I am working again at my civil engineering lab in Richmond, I'm taking four very dense social science courses, I am tutoring underprivileged children in Oakland, and I hold a chair in my pre-law fraternity, PAD.

Although I am going to be very busy, I really am excited for parts of this semester. Let me first begin with my sociology course. I am in love; I do not just have a crush on this professor but am IN LOVE with my sociology professor.

Things I Wish I Knew Before College...

�?� Don't apply for schools you are not going to attend, only have one back up (or "safe" school). Any more than that and it is just a waste of money. Only apply for schools where you know you would be truly happy.

With multiple mid-terms in a week, a mock trial, elections and everything PAD-related I am literally exhausted. The two weeks before this I had three mid-terms in eight days.

When that happens to a Berkeley student, your life literally becomes one study session. Those weeks I left my apartment at 9 a.m. and did not return until midnight (sometimes even later). All I did was study, day and night but I am so glad to be finished --- I get a feeling of accomplishment after such a hectic week as that.

Last weekend the Berkeley chapter of PAD went on our annual membership retreat to Napa County. We stayed at a beautiful house in the middle of nowhere and we pledges finally got to know the PAD membership. We played bonding games, had a BBQ, went to the lake and then had a themed party. To say the least this weekend was tiring --- whenever there are 50 people crammed into a five-bedroom house, sleep is just not a possibility. I then woke up extremely early on Sunday morning, in order to get back to Berkeley by 9 a.m. to attend the New York Jets vs. the Oakland Raiders.

However, while I am very exhausted, it feels good to be busy, since joining PAD I have learned so much about the professional field and realized what an amazing, interesting, intellectual group of people can be found here at Cal.

It is the largest law fraternity in the nation and UC Berkeley was voted the third best chapter in the nation, due to this fact the rush process was extremely intense.

Since it is a fall wedding, the bridesmaid dresses are terracotta -- a burnt orange-and latté --- a light brown. I am wearing a terracotta dress while my little sister will be wearing latté.

Georgina (my previous roommate) now lives with Ana, who is from Oakland and Fatima, who is from Richmond. With that being said, they are both very familiar with the Bay Area. My boyfriend, Andrew, and I put our complete faith in Fatima and Ana and headed to Oakland in search of authentic Mexican food.

I have taken BART through Oakland and have once attended a football game at the coliseum, but other than that, Oakland is an entirely new experience.

UC Berkeley was finally given the right to cut down the trees surrounding Memorial Stadium; however, just because this ruling was made, didn't mean the protesters wouldn't put up a fight.

While only a handful of protesters actually remained in the trees, including the last tree-sitter who came down today, all other protesters have made Gayley Road their temporary home. Bus stops, sidewalks, areas of the street and even people's front-lawns are surrounded by those who do not believe in the cutting down of the trees.

This summer I went home to good old Vacaville and kept my laboratory assistant job for the month of June and interned with local Assemblywoman Lois Wolk for the entire summer. Not too much was different from the lab job except for ridiculously high temperatures in a non air-conditioned lab where we are constantly melting asphalt. On the other hand, my nicely ventilated internship with Lois Wolk was far from my normal routine.

Christopher Wootton, a 21-year-old engineering student here at Berkeley, was killed Friday night in a stabbing after a fraternity party. The night the stabbing occurred, Nandan never came back to the dorms and he did not call to tell Michael he would not be home.

SLO --- the nickname given to San Luis Obispo --- has a much different atmosphere than Berkeley. While Berkeley is set in a fast-paced urban atmosphere, I definitely got the small-town feel upon my first few moments in San Luis Obispo.

However, just because there are miles of homework to do does not mean we are not still trying to keep the spare time that we do have fun. This weekend at one of the co-ops there is a party where we celebrate those people who act outside of their gender norms, otherwise known as "drag-queens" or "transsexuals." Although much of the party is to have a good time with lots of dancing and a great DJ, also part of the party is to make those people who are generally stared at and mocked feel accepted.

The constant calls to Geek Squad and frequent visits to Best Buy have taken up too much of my time. I just got my laptop back last Saturday and was so excited to have my own computer back. No more blinking lights, no more wiggling a charger in place. This time I had no doubts my technological problems were in the past.

Unfortunately, my dream ended at the most inconvenient time this morning. Today I had a Religious Studies mid-term. To prepare for the mid-term, we were given about 50 essay questions to tackle and five of them would appear on the exam. So I decided to review a few of the answers given by my fellow students.

This is probably what many of my friends from other universities were thinking last week; however, us Berkeley students had a lot on our minds. Here at U.C. Berkeley we are on the semester system. I actually enjoy the longer classes where things are not rushed but rather learned at a pace where information can really sink in. The one error to semester systems are one thing --- every teacher seems to pack another midterm or research paper in right after spring breaks ends.