The Housing Scramble

I, as I'm sure many of you, have received my acceptance letter from UCSB and I couldn't be more excited! I will be really sad to leave SBCC, as I have had such a great experience here and have learned so much and made so many memories, but I am super excited to be moving on to the next chapter of my life. That being said, the first thing I thought of when I checked my portal and saw that I was accepted was... "I need to find a place to live, like NOW, or I am going to be homeless". Although that statement sounds pretty dramatic, I'm sure many of you know the housing struggle in Isla Vista and if you snooze you definitely lose in regards to finding a place to live. However, it is sort of hard to go house hunting before you know if you will officially be living in Isla Vista because once you find a place you like, you have to fill out the application and put down the deposit of one months rent to secure the place or it will be gone within the hour. So my struggle was, what if I find an awesome place and put down a $700 deposit and then end up not getting into UCSB and having to go somewhere else while losing my $700 deposit. So that just wasn't a risk I was willing to take.

And this would be my new roommate, Kayla

Even up until about a week ago, I didn't even have a game plan for how I wanted to go about finding a roommate, which was really packing on the stress. I really didn't want to have to go through the whole craigslist thing because... let's just say I've been there done that..... However, I got super lucky and became really good friends with my boyfriends, best friends, girlfriend this year (a bit confusing, I know) and she just so happened to be looking for a roommate for the next school year as well. She texted me last week and we started talking about looking at places and we both hopped right on craigslist and began looking at places in IV. We found a couple potential apartments and scheduled a few walk throughs for this morning and ended up filling out an application and writing a check for the deposit. I am beyond relieved that we found a place, and so quickly at that. I am so excited to move into a new apartment, and go out and get a bunch of cute little decorations and to be living with a good friend! I am definitely in need of a change, and I definitely think this is going to be a great one!

If you still haven't found a place, don't stress too much... just hop on the band wagon quickly and start scheduling walkthroughs because there are still quite a few places that haven't been snagged up get... just remember that each and every day more people are finding out their application status so the places are going quickly!

Festival Season is Approaching

The warmer months of the year are definitely my favorite, not only because we have a break from classes and studying our lives away, but mostly because starting at the end of March through the beginning of September... IT IS FESTIVAL SEASON.

I am definitely a festival junkie. From raves to hipster festivals, count me in. I feel like I fell in love with the environment; when you're at a festival, you, in some ways, feel like you've escaped reality for a little while. It's so cool to be surrounded by hundreds of people that all share the love for the music you are going to the festival to hear... and that's the thing, everyone feels the same way, so the vibes are always awesome.

Another reason music festivals are so great is because you get to see so many artists, bands, or DJ's in one weekend. Most festivals I've been to have three or four stages, so you're never really even stuck watching someone who you really don't care to see either.

Yet another one of my favorite things about music festivals is the time you get to spend with your best friends. Think about sitting in the grass listening to awesome music with all of your best friends, heading back to the campground to relax for a bit before heading back out for the night shows... all for two or three days straight... It is seriously like being in a movie. You also meet so many new friends to hangout with while you're there as well. It really is such a great experience.

Even though festivals are super awesome... the car ride home is always pretty brutal. After having such an awesome weekend, it kind of sucks to have to go back to real life, whether it be school, or a job, or really anything because nothing really adds up to frolicking around a festival hearing great music all weekend with no other worries than putting on some sunscreen and making sure that you make it to every set you want to see a bit early to get a good spot in the crowd.

If any of you happen to be going to Coachella weekend 2 (April 22nd-24th), perhaps I will see you there!

Have a good rest of your week, and if you are currently unmotivated in the aspect of school work, use the fact that we only have 4.5 weeks of classes left and then finals.....AND THEN SUMMER!

