Birthday Scavenger Hunt

Jeannine's Breakfast

Today it was the day… Oh yes! It was my 20th birthday!! Now I am officially not a teen but also not an adult yet!! What a weird number the number twenty.. kind of meaningless. But even if turning 20 is not such a big deal, it doesn’t mean that it doesn't have to be celebrated as if it was a big deal!! I didn’t plan anything special for today but it turned out to be such a wonderful and special day!! I have to thank so much my friends who made it so amazing and super duper fun.

Runnin' (The "secrets" to all men’s dreams)

The day started with an amazing brunch at Jeannine’s with Shivani, Amber and Sebastian. It was so delicious and the atmosphere was priceless… so relaxing!!! After breakfast we all went to meet at Ralph’s other SBCC students and friends for the last Phi Theta Kappa event: The Scavenger Hunt!!! We were five teams and I was the “captain” of my team composed of Amber, Shivani, Sebastian and I. Sherwin was the one who organized the scavenger hunt and he would send us the guidelines by text while we were driving to accomplish the task he assigned us. We had to solve 10 enigmas and find the place described by the enigma. Once we found out the places we had to go and take a selfie of the whole team in front of it. We were so competitive and we did everything possible to accomplish the tasks. 

The squads :)

After we sent all the selfies and received the confirmation, Sherwin gave us one last enigma so that we could find him and finish the race. As we were going to the place to meet Sherwin we found him not he road right behind us!!! Unfortunately we arrived to the location a few seconds after Maddy’s car team… Well, since the goal was to find Sherwin and we found him first, then we could say that it was a tie (or even if you don’t agree, let’s say that just because it was my birthday and I had to win anyways LOL). What an amazing race… I could have never wished anything better that this… After the scavenger hunt I kept on celebrating with my friends till late at night… One of the best birthdays!!!

Free Yoga With Professor Brett Land pt. 2!

This semester I decided to organize another “Free Yoga With Professor Brett Land” event for my Phis Theta Kappa project, and I really hope that this event will become a tradition for PTK at SBCC!! This time I already knew who to contact for making this event possible and the organization of the event was pretty easy… Well, easy is a word that should be erased from any dictionary because nothing is easy! Keep on reading and I’ll explain to you what happened.

In order to host an event at SBCC on the West Campus Lawn it is necessary to fill out a form that is found in the Special Events office of SBCC. Like last year, I filled out the form, had the advisors sign it and I submitted it, convinced that the event would been approved without any problem. Just three days before the event’s date, I received an email that prevented the event from happening if Professor Brett Land didn’t have an insurance that listed SBCC as one of the studios where he taught yoga. Obviously, Professor Land teaches just english at SBCC and the insurance is just for the studio he works for.. Well… after numerous complications we had to cancel the event……..

However, on Wednesday during our weekly PTK meeting, the advisors proposed a solution. We moved the event off campus at Leadbetter Beach and we finally got to keep the event!!! Unfortunately, many people didn't come because they didn’t see anybody on the West Campus lawn.. But in the end about 15 people came and we had a wonderful private yoga class with the amazing Brett Land!! I am so glad that we didn't give up and fought for having this event. Oh and by the way, this is MY last event for PTK ever!!! Yes… My community college honors society experience has reached its end…

Let’s Do Something Important!

Phi Theta Kappa is ALWAYS up to something. Sometimes there is just so many things to do for PTK that I start wondering if they should make it a life experience class… Yes, I said that because I have to admit that I usually spend much more time doing things for Phi Theta Kappa than homework for my actual classes! Crazy, I know… But it is just so much fun, and so interesting to attend the events we schedule!! (Check out the roll ups I created for PTK in the picture right here… it was a LONG process but they turned out AWESOME —>)

This weekend I have attended in one day the Walk For Water and the Walk For Science with the PTK leadership and I have loved to take part of these two walks!!! I have really enjoyed chatting with Professor Sanders and discuss a variety of different topics school and non-school related. And I have also felt awesome to be part of something bigger than myself. I just love participating in events that raise awareness for such important issues… Cool cool!

Face painting + new tiptop

Lastly, today I went to the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival!!! This activity wasn’t a PTK Activity but I attended it with my good friend and Phi Theta Kappa VP Amber, and Shivani, another close friend of mine that I probably have mentioned already. I attended the Earth Day Festival also last year, and its is just amazing to see how many people have brilliant and innovative ideas that don’t concert the annihilation of out Planet’s gifts and resources. At the festival I checked out all the interesting booths (one was even making skateboard from the recycled material retrieved from fishing nets.. wow), and then I ended up buying a really cute t-shirt and a phone case WITH CREDIT CARD POCKETS on its back!!! After leaving the festival it was time to come back to reality and actually do some school work…

PTK Traditions: Bowling Night!

Weird names, uh!

For who still thinks that Phi Theta Kappa is just all about academics and boring intellectual activities: you are absolutely wrong. Just look at what we have organized tonight—> A BOWLING NIGHT!!! For many years the SBCC PTK Leadership has organized a bowling night for all the honors society members as a semester wrap-up event. Drinks and pizza were being served as we were knocking down bowling pins wearing clown shoes.

All in this together

I have played bowling a dozen times throughout my whole life and I have always been pretty good at it… But this night… I was sooo sooo bad!! Maybe I was never good, and tonight, the luck that usually accompanies me during bowling nights was taking a break doing a bonfire at the beach or drinking beer in a pub. Or maybe it was all because I decided to wear a dress definitely to short for practicing this noble sport. Well… I just gave up and bowled without moving any part of my body but my left arm (I’m left handed, yay!)…

My cuties 

It is always really entertaining to see that even professors are humans. Professor Sanders and Professor Eisentraut joined the group and played like professionals! I really loved spending time with these two inspirational professors, and some of the people who are now the closest friends I have at SBCC.. I will miss nights like this after I will leave this wonderful place…

And The LAST Times Start To Get Real

We are so cute

My first semester at SBCC was all about first times: first semester, first house, first friends, first memories, first professors, first experiences and I could keep going forever… But now, well.. Now, it is a whole different story!! Everything is starting to be preceded by this melancholic word: LAST… Who would have though that my LAST semester in the #1 Community College in the nation would have come so quickly…This week, we also had our LAST bloggers meeting and my beloved pesto pizza joined us… But, you know, talking about LAST times is really sad.. let me tell you something that happened recently that ties in with first and last times.

In my English 111 class, Professor Brett Land assigned a really cool assignment to the class: go outside on the SBCC campus, find a meaningful spot to us, and free write for 10 minutes without letting the pen stop it’s flow. On the blank piece of paper we had to write about anything that this spot would evoke in our mind and heart. Well.. I knew exactly where to go and this is what came out:

“The first time I came to visit Santa Barbara City College it was because I got lost, and I sat here, on the edge of this fountain, looking at the green grass and the ocean. I came here running from a surfing class with still my bikini on. Over it, shorts and tints that were sticking to my swim suit, and my hear smelled like ocean. I looked back at the fountain, and noticed in the distance a group of people following a person with a red t-shirt and the white SBCC logo on it. I didn't know yet that everything I was observing with so much care one year later would have become so familiar. The sun was shining and it was spring break for the SBCC students, but the tours of the campus still attracted many people. I quietly joined the group of visitors and listened carefully to the tour guide. Her words still resound in my head: “SBCC is the #1 community college in the nation” she was saying. Now, I am here, and two years have gone by. Everything is still gorgeous and shining. But, it is also home, family and friends now. Leaving this view behind me will be heart breaking but I will always be here.”

It is not perfect writing or grammar but it is what my heard poured genuinely on the sheet of paper I was writing on. I didn’t have to think about it too much because the emotions that the experiences at this college brought me are heavily stamped into my heart… I ❤️ SBCC. 

The First PTK Trivia Night!!

The mastermind of the Trivia Night on the Right
The outstanding host on the Left

In order to become (and remain) a Phi Theta Kappa Leader, each leadership member has to propose a project and make it happen. On the day of my interview, I had a really bad but at the same time really good luck. In fact, everybody was proposing a different project but other two girls and I, came up with the same idea: Trivia Night. Each one of us had planned the trivia night differently but all of us were basically proposing the same project! Fun fact: we all have also really similar but at the same time different names, like our projects: Elisa, Alissa and Elysia. Getting back to the story, in the end the Alissa changed her project with a volunteer event, I changed my project to FREE YOGA (which is going to happen AGAIN on April 27th), and Elysia got to keep the Trivia Night Project.

Teams ready to fight

Yesterday, we finally had the epic Trivia Niiiiiggghtttt!!!! Elysia did an awesome job in recruiting the teams, plan out the whole game and make us have lots of FUN!!! The teams playing were Phi Theta Kappa, Associate Student Government, SBCC Ambassadors and the Sacramento Internship Team. As soon as the game stated, brains were frying and competition was so intense and think that it was almost fogging up the room… Buzzers kept buzzing, and we couldn’t get enough!! It was so much fun!!!!

The super tense final round!!

The fourth and last round had to be played exclusively by the two teams with the higher amount of points. Initially, Phi Theta Kappa was nailing it and I was sure we would have won… But you know.. It was all just to show off. In fact, in the end we decided to let the Sacramento Internship and ASG compete in the final. We were obviously too smart for them 😬. The final round was timed and, you know, when time is involved pressure is in the air!!! Everybody was putting all their effort to win, but there is always just one winner. The Sacramento internship won against ASG and they became the absolute winners of the tournament!!! It has been such an intense but amazing night… I really hope some other future leader will organize this again next year!!

This Is Weird.. Or Maybe It Is Just Lucidity!

This weekend I had one of the weirdest but at the same time one of the most enlightening and eyeopening experiences of my life. Well… maybe saying “enlightening experience” is a bit too much to describe a festival’s experience, but I believe it definitely exposed me to things that I would have never thought exist. As soon as I arrived on the festival’s sight I immediately felt a loving and passionate atmosphere that pervaded my mind and body. Everything was artsy and free like I love it! People were making music, building things, dancing and spreading love!!

I know that many people cannot bear the “Namaste lifestyle” but for me it is just so fit!! I believe that everything began when my mum stated practicing Tai Chi… Initially, it was just practicing a martial art, but then she started passing onto me various spiritual and life appreciation concepts that were at the core of Lucidity Festival. I loved how caring, accepting and open minded people are at this festival. Everybody from the college student, to the old hippie man to the two years old kid, was harmonically sharing regenerating and relaxing moments. I just loved it!!

At night, my friend Donald, his four housemates and I stayed up dancing and listening to music until 2:00am, and then we went to our tents to be ready for the second Lucid day!! Donald and I didn’t have a tent, however, Donald had big van and we camped inside the van!!! It was super duper cold at night but the sleeping bag that I borrowed from my friend Brian was warm and comfy and I slept thinking that I was in my own bed! The following day we painted, listened to the last artists who were performing on stage and walked around to check out other people’s camp sites and shops. At 5:00 it was time to leave and I was so sad that it was already all over… This was the last edition of Lucidity Festival, but I heard the the organizers are soon going to open a Lucid University!!

Sacramento Internship Program

Meeting with Monique Limòn

Today was the last day of the SBCC Sacramento Internship Program and the first day in which I can say that I finally know something about politics… During the internship, I was the only person that wasn’t a Political Science or Economics major but it didn’t matter to me: when I want to learn I don’t care about the circumstances!! I have to thank so much Doctor Eskandari for organizing this unique trip to Sacramento, and for opening my mind on topics that I never thought I would ever look into. 

On the Senate floor

It was DEFINITELY a looooonnnggg week this week but it was totally worth it! The only moment we had to rest was the first day of the trip in which we were left free to visit Sacramento. However, as soon as the week started we would start our days at 8:00 am and walk around offices, fancy rooms and buildings and get back home at 5:00 pm… Our schedule was super tight but perfectly on point: every day we would have a series of meeting with politicians and we were allowed to ask informative questions. At the end of every single day I was so exhausted that a nap on a towel next to the swimming pool was a MUSTDO. 

At the Governor's Office!!

During the internship we met so many important people and we had the opportunity to ask numerous questions to politicians that just few have the privilege to meet. In addition to our wonderful meeting with people like the Attorney General or the President pro Tempore of the California State Senate, we had the chance to go to the offices of politicians and get internships at The Capitol!!! My friend Suki had the wonderful opportunity to get an internship at Governor Jerry Brown’s office!!! Isn’t that amazing?!? I wasn't interested in getting any internships but at least I met the Governor as he was speaking in favor of the S.B.1 Transportation Bill!! Wow… I would need twenty post to explain how much I learned during this internship… If you are interested in knowing more about politics and make connections with important politicians just join this internship in Spring 2018!! 

Sacramento here we come!!

Spring Break Movie Nights

Even if this year spring break has been just spending time with my friends in Santa Barbara, today a new fun chapter of this spring break has started: the Sacramento internship!! Lately, I have just done lots of barbecues and watched movies… Now, let’s get serious, let’s suit up and let’s start a cool internship!!! I would have never thought that I would have joined this internship because it is aimed to Political Science majors. However, I am always so ignorant about political things that I really wanted to find a way to get involved and actually play a role in this critical political time. 

Yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon packing and making sure to have everything to look perfect for the internship. In fact, we are required to dress formally every day of the internship with a business attire. I brought a few dresses and a couple of suits and some shirts, and along with this I brought casual clothes for the nights in which we will be not be in the Capitol. I am really glad I am joining this internship because not only it will open my eyes on issues that I would have never addressed myself, but also because I will be able to share this experience with lots of my friends!!!

Just the beginning...

Today the train left at 12:40pm and as I am writing we still have seven hour left on this train… This is the longest train ride I have ever been on… Can you imagine that in the same 12 hours I can get back to Italy with a plane?!? I will have to update you soon about everything that will happen next week. I am so excited about this experience and I can’t wait to share this experience with you guys!!