Alright, now it’s time for me to start my long overdue blog post introducing myself. My name is Yi Le Lu (pronounced Yee-La), and I have lived in Canada (specifically British Columbia) since I was 4 years old. I have attended 6 elementary schools and 1 high school prior to coming to UBC. For those of you who are interested in which 6 elementary schools I have been to, they are listed in the following chronological order: Florence Nightingale, Lord Nelson, Rock City, Charles Dickens Annex, Florence Nightingale (again!), Charles Dickens, and Marlborough (my favourite elementary school as well as my favourite school of all time, including UBC). All of my elementary schools are located in Vancouver, with two exceptions; Rock City is located in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, and Marlborough is in Burnaby, where I now live. For those of you who are wondering why I have mentioned Florence Nightingale twice, it’s because I attended Nightingale for Kindergarten, part of Grade 1, and when I moved back to Vancouver from Nanaimo, I returned to Nightingale (my 2nd favourite elementary school) after a brief, 3 day stay at nearby Charles Dickens Annex. Those who are interested as to why I stayed 3 days at Charles Dickens Annex can comment on this blog post and ask.
My interests include reading, writing, horseback riding, and travelling to Canadian as well as American national parks. One of my favourite places to travel to is the Canadian Rockies. I’ve already been there 3 times but I’m still not tired of it. I also go horseback riding during the spring, summer and early fall months. I have taken English riding lessons in the past, but now I ride Western. I ride in Campbell Valley Park, which is a beautiful equestrian park located in Langley and very close to the Canadian-US border. My parents were willing to make the 1 hour drive from Burnaby to south Langley every week in order to let me ride! And I think the fact that I ride regularly also allowed me to tell UBC one more thing about myself when I applied.
For those of you who managed to read this entire blog post and not get bored in the process- I really commend you for your ability to do so! I’m going to skip over the typical ending posts where people write “I can’t wait to meet you all!” because I have already met you all already, and say instead- Thank goodness the term is ending soon!

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Hi everyone, my name is Niccolo Conte. I was born in Los Angeles, California, where I spent most of my childhood. When I was 10, my family moved to Dallas, Texas for a few years before finally coming to Vancouver. Both my parents are Italian, and every summer I visit my extended family and friends in Italy. I love watching old movies (and new movies too), playing video-games, and following soccer. I listen to almost all types of music, and I enjoy playing the piano. I’ve always wanted to become a writer of some type, whether it be journalist, or a full on novel writer, but I’m definitely open to a lot of different careers.

I can’t wait for this course to get rolling and to meet all of you!

Hello! Sarah Porter here. Although born in Calgary to an Indonesian mother and Canadian father I was raised in Hong Kong. The last three years I went to school on Vancouver Island. I have many interests which include travelling, culture, history, film, comics, animation, and sweets. Being a pilot’s daughter I have gotten many opportunities to travel the world, which I hope to be able to continue doing. I’m not sure what I want to major in later on. So for now I am going with the flow. This year I am taking Japanese, Film Production, Creative Writing: Graphic Novels and Writing about Japan,which I believe is a literature and myths course. I am excited to get to know everyone and hope to have a good year.

Hey everyone!

My name is David Goosenberg, and I’ve lived my whole life about a half an hour outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I love music of all different kinds but I’m specifically in love with British Rock and Hip-hop. My favorite artists are the Arctic Monkeys, and the Hip-hop collective, Odd Future. I also love watching baseball and spending time with my family and friends. Unfortunately I have no idea what I’m interesting in pursuing as a career, so I’m taking a variety of classes in hopes that I eventually stumble upon my passion. I really look forward to meeting all of you, and I know that this will be an amazing year! Peace.

Hello all, this is me, Kailer. As you may have heard in our seminar, my given name is Serena, but I prefer Kailer and you can also just call me Kai. I’ve grown up with my hippy mother on a small island named Quadra where I’ve spent summers under the sky watching shooting stars, and swimming in the ocean among the fish and seals. I love to be outdoors, and have never quite grown out of climbing trees. I’ve come to UBC after 5 1/2 months of gallivanting around Europe with only my backpack, meeting bizarre and wonderful people. Now, I’m here to prove to myself that I can succeed in University, and to meet more bizarre and wonderful people.

My name is Kevin Sun. I am the proud author of three horribly written stories, the third of which is particularly horrible, 20000 words too long, and taunting me to finish it before university work swallows me whole (it’s also my most popular one for some reason, though that’s not saying much). My fourth novel, which is half planned in my head right now, will be the first that I seriously consider submitting for commercial publication provided that I’m not failing courses or in deep depression (or both) by the time I get to writing it. Have I mentioned that I enjoy writing?

For those commendable individuals who are actually bothering to read beyond this point (feel free to skip to the last sentence if you still have 300 pages of The Odyssey to read), I am currently taking philosophy 120 and creative writing 200 in conjunction with Arts One this semester, and philosophy 240 and Japanese something next semester. I plan to major in either English, Creative Writing, or Philosophy, and will most likely pursue graduate studies provided that I don’t completely lose interest or become bankrupt before or by the time I get a Bachelors. My hobbies are gaming and anime, two interests that believe it or not rose my high school average by around ten percent, demonstrating both the statistically proven benefits of gaming and anime as well as the dubiousness of high school grades. Anime, in particular, can really broaden your perspective of the world once you’ve watched a few that focus on existentialism, metaphysics, and similar philosophical jargon. I’ve also played various sports in the past, though now I’m focusing on cardio and sometimes weight training.

Let’s have a good year.

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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