Saving Money

As I have mentioned previously, I ended up having to quit my job for numerous reasons. I knew this would mean that I was going to have to stop spending as much money as I would normally freely spend, but I also didn't realize how much money I actually spent each month, let alone each week. When you don't have a pay check coming in, you begin to question whether or not you really need that morning latte, or if you can suffer through the torture of running the day on no caffeine.

This was one of my realizations: I spend way too much money on Starbucks each week, so that was my first cut back. I used to go to Starbucks and grab a pastry with my caramel latte around four to five times a week... Now I'm trying to cut back to just once or twice a week-which has actually proven to be extremely difficult, and has lead to some pretty angry mornings. Luckily, my mom actually picked up a Kuerig for me last time I was at home which has proven to be a tremendous help in saving money. If you are a coffee fanatic, but really want to cut back on spending money on over priced latte's, I highly recommend investing in a Kuerig. Sure you have to pay for the pods, but let me tell you a box of 24 pods for $8.00 gives you 24 cups of coffee for the price of two lattes... so yes, I guarantee this will save you much money (and frustration) in the long run!

Another one of my money pits proved to be eating out. When you have that pretty nice paycheck coming in twice a month, you never really think twice about going to Chipotle for dinner even though you have plenty of groceries in the fridge. I realized that I ate out way too much. I would go grocery shopping and get a bunch of great food to make for dinner (spending money at the grocery store for all of this food) and then end up eating out for dinner four times a week.... which then my groceries would go bad and then I would repeat the cycle. WASTE OF MONEY PEOPLE. I know I'm not the only one that does this, so only buy groceries that you know you are going to use, and plan out your week- so you like to eat out, it changes things up a bit... so go out to eat twice a week instead of four our five times and make sure to use up all of your groceries so that you are making the most out of your money!

SO yes basically, I wasted most of my money on food... which now that I think about it was kind of dumb because I was solely being careless. This is just my scenario, but if you guys are looking to save money my advice would be to make sure you are only buying groceries that you need, and not letting them go to waste. And seriously, get that Kuerig if you are a coffee drinker, it really is a huge money saver!

Aerial Yoga

Adventure one of my spring break:

I wasn't exactly looking forward to spring break as much as I usually am, probably due to the fact that my family and I usually have an extravagant trip to Hawaii planned... and this year that was not possible because my sister and I didn't end up having the same week of spring break. I was looking forward to a week off of school, but I sure didn't have the same excitement as I would have for a trip to Hawaii. However, I must say, I severely underestimated my spring break. I have had such a fun, yet relaxing break... and my body is definitely thanking me for this much needed break! Hopefully everyone else had a great relaxing break as well!

I ended up going home for half of break and then coming back to Santa Barbara for the other half (this proved to be such a great balance). Anyhow, my mom, my sister and I decided to take a day trip on Tuesday to LA to hang out and have some girl time, ya know the typically shopping day while also eating at some cute, little, (over priced) cafe's in LA. In addition to shopping, we also decided that we all wanted to try aerial yoga. My mom had seen a post on Facebook advertising an aerial yoga studio in West LA and thought it would be fun if we all gave it a shot. I have been a dancer and cheerleader almost all of my life and I also enjoy practicing yoga so I was immediately in... however, my mom and sister both think yoga is boring (like I'm sure many people do) and aren't really all for it, so I was surprised when everyone agreed to take any yoga class let alone swinging around on silks upside down doing yoga poses. I was pretty excited to see how this little adventure would turn out.


I walked into the studio all confident and excited, and then we got assigned our silks and were waiting for the instructor and I kid you not, all of the other students were swinging around on there silks and were doing, what looked like all of these exotic positions and I turned to my mom and sister and we all just started laughing, thinking there's no way we are going to be able to do this.

To my surprise we all ended up doing really well! Actually my mom and sister were both super good at most of the positions and I was the one struggling to keep up at some points! It was such a fun thing to do together and more than anything, I'm had such a fun day hanging out with my mom and sister while trying something new and exciting!

