Author Archives: Syndicated User

Packing my life into a suitcase (again)

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We’re gonna need a bigger bag.

Has it really been a year already? It feels like only yesterday a wide-eyed, brace-faced, almost-first-year sat in this very spot, shoving all her possessions into massive suitcases (or avoiding packing by writing blog posts about it). I hate packing, but it seems like the more I do it, the easier it gets.

My most important packing tip: begin with the end in mind. Although it might seem like a long way off, remember that you’ll need to do something with all the stuff you’re bringing once the year is over. This is especially important if you’re coming from far away. Last year, I didn’t have a problem with getting all my stuff to Vancouver since my mom helped me bring everything over. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there to help me on my way back. That, coupled with the fact that I bought even more stuff over the course of the year, resulted in my scrambling to find summer storage once the summer hit. Plan ahead. Don’t overpack, and don’t stress if you forget something. You can always have it shipped out or borrow it from someone in your building. Everyone shares everything in rez – I’m pretty sure the main purpose of my house Facebook group was to facilitate the exchange of can openers and irons.

If you’re looking for some packing tips, check out this post I wrote last summer. And don’t stress – I promise you and your possessions will make it to UBC in one piece (even if you need to do a little jumping on your suitcase).

The truth about Raincouver

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A warning to incoming first years: you will be lulled into a false sense of security in September. Still aglow in the summer sunshine, campus will be absolutely beautiful. Wreck Beach trips will be a daily routine and everyone on campus will be happy and friendly and really, really, ridiculously good-looking. “This is awesome,” you will think to yourself. “Everyone who said it rains in Vancouver all the time was totally wrong!”

And then October hits, and you can kiss being dry goodbye for the next four months.

If it weren’t for the rain, I swear Vancouver would be the most perfect place to live in the world. Sadly, you can’t have it all. But if you’re able to cope with the weather, life in rainy Vancouver really isn’t so bad. Here are my tips for dealing with the drizzle:

Buy a solid pair of rainboots. UBC doesn’t have puddles. It has small lakes. You don’t want to suffer through your longest day of the week with wet, squelchy socks. Plus, you feel like a badass wading through massive puddles with dry feet. Get a raincoat as well. They might not be stylish, but you’ll be glad you bought it when you’re not dripping as you walk into lecture. An umbrella is a good idea, too, although you can survive without one if you have a raincoat and don’t mind your hood messing up your hair (I made it through the whole year umbrella-free). Just make sure you have an extra, because I guarantee you will lose at least one over the course of the year.

Don’t buy a canvas backpack. It will get soaked, and the rain will ruin all your meticulously copied lecture notes. Try and get one that’s somewhat water-resistant, and keep your important papers in a plastic folder to avoid runny ink and disintegrated sheets of lined paper. If you simply must have that Urban Outfitters canvas bag, spray it with some water-repellant spray. You can buy it at most shoe stores (I got mine from Soft Moc).

Prepare your bike for the elements. If you bike around campus, make sure that you have fenders on your tires to keep water from splashing water all over your derriere. Also, lock your bike up in a covered location wherever possible to avoid rusting, and be sure to take it for regular tune-ups.

Always be prepared. It doesn’t matter if the sky is as clear as a Neutrogena model’s skin when you step out your door. By the end of the day, the weather could be as wet and dreary as ever. Dress in layers and always, always bring your raingear along.

Take vitamin D pills. You can go weeks without seeing sunshine in the winter months, which could mean that your body isn’t getting enough Vitamin D. You can buy these pills over-the-counter at any Shoppers or health store. Make sure to take them regularly, as you need the vitamin to build up in your system in order to reap the benefits!

Embrace the rain. As effective as you might believe your rain dance to be, you can’t control the weather. Don’t let the dreary, grey scene outside your window keep you from having an awesome day, and remember that rainy days just make you more thankful for the sunny ones. Besides, the rain is what keeps everything so green and beautiful year-round!

Shop While You(r Wallet) Bleed(s)

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Battle Scar Foot.

In the last month, I’ve been spending money like I have any. Which I will once I get my paycheck from the PNE. But the situation has gone out of the control. I think it has to do with two things: Hong Kong and Craigslist.

