293.

Johnny came over today! Apparently Andy dragged him out to lunch, so afterwards we just played Mario Party & Kart.

Naturally they were crushed when I won. (: I meant to go to that Obon Festival around 5pm, but I really like it when Johnny comes over. I'm sure he's really whatever about it (when I told him he should come over more often, he said why), but it's nice to see him. He played a lot of piano afterwards, and so I did too. He hasn't played in a while, so his playing was littered with mistakes, but it's weird how he can do that, and I'll still think his playing is amazing. He played Chopin's Polonaise at one point, and I suddenly realized I could play that better than him now. It didn't really feel like it though. I was playing that song when Mom walked in and started gushing about how she was (pleasantly) surprised that I could still play anything; she had thought it was Johnny playing! I had forgotten; I had asked Mom to teach me that two years ago after hearing him play it. I asked him if he wanted to come to Obon with me, but he said no, and then Andy went to Sam's to buy some stuff, and so I just left him with Mom.

Jen had warned me parking for Obon was crazy, but I had no idea. I actually managed to find parking just a few blocks down from the festival; only like a foot of my car on the front went into a red zone hahah.

I found Kent there, and he hugged me, and I suddenly realized how much I missed him. I hadn't seen him since his Kendo tournament a week ago, and he hasn't really called or texted either. All the food smelled really good but he said it wasn't really good.

Afterwards we joined in the lines and danced lol. I totally didn't know what the hell I was doing, but there were people in the middle who did, so we just followed along lol. After the first dance, we saw Jen dancing on the other side, and she kept calling us over, so Jasmyne and I ran across, and Kent just stayed with his friends.

The dances got easier as I started to pick up on the patterns and repetition and whatnot. It was actually kind of fun (even though Jennifer totally killed my confidence in the beginning with her commentary lol).

After the dancing finished, Jen ran around with a list of stuff her mom wanted her to buy, so I just tagged along. She went to the corn first, and encouraged me to try it, so I did. The corn cost $2 (and I found out I actually only had two dollars anyway lol), and afterwards we put all this crap on it lol. It was actually really good; I've never had corn like that!

Anyhow, we left shortly afterwards. I gave Jen a ride home, and Kent walked us to my car.

292.

Mom bought me some of these noodles from Nijiya! :`D Apparently they're having a sale lol.

Two of my kids from my 2:15-3:00pm Polliwog class told me they were gonna be absent next week cuhs they were gonna put on a production of Beauty and the Beast, and I got all excited cuhs they're gonna be acting lol. I think their parents are trying to make them all famous, cuhs I asked them why they were absent last week, and they said they were meeting with an agent LOL. If they became famous someday, their names are Logan and Tanner Stewart and I TAUGHT THEM SWIMMINIG. (8

... Also in my last class of the day, Porpoise, my girl's boob popped out of her suit and it was awkward, and I just kept talking and acting like I didn't see anything (I didn't really; it was just from my peripheral vision) and nothing happened, BECAUSE I AM SO PROFESSIONAL.

After work I headed over to Torrance Crossroads, since apparently Eva wanted Jamba Juice, and Andy promised to buy her some, and then he made me do it. I gave into temptation and got some Chipotle while I was at it. Did they always have cheese as one of their ingredients?

291.

Look, it's a butterfly.

So halfway through my volunteering, Mom calls me and tells me the family's going to Sea Empress for lunch. And I go "... I'm already having lunch at Sea Empress with my friends. I told you." And she suggests rescheduling with my friends, and I'm like wtf, because we've had this planned for weeks and they just spontaneously come up with this. -__-;

Anyhow, it was really funny because when I arrived at the front doors with Steven, this mob of loud Chinese people are leaving and it's my family and they get all excited and embarrass me as only a family could, and start talking all loud and ... stuff.

There was this really fat (probably pregnant) fish lolll.

We spent a long time waiting for Frank (despite the fact that we had already pushed the lunch an hour back at his request) because he had to drive around picking up his brother, then his dad, and whatnot. We decided to go grab some boba, and so we crossed the street to the other side of the plaza. And as we pass this one shop, I vaguely notice this asian guy cleaning the tables through one of the windows. Look away. Double take. It's Hiro, and I see him and he sees me, and we're both grinning and waving. So then I turn around and go into that shop to say hi; apparently he's been working there for like a week (I think it's called Nissai Japan or something like that). It's been so long since I've seen that guy though; it's crazy. I used to have the biggest crush on him for the longest time, and he was such a jerk to me, I used to get so depressed. But it was so sad; a single smile from him and I'd be all over him again. It makes me sad to think about those kind of people in my past. But I think I handled myself pretty well today; talk a little, be friendly, don't overdo it. I bought some boba from him, and Steven and I stayed in there for a few minutes talking, and then we left so he could get boba from Tea Station lol. 'See ya Hiro.'

