Classes ended last Thursday, the 6th.  Grades came out today:

I actually did better than I had expected. The 3.8 GPA makes it my best semester yet, but it should get tougher now that I will take mostly business classes in Junior and Senior years. I never know what fun the professors will have tweaking grades depending on how much, or how little, they liked me. Somehow I got a B- in Statistics last semester, which I found extremely hard to believe. I went into the final exam with a B+ and felt like I did perfect on the final exam. Of course, I thought I did perfect on the other 2 tests we had throughout the semester and little mistakes set me back then. Still, I emailed my professor to ask if could see my final later and he never responded. I just have a feeling the guy didn’t like me much, which is ironic because I ran into him at Trader Joe’s last week. Anyway, what’s done is done.

That’s the thing about small colleges & universities like mine: the professors are able to account for a “personal” factor, whether that be daily attendance, participation in discussion, or how you interact with your peers. This is the single greatest question a high school student or whoever else planning on attending college must confront: a BIG school or a small one. Big school’s have classes with hundreds of people in them filling auditoriums. These types of schools usually have classes where the first day and the final exam have the classes filled with 200 people in the seats and all the other classes have about 50 tops, and professors are normally fine with this. People cut deals with others about taking notes or taking turns attending classes. Small universities, on the other hand, usually have required attendance and some sort of participation grade.

Why am I still talking about school even though classes are out and summer has begun for me? Actually, I am taking another course starting Monday. It’s actually pretty interesting… We’ll be on a train for a week during Memorial day weekend. That’s right, a whole week spent on a train. Most summer courses go on for 6 weeks for a total class time of about 36-40 hours. Fortunately this class kind of cheats that system by having 2 weeks of classes twice a week for 3 hours at a time and then counts a large chunk of the time on the train as class time. Best of all, we’re not just sitting on a train the whole time, but stopping by several places along the way in the Southwest States (AZ, NM, NV). This is the first class of its kind in the United States so it should have some press surrounding it. Overall, I am thankful to be able to have such an experience. I owe a lot to the Education Fund and to my family. Hopefully I can pay both back when I have the opportunity.

I went through my old posts and deleted a certain person out of them. I don’t know why, but I think that was the main reason I kept away from this blog… I had always blindly put up with so much of Kristel’s crap that it becomes sickening when reviewing it now. I guess that’s what happens when you have your first girlfriend a lot of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I had some good times with my ex, but I feel like it was the idea of having a girl friend that was more important to me.

Back to this whole blogging thing, I always make false commitments of posting more and then never doing it, so I’m just going to say when I have things I want to say, I’ll write them here.

So, to  start, I’ll go with my roommate.  His name is Tyler Payne, although he hates his first name, so he goes by T-Payne.  The name is appropriate considering he loves hip-hop.  T Payne is a real nice guy, but pretty crazy at times.  To give you some insight, he loves jackass and seems to enjoy hurting himself for the enjoyment of others.  My room, while small, is no different than what I was used to with my brother.

The other people in my dorm are all really tight and welcoming. One room seems to be occupied quite often with people playing xbox360, watching movies or just hanging out.  The sounds of portal, L4D, Batman, music, and laughter have caused me to stop by there often to see what’s going on.  It’s funny that my knowledge of gaming astounds some of them at times when they are playing some of these games.  I dominated in Super Smash Bro.s (on N64) and sucked on the xbox  games (as I usually do with that crappy two stick controller).  So far in there, I have played N64 games, xbox games, watched 2 movies, listened to music, and just talked to others.  We also celebrated a birthday in this room which brought me into the tradition of carrying the birthday person (in this case, a nice girl named Bree) to the fountain a little bit away and tossing them in at midnight.

Another room houses two musicians who are also very welcoming, and have some really kick-ass instruments.  I enjoyed fooling around with the electronic drum kit and listening to Henry play his guitar.  I won’t go into great detail about everyone I talked to and everything I did, but in general, I found that Whelan was full of people that are very nice and easy to get along with.  Whelan itself is four stories, with all guys on the first two floors, all girls on the third, and a study/hangout room on the top floor.