Deltopia

As I’m sure most of you know, the infamous Deltopia is tomorrow. Now as fun as partying all day long on Ocean side DP looking over the cliffs to the beautiful beach, it can also get very dangerous as I’m sure all of you know. I know there are all of these rules in place, such as a noise ordinance of 6pm and no parking in Isla Vista without a proof of residence along with strict rules on public intoxication and minor in possession with regards to the highest possible punishment in place and also the fact that there is going to be an extremely high amount of police officers and sheriffs out patrolling all of IV this weekend… but I also know that just because all of these extra measures are taking place, it really doesn’t matter to the massive amounts of Isla Vista partiers that are going to continue on with their traditions no matter what.

I’m not even going to lie here, I am planning on going out to a few events tomorrow- it has honestly become part of the Isla Vista culture and I know many of you are also planning to go out as well.

My biggest thing here, is make sure you stay safe and please try to minimize the risk of things getting out of hand. It is one thing to go out and have fun, but keep it safe and respect our community.

Here are a few things to keep in mind tomorrow, and really for anytime you are panning on going out to IV.

As much as it is recommended to discourage out of towners, there will be quite a few people trecking in for this event. As Im sure you have heard out of towners cause most of the trouble during this particular weekend every year so just try to keep your parties local and if you do know people coming in from out of town, address the policies with them and talk to them about how these are the streets you walk though everyday, this is your home so respect it like it is one.

Another piece of advise, stick with your friends. This is always a good idea when going out to parties, but I think it’s an even better tactic this weekend because there is going to be many more people in the few streets of Isla Vista, which means there could be a highened risk for possibly encountering people with bad intentions.

STAY HYDRATED. It’s getting warm out, and alcohol and sun don’t mix extremely well. Drink a glass of water for every drink you have. You’ll thank me Sunday morning for this one, trust me.

Another thing you must remember is that there will be many cars towed for not having validation of residency in Isla Vista. If you don’t live in IV, don’t take the chance and park on the streets or in the parking lots anyways. You do not want to wake up Sunday morning and have to uber to the towing company to pay $300 to get your car out of the towing site.

Lastly, know your limits. There are going to be tons of cops out and about patrolling IV all weekend. Keep yourself and other’s safe by knowing your limits: don’t start the day off with 10 beers because remember this is a long, social day. You want to be able to make it past 2 o’clock in the afternoon and also keep in mind that  many people are arrested and cited in IV on deltopia for public intoxication and minors in possession. You do not want to spend the entire day in jail and wake up without a license for a year and a $300 ticket. So make sure you are aware of your partying and are able to keep yourself safe.

Quizlet

As midterms and exams are being thrown at us, I'm sure you have been spending much of your time with you head in your notes and textbooks studying. Well this is exactly what I have been doing, and let me tell you, I was getting really tired of looking over my notes again and again and again, and actually found that I was not learning anymore from the notes than I had learned the first couple times that I had gone over them. I realized that I needed to revise my student habits.

My roommates were always using the webpage/app, "Quizlet", and I had always thought that it was a website that younger children, say middle school and high school kids, used for their vocabulary tests. Now I have no idea why I thought this, but since I was sort of desperate to change my study habits, I decided to sign up and see what this study site was all about.

I do have to say that I should have listened to my roommates when they tried to suggest that I use quiz let. I mean, I definitely realized that this website was for electronic flashcards, but I didn't realize all of the other features that Quizlet had. It's super nice because you can create your flashcards and put them into a folder for that specific class, so it also helps to keep you organized. Another feature is that as you are going through your flashcards, you can star certain terms, so that you can separate out the flashcards by what you know and what terms you may need a bit more work on. There is also a few different study techniques that you can interchange between using your specific study set that you have created. There is a setting where you are asked to type in the definition of the word provided on one side of the card. This setting is definitely the hardest for me, but in my opinion, it serves as the best study skill because it ensures that you know the flashcards given either the definition or the term interchangeably. There is also a few "games" you can play with you study sets as well, which helps to mix it up a bit. My favorite feature is the "test" setting, which gives you a variety of multiple choice, short answer and true/false questions to further test you on your study set that you have selected.