It's funny; I don't expect I'll be seeing him again.

And then we wandered into Marukai. By the way, Steven has a friggin' LIP RINGGG.

And then nearly an hour after we first arrived, Frank enters the scene lol. We all went in only to find none other than Donna at the receptionist podium! She brought us to a table and I asked if she met Emma Watson yet, and apparently Emma Watson's dating a guy on Donna's floor so they've all met her!

Anyhow, as soon as we sat down, a crapload of carts just mobbed us lol. This one lady came up to us with a plate of I dunno what and asked if we wanted some, and Frank was like "Uh ... sure," cuhs he thought it was complimentary hahaha. Anyway, I felt really awesome because I ended up ordering everything in Chinese! I've always been nervous about eating at Chinese restaurants without my family just cuhs I can't speak very well, and you know what, I did it and it felt amazing. In other news, hilarity ensued when Frank tried to use chopsticks. He couldn't use a fork very well for that matter. And apparently he's never used tea cups before either, because he spilled his tea like two times LOL. The second time he spilled like this full cup of tea and it spread all over to Steven's area (he was in the bathroom), and then Frank got all these napkins and tried to clean it up, and this one waitress passing by looked down and gave him a weird look hahaha. Also, I ordered some chicken feet and those guys were terrified. They ate a joint and Steven didn't really care for it much, and Frank was just like "I can't do it Annie. I just. I CAN'T DO IT," LOL. We heard this lady at the table next to us looking at this Shark Fin dish, and I remember Frank really wanted to try that, but he was like "If I can't eat the chicken feet, I won't be able to eat the shark fin," hahaha poor guy.

Afterwards, I drove us to Target and we messed around there. And then we went to Jen's house and played Little Big Planet. They were really amused by the slapping hahah.

Then I came home and we all went to Pho So 1 for dinner.

I was up really late uploading pictures from Orientation when Andy tells me there's an one open spot on the Math 3C waitlist. I'm instantly like O_O and sign up for it immediately. I don't know how Andy finds out about this stuff, but I'm definitely glad for it.

29O.

Rita and I woke up at seven this morning (I could barely get up); Tina was just like. Dead, lol. Anyway, Rita and I got some breakfast, and then Rita wanted to see Hedrick Summit, since she's rooming there. We tried to go in, but I guess our Bruin Cards only work for the Rieber buildings lol. We walked just a little bit over and I saw my Hitch Suite! I was actually really happy, because from what I've read, I thought it'd be like another mile away from everything else, but it's actually not too far away! Well, I suppose it's pretty far from the actual classes, but I'm just happy I'm not like, completely isolated from the other buildings. (:

Then at nine, we headed back over to Rieber Terrace to enroll for classes in our counselors' rooms. Ruben passed back our worksheets to us, and he had lost mine. And I was kind of like asdf since I put in so much time and stress into that last night. But Ruben said he'd just let me go first, and I was like sweet. But then he called someone, and a few minutes later that Thomas counselor guy came in with my sheet lol.

Me: Can I still go first? =D
Ruben: No.

Lol damn. The order we registered actually didn't really make much of a difference, since all the classes we were really anxious about getting into (Chemistry, GE Clusters) we weren't signing up for anyway. Ruben had already put in a recommendation for those classes for us, and so at that point, it was all just a lottery. After everyone finished signing up, Adrian and Marcos had to go back on the computers since I guess they had to pick a new alternative for one reason or another. Meanwhile, Ruben had Gladiator playing on his screen, and he was kind of explaining what was going on to me. We were watching this one scene where this guy named Commodus was all crying cuhs he could never been the son his dad, the Caesar, wanted, and I was like '... this is laaaame.' And then Ruben was like BUT WATCH THE NEXT SCENE! And the Commodus guy smothers his dad and kills him, and I'm like OMG! And Ruben's like SO AWESOME!

Afterwards, we headed over to the Ackerman Ballroom for this presentation called "Socially Speaking: Life Outside the Classroom." Basically it was about sex, drugs, and coco puffs (ohoho you see what I did there ~). Okay no, it was just about sex and drugs lol. They had two counselors read this scene with a girl and a guy meeting at a party leading up to something like acquaintance rape, with them each reciting their thoughts or perspective on what was happening. The girl leading the presentation showed this acronym CONSENT and what each letter stood for in relation to consent. And afterwards, they had them do the scene again, stopping at various parts, and had us raise either a green card or red card for whether we thought something was wrong, and they asked people in the audience why they picked a certain color. One guy kept raising his green card, and at one point where everyone had their red cards raised, he was like "Yeah well I saw four out of the seven letters up there," and it was kind of stupid but funny, but then right after him, Amber stood up and spoke from the perspective of someone who had been sexually abused. And you know, she's a really good speaker. I completely wouldn't have been able to stand up and speak as calmly and clearly as she did, especially on such a touchy topic as this, and the whole room just went silent for her, and everyone applauded when she was done.

