San Diego, At Last
Well, I’m finally here at San Diego, California, for college at the University of California. Actually, I got here on the 1st of January, and school started on the 3rd, but I was too lazy to write this Xanga entry until now.
Classes are for the most part good. I’m taking MATH 20A (first-quarter single-variable differential/integral calculus), ERTH 20 (meteorology), PHIL 32 (history of 17th and 18th-century philosophy), and WCWP 10A (required first-quarter writing). I find all the classes – except math – to be interesting. Of course, my major is general biology and I’m thinking of double-minoring in political science and earth sciences, and possibly expanding one or both of those minors into majors/degrees at some point. I do eventually want to get (at least) bachelor’s degrees in all three fields.
At UCSD’s Warren College, which is the college I’m in, you have to have two Programs of Concentrations (commonly called PofC’s), which is kinda like a minor but with less requirements. Mine are philosophy and political science, but I haven’t taken any political science classes yet. I looked at the UCSD Catalog and the lower-division classes for political science and earth science all look really lame. The upper-division ones for both look cool though, especially for earth science. There’s a class called ERTH 170 (Introduction to Volcanology) that involves “a major field study component on an active volcano on Hawaii”. A summer in Hawaii? I’m up for that.
I’ve seen a few people I knew from high school, but I haven’t really made much headway in making friends apart from my roommates. It’s kinda hard in an environment where classes are huge and everyone always seems to be in a rush. It’s kinda weird – kinda rude, actually – how in the last few minutes of every lecture all the students start packing up and leaving en masse, while the professor is still trying to get in a few last words.
The best part, of course, is getting to live away from my parents and my ant-infested house back in Hayward. My apartment is pretty nice; it’s spacious, comfortable and – best of all – bug-free. Though, I’m always stepping on something gross, especially when I’m in a kitchen. And no one, including myself, seems willing to invest in a vacuum cleaner, so…
The food situation has been less difficult than I imagined it’d be. I’ve been mostly cooking my own meals, getting ideas from my roommate or from good dishes that my parents cooked back home.
Other than that, not much else has been going on. I miss driving, especially driving stick. And it’s a pain in the ass to have to walk to Albertson’s and then walk back carrying all the groceries. I did that yesterday and my hands were sore as hell.
As for politics, I’ve lost a lot of interest in it since the election. I’m mostly laying low now and thinking of strategies to win future elections, starting with the Congressional and gubernatorial elections of 2006. But I don’t think I’m going to do much else, or write a lot of political columns, for the time being. Once the 2006 season heats up, though, it’s war.
Oh yeah – and the Xanga picture? I was getting sick of the one of myself – it was an old mug shot used for the El Estoque editions of my “Left Turn” political column – so I dropped it. I want to replace it with a better picture of myself, but I don’t have any uploaded on my comp, so in the interim I’m using an official photo of my political hero, former Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.).
maverickjh 