Hong Kong is a shopping heaven. Everything is cheaper than Vancouver and, at most times, in the States. There’s no tax, not to mention tons of sales all year round and free gifts with purchase, which makes everyone in Hong Kong a frequent shopper. Under that influence, I bought around 10 shirts and polos which were all on sale. I didn’t buy much of everything else, like shoes, pants or bags, completely different than previous vacations there. I think I caught the shopping bug during my vacation which has translated into my bleeding wallet.

Craigslist is awesome. I don’t care what people say about buying second-hand clothes and things because it’s damn cheap. You can buy jeans that cost $200 retail price for $40. And you can haggle. And sometimes you find free things that people don’t want, such as a digital photo frame. I almost buy everything second-hand. The key is to ask for pictures and when did they buy the item. They can lie, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

I also go to the mall quite often, just because I’m running errands and I find coupons on the internet to use. The more you go to malls and compare the deals, you find them. Such as buy 1 get 1 at Forever XXII that’s happening right now. I got a tee and 3 for my mom for $23.

As of now, I’m finding my wallet bleeding. My feet also because of all the walking. Luckily, my laptop decided to not crap out or else I’d be buying a MacBook Air too. But I’m getting a Google Nexus 7 instead because at $259 for 16GB, it’s a steal.

It’s gone so bad that I have sent my friend a list of things I’m allowed to buy. If I deviate from this list, she can take it and keep it.

  • Nike Vapours or Pegasus
  • Blazer
  • iPhone wallet case bought 24/08/12 for $20
  • Pants – green, chinos
  • Google Nexus 7 – bought 09/08/12 for $290
  • Wallet – bought 9/12 for $10
  • Things for my room – picture frames, posters, drawer, organizers
  • Messenger bag for laptop
  • Water bottle for school – found 9/12
  • Canucks jersey, scarf, tee bought 9/12 for $20
  • Dri fit tees and tennis tees – bought 08/08/12 for $20 and 17/08/12
  • tennis shoes  – bought 07/08/12 for $20
  • White belt
  • Fred perry shoes or equivalents bought 10/12 for $45
  • Swim trunks – bought 08/08/12 for $12
  • Flip flops – bought 08/08/12 for $15
  • Watches – (casual) bought 13/08/12 for $20 and (more professional) for $25
  • War Machine Mighty Mugg bought 10/12 for $45 (ouch)
  • Tailor Made Suit

Now if you excuse me, I have to go on teefury and buy the new tee before it sells out at 9PM PST.

My take on the Totem-Vanier debate

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Confession: I was seriously disappointed when I was placed in Vanier last summer. All of my older UBC friends had lived in Totem, and they had nothing but good things to say. They told me about Colour Wars, the amazing community vibe, and the magical Magda’s late night grill, and I had my heart set on experiencing all these things for myself. I even found a girl who was willing to trade her Dene single for my Korea-UBC room.

So why didn’t I switch?

Well, it really all came down to me not wanting to mess with fate. I figured if the universe wanted me to live in Vanier, then I would live in Vanier (and okay, the fact that I was assigned to a fancy building didn’t hurt, either). So I accepted my Vanier destiny and since then, I’ve never once regretted my decision. I can’t imagine what my year would have been like without getting decked out in orange and losing my voice at Vanier Olympics, dancing my butt off at Graffiti Night, and developing an addiction to Chef Steve’s soups. I would have missed out on the hysterical Mr. Vanier pageant and the amazing Vanier musical. I definitely wouldn’t have gotten to star in a Sh*t Vanier Says video, and most importantly, I probably would have never met the wonderful people on my floor who have become my best friends.

The point I’m trying to make here is that your first year will be amazing no matter what residence you’re in. Even if you didn’t get placed exactly where you wanted, I promise that as long as you go in with a positive attitude, you’ll still have a crazy fun first year. You can hold me to that.

Big smiles and KU tiger growls,
Cam

PS: You definitely shouldn’t try and switch rooms if you’re on Kwak 6th. I hear your RA’s pretty cool.

I’m (Not) From Here – Takeoff

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Clearly this picture wasn’t worth my cousin’s attention for 1 second.

