Beautiful Minds and Beautiful Shows

Looking sharp at Finch & Fork

This week has been filled with events and great meetings!! It is impressive how sometimes the week gets inexplicably busy! But you know, once you get involved with school activities and projects, it is like getting sucked into a black hole and it is impossible to get out of it!!! In particular, this Wednesday I have attended the Our Revolution screening of the documentary “Requiem for the American Dream” followed by a discussion between Professor Bobro, Professor Martorana and Professor Zare. On Thursday, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the panel called “Untold History, Uncertain Future” held by screenwriter, film director and producer Oliver Stone and History Professor and Nuclear Studies Institute Director Peter Kuznick. And finally, I went to my old host family house to watch the most wonderful show of the year: THE OSCARS!!!

Bla Bla Bla

Both the documentary screening and the panel were super interesting and addressed important issues in a very interesting way. The documentary starred Noam Chomsky, one of the most brilliant minds of the the century, and he “discussed how the concentration of wealth and power among a small elite has polarized American society and brought about the decline of the middle class”. Very interesting and eyeopening! Instead, the following day the whole Phi Theta Kappa leadership went to have a formal dinner at Finch & Fork and then attended the panel organized by the notable Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. It was unbelievable to see that even famous and affirmed film directors such as Oliver Stone can have a clear interest in the issues regarding war, government and politics… Really cool!

Walking on the Red Carpet

As for the Oscars… Well, it has been an amazing night! At about 5.00pm I took an Uber and went to Marcella’s house, my favorite host mum, and as soon as I arrived could tell the party was on!! She adorned the house with “Hollywood and Celebrity” decorations, and inside the house there were also prompts such to take Hollywood style pictures. The TV was screening the oscars and pizza and snacks were served!!! The Oscars were an amazing show this year, starting from Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue to the big screw up in delivering the award for best picture to the wrong nominated movie. So much fun!!! Besides the Oscar, I loved being back.. It feels so much like home and I really miss being at Marcella’s house. She had done so much and took care of me for whole year she is truly my American mum. Can’t wait to be back and visit her again!! 

Let’s start this Spring Break…

Not bad uh!

Oh my goodness…. Finally some time to sleep and relax… I NEEDED this Spring Break to start more than anything else in the world. I have been doing so much this semester that I really needed to stop for one second and take care of myself. Initially I was planning on leaving and going somewhere with a group of ten friends… But then, destiny made me stay at home and enjoy relaxing days with my closest friends. This weekend, I have organized a BBQ at my place and then I went on a hike today at the Gaviota hot springs. Let me tell you more about it!!!

Typical Rooftop Picture

As you may know if you have been reading my blog, BBQs at my place were tradition last semester. However, this semester is has been rainy and cold until a couple of days ago… So, after checking the weather app on my iPhone, I have created a group chat and invited everybody over for a barbecue this past Friday!!! It was a little cold and windy, but this didn’t stop us from savoring delicious barbecued meat and chips! The music was playing and the fire was worming us up… I felt like I was in a movie and I can’t wait to organize another one.

Mud Time!!

Today instead, when I woke up at 11:00am, my friend Farbod called me up and invited me to go on a hike with him, Brian, Alec and Stellan. It was a long time that I had been wanting to go to the Gaviota Hot Springs hike and enjoy the natural thermal waters… We got in the car and we went straight there!!! We hiked for fifteen minutes and there the hot springs were waiting for us.. Nobody was in them and everybody was questioning if we should get in or not. I wanted to get in but nobody was supporting me and so we continued hiking up the mountain. After an hour or so we got back to the host springs and about five people were enjoying the warm water. At that point, nobody could have persuaded me not to get in… I put my swim suit on and I jumped in!!! Then, Farbod, Alec and Stellan joined me and we even put “healthy mud” on out faces!!!! Nice way to start spring break: a free SPA session!

Ice Skating with the PODS!!

