Category Archives: Rachel Tanoue ’17

See posts by Rachel Tanoue ’17

How to do Homework

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You’d think after four years of college and four years of high school I’d learn the best way to do homework but you’d be wrong. I think every student ever can tell you we know procrastination all too well. I may not be the BEST study/homework doing person but I think most of my friends can say it too, we’re still learning how to do homework.

In high school,  I don’t remember much about homework except them telling us “in college there is very little homework, heavy on the exams and papers with NO make-ups”. Well, from personal experience I can confidently say it differs everywhere. The different departments and professors all have their own philosophies about how much homework, review sessions, group work, presentations, paper drafts and dropped homework/exams or revisions to work you can make. The profs at UPS are great at communicating these expectations but be warned you shouldn’t EXPECT for the homework to be easy, for the professors to give you the answers when you ask for help or for revisions and opportunities to “bump up your grade”. The professors are willing to work WITH you to make sure YOU understand, really encouraging you to put in the work.

As a senior I have a better grasp of hwo to read between the lines and write out all my assignments to see what times are going to be busy but even when I do that I’m still in a dilemma about  how and when to do my work. As a science major a majority of my classes are lecture-based with note-taking and problems to solve and understand the connectiosn to be evaluated on the exams and actual lab work. I’m completely used to this style of learning, however this year with more freedom I’m taking courses leaning towards social sciences and upper level biology with discussions, readings and papers. It’s in these situations I’m unsure: should I keep doing work when I have free time and plan ahead on the weekend or a day or two before and potentially not fully remember everything recently in class or bunch up my work after my long days of class, work and meetings? I don’t have an answer for you, and I don’t know what answer you would give but I think it differs for everyone. A P&G or psychology major might be more comfortable with the readings heavy workload and know how to better balance it (And their print green) but I’m still getting used to it.

I think the lesson learned and lesson to stick to is: do your homework, however you feel most comfortable and prepared for class and learning the material.

 

#getitdone

SAT, ACT, MCAT, GRE, LSAT, EE, and other confusing acronyms that determine our future.

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Foreword: In reflection of finals, the real world, grades, achievements and moving through life

The word assessments, its synonyms and examples often strike dread, nerves and other not so happy or bright thoughts. Yet it doesn’t occur to use to question the methods of assessments. “Why must we be given assessments?” “To assess your learning and understanding” Ah okay that makes sense. But then the next question we should ask is “How well do the assessments accurately reflect our learning?” And that is a question that can vary from person to person. Especially in today’s society we understand everyone if unique, and conforming standards can affect our personality and emotions.

 

T-town at Night

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It’s pretty crazy to me to think my third year at Puget Sound is coming to a close and that I turned 21 last week! I’ve definitely learned and explored more of Tacoma the longer I’ve been here and I know the student hotspots: Silk Thai, Trappers, the Met, and Rosewood Cafe to name a few close by, but I didn’t realize how much more there was to explore until I turned 21!

I think it’s pretty safe to say Tacoma is a 21 & up town, there are so many restaurants with bars, regular bars, wine bars, and beer tasting around to go out too. And everyone knows happy hour is the best! It’s not about drinking alcohol but seeing what dinner and late night options are aailable out there. Many alums will fondly remember Masa but since it’s closed down there are new places to go on 6th such as Marrow, the always classic DOA (Dirty Oscars’ Annex), Red Hot or the rowdy O’Malley’s to name a few. There’s even the boozy shakes at Shake Shake Shake that can be given a try! Or the 50% off EVERYTHING happy hour at the Ram down Ruston Way, good puu’puus (appetizers\snacks) at the Hub or the Rock with their buckets!

With summer upon us, which you couldn’t tell today since it started at low 50’s, the days are getting longer with the sun out later leaving the afternoon and evening wonderful to explore Tacoma and see what’s out there! There’s probably many great places to try out there!

Food Independence

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This past Martin Luther King Jr’s Day at the beginning of the semester I volunteered at HUG-Hilltop Urban Gardens Food Soverignty project with my Theta sisters. We got to hear the vision of Dean, who wanted to create a community-based and independent system of creating a space to grow food, tend to the plants and share food ideas with everyone pitching in what they can: recipes, gardening time, land plots in front of their houses, etc.

That was especially meaningful for me as a student worker in our Dining & Conference Services on campus and for the fact I do not have a meal plan and have been shopping, planning and cooking my own meals (mostly!).

