Sarah Dairiki

The Zika virus recently surfaced in South America and since then has spread widely around the world. Today, majority of individuals have a general sense of what the virus is, knowing it is serious enough that whenever the virus is brought up, the conversation takes a turn, becoming solemn, melancholic, and serious. Although the virus is most often linked to being a big threat to pregnant women, the virus should be taken seriously by everyone, as it can affect anyone. Because of this, everyone should be aware of what the virus truly is, know how to diagnose it, and how to treat it. The Zika virus is a mosquito-borne virus linked to the Aedes species of mosquitos specifically. This virus has been written into our minds to be a threat to pregnant women, as being a pregnant woman with the virus can cause the infant to develop microcephaly, a serious birth defect where the infant is born with an abnormally small skull, and can have other developmental issues, such as problems with intelle...

So this post is about Christmas although I am writing it on Christmas Eve, but to me the whole month of December is filled with holiday and cheer, so I figured that writing a post on Christmas Eve was close enough!! I have been on winter break from college since December 9, and go back to school early January. I spent my first week of winter break in Santa Barbara participating in Christmas holiday shopping, making gingerbread houses while listening to Christmas holiday music, going on trolley tours of Christmas light decorated houses, and making my boyfriend's mother's holiday cookies. That first week in Santa Barbara really got me in the holiday spirit, and when I spent the second week in Tahoe I got more excited about the holidays. Tahoe had a gigantic Christmas tree decorated with lights and ornaments, everyone was Christmas shopping, and everyone was just in a good mood because of the holidays. For me, listening to holiday music while doing Christmas-like activities li...

The first week of my winter break just passed, and I spent it in beautiful Santa Barbara with my boyfriend. I spent a week there and I had the best time of my life. There were so many activities we had planned that really allowed me to engage with Santa Barbara's most attractive sites, and I had a really fun first week of my winter break! Friday - The first day we got there, Friday, we settled in, dropped all our stuff off, and went grocery shopping. Then we watched some TV and basically just got settled in from the 5 hour road trip. Saturday - My boyfriend and I went out to breakfast at a cute little restaurant where I had a delicious egg scramble with a biscuit on the side. After breakfast, we went shopping at Best Buy, Ulta Beauty, and Anna's Bakery, and then met up with his parents and went shopping at Costco. After, my boyfriend and I went to Trader Joes and a small Japanese market, then went back home. Later in the afternoon we went to dinner at Los Agaves, then wen...

I have been watching a lot of TV shows on Netflix, and have been jumping from show to show, therefore allowing me to have many favorite ones. Due to this, I have five that I want to recommend just in case anyone of my readers are looking for a new TV show to watch. Here are my top five favorite TV shows as of December 2016. 1. Greys Anatomy - This is my all time favorite show. I am on season ten out of twelve on Netflix, and am still loving it. This show is filled with sorrow, love, anger, and all the other emotions, as well as focusing on life inside a hospital and the personal and medical relationships within it. I love this show because it focuses on medical talk, but also because every episode keeps me engaged and has me laughing, crying, and most importantly, keeps my eyes glued to the screen, with each episode leaving me wanting to watch another one. 2. Parenthood - I watched this show a year ago, and just started watching it again after taking a long break from it. I am s...

I saw Moana yesterday on a whim with my boyfriend, and honestly, it was a fantastic Disney movie. My boyfriend and I were in downtown Santa Cruz to go to our favorite cafe for breakfast, and as we passed by the movie theater we saw that Moana was playing. My boyfriend immediately ran up to see what time the movie was playing and wanted to see it and so did I, so we did. I took a class this quarter on culture and art in the Pacific Islands and this movie corresponded directly with what I have been learning, as the movie took place in Oceania, a place filled with islanders who have a great connection with the ocean, with each other, and possess a great number of art pieces and relics that have a history behind them that is worth telling. There has been a lot of controversial talk about this film, as some Pacific Islanders believe the film was an inaccurate portrayal of Oceania, while other Pacific Islanders believe the film accurately portrayed Oceania. In my opinion, I thought the fi...