On to classes, to leave off from the last post, I did not get into English, despite spending 5 hours last week attending classes under two different teachers just in case I got in.  So now schedule is as follows:

Mondays

Public Speaking 8-8:50

Math Analysis for Business II 10-10:50

Macroeconomics 1-1:50

Microeconomics 3-4:15

Tuesdays

Art History of the Western World II (Medieval times – Present) 3-4:15

Wednesday

Public Speaking 8-8:50

Math Analysis for Business II 10-10:50

Macroeconomics 1-1:50

Microeconomics 3-4:15

Thursday

Art History of the Western World II (Medieval times – Present) 3-4:15

Friday

Public Speaking 8-8:50

Math Analysis for Business II 10-10:50

Macroeconomics 1-1:50

So far, the food has been good.  There is a wide variety, including Mexican, sushi, fresh-made salads (and wraps), American food (turkey burgers, fries, chicken strips, & grilled chicken sandwiches), Quizno’s, Jamba Juice, omelets,  other breakfast foods,  and Chinese foods (orange chicken, chow mein, etc).  There is also a diner on campus named Iggy’s that serves breakfast all day and is highlighted by the great french toast, shakes, and fries.  I went there with my friend Juan (who lives 2 doors down) where we got to know each other.  Both of us are trying to watch our diets (ironic that we went to the greasy diner to eat and talk) and decided we’d go to the gym with each other.  So Monday through Thursday, we went to the gym and played basketball with others and then did crunches and a run afterwards.  Juan is a real hard worker, enrolled in the difficult engineer program and working to make a living for himself and his family.  We have a lot of mutual values and he’s interesting to talk to.

My classes themselves seem like they are going to be easy enough to me.  Public Speaking seems to be easy; after all, I took Toastmasters for 3 years in Middle School and don’t normally have a problem with speaking in front of people.  Of course, this is a relief that I have an easy class at 8 am.  Math is math, nothing to do about that.  I’m sort of up in the air about the whole homework-doesn’t-count-for-or-against-you in that class simply because that means I can skip it but then that also means I can’t get points for it and the exams are worth a ton, so I have to do well on them.  I guess that’s the general theme of college anyway.  Homework obviously helps with the weekly quizzes anyway, so might as well do it.  I enjoy my economics classes more than the others not only because it’s really what my major is about (and I’m actually interested in it) but also because the teachers are awesome.  In fact, if you can imagine Tony Stark (pre-becoming Iron Man) without the genius but with all the attitude and wittiness, you’d have my microeconomics teacher.  Art History by far is the worst class.  It is not only a lot of work, but also the classroom has had broken A/C  and the teacher speaks a million words per seconds.  Luckily, however, we are allowed to type on our laptops in class on the provided powerpoints.

I decided to accompany T Payne to a club Friday night. The club itself was a hotel called Custom that has 18+ Nights every Monday.  The party was actually pretty dull with no dancing and just some meeting some people.  I told T Payne that I was kind of bored so he said he felt about the same and decided to go out with a bang and jumped into the pool to get kicked out.  Fun times at LMU.

I woke up around 5:30 this morning in order to get ready for Spring Orientation today at LMU.  My mom was unable to wake up until about 6:15 and by that time I had showered and packed all of my stuff into the car.  I took my clothes, bedding, lamp, trashcan, some framed pictures, toiletries, and most of my supplies.  That leaves my computer, laptop, chargers, car, more pictures, and other random things to come with when I move in to stay on Sunday afternoon.

My mom was too tired to drive, but I made good timing, arriving around 7:35 at the gate entrance.  The first place I went after parking and leaving my mom in the car was to get my Student ID card.  It’s nicknamed the ‘Onecard’ for good reason;  I use it as my ID,  for meal purchases, getting in the gate to park, getting into my residence hall, getting into my room, and for plenty of other stuff.  I went back to the parking lot to meet my mom and we reparked closer to the orientation check-in.  After checking in and gaining some sweet swag, my mom and I once again reparked, this time next to my dorm.  There, I left my mom to unpack my stuff and “work her magic” while I had to take my placement exam for math at 9.  It’s weird that they would give me credit for my class at SCC, but since they aren’t like official partners or whatever, they still made me take an exam to make sure I was qualified for MATH112: Math Analysis Business II, which is basically just the continuation of what I took at SCC.  In the end, it didn’t make much of a difference because they called about an hour after my exam and told me I made it into MATH112. 