Afterwards we got some lunch, and this counselor named Michelle brought her group over with us. Marcos and I kept whispering about whether that was his girlfriend, since I thought she looked a little like this girl in a picture he had on his desk in his room.

I went to the bathroom, and posted on the inside of the door was this flyer lol.

After a while, Ruben and Michelle came back dressed up as Obi Wan and Princess Leia hahah. They basically gave us a tour and told us some of UCLA's myths and legends, and after telling us them they would ask if we thought that story was true or false. If it was true, he'd hit Michelle (who turns out was his girlfriend lol) with his lightsaber, and if it was false, she'd hit him.

(While we were walking, we passed by another counselor, and Ruben and him initiated like a fake fight; the other counselor started swinging his backpack over his head like a nunchuck or something, and then Ruben suddenly pulls out this secret toy gun thing that was tucked behind his belt on his back, and starts shooting, like, rolled up paper balls or something at him LOL.)

The first story he told us was about the Bunche building. First of all he pointed out how tall the building was, and how one side of it was made of this really reflective material. The story goes that years ago during the afternoon, the sun would shine on the building, and the light would reflect onto the 405 (or whatever number it was) freeway right over on the side, and it would cause all these traffic accidents, so these officials were like, you gotta get rid of that. But apparently there's some law that says you can't tear down a building within ten years of building it because of all the money and resources put into building it, so that option was out. Also, they contacted the architect person, but he wouldn't change the material used on the building, since it was his artistic thing or whatever. So UCLA teamed up with NASA and rotated the building to its side; apparently this one teacher actually took all these pictures of it and put it together like a flipbook (except it was from all different angles so it didn't quite achieve the effect, but you got the idea). The base was kind of shaky so they constructed these eight pillars to support it (which was one of the questions on yesterday's Scavenger Hunt!), and he pointed out all these tractors that were operating on it nearby, and said they were currently adding more springs and such to make it more stable. So then he asked if we thought it was true or false, and I thought it was a pretty incredible story, but with all the little details like the flipbook and stuff, it had to be true! But it turned out to be false! They were both really good storytellers; I totally couldn't distinguish a true tale from a false one!

They also took us to this one area (I think one of its names was the Second Garden), and he said that there used to be a bridge over there since there used to be this huge ravine separating the ground, and at some point they filled it all up, but now there's still this whole system of underground tunnels, and the bridge is still down there. Sounds insane, but it was true! My mind was blown! Apparently you can get suspended by going down there, but people still do lol. Definitely gonna have to see that at some point!

There's another story about the Janss Steps; apparently these Janss brothers made a huge contribution to UCLA and the school wanted to commemorate them somehow. They argued over it since one brother wanted something really natural, like just a plaque on a hill, and the other one really liked Gothic architecture and stuff. Anyhow, while one brother was one, the other brother took the opportunity to have these stairs constructed (which made the other one furious, naturally), and at that point his health was deteriorating, so to ensure that the stairs remained there, in his will, he wished to have his remains mixed into the sixth step. Apparently it's against California law to desecrate a grave, so it is actually against the law to tear it down. The UCLA students have this thing going that's like, it's bad luck to step on the sixth step, and every time you step on it, it adds another quarter to your life at UCLA. It turned out to be false, but it's still a UCLA tradition; someone actually wrote RIP in chalk on that step hahah.

Turns out all the counselors were dressed up as something; this guy (who I suspect was the Lady Gaga guy at Cabaret lol) had this awesome Robin costume. (x

We walked around for a bit and took a group picture. (8

We also finally found out about our classes around this point. I GOT CHEM! I was sooo relieved. I didn't get my Cluster though, which I was kind of bummed about; Ruben said my LA History Cluster alternative was actually open, but the time conflicted with Chem, so he thought Chem was more important and went with that. Some of the guys had already found their schedules online via their phones while we were walking around earlier. I felt really bad for Marcos cuhs he didn't get Chem or a Cluster. Adrian didn't get Chem either, but he's in this PEER program, and apparently he has to take Chem, so Ruben said he'd fix it for him.

Afterwards, we continued the tour and heard more legends. Apparently this locker with the stickers was Jim Morisson's locker; he had this huge thing with acid, and what he would do was put a drop of acid on all these stamps. So he would take out a stamp, lick it, and then stick it on his locker. The students at UCLA kind of see his locker as a tribute to him, and so people go over and stick all sorts of notes and whatnot into the slits of the locker (it's bolted shut, btw). It ended up being false, but I still thought it was a good story lol.

