First Week Back to CSUN
Hello. Welcome to the first week of the 2009-2010 year of CSUN, but that passed already. Haha. I’m just saying that because I’m going to give you a recap of how my first week went. I can’t believe it’s already my fourth year.
“Vent At The Tent” is a booth where students can go to complain about how the recent budget cuts are affecting them. It could be from trying to add any classes, but you can’t because the professors don’t provide the permission numbers anymore. The department does instead. It could also be the tuition increase by roughly 30%. It was about $1,867 just last semester, and it is now $2,393. I am sure there are much more to this, but it just shows how much California and the California State Universities are under budget right now, and the state of the economy right now isn’t really helping anyone, even professors and everyone who works at the university. They are forced to take at least nine furlough days where they can’t work or teach and can’t contact students in any form.
Clubs and Organizations Day took place on Wednesday and Thursday. I went to check it out because I was pretty bored, and I had an idea of showing off the first week of CSUN in my blog. Not kidding. Pretty sad, huh? Haha.
So, I went closer to take a better look on some clubs. Most of them are fraternities and soroities, so I didn’t really bother with many of them. I wasn’t really interested in many of the clubs anyway since I don’t think I will be dedicating my time to them. I am in an organization called University Ambassadors, though, so at least I am in something?
University Ambassadors Retreat
Every year before the school starts, the University Ambassadors go onto a retreat where new and returning ambassadors bond together for a weekend. We went to a small camping site in Simi Valley, and it was near the mountains. I didn’t take as many photos as I usually would have, but there are some, so it is better than nothing. For the first night, we had to make up a poster with a group name, a song and a skit about the campus. Niki and Silvia (shown above) did most of the coloring on our poster after we have decided a name and a picture. We had markers, crayons and glitter, so the poster is very decorative.
We played a “Wheel of Jeopardy” game the next morning, which is a combination of the Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune game on TV. My cabin ended up getting third place or something in the end, but it is because we never really got any double or triple your points bonuses.
So, my cabin named ourselves the “Backstreet Banana Girls” because we all like Backstreet Boys, and we were talking about bananas for some reason. We finalized our decision after Regina brought out an entertainment magazine and turned to a page that had a picture of a banana on an advertisement. Isn’t the poster shiny? Haha.
Bad Photos At The Noodle Island
Remember the digital camera that I found on the floor a few months ago at school? Well, I’ll admit: I never returned it to the housing office. Why? I was too busy, and I never really bothered walking a little bit further to the office to return it. I mentioned this to you because I used it last night when I went out to eat with my mom and aunt again. I didn’t feel like bringing my usual cameras, and I can’t fully express how weird it is to use a tiny point and shoot camera again.
Since I got paid recently, my mom told me that I will be the one treating both her and my aunt to dinner. (I think it’s like an Asian culture thing where parents take care of children when they are really truly kids–ages below 18–and then when children grew up to be adults, they owe them back for what they have done. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong or right to it. It’s just how it is.) We went to a restaurant called The Noodle Island in San Gabriel. They are known for their chicken and noodles. We went because my brother went there and had a pretty good meal. We ordered chicken and noodles (HA!) and some salmon head thing. One of them is the “drunken chicken” (“醉雞” for the Chinese name). It was delicious, even though I don’t think I can eat a lot of it because of its alcohol flavor. I still enjoyed eating it, though.
And this is where the digital camera comes in. I used that digital camera that I found to take photos of the food. Why? I didn’t feel like bringing any of my Nikons, and I wanted to see how the thin point and shoot camera works with me after not using it for so long. Oh, did it turn out bad or what? I’m not happy about it at all. You can see the rest of them while viewing more to this entry. Otherwise, you guys just get the one I thought it was the best. Even then, I still think the quality was bad. I’m not even sure what kind of digital this was. All I see on it is Casio Exilim (that’s probably what it is anyway), and Casio is surely not a camera maker. In fact, the first thing I think about Casio is calculators…
I’m not saying point and shoot cameras are bad. In fact, I’ve used my Kodak EASYSHARE v550 for about two years, and I enjoyed it. I just don’t think the Casio one is the one for me.
» The Noodle Island
800 W Las Tunas Dr. Ste 300
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 293-8839