I met my mom in my room right around when she had finished with all my stuff.  The room looks and feels nice, although of course I wish it was bigger.  We didn’t really feel up to staying for all the orientation, so we just went around to a few places.  We went to the bookstore to buy some shirts, got my parking permit for the Cadillac, paid the hefty check (from the Lloyd Children’s Fund) for all expenses, and  then left to have lunch.  My mom gave me a mini-tour of the area to show me some nice restaurants and some cheaper “hole-in-the-wall’s” where I would probably go to more often.  After lunch, we decided to head home early rather than return to LMU.  On the way home, we picked up the Caddy from the shop, which is driving great now with new brakes, a tune-up, and a reallignment.  Once I got home, I hopped online to finish registering.

The following is the link for my schedule of classes so far for Spring 09:

lmu-spring-2009

Right now, one of those classes will be leaving that schedule. I’m hoping that I can get into the English class on Tuesdays and Thursdays (even though I’m not much of an English fan) because it’s a required course that I will have to take eventually anyway.  Plus, that would mean I would be able to drop my Public Speaking class at 8 am.  That would be sweet, but I like the schedule either way really because if I don’t have the English class, I won’t start until 3 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and will only have the one class. 

I’m getting excited to start, but I know I’ll miss some, if not many things.

I’ve kind of given up on the whole blogging thing as you may have noticed. I don’t really want to share my troubles with everyone and I don’t feel like I’m interesting or intelligent enough to sustain an actual good post that would be worth time reading and/or commenting.

In other words, I don’t think I’ll be posting anything real anytime soon.

Past couple of days, not much goin down. Mychael and I have basically been going to the pool shortly after we wake, stay there for a couple hours, have lunch, then watch tv or play cards, pokemon, read, or do whatever else sounds fun. Dinner was this nice seafood restaurant two nights ago and room service again tonight. We’ve run into some trouble with the hotel; like thrice now they’ve told us we’ve run out of credit on our room even though Mrs. Jauregui keeps going to get it settled. They’re a bit incompetent at times, but hey, overall, I defintiely can’t complain. I burnt a pack of M&Ms trying to make my dad’s “famous” candy bar because of a combination of retarded Mexican microwaves and my own stupidation. I know, it’s not word (proves my stupidity, right?). Anyway, tomorrow we go back into town, when cruise ships aren’t stopped in for the day, so things are supposedly cheaper. I plan on buying all the souvenirs for people tomorrow, so last chance to let me know. Anyway, we head home in a few days. For all of you seeing Batman in the next few days, I envy you. Although, they are showing it at the Mexican theatre here in English with Spanish subtitles, but I think Myke and I can wait. We’ll see!

Got up around 8ish. We left for the ATV place around 8:20 and got there around 8:45. I thought we were going to get bussed to some far off place like with the ziplining. I thought wrong. We got on the 4-wheelers right there in the middle of the town and drove off to the side of the road out into the jungle. It was the four of us along with a family of three and the tour guide leading the way. Everyone had their own quad and we all had fun driving through bumpy, sandy, muddy roads. We drove for a good hour and a half through craptacular Mexican trails in the beautiful jungle and sprayed water and mud all over the place as we drove in. After a while, we ventured into more steep, curvy, mountainous roads until we reached an opening where there was a restaurant and tequila tasting. We found that our tour guide not only was nice, but also very funny. I guess that’s a common theme among the people we’ve met out here.

On our way up to the restaurant, our guide asked if we’d like this little berry-looking thing off of the “candy tree,” as he put it. I told him I’d eat one if he had one first. Of course, he just smiled and shook his head. He told us it was a very, very spicy pepper; nothing any tourist eats. The three others laughed and looked at me; “right up your alley.” I said I’d eat the tiny thing (it was literally the size of a small berry). I tossed it in my mouth and chewed for a few healthy seconds and swallowed. While chewing, it didn’t seem too bad, but by the time I had swallowed, the burning hot pain set in. I started blinking quickly, breathing in for air, and hiccupped a few times in no time at all. I first learned about the Scoville scale when I read Little Brother. It’s basically used to figure out how spicy a pepper is. Here’s a quote from the book:

“Pure capsaicin is about fifteen million Scovilles. Tabasco is about twenty-five hundred. Pepper spray is a healthy three million. [...] Some of the real hardcore can get up to a half million or so, about twenty times hotter than Tabasco. That’s pretty freaking hot.”

My response to my pepper is very similar to the narrator’s in a similar situation:

“You know that feeling you get when you take a big bite of horseradish or wasabi or whatever, and it feels like your sinuses are closing at the same time as your windpipe, filling your head with trapped, nuclear-hot air that tries to batter its way out through your watering eyes and nostrils? That feeling like steam is about to pour out your ears like a cartoon character? This was a lot worse. This was like putting your hand on a hot stove, only it’s not your hand, it’s the entire inside of your head, and your esophagus all the way down to your stomach.”

