It was a whovian kinda day.

So just to start out I'm going to be a major geek for a sec. Only a few of the people reading this will understand the reference...

Now I realize Tennant is missing one 'n' but still...

I pass about 397 of these signs on my way to campus from my apartment and every single time I find myself looking in the parking lot hoping to see a big blue TARDIS waiting for me. If you do understand the reference you may be interested in my tumblr... http://www.tumblr.com/blog/whovian-starkid

Anyway moving on. I won't go into too many details of my day because to be totally honest I am so tired and need desperately to get some sleep!

So today was just your basic day. First thing that I was obligated to go to was a lunch workshop meeting wherein I met the dean, a really cool guy who told us that he wanted us to work hard this summer but also (and he really emphasized this) to have fun! He gave us a huge list of things that we could do while we are here and told us to utilize our resources to find everything that we want to do while we are here. I am so glad that I met him and he really made me love this university even more.

I also got to meet up with my graduate mentor again. I went to the library and read for a couple of hours before I met up with her. At this meeting today we finally narrowed down my research topic, and I am really excited for it! I am going to be looking into the Womenpriests movement within the Catholic church (not Vatican approved) and focusing in on a church here in Santa Barbara that is run by one of the Womanpriests in the USA. It is such an interesting topic and I cannot wait to learn more!

OOO!! And I met a guy who is here this summer researching the origins of Satan! I told him about my research I did with Lilith and he totally understood what I was talking about and recommended some books for me to read on the topic, and when I told him that I had used those books for my research last summer he told me that the author lived in Santa Barbara and use to teach at UCSB! Mind blown! That was my excited freak out for the day. 

Not too shockingly I have more photo shoot pictures that I took today. We went to another beach today, the one that I had mentioned early that we had seen people surfing at. Devan, Tanairi, Lorie, and I all hung around until most of the people left and just enjoyed ourselves.

So yea. That was my day. My night was a little more laid back but I think I got quite a bit accomplished. Yay me. Now here is a song to make your day just that much more splediforous.

ELO- Mr. Blue Sky

Even if you don't like the song(although I don't understand why you wouldn't) the hair is enough to appreciate this video.

Aaaannnnndddd we're off!! 

The start of stress and hard work has come! I was not ready for that!! I actually had to be up at a decent hour this morning. I didn't have to be anywhere until 9:00 but that means waking up at 7:30 for me. Not easy.

I don't know how many of you have heard of a little thing called the GRE, but it is evil. For real. And one of the requirements for me this summer (something I signed on to when I was accepted into the program out here) is to take classes to prepare for the GRE aka the Graduate Record Exam. Yea it's this test I have to take in order to get into grad school, like the SAT's or the ACT's for college.

Now I would just like to say that I am so thankful for this program and all of the opportunities that I otherwise would not even know of let alone be able to participate in, for real, I am so grateful! But these classes are gonna suck. Haha. They are just stressful. Three hours going over basically just how to take a test. We review actual math and words a little bit but for the most part this class is techniques on how to take each part of the exam. I already took the GRE but I am going to be taking it again after I take this course and I am freaking out. Those three hours aren't spent doing nothing, there is sssooooo much to know about this test!

After that lovely class my day was just starting. We all had a little break for lunch with Mario and Walter, after which they showed us to the building where their offices are, pretty much just so that we knew where we could go to print things off for free. You see a big part of all of our research is reading articles, most of which are found online. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to read articles online, but after the fourth or fifth your eyes kind of start to freak out! So we needed to find a couple of places to print these things off!!

We only had one more scheduled event for today, which any college student knows means an hour long talk on how to use the research guides online to find articles and a 15 minute tour of the actual library. I feel like a real student now, I have my very only UCSB library card and can check out books anytime I want. Yippers :) 

A bunch of us also forgot a lot of supplies that are necessary when it comes to research and so off to the bookstore we went!

First trip of many

The fun doesn't stop there kids! I actually got to start some research today! Honestly, I love it. Spending hours in a library and finding your own little nook to stash books and relax while you read. It makes me all smiley inside. I even found a few books and a whole bunch of articles.

I love library books. The order. The smell. The crisp paper. Its magical.

Look! I'm even taking notes already!