Finals week is next week... the week that is the biggest, most challenging, and most stressful for college students. I can safely say it is universally acknowledged that finals week is the week all college students dread the most, as we have to study our butts off to take tests that may, in some cases, make or break a student's grade. We are 3 days away from the start of finals week, and lets say that the tension is running pretty high among campus right now. I have three finals next week, but they are all take home finals. What I have to do for these finals is write 1 or 2 essays, and turn them into my TA or professor. This is the first quarter out of the four quarters I have been at college where I have take home finals, and although the stress is taken off slightly because I don't have to study significantly and take an exam in a 3 hour exam period, I am still facing the stress of preparing outlines, figuring out how to structure my papers, what sources to use, writing the...

Thanksgiving just passed, and now that that big holiday is done, everyone is moving on into the Christmas spirit. I myself absolutely love Thanksgiving and Christmas because of all the delicious food, decorations that line people's houses as well as stores, and how the holidays bring families together. Although there is much to look forward to in the upcoming month, I am going to backtrack for a bit and talk about my Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving this year was pretty small. A lot of my cousins either went out of town or to their significant other's home, so that cancelled out having the usual big Thanksgiving at my home. However, we still had a lovely thanksgiving at my grandmothers and grandfather's place. The turnout for this Thanksgiving was small, intimate, and cozy, and consisted of my family (parents, my brother, and I), my grandmother and grandfather, my dad's sister, my dad's brother and his wife, my cousin, that cousin's sister and her husband and ...

College is known for partying, socializing, making more friends, going to class and pursuing a major, etc. However, a HUGE part of college is sleep deprivation. College students develop sleep deprivation throughout the quarter/semester, or it hits them straight off the bat. The number of all-nighters pulled by college students is ridiculously high as well. My medical anthropology professor actually asked us one day in lecture how many hours of sleep we get a night. A few said they get 8 or more hours a night, the majority of the class said 6-7 hours, and the rest said 5 hour or less. We are supposed to be receiving about 8 hours of sleep a night in order to wake up feeling refreshed and in order to function at our best. However, in college getting 8 hours a sleep a night is rare. Students stay up to the wee hours of the night studying in their rooms or at the library, leaving students trudging around campus and complaining about how tired they are the next day. According to the Natio...

In my entire nineteen years of living, I have always preferred to stay in my comfort zone, never daring to step outside of it. My peers always encouraged me to take risks and not be a goody too shoes; however, I was always too much of a wuss to listen to them. However, I was recently inspired by one of my college roommates. When talking to her about college courses for next quarter and how I really wanted to be a biology minor but was too scared to take the required courses for the minor, especially general chemistry, she gave me a pep talk that inspired me to step outside of my comfort zone and enroll in the first general chemistry course. I am an Anthropology major and absolutely love it. I am taking upper divisions as a sophomore which is early, but I am able to handle the workload of the upper divisions and still enjoy learning. Taking upper division anthropology courses have actually made me fall even more in love with anthro; upper divisions focus on a more specific subfield in...

In the past couple of weeks, I have been deciding to make a change in my diet, and recently, I have actually made an effort to implement it. Over the summer, my face was super clear; I had little to no acne breakouts, and that made me really happy. However, ever since I got back to college, I have been breaking out nonstop. Pimples have been popping up so frequently on my face that I hate going out without makeup on, and when I take my makeup off at the end of the day I cringe at how red and irritated my face is. After talking to my mother about this problem, I decided to take her advice into account, which was to try changing my diet. At college, the dining halls have a variety of foods, but there are so many unhealthy options that we students tend to gravitate towards. With all the classes we have to take, it is sometimes hard to fit in a good amount of time to exercise, and when we are running into the dining hall to grab a quick snack before class, it is hard to look for a health...

