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June 11, 2008

Blogging like it’s 1998

June 17, 1998

This week’s been busy. I thought things would calm down after finals last week.

Monday:

In the morning, I had graduation rehearsal. It still really hasn’t settled in that on Thursday I’ll be graduating and done with Wilson forever.

I went with mom and dad to the senior awards assembly at Wilson. This year, the awards assembly was held in the afternoon rather than the morning. The rest of the student body didn’t have to sit in the gym for a couple of hours and learn about the accomplishments of a select group of seniors. I won’t lie. It was boring to learn that So-And-So was going to UCLA and Fulana got a scholarship to USC. I didn’t even know many of the people mentioned until last year when I knew a lot of graduating seniors.

Tuesday:

Tricia’s mom gave us a ride to the senior breakfast at Knott’s. We had breakfast and watched a hypnotist make fools of six or so students. The whole room burst out laughing when Jess (I’ve known her as Jessica since kindergarten, but I think she dropped the “ica” when we got to high school) told the whole senior class that she was sculpting Mike W. Everyone laughed. Mike turned red. Luckily his girlfriend — since junior high! — is a junior and wasn’t at the breakfast. Jess looked really surprised and embarrassed when she woke up and her friends told her what she said. I don’t think she could have faked that. Maybe she really was hypnotized.

After the breakfast we (Tricia, Janine, Brian, Adriana, and me) stayed at Knott’s for a while. There’s hardly ever any lines for the rides, especially in the middle of the week.

Rest of the week after the jump…

(more…)

Filed under: Escuela | POSTED BY cindylu AT 11:41 pm | 6 Comments

March 22, 2008

March Madness

Josh Shipp UCLA freshman center, Kevin Love

Back in late December, I attended a UCLA basketball game with my friend Eligio at the storied Pauley Pavilion. UCLA handedly beat UC Davis. Eligio and I stayed afterward to talk to some people and try and get photos with some of the star players like Josh Shipp (junior, guard/foward) and Kevin Love (freshman, center).

UCLA plays Texas A&M tonight in the second round of the NCAA tournament. UCLA is seeded first in the West and Texas A&M is ten. From what I’ve read, the Aggies are a team with a lot of big guys who play in a physical and aggressive manner (LAT pre-game story). The game will be a challenge, but I know UCLA has a very strong team.

I packed my UCLA hoodie specifically because I wanted to represent while I was in Texas and New York during the beginning of the tournament. I may be in hostile territory right now, but I’ll proudly wear my UCLA hoodie as I explore more of Houston.

Go Bruins!

Filed under: Escuela, Deportes | POSTED BY cindylu AT 10:16 am | 3 Comments

March 5, 2008

Spring break, grad student style

I’ve been in college eight years and have never taken a spring break trip. The stereotypical trip is not my thing. I don’t care too much for beaches and tanning and parting with drunken frat boys. I do like traveling, but I couldn’t afford that during my 4 years as an undergrad. For the past 3 years in grad school, I’ve been (a) too poor or (b) too tired of traveling to want to schedule a trip during the short break between winter and spring quarter.

This year is different since I sort of have to take a spring break. Actually, it’s more like I’m going on tour: Dallas to visit family; Austin for a conference (not SXSW, I wish); Houston to visit more family, meet my cousin’s newborn son; New York City for a second conference.

I’m really excited about the Texas part of the trip. It’s been about a year since I’ve seen most of the Texas side of the family and I miss them. I’ll also finally meet some of my favorite (former) bloggers and reunite with HEOC alumni now living and teaching in Austin.

But New York… well, I think LCD Soundsytem put it quite well: “New York I love you, but you’re bringing me down” (mp3).

I’ve gotten half a dozen headaches simply trying to schedule my flight through the travel office at school and my codo hurts when I look at hotel costs.

It’ll all work out. I’ll forget about the headaches when I’m hanging out with Sean or grabbing lunch with Jeff or hitting up the open bar with fellow students at one of the many conference receptions. I won’t rule out the typical spring break hangover just yet.

Photo from my December 2002-January 2003 trip to NYC by my good friend Chris.

Filed under: Escuela | POSTED BY cindylu AT 1:48 pm | 6 Comments

March 4, 2008

Guest appearance

A couple years ago, I ran for a position with the graduate student government. I won the election and became the vice president of external affairs. The next year I ran unopposed for re-election.

