4 posts tagged “psychology”

Yeah, I always checked my vox neighborhood but then I read Shannon's post and realized it had been a long long time since I've written in here.  And my last post was a clip from Extras.  I hope you all watched it, too.

Anyway.

It's finals week here at UCLA and I have a Sociology final on Tuesday and a portfolio of revised essays due on Wednesday, then I'm done!  I should probably be studying or writing but since I finished my Psych final I've just checked out for the quarter.  It's a little sad because my psych class was my absolute favorite class of all time and I didn't want it to end, but it happened to be the one that ended first, and my lowest grade will probably be in that class.

I was distracting myself from studying last night and looking at grad schools for psych.  Well, mainly I just compared UCLA and CSUN's psych programs just to see what difference there was between a CSU and UC.  I think I'd rather go into research but I'm really doubting myself academically.  I know this is my first quarter at UCLA and it'll take me time to get used to something that's not ridiculously easy, so I'm trying to be reasonable here, but I can't help but wonder if I'm capable of doing something really interesting.  First and foremost, I need to see if psychology is even something I would like to practice for a career.  I talked to my psych professor about working with him in various research opportunities to just do anything to familiarize myself with the field.  He told me to send him my resume, so I'm excited to see if that will work out!  I think I want to go into research rather than counseling... but I know that requires more math and science skills that I may or may not have.  I'm more worried about whether I'd actually be able to focus and buckle down and do all the work.  But that's normal isn't it?  I'm just at that stage in my life where I question myself and push myself and find myself and blah blah blah.

Why is my roommate's alarm going off?  It's 1am, silly.

So, other things going on.  I saw Andrew Bird at the Orpheum on Friday.  I was the most incredible experience I've ever had, I think.  Whenever I talk about it I inevitably end up babbling on like a teenybopper fangirl, so I'm going to hold off on that for now.  It was probably one of my favorite nights of my life, though.  Oh, aside from having that bum follow us into McDonald's screaming "come here girl!"  Scary.

I'm also learning to swing dance!  I'm only a beginner but it's something I really want to continue and get better at.  It's a great hobby, plus I've met some really awesome new people.  Last Monday I went out with a few of them and even though my feet were covered in blisters after about 4 or 5 hours of dancing, I had a great time.  My favorite dance partner, Kevin, and I have such a wonderful charleston.  It's not that wildly hopping and flailing thing... yet, but it is beautiful.  We also do this one really awesome move called "the pretzel" and on Monday night couples kept coming up and asking us how to do it.  I guess we just looked that good =)  I'm really bummed that UCLA isn't offering a more advanced swing class next quarter.  They are offering salsa, which I'm considering, but I wonder if it'll be as fun as swing.

Well it's time for me to go back to my essays.  I hope you have a good night, friends.  Hopefully I'll see you all over the holidays!

Here's a video of Andrew Bird performing Imitosis, just cause:

I guess it actually hasn't been a slow day, but I'm still really bored.  There was that sign from God that Kevin should dress up as Old Gregg for Halloween (although the tutu would need to be dyed pink), maybe the rest of my day just pales in comparison to the magnitude of that coincidence. 

Oh, and I actually got some good news via the phone, it just happened right as I found the tutu so it totally slipped my mind.  I don't know who all I told about this, but there's this organization call International Student Volunteers and their name is pretty self explanatory.  Students travel to different countries to perform volunteer work.  Except there is more to it.  Basically, it's a four-week program that's available in Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Thailand and Croatia.  The first two weeks are made up of volunteer work which can be either community development (building houses, working with kids) or conservation projects (working with animals, the environment, etc) and the last two weeks are an "adventure" program where you do really epic stuff that varies depending on which country you choose.  You can also customize your program by adding on a second or third country. 

So anyway, I applied because that sounds like the most amazing summer vacation ever and I got in!  That's not really a big surprise or relief, though, because the people I talked to said that anybody will get in unless they put something down like "I'd rather eat sea turtles than save them."  So assuming I accept this I am most DEFINITELY going to Costa Rica to do the conservation project and adventure program and possibly adding on the Australian adventure program, if I get the money.  For the volunteer work I can choose from any number of non profit organizations to work for but in Costa Rica, of course, they have... sea turtles!  And these sea turtles need help (not in the same way TL does)!  For the adventure portion I guess I get to "choose my own adventure," but here's what I can choose from:

• Snorkeling in the Pacific Ocean
• White water rafting on the Pacuare River
• Treks through several ecological reserves, including the cloud forests of Monteverde
• Jungle kayaking in the canals of Tortuguero National Park
• Horseback riding through an organic coffee farm
• Zip-lining in cloud forests
• Observing one of Costa Rica's many volcanoes
• Rappelling in La Fortuna
• Exploring the local nightlife in Heredia

So, yeah, just thought I'd fill you all in on what I might be doing this summer.

Aside from that, I've just got a ton of school work to do.  I'm reading a lot of Marx for my sociology class, which is really dry but my roommate bought me ice cream when I finished my reading last week so maybe that will continue.  This week I get to read what he thinks about capitalism.  My psych class is called Conflict and Communication in Couples and Families and is by far the most interesting class.  I need to write a paper about a common problem in intimate relationships (romantic ones) and common ways it's solved now, then come up with a different way to solve it.  Anybody have any suggestions for some good topics?

Well, dear readers, I also have a lot of laundry to fold so I'm going to take care of that right now and then go to bed.  Until next time.

My psych professor linked us to a bunch of different tests we can take about ourselves, and here's the one I've taken so far.

I'm a O53-C86-E15-A38-N14 Big Five!

The other ones are for attachment style and sex role identity.  Some other time maybe... I just read 30 pages of Karl Marx and he is one boring guy.

Lately I've been wondering if I should change my major.  It would mean another year of school perhaps, but I wonder if it would be worth it.  History is great and all... but I'm starting to think it's not for me.  I've actually been considering psychology.  I don't know if I'd ever do anything with it because I don't want to get a bachelor's degree and I don't think you can really do anything with a bachelor's in Psych.  Then again, I don't really want to be a therapist.  Sounds like a very emotionally taxing job that would make me tired all the time.  I don't know.  I need to think about this some more.