michelle rivers - my adventure blog

Sunrise - view from my back porch  As usual, I've been busy with my last year of college! Started this year living off campus in a house only a few blocks from the base of my campus. I live with 2 other housemates who are very quiet and respectful (I barely ever see them) in a large room that overlooks the ocean and downtown. I've had a wonderful time living on my own and learning how to cook. I have definitely gotten a lot more quality sleep and study time now that I'm out of the dorms.  Nature's playground - 5.7  Fall quarter started last September. I took two amazing psychology classes: learning and memory and social psych of flim flam (why people believe in silly things). I learned a lot and was offered a great opportunity to work in my professor's memory lab (more on that later). I also worked to create better educational assessments for a program called " Mariposa's Art ", designed to allow after-school art classes and teaching oppo...

School ended successfully- Finals went well, and my GPA is 4.0! I was also initiated into a National Psychology Honors society called Psi Chi. When it was all over, I was not ready to come home, I really love it in Santa Cruz. Now that I'm here, though, I don't want to go back! I'm thankful to be happy in both places. Since I've been home, I've been busy. Break ha s flown by, as I knew it would. I started December with a trip to Long Beach with my friend Jennifer. We stayed at her in-law's beach house, which wa s absolutely gorge ous. We also checked out the Long Beach Aquariu m, which was much bigger than I expected. We spent a good chunk of the day there seeing all the sea life. We even got a behind-the-scenes look at the back, where they keep cute little artic foxes (look at its nose!) The next day we walked/drove around the city, stopping at cute little shops and a fancy Spanish restaurant called Sevilla, where I tri ed rabbit for the first time... not ...