My 2016 Favorites

Okay, so I'm aware that this is super anachronistic, but please just learn to deal with it, OK? OK.

October 2016

1) My Choker Necklace

In accordance with choker craze of 2016, I shelled out $25 for this piece of string with a stone attached to it. Was it objectively worth the price? Not sure. Was it subjectively worth the price? You bet it was. I just love this thing. It's pretty subtle so it works with a lot of outfits and with the two other necklaces that I wear 24/7, but since it's handmade, it's not like the other gazillion chokers out there in the world right now. I'm not big on falling for current trends, but if I do succumb to one, rest assured that I will find a way to put my own spin on it.



2) Theme Park by Scott A. Lukas

So this is actually a textbook for my icons class, but I just couldn't put it down, it's so interesting. It narrates the history of the theme park in general, talks about the beginnings of famous theme parks and contrasts them with amusement parks, and also analyzes the architecture and world-building of theme parks, among other things. Definitely worth reading.


3) Green Tea Lemonade

Part of my compensation as an RA is $500 dining dollars. Now, as I'm writing this, it's the 11th week of school, and I've managed to reduce that number to $39. I wonder if my obsession with green tea lemonade has anything to do with it. Like, before I came to USC, I didn't know that combining tea and lemonade was even a thing. And here I am now, getting three of these a day on occasion. Yeah, not sure how to feel about that.

4) The Darjeeling Limited (dir. Wes Anderson)

You know that I love Wes Anderson. You know I do, but usually, I prefer his style over the actual content of his films. The Darjeeling Limited, however, is not like the rest. It's funny and the soundtrack is spot on and I actually care about the characters. I'm telling you, it's one of his most underrated films.


5) Spirits by The Strumbrellas

Okay so I'm cheating a little bit here, because this song was more of an August favorite, but whatever. I still like it. It's special to me as this was the song I listened to on move-in day (aka one of the best days of my life, minus the part I spent crying behind a dumpster, but that's a different story).

6) CTCS 464, aka my Film/TV Genres: Shot on Location class.

This class is amazing. We had to analyze a Coldplay music video for our midterm. We are currently analyzing a The Sopranos episode for our group project. I'm going to be analyzing one of my all-time favorite films, Holy Motors, for my final paper. And on top of that, I'm learning so much about the use of space and locations, and watching amazing films, such as Rome, Open City, Double Indemnity, Safe, The Fall, District 9, She's Gotta Have It, and the aforementioned The Darjeeling Limited. We'll also be watching Avatar, which I'm less than thrilled about, since I took great pride in not having seen it, but I had predicted that this day would come eventually, so I've accepted it with quiet resignation. And, to be honest, my excuse for not having seen it had always been "they'll make me watch it in film school anyway" so there's that.

November 2016

1) Peppermint Mocha

At the risk of sounding basic, this thing is, like, totally amazing. It tastes like mint chocolate and, unlike most sweet Starbucks coffees, actually feels refreshing. And as an extra bonus, it reminds the people of Southern California that it's supposed to be winter right now.



2) X Ambassadors

So I shamelessly admit that I found a good portion of my favorite bands through auto-generated YouTube playlists, and X Ambassadors was no different. However, I fell absolutely in love with them over the past couple of months, and the next thing I knew was that I was performing with lead singer Sam Harris and drummer Adam Levin during our homecoming halftime show. And to prove that it happened, here's a video of it:

3) Thanksgiving Dinner

I hate this picture, but there's Alexis and me with President Nikias. LOL.

So, for some obscure reason, I was selected to sit with USC President Nikias during his annual Thanksgiving dinner, was chosen to be the subject of an article for USC News about said dinner, and was also asked to give an interview to KTLA about it. I'm not sure how all of this came about, but it resulted in a pretty eventful night during which a moderately creepy photographer followed me around and I got a true taste of what it's like to be a celebrity -- something that was definitely aided by the fancy name tag and the red carpet everywhere.
Also, if you're looking for the article, I wasn't too happy with it for a variety of reasons (names were misspelled and assumptions were made based on a clear racial bias), so I'm not going to link it here. If you're really interested, however, a quick Google search will do the job for you.



4) CORE 101, aka my Icons class

I didn't realize how much I actually learned from this class until it was over and I actually had the opportunity to apply all that we talked about. But that's more of a December things, so we're getting ahead of ourselves here. In November, however, I got to write a paper on why V-J Day in Times Square is an iconic photograph (one of my favorite assignments ever) while also learning about a variety of other things, such as how Helvetica was originally an anti-authoritarian font, and how Hello Kitty is actually not a cat, but a British schoolgirl. We also learned about Andy Warhol, which was so useful as I'd always had a love-hate relationship with Pop Art, mostly because I was desperate to love it, but at the same time failed to actually understand it. This class clarified so much and I really appreciated everything I had learned when I was on my trip to New York.

