Liberal Arts in Los Angeles

on the first of may, spain had its labor day.

everyone had work off.  a group of friends and i hiked an hour uphill and shared dishes from our respective countries–in my homestay, we arent allowed to use the stove so i brought coca-cola. classically marketed american. in all, we were over 40 people from 12 countries from north, central, and south america, europe, and the nordic and scandinavian countries.

we differed in appearance, mindset, political affiliations, and languages. but we shared our thoughts, card games, food, and of course soccer/fútbol under the spanish sun.

getting back down the mountain, we got lost for about 40 minutes, but with fearless leading and good attitudes, we made it down. a great end to a great international day.

enjoy the spring!

-aja

Finals week starts tomorrow!!!!

A tough semester is coming to an end.  I’m sure we are all excited to get this week over with and get to summer!  How finals here works is you usually get one or two reading days as well as the weekend to study.  Then over the course of the upcoming week, you have your finals.  There are three sessions each day Monday through Saturday (Saturday usually only has 2 sessions) Hopefully they are spread out, but sometimes you just get unlucky!  Finals time is kind of nice though because unlike midterms, you get the whole day off to just study for your finals.  I personally prefer finals so much more than midterms because I get to study on my own schedule and not have to do projects for other classes simultaneously.  I’m sure you don’t want to read an entire post about finals so I’m going to skip to after finals…

The week after finals is senior week!  For seniors, this is the week that many of them have been looking forward to all year.  There are many events for seniors to bond before graduation.  Most of them go to Vegas for the first part of the week and then enjoy sometime with family and friends.  As a non-senior, this is a really fun week as well.  You get to enjoy campus with no more obligations.  Enjoy LA, go to theme parks, do nothing, go to senior events??? …maybe.  It’s a great time to be on campus.  Last year during senior week, I had training for a leadership position, but I was also able to stick around and enjoy the week.  We did things such as going to the beach for a bonfire, or going to someones house nearby for a hot tub party, or even movie nights on campus.  Its kind of like the end of summer camp haha…kinda but not really..

Anyways, as much fun as the week is, it is often sad to see some of the seniors go!  When you come to Oxy, many students invest a lot of themselves into this school.  You really appreciate that when someone leaves the campus and goes onto his or her own life.  I mean its something you’ll experience…

K. Off to more studying!! I’ll post again soon!!!

I’ve noticed that every time finals week rolls around teachers decide to give more and more work due on the day OF a final. I am currently working on an 8-10 pg paper due this week, not to mention a 10-15pg paper due Monday (the day of my final when I have a presentation too!), a 5-10 pg Music paper due on the day of our cumulative final, and I have a Spanish final and a Stats for Psych final to study for…really professors?! Yeah that’s a little taste of junior year for all you future students! I feel so overwhelm that I cannot WAIT until Friday of next week..that is, if I survive…

Word to the wise: Be aware of what the professors put in the syllabus and plan ahead. If the syllabus says that there will be a paper and a final, think about starting it early. Also in regards to majors, if you are sure of the major you want to complete, start taking classes freshman year. Get ahead of the game.

Well that’s all I can write today. Best of luck to all and have a great rest of the semester/year!

-Marilyn