In March 2011, the Hong Kong government announced “Scheme $6000″ where all citizens of Hong Kong can receive $6000 HKD if they submit an application in Hong Kong. No strings attached except for having a new ID card. Thus, I planned for a trip to return in the summer of this year to collect my just reward for being born in Hong Kong (thanks mom and dad!).

On April 30, 2012, I boarded an afternoon flight on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong with my mom. It was the first time we’d had been on a plane in three years, the last time of which was a flight back from Hong Kong, and we were really excited to see my dad and all our family members.

The flight was fantastic, even though it was 13 hours and I was squished in an Economy seat. On every flight I’ve ever been on, I’ve never had more than an hour’s of sleep.  There are simply too many movies and TV shows to watch and food to eat that I can’t sacrifice sleep for any of it.

On my flight I watched 4 movies:

  • Iron Lady (2011) – Meryl Streep was fantastic as always. This was the first time I’ve learned or heard anything about Margaret Thatcher and the Falkland Islands. I found it to be inspiring, informative, and sad throughout the film. Dementia is a scary disease that affects more on those around the affected than the actual patients. Seeing your loved one struggle with their lives, trying to grasp at the thin threads of their memories, and forgetting who you are, that is the most unbearable experience I can imagine.
  • Hugo (2011) – the hype for the film was over hyped. I only found the film to be okay, not something that I could watch again. I did like the twist in the story though.
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) – creepy wouldn’t even begin with this film. You know on the outset who the killer is because it’s painfully obvious.  This film made me fear having children in the future in case they are born a sociopath and is good with a bow and arrow.
  • Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) – Tom Cruise really made his comeback with this movie. You can’t even imagine he’s 50 seeing the stunts he was doing. The storyline was ok, I got to see the wicked German vertical parking lot, and the addition of Jeremy Renner was good.

We got 2 meals and a midnight snack during the flight. The meals were average. I had chicken or beef of some sort and I wasn’t really hungry because I had lunch before my flight. I also had a Cup of Noodles in the night because I was hungry while watching We Need to Talk About Kevin (not weird at all…).

The plane got to Hong Kong at 9.30ish at night. When we got on the bus to my aunt’s place, my cousin’s girlfriend who is a flight attendant on Dragon Air was on the same bus as us. It was pretty creepy and weird that I walked up to her and said her name and she had a look on her face like “Where is my mace”. We chatted a little bit and got to my aunt’s place safely. We had “a little something” to eat when we got to her house. “A little” became a running joke because during my vacation whenever my aunts would say “eat a little”, it became a lot. Without fail.

I slept a good 5 hours and then began the best summer of my life.

week 5: thoughts and recollections from Guatemala

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The second week on the coffee co-op, we were knee-deep in course readings and papers.  Schoolwork took up the biggest chunk of time devoted to any one activity, even though my blogposts have so far not reflected that.  Nor will they (I’ll have you know that this August is my first break from 13 consecutive months of full-time classes).

At some point, we were given a tour of the coffee co-op’s processing plant.  The machines themselves were nearly a hundred years old, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they had recently retrofitted them to make them more eco-friendly. Who would have thought that while UBC was building CIRS, the most sustainable building in North America, a Guatemalan coffee co-operative was significantly reducing their water usage?

I saw with my own eyes that every iced mocha frappuccino has its own extensive global history from planting to harvesting to processing to transporting to roasting to selling to buying (indeed, more).  And that this global chain is not merely financial but intensely political.  All of the first-grade coffee beans get shipped out to North America and Europe, and while I cannot remember the ratio, the profits reaped at the Guatemalan level compared to the price of a Starbucks coffee are so low it is jaw-dropping.  This is in large part because much of the value of coffee beans is created at the roasting stage, and most Guatemalans cannot afford roasting machines.

We were offered some opportunities to help around the coffee co-op including: cleaning out the bamboo shop, cooking in the kitchen, crafting bamboo shelves, clear-cutting forest paths with machetes, and handpicking macadamia nuts.

Now, despite what a certain unnamed relative of mine says (I quote, “she volunteered to build houses in Nicaragua”) the program’s primary focus was not on volunteering, but schoolwork.  Volunteering was non-obligatory to this program.  For whatever reason, I like to make this distinction when people ask me about it.