I recently switched a few makeup products and wanted to share with you all my makeup routine as of October 2016! Since I have posted makeup routines before but never posted which makeup brushes I use, I also wanted to incorporate that as well into this post. So, here is my makeup routine as of October 2016! Brushes: Foundation brushes: BareMinerals Precision Face brush and Tarte Powder Player Bamboo Pressed Powder brush Foundation/finishing powder brush: Bareminerals Full Flawless Face brush Bronzer brush: Sephora brand Multitasker Complexion bronzer brush Concealer brush: Sephora brand Perfecting Concealer concealer brush Makeup Products: BareMinerals Original Foundation in shade golden medium - I switched to this foundation recently over the summer, and I love it. One light layer of this foundation provides great coverage, and stays on for more than 12 hours a day. It also provides SPF 15, which is great, as it provides me with sun protection. Hoola Benefit Cosmetics Bro...

I have some great news that I am sure will make everyone excited: Halloween is in three days!! Everyone views holidays differently, and although Halloween is not my favorite holiday, I still love when the month of October rolls around! Everyone has been breaking out the Halloween decorations since the beginning of the month, and it has just intensified as the month went on. Now, as we are three days out from this fantastic holiday, I hope everyone is excited! When I grew up, my parents and my brother and I would always decorate our house and have the biggest bag of Halloween candy for the cute little trick or treaters that would come to our door nonstop on Halloween. We lived in a kid-friendly neighborhood, and had consistent trick or treaters year after year. However, since I moved to a different part of the Bay Area, we haven't had trick or treaters since more adults live there and not as many kids. However, we do have new neighbors who have little kids, so maybe we will be get...

Ingredients: 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter at room temperature 1 cup white sugar 1 large egg 1 egg yolk 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts 1/3 cup Stonewall Kitchen Jam/Marmalade or any other jam of your choice Directions: Cream your butter and sugar in a bowl until mixed together. Then add your egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Mix until it is all blended together. Add the flour, salt, and walnuts to a separate bowl. Mix until blended together. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, vanilla mix). Mix all of the flour mixture in, and continue mixing until it is all blended together and the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Place saran wrap over the top of the bowl and chill the dough for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper.  Once the dough has been in the fridge for an hour, tak...

Over the summer I had lots of free time on my hands, leaving me to discover new shows on Netflix. I have been told by so many friends as well as family that I should watch certain shows, which left me with a very long list of to watch shows and shows to catch up on. Because of this, I wanted to make a list of shows that are my own personal favorites, as well as shows I haven't seen myself but that I know people are loving. 1. Grey's Anatomy - This show is currently my favorite one. I started it over the summer and have been hooked since the first episode. I am currently on season 6, and I am still obsessed. This show takes place in a hospital, showcasing the lives of many doctors and their work life as well as their personal ones. The show makes you feel every emotion; after every episode I am filled with sadness, joy, surprise, shock, etc. Although there are 12 seasons currently on Netflix with a 13th season airing right now, I am positive anyone who watches this show will b...

I have just started the fall quarter of my second year of college, and it feels great to be back. I moved in on the 17th, and since classes didn't start until the 22nd, we had a lot of time to catch up with friends, go downtown, get textbooks, and just relax. Since freshman use that free time as an orientation week, they are always busy. However, since I am now a sophomore, I had that entire week free, which quickly led to boredom and anxiety as the start of classes grew closer. However, now that I have just completed my first week of classes, I wanted to write a blog post about how life has been as a second year college student, and how I see this quarter and the rest of the year going for me. First off, I was super excited to start my classes. This quarter I am taking an upper division course for my major, as well as GE's and an intro class for a minor I am interested in. The first day of classes is always syllabus day; the professors go over the syllabus, tell you how exci...

For the majority of the time that I have been alive, I have always stayed inside my comfort zone. I just felt comfortable there, and I wasn't one who wanted to try branching outside of my comfort zone and fail or make a fool out of myself, which would make then make me feel terrible and retreat back into the familiarity of my comfort zone. There are so many shy girls and boys like me out there in the world today. And when we are shy, we tend to stay in our comfort zones, which therefore leads to not socializing with others, keeping to ourselves, and being really quiet overall. However, this summer I decided to make a change in my own life. This change was to be more outgoing and social. This summer I decided to try new things; hence, I wanted to become more social, have new experiences, and overall put myself out of my comfort zone. In high school I was never one to go out to a lot of social events, and instead I preferred to stay inside and watch Netflix or read a book. But this...