Well so far the beginning of the school year has been super hectic with so much to do. After hanging out with friends who were returning to Berkeley I headed to neds and replica copy to get my physics and bio stuff.
Just sitting in my first bio lecture I could tell that this class would be a challenge. After bio lecture I went to Physics discussion and then went to an assortment of waitlisted/enrolled but might drop classes. I am signed up foe beginning Romanian, but I don’t know if I have the time for it, especially with Ancient Egypt and EALC 105. So today I went to Calapooloza, which is basically every club at Cal displaying what they do and handing out fliers in lower and upper Sproul and oh was it crowded. Tomorrow is Friday meaning the end of welcome week so check out the website and see what other fun things they have planned for tomorrow!

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 9:12 PM | Permalink

If you plan on going to grad school or anywhere else after college than something that would be very helpful to ones application would be research experience. Since Cal loves us dearly they made URAP! Yay URAP! Well URAP basically is a website with a bunch of descriptions for research positions offered by professors and to get the position you have to fill out a URAP application, which includes a statement of purpose that is around 400 words each. In order to minimize shopping they restrict you to applying to 3 internships, which is bad for me because I have to pick 3 out of the 4 I want. Since URAP is open to all UC Berkeley students than the turn out tends to be really good for bio spots with some openings receiving up to hundreds of responses. So check it out!

http://research.berkeley.edu/urap/

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 5:05 PM | Permalink

So summer for me was filled with math and genetics, but I still managed to squeeze in some fun before school starts. After buying some of my books, I have been trying to review my physics from high school to only discover how bad I am in the subject. I’m taking 8A with Deweese so I’m hoping that I can do well if I study enough, but physics is such a strange subject that has always eluded me. The past couple of days my roommates have been bringing stuff from home so now it feels more comfortable with furniture, but I feel lazy since I rarely clean.

Continue reading "The start of school….grrr!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 4:44 PM | Permalink

So as summer is coming to a close I am preparing for fall 2009 and all its difficulties grrr. I’m currently planning to take Bio 1A/L, Physics 8A, Near Eastern Studies 18 and EALC 105. I’m pretty scared for Bio as I have heard plenty of rumors about the labs and professors and as a Bio lover I’m freaking out. Even though I want to take physics I am not enrolled and am like hawk status checking the schedule every minute to see if anybody has dropped. Haha its’ even on my favorites for maximum speed. NES 18 is about ancient Egypt and I have heard is a rather chill class and the material seems rather interesting. EALC 105 is a film class that I am taking with a friend purely for fun and it is suppose to be easy and who doesn’t want to learn about movies?

Continue reading "Plans for Fall" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 5:26 PM | Permalink

So after finals I did what almost every Cal student does and left for home. So during my first month of summer I worked part time as a cashier to make some money and pretty much became lazy while at home. However, around mid-June I came back to Berkeley because not only was I bored from home, but I had signed up for summer classes and had chosen to take Math 16A and IB 141 (Human Genetics). Yah I know the two classes are really different.

Continue reading "Class Review!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 1:26 AM | Permalink

So a couple of weeks ago I was pretty sad about leaving the dorms, but then the realization of having my own apartment set in. YESSS!!! While the apartment has rules I feel like I have more freedom to do what I want in the apartment. I still live near campus so I will still enjoy having the opportunity to wake up at 8am and still make it to class…oh wait my earliest classes next semester are at 9:30 on Tuesday and Thursday. A much needed improvement from last semester where I had class 3 times a week at 8am and 2 days when class started at 9am. When I move into my apartment in a month or so for summer school my first order of business of having my own place is probably get a hamster…yes, for me, this is thinking big.