On the weekend, we took a van to Takalik Abaj, an archeological site featuring ancient Olmec and Mayan ruins dating back to the 9th century BCE.  Only a fraction of the ruins were not privately owned and thereby viewable to the public.  Many of the stone carvings were so faded that some in our group jokingly expressed doubt the that tour guide wasn’t just making everything up on the spot.  While we did endure much squinting and head tilting, walking up these stairs (with a little imagination) gave me a sense of the grandeur of these civilizations:

That, and the section on ancient astronomy.  This December 2012, the site will be celebrating the end of an era.  Can you imagine the party?  I’m still waiting for my invite.

After fawning over caged-in monkeys, wildcats, and cocoa trees, we took a pit stop at the city of Retalhuleu.  And what a blissful fifty minutes it was.  Students madly dashed through grocery aisles to grab chocolate bars and stock up on other comfort foods.  Before, nachos were coveted luxuries and frozen yogurt an unspoken of delicacy–then, we were well-armed with study snacks for exam week.

One of the toughest experiences of the trip for almost all of us was dropping  like flies with illnesses, sometimes multiple times.  We were all forewarned of the probability of getting sick when applying to the program, which is fine, but there was arguably some systematic food poisoning going on (or so I firmly believe!) at the coffee co-op, and that was just not cool.

I remember writing a reflection paper one evening while doubling over with digestive pains for hours on end—I really don’t know how I managed to write it.  A few days later, I took a bumpy bus ride down to Retalhuleu to get it checked out at a private clinic.  My professor kindly took upon herself the awkward task of translating (as did both professors, many many times for the other students).  It turned out I had an intestinal amoeba and/or parasite from the food or water, and so I was to take a fortnight of heavy antibiotics + pills to help regenerate my sure-to-be blasted out intestines.  I am proud of how I dealt with my illness from beginning to end;  one of the take-away points of the trip was learning how to take care of myself in tough situations (hint: it includes both being independent, and dependent, at the right times!)  Besides, we were lucky to have access to effective medicines, and are luckier still, never to have to deal with all of these illnesses that don’t even exist in most of Canada (except in neglected areas such as some Aboriginal reserves).

Another plus: we hopped onto a  a “Tuk-Tuk” like the above photographed to get to the doctor’s office.  We also met an elderly lady (a “pharmacist”) who seemed to think it hellish that in Canada, all sorts of religious beliefs are accepted.  Speaking of citizens on the street, a popular question posed of me now that I’m back is “what are Guatemalans like?”  Reader, I cannot tell you what a whole country’s people are like as I don’t believe in grand sweeping statements about whole groups of people. But I can share a most peculiar impression I felt:  beneath obvious conservative influences such as the Church, there seemed to me a certain liberal attitude I cannot fully explain.  I am not just saying that I felt  a political split between very conservative and very liberal factions (although I have read there to be in its history); but that I felt a sort of quiet tolerance and an openness of human spirit…A silly example, but I couldn’t help but feel that the people on the street pointing out at the Chinese-Canadians in our group and so very helpfully reminding them that they were Chinese did not mean any harm—if anything, they had a knack for falling in  love with them.

Somewhere in the midst of pill-popping and paper shuffling, a gecko or two appeared on our bedroom wall.  So it wasn’t a bird we heard every night over our bunk beds making unpleasant noises.  Rachyl and Niles, table climbing, and five minutes later, a still-pulsating gecko tail was squirming on my nightstand table.  Grossness.  Let’s just say that we did not need constant access to the Internet to find ourselves plenty distracted.

Not to forget the fact that we were virtually imprisoned in a farmhouse-like motel, everyone to a room of at least three (a far cry from UBC’s vast and isolated spaces).  While this sounds like a recipe for social disaster, on the whole, I think we did a pretty good job in making sure that no lasting frictions divided our group—I’d give us an A-.  Still, considering I have worn an invisible anti-drama magnet strapped to my body my entire life, even a little drama taking away from that A+ was very distracting for me and my studies.  I learned a lot, socially, though.   Really, I think I learned more about the human heart by spending time with my group than I did from the actual humanities courses we were taking.

Next week we say goodbye to the coffee co-op in 80′s music style, and visit our picturesque final destination.

