Anyone for Volleyball?

Hi all,
Hope you enjoyed the warm weather this weekend.

On Saturday saw the return of the Volleyball tournament that the Ambassadors organize. With 20 teams playing on West Beach from a vast array of countries it was set to be a really good event. Unfortunately, the City managed to double book the tournament, which meant the teams could not play until 2pm when original start time was 11. The teams were all contacted but loads of ambassadors were there standing around for a few hours. But the tournament got under way, dominos pizza was handed out, I was keeping score of a few games. But my main purpose was trying to get feedback from the event. We always want to know how the ambassadors can improve, how we can be more efficient and how we can ensure people are meeting other people. I was also interviewing on camera for the international office who are creating a video to show at the weeks of welcome for new students. It's really great to hear how positive people are about their CC experience. Especailly international students who all said how they have found CC really welcoming, met lots of people and are really enjoying their time here. The majority of spectators said that they come to a lot of ambassador events, and really wanted us to put on a few more events. There definitely a lot of constructive and positive feedback given. I also am trying to fundraiser for World Visions relief effort for Syrian children, so I put a donation box at the check-in table and a few leaflets about it. A few of my friends also payed a visit to the tournament and soaked up the sun. I headed home a bit weary, 10 hours after leaving the house and pretty sunburnt.

I am really enjoying being President of Pangea Club. The club has really grown, we have maybe 25/30 members now. It's pretty informal, more of a meet and greet than anything else but the hour is full of ice-breakers. I usually start with informing anyone who wants to join the ambassadors about events coming up and where to apply to be an ambassador. Then move onto ice-breakers, most are just to get people talking, luckily we have such diversity it is not just international students at all. I feel like a real support network is being created, i'm hoping before I leave to do a few sessions on advise for school life and to celebrate everyones different cultures. We will be doing this the Friday after Spring Break with a sort of 'show and tell' idea happening. Every month is the language mixer where you can sit at any table and talk in whatever language you want to learn, this had a huge turn out last week so hopefully in a few weeks it will be the same. I feel like i'm learning a lot of leadership and organizational skills, it is down to me to sort things and ensure that hour is as effective as possible.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pangea-Club-SBCC/584050101672893 And this could not be more true...  http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/struggles-every-international-student-at-an-american-coll

Other Things

I think the best thing about my time here is that come the weekends feel as long as the weekday. I am not sure why because technically speaking they aren't. But I do like to do a lot. Other then the Volleyball Tournament, I was treated to a lovely meal at the Four Seasons on Friday night. I am a very lucky girl. The service was literally so luxurious, and just walking around that place, being on the beach, it is seriously lovely. If I ever were to get married, I would absolutely love to do so there!

Everytime I think about transferring to the East Coast, I think about life without the warm weather and the beach. This weekend was so warm, I went to the beach again today, probably not wise considering my sunburn but it is really relaxing. I also went up the Clocktower at the Santa Barbara Courthouse this week, seriously the nicest courthouse i've ever seen. If you ever have people visiting, I think it is definitely worth a view. You can see every different view of Santa Barbara, up the mountains and to the ocean. This place is crazy beautiful and sometimes I think I probably take that for granted.

Also a few new favorite places to eat, Zaytoon is a Lebanese place downtown. I was very cultured and just got salmon, but it is really nice. I really like the fire pits and the privacy of each table. I also went to Bucatini last night with my roommates, it was really yummy. I'm a huge fan of Italian so I really enjoyed it and the Tiramisu is so so so good. Other than that, I had a couple of tests last week which i'm glad to have gotten out the way. I feel like without this pressure to have to do exceptionally well, because of Pass/No Pass and transferring I am really, really enjoying my last few weeks here. Enjoy these last few days before Spring Break! I'm a huge Spice Girls fan and I just found this cover of one of my favorite songs they did. Enjoy!

Weekend

I just wanted to post about our trip up to the Chumash Cave drawings. It was myself and a group of friends and we headed up originally trying to go Red Rocks. It's a pretty long drive up into the mountains, but the views are really nice. I can never get over how SB has the ocean on one side, mountains on the other. When you go up into the mountains, it really reminds me of a European Ski resort and you can understand why it is sometimes called the French Riviera. Red Rocks was actually closed because the storm had left a lot of debris. It is meant to be a really nice place with huge lakes and waterfalls, so now we know where it is I hope we can return.

Red Rocks 

 Instead, a little down the mountains, we visited the cave paintings. We spent most of our time hiking down the river bed over boulders and admiring the view over the whole of Santa Barbara. There is always quite a peaceful atmosphere about Native American sites and I have literally given up on running so it's good exercise. Today was definitely less active, I spent the day on the beach. I'm trying to get as much beach time as possible, in the sad event I am not near one next year.