During my two years as VPEx, I served on the board of directors of the University of California Student Association, a coalition of the 10 campuses and over 200,000 graduate, undergraduate and professional students at the UC. UCSA became a big part of my life, and I really enjoyed my two years, even when I had frustrating conversations in the meetings.

The pros outweighed the cons. I was always traveling, but I earned frequent flyer miles and cashed those in to visit family in Texas and friends in Chicago (twice). I spent less time with family and my ex-boyfriend complained that I was always gone, but I met lots of new people and was inspired by undergrads at UCLA. I “white-lined” (or lobbied) at the often boring UC Regents meetings in San Francisco. Afterward, I’d treat myself to retail therapy at H&M (conveniently located across the street from our hotel) and had ice cream with Rio at Mitchell’s. Sometimes I felt like we wouldn’t see results from all our hard work and that it’d be impossible to get a fee [tuition] freeze with such a bleak budget situation, but then it happened and students and their families saved money.

When I finished my term last June, I knew I’d miss being involved. I couldn’t just leave the organization, so I signed up to be a part of UCLA’s graduate student delegation for the summer conference in Santa Barbara. I also signed up to attend my third Student Lobby Conference in Sacramento even though I had to miss a day of the conference due to my cousin’s wedding.

I arrived at the hotel a little after 10 a.m. I was still half asleep when I saw the tallest Mexican ever (TME), a fellow grad student from UC Riverside. He was surprised to see me.

TME bent down and I tiptoed a little so that our hug wouldn’t feel physically awkward. And it wasn’t. He gives the kind of hugs you need when you’re still tired because you didn’t get enough sleep, you almost getting a speeding ticket and nearly missed your flight. In short, it’s the best kind of hug.

We talked a little before I had to check in to my room.

“Cindy! I missed you!”

“I missed you too.”

“You weren’t here yesterday. Are you making a guest appearance?”

“Something like that.”

“Did you drive up?”

“No way. I flew.”

A few hours later, I bumped in to the executive director of the organization. She gave me a big hug too.

“I missed you,” she said.

“I know… well, I mean I miss you guys too,” I replied.

Throughout the day, I’d hear similar comments a few more times and got more big hugs.

I knew I’d miss UCSA, but I didn’t expect the staff and other current/former board members to miss me much. They’re far too busy and the organization runs perfectly fine without me.

But they do miss me, and it feels nice.

Filed under: Escuela | POSTED BY cindylu AT 1:03 pm | 1 Comment

February 21, 2008

A Closer Look: UCLA’s Underground Students

Remember those undocumented college students I’ve mentioned time and time again? Well, there’s more stories, four to be exact, and two touching photos essays.

The Daily Bruin’s series on AB 540 students profiles four students, all in slightly different situations. Three of the students are current undergrads. Ernesto sent out an email and texts to his friends just to be able to pay for the $2,600 or so it costs to attend UCLA for winter quarter. Victor’s father was picked up by ICE officials at his home and later deported to Peru after 17 years in the states. He considered leaving UCLA to spend more time running the family gardening business. Stephanie has been in school six years, she attends when she has the money to pay and skips a quarter when she can’t afford the cost. Mariana received her green card less than a year ago and is now a graduate student at Harvard. She’s part of an effort to get legislation passed in Massachusetts similar to California’s AB 540, which allows undocumented students who have graduated from a California high school to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

Oh yeah, and if you’re more of a visual person, you should also check out the photo essays: part one, part two.

Filed under: Política, Escuela | POSTED BY cindylu AT 11:56 am | 11 Comments

January 19, 2008

Retrospective

Abridged timeline:

Yay. My parents asked me yesterday what this means. Well, it means I’m eligible to start working on my dissertation proposal. The proposal will be the plan for my study on Latino science students in college.

For the unabridged version, complete with excerpts from blog posts from the last 4 years or so, click the link below.

(more…)

Filed under: Escuela | POSTED BY cindylu AT 1:22 pm | 19 Comments

January 16, 2008

Landline

Most days, I don’t bother picking up my apartment phone when it rings. I know that the person (or machine) at the other line is probably not someone I really care to talk to. Plus, people who really want to talk to me just call my cell phone. But tonight I was trying to watch a DVD and the ringing was disruptive.

The first call was a recorded message. Click.

The second call was a UCLA undergraduate calling members of the alumni association. She wanted me to sign up to host a Dinner for 12 Strangers. Um. Not likely. I have no room for 12 people at my apartment. Oh, and I don’t really cook. I’m much more likely attend one of the dinners the alumni association holds from graduate students.