December 2016

1) California Adventure

Another reason that I loved my Icons class is that we took a field trip to Disneyland & California Adventure. Now, I'd been to Disneyland before and although I still enjoy it, I do believe that it gets less exciting with each visit (mostly because they focus on theming and narrative, not on thrill rides -- the things you learn!). California Adventure, on the other hand, was phenomenal. It was my first time there but it definitely won't be the last, because I only got to do four rides, and there are many many more out there. Also, World of Color is the best.



2) Love Don't Go by The Family Crest
(runner-up: People Say by Portugal.The Man)

This song is on the soundtrack of Sugar Mountain, a recently released independent film about two brothers who fake a disappearance on an Alaskan mountain. The film itself is, not gonna lie, pretty meh and structured weirdly, and the only reason I watched it was that the one and only Shane was one of the leads, but this song plays during the opening scene, and it's phenomenal. Portugal.The Man also features on the soundtrack a lot, and you can't really go wrong with that, can you? (Yeah, soundtrack and score are a solid 10/10, the rest...I guess it's worth a watch?)

3) New York City

I mean, do I really need to explain? If you haven't read my blog posts on it yet, you can do so here. I'm so in love with that city that I'm already planning my next visit and haven't stopped wearing my NYU sweater since (which is gross, I know, and I promise you I'm about to change).

4) My Astrobiology Professor

If you ever get the chance to take a class with dr. Ken Nealson, please do it. He is the best. He is one of the best people out there in his field, and he is so funny and engaging and excited about everything. Also, he wrote us a song. He wrote a song about the class and brought his banjo and sang it for us, and even got us donuts and everything. So yeah, if you want to hear the Lowdown and Irritating Melancholy Aggravating Life in the Universe Blues, sign up for CORE 103.

5) Adult Coloring Books

This is an odd one, because I've always hated coloring and I find it really pointless, as Chris from Skins perfectly sums up. However, my friend/fellow RA Trinity held a finals de-stress program with coloring books, and since it seemed like a perfect way to procrastinate, I decided to go for it. Now, it didn't exactly go as planned and it was counterproductive in the sense that I just kept coloring and coloring and I couldn't see the finish line, leaving me even more stressed out. However, if you're coloring just to procrastinate and have 24 hours to write a 20-page take home final, maybe you really should be freaking out. Anyway, I've found that just coloring for a few minutes every day really helps you clear your thoughts and just relax for a little bit.

6) Vlogmas

Not gonna lie, YouTube is my guilty pleasure and I absolutely love watching vlogs and Vlogmas videos. I watch mainly British YouTubers and I feel like I'm living vicariously through them during the month of December, especially since they remind me of the happy times when I lived in England.

Things I've Been Loving in...January

In an attempt to be more consistent with my blog posts, I've started a series that is essentially a blogging classic: Monthly Favorites. I know, I know, what happened to my creativity, right? Well, it's currently being channeled into student films in my production class, if you really want to know, but hey, you can't tell me that these kind of posts are not fun! I mean, you sure can, but then I'll just suggest we agree to disagree.

1) We Are All Stardust by Stefan Klein

This is a collection of interviews by German science journalist Stefan Klein, who asks the world's most influential scientists big questions about the nature of the world and humanity. And no, it is not boring. It makes you think and reconsider what you already know, it makes you challenge your perspectives in a way that some may even deem controversial. You don't have to agree with it, of course. But if it makes you think, that's already an achievement. And don't be deterred by the fact that it's scientists speaking. While this may not be a book you get through in one sitting, it's definitely comprehensible to all.


2) The New York Times: The Year of Conquering Negative Thinking 

"The first step to stopping negative thoughts is a surprising one. Don’t try to stop them. [...] Worry and obsession get worse when you try to control your thoughts. Instead, notice that you are in a negative cycle and own it. [...] By acknowledging your negative cycle and accepting it, you are on your way to taming your negative thoughts."

About a year ago, I wrote an entry in my diary about being "a happy mess." I went on for pages about how I tell myself that I'm happy so I must be happy, only to come to the conclusion that I am "ultimately a very unhappy person." And then, last year, I had a somewhat similar conversation with a former friend about me being too negative, leading up to this post. Eventually, I had to come to the conclusion that trying to convince myself that I'm happy just doesn't work, and BS like "happiness is a choice" is what it is -- BS. What you can really do, however, is acknowledge that you're unhappy, get to the core of the problem, and try making adjustments from there. And none of those adjustments include denying your feelings or thoughts, whether they are negative or positive.