I kind of got carried away with the articles. Have you ever gotten sucked into a Wikipedia wormhole? Where you go to look up one thing and then keep clicking links that are connected to that topic until you have spent an ungodly amount of time reading. Maybe that's just me. Anyway. That's what happened to me today and it didn't end until Evelyn text me reminding me that I need to find time to eat.

The rest of the night has been a little more chill. I did do a little more reading and plan on reading just a bit more before I sleep. I'm meeting with my Graduate Mentor Kristy again tomorrow so I'm excited but a little nervous at the same time. I just can't wait to get the real research going so I can start using my highlighters and sticky notes. Gosh I am such a nerd.

Phantom Planet--California


(This song is dedicated to Jenna and Hannah both of whom I learned just this last semester love a show to which this is the theme song to.)

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ouch!

So in case nobody knows this... Sunburn HURTS! I just got done with the most painful shower of my life!! I do not even know where the sunburn came from. There has to be a hole in the ozone over Santa Barbara or something!!

Besides the pain, today was pretty great. Shocking, right?

So to start things out I needed to post this video. I don't know how many people like Olly, but I love him. This song was playing at a store I went in today and I think I scared some people when I started dancing to it. Haha. Oh well

 Olly Murs--Dance With Me Tonight


Anywho... Today was cool. Slept in a bit again today, I do not know how I am going to be able to start waking up early, it is going to be so painful!! And then it was off to a lunch/meeting thing with the directors of the program. It was pretty chill, everybody in charge is really laid back and cool about everything, which I am so thankful for. It keeps me calm and stress free!!

Lunch was followed by a tour of the campus, meaning a tour of the beach and showing us every way to get to the beach from every area of campus :)  Oh and photo shoots!!

Evelyn and I

Devan doing a model pose as we walk

Random Shot

Not Quite Ready For This One

There ya go!!

Roxanna and Lorie, photobomber in back =)

Yelena and I with pretty beach in back

They feed us well! Lorie's lunch, Lorie, and I

Roxanna and I

Devans ready for this one

Water and Mountains always make for a great pic

The beach where we will all be learning to surf

Seelai not noticing me take a picture

New friends-Me and Tanairi

And we do have some green grass on this campus as well!

After the tour I was pretty tired and ready for a nap, as if that was going to stop me. A group of us decided to take the bus into downtown Santa Barbara again. Most of us had to deposit our lovely checks from the program and others had an itch to go shopping.

 Now I'm not normally one to enjoy trying on clothes and spending my hard earned money on said clothes but with this group of people, yea I gotta say I had fun. I ended up spending a bit more money than I had wanted but no worries, most of what I bought was on sale. I got some cool stuff too, a dress, a jumper, a really nice jacket, and two pairs of shoes. I would love to wear the shoes right away but along with a nasty case of sunburn I have awful blisters from all the walking. With a lot of hope and a little tender loving care though those blisters will turn into calluses and I will be able to wear nice shoes again!

Well I'm sure that more happened today that I could write about, like the dance party some high school kids were having on campus that a couple of us accidentally dropped in on, but to be honest I'm too tired to think of them all and then tell y'all about it. I loves yous all but I gotta be up early tomorrow for my GRE prep course.

Good night lovelies!

Katy Perry-California Gurls ft. Snoop Dogg 

There You Go Thinking Again...

Slept til 10:00 again today!! Ahh, if only I could do this every day! I had to start using my brain again though, I'm going to have to get use to that, more on that later...

As I said, woke up late, but in time to get ready quick for the long walk to lunch. They feed us like crazy here! We are allowed 21 meals a week with our cards, that is breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week. Geesh California! I don't eat that much. Just ask my friends back at school I hardly have time to make it to dinner when the semester is going! Lucky for me some of the girls here have weird eating habits as well, so we plan on skipping a lot of breakfasts!

Lunch today was just as good as dinner last night. A huge selection with real food, like they give us meat, not cat food labeled 'hamburger' expecting us to eat it.  Its pretty great though, since a lot of what there is to choose from here is local grown organic, YUMM!!

