Hey, audience.  It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I apologize for the long intermission/commercial break between posts (apparently I’m supposed to stick to at least one post a week), but seeing as the shock of everything at UBC has put me under a rather tight & busy schedule (i.e. homework, more homework, and actually having a social life for a change), I can only hope this belated post still serves a purpose despite its tardiness.  Wait where did all the readers go?  Oh right, to bloggers who actually update…

Also, as a marketing gimmick stupid twist to match the title of this blog, each blog post will include me retelling an experience/story (of course), drawing a sketch/illustration to further illustrate each post, and for no reason beyond liking his music, I’ll be typing as I listen to Strauss.  On a record player, no less.

I wasn't kidding.

The Joys of Hauling Your Boxes of Crap Up Three Flights of Stairs

In simple English: moving.  Now I know I can’t complain too much since I started out easy–I live in Vancouver, so it made sense to only bring a portion of my things with me for the first move, and then every weekend I bring some more junk into my dorm (a highly recommended strategy for Vancouverites.  Trust me, it’s worth the wait to delay the home decorating and space out the moving process).  I was really glad I had people help me unload so quickly and efficiently because God knows I’d be whining about it for ages if I did it alone.  Of course finding my house was hard, as I didn’t find the signs or anything really helpful in getting here, and directions were unclear (UBC, if you could somehow make your maps easier to read, please do so, they’re pretty messy–it’s like asking Picasso to draw you directions).
Unpacking went by in a blur for me, as it did for some of my other friends in rez–truth be told, I was so excited about my dorm room I didn’t care if it looked bland.  If you ask me how my room looked on moving day, September 3rd, I’d say either: “an old concrete prison” or “BOXES.  BOXES EVERYWHERE.”
Box bigotry aside, my room’s better now (I like how I make it sound as if it was sick or something).  I’ve added some personal touches, I put up a poster I bought at the Imaginus Poster Sale at the SUB last week (12th-16th), and I have… a giant flag.  If anyone can tell me how to hold a flag up on the wall without damaging either the wall or the flag, I am in desperate need of this advice.  Before you ask, it’s not a Canadian flag.  I’ll leave you to guess (the answer is actually on this page, staring you in the face).

Imagine All The People… Screaming

My Sketch: Click picture for FULL view

Wow.  School spirit has never been so loud! …And so obviously short-lived.

Alright, let me back up a bit here.  Imagine Day, our orientation day at UBC, was great because we got to miss a whole day of classes! of its rather friendly attempt to ease you into university.  I won’t lie, I had butterflies in my stomach, I was too nervous to make friends with barely anyone in my MUG group, and university had already intimated me even though I hadn’t even done anything yet.  Maybe some of you felt that way too–if so, I’m right there with you.  But eventually I did feel better–the fact that everyone was packed together in this new place full of people we’d never met before made you feel a little less alienated–because you were all aliens to this place.  For example, at high school, once you realize the cliques have been formed, you know there’s no breaking borders (I could make a Mean Girls reference but…).  Here, no one knew each other, and frankly the old medieval system of cliques seemed like something from grade school–I was pleasantly surprised to see how friendly everyone was, and how everyone was open and ready to make friends or just talk–you could jump into a conversation and no one would mind.
Best of all, the pep rally… screaming for Arts pride has never been more exciting and yet annoying.  Although it’s fun to get in the spirit of things, I realized (as an Arts student) that we’re not made to yell in syncronization.  Unsurprisingly, our cheer was way off.  And it sounded pretty lame, too–the Kineseology kids were so coordinated that it made me want to switch faculties not really.  They were so in sync with their cheer and their movements… well, they are kineseology students after all…
And of course the Sauder kids… well, there was a brief note about their disruptive behaviour in one of the recent issues of the Ubyssey, so I won’t say anything in fear of repeating what’s already been said.

Lastly, club booths.  Glad I checked those out early and signed for mailing lists, though I was terrified of going up to people (as previously pointed out in my last post, I’m a bit anti-social).  At some booths, people were friendly and others were eyeing me as if I was just there to take the free pens (*cough cough*).  Now I have a fairly accurate idea what I’m going to join, but I’ll describe that in more detail when I talk about clubs later.  I encourage everyone to go to Club Days! Many of you probably already know about their time & location, but you’d be surprised, I spoke to someone today who had no idea there were Club Days!

So what is the point of this diatribe? HAVE FUN AT IMAGINE DAY.  It’s the only time that you really all come together like that and cheer obnoxiously–I’m pretty sure it’s also the only time school spirit is so blantantly loud.  I’m by nature a quiet person but I lost my voice by the end of the day.  It’s mostly because I refuse to be out-cheered by engineering… they have such cool frosh shirts…
That’s all for this post.  I’ll have more… much more to update later because you’re just dying to hear my opinion on everything right?.  Right.

-Alyssa

Coming Up Eventually Next: Classes, Clubs, My Experience Thus Far, and Future Events…