Hi Everyone!
There's so many people I haven't talked to in ages. A Christmas letter sounded like a good way to get in touch with you all and catch up. So for the people I've *really* lost touch with, I'm a third year computer science major at UC San Diego currently, which is itself a full time job and then some.
This last quarter I had some hard classes--I ended up changing what classes I was taking to lighten up the load a little--but somehow I still had several of those "classes from hell" in my schedule. Group projects one after the other, uggggh. My classes were pretty interesting though, my favorite this quarter being a web-design class. I finally finished up my last two hardware classes, and am perfectly happy to be done with particular aspect of computer science.
I've also been working as a tutor for an intro. programming class, so basically my job was to sit in the computer lab for five hours a week and help them when they get stuck on their programming assignments, and of course grading homeworks and midterms too. It was a lot of fun and I met a lot of people, definitely one of the better ones (and better paying) that you can get on campus. Now if only I were living on campus...
As the housing lottery works at UCSD, unless you are a Residential Advisor, there basically is no way to get on campus housing as a third or fourth year student. So I'm living about three blocks from the east-campus parking shuttles, in the Costa Verde Apartments. This place is anything but the typical student ghetto. Only in La Jolla do college students live in "luxury apartments"... That's really all you can find that's near campus though. My roommates and I live in one of the older buildings, but it still couldn't be more than about 5 years old. These places are nice, there's a pool and hot tub for every building, a gym, indoor parking, trash chutes in the hallway so you don't even have to lug your garbage outdoors or downstairs, and a bunch more amenities us busy college students really don't have time to explore.
Living off campus has been pretty nice for the most part, you can get out in the car without having to worry about whether you will end up parking several miles away. Course, it's been different dealing with the "commuter parking". For those of you not familiar with UCSD, the vast majority of commuter parking is across the freeway from the main campus, and they run shuttles to bus the commuters into the center of campus for class. The commuter lots happen to be closer to where I live than main campus anyhow. It hasn't been too bad, and only when you come at 11 in the morning will you have to circle the commuter lots for people who are leaving. Course, I still can't say UCSD is anywhere near "convenient" parking compared to a lot of other schools.
So what else have I been up to lately? Mostly school, haven't had time for much else. I've been working on my web-page every now and then when I get a chance. If you haven't been to it in a while (or ever!) check it out if you get a chance, I've added a lot of stuff onto it lately < http://www.geocities.com/jojobear99 >. I've also been involved in other stuff, like the Warren College Community Development Council, which keeps me busy.
This last summer I decided to do summer school at the local junior college back home. I took two history classes I needed for general education requirements. It was pretty low-key, cheat-sheets on the exams, essay prompts handed out before the exams, non-cumulative final. Even though it was school, it still felt like a vacation. Plus I got a few weeks off at the end of the summer to relax and rest up before heading back to San Diego. And of course, I couldn't forget my annual trip to Asilomar for summer camp. As usual that was a lot of fun, and I wish the week could have lasted longer!
And I think that pretty much covers what's new, if not you'll just have to write back to me!
Love, Jessica