UCSB Mourns

I like underdogs, and I like to be supremely proud of places I come from and am affiliated with: I am proud of Riverside for being my hometown, I am proud of Bordeaux for being my European home away from home, I was even proud of the 10025 zip code my first year in New York and then of the 7 train when I was out in Queens. And above all, I am a superbly proud UCSB Alum, Santa Barbara Gaucho. And I love when things get on the map and I love when they are winning. But I never wanted UC Santa Barbara, or that UCSB-extension and every student's home Isla Vista, to get on the map like this.

The weird thing was that I was sitting down for lunch in San Diego with my UCSB senior year college roommate on Saturday after the events, when she asked if I had heard about what had happened the night before, and I hadn't. But right after she told me, my phone then blew up with everyone texting and getting in touch and remembering and mourning.

To see it on national headlines is a little surreal. To see the streets I lived on for 4 years, the deli I went to, the places I napped inbetween classes... to see them now with bullet holes in glass, huge memorials stacked with flowers, candlelight vigils walking through the parks, around the frat and sorority houses I went to parties at or visited with friends, it's so sad. That was me six years ago. That could have been me and all of my friends six years ago. They were just like us. Laid back, partying, studying, roaming Isla Vista for the evening... cut short by a national-headlined mass murder.

I am lucky to be at a sister school. All the UC campus flags are at half-staff and there will be a memorial here tomorrow as well. My office has been kind and understanding, since I have already flaunted my UCSB pride in their faces and they know of my affiliation and love. It's just so disheartening. So I wanted to post some pictures to reminisce on my pride and good times at UCSB and in Isla Vista while I also mourn with them.

San Nicolas Residence Hall, where I lived (happily!) from 2004-2005

A 2009 trip back to my exact dorm room I shared with my great roommate Neva, and made lasting friends on that dorm floor til now

Freshman year in the dorms... before going out somewhere...

Known for the Halloween parties, my sophomore year roommates and I dress up as the characters from Clue

Senior year Halloween fun out in Isla Vista

Senior year Halloween on Del Playa in Isla Vista, I ran into Richie Tenenbaum... my favorite!

Senior year shenanigans around finals time, waiting for Bill's Bus in Isla Vista

And my 2008 graduation from the best UC ever.

Go Gauchos.

International Student Advisor

It's been more than a few weeks now, I suppose it's time I talk about my new job that I just love, and wonder how I got to be so lucky to snag this. I had been applying to and interviewing with jobs all throughout southern California and having a hit or two here or there, but nothing surfaced. When this opportunity came around, so did two others, and while all of them looked like they might pull through, I was really hoping the "good one" would not only materialize, but also materialize first, so that I didn't feel obligated to say yes to someone else.

Well, that both did and didn't happen. While this job was offered to me and I happily, happily accepted, I turned down the other ones and when I did so, I was then offered a different position including domestic and international travel, in an attempt to keep me. I went through a small crisis that Chrishon was able to guide me out of, and I stuck with the "good one" that I had been looking forward to, that really was the best opportunity.

So now, I am an International Student Advisor at a University of California, and so far, it has surpassed my expectations and been wonderful. In general it has also just been a nice change of pace to be an advisor and have a more quality role in the operations. I like having a functioning role in itself, especially helping students, and not just supporting the general office mill. I am finally free of the front desk phone lines and walk-in traffic, free of supply ordering and processing requisitions, and instead I am asked which supplies I need ordered, seen by appointment only and get to help deliver training and resources to the students. This year, I was signing the administrative assistant cards on Administrative Professionals Day, and not receiving them!

The team I work on is great, the campus is vibrant and fun, and I love my position, counseling international students and being involved in social activities for them, and even helping lead our peer advisors, who are domestic student volunteers who help organize and attend activities to help the international students adjust to life in California.

My first day on the job... they had a welcome sign on my office door, as well as a thank you card in my box, thanking me for choosing them and their team. They also gave me a shirt, a team polo, and a fancy coffee tumbler

One night I locked my keys in my car and my mom had to come to my work to use her Triple A for me, so in the meantime I gave her a tour of my office

This caption is either "Busy At Work" or "That Was A Lie"


My UCR swag, in direct contrast to this next one... lolololol

That's right! Proud alumni, with a small picking of postcards from my collection lining the bottom, including this gem...

