CalSO

Hm, I had my orientation at Cal earlier this week. The experience was like no other.

My alarm went off at 6:30. I slept through it.
Me, being the smart guy I am ;], I set another alarm to go off at 6:45.
When that one went off, I woke up...drowsy.

I took a quick shower and ran to pack my stuff. I was all ready by 7:00 and I was heading towards Berkeley.
At 7:13, I realize I didn't bring any paper to take notes. Oh well.

Got to Berkeley at 7:30, JUST IN TIME! Or so I thought... Turns out that sign-in's last until 9. -___-

So I did the usual, checked in, got my dorm key, checked out my dorm, met my roommates, and it was off the breakfast!

I got to admit, breakfast was mediocre.

After breakfast, everyone at the orientation went to the Welcoming Address. We had to sit with our designated group. This was when I realize how easy it was to talk to people at CalSO. I turned to the person sitting next to me, introduced myself, started small talk, and yeah, it was cool. Ahah.

After the Welcoming Address, people broke off to their designated groups and the tour began!

We did some ice breaker exercises. My group did something called "Get Jiggy With It". Everyone got in a circle and took turns saying our names and then doing a dance move that has the same movement as the number of syllables in our names. Unfortunately, on my name tag, I put Tim, so my "dance move" was a single fist pump. (Looking back now, I wish I did a pelvic thrust)

Ah, I forgot to mention, my first friend in CalSO was this girl name Jamie. We pretty much stayed together during the morning of the first day. She's really cool, she plays tennis and thought I was a Korean basketball player name Andrew Kim. What What.


During lunch, I went on to talk about the usual, stuff like how Pokemon: The First Movie made me ALMOST cry. The part when Ash turns into stone is epic.
This is where I met a really cool guy from Bulgaria, named Mario.


Anyway after a lot of tours and playing ice breakers, like Ninja [I will explain the game to whoever asks me], everyone broke off to groups based on their intended majors. Jamie was doing Pre-Business and I was doing Pre-Med, so we separated [Insert Dramatic Korean Drama Music]

-Wait a minute, I think I messed up the order, I think we played Ninja, Lunch, then broke off to majors. Oh well, you get the point-

So when I was walking towards the Pre-Med group, I met this girl name Jennifer. She's weird. We were separated from the rest of the group because she got us lost. (Not really) She likes to break dance and watch concerts.


I hanged out with her for most of the afternoon. But during dinner, we split because she went to go to other things.

Dinner was the best. Chicken + Pizza. Yum!


After dinner, there was a "First Year Experience" Presentation. It was given by a few current Berkeley Students. They talked about their first year. I sat with this girl name Becky. She's from a town near Malibu. She almost barfed, minutes after this photo was taken.


At some point, I met this girl from LA, Kate Kim! Unfortunately, I didnt get a picture with her. She's a tiny little korean girl with glasses. What else is there to say?


After this last presentation, I tagged along with KateKim and the rest of her SoCal posse to explore Berkeley. We walked all the way to Frat Row just so we can walk back. Wtf right? Lol.

When we got back, we all went to the 7th floor. This guy, I cant remember his name, but he had a muffler on, busted out a laptop and they started karaoke-ing. At first everyone was too shy to sing, I wanted to tell them to put some Kanye West or Taylor Swift on so I can own it. But for some reason I didn't.
I left early to go back to my room because I realize I didn't plan my schedule at all!

After frantically looking for classes and talking to my roommates, I finally slept at 2:00AM.

Day 2. I don't have much to say. We just signed up for classes. Learned a few cheers. Did a few more tours.

One thing about Day 2 though, the Closing Ceremony was amazing. The video presentation they had made me wish CalSO lasted forever. Maybe it was the enthusiasm of the crowd, or maybe it was just the sad music, but it made me believe that CalSO was a GREAT experience. People were easy to talk to. You don't have to worry about people ignoring you. Everyone is willing to get to know you. All you have to say is "Hi, my name is Tim" and you just started a conversation.

CalSO was awesome, I met awesome people, and I cant wait to experience the awesome Cal Berkeley!

I'M A CAL STUDENT!


Darn, webcam inverted it. Oh well, you get the idea!