Find something to keep you going

Its hard to not get burnt out during a difficult semester. With classes and work and homework and all the side reponsibilities, it gets tiring trying to get through all of it. The way to do so is by finding something that keeps your energy up and your spirits high. Of course you need to find the time to work it in to your schedule which can sometimes become the most difficult part, but doing something to keep you sane will allow your grades to remain high and keep stress at bay. Myself, I like to go climbing at the sb rock gym on state st. It's a good spot to have some time to myself and just monkey around. There are a million ways to have fun in Santa Barbara. It's all about finding the one that keeps you most in line. 

The beach is also a solid way to mellow out. 

Passover dinner

My roommate is Jewish and he gave me my first experience of Passover dinner. Super fun. At a member of his family's house, a party of about 30 people gathered around a table to sing songs and talk about the meaning of Passover all while eating super good food and drinking a bunch of wine. Granted, my buddy's family is a little unorthodox but that makes Passover dinner that much more fun. One of the cool parts about the dinner was that it was at a house a Malibu. Now I've never been there but if I had to pick a house to live in, it would be at a house in Malibu. These places were incredible. Huge 5 million dollar homes on beach front property with amazing architecture. It was definitely a good time hanging out there and getting a little more of the lay of the land in Southern California. Overall, great night and another reason to love living in Cali. 

View from the street. Not too shabby

Things get harder

I'm not sure if it an obvious thing but as classes progress they can get significantly more difficult. To maintain a solid level of competency, more time is required to prepare and be aware of what is going on in class. This has become wildly apparent in my organic chemistry class. What we are involved in now is a multistep synthesis reaction where using several substituent materials, a single staring material is transformed into a final product. What makes these reactions more difficult isn't necessarily the reactions being performed but the level of guidance with which they are discussed. At this point, it is expected of us to know how to perform a certain type of lab technique effectively. Thankfully, my reaction is going fairly well and I'm on to the final step of the reaction. Synthesizing tetraphenylphtalic anhydride from tetraphenylcyclopentadienone. Cool huh. 

Part 3 final product. 

Spring is around

The weather is finally starting to get hot and the beaches are starting to really be back in play. If I wasn't so busy with school and work there is one beach in particular I'd like to go. East beach. It's down shoreline dr. and it's lined with about a dozen volleyball courts. Now ice never been very good at volleyball but it's still always a good time. Usually my housemates and I will get the neighbors and head down to the beach to play 3v3. My favorite part about it is that after you work up a sweat play volleyball, the water is the perfect way to cool down. While You're not technically allowed to bring dogs on the beach I tend to do it anyway. I never see the big deal as long as you pick up after them. Anyways, check out the beach and enjoy springtime!

Playing fetch with a stick bigger than him

We live where people vacation

From time to time a cruise ship will float by CC and two things will happen. First, I'll get irritated that I'm walking to class at 7:45 in the morning, and second, is that I'll remember that I live in one of the most spectacular places in the US. There are certainly times when I've taken Santa Barbara for granted because of the fact that I've been living here for a while but it's nice when there are reminders of how excellent this place is. It's cool that we get to live in a place where people vacation. Coming to that conclusion I think that's how I would like to pick the places I'm going to live in the future. The only real downside I can say for moving in the direction is that I'm broke all the time. Even if I didn't take classes and I worked 24/7 I wouldn't be able to buy a house. Even so, renting and living with roommates has produced some of the best times of my life and I'd recommend it to anyone. 

Here is the cruiseship just leisurely rolling by...

Sushi

I'm not usually super in to sushi but dinner at this place in montecito may have changed that. It's called sakana and they have great food. Their menu is huge and has pretty much any kind of sushi combination you could want. Per usual for sushi the place was a little on the expensive side, but as far as sushi goes, it was fairly priced. I also not typically a fan of sake as I generally prefer grape wine to rice wine but the warm sake they had at sakana was pretty good. There are some other sushi spots in town but I definitely suggest heading to sakana. It's right in montecito by blenders. Check it out. 

End of midterms

Well the last midterm is in an spring break is around the corner. Spring break is a genius invention. I think it keeps everyone sane. This week I had an organic chem midterm and a cell bio midterm. Neither were easy. When administration says to study for two hours for every hour of lecture it's usually an overblown figure, especially when talking about gen ed classes. That figure for science classes is not exaggerated. I was underprepared for my exams and spent the better part of 5 days study for both exams. My suggestion is to dust off the lecture notebook weeks in advance of the exams. It seems like redundant information but it's critical for getting good grades. Either way, my week is almost over. 

Just have to finish lab....