The Traveling Bug

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Are bugs good? Well I think there’s a whole lot of agree to disagree about it, and I’d say the same goes for the traveling bug. This weekend I went to the National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference in Cleveland, OH and allow me to share with you, it’s not a popular travel option and involves multiple stops and layovers. There are no direct flights from SEA-TAC to CLE so we had our pick of Chicago, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Denver, Minneapolis, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dallas. Now for those of you with a pretty good idea about American geography, you’ll know that some of these layover locations are nowhere near Cleveland, in the wrong direction or completely past Cleveland, yes but those were the options available. This also opened up a variety of airlines to fly because none was superior and all flew all over the place.

Luckily, or unuluckily  so for us a desire to attend the Friday evening keynote speaker meant leaving Tacoma at 4AM to get to our 6:30AM flight and we would arrive in Cleveland at 3:30PM. We decided to fly through Chicago Midway (not O’Hare) and quickly discovered there was more to learn! From Seattle to Chicago we switched time zones and from Chicago to Cleveland we switched another again! We were now in Eastern time, 3 hours ahead of the Pacific Time we were familiar with. Flying messes with your brain, honestly I didn’t know how long we were in the air, how far we were traveling, where we were, what was personal space and how do you occupy oneself squeezed into a prone uncomfortable chair for multiple hours? It made for an interesting day of flying, enhanced more so by it was my first time flying Southwest and across the midwest!

As a Hawaii gal, I’ve only ever really flown Hawaiian Airlines and been in a flying culture very similar to hawaii with welcome smiles, guava juice to drink and meals during mealtimes, but other airlines are not like Hawaiian Air. We flew Southwest this time. First, southwest- you’d think then that this airline would fly to the southern and western-most state of America aka hawaii, but it doesn’t. That doesn’t make that much sense to me. Anyway what surprised me is that Southwest’s fight costs INCLUDE two free checked bags (which we didn’t need only going away for the weekend but that’s a major perk I think!) and no fees to change flights! Beyond that Southwest doesn’t assign seats or charge you for where and what kind of seat you want, instead you buy your ticket and the time you check in determines where you are in line to boarding the plane to select your seat! That was novel to me! And there are no guarantees maybe everyone wants a middle seat, or there’s a big group that wants to sit together in the back or so many babies, or that you may even be able to sit with your group if you checked in at different times.

Overall it was an interesting travel experience, even more so flying back to the PNW and feeling three hours ahead but today’s a Monday so no rest for me, it’s another school day!

 

The Motivation Struggle (also known as spring\summer at the Puge)

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IT’S HERE! THE SUN! The long forgotten and hidden huge orb of energy in the sky! And despite being an enourmously (1.41×1018 km3 ) large star and source of energy, here at Puget Sound the awareness and shining of the Sun often saps the energy of college students! As far as I can remember March is pretty awesome because it has spring break (but alternately awful because midterms) and April is a pretty gloomy month for students, I mean “April showers bring may flowers” but so far we haven’t got any of that! The sun and summer and warmth of May has already emerged in the last week of March! What is this?

So many bathing suits come out, sunbathing on Todd Field, couches, blankets and picnics appear, the academic buildings are hauntingly empty and stifling (that heat yo)

What’s your team?

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Loggers are from all over the nation, and world actually. And sometimes we forget where our friends are from, EXCEPT during sports seasons, and there’s always a sport in season, and that can identify where someone is from as well! In the fall, baseball is all abuzz, with many sweatshirts flashing SF Giants especially. And I know based on my Facebook feed and the plethora of students from the Bay Area, that 2016 is an EVEN YEAR, that black and orange are great colors and this year could be the year again. The Giants fans are most definitely the loudest and proudest on our campus. Basketball has a small but tight loyal following, guys mostly watch in their dorm lounges on weeknights instead of wearing jerseys or team swag out, but I know they’re out there especially Golden State fans.

Hockey is a lesser recognized sport, but popular anyway with the proud Chicagoans showing up with their jerseys and Blackhawks knowledge, especially with last year’s Stanley Cup in hand. There’s one guy in particular who always comes into the Cellar durin season to watch the games on our TV! Another less popular sport is football, I mean soccer. While soccer is not that big in the States, men and women; the international draw is definitely there. I’ve seen many Real Madrid fans sporting Ronaldo jerseys, or Brazil fans with Neymar jerseys, and I know of one friend who’s a die-hard Mexico and FC Barcelona fan. And as a huge soccer fan myself (alas I don’t own any jerseys but ask any of my friends or I about USWNT we’ll talk your ear off!) I know soccer fans are some of the craziest in the world and I am constantly amazed by the game, I can’t wait until the rest of America is just as captivated (which let me tell you, we’re just about. More people watching our US Women’s National Team win the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup than any other televised soccer or national sporting competition!)

