Refreshing Recess - Holidays at Home

Hey everyone! Well, finals are finally over and the break from school has arrived! Each school is different, but I have three weeks of vacation until the next school quarter begins. It has been so nice to take a break from the stress of school and relax at home with my friends and family. So while I am home, I have to take advantage of all the things I can only do at home! Of course, I had to make a trip to Disneyland! Being only 20 minutes away from my house, its the perfect way to celebrate the holiday season. Everything throughout the entire park is decorated, including a holiday themed parade and fireworks show. I love Disneyland as it is, but the holiday spirit makes it a unmissable experience! 

The Disneyland Castle decorated for the holidays 

Mickey Mouse! A Disneyland must

Another tradition I have with my friends at home is an annual Christmas baking party! My friends and I each bring our own recipe for a delicious dessert but there is one catch--everything must be made from scratch! This makes the experience much for fun and meaningful, plus provides a little challenge! I love trying all my friends creations while we dance around the kitchen to holiday music. We even have extras to bring home to our family! Holiday baking--especially from scratch--is a must for any winter break for me.

My finished creation! Chocolate Hazelnut Puppychow YUM

Baking party with my besties

I am having such a fun holiday break celebrating with my friends and family. Check out the video below for highlights from my break leading up to Christmas!

How do you celebrate the holidays with your friends and family? Let me know in the comments below!

xoxo

Exhausting Exams and De-stres Diversions

Hey everyone! This past week has been filled with coffee, late night studying, screaming, dares, and puppies. It can only mean one thing: finals week. Yes, fall quarter has come to an end at Stanford and each class ends with a final exam or paper as a culmination of everything learned. What's most stressful is the exams or papers are always a large portion of the final grade--sometimes up to 50 percent! Although this can be rough, Stanford does a great job at trying to de-stress the students and pump them up for the weeks after finals: Winter Break! There are always study breaks happening around campus, like dog petting days, coloring in the library, or even free massages to help students cope with all their work. Check out the photos and video below to see how I am surviving finals week!

De-stressing massages

Puppy petting! Perfect way to relax

Getting my dorm ready for the holidays is a great study break

Library study break -- selfies on my phone!

Secret Snowflake dares!

Finals Survival Care Package

Luckily, once finals are over, I have a three week Winter Break from school before winter quarter begins! How do you cope with final exams? How do you get ready for the holidays? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Big Game - Riveting Rivals

Hey everyone! Here at Stanford, we have a big rivalry with the school across the Bay, University of California, Berkeley. To decide the ruling school each year, both teams face off in an American football game called the Big Game. This is a huge game for all Stanford fans, since we want to beat our rivals more than any other team, so the entire week on campus there are events to pump up the school against Berkeley. The fountains are dyed red, there is a rally and firework show, and there is a huge set up to protect the Stanford Axe and countdown to the big game. What is the Stanford Axe? Learn all about its history and tradition by clicking here. Basically, the winner of the game gets this prized axe as representation of the champion school. The week leading up to the big game the axe is under constant surveillance so it is not stolen and a horn is set off every hour on the hour leading up to the big game. This makes the actual game so enjoyable because of all the fun traditions leading up to it!

Red fountains all over campus

Beat Cal posters all over campus

The horn! Goes off every hour on the hour

Countdown clock

Beat Cal set up in the middle of the quad

Check out the video below for my experience of Big Game week!

How does your school celebrate a big rivalry? Let me know in the comments below!

xoxo

Midterm Mayhem

Learning all about the world of economics

Hey everyone! These past couple of weeks at Stanford University have been extremely stressful. Lack of sleep, high levels of caffeine, and absorption in textbooks are traits seen throughout the student body.  Why you may ask? One word--midterms. In high school, there were plenty of homework assignments, projects, papers, and tests going into your grade, so the stress levels were lower for each individual assignment. However in college classes, there are only one or two midterms (every test in college is called a midterm even if it is not in the middle of the term--weird right!) or papers and a final that makes up the majority of your grade. This means that one midterm or paper could make or break your entire grade in a class! Talk about pressure! Since I am a typical Stanford student, I take my midterms very seriously and have been studying like crazy! Last week, I had a midterm in calculus and I have a midterm in economics next week. While I'm reviewing the latest recession theories, one of my roommates is studying hard for her chemistry midterm and another is writing a research paper that serves as a midterm in her writing class. Safe to say, midterms are unavoidable tense time in every college student's life. Luckily, there are curves in most college classes, or introductory ones at least. That means that if a test is really hard, and the majority of the class struggles on it, then the average will be rounded up to anywhere from a B or C and all the other grades will be adjusted as well. Even though you could get a 78 on a midterm, which is usually a C, this could still count as an A in the grade book because most of the class did even worse. This serves as even more incentive to work hard no matter how difficult the class is. Plus, having study parties with your friends is the perfect way to learn and socialize. My dorm even has a couple of upperclassman students that act as tutors to help us with difficult questions in math and science. If I can't study in a group, I love to go to the library. It's a great environment to make sure you get things done and are not distracted.

