#gracesadventures

I’m starting this thing where I want to put more pictures of my life on my blog, but I forgot to take pictures of all the cool events so now I’m sad :(

I want to start a new category called “college life” of life if a student athlete, if you’re interested, and next time I’ll remember to take more pictures!

Today I woke up at 6:30, ate breakfast, and went to practice.

We drove all the way to Nisene marks in Santa Cruz to do a long run. This is my longest run in 3 weeks and I love running there, but it’s quite a drive.

I ended up running 6 miles at 7:19-7:20 pace (7:19 according to strava, and it sounds better than 7:20 :D), and each mile was a negative split, and I finished my last two miles under 7:00! I took a selfie with a fern to celebrate

I hope to continue this runs with negative splits streak, since that’s something I really need to work on during a race/workouts.

As we were driving back, I started to feel a little sleepy. But it was welcome weekend with a bunch of booths of free items and food, so that made me happy :)

All of my suite mates also moved in while I was at practice, so it was nice meeting all of them and not being lonely in my suite anymore :)

I first circled around all the booths of clubs/companies/advertising giving out free things, and signed up for a bunch of clubs I’m interested in. I’m most excited for Into The Wild, a club that goes adventuring in nature, but I feel like it will conflict with sports :(

Then i stopped by this gifting company, called Yiftee, since their free green apples attracted my attention. I just randomly said that I came from cross country practice so that apple looks good, and the lady gave me a free $5 gift card for the cafeteria because she felt sorry since I had to run in the hot weather. But I don’t mind running in any weather since I love running

Then I ate lunch, and I’m so happy my school is taking a more active role in catering vegan options, and I’m so happy it’s becoming more popular because they have tofu!!! Usually the vegan foods in restaurants barely have protein, and I love this buffet style.

Then I went back to my dorm. There were preview classes going on, so I decided to go to the one about how to improve memory! I love the feeling of sitting in class and learning when the lecture isn’t boring.

I’m also going to repeat what I learned because that improves memory :D

I learned that memory is improved when the knowledge is built on previous knowledge (which motivates me to learn a little about everything), and if there is no previous knowledge, it’s best to organize concepts.

Memory is also best when the concept surprises you, or when importance is emphasized (seen in repetition, but this isn’t the best way to hold schooling). Memory is best when you can link it to your own personal experiences.

After that, we had a meeting with our dorm (they call is residential learning community here since we all take same classes because that helps us get to know each other) going over rules and playing icebreaker games.

Then we attended a welcome speech by the president and went to a reception for Asian/Pacific Islander students showcasing the clubs with Kylie and Sarah! I also signed up for more clubs there.

After that, I went back to my dorm, got to meet and bond with my new suite mates, ate dinner, drew, and went to sleep. I’m trying to sleep before 10:30, but sometimes when I draw, I lose tract of time so I slept around 11:10.