Circa 2001 in Dublin, Ireland. I found this picture while going through boxes in the garage recently. I had to put it to good use

The view from the office's kitchen. See that damn C? That's what I've hiked to like seven times now

Some of the staff in the office who participated in the Hijab Day, a challenge to all women to wear a hijab for a day and reflect on your experience. It included a free headscarf and they taught us how to wrap them

During the Spring training for our International Peer Advisors. Look how cute they are doing an ice breaker, while the Queen Bee (me) overlooks them from the front of the room, drinking from a water bottle

It reminds me a lot of working at UC Santa Barbara when I was an intern for our Health Education department. I loved it and I loved the jobs our advisors had, which I think is was encouraged me to go into higher education; I loved the atmosphere and their work with our student population, and now I have exactly that, and with the international student community too, it couldn't be more perfect for me right now!

The Running Club

My sidekick fitness gal-pal Marisa and I finally made to the running club I found through work yesterday... you know, only like 3 weeks after we said we were going to go every week.

Well, Marisa comes to my work, we meet up, then walk over to the meeting place together. We can't really find anyone. Well eventually we do find someone. Two of the leaders showed up, but that was it. They kept saying it was so weird that no one else was there because they usually have a group of at least 10, but anyway, here we were.

I told them we were very low level. He says okay, then says we should warm up. Let's run a lap! And then he takes off around the baseball field that we had met at. Marisa and I looked at each other and just started laughing, but had no choice other than to go too. A warm up for running is running? As we tried to keep up behind him, we kept bringing up new cases "It's like if you show up to a ballet class and they say 'okay, let's warm up, please perform Swan Lake'" or "Welcome to art class, let's warm up, please paint the Mona Lisa". So if you couldn't tell, we really aren't big runners.

When we finish our lap, the guy says we will do some drills. Marisa asks if they are running drills, and he says no. He tells us to do these fancy run shuffle walks to the middle of the field. As we take off, Marisa laughs and says 'Yeah, these are running drills'.

I couldn't really keep up. I was tired from the warm up lap, he was moving really fast, and if it's not slow and controlled yoga, I guess I don't have the energy for it. So Marisa and I followed behind, and I started just dancing and then running to catch up, and then pretending to be doing the warm ups whenever the leader turned around, and Marisa was saying how much it was just like tennis and we needed our old coach there to yell at us and motivate us and then not care if we cheated, and we were laughing so hard I could barely get from one side to the other, every time. It was really fun, and felt like we were back in high school.

Then of course came the actual running. I was kinda proud of us! We went for a pretty darn long while on the trail before we needed to stop and walk. Maybe like 2/3 of the whole 2 mile stretch. Or maybe 3/5. What I really learned is that I need to update my running playlist.

Aaaaand next Monday is Memorial Day so we're out another week.

Bordeaux Matchmaking

Nostalgia overload! Now that cousin Adam is a big hot shot with his PR company, I get to fill in as arm candy to super fun events when Sammy is out of town, haha. Adam invited me to a few events in LA this week, and even though it was a Monday, I absolutely could not refuse the Bordeaux Wine Matchmaking at the Riviera 31 Lounge & Patio inside the Sofitel in Beverly Hills last night!

This event was legit... it was straight-up from Bordeaux, financed by the European Union and everything. You had to fill out a questionnaire in advance so that they could select wines that would suitable to your taste and palette. All the emails and everything had landscape pictures from Bordeaux and it was so nostalgic and bittersweet!

The event started at 7pm SHARP (they took every opportunity to remind you of that) and after work I still had to go home and get ready and dress "urban casual" for the event (spoiler alert: you'll still be under-dressed in Beverly Hills) and wasn't on the road til 6:05. I know I was going against traffic, but this is LA we're talking about. I was wondering how long it would take me to get past that 101 / 60 interchange up to Hollywood. This is the way I drive every week for Groundlings, and it doesn't matter when I go... morning, noon or night, weekend or weekday... it's always backed up. Except... for... last night! I was shocked. I started to think maybe I had gotten on the wrong freeway. I never had to break. I am STILL freaked out about it a little. That was really weird, but hey, I'll take it!

It would have been nice if they had told us that parking was validated, but since they didn't, I was circling around looking for my best parking options nearby, and I ended up parking in front of the trashy lingerie store

....no guys, literally.

Crazy to think this is right across from the swanky Sofitel and Bloomingdale's. It really is a street-by-street basis even in LA. At any rate, the timing was great, Adam had my place in line, and we waited to check in, get our personalized drink tickets and then take our pictures on the Bordeaux green screen... I chose Le Grand Theatre background for us. I saw The Nutcracker here with Pam and Rafael and Vivian!

Everyone was being all classy and taking nice posed pictures, but Adam and I just went for it. The dress code said Urban Casual, not Academy Awards... we were there to have fun! They even printed those out for us so we have hard copies too.