I suppose mine wasn’t quite as bad a response, but I think I’m either more used to spicy food or mine wasn’t quite as spicy as his. Either way, it was by far the spiciest thing I have ever eaten. Too bad I can’t remember the name of it. It took me almost ten minutes until I was completely back to normal again; I couldn’t even feel my tongue for a while. After a 7-up to cool me off, I had an order of beef tacos, which were tremendous. After lunch, we left again onto some more straight, long roads and really got to hauling. Apparently we hit 65 mph at one point; way fun. Really made me miss motorcycling up at the cabin. I’ll have to schedule some more meetings with my grandpa… We got back to the place we started around 1 in the afternoon.

Back at the hotel around 1:30, Mychael and I went to the pool to cool off and get the dirt off of us. After that, it was back to just chilling in the hotel and watching tv. We ordered room service for dinner again and I had a cheeseburger. As usual, the food was great. Haha seems to be getting a little redundant. Not sure what will be going on for the rest of the week, but hopefully we’ll go into town at least once more and find things to do on the other days. I still need ideas on what to buy people, so let leave me a comment if you’re reading. Good night.

Well, the past couple of days have been a lot slower and more “relaxing” I suppose you would put it. Mychael got quite a bit of sunburn (because he decided to ignore requests to put on sunblock) and spend the day indoors all of yesterday. I was bored being stuck inside all day, so I went a couple of times to the Mayan Palace and the Grand Mayan pools. Today was about the same, except Mychael went out with me to the pool for a while. We slept well: 11 hours of sleep. Not too shabby at all. I don’t really have much to say. Tomorrow we have our ATV 4-wheeler ride to look forward to. I expect to get plenty dirty and outrace Mychael all over the jungle. I need ideas for souvenirs for people, so if you’re reading, let me know what you want. All I have so far is a butterfly knife for Austin (Mr. Spah). Peace for now.

Day 6

So we woke up around 9 and drove into town shortly after. I guess I was really tired and not in a buying mood because I didn’t buy or barter for anything in town. The Jaureguis, on the other hand, bought several expensive pieces. They shopped more at the stores in town than the flea market like I would have. Anyway, they seemed more interested in the expensive jewelry. Mychael bought a bracelet for almost $100, Mrs. Jauregui bought a ring and a $200 6 inch silver bull dog to resemble their new dog. Mychael did buy one thing from the flea market: a cool chess set which he bartered down from an original $80 to $65. He probably could have gotten a better deal, but he was a little too into the set. You know, it’s really easy to barter them down. They really want to get money any way possible. Pretty much everyone sells the same thing in all the little stands, with a little variety. But I asked about a few things and everytime I started to walk away the offer went down in price. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to buy for anyone so I didn’t end up getting anything. We might go back to town, which is good because I feel like bartering some things down next time. I think I might just buy some necklaces, bracelets, Mexican ponchos, hats, and any knives if I can find them. We were looking for the infamous taco stands in town but there were none around at all. It kinda sucked. So we headed back to the greenbreak (the gold course restaurant) and ate there around 3ish. This time I had the club sandwich, which was good once again. Mychael and I headed back around 4 and watched tv while his parents went to the grocery.. I was able to nap for a while and awoke around 6:30. Mrs. Jauregui pan-fried burgers for us, which were great. I went for a walk on the beach around 8:30 and came back around 9, as the beach and pool “close” at 9. Mychael’s parents didn’t notice that I left and almost as soon as I got back, they decided they wanted to go for a walk too. It’s nice because it doesn’t really get dark until close to 10. I watched tv as Mychael finished Little Brother. No surprise with him, it only took him a day. It was pretty much all he did all day anyway. We went to sleep around 2:30, but I didn’t feel asleep until 3:30 or so. The lightning and thunder was amazing at 3 o’clock though; you’d have to be there to have seen it.

