Category: International

Are you one of the many, many international students here at UBC?

Post author By andrea
Post date January 18, 2011
1 Comment on Are you one of the many, many international students here at UBC?

The International Student Initiative has put forward a proposal on capping tuition increases so that new, incoming international students have a guaranteed tuition set for 2011/12 and for three subsequent years through to 2014/15.

Come out to a student forum organized by the International Student Initiative, International Students Association and the International Student Commissioner which will start out with a presentation of the proposal to the students, followed by a Q&A session whereby students will get the opportunity to voice their opinions on this matter and ask the financial representatives questions about the proposal.

It’s TODAY (Jan 18, Tuesday) from 6-8 PM at IKBLC Dodson Room (302).

Check out their Facebook event site- http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118302481576815&ref=ts

Here we go, term 2.

Just got back from UBC’s Got Talent. It was so amusing. UBC does in fact have tremendous talent. Seriously. PS can someone please upload a video of UBC President, Professor Stephen Toope’s, and AMS President, Bijan Ahmadian’s duet ASAP? Please and thank you. Edit: I found it on Youtube. Hahaha.

It’s been about a week and a half since I’ve been back at UBC. I went to Shanghai for Christmas to visit my family, and had a really nice restful break in my own bed in my house. Yes, Totem Palace is great, but it’s not home. A week ago today, I attended the Student Leadership Conference. Like many others have blogged before me, the conference was really insightful and I was especially pleased to listen to The Buried Life. Yeah, I’m a huge fan. I’m pathetic, moving on. The opening speaker, Drew Dudley, was exceptionally inspiring. Here was my favorite part-

So, lollipop moments. I’ve been thinking about them lately. And in my first few months here at UBC, there have been so many people who have done or said something that have affected me in a great and positive ways, and I’ve never really acknowledged or thanked them for it.

I don’t think many people really realize how much our teachers and advisors do for us. For many of my friends and me, one of the commerce undergraduate academic advisors has created an extraordinarily large impact on our lives. Whenever we’re feeling uncomfortable, upset, or doubtful of the way our classes are going, or the grades we’re getting, we run to Jamie Tooze. He’s the best. I met with him for the second time today and explained to him that I was really disappointed with my term 1 grades and needed to see what other options I had. After a ten, fifteen minute chat with him, my day literally got so much better. I dropped HIST 106 (uh I’ll give global environmental history a try next year instead. Maybe.) and learned exactly what I needed to do in order to stay in Sauder. Also, the sun came out and I think we have Jamie to thank for that. He’s a miracle worker, I swear. My friends Anoud, Topaz, several others and me are the co-founders of his fan club. True story.

Also, I can never seem to post something without somehow mentioning how much I love the friends I have here. I was so upset to leave my family and home after winter break, so the day before getting on a flight back to Vancouver, I called up Topaz and told her how I felt and that I dreaded going back to UBC. She cheered me up, and since arriving back in Vancouver, I haven’t felt lonely or sad at all. A few of my friends and I went out to see Black Swan (which was an incredibly beautiful movie, but so scary. So scary omg.), threw a surprise party for another friend, went to the Student Leadership Conference, and bussed down to Granville Island the weekend I got back. In my Blog Squad application last year, I had to write something about what I wanted to get out of UBC, or something similar to that. And while I’m here to get an education and expand my mind and all of that, I wrote that I was here to make connections, meet people, and create friendships that will last for many more years after UBC. As I sat in the Chan Centre today for UBC’s Got Talent, thinking that in less than four (or five) year’s time, I will be in that hall graduating from school, I realized that while I’ll eventually have to move on from this place, the friends I’ve made in the last six months will be the friends that will be by my side when I get my first job, get married, etc etc. In my application, I also wrote that I wanted to make friends that I can sit in bed and watch Grey’s Anatomy with 24/7. And while it has been more like “studying accounting 24/7”, I have made friends that I can call up to watch TV with and just cry to. And for that, I am so so grateful. I’m not good with words, or talking about feelings, but I just want my friends to know how much they mean to me and that without them, there is no way my first year at UBC could have ever been as good as it is now.

Faculty International Involvement/Leadership Residence Life

Endings & New Beginnings

Since the last time I posted a blog entry, a lot has happened. Jump Start ended about a week ago, I briefly stopped by the Flag Pole for GALA, attended the commerce FROSH and participated in IMAGINE. I also went through my first day of classes, so here’s a post summarizing what has happened in the last week or so.

JUMP START- I think most of my fellow Jump Starters will agree with me when I say that I miss Jump Start so, so very much. During the actual two weeks, I dreaded getting up early for lectures, and stressed over the final presentations. However, now that it’s all over, I’m rather upset. I miss being able to go into the Totem Park commons block at 1 in the morning and finding people to talk to, bonding over pretzels bought from the vending machines. I miss seeing everyone at dinner each evening and the spontaneous parties at the beach. Even though Jump Start is over, I feel like the friendships I’ve made during the two weeks will last the next four years here at UBC, and maybe even beyond that. Sure, I’ve met a ton of people over the last few days, but it’s always my Jump Start friends that I call up at night to chat, or go out to lunch with. I try so hard to not sound cheesy, but Jump Start has indeed changed my life. When I first moved in on the 17th of August, the volunteer who helped me move my bags in told me that he only made a total of two friends outside of Jump Start last year. I thought to myself: Pssshhhh. What a freaking loser. However, as days start to go by, I’m realizing how right he was. Yeah, I meet wonderful people every day, but the people I’ve met through Jump Start are one of a kind and continue to inspire me every day despite the dreary weather. Friends? Check. Family? Check. Fun? Check. Really.