I just really fell in love with this photo.

3) The Rose Bowl

If for some reason you haven't read my phenomenal blog post on the Rose Bowl yet, you can do so here. I promise you, it wasn't as depressing as yesterday's Super Bowl (Truer words than "the Falcons won the popular vote" have never been said.) But yeah, the Rose Bowl, the longest day of my life, the best day in recent USC football history, the best football game I've personally attended, and also the day it became conclusive that I shouldn't be a movie star because cameras hate me. 

4) Baby Carrots

A bowl of lies.

Or baby cut carrots, more like, because what most people tend to think are carrots that owe their miniature size to their youth are in fact full-grown adult carrots that were cut down to look small and cute (#lieslieslies). Of course, there are real baby carrots, but they look like this and I doubt that you are eating them.

So, now that we have all that cleared up, here's the deal: they're healthy, they taste good, and they're ideal for snacking. Honestly, what else could you ask for?



5) Michael Kors Arabella Ankle Boots

You know that feeling when you walk into Macy's for a pair of black jeans and then walk out with the jeans and a pair of $250 boots? Yeah, I don't either, because fortunately there was not enough money on my debit card for that, but I couldn't get these beauties out of my head and spent the next month fantasizing about them and returning to Macy's in New York just to look at them. (no judging plz)


And then a miracle happened and they went on sale and I was on a hunt for ankle boots anyway and since I honestly couldn't get them out of my head, which I take as a sign usually, I went ahead and bought them. Unfortunately it was an online sale and I messed up the sizes a little bit, but you probably know me by now, so I used my special powers to shrink the size of my feet and now they're perfect. Well, maybe not. Point is, I don't know how it happened, but now they fit. Yay. End of story.

See y'all next month.

The Rose Bowl (T-Shirts, More Money)

If you're wondering what the title above means, it's this thing the band says while high-fiving during field practice.
If you're wondering what the Rose Bowl is, it's the bowl game of all bowl games.
And if you're wondering what a bowl game is, well, Google is your friend. (And so am I, of course, so I'm just gonna tell you that it's basically a post-season college football game played by teams who have won at least six games. The bowl game you go to essentially depends on your placement in your conference.)
And if you're wondering why I'm writing this post, it's because USC WENT TO THE ROSE BOWL this year! And we won! And I was there for it!

But yeah, if you hadn't figured it out by now, going to the Rose Bowl is a big, big deal and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most band members (well, except for dr. Bartner, our band director, who's been 18 times to date). The hype around the game was so huge that even though I wasn't entirely feeling those five days of torture that it was to come with, there is just no way I would have missed it. And, well, I also really needed that Rose Bowl patch for my jock jacket next year.

So if you're interested in what the Rose Bowl was like for band members, continue reading.

December 29

After a blissful week of sitting on my couch and eating corn flakes out of the box (well, excluding the two days I was on RA duty for), my alarm rang at 6:30 AM and it was time for us to begin our "five day season," with nothing other than breakfast burritos and a 9 to 5 field practice. Aka my favorite things in life NOT. But that's okay, it it's all worth it, I told myself, even though I surely did not mean it at the time.

After going over band camp fundamentals and speeding through the first segment of the show during field practice (which literally took us 9 to 5), we got on our buses to the Americana at Brand, which is essentially an outdoor mall that is exactly like The Grove, except it's in Glendale. We did a mini-parade there and performed some rock charts, which you can watch here. 

After the performance, we left for Paramount Studios to see the pre-screening of xXx: The Return of Xander Cage or something equally ludicrous. I spent the entire film trying to decide whether it's meant to be ironic or not, and if you're interested, here's a plot description: basically Vin Diesel wears a big fur coat and says a bunch of improbable shit while doing work for an evil-looking lady who, in the plot twist of the century, actually turns out to be evil. And then things blow up and five minutes before the film is over, Ice Cube arrives to save the day. The end. Three hours of my life wasted.

December 30:

On this wondrous day, I decided to forego the phenomenal breakfast burritos and just chill in my apartment, which was probably why, for once, they decided to make a change and have Chik-fil-A for breakfast. Why you hate me so? On the other hand, it was raining so hard that they had to cancel field practice, and we just had a three-hour sectional instead. It may not sound like it, but trust me, I'd take sectionals over field practice any day. 

