TravelBio

An aerial view of the University of California at San Diego campus, my home for the next two years After my trip to Mexico City I flew back to Tijuana, which is across the border from San Diego. Flights within Mexico are typically cheaper from Tijuana's airport, and it happens to be accessible from San Diego. There is actually a border crossing from the US side directly to the Tijuana airport. On my way back from Mexico City I also stopped over a a friend's place in Tijuana for the night; I'll have to make more trips down over my next two years in grad school. Speaking of grad school, I was all set to start fall quarter in late September. I haven't posted in a long time, so this winter break I'm catching up. I had originally arrived in San Diego for a six week summer prep program, but my real classes didn't start until September 28th. Now that I'm done with the quarter I can look back and reflect. Overall it was tough; not impossible, but certain...

Back in September I took a trip to Mexico; the last post was about Guadalajara, and I never did get around to the update for Mexico City. Well I'm on winter break from school now, so after much anticipation and waiting, here it is. The day before I was scheduled to fly to Mexico City an earthquake struck near the capital. It killed over 150 people in Mexico City itself and damaged thousands of buildings; several dozen were completely destroyed. This was the worst earthquake in the region since 1985, and actually struck on the exact anniversary of that quake 32 years earlier. A local told me how, that same morning this fall, they had gone through the annual earthquake drills like normal, unaware that only hours later the real thing would happen (check out photos from a NYT article  here ). As I watched the news from Guadalajara, I was unsure if my flight would be cancelled for the following day. The website had no new info, but the night of the quake the airport in Mexi...

Main Guadalajara cathedral, originally constructed in the 1500s  and rebuilt several times over the centuries My summer prep program ended in mid September, and our fall quarter classes weren't due to start until the 28th, so it seemed a good opportunity to travel. I won't have any significant breaks until Christmas, so gotta take advantage of them! I waffled between Colombia, Mexico, and heading home to Ohio to visit the parents. In the end I chose Mexico; the flights were cheap--you can fly from the Tijuana airport, which has a walkway across the border to San Diego--and I had actually never been there before. It's strange that I have traveled to 40 some countries, but not our neighbor to the south. Well better late than never. I first flew to Guadalajara, where I spent 3 days. Then it was on to Mexico city before heading back to San Diego. Since I should be focusing on schoolwork here, I'll keep the details short. Below are some pictures from Guadala...

It's hard to believe that I've been in San Diego for nearly two months now. The fall quarter has just started, but before the main event were six weeks of prep. The first two weeks of prep I had Math Camp; the class was even cooler than the name sounds. Following math camp I had a Quantitative Methods (QM) class as well as Economics. The classes had homework and a final, and although we received a grade, it doesn't count towards our GPA. So basically prep is supposed to be a way for you to refresh your skills, particularly in math, before it really counts for anything. I'm definitely glad I took the courses, because it's been nearly ten years since I studied any math. The QM class deals with statistics, which I took senior year of high school, and Microsoft Excel, which I've barely used, so again, I needed a review. In addition to the subject classes we had career orientation several times a week, in which we learned about various industries where alumni...