Then they brought us to this fountain; I had actually seen it when I was lost on day one lol. Apparently this was a tradition thing the students actually took very seriously and carried out. Basically, during your freshman orientation, the counselors bring you here, and you put your hand in and are "baptized." Then after you're baptized as an official UCLA student, you can never touch the fountain water again until after you graduate, or else it adds a quarter to your UCLA life every time you touch it. It was really funny though, cuhs Ruben was telling us this story from session 102 or so. Apparently Michelle brought this water gun and filled it up with fountain water to spray people since it was a really hot day. She saw this other counselor named Daniel (who was actually just across on the other side of the fountain from us when they told us this story) and asked him if he wanted to be sprayed and he said yeah, so she sprayed him, and then told all the freshman to be careful since it was fountain water. And then Daniel was like "... WHAT?!" and "called her many things that [she] will not repeat now," since apparently he hadn't graduated yet and Michelle didn't know lol.

Afterwards, we all went back to the area outside Covel Commons where we first all met up. Ruben brought out a survey and a Student Planner and UCLA poster for each of us, as well as his name sign that he had the first day for us all to sign. We all said our goodbyes and went back to our rooms. When I got there, Tina was there (and apparently she'd been there by herself for like 20 minutes lol), and we waited for Rita to get back and take a picture. It was really fun rooming with these two, and I'm all the more nervous to find out who I'm gonna actually be rooming with in the Fall now! We got our stuff together and checked out.

I definitely had fun at Orientation, but it's good to be home. ♥

(When I got home, the crazy Aunt Naimin was there, in all her ridiculousness.)

289.

So Jackie and I met up around eight and headed over to the Hedrick Dining Hall for breakfast. Naturally we got lost in the process lol. But maybe it was a good thing we were a little late; she didn't have her Bruin Card yet since she was taking the math placement test yesterday, and the lady swiping the cards said that there had already been like six people with the same story, and she had sent them all away. She then pulled out this list, and had all the people without Bruin Cards write down their names and ID numbers.

There was this long line for this omelette bar, and I wanted to try it so I got in line. And then after I gave them my order and right when they were about to make it, this fire alarm goes off. And they make us all get out of the building. And then it stays closed for the next twenty minutes or so. When they finally start letting people in again, all the food was cleared away since apparently they're not allowed to serve food that's been sitting for a while, so I had to get back into that omelette line and wait for them to make everything all over again. D;

And this is where the used trays go lol.

Afterwards, there were all these workshops available, and we could basically choose which ones to go to and what to do with our time. I went to the Life Sciences I one, which Ruben was doing; this was really helpful since they told us what classes we should be taking, and why we want to take the Chem 14 series and not Chem 30, and so on. Afterwards I went to the Heath Careers/Medical School and was effectively freaked out by how much medical school applications cost, and how long people study for the tests, and so on. e_____e I don't know what to do with my liiiiiiife.

And then around 11am, we all headed up to Ruben's room in 922B, and we went over some registration and enrollment information. He passed around this clipboard for us to sign up for when we'd have our individual counseling appointments with him, and I was sitting on the way right side on his bed, so naturally the clipboard came to me last. Amber was sitting on my left, and thank goodness she went to the bathroom at this time, because I got the second to last time slot at 5:20pm, and she got stuck with 5:45pm lol. Ruben talked to us about signing up for classes; basically we would have to fill out this worksheet with all three classes we wanted to take, plus two alternatives. For each of these, we would have to write down three different discussion times (six for chemistry, since we were all going for chemistry), so we'd have more options. None of our class times could conflict, and we'd have to get these worksheets to Ruben by 11pm or else he'd make us fix it tomorrow and we'd register late.

After that we grabbed some lunch at Hedrick again, and headed over to our Departmental Counselor appointments in Covel Commons, where we got some more info about our major and requirements and such. And then after that most of us just went across the hall to this room where all the class enrollment summaries were posted on the walls. We spent the next few hours figuring out our classes. I got everything down at around 3:30, and I still had almost two hours until my appointment with Ruben, so I went off to this College Honors Workshop, which started at 4.

Maybe this was because I was already exhausted and sleepy, but I got very little information from this workshop. I just don't know what that woman was talking about. She passed out this worksheet with some information, and at first she followed that, but then she went on about the study abroad program, and then she started telling her own graduation stories, and something about how she kept hitting a beach ball and missed her chance to stand up for recognition for being in the honors program and so on and so on. I dunno, I was really bored though.