I suck at taking pictures so I’m just using the ones I’ve been tagged in via Facebook. Photo credits to Astrid Tentorio and Jason Tseng.

My friends and I chilling by Marine Drive-

We love the White Spot-

Our Jump Start commerce cohort with Tamar Milne!-

For more Jump Start photos, check out this slide show video.

Unfortunately, I did not have the time to attend all the GALA events. I felt like I had already been to enough orientations through Jump Start so I hung out with friends down town instead. After spending about twenty minutes looking for the Math building for Math 184 earlier today, I wish that I had attended that one extra campus tour session during GALA.

FROSH was intense and pretty fun. I got to know a couple of people who have the same standard time table as me, while cheering, singing and dancing for three days and two nights straight. Our “lectures” consisted of dance parties and more cheers. I’d write more but what happens in frosh stays in frosh ;)

Because I fail as a human being, I didn’t attend most of IMAGINE but I did go to the pep rally! It was insane. It was epic. It was loud and I was so proud to be a part of UBC’s class of 2014. PS- Sauder is hot to go, H-O-T-T-O-G-O.

My first day of classes here at UBC went pretty well. I had classes at 8, 10, 12 and 4- Comm 292, Spanish 101, Math 184 and Econ 101 respectively. I have to admit that I had some trouble staying awake… For the past six or so years, my class sizes never exceeded about 20. And so sitting in a lecture hall with 500 other students was intimidating and extremely distracting. But other than that, I had a pretty nice first day. The weather was beautiful as well! After my last class, I went to the discount bookstore to get books for my Economics and Organizational Behavior classes. I was so relieved to find what I needed, and paid about $250 for all of those books- wayyyyyyyyyyy cheaper than the $400 I spent at the UBC Bookstore for a Calculus book, a Spanish book and an iClicker. So dear prospective UBC students or current students, please check out the discount bookstore at the village! I had originally reserved all of my textbooks via the online UBC bookstore, but since they were missing a couple of books, I had to look for them on my own. I’m an extremely lazy person and would much rather have everything handed to me in a box, but I was pleasantly surprised by how organized the discount bookstore was and how helpful the staff is. Finding your books at the Village is no problem at all and doesn’t take much time- however, go early in order to avoid long lines!

That’s all for now! I have one class tomorrow in the afternoon so I’m going to drown myself in some much needed sleep. I can’t wait to meet all the other bloggers this Sunday at the Blog Squad brunch downtown! It would be nice if we could leave campus together (…I’m still useless and can’t figure out the Vancouver bus system) so let’s plan something!

International

Jump Start 2010: Day 1.

Hi! I’m Andrea. I’ll be a first year commerce student and will be living on the second floor of Nootka House. I’m still trying to figure my way around this blog so pardon the bland page. I’m incredibly excited to be on the UBC Blog Squad. For so long, I have admired the many authors and contributors before me, who have made my decision to attend UBC so easy. Now, I am thrilled to be a part of this team!

It’s currently 2:30 AM here in Vancouver, where I have now moved into my dorm room. It has been a busy day so I’ll keep this short but I promise to keep this blog active over the next few days. Anyway, today was the first day of Jump Start 2010. YAY! It was so nice to finally meet the friends that I had made on Facebook. All of us had been counting down to this day- (or yesterday) the 18th of August, 2010. So far, things have definitely been crazy. Every where you turn, there’s a new friend to make. Someone from a country you might have never even heard of before, speaking languages you didn’t even know existed. I went to an international school last year, but I have never before seen diversity like this. It’s awesome. People here have been so intelligent, friendly and kind so far. Our residence assistants, academic coaches and cohort facilitators have been so patient, helpful and passionate about their jobs as well. In this environment, it is so easy to feel like a part of something great. And like my favorite character Rachel Berry on the TV show Glee says, “Being a part of something special makes you special”.

While Jump Start is an opportunity for us to get used to living in residence and participating in actual lectures, we discovered this morning that this orientation program is so much more than that. At the Jump Start 101 activity this morning, all 250+ of us got into our floor groups and came up with words and phrases that represent what Jump Start means to us. My floor, 2nd Nootka aka Cecilia’s Llamas, said that Jump Start means the 3 Fs to us- family, friends and fun. Even though today was just the first day, I have grown close to some of my friends. And the UBC campus makes that easy. While walking down the thousand steps to the beautiful beach, I learned that my Jordanian friend Anoud is afraid of all bugs except ladybugs, that she is the oldest with three younger brothers in her family, and will be my bike-riding support system when we sign up for the Butts N Guts program in the gym this school year. And on an 8:30 PM trip to McDonald’s in The Village, I learned that my Moroccan friend Ghita is interested in salsa dancing, speaks about a thousand different languages, likes tea and reading The Economist. Even though it will be another three or four months before seeing my family again, I already feel like this place, the 2nd floor of Nootka, has already become a home to me.

I think it’s safe to say that many of us were absolutely terrified before arriving here in Vancouver. I was extremely nervous right as my parents dropped me off at the Totem Park commonsblock. However, that quickly went away as I stepped into the building and saw warm and familiar faces. I am so glad that I started my freshman year at UBC with Jump Start. I have a feeling that my experience here will play a pretty integral part of my next four years here in Vancouver. Bring it on!

Tags Jump Start