Student Blog
Living in LA

Everyday I’m Jugglin’ ⟩
February 27, 2012, by Chris

This past weekend I put off studying for my upcomig midterm in the name of work-life balance. On Saturday I ventured up Figueroa to Staples Center to watch the Los Angeles Kings face the Chicago Blackhawks. The majority of the group was cheering for the Kings, but my roommate from last year and Chicago native was cheering for the Blackhawks. Needless to say that when the game ended in a 4-0 victory for the Kings, he didn’t stop hearig about it. On Sunday I went to the beach for my weekly flag football game, but this time I decided to workout beforehand. I looked up a Crossfit workout to do in the sand and found a brutal one. It consisted of as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) in 20 mintues of 50m bearcrawls, 50m walking lundges and 50m broad jumps. Needless to say, I felt great after the Crossfit workout and beach football. Today’s plan involves working followed by preparing for my upcomig midterm. It’s definitely a tricky juggling act to maintain that balance.

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Dog Park! ⟩
February 21, 2012, by Kimberly

Community Living in LA

I dog-sat for my friend’s terrier mix this past weekend. On Sunday I decided to take him to the dog park so he could get some energy out and hopefully enjoy playing around. I had never been to a dog park, or taken a small dog in my car anywhere before. The first challenge of the outing was where to put the little guy. I grew up with large dogs who always were very content and could only fit in the backseat or the bed of my family’s truck. So I at first put him on the front seat floor where he stayed for all of about 2 seconds before jumping up to the seat. Before I knew it, as we drove, he was climbing farther and farther into my lap. I tried to continue focusing on the road, but by my second turn he was sitting contently in my lap in front of the steering wheel. Since he’s so small I decided to let him stay and just continue driving (I still want to ask my friend if this is his normal riding routine or if I spoiled him a bit) . . . it was kinda cute, I’ll admit.

We arrrived at the dog park and walked up to the entrance gate. There was an area for large dogs and one for small dogs each with nicely manicured running space and benches for the owners. I followed other dog-owners in and let my new friend off his leash into the open space. I watched in humor as the dogs found each other, started chasing games, elicited pets from other owners, and ran incessently in the gated area. I was surprised by the stark personality differences between the dogs and what some enjoyed doing over others. My friend’s dog was very content on his own but would seek out other dogs occasionally. He wouldn’t initiate play, but seemed to like meeting all the other dogs and just being in the open space. Though the dogs were very at home, I found it a challenge to figure out what to do myself. The other dog-owners were either standing or sitting around the dog-park. Should I talk to them? Simply focus on my dog’s play? Walk around? Sit down? Run with the dogs? I had been so focused on getting the dog to the park that it didn’t occur to me to think of my own role during our time there. In the end conversation was struck up with some of the other owners over dogs as they came up and elicited pets from us. I can see how this could easliy become a community of people and of dogs if is was a place that you frequented. Definitely a new occupational environment, but a very fun one to experience.

About 20 mintues later, my little guy was tired out and we headed home. This time he climbed right onto my lap from the beginning and I had to work keeping him from jumping up onto my fore-arms to look out the window. I love dogs, I really do . . . but I have to say it was nice to pass him off to his owners at the end of the weekend. Maybe after grad school a pet will become more feasible. But for now, I am completely happy with the occasional chance to dog-sit!

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Renewing an Occupation ⟩
February 14, 2012, by Chris

Community Living in LA School/Life Balance

Before beginning the Occupational Therapy program at USC I started playing beach flag football. Well, once I moved to the west coast I didn’t have a league to play in anymore. I’ve played football for almost as long as I can remember and not having a league to play in was bothering me. Last week I began searching for leagues throughout Los Angeles and I found one that meets in Santa Monica. I quickly informed a few classmates of this league and built a solid group to start going weekly. The first weekend only three of us went, but more people have expressed interest in playing. Once we got there the games were great. The teams were pretty much even and the organizers try to keep groups of friends together. Finally after playing for about 3 hours we finally called it quits, with me leaving with a pretty sweet sunburn. Next week should be even better as more people should make it out.

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Biking in Hollywood ⟩
February 6, 2012, by Chris

Living in LA School/Life Balance

The weather in Southern California lends itself very well to the practice of outdoor occupations. This past Saturday me and a couple of my friends decided that a biking blitz through Hollywood was a great idea. We started off at the Occupational Therapy House (Centennial Apartments) and headed north. We took the scenic route through neighborhoods I didn’t know existed. We finally made it to Hollywood Blvd where traffic was almost at a standstill (perfect for the cyclist), we split the traffic down to the Kodak Theater where we decided to walk around for a bit. After getting our fill of all the characters out in Hollywood we decided to head west toward enemy territory, UCLA. The hills throughout Westwood provided us with excellent cycling routes, with very little traffic. After we made our way through UCLA, we decided to ride through Beverly Hills. The streets throughout Beverly Hills are incredibly smooth (cyclist’s dream). Finally, about 2 hours later we decided to head back to USC. We made it home around 11:30 pm and rode approximately 30 miles.

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Don’t Look Down! ⟩
February 3, 2012, by Chelsea

Living in LA What are OS/OT?

In occupational therapy we learn that different people have different sensory thresholds. Some have low sensory thresholds and get all the sensory stimulation they crave just by trying a new type of food. Others have high sensory thresholds and crave activities that will boost their adrenaline such as rollercoasters, snowboarding, dirt-biking, and rock-climbing. Well my boyfriend happens to be someone with a high sensory threshold and enjoys all of the adrenaline boosting activities I just mentioned and more. Last weekend we took a group of friends on a treacherous hike to a hidden waterfall. We didn’t really specify that the hike would involve rock-climbing and so all ten of our friends agreed to go. The hike was just north of Pasadena in a place called Eaton Canyon, which runs along the San Gabriel Fault. The beginning of the hike is easy until the rock-climbing begins. It involves cliffs, ropes, rocks, creeks, and at the end a beautiful 35-40 foot waterfall. Once we reached the waterfall there was an awesome area in the rocks that had been carved out and smoothed by the water so that it formed a fun waterslide that we could slide down and it would shoot us out about 30 feet above the water into the pool at the foot of the waterfall. I went on the waterslide the last time I hiked there during summer, but this time the water was much too cold for my liking and I’m pretty sure my sensory threshold had already been met without having to drop 30 feet into a pool of freezing cold water!

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