The third call was another UCLA undergraduate, M. She thanked me for my donation last year to the UCLA Fund and then launched in to her spiel which would end by asking for another donation. The additional funding had helped keep the library open for 24 hours. M discussed the governor’s proposed budget cuts. And then she stopped. She asked me if I had worked for MEChA. I suspect my former employer information might still be in some kind of alumni database. I told her I had worked for one of MEChA’s programs, a counseling and mentorship program called MEChA Calmecac.

“Oh, I worked for MEChA too,” she responded.

“Which program? Calmecac or Xinachtli?” [Xinachtli is the high school outreach program.]

“Calmecac.”

“Cool. I worked at Calmecac a while ago.”

As soon as I knew M had worked at Calmecac too, I felt a connection with this undergraduate working at the UCLA Fund. I decided I’d renew my donation then. I could hear the happiness in M’s voice. I have friends who worked the phones at the UCLA Fund when they were undergrads. My recollection is fuzzy, but I think the students calling had fundraising quotas. Honestly, I wanted to help M meet her fundraising quota more than I cared about donating to my alma mater.

Filed under: Escuela | POSTED BY cindylu AT 1:24 am | 6 Comments

January 13, 2008

That’s what she said

thank you... Sometimes I feel like grad school isn’t too different from high school. There’s cliques , popular kids (or kidz), pranks, a newsletter, juvenile jokes, desire to please and impress advisors (or teachers), relationships (people getting pregnant and having kids!) and people who don’t know what they’re doing once they leave.

I never truly clicked with my cohort. I liked them, but my interaction with them was all surface level and related to class or work. I figured I could get that deeper level of friendship from my long time friends. I got advice and mentorship about grad school from older students at work. Later, as my advisor recruited new students, I got to know them too and they became my new source of support.

But things are changing these days and now I feel like that junior who has few friends left at school ’cause she kicked it with all the seniors and they’ve gone off to college. Only in this case, my friends earned their PhDs and are off being great young scholars or they’ve moved away to be with a spouse and are working on the dissertation from far away.

I took the photo above because it reminded me of one of my co-advisees. He recently defended his dissertation proposal and moved away to be with his wife. I miss him, despite the juvenile jokes.

Filed under: Escuela | POSTED BY cindylu AT 2:15 am | 4 Comments

November 19, 2007

Gracias

Dear Family, Friends, E-Stalkers, and anyone else who reads my blog,

Thanks for the support this weekend. I really appreciated seeing your good wishes pop up in my inbox (at least when I had my wi-fi turned on). The weekend was pretty tough. I freaked out at least once. I took a walk and played Ozomatli’s “Can’t Stop” and Guns N Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine” loud on my iPod to clear my head of the self doubt. It worked too. Getting some sun and fresh air* was also good as I had been cooped in my apartment for a couple of days. I slept enough, but I think my eating habits and the stress affected my complexion (too much sugar?).

I turned in the exam a few minutes before the 11 am deadline. When I arrived, I was greeted by four of my fellow test-takers and study group. I submitted the papers and drank some champagne. We talked about weird dreams — who had time to sleep? — and agreed to meet up for a mid-day happy hour to celebrate getting through some good ol’ fashioned academic hazing.

I don’t feel too confident that I did well. I feel about two-thirds confident (there were three questions). And don’t tell me I did great, ’cause I know my work. I’m done with the crying and I think I’m okay with messing up or even failing. As Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley sings, “everyone fucks up, it’s gonna be okay.”

On the bright side, now that the exam is over and I wait a few weeks for the results I’ll have plenty of time to write about my fun and exciting life. I know you all missed me.

Now, off to sleep.

Gracias,

Cindylu

*By LA standards

Filed under: Escuela | POSTED BY cindylu AT 5:27 pm | 8 Comments

November 16, 2007

Help! You know I need somebody

I’m really bad at asking for help, but I can improve, and I can ask for help.

So, help!

If you know me outside the realm of this blog, please call or text or email or IM to check in on me. I probably won’t respond, but it will be nice to know I have people behind me. And if you don’t know me outside the realm of this blog, you can still email or leave a comment. Just tell me to get back to work. Or just pray.

I pick up the exam at 9… deep breaths.

Filed under: Escuela | POSTED BY cindylu AT 8:05 am | 21 Comments

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