By far, and I mean by far, football of course has the loudest fans, and these fans really know their stuff! Of course being in Washington the Seahawks fans are everywhere in the staff, faculty, and students too! #BlueFriday is definitely a thing with Seahawks jerseys abounding everywhere in season. And I’m definitely sure there were a few bandwagoners when the Seahawks won their first SuperBowl and were stoked about the second, but f anything these Washingtonians are die-hards and the 12s are still loud and proud. Broncos fans are the next most popular and visible with orange and blue jerseys were out and about every game day. Despite the pounding they received two years, they were always positive going into this year, and with the win were overjoyed (I saw many happy crying snapchats, that I wish I had saved but alas I don’t). And there are a few daring Patriots fans who dared show their faces and swag around campus last year after they won!

The professional teams people tells me a lot about where that person is from, or about their family to be raised as a fan. And how your friends without teams (like myself) can still get sucked into the fandoms and watching sports.

GREEK WEEK

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Every semester the InterFraternal Council (IFC) and Panhellenic Council (Panhell) Programmers plan Greek Week. It’s basically the homecoming equivalent for Greek Life here at Puget Sound. We have a theme, we go to a volleyball game, host study hours, have a guest speaker, have a knowledge bowl competition, fundraising component  and last but definitely not least Greek Olympics. Its a full week for each of the houses to spend time within the whole Greek community cheering our volleyball team on at their rival game versus PLU, get those studying on for midterms, test our general knowledge for a fun night hosted by Order of Omega, the academic society within Greek Life and get a little athletic with tug-o-war, three-legged race, and more events at Greek Olympics.

greek week logo

 

This year’s event was themed medieval with members of Greek Life encouraged to dress as knights, peasants, princes and princesses, dragons, wizards and witches and more for activities.

In my sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, shorthand known as theta, Greek Week is an opportunity for our chapter to come together and have fun! (Because a little friendly competition always is fun 🙂 And I definitely had fun this semester because our chapter got really into it, decorating outfits for the medieval themed dress up together, crafted props for our logger outfits with axes and supporting each other through the events, cheering our team on at knowledge bowl and participating or fanatically cheering at greek olympics! it was also cool and always fun to see how spirited the other sororities and fraternities were, it really was a week full of greek love and support reminding us about the bonds in greek life and the values we uphold. #thinkgreek #upstheta

everything

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I’ve had so many thoughts bouncing in my head today. That after a massively full semester, I’ve had the most struggles and breakthroughs in my head today. Much like how I came upon the revelation of the true meaning of commencement, I didn’t realize how very much even with two more years to go there is much beginning in my life.

Junior year is the time for students to go abroad, I will not be among those students and to know my friends will be gone now until January or even from December to August.

To moving off-campus now that I don’t have to live on campus. I need to find and set-up my own bed, dresser, desk, do I even want those things or more in my room? How do I eat? There must be labeling of all things, I mean I’m sharing all the public spaces with 6 other people, friends yes but even I know from experience living or spending extended amounts of time such as vacations with people can stretch limits.

Ron Thom emailed us today to share he will be retiring at the end of next (2015-2016) academic year. He’s also our 13th President and will retire after his 13th year.

Some of my friends have even decided to not come for summer. They are sowing their oats at their respective campuses summer programs, volunteering or taking those steps to potentially move away from Hawaii permanently.

These may seem like trivial things in the future, or that defining moment where I see I had to be a big girl and make decisions about my independence, about how to deal with stepping out. And that’s scary, and it’s still two years until I will be thrown out to the real world (literally and figuratively xP)

To commence

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The 2015 Commencement Ceremony will be on Sunday, we will say goodbye and wish well 622 of our former classmates, friends, coworkers, significant others, flings, acquaintances and wonderful people. Ironically enough that same day will be two years from my high school graduation. reconciling both these revelations in my head is insane to even consider. Two years ago I couldn’t have imagined how much my life would have changed, how much I would love Puget Sound and on my way to figuring out my way.

Two years since high school, two years until college is over, so much can happen in two years. I thought between high school to college was a momentous moment, but this middle ground of college is the deciding point. Am I committing to my major or adding a major/minor, getting those credits I need? Do I want to study abroad? How am I building up my resume for after college? After graduation there’s no obvious socially demanded path that I have to take. Even more going to Puget Sound I now my education here is just another step to being myself, doing what I love in the future for a living, Yes, that may leave me struggling and lost for awhile but gives me the strength to figure out.

From high school we were just moving on to college in some form or the real world in some small steps right there. Commencement signifies the official end of the social norms of our education system, of the opportunity for us to truly be free to chose where we want to be, how we want to be and who we want to be. To begin the rest of our lives. Congratulations Class of 2015 on the start of the rest of your life! For me, I can’t wait to enjoy two more  years until the beginning of mine.

commence verb. begin; start