The highlight of our day, however, was the trip to Disneyland that followed. The entire band got to do a parade through the park and perform at the train station, and we also got to go behind the scenes of Toontown, which meant that a few of us had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of seeing Goofy change. I know it sounds exciting, but what it was in fact was the very definition of disillusionment.  After finishing the parade and having our childhood ruined, the lovely people at Disney gave us free tickets to the park, meaning that we got to spend the rest of the day walking around the rain, because yes, if I forgot to mention before, it was still raining. Also, just a heads up: Minnie ears and rain don't work well together, and you will end up looking like me in the photo below, and all your friends will Snapchat you.

When it's raining but you gotta wear those Minnie ears.

Squaaad ft. random girl in the back? (PC: Ben Chua)

When you find a decent photo of yourself and can't believe it.

When there's a 5 minute wait for Splash Mountain so they force you to go.

That's that for that. Also, shoutout to the band for giving us $20 to waste on churros. And shoutout to the churro vendor guy who delivered the following line: "I always wanted to be in the USC band but I never quite made it." #sosad

Here are two videos, pick your favorite.

December 31

Also known as the day I spent 50 minutes in line for In-n-Out, in the pouring rain, only to have my burgers completely soaked during my walk back to the bus. But hey, at least I wasn't the one who accidentally sat under a drain during what was probably the worst rainfall I had experienced during my time in California.

Clearly having the time of our lives.

Also, just FYI, if you're thinking of spinning a wet flag in a poncho, don't. In the best case scenario, your flag will get stuck and you will get water all over you. In the worst case scenario, you will rip out your earring and start bleeding everywhere, like I did. And you might not even notice until 30 minutes later when you're already back on your bus and your friend asks you why your ears are covered in blood. Sorry for putting that graphic image in your head.

If you're by any chance interested in this disaster, here it is.

But yes, the 31st was the day of a short field practice,followed by Bandfest, which is basically performing your show for an audience of like 300 people and feeling completely underwhelmed. So it's already miserable to begin with, now imagine topping it off with pouring rain. The only highlight was dr. Bartner's meme-inspiring act of cultural appropriation, which I won't link here because I'm an RA taught to be inclusive and respectful, but if you're interested, you can follow this link. (This is also a prime example of how RA life and band culture aren't exactly compatible.)

After the rainy tragedy that Bandfest was, I retreated to my apartment, took the best shower of my life, and headed over to our wonderful band New Year's Eve party at the Radisson, aka the overpriced hotel across the street from campus. And tbh, I feel like when the band organizes parties, they're expecting people to already show up drunk, because otherwise it's just boring af. And even watching all your friends completely drunk gets boring after a while. The only reason I even stayed until midnight was to get my "special gift," which -- ironically -- turned out to be a champagne glass. I mean, it actually came pretty handy a few days later, but that's not a story that you will ever hear.

January 1

When official call time is 11:15 AM but you're already there at 9 for extra practice so they'll keep you in the pregame show, but then they take you out anyway. Nothing else to say about that. "You're all 100% ready to be in pregame, but some are more ready than others" said our TA. You know, the way all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. 

On another note, this was also the day 24 people squeezed into a four-person apartment in order to make flower crowns for the next day instead of sleeping, because who needs sleep before the day they continuously referred to "the longest day of our lives?"

January 2

It's GAAAAME DAY...I said at 1:30 in the morning when I got up to straighten and then re-curl my hair only to have the whole thing fall flat before the parade even started. But yeah, I'm sure they didn't make up that 3:30 AM call time at the Radisson with the Silks in mind.

Here's a cute pic from Donee's Snapchat bc my phone is perpetually out of storage.

After about 2 hours of breakfast and flower crown pinning and stretching and changing into uniform, we were finally on our buses, on our way to the Rose Parade. Umm...what do I say here? There was a 6 mile parade ahead of us, it was cold af, and I really needed to pee. Yup. But then somehow, miraculously, all of those issues sorted themselves out before the actual parade started, which was -- in all honestly -- a lot of fun! Probably my favorite experience in band so far. And those 7 minutes of spinning Fight On! non-stop really didn't seem so bad. The TV cameras, the people, the flower crowns, the spinning, the smiling, the cheering, and the Pasadena streets all added up into one of the best experiences of my lifetime. Those 5.5 miles did not feel like 5.5 miles, and I was honestly ready to do another parade once we were finished. Well okay, that's might be an exaggeration, but I would much rather have done that than stand at the game for 4 hours.

When they finally give you food.

