I Love My School

The view from the 3rd floor of the Earth & Biological Sciences Building

I don't think I'll ever get tired of this view! Even though I've been here for nearly three years, every time I walk onto campus I still find it hard to believe that this is where I go to school. It's comforting to know that I have this scenery waiting for me every time I get out of class. I don't know of many other schools that can compete with the location of SBCC. This is my last semester at CC and it's gonna be hard to say goodbye not only to this view but to all the great faculty, staff and classmates I've met over the years. This semester isn't anywhere close to being over, but lately I've been reminiscing on the awesome experiences I've had while at this school. It's kinda funny how I ended up coming here; I was planning on going to a Cal. State College, but at the last second I changed my mind and decided to attend SBCC with a couple of my good friends from high school. Needless to say it was probably the best sporadic decision I've made and have never once regretted it! 

One of the views from a patio on West Campus

This was also taken from the 3rd floor of the Bio Building  

Another one from the lawn on West Campus

Organic Chemistry Shenanigans

Fractional Distillation Apparatus 

I feel like organic chemistry has taken over my life now that I have two 4 hour labs and 3 hours of lecture each week on top of the countless hours I spend studying for this class. But for some odd reason I can't help but love O-chem. Aside from the brutal work load I get to do some pretty fun things in lab. The other day I made ethanol from sucrose (in other words I was making some booze). The fermentation process took about two weeks and after that came the distillation. The picture to the left is the macroscale fractional distillation apparatus I set up to distill my product. I'll avoid rambling about the interesting chemistry behind this, but it's experiments like this that remind me why I like this class. I wonder how many people can say they've made alcohol at school... Of course none of us drank our final products, which is probably a good thing after finding out what a horrible moonshiner I would've made. My final product was only about 70% pure ethanol, which is nothing to brag about when some of my classmates had products that were over 90% pure. In my case, it's unfortunate that the labs are graded on purity but I promise not all of my experiments turn out this bad.

Here are some of the other toys (equipment) I have in my laboratory locker.

The JSB Cafe

One of my favorite places on campus is undoubtedly the JSB Cafe. It’s always nice walking into a restaurant and being addressed by my first name, which usually stems from a combination of good service and how often I go there. This is the case at JSB Cafe; I eat there with my friends anywhere from 2-3 times a week. In most cases eating out so frequently can get a little pricey, but luckily the JSB has great food at reasonable prices. Another perk is that they are conveniently located in the middle of campus, which is something you can never go wrong with, especially when I’m there all day several times a week. The JSB is a full service restaurant ran by the student chefs of SBCC's culinary arts program. They serve delicious food ranging from soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, wood fired pizza, and fish plates along with their daily specials. I also can't forget to mention their milkshakes and freshly made baked goods that include cookies, brownies, lemon bars and loafs of bread. The JSB is open Monday through Friday 11:15 to 1:30 so next time you get hungry while on campus I would recommend checking this place out!

One of the JSB's Wood Fired Pizzas that are made right in front of you.

One Of the Sandwich specials served last week

The Southwestern Barbecue Chicken Salad