This Spring 2017 semester I am again a PODS Leader for the Honors Program and I am loving it!!! (Right here you can read my post about what PODS are) This semester POD has changed a lot because I have five new people who joined, and different people create different vibes. It is amazing how the dynamics of a group change in relation to the people who join the group. This semester in my POD there is still one of my old members, Maddy, but also four awesome new people called Cameron, Jamela, Moritz, and Melissa. Since the first day we immediately clicked and we have already organized an amazing activity together: ice skating at Ice In Paradise!!!

Maddy aiding Shivani :)

Even if six people was already a really good number we decided to open the event to any other Honors Program friend who wanted to join. We met at the ice rink in Goleta at 7.30pm and we ended up being ten people!!! Maddy and I had already been skating for a while and so we were the ones helping out our honorable honors people up on their feet! But we didn’t have to look after them that much because they were all pretty amazing!! In particular, Brian had never been skating before but he managed to stand on his feet the whole time without even holding onto the  sides of the rink!! WOOOW! Congrats, Brian!!!

At 9.00pm we started feeling a little cold and tired and we decided to leave. It was really such an amazing experience and we all had a blast! I am so happy we decided to organize this wonderful event and involve so many people in it. As soon as it will be warmer, we have already planned to go kayaking as last semester, but also to hike to the Gaviota Hot Springs and have some dinner together one of these nights!! The PODS are just so much fun, and it is so enjoyable to spend time with this amazing group of people… Love you all guys! You are awesome!!!

Today was Club Day!!! (Or Public Relations 101)

Phi Theta Kappa!!

One day a semester is dedicated to all the clubs that are active on the SBCC Campus, and that day is called Club Day!!! On Club Day, every possible club, that wants to grow bigger and find new member, sets a table right outside the East Campus Cafeteria and tries to make the table as appealing as possible to attract the most number of people. It is interesting how Club Day becomes “the day in which if you are not good at public relations and if your table doesn’t look appealing, your club will never have a future”. I know, what I just said sounds really sad and disappointing but it is actually true! Club day is the first step to understand marketing strategies and how to build new connections and relationships.

2020 AYWW Table!

On Club Day, I was tabling for both 2020 A Year Without War and for Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society. For both clubs I had to be able to give a concise (but at the same time really appealing) description of who we are and what we do. From there, if the people who initially asked a question were showing interest, I had to persuade them that our club was the one that would perfectly satisfy their needs and would have been the right one to support. That was the hard part… if you can start a conversation with the person approaching you, it is all good… But as soon as they say “mmh, ok…” and leave looking at you weird, you can tell that there is no way that the person will join the club.

Fortunately, I can say that by now I have learned how to sell my clubs and I can convince most people to whether buy some merchandise to join the club. But at the beginning… Oh god!!! Every time someone would approach the table I wanted to run away or dig a hole and disappear!! I found it so hard to say something meaningful in such a short amount of time… But hey! It’s all practice! If you create your club, start practicing your public speaking skills!!

A Crazy Day was Saint Valentine’s Day

When it comes to love, the Western culture has decided that we must have one day dedicated to it. Well, I don't personally believe that for a thing such as wonderful as love there should be a specific day to demonstrate it… But you know, Saint Valentine’s Day is not that bad though when you make it a day for sharing nice times with your friends!!! Especially, Phi Theta Kappa loves to organize every year a Saint Valentine’s Day event on the SBCC Campus. Let me tell you more about it!!

Today the Phi Theta Kappa Leadership brought to school a hundred roses, lots of chocolates and many pink cards… All of this was wonderfully set on a table on the West Campus, and all the leaders came at the table to sell roses and deliver them personally to crushes, boyfriends, girlfriends, friends and professors!! The roses were 3 dollars and the roses and chocolates were 5 dollars. It was so surprising how many people stopped by and found that what we were doing came in handy because they could show their love to any person they wanted in such a cute and unexpected way!!!

I don't have a boyfriend but friends
can still surprise you... ❤️ 

Unfortunately, I have class all day on Tuesday and I managed to come to the table for just fifty minutes… But I managed to deliver three roses in three different classrooms, and while I was at the table we ended up selling every single one of the one hundred roses!! Amaaaaziiinggg!!!! Taking part to this event was so much fun and it was so sweet to see love spreading allover campus. We should organize events like this one more often!!! A great thank you to my friend and PTK Vice-President Amber for making this great event so successful and well organized!! WOW!