Version One: The Non-TV Segment

Version Two: The TV Segment, aka 7 Minutes of Non-Stop Fight On

Which brings us to...the game. Oh yeah. That legendary game. Now, I'm sure you've heard what a game it was, and if not, you can always read better summaries online, but since this is my blog and my personal experience, I'm just gonna go with what the game felt like for me: cold. It was fucking freezing and I kept going to the restroom just so I could warm up but there was no hot water. It was miserable. It was already miserable when we were winning, and became even more miserable when we were losing. It was miserable until the very last two minutes, which turned everything around and made it all worth it. 

The Rose Bowl halftime show! Watch on YouTube for a better resolution.

"Hurry up and lose!" is what the band chants when the opponent is obviously losing and there's not much time left, but I found myself silently mouthing it to our own team instead. This was already the longest day of our lives, I was not about to go overtime. And then we had a touchdown. The score became 49-49. The game suddenly became a lot more interesting. I wasn't cold anymore. I had no idea what was going on, but I was certainly not anticipating anything great. I wanted to go home, but I wanted us to win more. We had about a minute left and another touchdown didn't seem likely. I was looking around confused, and it was in that moment of utter confusion that something happened, I wasn't sure what, but people started hugging each other and tears were running down faces, and there was confetti and people were hugging me, and I was just like "what the actual fuck?" The game was over. 52-49. We had won. How? With a field goal the last 5 seconds. It was a miracle. It was so fast that I didn't even see it happen. Or even if I did, I wasn't sure what it meant. But it didn't matter. It happened and we won, we had won the Rose Bowl!!! It was truly unbelievable.

Not every photo needs a caption.

We played Conquest about 30 times and then marched back to our buses. I still couldn't process it at that point. But, as cliche as that sounds (and yes, saying that is also a cliche), I knew that history was made. And I was part of it. And I think that last sentence is dramatic enough to end with.

Also, if you've read this far, here's this special gem for you:

When all the cameras are on you and you're just like 'nah'

PS. Also, if you're interested in an alternative perspective/are more into videos and such, Katherine, a trumpet in the band, posted three vlogs on the Rose Bowl, which you can watch here. She's awesome and she makes me want to start vlogging, but alas, some people are just cooler than me and can do things that I can't.

USC: Year Two!

Remember when, last year, I published a bunch of videos about my first semester at USC? It was fun, wasn't it? Yeah well I'm not doing that again. I'm also not posting another One Second a Day, because I'm a miserable failure my phone has been out of storage since June.

What I can do, however, is share a cool anecdote that will lead us all into a wonderful recollection of the adventure that this past semester has been. So here goes...

In order to end our last RA staff time of the semester on a positive note, our supervisors gave each of us a blank sheet of paper and told us to list everything we had accomplished these past few months. I, staying true to myself, stared at the empty page for a good ten minutes, then announced that I hadn't accomplished anything.

Now, as expected, this didn't elicit the best of reactions from my fellow RAs, with one of them tearing the sheet of paper out of my hands and threatening to write the damn list for me, so yeah that happened, but at the end of the day, this whole thing really made me think. Shortly afterwards, I had my RA evaluation meeting, which was essentially my supervisors glorifying me for half an hour, then telling me that the only area I'm lacking in is self-confidence. And, I mean, this is not news to me. But by now I've basically accepted it as a fact of life (which, again, points at me not having self-confidence) and I didn't think that this was something particularly worth worrying about. That is, until it led to me receiving a '2' for it on my evaluation sheet, at which point my perfectionism kicked in and I decided that I do need to do something about it.

And this whole ordeal was exacerbated with a conversation with one of my friends, which went as follows:

Me: I think I'm too negative.
My friend: Yeah, you are.
Me: Wait, really?
My friend: You just said our world is declining to shit.
Me: Oh. Right.

Therefore, in an attempt to turn things around and heighten my self-confidence a little bit, I've attempted to list all the things I've accomplished this past semester. So, in no particular order:

1) I've been an RA for an entire semester! And what a semester it was! 3 am incident reports, creepy FaceTime calls, vomit on my doorstep, programs where no one showed up, name what you want, I've done it all! And what's even better, I somehow found a way to enjoy all these things (weird?). Of course, the best parts of my job are my wonderful residents and my staff team, aka the fRAmily of the Century. Also, longer post to come on the RA life, so stay tuned.

2) I survived marching band! And I've got my sophomore jacket to prove it! The Silks also won Section of the Year and USC is going to the Rose Bowl. Oh yay! As part of band, we also took a charter flight to Dallas (so fancy) and headed back to the Bay Area to beat stanford (SUCKS). Fun fact, I also happened to quit band for a day, but that's an entirely different story (because sometimes you can't appreciate something until it's gone, or some cliche like that).

