oliviatamccue

In March, just the time to admire the beautiful and flowery spring, I got a sore throat and a cough. That could not be serious though it turned out to be much worse.   First week, the sore throat hit hard, the voice was gone and it was total tiredness regardless the hours of sleep; to make it worse, the cough was such that it was hard to lie down, hard to sleep well. Within a week, it was not just physically tired, but mentally exhausted. It was not possible to have fresh ideas or energy for anything. After three complete weeks, my body was 95%+ recovered. Thanks to the inhaler that helps to get my coughing under control, and even more to a Chinese prescription – Chuanbei + Honey (川貝+蜜糖) that finally took care of the cough.  After discounting the three weeks of recovering, March became a very short month.

What is the silver lining? As the diet was light and plain while fighting the symptoms, my stomach got a well deserved rest.

Spring continues to April.

During the school spring break, my son went to Washington DC with another 90 plus of his school mates. It is a 5-day 4-night trip where 3 to 4 boys shared a hotel room. It is a mystery “what hotel managers would like to accommodate a crowd of teenagers?” How was the trip rated then? Bad food, ok hotel, not much to remember about sight-seeing, out late and woke up early every day; and not to mention that the trip was expensive.   Against these odds, he likes it. Maybe just the experience of “away from home”, together with a nice comedy show and the freedom to stay late are priceless.

Within 10 hours of picking up my son from the airport, the whole family was on the road to south California. It was a 4-day 3-night trip.   My older child is 16 months before college years, about the time that join the crowd to do college tour – UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego and UC Irvine, with campus walking tour from an hour to 90 minutes. We visited UC Diego and UC Irvine on the same day, so it was a LOT of walking. There is much to be told about a school from the tour, the student as tour guide, the campus landscape, the dining areas, the student demography and the students on the campus.

What can beat the scenic Pacific Ocean view from Santa Barbara campus? You can see dolphins and whales, according to the students. Just watch out for the bikers who have the right of way and absolutely no slow down at any crosswalk. “Fun” and “self-motivating” seems to be the theme in this campus.

How many times has the admission officer mentioned the word “competitive” at UC San Diego? San Diego gave that lovely international atmosphere with a beautiful weather and landscape. Together with a very good campus tour guide and a decent neighborhood, the whole family unanimously likes UC San Diego.

Irvine makes us forget that we are in United States. It feels like 90% of students are with Asian heritage, and to emphasize it more, there is a good array of restaurants on campus, including Starbuck Coffee. I bet the students do well in academics.

There is so much competition among California students. Good GPA and SAT are not enough; they need to be great plus impressive non-academic activities to be considered. Not to mention the competition at the more famous UCs like UC Berkeley, UCLA or Ivy League.

Isn’t this a bit like the US job market where the job seekers outnumber the job positions?

With the same high school results, most parents would not have been accepted by the same college where they graduated years ago.