In today’s episode of the 12 O’Kwok News… I should be shot for using a pun like that.

UBC LIFE, AND A SHORT EXPLANATION WHY IT’S BETTER THAN HIGH SCHOOL

Today’s little diatribe is basically about general life here–including UBC people and the campus itself.  My friends from high school send me e-mails and letters asking how I’m doing, how are classes, how’s life, how’s rez, and if I’ve made any friends (clearly they’re confident in my social skills if they’re asking whether or not I’ve made friends).  I’m here to cover that now–what is life at UBC like for a socially-awkward, Asian-Canadian, YouTube addicted, comic book reading, cartoon drawing nerd like myself? There’s no simple answer, in fact that question alone is complicated enough why would you even word it like that.

So far, I like the freedom.  I can look at the university campus and say, “I’m comfortable here”.  It’s nice, it’s big but not too big that all my classes are at opposite ends, and there always seems to be something going on, which makes me feel like the school isn’t dead or anything.
Maybe that’s not the case for others, but my high school was… well, it had its perks, but it was pretty dead.  No student clubs, bland uniforms, ridiculously snobby and pompous events, and it was geographically close to a country club that I loathe.  There was nothing near the damned school except that pretentious club–just trees and mountain slopes.  YES I LIVED ON A MOUNTAIN.  The closest mall is (a 45 minute bus ride to) Park Royal, and if you’re unfamiliar with Vancouver, let me save you time and say: DO NOT GO TO WEST VANCOUVER, THERE IS NOTHING THERE EXCEPT A WORLD OF EMPTY PROMISES.
Oh, and my house… which is also pretty empty 🙁

So being at UBC, where there’s the Vanier caf avaliable at terrific hours of the day (I no longer complain about it closing at 8PM-ish after hearing my friend at Dalhousie has dinner issues because the caf closes at 6:30PM there), a bookstore that’s overpriced and I’ll never buy anything yet I like perusing anyway WHY AM I POOR RELATIVE TO MY WANTS, a bus loop that practically screams “FREEDOM” (or synonymously, “AMERICA”, loljk), and a comic book store that’s just about a 30 minute trip there and back.  Oh and no nagging parents.  I see no downside to this >8)

…But I lie, there are of course downsides to everything.  Take, for example, my continued inability to make conversation.  It’s a life skill to be able to socialize.  Growing up, I never practiced.  My best friends were named: Neopets, FanArt Central, Newgrounds, YouTube, deviantART, Fanfiction.net, MapleStory, Nintendo, and Playstation.  Nintendo & Playstation are still good friends to me although technically they’re huge corporations trying to suck the souls out of children by mass producing time-wasting products that detract from hard-earned dollars that parents are becoming more powerless to avoid, yes I do know that thanks for always reminding me, adults although Tumblr and YouTube are practically my roommates.  So you can see, I have issues.
The people I have met are pretty awesome.  My newly found friends here are mostly all Science students, strangely enough, as I never exchanged a single word with science enthusiasts back in high school (just for your general knowledge, never mention AP Biology to me for your own good).  Yesterday I met the first Sauder kid I could relate to.  As I said, I tried to meet some business friends at BizzComm and, well…
Me: “No, I’m not in Commerce, I’m an Arts student.”
Random girl and guy: “Ohh… that’s cool.”
Me: “I dunno, I don’t feel like I mix in too well, there’s just a bunch of Sauder people here.”
Guy: “Hey don’t worry, it’s not like we’re elitist or anything.”  *laughs*
Me: *nervous laughter*
Two minutes later I’m shunned by everyone in the room.  I recently went to another BizzComm event since then, and I pretended I was in Sauder (“for the lolz”).  Lo and behold, I was spoken to.  But it’s good to know they’re not all like that (though it’s getting pretty damn close, guys).
So to first-years who were as thoroughly unimpressed by Sauder as I was on Imagine Day, don’t worry, there are obviously awesome first-year Sauder kids too.  We’re all new, it’s not fair to judge right off the bat.

That’s it from me… for now.  There’s a lot more since I’ve been posting so little but I’ll still try to keep up the pace.  If there’s anything you can take from this: I’m busy in a good way.  Time management is key, obviously.  Today’s a good example of my typical weekend: Get up, mom picks me up from rez, I go for a driving lesson, we go to Metrotown, I PREORDER BATMAN ARKHAM CITY IT’S GOING TO BE AWESOME, I go home to study Econ, study more Econ, and study… wait for it… ECON!!! 8D  Then blog and go to bed.
It’s a good life.

-Alyssa

Coming Eventually Next: Future Events/Plans

EDIT: HEY guess what my scanner is fixed! 😀  …Although it’s a scanner & printer all-in-one, and for some reason when it started scanning, it stopped printing.  I now am panicking because I need to print my work.  Short story: no picture today either until I fix this.  I will also need a new all-in-one printer.  Hewlett-Packard is the devil’s work.