Wow the summer is just flying by! Since attending the Viterbi Commencement ceremony in May and seeing many of my close friends graduate, I’ve been pretty busy all around California. After the end of my Junior year, I celebrated my 21st birthday by going to Disneyland with my roommate and then drove back to the Bay Area where I spent two weeks at home. While home I went up to Sonoma for a day, visited my high school (Saint Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco), and also went to two SF Giants baseball games with friends from home.
I attended Kate’s (my younger sister) high school graduation where I got to hear her represent her graduating class as valedictorian! She’s heading off to Notre Dame in the fall which will make for a fun college rivalry and now I have a place to stay when I fly out for the game in October!
Last summer I was lucky enough to study in Paris through the Viterbi Summer Overseas Program (and am so jealous of fellow VSAs abroad in Rome and London right now!), but this summer I’m living in an apartment by USC! During the school year I live in my sorority house (where we don’t have a full kitchen at our disposal) and so having access to a full kitchen has been a lot of fun for my roommate and me. So far we’ve made everything from lemon chicken and risotto to strawberry cupcakes from scratch!
The best part about living in LA this summer? Taking Organic Chemistry! Yep Ochem–one of the more dreaded classes simply because of all the memorization involved. I’m really happy to be taking it over the summer because I can focus all my time and energy on the class. It also means that I will get to lighten my load in the fall by taking the Film Symposium class for fun! So while drawing out chemical reactions and doing multiple labs each week is tiring, it will be worth it in the end!
And its not all bad, I’ve still been enjoying my summer, seeing friends who just got back from a semester abroad drove to San Diego with my roommate for a weekend and went to the Gold Cup Finals (USA vs. Mexico) with fellow VSA Ryan! Campus is quieter than during the school year but I always seem to run into friends I’m loving living in LA for the summer!