Afterwards I went back to Covel Commons for my appointment with Ruben. I had signed up for Design Culture, but there's this long waiting list already, so I figured I might as well just take it out and stick with my music alternative, Art of Listening (which Andy took and recommended I take). He also reminded me that my one on one appointment thing with him (where I can pretty much just ask/talk to him about anything) was at 9:50. When I got out I told Jackie that out of context, that totally could've taken the wrong way. "I'll meet you in my room at 9:50." Lolllllllll. (x

After that, Adrian, Jackie, Marcos and I got some dinner and then headed over to Adrian's room in Rieber Vista, since I had to find a new alternative, he had a laptop, and we had all this free time til our appointments. When we got on the elevator, it was pretty crowded but there was still room, so Marcos and I shuffled in. And Adrian and Jackie didn't (I guess they thought the second elevator doors were opening). So then our elevator doors closed and we were just like ... wtf we don't even know what room Adrian's in! Anyway, we ended up stopping by Marcos' room since he wanted to get his own laptop. Apparently his roommate never showed up on the first day so he has the whole room to himself; it's still a friggin' mess though lol. Typical guy.

Anyhow, I called Jackie, and they told us which floor to meet them, and then we all went over to Adrian's room lol. Marcos kept telling me to take Chicano Studies (and I was like hell no), and I was looking through the list of GE classes for Social and Historial Analysis, and they were all so boring! I ended up settling for Ancient Art as the lesser of evils. Anyway, we ended up just hanging out in Adrian's room for a while. I was having a very intense anime talk with Adrian (we went over Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Code Geass, and Samurai Champloo), and Jackie kept laughing at us cuhs we sounded like such dorks hahah.

Anyway after an hour or so, we all headed back to Rieber Terrace cuhs Marcos had his one on one with Ruben. I headed over to my room first cuhs I wanted to grab some stuff and leave some stuff in my room. When I went up to the 9th floor, it was just Adrian sitting outside; I guess Marcos was talking to Ruben inside, and apparently Jackie went back to her room. This actually worked out amazingly for me, because when Marcos came out, Jackie wasn't back yet. And I asked Ruben if I could go instead. And he said no. But five minutes later and she still wasn't back yet. So he let me go in. (8

He told us earlier to come prepared with some questions or things to talk about, or else he would be fine just sitting in silence for fifteen minutes lol. Anyhow, I brought my class scheduling worksheet and asked him to look it over for me. Apparently it wasn't just the lectures that couldn't have time conflicts, but all of the discussion options too. And I was like ... shit! Ruben circled out a few of them that conflicted, but I found a lot more once I took a closer look. Anyway, after that Ruben asked if I played video games. Which led into this whole Final Fantasy discussion hahaha. We talked about VII, XIII, Kingdom Hearts, and we actually spent a couple of minutes just watching various scenes from Advent Children, which he had on his computer hahaha. He skipped to Tifa's fight scene with Loz, and we got all excited that that one part where Loz throws Tifa onto the wall and she lands and all the petals are blown off ("OMG THAT'S MY FAVORITE SHOT IN THE MOVIE!" "ME TOO!") Hahahaha total dorks. At one point I glanced over to his clock, and it was a bit after nine, and I mentioned that Jackie was probably there by that point, and Ruben was just like 'Eh whatever. She hasn't knocked yet.' Hahaha. Anyhow, after I went out, Jackie went in. I feel kind of bad though, cuhs Adrian, being the nice guy he is, ended up getting his appointment moved to my original time at 9:50. I was totally fine just waiting with him though. I started to change my schedule around, and Marcos had his laptop with him, and I asked to use it, and he was like "What do you saaay?" and damn my ego lol.

I ended up running back to my room and using Rita's laptop. And I literally stayed there for a solid hour trying to figure out how to make it all work. I was so stressed out! There were so few options I could go with, and once I made this class work, that class didn't ... After an hour I decided to run back up to the 9th floor cuhs all my stuff was still up there. And everyone was gone! My backpack was just there, slumped against a chair, by itself! (Adrian later claimed that we left him, and that he was just inside talking to Ruben lol.) Anyhow, I went back to my room and finished up my schedule just after ten. It was insane; I finally made everything but one Music discussion work out. I headed back up to Ruben's room, and I guess he was done talking to everyone by that point, and I told him that I fixed everything except that one class, and I just couldn't make it fit because there were so few options for that music class, and all of those options conflicted with my lecture classes, so he said it was okay, and just to let him know if I actually did end up getting two classes that conflicted.

Around 11-ish, I texted Jackie, and she gave me Adrian's number (no one had Marcos number), and we all agreed to meet downstairs for the Carpe Noctum scavenger hunt. The winning team gets UCLA sweaters, so that was pretty sweet; even so, I was pretty psyched just to do it. We couldn't find Marcos anywhere downstairs, and as we were walking, Adrian remembered that he did have his number, and called him. And Marcos, being lame as he is, said he wasn't doing it because he just took a shower, and such and such.

Anyway, we needed to get into groups of ten, so we had me, Adrian, Jackie and Jackie's roommates, and we just grabbed five other people (Rita was one of them). Annie, Adrian, Jackie, Sarah, Perissa (sp?), Gregory, Bethell, Rita, Kimberly, and Sherena (sp?) We sat around a cluster of water bottles (they were for us, probably so we didn't die lol), and one person from each group went up and exchanged their Bruin Card for a camera and flashlight. Natsha went up for her group, and that kind of spurred me to go up too, cuhs I want to get out of my comfort zone. We needed a team name and I suggested Team Rocket haha.