Weblink to UBC Go Global Group Study Programs 

UBC 101 Food Edition – Syllabus

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UBC 101 is back and better than ever because this series of posts will be about my favourite thing in the world: FOOD!

Join me and follow my adventures and critiques on our campus food, everywhere from the trusty Delly all the way to Sage Bistro, the Point Grill and the food market at UBC Village. I can’t promise you that a post will be up in the next week, but I can promise you that you’ll get to enjoy some beautiful pictures of food minus the drool that’d be on them while I take pictures with my trusty iPhone 4.

Watch out for the food porn and I hope you’re enjoying your summer!

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Dining Hall Nutrition 101: How to avoid rocking the first year muffin-top

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The Vanier dining hall: a place so magical, it causes your clothes to shrink.

In case I haven’t made it quite clear by now, I’m crazy excited to go back to school. I’m excited to see my Vancouver friends again, to shop for school supplies and textbooks, to start my super interesting classes, and meet all my Kwak residents! One thing I’m not excited about, though, is going back to eating in the dining hall. It’s not that the food in residence is bad (although by the end of the year in Vanier, you’ll pray to never see a rice pilaf ever again). It’s really good, actually – maybe a little too good.

Nutrition was definitely not a top priority during my first year (I can recall one particularly bad day during finals where I ate nothing but lemon poppyseed muffins – it’s no wonder I ended up looking like a muffin myself). I went on too many runs to Hubbard’s and too few runs on the treadmill, and packed on a ton of pounds by the time April finals rolled around. Thankfully, I’ve been able to change my habits over the summer by eating healthy and becoming a regular at the gym. But now, I’m worried about going back to the dining hall and undoing all my hard work!

Determined not to let that happen, I’ve been brainstorming ways to avoid the Freshman Fifteen (or the even more horrifying Sophmore Seventeen), and, as always, I’m going to share my ideas with the people of the Internet. So, without further ado, here are some tips to keep you healthy, happy, and muffin-top-free throughout your Totem or Vanier dining experience:

1) Plan ahead. Did you know you’re able to access the Vanier and Totem dining hall menu online three days in advance? Check out what the dining hall is serving and plan out your meals. This will keep you from going to dinner hungry and buying the first thing you see when you walk in – which could very well be a hamburger and fries.

2) Snack healthy. If you’re a stress eater like I am, late nights of studying can wreak havoc on your waistline. Pick up a bunch of fruits, veggies, granola bars, etc. from Safeway or Save On Foods and keep them in your room for when you need a snack. Bring a handful of trail mix when you head off to study at Irving so you don’t buy yourself cookies instead. It’ll also be useful to learn the difference between eating because you’re hungry and eating because you’re bored/stressed/upset/etc. Mind over matter, y’all.

3) Bring your own condiments. Dressings and sauces can add a ton of hidden calories to your meals. Bring along your own fat-free salad dressings, all-natural peanut butter, etc. when you head to the dining hall. You might not be able to control every aspect of your meal, but at least you’ll know that your salad really is as healthy as you think.

4) Pack a lunch. The portions in the Vanier dining hall were absolutely huge. It’s great that they want you to get value for your money, but you really don’t need an entire plateful of macaroni and cheese. I’ve tried asking the dining hall staff to give me less food, but they would usually respond with, “You’re paying for it anyway!” and proceed to pile my plate higher than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. A quick fix: grab an Eco-to-go container before your meal and save half of your food for tomorrow’s lunch. Not only does it keep your dinner portions under control, but it can also save you some money on lunch the next day.

5) Scope out healthy lunch spots. They do exist! For a healthy lunch, head to Sprouts or the Delly in the SUB basement. Free hot meals from Sprouts and half-price Delly on Fridays! (See, eating healthy can even be easy on your wallet, too.) Another favourite lunch stop of mine was The Loop in the CIRS building, where they have really tasty and 100% sustainable salads, soups, and sandwiches. Bonus: it’s only a short walk away from Totem!

