::Planes, Trains, and Italy- Spring Break 2011:: Day 1

I'm writing this while sitting at San Diego International Airport. I'm going to Italy!

My travel itinerary to Florence is:
-San Diego to LA
-LA to Paris (Freaking long flight)
-Paris to Pisa
-Pisa to Florence (train)

My girlfriend Julianna is currently studying abroad in Florence, so I am going to visit and see what its like to be a international students (at least a week of it). She has been blogging for the Point Loma Study Abroad office.... check her blog out here:

http://mansionofbeautifulthoughts.blogspot.com/

Here is to 18 hours of travel!

Cheers,

Chris

A new year.

So I have been miserably failing at keeping this blog up to date, and for that I am sorry. I have officially started what may be my toughest semester at Point Loma, and honestly I am unsure of how it will go.

My classes for the semester are as follows:
-Immunology
-Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (The title alone sounds interesting)
-Continental Authors
-World Civilizations II
-Art

But more importantly than the classes, I will be taking my MCAT exam in about two months. The MCAT is a medical school entrance exam that essentially dictates (or at least has a huge influence) if and where you get accepted to medical school. I have been studying for it for the past two months (this is where I shamelessly provide an excuse for being behind on blogging), but I still have a ways to go before my actual test. So this semester academically (At least the first half) should be interesting as I balance classes and test prep.

So now that I have gotten the boring stuff out of the way, this is some stuff I have been doing since my last post:

-Went hiking on the Sonoma coast.

-Visited a sweet cave in Southern Arizona called Kartchner caverns.

-At at the best restaurant in Phoenix. Oregano's Pizza Bistro.

-Beat my older brother in Xbox 360 NCAA football. (If you knew my older brother, you would realize why this is so noteworthy.)

-Made a lot of stovetop popcorn. Once I switched from microwave to stovetop, I never turned back.

-Played Xbox Kinect at Dr. Choung's house for a chem club party.

-And last but not least, I got to see a replica renaissance castle winery in Napa Valley, California.

Broke college student purchase of the month. round #1.

So I decided to start something new for the blog.

Being a broke college student, there is something great about finding a random item for a great price. So for the inaugural post of this hopefully ongoing tradition.... I present a great mug I found from Goodwill.

$.97 had never been spent so well. This is a quality coffee mug.

(just for the record, I've never been to Chicago. or at least I don't think so, but based on this mug, I would love to go.)

This is Quinn, and he is showing what studying after thanksgiving break looks like.

Gospel Choir. & Bounce Houses.

::Gospel Choir::

Point Loma has a sweet gospel choir. This is from their concert. Maybe one day I will have enough soul.

These shirts are amazing.

::Bounce House::

After 20 years of living on this earth, I still enjoy a quality bounce house. Here is evidence:

I call this one crouching tiger.

I meant to do this?

Staches unite.

Chicken Alfredo, Jai Ho, and Costa

A longer post is in the making but in the mean time, I have three very important things to let you know.

1) Last blog post, I was promoting the sale aisle at Fresh N Easy (the grocery store closest to campus). To show proof of why Fresh N Easy is the best grocery for a poor college student:

2) While I was on a Loveworks trip to India this past summer, most of our time was spent in the hospital. But in our down time we got to learn how to Bollywood dance from a Bollywood choreographer. This past week was Loveworks chapel, which is pretty much a chapel where PLNU students can hear about last years trips and also how students can sign up for future loveworks trips. So naturally, this chapel was the perfect opportunity to show Loma how to dance Indian style.

3) I got accepted to the Costa Rica Study abroad program for this next summer!

Upperclassmen?

I am a junior now.

It feels weird thinking that I am starting the second half of my time at Loma. We started classes two weeks ago and for the week and half before classes started I was on campus for Resident Assistant (RA) training.

In the first two weeks of my junior year I have learned a couple things:

1) I'm getting old. I can't stay up past midnight anymore.

2) Fresh N Easy is the best grocery store for a broke college student. (especially the sale section where you can find some of the best grocery store sushi for $2.)

3) General education classes are way cooler than what people make them out to be.

4) I really want to figure out a way to study abroad. I mean look at Costa Rica:

This year I'm stoked to be an RA in Wiley Hall. Wiley is a sophomore/junior guys dorm. I personally think Wiley has the biggest rooms on campus but I may be a little biased. All the guys who live in my units are great guys so it should be a good year. To introduce you to the RA staff for the year here are some photos:

This is Chris and his bow tie.

Doug the resident scientist.

Mark. The cowboy from...... Orange County?

Matt the cooking machine.

Some other guy.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, these two bands are absolutely amazing.

And while we're on the subject of pop culture, I read a book over the summer called Moutains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. If you haven't read it, do it. It is about a medical anthropologist who works in Haiti (and many other countries). Even if you have no interest in being a doctor, this book is unbelievable.

Last but not least, here is a random video from my Advanced Biochemistry Lab. These are the kind of things us science majors get excited about..... (I give you permission to make fun of me.)

Summer Update Part 2.- Everything besides India.

Summer Job

After getting back from India, I spent most of the summer working for the biology department as a part of the undergraduate research program. The best parts of working on campus for the bio department during the summer is:
1) Getting to know your research professor better. They're great people.
2)Free bagels everyday. I love bagels.... So that's what I call work benefits.
3)Wednesday= free lunch
4) Last but not least you get to live with this view all summer for free.

The Big 80

My grandpa turned 80 during the summer, so naturally I flew out to Ohio to meet up with the rest of my family to bring in the big day with him. Even though I spent most of the weekend in Airport lobbies, coffee shops, and on the plane rather than Ohio, it was still a sweet trip.

Some random bus out behind grandparents house.

The Man of the hour.

The whole crew. I personally thought it was a cool gazebo.

Colorado
Me and my roommate wanted to go on some sort of an adventure once we finished our summer jobs. So we originally were gonna go to Costa Rica, but then we realized it was so dang expensive so we settled for a close second..... Backpacking in Colorado.

I had only been to Durango once so I had no idea where to go. After talking to an employee at the local mountaineering store, we found an awesome place to go backpacking for a four days. Easily one of the coolest and most spontaneous trips I've ever done. If you ever have the chance to randomly drive to Durango, go talk to Jeremy at Pine Needle Mountaineering and he'll hook you up.

Before:

A peak we failed to summit. Dang elevation.

Tomorrow morning I head back to Loma for RA training.... Loma round 3.