They had a wheel of prizes to spin (none of which was a trip to Bordeaux. Rude!) and Adam and I both got a sweet Bordeaux wine key. And, like 90% of the workers all spoke French, so I got to practice a lot (although the music was really loud and I was having problems understanding) and I can only say they spoke French, because my opening line was always (in French) "Are you from Bordeaux?" and not. a. single. one. was. They were from Paris and Marseille and Lille and Belgium. Which is just as well, the Bordelais are known for being rude. I commented to one of the guys in French when he told me he was from Paris that no one here was from Bordeaux and he responded "yeah, we keep all the Bordelais in Bordeaux." HA!

One wine attendant poured me a glass and I said "merci" and he said "You speak French, yes? I heard you speaking over there. Your accent is interesting" and I said "interesting?!" and he said "No, very good. You speak very well" so either... he used the wrong word and had to correct himself, or else my accent really is just very interesting and he had to check himself cause of my violent reaction ahahahaha. I ain't even mad.

So lastly, the invitations had mentioned that they were giving away shirts that said #YOLEAUX on them (as in YOLO, with Bordeaux, etc) and I was dying because I wanted one of those. So cute and creative! All you had to do was like, Instagram and Tweet and hashtag their stuff and tag them and all. So I did! I put up pictures of me IN BORDEAUX and AT THE EVENT, starting from that afternoon! And they didn't give away any shirts! Everytime someone would move to make an announcement I would tell Adam "THIS IS IT! THIS IS WHERE I WIN MY SHIRT!" I'm serious, all I was really looking for out of that night was free wine and a shirt!! And we even asked around and no one seemed to know what we were talking about! I was a little annoyed about that. And these pictures all went to waste because of that!

Still, it was a nice night! Funtivity in LA for a Monday. No complaints.

Pablo's Day, Mother's Day

This weekend was spent celebrating mothers and my cousin's longtime boyfriend, Pablo. On Friday I joined them in Pomona at a banda club. I shouldn't even be surprised. My cousin Brianna is half Argentinian and I forget how much she loves that Latina side to come out. She'll always ask though, "is this too Hispanic for you?" haha. It's usually not (live music is fun!) but at one point it did hit me that I could see the tops of everyone's head... except for Pablo. I was the second-tallest person there (after Pablo) and probably the tallest girl.

On Saturday, Pablo had a birthday dinner and this time I had my white family to join me. Anyone who looks a little while is probably my side of the family. But I did enjoy practicing all my Spanish again! It mainly consisted of mucho gusto and Señor Pablo, donde esta la basura? and I have no idea if that is even grammatically correct.

Then of course, Mother's Day on Sunday with our matriarch Queen for a Day, grandma Dorothea!

It was so very appropriate that she won Left Right Center. I was in for so long too, rolling all those dots! Womp womp. I also scored a 16-piece baking set (thanks Aunt Judee!) Even Cousin David came out!

After the picnic we went to her place and I got to refill her hummingbird feeder. I would like to point out that I helped grandma to her chair for Queen for a Day and she said "Now what?" and I said "I don't know, just hang out here and I'll get people. I guess we're going to sit around you." And her response was "Oh no, now I have to look at all of you" haha! We also got her to hit Matt with her cane. She's finally coming out of her shell! Only 96 years later...

快乐 !!

Well color me happy happy happy.

One of my favorite discoveries in New York City was of the Asian bakeries. Chinese, Japanese and Korean bakeries were the ones I saw and frequented the most, but they were all good. They were plentiful, inexpensive, and delicious. I had weekly appointments on the edge of Koreatown and made it a point to get a red bean pastry every time I went there. I knew it was going to be a big sadness in my life to leave those behind.

I took a walk nearby on my lunch break and what did I find, 2 minutes away, but an Asian bakery, exactly like the ones in New York! Fresh and inexpensive, just the way I like it! Red bean pastries for $1.25, and egg custards, taro buns and almond cakes, and much more, and nothing really more than $2.00, and need I remind you that these are fresh? They aren't processed, old, shelf-stored desserts like Twinkies. (Sorry, was that un-American of me?) I can't believe it, it exists right here, right here where I work. Not to mention the record store right next to us too.

See, leaving New York City isn't as sad as you think!

Quatro de Mayo

Today may be Cinco de Mayo, but I am all fiesta'd out. Sunday was Marisa's fiesta bridal shower and it was a hit! You would think that that much sangria and Corona would be reserved for the bachelorette party, but, no. Everything was so cute, from table decorations to desserts to gifts. It was a perfect day up in the hills near Lake Matthews with a great view of Riverside, and I made a lot of new friends, which will of course make the bachelorette party and the July wedding that much more fun!

Marisa and I have been friends since 7th grade. She was my first new friend in middle school, best friend throughout middle school, tennis partner in high school, my teacher mentor as I explore(d) the academic profession, and official fitness partner since last summer. It's been so fun to be back and gear up for her wedding with her.