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 3:56 PM | Permalink

So as I have previously stated I am now declared Molecular Environmental Biology, but I have always thought about getting a minor. After taking NST 11 (Intro to Toxicology) and finding it really interesting, in general, I am thinking of minoring in Motox. The minor requires the following classes.
- NST 110
- NST C112
- NST C114
- NST 120
- NST 121

Continue reading "Class frustrations with minors!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 10:34 PM | Permalink

So I checked bearfacts and all my grades have been posted. Looking at my grades I think my GPA will increase by like .000001 so not by much. No surprise that my lowest grade these past two semesters is a “B” in Chem 3A grrr. I’m actually sad that I will be leaving frechet and going to Vollhardt, but all good things must end. After taking o-chem one thing I learned is that this class is much more problem oriented unlike Chem 1A, which was much more conceptual. For the second midterm I read the book and understood a lot of the concepts, but kind of flaked on the problems…big mistake!! I did pretty badly on the second midterm because I was not familiar with doing a wide variety of problems and circumstances. I made the mistake of not studying correctly.

Continue reading "Grades and O-chem " »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 12:19 AM | Permalink

So I just checked bearfacts and I am now officially declared MEB yaya!!! It feels so nice having something to strive for instead of being confused all the time of what I want to take in terms of classes. So excited =)

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 10:03 PM | Permalink

So my Phase 1 has passed and Phase II should come up in a couple of months meaning that I have to start preparing for Fall 2009 and so far my plan is:

Chem 3B – So I heard that this is a killer class that challenges those who completed 3A and frankly I am kind of freaked that the guy who wrote the book is teaching the class. I was really considering taking Pederson in the spring, but his class tends to be at 8am and apparently he refuses to post up his notes. Event though I heard Pederson is a better teacher there is no way I can function that early in morning and I can’t really learn if I am sleeping.

Continue reading "Fall 2009" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 11:39 PM | Permalink

So as of Thursday morning at 9:30 am the fact that I was done with my first year at Cal seemed to come to me in small bursts of enjoyment. The real reason I was happy was that it would be a while until I would have to use my mental capacity to study and do other stressful activities. The joy that I felt, however, was stained with the deep sadness that I felt knowing that in a couple of hours I would have to say goodbye to my dorm for the last time.

Studying for my last final was really difficult because my Toxicology final was on Thursday, which is the last day of finals, so a great majority of my friends have already been finished with finals a long while before I had finished. While studying many floor mates began to leave and pack which really distracted me, as I would find myself even starting to pack while studying.

Continue reading "End of Freshman Year" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 10:50 PM | Permalink

Environmental Science 10 – The beginning half of the course in my opinion is rather dry since we learn about soil and chemical cycles, however the last half gets really interesting and begins to picl up with many guest lecturers and learning about global issues with the environment. The discussion for this class has been one of the most engaging I have had yet at Berkeley. I think many people come into the class expecting it will be an easy “A”, which it is not! Overall I am glad I took this class and am kind of sad it will be over, yet I won’t miss those 9am lectures errr.

Continue reading "My ratings of classes I took in Spring 2009" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 3:05 AM | Permalink

So I have already passed the storm of finals that, for the past couple of days, has caused me to do nothing but study in my room. While I do still have Toxicology on Thursday morning I have already completed my more challenging finals. It seems that for me around midterm season and especially during finals I have a powerful craving for coffee with me having around 1-2 cups of it on a daily basis just to keep me awake past 4 am and for the taste that I have grown fond of over my time here at Berkeley.

Continue reading "Anecdotes about my time during finals!!!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 2:22 AM | Permalink

So way back in November of 2007…WOW that seems like such a long time ago O.O! Well anyways that was when I was applying for colleges and at that point my focus was more on essays and SAT as I knew pretty much that I was only going to apply to UC schools. Well when the day came when I actually had to submit my application I was confronted with the idea of what was I to major in college. For me I knew from the get go that I wanted to study biology so on all the UCs that I applied to I marked “biology”….well until I got to Berkeley. After looking at all the majors I was shocked that there was no generic and straightforward “biology” and there was no way I was going to do MCB because honestly cells bore me. I was pretty distraught but decided to apply under CNR as undeclared because I was not sure what I wanted to major in but there seemed to be plenty of science majors. Now that I think about I guess it was a good thing that I wasn’t thorough in my search because If I did carefully search I might have applied as an IB major in L&S which would not be good.

