HSU here I am! ...now what?

I love following certain blogs but never ever EVER planned on having my own. Yet here I am writing my first post thanks to my English teacher, Susan Bennet. Since we only need to update the blog weekly, I have decided to write about the adventure of the HSU Naturalist Club! We go somewhere fun every Saturday morning and go birding, herping, etc.

I didn't join Naturalist Club until I returned to HSU after a year of academic leave. You see, I was very homesick after coming up to live in Arcata the first time. I grew up in Daly City, California which is the southern neighbor of San Francisco. I really thought I would love small town life but I didn't that first year. With seemingly nothing better to do than party every weekend, I got real tired of it real fast. A house party's a house party, and the lack of 18+ clubs or anything interesting killed me since I was just a wee freshman not old enough to venture the dance floors of the bars. I took a year of leave and ran on home to take a few classes at CCSF and work a bunch. I decided that if I couldn't transfer somewhere after that year, I would just go back to HSU and finish up my degree -- which is exactly what happened. I'm really glad it happened that way, though. I still feel lightyears away from civilization, but I've learned to appreciate that. I joined some clubs that made school seem a lot more fun than before, and finally started taking my actual major classes for wildlife. If I had been smart enough to do that in the first place, I probably would have stayed. The club I mentioned already is Naturalist Club. Last spring I enjoyed tubing in the snow, birding and herping at gorgeous places like Patrick's Point, and learning how to survive a night in the wilderness with just the clothes on my back and a knife. I'll mostly be talking about the activities in this club for my blog, but I might as well use it to publicize the events that APASA hosts as well!

APASA, the Asian Pacific American Student Alliance, is the other club I'm so happy I joined at HSU. Part of the culture shock I experienced when first coming to HSU was serious lack of minorities...HSU claims to be a very diverse campus but honestly, they're still working on making that a fact. I never even knew something like that would affect me until I moved to Arcata. I guess it's mostly the lack of delicious asian food that kills me. But after joining APASA, I met some awesome people that I can relate to on these kinds of issues and cook some yummy filipino food with! So aside from just talking a lot and eating a lot, APASA hosts events for holidays like the Moon Festival which is coming up at the end of the month. There's always food and fun activities and everyone in the community is welcome. Don't feel like you shouldn't come if you're not asian -- we welcome everyone to learn about our customs, stories, and fooooood. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated when the plans are all set for events like this!