I can’t ever stop…

How I felt for the past few weeks...

Most of the times I think that my body is invincible and that I can do everything without ever stopping. Well, that’s is obviously NOT true! We all have limits and if we believe we can exceed them all the time, something soon or later will force us to think about ourselves and about our health, stopping us for a second. I am always exceeding my limits because I like to be at the edge of my capabilities, and if I don’t do something I feel like I have lost some part of my life. However, I never understand that if I keep forcing myself, my body itself will turn against me.. And this happened right this weekend. 

It has been two weeks in which I would do some many things that I would end up sleeping just a few hours a night. Even if in the morning I had such a hard time in getting out of my warm blankets, I would keep pushing myself to not stop. For this reason, whether I had an academic, extracurricular or leisure commitment, I would never say “No, I’ll take it easy today”. This inability to stop made my body think about myself without my consent. This Friday, a painful headache and along with a strong sore throat made me understand that it was time to STOP.

Cool..

This Saturday and Sunday I had to cancel all my commitments and think about myself and how to restore my energies. First of all, lots and lots of sleep!!! My bed and I became one single thing and we stayed together so much time! Second, lots and lots of water and homeopathic or Italian medicines. I am sorry United States Health Care System but I am never going to buy any medicine here… The bag of medicines I brought from home are much less invasive and have the same exact effect of the American medicine that make you drowsy and high. Third, Netflix and my TV have never been so happy to spend so much time with me. I got sucked into the Netflix series Prison Break… You should totally check it out!!!

Advice for the super active people like me: learn to tell yourself to stop and think about what is actually right for you, your body and your health. Let your mind relax even if I know that it is really hard!

The DDD: Dream, Develop, Direct

From the left: Villeneuve, DuVernay,
Jenkins, Lonergan and Chazelle.

Last Wednesday I had one of the greatest opportunities… attend a panel with 2017 Oscar nominated film directors Damien Chazelle (La La Land), Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Denis Villenueve (Arrival), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea) and Ava DuVernay (13th). It has been such an honor to be able to listen to these five people speaking their minds about their  Academy Awards nominated movies, their directing career, their stylistic and aesthetic directing choices, and also about their perspective on life and the world. I love to listen to such inspirational people!!!

As a prospect future director, I have absorbed all the possible information getting out of the mouths of these wonderful people. In particular I would like to quote the most inspiring sentence of the night “Traditions are always changing” (Ava DuVernay). Most of you will be thinking “well, that obvious! Why would the freaking blogger think that those words were the most important of the night?!? Pff…”, but let me add a little more context and I’m sure you'll get why I’m saying so. If you have ever noticed… all film directors are men, ain’t that true? I’ll answer that for you: “yes, they are!”. But Ava DuVerney is evidently a woman and at the same time an Oscar nominated director 😱. While she was narrating how she became director, she told the audience that initially she was just a publicist for other film directors because in the industry no woman was ever a film director. But then, when she tried, she found out that she was actually able to direct movies as any other of her male coworkers. Traditions are always changing, and now its the time to change gender stereotypes set by traditions. I was the one who started the applause as soon as she finished the story about the start of her directing career. Let’s go, women’s power!!!

Damien & I

After the conference with the directors, I went out and I managed to shake hands and tell “You are so inspirational” to the amazing young director of La La Land and Whiplash, the 32 years old Damien Chazelle!!! I don’t know why but out of all the people that were waiting outside, I was the first person he talk to! I felt so important hahahahaha and he even let me take a picture with him… wow!!! Such a wonderful night… Getting in the heads of these awesome people makes me feel a step closer to my possible future as a film director. 

Keeping Up With Volunteer Work

This Saturday has been surprisingly busy with volunteer work! First of all, the Phi Theta Kappa Leadership is back on track, and we are quickly organizing events and volunteer opportunities. Secondly, the Santa Barbara Film Festival is making me work hard, too!! Yesterday morning I volunteered for Habitat For Humanity from 10.00 till 12.00, and afterward I volunteered for the Tributes Team of the Film Festival from 3.00 till 5.00. Whoosh, after I finished my shift I went straight home… I was exhausted. 

