Features

Not many trips have you hiking up volcanoes near rivers of magma, or traveling by boat from coast town to coast town across one of the world’s deepest lakes or drinking in bars where bottle service costs no more than a tank of gas. These are just a few of the things that UC Irvine’s Hillel’s Alternative Spring Break to Guatemala had to offer students this year. The trip allowed students to explore the lifestyle and culture of Guatemala, while also spending time helping and playing with the children of Los Patojos. Los Patojos is a young organization that provides a place for disadvantaged Guatemalan children to eat, play and have fun. It’s a place for the children to escape the problems of Guatemala and, sometimes, the violence in their own households. In an impoverished society where it’s usually difficult for children who don’t come from wealthy families to make something of themselves, Los Patojos offers them a much-needed setting to develop direction in life.

If I’m no longer a student, does the label “starving college student” no longer apply? Okay, “starving” is an exaggeration. I still have some ice cream in my freezer.

My grandfather died from lung cancer. The last thing he said in the hospital bed was, “Give me another cigarette.”

The color blue was plastered everywhere in the Student Center. Blue shirts. Blue ribbons. Blue markers.

A pristine, white doghouse sits in Sean Alexander McWillie’s backyard. Outside, it resembles some of the original 1965 Brutalist-style architecture found on campus, like the kind seen at Social Science Tower. The insulation is made from re-purposed Styrofoam and it is completely sustainable. Even the roof, which slopes downward so the water can drain from the back, has a small garden growing from it. Inside, it is spacious and beautiful, perfect for Jolly.

If I had it in me as a first grader to hate Sun Yi-Qiang, I would have. But I was much too feeble, much too timid and much too innocent. So I feared him instead.

It was her first time in San Diego. As Saori Shinozaki, fourth-year international student, sat in the van, she felt a burst of anxiety and excitement.

Kirie was sexually assaulted by a man in her family and became pregnant as a result. Scared, she kept her terrible secret hidden from her family. Kirie’s parents finally discovered what had happened and together, they filed a report.

It’s an Internet phenomenon, it’s the beginning of the word “tweed” and it’s similar to the noise that a baby bird makes. This Twee, though, is quite different and is dazzling the streets as people sport this new fashion trend, a creative and eclectic collaboration between Mod, Indie and Retro. Oh my!

Fall quarter 2007. It was 4 o’clock in the morning and I was up to my neck in Aristotle. I paused for a moment, averting my eyes from that hateful, hateful text, and took a sip of a warm, restoring sustenance.

We all remember the lessons from elementary school: the videos, workbook activities and guest speakers that continually told us that smoking, drugs and alcohol were bad.

A look around from the New University photographers.