As soon as the counselors told us to GO, everyone ripped out the questions from their packets, and started running! We started running for Bunche Hall, and I learned very quickly how out of shape I am haha. Then we stopped and decided to figure out our route first and go by that. So we looked over all the questions, circled where to go on the map, and determined the best route to go by. Rita was actually really good at finding where everything was on the map and which direction to go when we were looking for it! First question was about this "1939 Club," and apparently it was this group of professors who taught about the Holocaust.

We had to take pictures with all the answers, with a different person taking the picture each time. After a while, we ended up using my camera, since it took too long for us to work the camera they assigned us, so we ended up with half the pictures on that camera and half on mine lol. For this question, we had to find the name of the terrace on the north side of Moore Hall, and we couldn't find a name anywhere. And then all of a sudden we see this guy from another team standing in front of a dark brown sign, and trying to block it from view and as we tried to get closer, he just kept shifting around in front of it, and we were like "What does that sign say?" and he was like "Uhh nothing!" hahaha.

We had to find the top level of this parking lot; there were no elevators lol.

I thought it was so funny, because we had so much trouble finding the School of Nursing since it didn't appear on the map under that name, and everyone started pulling out their phones and calling people hahah. I think Gregory tried calling this service UCLA has, and tried asking them how to get there, and they wouldn't tell us, cuhs I guess they knew we were doing the Scavenger Hunt hahaha.

After we found all the answers, we started running back, but it was really far. We ended up just giving Bethell and Adrian (and Jackie, but she eventually fell behind) the cameras, since they were the fastest runners, and they just ran on ahead. Funny thing is the rest of us actually got back to Rieber Hall before them lol. Apparently they saw a team ahead of them take a turn, and they thought they'd get there faster if they went straight, so they did, and it ended up taking way longer haha. Whatever, I don't think any of us really minded. I still think we did pretty good, and if anything, I got an amazing workout, haha. (x

After a while, we all just headed back to our dorms. Tina was already there when Rita and I got back; she was so energetic for some reason! We all ended up staying up til past 3am, since Tina was all like "Let's have a party!" and when we pointed out that everyone else was asleep, she was like "No!" and went into the hall to prove that they weren't, only to find no one was there. And then she was like "They're all in Westwood! Let's go to Westwood!" and I was like no way! It was so late and I was already like half dead haha. But yeah, we still stayed up pretty late just talking, and then finally I just like keeled over, and she went back to her own bunk, and we all fell asleep within the next five minutes lol.

288.

I woke up at six today (despite not being able to sleep until like 1:30am lol) for Orientation! (8 We left the house really early, maybe seven-ish, because Mom said freeway traffic's pretty insane. And it was, but we still got there half an hour early.

When we got there, Mom just dumped me off by this building and I was pretty much on my own. |: There were these guys in matching yellow shirts, and I asked them where to check in, and they pointed me in the right direction, so I went over there and Mom drove off lol.

I got my room key and that Bruin Card form (that I already sent in a few weeks ago), since they asked if I had my Bruin Card and I didn't. Basically I need to turn this in and get my Bruin Card today (although I already sent my picture in, so I should be able to just pick it up).

I headed over to my room in Rieber Terrace, and naturally I was the first one in the room since I was so early (and so I claimed the bottom bunk 8D). I headed back out after a while, since my roommates hadn't arrived and I was bored just sitting around. I headed over to the elevator, and there was this other girl with bright magenta hair, and I just kind of walked with her out, since I guess neither of us really knew where to go. Also around this time, she just suddenly pulls out a cigarette and lights it, which totally threw me off, since I don't really know any smokers, and I've never known anyone to just light up in the middle of a school campus (but I guess I'll be seeing that more this year). I headed over to this area just outside Covel Commons and there was this mass of other students. Around this point I was starting to notice that everyone knew someone, and was clustered with their little groups of friends, and I was pretty sure no one from North was there. In fact, I had deliberately decided to go this route so I would be a little more out of my comfort zone, but I was definitely starting to feel a little lonely now that I was actually on my own.

Anyhow, after I had filled out some papers and gotten a free backpack, UCLA Student Handbook, and an orientation schedule, I headed over to the Bruin Card Center (which was conveniently just twenty feet or so away lol) and got in line. I ended up standing there for about an hour (at which point the line had actually gotten quite long), with there being very little movement in the line. Apparently the camera broke. While I was in line I saw Natsha! I was really surprised since I totally didn't think she had the same session as me, but it was definitely nice to see a familiar face. Apparently she's there for this FSP thing, which starts next week, but they're making the people who haven't gone to orientation yet go to this session.