Day 7

Mychael and I woke up at 11 and headed out to the Grand Mayan around 11:30 to chill in the lazy river for about an hour and a half. After that, we walked back to the Mayan pool and got a bite to eat at the snack bar there. Myke had the club sandwich while I had some nice BBQ chicken wings. We met up with Mr. And Mrs. Jauregui while we were eating and they ordered some nachos. After that, Mychael and I got on the kayaks for about half an hour, which was pretty fun. We saw a few iguanas and a lot of birds while we were paddling around. Following that, Mychael and I got in a stupid fun little contest that the resort puts together everyday. While we lost in the end, it was fun and we got to talk to some people. We met a few others from Cali and some from Canada too. After that, we also played beach volleyball with the resort people, which once again, was fun. Next, we all headed back to the room and Mrs. Jauregui made some steaks and potatoes for us all. The weather finally calmed down (it was sunny all day and didn’t rain until 8!). On a random note, I also noticed how everyone else around here seems to want the Cali lifestyle: wearing Hollister, American Eagle, Armani X, and all the other stuff you’d see typical of our region. I think shows like The OC and The Hills kinda ruined everyone and became a stupid trend. Oh well. Not a real eventful day, but still a fun one

I slept around 11:30 or so last night; not really sure. I woke around 6:45 and got ready to go fishing. I walked out of my hotel around 7 and walked over the resort right next door. On my walk over, Frank pulled up in his car and I hopped in and we turned around and drove over to the Grand Mayan (next door). We waited a few minutes, chatted a bit about things, and then I met Duke and Emily. They’re from Texas and would accompany us on the fishing expedition. They were both nice and easy to talk to; Duke was probably in his late 40s and Emily is 13, I think. Anyway, Frank sort of gave us a tour through the different towns on our way to the Marina where his captain friend was. Along the way, he pointed out where he lived, where his parents were, and all sorts of all other special and interesting sights. We got there around 8:30 and hopped onto the boat. Within the Marina area, we caught some bait by just throwing the net over and bringing it back up. Hell, to me, that felt like fishing. We caught probably about 100 little fishes (2-3 inches) for bait, along with a few small puffer fish and a small red snapper, which we threw back. Fernado was our captain and I forget the skipper’s name, but the captain was a funny guy and Frank and him constantly gave one another crap in Spanish, as he said they would. I had homemade (by the captain’s wife) fish cevishe on chips with hot sauce. It tasted like lime and tuna salad, and it was really great. We started out catching small (6 inch) silver-looking fish that would act as bait for the big boys. Following, we went out to catch some roosterfish, which gain their names for the feather looking fins they have on their heads. I caught a couple: one was a baby that we had to throw back and the other was big enough to keep. It was a good size and certainly the biggest fish I’ve ever caught. We could have caught many more, but Frank and Fernado really wanted to catch Mahi Mahi. So we began to ride all over looking for Mahi, but unfortunately it wasn’t a Mahi day. Frank said later that we could have gone out further to get Tuna or back to catch more roosters, but as I said earlier, we were looking for Mahi.

Anyway, throughout the trip we talked of jobs, education, politics, weather, cars, pollution, eco-friendliness & awareness, fish, food, differences in States & countries, and anything else that came to mind. I got some pictures but Duke and Emily promised to email me the ones they took themselves. All in all, the fishing trip was great. The weather remained pretty clear; it did rain for about 5-10 minutes and it did burn for about the same time, but it was mostly cloudy and just nice outside. We were all hoping that it was getting back to normal Puerto Vallarta weather (hot and sunny in the day and rainy at night). After we got off, we really only had one fish to account for (my rooster), but as I said, no one much cared, we all had fun. I got back to the hotel around 1ish and found Mychael in our room, playing Pontifex (some bridge-building game I left on the laptop from a while back). Mr. And Mrs. Jauregui were out golfing when I came in. I took a shower to get the fish slime off of me and they were back when I came out. After some tv time, we all went to the pool and chilled out for a few hours. Unfortunately, it began to rain again while in the pool, but I guess we’re used to the rainy weather by now. According to Frank, the taco stand we have been wanting to go to (but couldn’t find) actually turns out to be exactly where we thought it should be, except that the rain has kept him from coming out. As Frank put it the first day we met him, “a little rain and everyone in Mexico is screwed up.”

We ordered room service again for dinner and they continue to impress me as I had shrimp enchiladas which were great. TV and the cyber cafe were all that were left after that. Tomorrow, we’re finally going into downtown Puerto Vallarta to shop, so I can finally get some cheap and real souvenirs. It should be fun. I’m really starting to miss my girlfriend a whole lot and family (a little, haha jk). It’s fun here, but it really makes me appreciate what I have back at home in my life. Ok ok, no more cute stuff Good night