6) Everything in moderation. While you might not be able to make nightly Hubbard’s/Magda’s runs, I give you permission to indulge in a post-Physics 101 final Marbelous cookie. Go ahead, you’ve earned it.

week 4: thoughts and recollections from Guatemala

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We said our farewells to beautiful Nebaj and bussed down, down from the mountains and into the coastal city of Panajachel.  This was to be our special weekend break, a couple of days in a tourist city, where we could access the internet whenever we wanted and the pizza and hot showers we so desperately missed.  Despite the homey amenities and the abundance of colourful shop stalls, or perhaps because of them, some of us were unhappy with Panajachel. This could have been the curious case of Western tourists seeking the “authentic” in others—“be as you were, pretend we never came!”…but I don’t think that explains it for me.  Nebaj was just genuinely more interesting to me than Panajachel in the same way that, in Vancouver, a hiking trail is more interesting to me than a shopping mall.  I am all for the success of the locals, but the bright lights at roadside diners made me think of Vegas.

After finishing up and handing in our essays, we ventured out on a daytrip in the heavy rain.  We blazed across a lake surrounded by three volcanoes in a sketchy motorboat for twenty.

The first village we visited on the cusp of the lake has a successful history of negotiating a peace treaty with the government before the civil war was officially over, by rallying together as a community after a massacre.  But the village is situated in a natural disaster zone.  Homes are half-deep in the lake.  Hurricanes have passed through, causing mudslides which have destroyed much of the village and the people living in it.  Our tour guide was very sceptical of the ability of the government to help, doing more damage than good.

What fascinates me is that, contrary to what anti-immigrationists think, people very rarely just want to migrate.  Sure there are a few wandering souls, but most have a deep connection to the land they grew up in.  They will refuse to leave even when they are in a natural disaster zone, even when there is war.  It is only when things really get unbearable, when they need to leave, that they migrate.  At least, for natives.

The sun broke out at some point, and I experienced an epic ride on the back of a truck along a coastal road.  I felt like the happiest dog in the world.  Below that, is a great photo of my philosophy professor.

We also met with a women’s weaving co-operative .  They work only with natural dyes, relearning and sometimes reinventing traditional native knowledges of dyeing.   I think our professors have a selective bias of scheduling visits to co-operatives and villages with inspiring grassroots development stories.  It could lead one to mistakenly think that all of Guatemala is like this.  No, I think, it is meant to be a hope.  It makes me wonder, what co-operatives exist in Canada? Do they work as a model for profitable enterprises?

Anyway, we had Aly take some clothes to the laundromat while she was deathly ill (OK, that makes us sound like horrible people but I swear she offered while we were out on the daytrip) and we laughed ourselves to sleep by watching Spanish dubbed Twilight on our hotel T.V.  I am hard pressed to believe that that stuff is not meant to be comedy.

Now for the big move.  We were about to spend two and a half weeks at this mysterious “coffee co-operative” we kept on hearing so much about: “Nueva Alianza”, an hour drive from the town of Retalhuleu.   It was humid and hot as we drove past new sights: coffee trees, bamboo, and tropical things, down what must be at least a one hundred year old cobble-stone road (which I swear, if were paved, would take a quarter of the time to traverse).  The day passed quickly as we lugged our bags into rooms of four to six in a farm-like motel, and I nearly fell asleep during our welcoming/the let-me-tell-you-our-organizations’-entire-history speech, much to the chagrin of my professors.

But seriously, the history of the group is really something.  The other students can probably recall it better, but the group is basically a co-operative of local workers who were totally screwed over to starving point by a bankrupt owner.  They took over the farm for themselves, fought a legal battle, took out a loan, and are paying it back with the help of the eco-tourist hotel we were staying in.  We watched a documentary some tourists made about the history of the co-op and I was really interested to hear these self-proclaimed “peasants” use the hefty language of “rights.”  I want to know where that discourse of rights comes from, and I have a sneaking suspicion it does not come from international human rights regimes…but who knows?

The basic setup was this, then: wake up at 6 a.m. by either Sara or the sound of the cooks preparing breakfast on a biofuel stove.  Take a “military shower” i.e. starting the freezing cold water on and off again as you bathe.  Yes, it does reduce the number of showers one chooses to take, since you asked. Then, chill out on one of the hammocks in the deck/main-room until breakfast.  Help set up the table.  Eat food impressively prepared without a refrigerator at the long-table with everyone; the food was decent and homey but I was very whiny about the runny bean and eggs breakfast by the end.  Help clean up the table.  Visit the store located in the neighbour’s home for some absolutely necessary cookies, or in Aly’s case, macadamia nuts.  Go swim in a waterfall if you’re not Miriam, chase chickens if you’re mean, and laugh.  Do your readings for class, in your bunkbed or in the media room or the roof overlooking the volcano studded tropical rainforest.