I was actually still standing there when all the Orientation Counselors (OCs) came out. I was really surprised to see how young they were; most of them were seniors, or had just graduated, and I was totally expecting older adults, like the counselors we had back at North. Anyhow, they came out and all held up these signs with names on them, and we quickly figured those were the OCs' names (five minutes later they finally told us to just go to our counselors and just get our Bruin Cards later). My counselor's name was Ruben, and I literally circled the whole area looking for his sign; I finally decided to just ask one of the counselors, and he pointed him out for me (turns out he was right next to the guy I was asking lol). And no wonder I didn't see him too; unlike the other counselors who were standing on tables and stuff with their signs up, his was kind of slumped over towards the ground (also, it was another student holding it cuhs Ruben was writing down stuff for his roster lol).

In any case, I felt much better immediately, since I realized here that this is where everyone was split up, and this is where we would meet people. Amber and Alex introduced themselves to me right off the bat. Once everyone arrived, we all sat around a circle and said our names, where we came from, and the last song we'd heard; there was Amber, Alex, Ryan, Garrett, Alan (who looks oddly like Thang, but with a narrower face), Jackie, Adrian, Becky (who barely talked at all during the whole orientation session), Marcos (who arrived like ten minutes after everyone lol), and finally Ruben our counselor (for the last song he listened to he cited Sephiroth's theme from VII, and I was like OMG FINAL FANTASY ♥). It was so weird; I looked at all of them and thought to myself that I knew exactly what kind of stereotype/character they fit into. It hasn't quite hit me that this isn't high school anymore, and that everyone here is smart and has worked hard to get here; as Kent put it later, I'm "so used to being surrounded by dumbasses," hahah.

Anyhow, around this time Ruben tells us we have to come up with a team name and chant. It's supposed to be like, if he wants to get our attention, he'll say something and we'll respond with something. He gave us this example that another group thought of in one of the previous sessions where he said "Autobots transform!" and everyone scattered out like airplanes hahah. And there was another one where he just shouted out "Power rangers!" and the people replied "It's morphin' time!" Basically, we have to come up with something like that in the next two hours.

Afterwards we headed over to the Ackerman Grand Ballroom to listen to a few people talk to us. Jackie talked to me a bit on the way over, so I pretty much just stuck with her. Anyhow, the speakers pretty much gave us a little intro to life at UCLA and addressed some of the issues and anxieties we may be having (definitely not the most exciting topic, but all the speakers were really funny and kept our interest pretty well). At one point he had us all stand up and shake hands and introduce ourselves to the people sitting around us. I met this girl named Cathy who was sitting in front of me, and he noticed the North jacket I was wearing.

Her: Oh you go to North! I think I know someone you know.
Me: Oh really? Who?
Her: Frank.
Me: Jimenez?
Her: Yeah.
Me: ... Wait, your name is Cathy right?
Her: Yeah.
Me: Are you --
Her: Yeeeeeeah.

Slightly awkward moment there hahaha. So basically I met his ex before Julie lolll. So random!

Afterwards, Ruben led us to this place with all these fast food places (this was kind of cool for me, cuhs I've only ever seen the dining hall buffets). Ruben gave me, Jackie, and Alan some food coupons (worth up to $7) since none of us had our Bruin Cards yet, and we needed them to get lunch. Jackie and I grabbed some Carl's Jr, and headed outside to sit with our group. Our group was sitting next to another counselor (Thomas, I think?)'s group. Anyhow, the counselors were giving us a lot of information about work and stuff, and Thomas was telling us all these stories about Ruben. Apparently Ruben used to work for one of these restaurants, and the employees would get these free food coupons. Anyhow, at some point Ruben stopped working at this restaurant for one reason or another, but he would still go in and grab some food coupons. And then one day he went over to get some food, tried to use the coupon, and the guy at the register stares at him and says that they can't serve him. And then he sees like, this literal WANTED poster of him posted on the wall LOL. Apparently they had started to catch on from the cameras or something, and they stole his picture off facebook ("They actually wrote 'WANTED' over my head, and to make it worse it was this picture where I had this creepy Mexican mustache!"), and actually made a poster hahaha. So anyway, he talked to his old manager, and they made this deal where we can still eat at all these restaurants, but he can never work for ASUCLA ever hahaha.

Afterwards, we went back to the Ballroom and listened to some more presentations. When we came out, Ruben forced us all to give an idea lol. I pretty much came up with something on the spot: Yugioh, hahaha.

Me: You could say "It's time to ..." and we'll be like "D-D-D-D, D-D-D-Duel!" (Yes, I felt like an idiot saying that out loud, but I actually said that, and frankly I was pretty proud of myself hahaha)

And then they all cracked up, and that became our chant hahaha.

