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Hi my name is Jackline Vo. I'm from San Jose, I'm currently a first year, and I'm currently
studying Chemical Biology. So move in day, I came in actually a little bit early. I didn't
have that much stuff, I packed it all in a giant suitcase and luckily for me I was living
on the second floor, so instead of waiting for the elevator we just hulled it up there.
I was a little anxious about everything. It was really interesting getting to meet new
people especially when they're trying to hide their stuffed animals and stuff. I live in
Ida Sproul. Do you see that Pikachu right there? That's not mine, it's the one diagonally
to the right of it. You miss your family, like you don't have the good food, like your
family food, and it's a little bit difficult at times but you know, you can always give
them a call or an email I usually do that. Welcome week, I got to know my roommates. I definitely
went to Calapalooza. That's where all the clubs set up their tables on upper and lower
Sproul and pretty much showcase what there's available at Berkeley. Caltopia is like literally
the best thing I've ever been to in my life because there is free food and free shirts
and free frisbees and free pictures and free everything like it's a win-win.
We're gonna walk down Telegraph and head to the campus.
Here's Crepes a Go Go, it's one of my favorite places to go to for Crepes. It's delicious. I recommend the bacon and nutella, I know
it sounds gross, but it is literally the greatest thing you will ever eat in your life. So here's
Sproul Hall. Here you can come to find out about your financial aid. Basically it's
the main administrative office and UCPD is also here.
This is South Hall. It's the oldest building on campus and well, we're on this
side of the campus, which means we're getting closer to the Chemistry buildings.
You know what happens when you get a Nobel Laureate at Cal? You get your own parking space.
So we're currently in Chemistry land. This is Latimer Hall. This
is where probably all your labs are going to be as well as advising. And over here we
have the Chemistry Library, Hildebrand, where you will probably spend most of your life at.
This is the Chemistry Library. You're probably going to have a bunch of study groups
in here, and you're gonna meet a lot of people who are gonna help you out.
So I started off with Chemistry 4a. It's intro Chem but specifically for Chemistry majors. It was definitely a
lot more difficult than I thought it would be and took a lot of time commitment, but if
you take the time out, read the books, then you can definitely succeed in that class.
The next class was Chemistry C96. It was a 1 unit seminar and it was basically telling
us about what kind of research opportunities there were at Cal and how we can get an opportunity
to get into those sort of research and definitely what we can do after school like what kind
of different paths we can take from that point. I was also taking English R1A at that point,
and the topic of, the theme of, the class was Hipsters and *** and it was definitely,
I did not expect to see that sort of thing through readings or modern societies days,
but definitely like what is a snob and how is it different from being a hipster today.
Then after that I took Math, and with that I took Math 1A, Intro Calculus, and it was,
I've taken Calculus before so it wasn't that bad but it also took a lot of time commitment
and even though it was not that difficult for me you had to put a lot of time effort
in to study for midterms and definitely the final.
Well my first semester was pretty difficult
because my intro Chemistry class Chem 4A was really, really difficult. The labs were
definitely a lot more advanced and took a lot more time and effort and thought process
than I would have thought and, if I could go back, I would definitely manage my time
a lot better, I was doing a lot of extra curriculars and I was working so the lines between those
were blurring a little bit.
I got involved in some campus activities. One of the first
things I did was I joined dragon boating and that was definitely something I had never
done before I've never heard before and it just blew me out of the water, ha ha get it.
I also joined Hawaii Club, where I learned to do a little bit of Hula, but then I realized that my coordination
kinda sucks so I joined the band part and learned how to play the Ukelele and also this
semester I joined VSA which is a Vietnamese Student Association and I'm currently participating
as an actor for the show but also as Lion dancing. So when I left home it was definitely,
it was different, there wasn't someone to wake me up in the morning, or nag me to do
my homework and that sort of stuff. I wouldn't say my relationship with my family has changed, if anything
it's become better because you know distance makes the hearts grow fonder. The hardest
part of my semester was definitely getting out of my shell, I came from a school where
we were about a thousand kids so it's kinda big but not that big. Going from a thousand
kids to 35 thousand was definitely a shell shock because, I wasn't sure like, you know
what's socially acceptable like if I just say "Hey, I know this is creepy but your shoes
are so cute." Is that creepy? because I'm not sure! The best part? The people, I've never
met such unique and fantastic and enthusiastic and such supportive people in my life before.
I've built my own little family on campus and the best part is knowing that if I ever
have problems with anything, they got my back. One of my advice for incoming students, especially
for college of Chem is to read the book. Don't be afraid to ask for help because I know asking
for help can be kinda hard but it doesn't mean you're weak it just means you're trying
to expand yourself you know. Bring some food from home, that's what I do because you know,
you can't get the home cooked food, and don't be afraid to try new things, throw yourself
out there because if you embarrass yourself its 35 thousand people what are the odds of
you seeing them again, but if you do make a good impression then you got some friends.