After lunch Devan and I went to find a cute little spot to relax and read some of the many articles we are going to need to for this summer, during which time I made sure to sit directly in the sun and absorb some wonderful rays, something that I am sure I am going to regret tomorrow as my back is currently the color of the first color of the rainbow =)

At 3:00 all of the ARC Sally Casanova scholars (that's the name of this program I'm in y'all) met in the multicultural center to meet up with our mentors and get an idea of the work we will be doing this summer. I will be working with Professor Ann Taves in the Religion Department and a wonderful Graduate student named Kristy. Prof Taves is out of state this week so I didn't get to meet her today but I met Kristy and she is so sweet! I am going to love working with her!

By next week I should be able to let everyone know what my research topic is going to be but we haven't narrowed it down just yet, but its gonna be good!!

I cannot even tell y'all how much I am loving these people here! I am so lucky to get to spend the summer with a cool group of people. I have already told y'all about my apartment mates and some of my neighbors, and today we met Tanairi, Lorie, Joseph, and Julie who are other scholars in this program. We also got to finally meet some directors of the program, Walter, Roxanna, and Mario; all just super nice and fun people!

So like I said, they are really trying to feed us here. At this meeting we had all kinds of snacks and food, and then immediately after the meeting we were off to dinner!! I didn't really eat that much just because that's too much food for one day but I still had fun sitting around with everyone getting to know each other and joking around.

After dinner we were all planning on heading to the beach to hang out before it got to dark. Unfortunately by the time we got back to the apartments some of us were pretty tired and went down to nap. Of course by the time we got back up it was kind of dark, and you never know what kind of people you will run into on the beach after sunset so the beach trip was called off. No matter, though, a bottle of wine and some nice music in a shared apartment still makes for a nice night!  

These 2 months are going to go by too fast!!

The Beach Boys-California Girls

Finding my Groove 

Santa Barbara, day two...
I keep accidentally typing Satan when I want to write Santa Barbara, thankfully that is no reflection whatsoever on the experience I have had here so far. I think it is just the darker side of my Religion Major seeping through :)

Today, like yesterday, was so great! I spent the day with Devan, Evelyn, and Briana today as well as with Briana's new roommate, Seelai. I am hoping very much that California and my new roommate rub off a little on me and make me change my habits because as usual I woke up around 10:00 today. Thankfully I am not rooming with Devan as she would just enable me, she actually woke up later than me... so there everyone!

We managed to head out a little after noon though and enjoy our day to the fullest! Took a bus to downtown Santa Barbara onto State Street to explore the bigger parts of the city.

 Checked out some shops and found some places that might be helpful in the next couple of months. The girls kind of realized today that I am addicted to my camera and LOVE taking pictures. They didn't seem to mind tho, and went along with some of the silliness I like to capture...

While we were downtown we decided to do as much exploring as possible and so as you can see from the last two pictures we hopped on a little itty bitty bus that only cost 25 cents to ride and went all the way down State Street and to the much cooler part of town, the BEACH!!

The beach was gorgeous and there was so much awesome stuff and people to see...

Now I didn't get a picture of it but while we were on the beach we passed a few parking lots and in one there was a really cool van/bus that did not look real at all and there was what appeared to be a wax figure at the driving wheel and Briana wanted to get a closer look and get a picture of the van. You might have had to have been there to understand just how funny this is but Briana started screaming and running away from the van, apparently the wax figure was a little more alive than we had previously thought. Haha, awkward moments!!

After the beach excursion we headed back to our apartments to find that we had some new arrivals!! Living in my apartment is now Yelena who will be rooming with Devan. In the apartment right next to us is now Cyrell and Derek and Darius. Cyrell and Derek accompanied all of us girls to dinner and got to experience first hand what it is like to get a little lost with us. We are getting very good at getting turned around on this campus!

After dinner the boys were able to observe my picture obsession when I found what I dubbed the Lion King tree, and we had a mini photo shoot, well, in the tree :)

We also learned tonight that us girls are not the only ones who are experts at getting lost. When we got back from dinner we found that another apartment mate had arrived, her name is Amy and she has a car, yay, and so does Derek. So these two amazing people were so kind as to drive us all into town so that we could do a lil bit of grocery shopping. I was with the Derek group and on the way back to the apartments we got just a little turned around and added about 15 minutes to our overall trip. Some people may call all these times that we are getting lost unfortunate, but I just call them opportunities to learn :)

Hope everyone is turning their summer into adventures!! <3

The Eagles--Hotel California