Phi Theta Kappa volunteers every semester with Habitat For Humanity: an awesome nonprofit that I have already talked to you about it in this post. I was really happy to be back with the PTK Leadership members and spend some time with them doing good work together. Now that I am much closer to the PTK people, it is even easier to have fun and enjoy sharing awesome moments during the activities we organize. Nice to be back Phi Theta Kappa!!!! Oh, I almost forgot… On the 14th of February PTK is going to have the annual Saint Valentine’s Day event in which we will deliver roses and chocolates to your secret crush or to your girlfriend/boyfriend! Don't miss out on it!!! It will be a cool thing to be a part of!!! 

Lifting for SBIFF: getting fit.

After a nice lunch with the PTK Leaders in Isla Vista, I went back to downtown Santa Barbara to volunteer for the Film Festival at the Arlington Theater. Again, I had to lift heavy stuff for the Tributes Team. Other volunteers and I were responsible to build the fences for the red carpet and to assemble the SBIFF backdrop for the pictures of the start that would have showed up for the event. I met some really cool people during the volunteering hours and I cannot wait to volunteer again this Thursday!!! So ready for it!!!! In the meantime I’ll go enjoy the movie that the Film Festival is showing!!! 

And This Is The Time Of The Year: SBIFF

And here we are again and I am super ready: Santa Barbara Film Festival, here I comeeee!!!! And yes! Finally, this is when Santa Barbara is dominated by MY people. Street get closed, movie theaters are all filled, and people from allover the world come to WATCH or SHOW their terrific movies. Movies.. well, that is the only word I need to get me to do anything… And for this reason, here I am volunteering for this film festival. Volunteering for something I love is always fun, but it is even more fun when your volunteer pass gets you in for free to watch every single movie at the festival! This is my second year as a volunteer and it is simply aweeeesoomeeee!!!!

Awesome Movie

This Tuesday was the first day of the festival for all the volunteers. In fact, as a thank you, all of us were invited to the Sneak-Peak: the opening night movie was screened one day before the official day of the festival. The movie was called Charged and it was one of the most beautiful documentaries I have ever seen. Most people when they hear the word documentary, they immediately back-off as if the devil just threatened them. I have to admit that I don’t get along with documentaries either, but this one was not only one of the best documentaries, but also one of the best movies I have ever seen. The film was about the life of a man, Eduardo Garcia, who got charged with 2400V, “lost an arm, ribs, muscle mass, and nearly his life, but more important than what he lost is what he found”. When Eduardo thought that his life was lost forever he rediscovered the meaning of life… I started crying from the middle of the movie till the very end.

Volunteer Kit!

 And I didn’t cry because I was pitying him or shocked by what happened to him, but I was rather astonished by Eduardo’s strength and ability to overcome what most people would have said was impossible to come through. I admire Eduardo, and even if I never met him, I will always carry with me his wonderful straight, and the fact that all that happens to us is because of a reason, we just need to believe and everything will be explained to us. Wonderful.

Aren't they cute?

My first volunteering shift was Friday right before Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone would show up to accept the SBIFF Outstanding Performers of the Year Award. All the volunteers were instructed to build the barricades for the red carpet and for the public entrance to the theater. In two hours everything was set up, and when they discharged me, I decided to line up for the Rush Line… Yes, I forgot to buy the tickets to see two amazing movie stars before it sold out… So, I waited in line from 4.45 till 8.00 to try to get in with a last minute ticket. After 3 hours and 15 minutes standing in the rain, cold and tired I managed to get in!!! It was unbelievable. My new 5 friends (with whom I endlessly waited outside in line, and just a really unsocial person would have not become friend) and enjoyed to see Ryan and Emma talking with the moderator Roger Durling. This was crazy, but totally worth it. If I had to, I would do it allover again!!! 

P.S. I even got a sneaky selfie with Ryan Gosling (Oh Gosh)

Ryan and I