3) I took some of the best and most challenging classes possible, and got As in all of them. For more on that, click here.

4) I worked as an assistant director on two short films, which both turned out very impressive, and I'll share the links with you when I'm able to.

5) I learned how to cook pasta. Little things, everyone, little things. (I also failed to turn off the stove after my first attempt at cooking, leading to a rather passive aggressive exchange with my roommate.)

6) I got myself a turntable. Or more like, I rewarded myself with a turntable, because sometimes, you just gotta #treatyoself. Sounds a lot more appealing, right? I essentially justified this purchase by claiming that this is a gift to myself because I got the RA job. I still don't have any records, though, because I buy too many shoes they're expensive. But yeah, again, little things. I'm not really sure why this is an achievement, probably because I spent so long debating whether I really need it or not. Also, if you're curious, the exact one I bought is sold out, but this one is really similar (yes it's from Urban Outfitters, don't judge).

7) I was asked to sit with USC President Nikias during his annual Thanksgiving Dinner, gave an interview to KTLA the same night, and was the subject of an article for USC News (which, as it is, didn't turn out so bright, so I won't link it here. They misspelled my name in it, and that was just the least of issues. DISCLAIMER: my name is not Lillia, and if you call me Lillia, please don't expect any positive interaction with me ever again).

8) I went to New York City for winter break, with my roommate, and we planned everything all on our own and I put together the itinerary all on my own and we managed to survive five days there and you can read more about it here.

Aaaand I'm sure that there were other things as well, but if I can't think of them now, they're probably not that important. Also, I've got to reserve some things for the 20 Thing I Did at 20 list.

(And also, I know we're talking positivity here, but just to be fair, for every achievement there were about two failures, so there's really no need to get jealous of me lol. I'm seriously considering starting a blog titled "Fail of the Day," that's how bad it is. But then I feel like 50% of my friends stick around just to listen to my anecdotes of the times I messed up.)

Fall 2016: Breakdown of My Classes at USC

Hey all,

This is a real tradition now, isn't it? But yes, for the third time around, you can read all about the classes I've taken at USC this past semester! I've had some really fun ones this year, though Fall 2016 also brought about that one dreaded class I just couldn't stand, so I can sadly no longer say that I've loved all of my classes at USC. Those bragging rights will be missed. But anyway, every cloud has a silver lining or some happy shit like that, and at least I'm done with it now, so without further ado, let's get into it.

I swear it wasn't as bad as it looks based on this schedule. 

CORE 101 | Thematic Option Honors Program | Symbols and Conceptual Systems: Icons

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. This class was just as great as I expected it to be, though it took a while for me to actually recognize how much I was learning. The professor is one of those people whom you either love or hate, but she definitely knows what she's talking about and was deliberately trying to get us to challenge her. It's difficult to put this class into a category, but if I had to, I'd say it's a mesh between art history and popular culture. We looked at more general art theory, religious icons, urban icons, celebrity icons, fictional icons, iconic photographs, the interaction between high culture and low culture, and ended the class with Andy Warhol and Walt Disney. And, of course, a field trip to Disneyland, with free donuts and a complementary stay at the Disneyland Hotel. The best thing about this class, though, was that there was so much overlap with CTCS 464, and that I could apply so much of what I had learned during my winter break trip to New York. Also, my TA was the best. 💕

Grade Received: A

CORE 103 | Thematic Option Honors Program | The Process of Change in Science: Searching for Life in the Universe: Mars and Beyond

Again, this class was phenomenal. The professor is the funniest and kindest and most knowledgable person you'll ever meet, and he even wrote us a song at the end of the semester, titled the Lowdown Irritating Melancholy Aggravating Life in the Universe Blues. And he performed it. With a banjo. We also took a field trip to the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and had some crazy amazing guest speakers. Now, the first half of this class was mainly geobiology, and we learned about things like extracellular electron transport and layered microbial communities, which are sure interesting, but I'll shamelessly admit that I had no idea what was going on. The second half, however, was when things got good, and -- again -- although I definitely won't remember everything I've learned, I now sure know what not to invest money in (hint: don't move to Mars, it's pretty miserable there). Also, did you know that there are such things as orphan worlds, which are planets that don't orbit a star? And that there are places called water worlds and-- Okay okay, I'll stop.

Grade Received: A

CTCS 200 | History of International Cinema I

Well, at least I'm done with this class. The professor isn't nearly as bad as her reputation, but the class is. I don't even know how I got an A, as my TA was the harshest grader and the assignments were impossible. I wish I had gotten more out of this class than I did, but it just simply wasn't happening. It also didn't help that I fell asleep during pretty much every screening. Tbh, the only thing I remember from this class is that in China, they called moving pictures electric shadows. That's kinda cool.