Continue reading "Don’t get it twisted…Its MEB not MCB!!!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 2:57 AM | Permalink

So yesterday I took the Chem 3A final and it was actually okay in my opinion. I was scared the whole day that I was going to die, but I seemed to have had a good figure on each question, albeit I didn’t finish I think I either did terribly or better than I think. I have such a terrible gauge in terms of predicting my scores on midterms. From past experience in Chem 1A when I thought I did terribly I instead did well and vice versa so this might not be a good thing when applying to Chem 3A. Well I know at least now to give myself more than 3 days to study…next midterm I will try and study a whole week before…well maybe ;)

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 5:49 PM | Permalink

Break has been lots of fun, but now I am ready to go back to school, however I mostly miss my friends and the atmosphere of Berkeley. My first semester was rather generic as I had my Chem., English and other classes, while this upcoming semester I am taking fun and rather different classes. I am taking the dreaded Chem. 3A/L and on top of that it is from 8am to 9:30 and the killer part is the first lecture of the semester coincides with Obama’s Inaugural Celebration…NO!!!! What a triple whammy.

Continue reading "I’m sooooo ready to start spring 2009!!!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 1:02 AM | Permalink

Even though I have been done with school since last Wednesday, I did not leave for home until Saturday morning in order for my parent’s pick-up of me to be more convenient. Well I don’t regret leaving late because I had an awesome time with my friends who had their Math 1A final on Friday night. After they finished their final we all immediately went around Berkeley and hit up at least seven shops and feasted upon ice cream, burritos, frozen yogurt and plenty of doughnuts. Later that night we watched plenty of youtube until 3 am and it was all a blast. Early the next morning I packed and having a couple of hours went to the street fair on Telegraph and bought a fossil for my little brother and just toured around the place. Back at my dorm, I had to defrost the fridge and unplug all the appliances and just stared outside my window and glared at downtown Oakland and the Bay and felt an uneasy sadness about leaving behind Cal even though it was for only a month. My farewell was pretty somber since I was the last to leave my hall so I just left my dorm with the only noise being that of my ipod.

Continue reading "Leaving the dorms and Break" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 12:28 AM | Permalink

So at exactly 1:30 pm on Dec. 17, 2008 I was officially done with finals and fall 2008!!!!! Yah and all I had to do was turn in my final paper for English. However, the Chem 1A final did screw things over and make me hope for that the curve is lowered...nut oh well If not I will gladly take my grade in stride.

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 6:22 PM | Permalink

Well today I just had my in-class midterm for Chemistry 1A and to tell you the truth it went pretty okay. Currently I have a “B” in the class and I plan on staying at a “B”…hope for nothing lower and probably not going to get higher. It seems kind of ridiculous however that the final is in one week and on top of that it is on a Saturday night…ahhhh. But oh well it will soon be over and break will begin. Just relaxing until reality slaps me back into craziness in the form of o-chem. Right now I am just worried about telebears, which I have on Monday.

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 6:07 PM | Permalink

There is so many volunteering opportunities open right now in case you have free time. I know all these midterms and homework can suck up all available time, but volunteering will give you a good sense about yourself, especially if you need quick recovery from a bad midterm grade. I signed up to do Berkeley Project; however I didn’t go and just slept. I know it seems bad but hey I had a heavy week and I was just incapable of waking up at 8 am on a Saturday. I felt so bad that I didn’t go and on top of that I heard that it was a lot of fun. So to compensate for my selfishness I decided to donate at the blood drive in the alumni house and it was great. I wasn’t painful at all and the nurses made me laugh, which was nice of them. Not only did I feel good that I have potentially saved a person’s life, but they let me pig-out on snacks and juice afterwards, which was awesome. I am totally going to donate as much blood as I can from now on and so should everybody else.