After that, we went out onto the grass with our counselors (this time we paired with this counselor named Doug) to talk about graduation requirements and GE's and stuff. When we were through with that, some people (Jackie & Becky) had to take Math/Music placement tests, so Ruben sent them off, and then he pointed me and Alan to a second Bruin Card Center. I was able to get my card pretty quickly since they had my picture.

When we got out, I asked Alan what he was gonna do now, since we had two hours of free time, and everyone else in our group was already gone, and he said "I dunno," and then we just kind of split up. And then I got lost. Like, really lost. I probably should've just followed Alan, since I'm sure he knew where he was going more than I did; anyhow, I was trying to get back to my dorm, and I'm pretty sure I ended up going in the completely wrong direction. I was literally just wandering around for an hour! There were no directories anywhere, and I hate asking people for help so I didn't. At one point, I was finally so lost that I stopped and asked these two people in nurse-like jackets, and they hadn't even heard of Rieber Terrace (they asked "... Weyward Terrace?"), so at this point I was just like 'oh shit, if they haven't even heard of it then I must be really far away!' So I tried retracing my steps, and I eventually found a few girls from the orientation, and I pretty much just followed them back to Rieber. And then I went up to my room and just collapsed onto my bed lol.

Then around 5:20-ish, I met up with Jackie, and we tried (with little success) to find our way back to the Ackerman Terrace for dinner. We saw all these orientation people on Bruin Walk (plus this pretty awesome band), but even with a map, we just could not find our way back! After a while, she called Adrian, and he came down and found us and helped us get to dinner lol.

On our way over we had to walk through this conveniently placed Activities Far, and I saw Michelle Kaito!

Dinner was Mexican food; not quite my cup of tea. The only Mexican food I really like is Chipotle (even though it's not really real Mexican food lol).

After that, we went back to the Ballroom, and four of the counselors went onstage and shared their personal experiences with us, leading up to how UCLA helped them grow as a person. One counselor shared stories of how she was bullied and called 'whitewashed' as a child, the second talked about her experience with acquaintance rape, the third talked about this disease she had that made her whole body hairless, and the last talked about society's expectations for a guy to be manly. Each talked about their insecurities and how their time at UCLA helped them come to terms with their respective situation. Afterwards, Ruben took us back into the food court area and we all discussed what he just heard.

And then finally there was the Cabaret performances put on by all of our Orientation Counselors!

These two told various punny jokes involving popular media and our UCLA-USC rivalry (it was really funny).

This other guy sung a song, ending with "A Trojan's only good once, but a Bruin is forever," hahaha.

And then another counselor came out dressed like a nerd. She started out saying that she was nervous, and then called out the boys and said, "You know what to do," and then all the guys took off their shirts hahaha. Then they all sung; I didn't think to record this one but I'm sure it's on youtube somewhere.

In between the performances, they showed a slideshow of the counselors in a Glee-like pose! (x That's Ruben; they were moving around the equipment onstage, so it's a little blocked lol.






I missed the beginning, but the guy starts out "I'm really nervous. John! You know what to do." And then he pretends to take his shirt off hahaha.



Damn Bea for showing us this video back in Physics. -__-;

They also did this Lady Gaga dance and it was awesome. There was this guy (he was clearly a Theater major haha) who came out in some very Lady Gaga-esque wear and heels, and he was al dancing in them hahaha.

Afterwards they directed us downstairs where they were playing Transformers 2 in the lounge, and there was a game room, and "Club Jamba." I had no idea what Club Jamba was, and apparently they take the Jamba Juice store and turn it into a club hahaha. I thought it was funny cuhs you have this tiny box of a room, it's pitch black, and all these people are cramming in there and jumping around. Not really my scene haha.

I went over to the game room, and it was awesome; they had all these computers and all these games like Warcraft and others, so I was pretty psyched.

I started playing Brawl with some guys (I got 3rd twice and tied for 2nd once hahah); Natsha came in a bit later and I handed my control over to her. A little later they set up Rock Band and started playing that. It's weird, cuhs Natsha's tone-deaf like crazy hahah. I sung vocals after her, and did Panic!'s Nine in the Afternoon. Anyhow, around 11:30-ish, Jackie and I headed back to the dorms. I totally would've stayed longer, but my left eye had been watering all day as if I'd been peeling onions or something, and I couldn't stare into the light at all, so I really had to get that fixed.

When I got back to my room, one of my roommates was there. Her name was Rita and I had actually met her earlier when I met Frank's Cathy girl lol. An hour or so later, the other roommate came back, and her name was Tina. They were both pretty cool.

Tina: Does your last name start with C?
Me: Yeah.
Tina: Oh okay that makes sense. I think they alphabetized us. My last name's Chen.
Me: Oh me too!
Rita: Me too!
Me: LOL.