Grade Received: A

CTCS 464 | Film and/or Television Genres: Shot on Location

This was such a fun and easy class! We watched films like Rome, Open City, Double Indemnity, Safe, She's Gotta Have It, District 9, The Fall (2006) and The Darjeeling Limited and discussed some really interesting concepts, like the opposition of centrifugal and centripetal space, heterotopias, orientalism, and Third Cinema, while also talking about the business of location shooting and runaway productions and such. It also helped that for our midterm, we basically had to analyze a Coldplay music video, and for my final, I got to write about my favorite of favorite films, Paris, Texas. Also, the professor is very friendly and an easy grader.

Grade Received: A

LING 210 | Introduction to Linguistics

This was a GE for Quantitative Reasoning that I started out taking Pass/No Pass and felt rather apathetic about. However, it turned out pretty interesting and I was doing really well, so I soon changed that P/NP to a letter grade (then proceeded to get a 77 on an assignment lol). But yeah, the professor is funny and friendly and ngl very cute and explains everything very clearly, so I'd definitely recommend it. Also, this class made me use the suffix -ception far more often than it is okay. (Seriously, just head over to my NYC posts to read all about artception).

Grade Received: A

What the future holds:

CHEM 205 | Chemical Forensics (GE, taking Pass/No Pass, apparently on the easy side, sounds interesting)
CORE 104 | Change and the Future: Church, Sex and State (last Thematic Option class, about the changing perceptions on marriage)
CTCS 192 | Race, Class and Gender in American Film (major requirement, professor apparently a little dramatic, but amazing)
CTPR 290 | Cinematic Communication (the infamous film production class simply known as "290," you basically make films all on your own and then people shit all over them)
CTWR 321 | Intro to the Hour-Long TV Writing (writing a spec script for an already existing TV drama, should be current on about 20 TV shows, none of which I've seen so far, so fml)

And that is all for now, everyone!

New York City: Day 5

This was it. Our last day in New York City. And once again, we wasted half of it sleeping. There was change in the air though, and by this I mean literally in the air, as it turned out to be a lot warmer than it had been the previous days. It was almost bearable. And contrary to the rumors, it wasn’t even raining, so it was the perfect time to visit Washington Square Park and spend money at the NYU Bookstore on NYU merch that I would never even be able to wear at USC. Oh well. It’s no secret that I want to go to NYU for grad school, though, so you know what, I feel like I can get away with it. After months weeks hours just one hour of deliberation, I picked out a sweater and a magnet, both of which were surprisingly cheap, and we continued our journey to MoMA. Also, let me say, USC SCA is so much prettier and more collegiate looking than NYU Tisch. Now I get what people mean when they say NYU doesn’t have a campus.

Washington Square Park

When you're waiting for Selena Gomez on Waverly Pl, but she lets you down.

I'm a traitor.

On our way to MoMA, we happened to encounter one of the famous LOVE sculptures, and so naturally I had to stand in line to take a picture of it. Also, seriously, there was an actual line of people waiting to take selfies 🙄🙄. We also got lost once again, but this shouldn't be news to anyone.

But then, once at MoMA, something crazy happened. As I was waiting to check my coat, I heard a familiar voice. It couldn’t be, but it was. As a person who’s literally known for her anecdotes of her misfortunes, who’s famous for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I couldn’t possibly – for once – be at the right place AND at the right time. But alas, it was true. After checking my coat, right in front of me, it was her. In front of me was standing the one and only Patti Smith*. Reading a poem casually for a crowd that had assembled around her and with a guitar placed next to her, she was holding what later turned out to be a surprise performance. I mean, it couldn't have been that much of a surprise, since The New York Times was covering it. But there were all these people, gathered around her and listening attentively, silently absorbing her words. And me? Nah, I was high-key fangirling. I was crying. I’d seen Patti before, last January at a concert at The Wiltern. She was far away and the ticket was expensive and it was a weird day anyway, but I though it would be my only chance to see her. But now, here she was, right in front of me, just like that.

Yet we only had a limited time at MoMA, so even though it broke my heart into ten million pieces, I couldn’t stay for the entire performance. After all, I had an entire museum to see, and I didn’t want to skip any of it, because let me tell you, MoMA is AMAZING. It’s probably my favorite museum ever. Especially the 3^rd and 4^th floors. They have the soup cans. They have the gold Marilyn Monroe print. They have Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Their 60s section is the best exhibit you’ll ever see. It’s perfect. And if you’re one of those people who’s into them consumer goods, their gift shop will have you shell out some serious money. Not that I spent like over $40 on a single print or anything… But seriously, museum gift shops have the most adorable but useless shit. Like the New York skyline as page markers. Or a magnetic wishbone. Who even needs any of these things?

