My name is Neia Balao and I am a first year Arts student. I am from Vancouver, BC and currently live on campus for this school year. Prior to UBC, I attended Little Flower Academy, which is an all girls high school. Asides from school, family is an immensely important part of my life. I have three brothers; Luch who is 29, Eric who is 23, and Tommy who is 7. My brothers mean the world to me, and I could not imagine my life without them.

Furthermore, my interests include reading, spending time with my family and friends, playing hockey, and travelling. With regards to reading, I love being able to set aside all other thoughts, and simply just get lost in a good novel. As previously stated, family is of dear importance to me, and spending quality time with my friends is also something I love to do. Additionally, I have been playing ice hockey for the Richmond Girls Association for about seven years now, and it is something that I am truly passionate about. Some say, “hockey is my life,” and I can definitely vouch for that statement. Moreover, throughout the course of my life, I have been fortunate enough to explore different parts of the world, including Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. I usually go on these trips with my mother, and I am so privileged to visit such beautiful places with the woman most important to me. I recently came back from a trip to the Netherlands, as well as Germany this summer. Exploring different parts of the world is also a passion of mine, and something that I intend to continue to do over the years.

Only recently graduating from high school, I am still quite nervous about what university has to offer. However, in spite of my fears, I know that I will eventually get the hang of things. I hope that this year will be a great one, especially in Arts One.

- Neia Balao

Hello to all, it was great to get to know a bit about everyone in class! I’m Camille McDayter, the girl who has three brothers (two half and one step) and was born in Vancouver. However, I don’t remember much of this city as I moved to Toronto when I was fairly young. For those of you who may know a bit about the city, I grew up near Bathurst and Bloor and my schools have been relatively close to that area. Coming back to Vancouver was a fairly easy choice for me because no other city seemed as appealing, and I was ready to face a completely new beginning. The enormity of UBC became much less daunting when I found out about the arts one program. Despite growing up in a sizable city, and loving the feeling of anonymity one has in such an environment, I was still intimidated by the idea of having potentially all my classes in a lecture hall of hundreds. So arts one seemed like the ideal transition into university life, and so far I feel that I’ve made the right choice, though the year is only beginning.

To tell you a bit more about myself, I’m interested in history, specifically the enlightenment, and have a strong curiosity when it comes to philosophy. I’ve heard that no one comes out of university with the same future goals they had coming in, but as of now I hope to one day work in aid evaluation. I developed a passion for international relations and politics in high school and would like to travel around the world to evaluate different programs to see how effective they are, and contribute to the improvement of aid. However, I’m very aware that this will likely change, as when I went into high school I was convinced that the only thing I would ever want to do was be a teacher. Before that I wanted to be a chef, but one more fun fact about me is that my cooking adventures don’t always go very well. So I’m keeping my mind open to try to and find my passions.

Hm…. Lets see… my favourite colour is blue? Or sometimes red. And occasionally green. It changes frequently. I’ve been known to be fairly indecisive every now and then, especially the night before an essay is due and I decide halfway through the night that my thesis is awful and scrap the whole thing. It’s a miracle I was ever on time to class with the amount of sleep I got, though now I plan to change my ways and work on time management.

I can’t wait to discuss the odyssey with everyone, and get to know you all better!

Over and out,

Camille

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I’m Raphael and i’m from Montreal. I have been living in San Diego however, and have since learned English and gained a greater appreciation for all things arts! Arts one appears to be intensive but the work is to simply read! This idea, the idea of reading novels for homework, trumps any textbook-related assignments in my opinion. Anyways, I really began reading novels extensively over the summer, primarily focusing on Kurt Vonnegut and his crazy Sci-Fi journeys through society. I have not had a chance to read any of the books on the reading list so I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge of older texts. Other things about me, I have two brother, and two dogs. I hate the beach despite living ten minutes away from it. I always wanted to grow up and become a vet but a few years the idea completely escaped me and I became obsessed with the prospect of being a lawyer. I hope that this class will help me build on critical reading skills by the shear volume of text we will digest, but also through the way in which we go about analyzing what we read. I believe that we will be approaching these novels from an angle that I have not been familiarized with. The idea of monsters being found within us is an interesting one, however I have yet to be persuaded towards this stance. I hope that our class discussion and immersion into the text will sway my view point towards that of a monstrous self, and if not that, than perhaps something simply different from what I had previously conceived.

Hello, name is Vincent Yam (Chinese characters: 任光信). You can call me Vincent, Vince, Vinny, Yamfries or Yammer.  Just don’t call me Sweet Potato (I mean it).  I was born in Burnaby, but lived in Vancouver for most of my life with my father, mother and soon to be 17 year old little sister.  Apart from that, I’ve lived in Hong Kong for 5 year from ages 7-13. I graduated from the International Baccalaureate Program of Sir Winston Churchill Secondary (for those who don’t know what IB is, google it.  Is it that difficult?).  I have a strong interest in History, particularly conflict history.  My most knowledgeable time periods being World War 2, though I do know quite a bit about Napoleonic, Medieval and Ancient History. I like playing video games, (don’t own a console though).  I usually like to play computer games such as League of Legends.  Also, I am an avid reader and my favorite genres include fantasy and historical fiction.  My favorite authors are (no particular order): J.K. Rowling, Garth Nix (god of fantasy right there), R.A. Salvatore, Brian Jacques, Tamora Pierce, Bernard Cornwell and Simon Scarrow.  As for TV shows, I like documentaries (Mythbusters, Mayday), food (Top Chef Masters) and some Korean Drama (Dream High, City Hunter).  Don’t call me a slob or couch potato though because I also practice sports.  I have a black belt in Taekwondo (Dan 1) and play soccer.  My favorite hobby is writing my own original stories and fanfiction… I’ve only ever published the fanfiction XD

If I go on for any longer you’ll be bored out so tata!

Vincent

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