On a different note, for Film Studies this week I watched the film 'Osama'. It was about a little girl under Taliban rule, how her mother is desperately poor as the father is dead. Thus, in order to survive the little girl must pretend to be a boy so he can go out and work. As under Taliban rule women's rights were non existent and they couldn't leave the house without a man or work at all. It was actually incredibly sad, so realistic because it was the first film to be made after the ending of Taliban rule. This was because film was banned under their rule, and the director used amateur actors so it was even more realistic. It is awful to see any real glimpse into life under that rule. The desperate measures the main plot is that the girl has to dress up as a boy in order for the family to survive unfortunately she is then caught. The constant fear just by watching is really and the absolute brutality of the rule- stoning and torture etc. I think I mentioned before where I want my path to go, definitely international women's rights and human rights in general are key to what I want to do. Seeing a film like this only reaffirms my ambition and heightens ones knowledge about what occurred, definitely not for the faint hearted though. It is just crazy to think a regime like this can pursue a reign of terror, really awful.

Academics

Hi everyone, hope you have been enjoying the really warm weather.

 Apologies for not blogging laat week, I had a couple of midterms to study for. One of which was Maths, which I am horrible at usually. I stopped doing maths when I was 16, because you don't have to do it for longer in England. Last semester was the first time I had taken maths in a few years, and I really struggled. I was really worried I would not pass, this would mean that I would not get into Math 117 this semester, which I needed to do to transfer. I actually was so worried about it, I even enrolled in a Math 117 program at Antioch University, in case I didn't pass my class. This would mean I would have had to come back a month early from Winter break. This caused quite a few tears, as when you are so far from home, the last thing you want is break to be cut short. However, surprisingly I managed to pass that class and now I am in Math 117, and doing well so far, real relief. I really like my teacher Profesor Smith, the information is actually going in, instead of me switching off as soon as class starts. Long may it last really!

I also had a Geography midterm, which was so hard! I think in the past I have blogged about stress levels during exams, I am the Queen of this, but I am concerned about that test. As this is my final semester I am taking the majority of my classes pass/ no pass, so it won't affect my GPA to transfer, and you can take up to 14 units pass/ no pass for UC transfer. Considering I have completed my major pre-reqs I thought I would allow myself a little rest (slightly) and take up this option. Even so, I am trying not to freak out at tests. I think it is a combination of a lot of things, I guess some people just don't have this anxiety. But for me, I've always wanted to do well and be really independent in the future, so I knew doing well was key. I also think the school system in England is far more pressured so it's almost been built into me that I need to do well. But mostly, the satisfaction I have when I'm high achieving is great, but if I don't it really, really upsets me. I think I need to have more faith in my ability and realize it is not the end of the world. It's hard when it is so ingrained in your nature, any help welcome!
 In the next few weeks, I hope to go and speak in the Comparative Politics class about the continuing Ukraine crisis. Professor Eskandari asked if I would, and I very much would like too I just need to sort my schedule so I can, definitely going to be pretty nerve-wracking though. I've also been watching the news about the Malaysian Jet, tragic turn of events and I wonder what/ whom is behind it. 

On Friday, the ambassadors held a Language Exchange Program, out at the Outlook. This was a mixer for anyone to learn a different language. Ambassadors sat at different tables with the flag of the language they spoke and other students would sit and speak to them. I was on the English table, unsurprisingly and there were a lot of people coming by. I quite like tutoring, and there was one guy who had come from Brazil a couple of months ago to learn english, so he barely knew any. I think this must be so hard, strange place, new culture and not knowing the language. It was a success and many people who came by wanted to then join the Pangea club, so that's great. Hope everyone had a good weekend:) New Coldplay song below! 

The Oscars

Red Carpet

I had a surreal day yesterday, in the fact that I am watching the Oscars now in the knowledge I was there yesterday. As mentioned before, my Dads company brought one of the companies responsible for production of the ceremony. I won't bore you with the details, but it's to do with all the wiring and transmitting of the ceremony. Anyway, I invited one of my roommates with me and we headed down to Los Angeles on Saturday. We ate at the Roosevelt Hotel, which has one of my favorite Burger bars called 25 degrees.

Along with my Dad, we went to the Kodak theatre where we met with one of his partners. Then we went through security, to pick up our Credential passes, it was like entering a different world. Just as we were picking up our passes (I can't post a picture here for security), Kelly Osbourne walked past. We then toured various places backstage at the ceremony. We saw the green room, decked in the most beautiful furniture. The press room, where if you win you will be questioned. The amazing bar, the most beautiful ball room I have ever seen. This is where the stars will have dinner after the ceremony, the walls are covered in flowers and no expense has been spared. We saw where the Oscars are engraved, where the stars will have their picture taken. And most importantly, the stage. We were lucky enough to watch rehearsals as Jason Sudeikis and Kate Hudson were practicing their lines for presenting the awards. The theatre as you can see on TV is complete glitz and glamour. I was overwhelmed and gobsmacked at entering this different world. We could not take pictures of the inside of the theatre, or any place we visited really, and we had two minders with us to check we didn't! Then we went backstage, saw the dressing rooms, the mechanics behind the staging and lastly the Red Carpet. It was of course really raining on Saturday, so the carpet is covered and they erected a tent to cover the stars. Here, we could take some more pictures as you can see below... After that the tour was over, it was an incredible experience, the volume of people who work behind the show, but mostly it really is the most beautiful event I have ever seen. I just watched Jennifer Lawrence trip on the carpet, neither Shannon or I did that yesterday, mind you we weren't in huge heels...Anyway back to reality, what a privelege!!