I have found that quiz let has helped me much more that passively looking over my notes again and again. I feel like it stimulates your brain in a different way than just reading notes from the top of the page to the bottom of the page.

I have started to make Quizlet's for my geography lectures which have helped me so much! I will sestare the lecture notes into vocal and questions relating to that topic. This way I have flashcards for each lecture and am able to review the material by making the flashcards while the material is still fresh in my mind as well as continue to study throughout the week.

I believe that Quizlet makes studying much less of a hassle because once you have the flashcards made, you have many different ways of studying that are only a click away! IF you have not yet used Quizlet, I highly recommend it... and if you are a current user of the nifty study site, make sure you are utilizing all of its great features!

Its Time to Start Making Decisions that Benefit Yourself

I feel like in some ways, I am sort of a people pleaser... and by that I mean that I really don't like letting people down or making their life harder in any way. I mean, I guess you could say that this trait could be beneficial in many situations, however, sometimes it jeopardizes my happiness and well being and that when it becomes a problem.

Recently, as you all know from my many blog posts, I have been beyond busy, stretching myself in every direction and even though I tried many solutions to help ease the stress of the busy schedule such as making sure I had at least sometime to myself everyday, or trying to exercise regularly, or trying to get a schedule down for hom
ework / study time, nothing was helping with the stress factor, and it began to build up until I finally (had a mini breakdown on the phone with my mom) and realized that I needed to change something in my life or I was going to continue down this path that was ultimately making me miserable, unhappy, and mentally unhealthy.

After consulting with my mom, who is and always will be the best at giving advice, she agreed that something needed to go in order to regain my happiness (and sanity). By the end of our conversation, it was clear what needed to be cut out of my life and it was also clear that although my happiness and making sure that I am healthy in all aspects comes first, school is a close second, if not a tie. School has always been a huge aspect of my life, and it has always been important to me as well as my family members that I attend college and obtain a degree. So of course I would have never even imagined quitting school or taking time off. What this m
eant, was that work had to go. I am lucky enough that my parents support me not only with everything I do in life, but also in the financial aspect, so quitting my job wasn't going to effect my ability to pay rent or buy monthly groceries (which I am so, so thankful for, and appreciate so much). However, this also meant that I wouldn't have much extra money, for the time being, to go to concerts, go out to eat or go shopping on a whim.

To be honest, I was worried about quitting my job just because I like to be able to have my own money; it's such an accomplishing feeling to go and cash a paycheck because you know that you did work hard for that money. However, I also knew that I was wearing my self down way too much and that it was going to catch up with my very soon, in fact, I think it may have already started too, so I knew what I had to do and what was in my best interest.

I think that this little obstacle that I have encountered has taught me so much this semester, and I am also glad that I had to go through this. It has taught me to think twice about buying that shirt that I already have in two other colors, or about ordering food in solely because I'm too lazy (or too busy) to cook the food that I have in the cabinet/fridge. I also realized that there are many different chapters in life, and that it's okay be be kind of caught in the transition phase for a short while. Im obviously not going to say to heck with it and never work again; I am definitely going to get a job over the summer, but let me tell you for the time-being I am so much less stressed and feel much relief when I think about all of the homework I am going to be able to get done, and the time that I am going to have to spend time with friends and also, with myself without feeling rushed. I feel like I can enjoy life again.

Now I am most definitely not saying that you shouldn't work in college or what not, because I have been working for almost all of the past two semesters, and it has been awesome having that spending money, but I am saying that there are points in your life that you need to realistically evaluate your situation and make the choices that are actually beneficial to your life, your health, and your well-being.

Be good to yourself you guys! You only have one mind and one body, so take care of it!