Sunday, September 30, 2012

What a CRAZY and BUSY week!!

I had a VERY crazy week!! The week was from last Thursday to this Thursday. I moved from Portland to Ashland, fall term started, and I attended a showcase in Portland. Those all happened in A WEEK!! I have been dealing with new school and environment while traveling back and forth between Portland and Ashland.

Busy Week Recap: 

9/20 Thursday: Driving and moving to Ashland
This is my roommate Muriel. After messaging each other through e-mail, phone, and facebook for a few weeks, we finally met!! She is cute and sweet. We will be living together for the next 10 weeks.
This was I saw when I first entered my doom. She was so kind, she even bought me a gift from her hometown Sitika. What a wonderful welcome gift.   
Our parents talking during the dinner. They are great people. It was so nice to meet them. 

9/21 Friday: Welcome Parties

I ate LOTS of free food and received many free stuff from SOU. 
Free water bottles: It is so useful. I use it to drink water every day. There is not a lot of school give out free water bottle.
I like events with free food, but they are usually not good or unhealthy. However, all the free food served at welcome events was delicious and healthy. They even had gorgeous desserts: Blackberry Tart with Chocolate on Top with Cannoli. Yum!! I think I ate too much desserts. 

Thanks SOU for treating us SO WELL.

9/22 Saturday: Good Bye Parents and Football Game


My mom and I in front of my dorm. We took this photo before she left me. I will miss her (especially her cooking) like insane!!



At the Football game. I got my first face painting experience.


We beat the other team so easily!!


9/23 Sunday: Hiking Trip

I went to Mountain of Ashland for hiking with SOU outdoor program. The day was just perfect for hiking. (There are a lot to talk about, so I will do another post just about the hiking trip)


The Hiking Group



Elegant View

9/24 Monday: First Day of Class + Packing: Since I have not been in school for more than a year. The first day of school made me nervous, but I survived it. The hard part was after class, I have to pack and make a list for what to bring from Portland. 

9/25 Tuesday: Career Showcase in Portland


This is my accounting classmate Tamra. We carpooled together to go to the office visits and showcase. Even though we are classmates, we never met because the classes we took together were online. I was happy that I finally met one of my classmates from online classes.

9/26 Wednesday: Morning Office Visit + Back to Ashland + Get Ready for School = Extreme Tiredness. After I came back to Ashland, it was almost 7pm. I quickly ate dinner, unpacked, prepared for next morning class, and took a shower. As I went to bed, I fell asleep quickly.

9/27 Thursday: 8:30 class!! I made to the class on time, and I was able to focus and not feel tired during class. I am a little proud myself for surviving the first/crazy week. 

During the weekend, I did some catch up and relaxing. I think I did more relaxing than catch up. I was super tired, so I guess that OK. Tomorrow (Monday), I will back to the normal routine. Now I am gradually adapting to SOU campus and Ashland. It is a beautiful school and fantastic town. 

I wish Portland and Ashland were closer. I am looking forward to work hard and make a lot of friends. And after this term, I will be studying to death for my CPA exam!! Exciting!?




Sunday, September 23, 2012

Summer To Do List Part 5: Road Trip to Ashland

Each summer, my family tries to take at least one road trip.  This year we went to Ashland, Oregon. It a small town on the south side of Oregon. I am going to attend Southern Oregon University for a term this year, so it was the perfect chance to visit the city. 

1. Food Was Delicious: There were a lot of great restaurants!! I can't wait to explore more. 
Aren't those dishes pretty?
These dough-nots were yummy in the tummy 

2. Nature Was Beautiful: Downtown Ashland was a lot similar to Downtown Portland, but much quieter and more artistic. I think I like Ashland better. 
There were roses like Portland. 
There was even a deer on the street!!
In front of the OSF

We had a nice walk at Lithia Park. 

3. Saturday Market was interesting: Saturday Market in Ashland was not as big as Portland, but it was definitely more interesting. 
Look those peppers!! They are so colorful!!
I did not know there were this many kinds of eggplants!!

Lastly, I had fun moving into my dorm. Meet roommate!! Her name is Muriel Sadleir-Hart. She is very sweet. I  am looking forward to live with her.

I am excited for SOU!! I will post more about SOU and the awesome week I had!! So Stay Tuned!! 

Mean while, I will be busy study and missing my mom.


This was taken in front of my dorm before my parents left. 

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Five Keys to Succeed in College

September is officially here. All the public schools started, and I love seeing all the school bus go around the neighborhood. Quarter colleges will start in couple of weeks from now. Excited? I am!! Four years of college went very fast for me. There were successes and mistakes. I'd like to share some advices and lessons I learned. I will give some heads up to succeed in college. 

1. Stay Connected: This is very important to stay connect with professors, advisors, and classmates. I recommend all the students to constantly seek their academic advisors, make several friends in each class, talk to all their professors throughout the term. It was very beneficial from my experience because I received job informations and leadership opportunities from connections. I know there were shy people, and I was one of them. I encouraged myself to be more outgoing by believing most professors, classmates, and advisor are nice and willing to talk. It will become easier and easier. 

2. Consider Quality Over Quantity: I'd recommend everyone to get involved on campus. Just like I said previously, stayed connected on campus.  However, it is important to get good grades in all of the classes, too. I don't recommend students to take TOO many credits and get TOO involved. It is better to take less classes and do well than take a lot of classes and do bad. Same as activities, it is more effective to only focus on the small amount. I took 12 to 16 credits each term and I did two activities. I did well in the classes and I enjoyed all the activities. There were times I took 17 to 18 credits, and I was struggling. I regret I did that. I admit there are people who can take 20 quarter credits, do leadership programs, and work multiples jobs and still managed to get 4.0 GPA. Not everyone are like that. At at least I am not. 

3. Have a Plan/Budget For Time and Money: College classes are very difficult and expensive, so student life would extremely busy with school and work. Time and money are the main struggles for most students. For me, time had been always the shortage. There were countless times I felt I did not have enough time to study for a test and I rushed to turn homework. Later, I learned to manage my time by having a study plan and stick with it. If I planed in the first place, it is less likely to get it done and be confident with it.  

4. Use Campus Resources: There are a lot of great resource on campus, and sadly some of students don't even know them. Here some of the resource helped survive in college. 

-Library: They have 24 hour online help, so I used it to find all the 
-Tutoring Center: It has intelligent tutors. They helped me with my homework and even aced my test. It also offers free workshops for public speaking, time management, stress management, test taking strategy, note taking strategy, graphing calculator, excel, and GRE.   
-Writing Center: I always have them look at my paper before I turn it in. All the writing tutors were kind and gave me a lot of suggestions. They even have citation guide. 
-Career Center: This is where I started to write my resume and cover letter. I also learned many tips for interviews and built my confidence. I even landed my first job through the job posting from there. I can't thank them enough.

5. Reach Out For Help: Although everything was well planned and all the decisions were on the right track, there were still possibility for a college student to be broke. There are times when changes happens before plans and things can be unavoidable. When that happens, it is better to ask for family and friends to help as needed. Don't be shy. Families are always willing to help, and good friends would love help as much as they can.