Working hard or hardly working?

Study party at the library

Even though midterm time is stressful, that doesn't mean students don't have time to let lose and burn off some steam from studying! Last week, we played Oregon in football, one of the best teams in the country, and won! It was so fun watching this extremely close game, and we even got to storm the field afterwards. Also, this weekend we had frosh formal! This was like a high school homecoming dance but at the college level--it was the perfect excuse to dress up, take pictures, and dance the night away with my friends! 

Storming the field - Stanford victory!

Stanford wins 26-20!

Roommies at the game

Stanford fan section! Can you find me?

Walkway to the formal

Girls headed to Frosh Formal

Dorm loving for the formal

Although midterms can be rough, the experiences I've had in college outweigh any pre-test stress. I can't wait to share more of my Stanford adventures with you!

How do you study for midterms or tests? What do you like to do for a study break? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Homecoming Happenings and Alumni Antics

Go Stanford!

Hey everyone! Last weekend was homecoming at Stanford University. Homecoming in college is different than homecoming in high school, because the main aspect of college homecoming is the alumni reunions! Every 5 years after you graduate, your class has a reunion back on campus. There were 14 different classes back on campus this year, with the even the class of 1943 back for their 65th reunion. Although there are a ton of events for alumni on campus, like tailgates, dinners, and class talks, there are events for current students as well!

We had the homecoming American football game on Saturday against UCLA, one of our main rivals! Not only did all the alumni and students go to the game to cheer on the football team, but all the alumni from the band and cheerleading squad got to go preform during halftime with the current students. This was such a good experience to witness, as hundreds of people preformed on the field, quite a difference from the normal halftime show. And to top it all off, we won the football game! It was an extremely tight game, but I like to think all the spirit from the student section helped pump up the players to score those extra points to bring us to victory. Check out my video below to follow me around campus during homecoming alumni weekend and see all the events going on!

It was so fun seeing all the alumni back on campus, and I cannot wait for my first reunion after I graduate!
What does your school for alumni/homecoming? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Top Ten Tips in Surviving your First Month of College

Hey everyone! Now that the first month in college is coming to a close, I have taken part in a ton of cool experiences. However, adjusting to living away from home is hard, and there are definitely some things I wish I had known before I started school. Check out the video below for my top ten tips in surviving your first month at an American university!

What was your hardest part in adjusting to a new school? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Classes and Community, Traditions and Tasks

Hey everyone! This week is my second week of classes at Stanford University. Although the caliber is higher and concepts can be challenging, I love how intellectually stimulating the classes are. Being surrounded by so many smart people makes discussion interesting! We also have a huge campus, so I have to ride my bike everywhere to get to classes. Check out the video below to see some other cool parts of the Stanford Campus!

My freshman dorm has also put on many fun events for us to get into the college spirit. We have ice cream social nights, Insanity work out sessions, themed parties, and birthday showers where the birthday student gets thrown in the shower on midnight on their birthday! The biggest tradition for the freshman dorms is the scavenger hunt in San Francisco. The dorm is divided into teams with a list of tasks to complete that take place all over the city! We had to ride three forms of public transportation, buy unpronounceable food, find a obscure dragon statue, and even try on clothing worth over 1,000 US dollars. Bonus points if a boy tries on an expensive dress! This was a super event to help me bond with different people in my dorm and explore the city of San Francisco that borders Stanford!

Strike a pose!

America themed party!

Scavenger hunt madness-boy in a dress! Bonus!

Day in San Fransisco

Thrown in the shower on my birthday!

What traditions do you have in your school? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo