Winter and Spring Quarter

July 31, 2012

Relaxing under a huge tree in Santa Cruz.

These past 7 months have been crazy, but that shouldn't be any surprise if you know me well. I just got back from a month vacation in Florida with a couple friends. You're going to have to wait to hear about that one though, since I'm still weeding through all the pictures - it was a great trip!

Santa Cruz has been treating me well. I love living so close to a multitude of hiking areas, most near rivers or streams. The trees keep me sane throughout long bouts of studying. There's nothing like walking to class under a green canvas that's so alive.

Winter quarter was pretty tough for me - I was in and out of the health center trying to figure out why I was so tired all of the time. I'm still not feeling 100%, but I'm slowly getting better. Somehow I still managed to do well in all of my classes and hike every now and then, thanks to the support of friends and family. My Mom came up and visited me to cheer me up and took my girlfriends and I to our favorite place to eat in the area - Santa Cruz Diner. They have the best milkshakes!

The view UP as I descend into the cave.

On another one of her visits, we explored my campus and stumbled upon the "Porter Caves" and some huge trees. We also went for a short hike in Henry Cowell State Park, where there is a loop trail with tons of enormous trees. Our necks were sore by the end of the day from looking up and admiring their beauty. We also stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast when she came to pick me up in June.

In February, my friend Erica's parents came up for a weekend. We all went to Año Nuevo State Park to see the breeding site of the northern elephant seal. They are some funky looking creatures - and we saw so many of them! They make the strangest sounds. We really liked watching them in their natural habitat.

Classes were tough this year. I took a large workload and also kept busy with an internship at a local elementary school, where I worked with a kindergarten class. It was a nice break and the kids were so much fun. The teacher I worked with was amazing - I feel like I learned a lot from watching her deal with a full classroom.

During Spring quarter, I was very involved with Psi Chi. I was elected secretary of the club for next year so I spent time training and getting to know all of the other members. We volunteered at a few events in the community and hosted talks for the other psychology students on campus. As you can see by our group on the right, we are very serious people and have no fun at all! ;)

I also joined a lab in the Spring. I work with 5 other students and a professor on objectification theory, especially with teen females. We are currently developing a coding system for teen magazines, so that we can objectively measure the amount and intensity of sexual objectification in advertisements. It has been amazing to finally put all of my studies to use in actual research.

Hopefully I will be posting another update shortly about Florida. Until then, enjoy some highlights from some Santa Cruz hikes: