I want to really quickly blog about the Overnight Host Program (OHP) experience for me as a host. I signed up to host transfer students from El Camino College and it really was a life-changing experience. Luckily, me and my hostees clicked, which was my main fear going into OHP. I gave them a night-tour of Berkeley, which was not so exciting because it was late and a Tuesday night, so there wasn’t much going on. We ended up eating at the Durant Food Court, which happened to be a popular spot because the rest of the hosts had taken their transfer students there too, so it was like a mini-reunion. I was happy because one of the transfer students was Bulgarian, and the odds of meeting up with someone from my country are low. J It was a fun rest-of-the-night. The only downside was that in the morning we had to wake up early to go to breakfast, which was at 7:30am. I’m convinced that waking up that early at Berkeley is nearly impossible. Which was why one of my girls almost missed the bus….
But anyway! I’m really thankful to the students that came to the transfer host program, especially because they were really open to the Berkeley experience. (The next day there was a protest in front of Sproul so I mean the part about seeing the Berkeley experience!)
I had also signed up to host high school admits the following weekend. I was really excited when I was paired up with my hostee because I had had such an amazing experience with my transfer students. The first thing the girl I was paired up with said to me was, “Are you really into this host thing, because I want to stay with my friend.” That was a bummer, but I let her stay with her friend because I wasn’t going to drag her all the way to my dorm. Kind of disappointing, but whatever.
So the point is, the perception someone has of Berkeley largely depends on the kind of person you are and the kind of person you’re paired up with during OHP (if you end up doing it). I get really excited and I want to talk about Berkeley and take people that don’t know Berkeley everywhere. I clicked with the transfer students because they were open to the exploration I offered. Not so much with the other student. And it works both ways. My perception of Berkeley changed after that second OHP weekend, just like it changed after the first.
Right now, my perception consists of intense study jams in Main Stacks (Main Stacks is our gorgeous underground library).
This semester was definitely better than last. I learned how to manage my time and I worked out a work-and-reward system for myself. I said that if I do well on my essay, I’ll treat myself to a trip to San Francisco, or whatever I wanted to do at the time. Right now, I’m telling myself that if I do good on my finals, I’ll go back to Bulgaria during the summer. J
I don’t know if I’ll be blogging during the summer (most likely not, seeing as I won’t be here), so for now, this is my last blog.
For any students coming to Cal next fall/spring, good job and good luck in your studies. J
-Yana
No comments:
Post a Comment