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 9:12 PM | Permalink

In order to make my life easier, I use esc to schedule all my classes and frankly I am glad I do because it makes it a lot easier. However, what esc can’t do is leave spots open or open up new sections. I don’t know why, but it seems like all the courses came together and decided to put all discussions at 8 am. I signed up for ESPM 50AC and the class was not full when I signed up (on Nov.3), however 6 out of the 9 sections start either at 8 or 9 am with the other three options already full. So I thought, “well if I am going to sign up for an 8 am discussion I should make it close and wheeler fits the bill.”

Continue reading "Tele-bears is not a perfect world….please don’t mention O-chem" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 12:48 AM | Permalink

Well for me my Tele-bears appointment is kind of late…November 3-4. The thing about Tele-bears is that it is so frustrating to plan out all your classes and labs and other stuff and if you’re lucky have no conflicts. The one thing I told myself was that there was no way I would have another 8 am class, however that never followed through. Next semester I will have an 8 am class every Tuesday and Thursday and on top of that it is O-Chem. and its 90 minutes. I wish I could take the 2-3:30 pm, but that conflicts with another class I need. Now back to my point Tele-Bears can be made easy and maybe fun...yah right. This is a website that is sooooo helpful in planning my schedule. You input all the classes and times that you want and it generates multiple schedules.

Continue reading "Tele-Bears made easy!!!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 1:30 PM | Permalink

Talk about a long time, but time here at Cal really does fly by pretty quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was moving in and now I’m taking mid-terms (the SECOND mid-term for Chem 1A is in about 2 weeks). If I could do anything different I would probably space out my classes rather than being clumped in a couple of days. My schedule is that on Tuesday and Thursday I only have 1 class and on Monday and Friday, I only have 2-3 classes. But dang when Wednesday hits…It hits really hard. I have classes from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm with about 3, 1-hour brakes that are often spent eating or getting ready for my next class. The thing is that all my homework is due on Wednesday so I spend all of Tuesday and up to the wee cracks of dawn doing lab write ups and other assorted work.

Continue reading "Where does the time go?" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 2:22 AM | Permalink

Ever since I have arrived here my eating habits have become out of whack and plain unhealthy. I love living in Unit 3 because it is so close and very social, however, our residential dinning does not offer breakfast. So what do most of us college kids do? Simple, just skip breakfast. I know this is bad but the excitement and nervousness of college kind of overrides your hunger. For lunch, today, I had a strawberry shortcake ice-cream and a V8 juice (100% juice). I love how the Bear Market is really convenient, but seriously …. the prices make you want to cry. I remember that I bought cereal, soy milk, energy bar, chips and a fruit/cheese plate and the grand total came to little less than $20. Good thing they use meal points and not real cash or I would have gone crazy. And on top of that they didn’t even bag it, they just gave me the bag and told me bag it myself. This awkward eating cycle has caused me to lose quite a bit of weight so whenever I walk I have to pull up my pants or they will fall, but who knows the freshman 15 could pounce at anytime.

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 2:07 AM | Permalink

Today I invited my family to Cal to give them a private tour and get them out of their work. The parking is pretty bad so I tell my parents to park the car in the “permit only” section. Sure they will risk a ticket, but my dad was anxious to get out of the car and eat. Even though the city of Berkeley has tons of unique and exotic restaurants, I still prefer the old fashion Subway across Sproul Plaza. Afterwards, I start to walk up to the Campanile when there is a sudden urge to go to the bathroom. I enjoy the fact that Cal has a bunch of restrooms, but it is kind of awkward when notes on the stalls read that “40,000 animals are killed each year here at Cal.”

Continue reading "Giving a tour of UC Berkeley" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 12:45 AM | Permalink