, but having a great time! Thanks for reading.

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