Fun fact: In her memoir Just Kids, Patti said that she didn't like Andy Warhol, because she "preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it."

Patti "hated the soup and felt little for the can." Yet here she was, two floors below Warhol's famous Campbell's Soup Cans. However, the very fact that Warhol's subject was something of his own time made it transformative. He took the world as it was and transfigured it into art that represented the world as it was, something nobody had done before. In this sense, therefore, he did mirror his own time, but he transformed it as well. Can you tell I just wrote a final on Andy Warhol?

A reproduction of Van Gogh's Starry Night. "The camera, by making the work of art transmittable, has multiplied its possible meanings and destroyed its unique original meaning. [...] The uniqueness of the original now lies in it being the original of the reproduction." ~John Berger, Ways of Seeing

*Side note: I feel a little weird taking photos at museums. I can't explain it that well (if you follow the link above, you might get it a little better), but essentially, you go to museums for a reason. To see original works of art. By taking photos, I'm sort of defeating the purpose of going to a museum by showing you what's there. Photos, however, are only reproductions that can never do the originals justice, and are only destroying the uniqueness of these works. So yeah, go to museums, side note over.*

I would have loved to stay at MoMA for the rest of the day, but we had tickets to the Natural History Museum, and we weren’t going to let those go to waste. Also, Holden loved that museum, and after all, he said that his favorite thing about the museum was that nothing changed there and based on that, the museum I was going to see would be the exact same museum that he saw in the 1940s. (I mean I know he didn’t really see it, because he doesn’t exist and all, but you know what I mean. “I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it.” (page 110))

At the Natural History Museum, we were greeted by two bushes shaped like dinosaurs holding wreaths (I bet those weren’t around in the 40s. Holden would have thought they’re phony) and a long af line that we spent over half an hour in. By the time we got inside and made an unsuccessful attempt to check in our coats, it was time for our dark universe planetarium show, which was amazing, except once again, I fell asleep. It was a 25-minute show, and I fell asleep. I think I have a problem. The rest of the night was a frantic attempt to get through the planetary science section and then try to see everything else that Holden talked about, because, y’know, a 65-year-old book about a teenager who thinks everything is phony should be your ultimate museum guide. Needless to say, this attempt quickly failed, so somehow I once again ended up being a victim of consumer culture and browsing the Christmas tree decorations in the museum shop. Also, I’m so glad that I don’t have a Christmas tree (the tiny one from Target that looks like a copper toilet brush does not count), because the amount of adorable Christmas tree ornaments I saw during these five days is insane. There was a jellyfish ornament that I almost couldn’t resist, though (along with that mini-Guggenheim one I saw the previous day).

Phony dinosaurs.

"The best thing, though, at that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. [...] Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you." ~Holden Caulfield, obviously

After the museum closed, we went back to Times Square to do some last-minute souvenir shopping (hint: Hershey’s chocolate was purchased. And a Hershey’s Christmas tree ornament was also purchased, although by Joanna. Also, I may or may not have already have eaten all that chocolate). Then, once we were out of money and had realized it had gotten cold again, we I decided to ignore both of these facts and head over to the Flatiron Building. While this might not have been an objectively smart idea, it was worth it, because you have to see that building up close. Just trust me. The last thing we did in New York was get dinner at Joe’s Pizza, recommended by my co-RA Maddie, which – again – did not disappoint. It turned out to be a pretty famous place, so I’m upset I’d never heard of it before, and it was also right next to NYU dorms, which made NYU even more appealing to me. Now I’m even more serious about going there for grad school.

More Hershey's lol. I don't even like Hershey's tbh.

Sadly, however, Joe’s Pizza marked the end of these beautiful five (4 ½) days we got to spend in New York City. It was a melancholy subway ride back to Carroll Gardens, where we packed our stuff, took a quick nap, took one last glimpse at the New York City skyline, and called an Uber to the airport, once again, at 3 am. As you can assume, we were done with shuttles for good.

Our trip home was its own adventure, with us frantically running across the Chicago airport during our 40-minute layover and me leaving my phone in my check-in suitcase, but that is a story for another time.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our NYC adventures. Stay tuned for more posts.

*If you, at this point, don’t know how obsessed I am with Patti Smith, shame on you.