Esthetic Flare

The Final 4

As fssp comes to an end I'm sad to see it end but appreciative for the opportunity. I did not realize the difficulty level college course stand. I'm glad to have experienced the culture shock of Santa Barbara now and also the shock of  college life now. I feel way more prepared for fall having gone through fssp. And I am excited for the upcoming years at ucsb.

As for my four events, I attended the walk to the co op, the isla vista info with the police officer, the guacho sex info night, and I attended the ethics review study session with our professor (which Gallucci said in the email a review session counted).

The Co op was a fairly interesting field trip due to the delicious food! It took only about 15 minutes to get there and then the woman who runs the co op showed us around. My favorite part was the food because it was all organic and the fruit tasted so fresh, but by far the chips and guacamole was the best. I want to shop there when in the future but it is pretty expensive.

The isla vista chat, honestly scared me out of wanting to live in isla vista. The officer seemed to be a pretty chill man and he informed us what not to do to get arrested. Don't sit down on the sidewalk! Don't back to an officer! And don't walk around by oneself. He also told us that there is a high robbery rate in isla vista and even in the dorms people are stealing so lock up your stuff...

The third event was the guacho sex night. Which I felt I personally did not gain a lot of information. Their main message was that 1) people are not just having sex  willy nilly that most people know each other 2) students at ucsb don't have as many stds as the rumors claim 3) and lastly if you are going to have sex then use protection!

The last event was Gallucci approved in the email and that is the review session I attended for my ethics class. We came the night before finals to an ethics review for about two hours where our professor explained the each answer on our review guide. I would not have done well on my midterm if I had not gone because our entire midterm was composed of the review questions.

Well I wish everyone the best, and I hope we all enjoy the next four years. Live, love, laugh, breathe life!

Final Presentations... The end has come

Last week prior to watching the play Macbeth, the director, Professor Appelwood, presented his life story and information about the ucsb theater program, including information about Macbeth. 

Professor Appelwood lived a fairly adventurous lifestyle. He began in a small town in Illinois where his family then moves to the Windy City of Chicago. During his high school years, his family moved once again to Southern California.  After high school Professor Appelwood attended Princeton (what a genius). And even better studied acting at Juliard the top performing school in the nation! For his career, he worked as an actor in the big apple. I was pretty amazed on how many places this man has lived... Around his thirties he settled down with a wife and child where they moved to Connecticut. But, he felt unfulfilled with his acting in Connecticut, and he wanted to do more, hence ucsb.

He recommended that we all take a theater class at some point because it is fun and it also helps with speech problems especially in regards to public speaking. And if we are brave enough to get involved with theater whether its sets, costumes, acting. And if you do any of these actions a student can earn units toward their transcript.

Another presentation we saw was during int 95 about the Education Abroad Program. I learned that the cost of studying abroad depends on where one studies. The more expensive places are in Europe usually and the less expensive is Southeast Asia and some Latin American countries. I decided that I personally have a strong desire to study abroad for a year because I really want to learn about other cultures. I think studying abroad is great learning experience and if I want to continue to learn another language that is the best way.

Macbeth!

On Friday night, I went with mi amiga Xoe to see the play Macbeth. Overall, it was a very interesting play. The acting was superb even though I could not understand old english/ Shakespearean vernacular I could follow the plot line based on the acting. 

I really did enjoy the play, but there were several alarming decision in regards to the actors and the attire. I felt slightly uncomfortable with a professor playing Macbeth while Lady Macbeth was obviously a young student... I felt that the director should have had people of the same age as the two lovers. It looked icky to watch a fifty year old man make out with a twenty something year old girl especially! When Lady Macbeth grabs at Macbeth's manhood... I understand that the director probably wanted to shock the audience, but it more or less serves as a distraction to the audience and takes away from the performance. 

Moving on, the attire... Gasp! The idea was they were naked shakes which in theory is a pretty nifty idea, so wearing all black would usually blend the the actors into the background and focus the audiences attention purely on the acting not the costumes, but seriously the yoga pants. Bad call because the material was fairly thin and I could see many things I did not desire to. Because the girls in the play were heavier set the ripples and cellulite peered through those pants. And you could say I'm a pervert, but the most commented aspect I heard from other audience members was the yoga pants! It was just distracting to the performance.

None the less, the play was still pretty amazing. I honestly didn't even notice the length and afterwards I felt highly inspired to support or maybe even join the ucsb theater program if possible,

Picture

Blessed to go to school here!

Review

Last week, the fssp students had the pleasure of watching Dr. Don Lu... By far the best presentation yet. I enjoyed his presentation in particular because he mixed comedy with learning. When Dr. Don spoke he engaged the fssp crowd with multiple stories and images instead of the usual one subject lecture which seems to go on for dayssss. Even more so, the doctor seemed genuinely enthused by ucsb and he had an optimistic outlook for all the students. I learned that college is about exploring new things and learning how to critically think. 

Besides his performance, my int 95 group had the pleasure of meeting one of the many librarians. And she also gave us a tutorial on how to utilize the library website. Her main focus during her tutorial was explaining how to find the best articles in regards to research. What I gained from Mrs. Weimer's presentation was that if a student searches for information said student can use different databases that are particular to the subject in which the topic umbrellas. 

As for myself, I thoroughly embraced my weekend :) I spent the majority of the weekend at the beach, swimming in the ocean. I tried to be productive and work on a research paper for my environmental science 2 class, but it just seemed so boring in comparison to what ucsb has to offer. I think my favorite activity this weekend was going to the rec cen and swimming in the pool. I discovered it was not only 17 feet deep but there is also 3 diving boards, 2 lows and 1 high board. I tried to go on the high board except I chickened out... I still had fun though!