UCSB: Reflecting on Fall Quarter 2022

During Tuesday this week, I finished my finals for fall quarter at UCSB and got back home to the Bay Area Wednesday afternoon. This quarter was a lot different from last year in many different ways. Last year, I lived in the dorms on the UCSB campus. This year, I live much further away from campus in San Joaquin Villages, one of the campus-owned apartments. As a result, much of my classes last year were within walking distance from my dorm, while it would make more sense to take the bus or bike to campus from San Joaquin Villages since it would take quite a while to walk to campus from the apartment. Moreover, I had a meal plan last year living in the dorms, but since I decided not to buy an off-campus meal plan this year, I have been mainly cooking my own meals in my apartment. While cooking my own meals is a good skill to have, it is also time consuming because of cleaning up all the pots, pans, utensils, and other things that were used when cooking. I am considering getting an off-campus for next quarter (and maybe the quarter after), though, since I do want to have some more time to do other things, including doing work for classes. Speaking of classes, some of the classes that I took were either busier or harder than I thought they would be. For one of my classes, there were quite a bit of readings to do each week. For another class, I felt that the class was hard and wasn't managed very well. The homework was graded based on correction and not just completeness, so it was hard to get full points on homework assignments. In addition, I didn't do too well on the midterm mainly due to not being able to finish all the problems on time, but I wasn't able to get my midterm back until less than a week before my final for that class. I was supposed to get my midterm earlier during a section for that class, but somehow I couldn't find it during that section. I later found out that my TA did actually have my midterm and told me he wasn't sure why I missed it, which was weird since I was pretty positive that I wasn't able to find my midterm that time. After getting my midterm back, I told the TA that he should have helped me look over the midterm pile during that earlier section to find my midterm if something like this arises again. I am pretty worried about my grade for that class, since the grade is only comprised of homework, midterm, and final. Today, I saw my grade on the final for that class, and it was worse than I expected. For the 2 problems that I didn't finish due to time, I got little to no points despite showing some of my work. The grading for that class feels quite harsh, but hopefully I'll still be able to get a decent grade in the class.

San Joaquin Villages, the apartment that I live in this year

When I moved into my apartment this quarter, my parents brought down my bike from home so that I could use it to bike to campus. However, a few days after I moved in, my bike got stolen since I could not find it in the bike cage area outside my apartment. Consequently, I ended up busing to school for a while, and I found that the bus can be kind of unreliable at times, sometimes showing up later than expected. One time, I was waiting for the light to turn green so that I could cross the street to get to the bus stop, and there were 1-2 buses that were already at the bus stop before I was able to cross the street. However, the buses left before I crossed the street, so I ended up having to wait for a later bus (bus 27), which ended up arriving later than expected. Consequently, I was late to a section for one of my classes. Moreover, I used bus 27 the same day to go back to my apartment after a Circle K (a community service club at UCSB that I'm a part of) General Meeting, and for some reason, it didn't stop at my apartment and despite trying to request a stop, the bus when straight to the marketplace area. I ended up walking back to my apartment and felt really annoyed by bus 27, and I made a TikTok video expressing my frustration on that bus. I bought a bike on Facebook marketplace the day after that bus incident, so I was able to use that bike to get to classes. However, after nearly 4 weeks using that bike, I noticed that I couldn't really pedal the bike due to the bike chain being loose. As a result, I once again had to take the bus to campus. During Thanksgiving break, my family came to visit, and my dad tried to fix my bike but wasn't very successful in doing so. He ended up buying me a new bike and added a basket to it. Now, I'm trying to see if I can sell my old bike, which still hasn't been sold yet.

Despite the challenges that I faced this quarter, there have been some good things that came out of the quarter, including getting to bond with my roommates. We played some games with each other, including a TikTok edition of "What Do You Meme?" and Cards Against Humanity. We also talk about things that have been going on in our lives, including the classes that we were taking during the quarter and other activities that we participate in. Around mid-October, we had a Halloween Party at our apartment. During the party, I dressed as boba, interacted with some other people, and did some karaoke (one of my roommates brought a karaoke microphone to the apartment). In November, me and most of my roommates went hiking at Montecito Hot Springs, which was a pretty fun experience since it was nice getting to hang out with my roommates and have a good workout.

Some other good things from this quarter include being able to meet new people in clubs like Circle K and TASA (Taiwanese American Student Association). In Circle K, we were able to recruit several new members this quarter and got some interns for Circle K board. Currently, I'm the fundraising chair for Circle K board and hosted a Snack Box Raffle Fundraiser from late October to early November. Although the fundraiser wasn't entirely successful since not a lot of money was made from it, I do hope to host some more fundraisers next quarter (such as a food-related fundraiser). Circle K also had various events throughout the quarter, including a service event called Letters for Literacy that occurred twice this quarter, an ice skating social during early November, and a friendsgiving/baking/game social during mid-November. In TASA, I had a fun time participating in the Big-Little Pickup Events, which included speed dating (both virtual and in person) and an arts and crafts night, and I picked up 2 more littles this year (I now have a total of 4 littles since I also picked up 2 last year). I was able to hang out with them throughout the quarter, including during TASA general meetings, my TASA fam's kickback event in October, and my TASA fam's famsgiving in November, but the first time that all of my littles were able to meet each other in person was during the week before finals, when I had dinner with them at an IV (Isla Vista) restaurant called Naan Stop.

I brought some of my stuffed animals and plushies from home to my apartment, and those stuffed animals and plushies were able to help me get through the quarter as well, since they have been good emotional support buddies for me.

During this quarter, I started taking some flute classes at UCSB: private flute lessons and flute choir. Although sometimes it can be hard to find a good time to practice my flute, those classes were pretty good since I got to work on my flute skills, including familiarizing myself with the fingerings of very high flute notes. I also joined the Daily Nexus Data Team, although the group that I am in hasn't been able to do too much yet, but hopefully we'll be able to get some work done next quarter.

Overall, this quarter was quite different from last year and previous quarters. There were some difficult and fun moments, but hopefully next quarter and next year will go more smoothly. I also made an Instagram post (shown below) a few days ago that summarizes my thoughts on this quarter.

Caption for the Instagram Post