those were the days

Freshman year: good times. I found some random BW film pictures from this past year

visiting Westmont

John C. Page Hall - completely empty except for Shannon and Denz

wesley drove - in Carlitos

empty parking lot - first time ever

just some people...

...that I really miss from Westmont.

Benjamin

Sara and Luke

Greg (and Whitney)

Josiah and Nate

Sara

Wesley

Erica

Michael

Sarah and Erica

the girls

and a heck of a lot more people

Santa Barbara

A wise high schooler (oxymoron right there) recently told me that if I'm missing Westmont and Santa Barbara like crazy, then I must have made the right choice for college.

And he's right. Just look at Santa Barbara, it's amazing! I've only been back from college for a week and a half, but I'm already missing Westmont. I miss my friends, my dorm, my room, one of my roommates..., my RA, my RD, even my professors (especially Telford), everything! I was getting kinda sick of it in the moment, but now I can't wait to have it all back in the spring. Being home is great, but I'm so used to seeing all my friends around me all day long at school. It's definitely an adjustment being separated from so many amazing people.

(look closely: that's Benjamin and Peter on a romantic walk along the coast)

Black Coffee... always

What I Learn In College #1:

Most students get addicted to coffee in college, but I've been enjoying the drink every single day since high school. I drink my coffee black, always. That was until I tried the coffee in the Dinning Commons (DC) of Westmont College. It is atrocious. It's Starbucks blend (something I've never been a big fan of, too burnt) that is extra burnt! I knew that you can make a good or bad cup of coffee, I didn't think it could consistently be this bad!

I started off freshman year by putting only a half a pack of sugar in that coffee, just so I could get it down smoothly. I did this for a few weeks until my sophomore friend Justin (who I hardly knew at the time) opened my eyes to a powerful truthism about DC coffee. He told me to basically suck it up, be a man, and drink DC coffee black despite how nasty it is. His reasoning was as follows: If you drink this terrible cup of coffee every day through college, you will never have another bad cup of coffee in your life. Every other cup of coffee that would normally have been labeled 'bad' you can compare to DC coffee and think, "it's not as bad as that coffee I had all through college!"

From that day on, I had DC coffee black every single morning of my freshman year. Then in the afternoon I would make my own pot of drip coffee or delicious french press.

For my next coffee experience, I will my attempting to try as many local beans as possible on Europe Semester this fall! Wow, I drink a lot of coffee...

how many gummy bears?

That is the question of the night.

I asked my friend Erica to spring formal using hundreds of gummy bears and we had a few extra...  so naturally we put them in a Jarritos bottle one by one and kept count.

Any guesses?

Westmont's best speaker

Sara Reinis won the speech tournament last weekend!  A few hours before the tournament we went and had a mini photoshoot outside Page Hall.

Sara has got some big hair... These were the only two I took with my film camera, but I still need to edit the ones I took with my 60D.

roll 3

I got my third roll of Ilford B&W film developed taken from my Pentax K1000.  Most of the shots are from a trip to the pier Wesley and I took last week.

This was actually the first time I went to the very end of the pier here since I was a kid.  Unlike the pier in Redondo, this one just end with almost no guard rales.  It makes you feel much more on top of the water.

There was a rowing practice going on, and they're instructor was just a old guy just screaming at them about how they're waisting his time.  I'd like to meet that guy.

The palm trees here remind me of LA.  I love Santa Barbara. 

a patriot and an inspiration

Former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice spoke at Westmont on Friday, and I had the privilege of attending her talk at the Westmont Presidential Breakfast in the morning as well as the discussion in chapel.

Dr. Rice is an amazing woman, and her talk was both illuminating and inspirational.  The United States is better off because of her work as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor in the Bush Administration.

Dr. Rice spoke on a wide range of topics from the Cold War, to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to education, as well as her family background.  She is a brilliant woman, and was able to make her points in an intelligent yet understandable way.  

film

I've been shooting almost exclusively film the past few weeks.  I've got two roles I will be getting developed tomorrow when I get back up to Santa Barbara.  In the mean time, here are two pictures I shot with my moms old Olympus a few weeks ago.

Video: John Page Hall

John C. Page Hall

81% of my dorm made me the proudest student at Westmont College!!

Wednesday night we had the Spring Sing Kickoff event, and the dorm with the highest percent in attendance got the second best spot in Spring Sing (right before intermission) and with 81%, PAGE HALL WON!!

Spring Sing is a massive dorm vs. dorm competition (guys and girls split up) that involves singing, dancing, changing the lyrics to songs, etc. Here's last years winning house: Armington Men.  The winning house gets bragging rights for the full year.  Page Men have not won Spring Sing in over a decade, and this is OUR YEAR!

I was chosen, along with my friend Scott, to be the Page Men directors.  We are basically in charge of everything!! It's going to mean countless of hours of work, and weeks of sleepless nights, but it's all going to be worth it!

the bisson

enter benjamin bisson

My friend, my RA, basically my favorite person at Westmont.  Benjamin is the epitome of why I love Westmont and my dorm.  A sophomore originally from Maine, he's a spectacular snowboarder, surfer and skater. Benjamin is an amazing artist: drawing/painting/photography.  I haven't surfed in years, it's almost impossible with my back, but I love going with Benjamin and all my other surfer friends here.  I relax on the beach and take pictures of them shredding.  Santa Barbara has some world class surf spots (this was taken at Rincon), and has the most beautiful scenery.  I cannot imagine myself living anywhere else.  The other week we went to the beach for 10 days straight, in mid-January.  Life is great.

Check out Benjamin's blog, he's an amazing film photographer.

warriors

Full disclosure: 99% of the time, I hate basketball.

That being said, I love watching my team win. Westmont beat Biola 71-67 last week in what I must admit was a thrilling game.