Carbohydrate-stuffed lunch—pass over the evil corn tortillas every single time.  Then participate in a three hour class at the long-table.  Commence, at mid-afternoon, a tropical thunderstorm with crackling lightning and massive thunder, forcing the professor to shout.  After class, fiddle around on a guitar, watch Kevin (practically the only male in the town we ever saw) chop wood or gather fresh coconuts for us, and then go to dinner.  Do homework.  Hang out around a bonfire.  Start a secret civil association with your roommates that has its own made-up religion/s, and conspire against the world.  Do more homework by candlelight or with your flashlight on.  Tuck your ironically pink bednet around the bedpost sometime after 10 p.m.  Cue falling fast asleep.

So the courses really took off those two and a half weeks in the coffee co-op.  I will write about them in my summer course review, but let’s just say that I ended up really enjoying my philosophy class.  I was especially interested by the section on theories of global justice.  My mind opened the primly shut national cage and welcomed in the 7 billion who are just as in need of justice as anyone in Canada.  It seems like a relatively new field of thought in philosophy and it has had a great impact on me now that I am back in Vancouver—this is a story for another blogpost!  The sociology course was…new.  Never had I taken a sociology course, and while I enjoyed most of the readings, I wasn’t sure what was expected of me or what we were trying to do.  Both professors were fabulous people though and I enjoyed seeing them enjoy their time in Guatemala like, you know, human beings.

I read Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina after I came back from Guatemala and I really sympathized with the spiritual crisis the character, Levin, was going through.  When I was on the roof of Nueva Alianza, I would look out at the big leafy trees and the neighbour’s house spilling out with brown-skinned children.  7 billion…I cannot fathom, I even despise, the idea that we are fully fleshed memory-bots and that life is a series of memories, or experiences, or a bucket list.  Was my visiting Guatemala on this roof going to be just another memory to be forgotten when I’m dead?  Why care so much?  What is this befuddling thing called consciousness?  I am sorry to say that I do not have an answer.

Time for lightheartedness.  Bugs–we were, after all, in the middle of a tropical rainforest.    While we passed through the initial phase of attempting to pre-emptively kill them all (by the end: a fly in your cup of tea? Just spoon it out), everyone still had a very unsolicited bug encounter story. Cockroaches jumping in your bed, giant beetles the size of your palm whirring with a mechanical-sounding buzz, centipedes in the shower, and suicidal moths that would spiral down madly from the ceiling at night.  I recall one particular study session in the evening on the deck.  I was in the middle of summarizing Marcuse when a moth decided to commit suicide from the ceiling by burrowing into my blouse.  Worst of all was the night of hell.

I woke up after midnight to the dreaded sound of a buzzing giant beetle…you wouldn’t guess where it was coming from: inside my bednet.  I frantically jumped out of bed and inadvertently woke up Sara.  Before I could address the very pressing issue of the giant beetle, a yellow moth literally began chasing me around the room.  I apologize to everyone for the screaming, but then again, I don’t, because it was horrific.   The moth managed to successfully cling onto my back twice—Sara had to bravely slap away at it from her top bunk.  All the while, the giant beetle buzzed and whirred and I was panicking about the noise I heard from the bathroom nearby—the garbage can was knocked over by a stray dog again—what if it traipsed into the room while all this was happening!? In the mad hustle and bustle, Anna heard us from outside, walked in, and saved us all.  She narrowly kept another moth from coming in, this time the size of a bird, and she dealt with my bugs. And in fact, pretty much every bug we encountered in our room.   Now that I’m back in Vancouver, I scoff when people point out a tiny spider or a harmless moth.  I am a battle-hardened veteran.

The tale of the gecko, next week.  And more about living in a small motel with twenty other people.  And becoming really ill.

Weblink to the UBC Go Global  Group Study Programs.