Features

The crowd hummed with anticipation as a remix of La Roux’s “Bulletproof” blasted from the speakers. The familiar music both calmed my fidgeting and made me want to dance in my seat. It was Oct. 14, 2009, and for many of the audience members, this event was yet another stop to make during LA Fashion Week.

If you’re anything like us, a lot of time, you’re hungry on campus. If you’re even more like us, you have a tendency to stick with tried and true choices rather than branching out and exploring the plethora of dining options at UCI.

My 6-year -old heart skipped a beat during the moment Leonardo DiCaprio appeared on the massive, outdoor screen. I grabbed a handful of Cheetos from the bag on my lap and stared at him in awe from the passenger’s seat of my parents’ 1986 Toyota Corolla. I was frozen with suspense the moment the glorious RMS Titanic began to sink, but there was no doubt in my mind that my beloved Leo would make it out alive.

One of the biggest challenges to overcome while studying abroad is the language barrier. Whether you’re in Barcelona, Tokyo, Rome or Paris, there is always a wall that blocks communication between you and everyone else.

Take a moment to think of a fairy tale. You may be conjuring images of prince charming, frog kisses, a castle, a villain or a strong man saving the princess. And they all lived happily ever after. Russian fairy tales, on the other hand, do not include a princess charming or a beautiful maiden; they include evil old witches who eat children.

Halloween not only bewitches the United States with trick-or-treating and jack-o-lanterns, this frightful yet delightful holiday has cast a spell on many countries, making All Hallows’ Eve a worldwide celebration. Some of these worldwide traditions have even crept their way into U.S. culture.

Engorged Eyeballs, Butterbeer, and Brittle Bones.

These hopeful jack-o-lanterns wait for you to pick them up. The one to the left hopes to become a wolf, the one in the middle hopes to be a Mickey Mouse and the one to the right just wants to be loved. Endless possibilities.

On Halloween, kids get the opportunity to dress up and assume another identity. For me, it wasn’t enough to just dress up as a witch; I wanted to be one. When I was little, my sister and I would pretend we had magical powers like Sabrina, the teenage witch. We wrote a book of rhyming magical spells and rode around on our mom’s vacuum cleaner, like Sabrina did on TV. We dreamed of having magical powers and of discovering an Other Realm through the linen closet.

It’s not really that weird to fall in love with a serial killer…right? I mean, I watch “Dexter” like it’s my job and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen just about every single “Law and Order, SVU” ever made at least twice. I’ve seen “American Psycho” upwards of 10 times and every time I finish, I fall deeper and deeper in love with Christian Bale.

Sophomore Trent Baxter advances the ball against UC San Diego much to the disdain of the Triton defender at hand. UCI would go...

Room G240 in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway building remains eerily empty as students continue to pay for its furnishing.