Monthly Archives: August 2012

People-watching on the 99

Things I’m not doing: Preparing to move.

The other day, I took public transit to Cambie and Broadway, where my orthodontist’s office is.

That means I took the 99 B-Line Express bus, which is probably one of the busiest bus routes (the only other huge bus I can think of is the 135 on Hastings Street).  Even on a supposedly non-busy hour like 10am, the bus gets pretty full.  It runs from Commercial-Broadway Skytrain station all the way to UBC, stopping only at major transit stops.  It’s supposed to come every three minutes, which is handy because there are so many people (both students and professionals) coming from all over Greater Vancouver.

Anyways.

On the bus down to the Skytrain, I saw a girl, and someone who presumably was her father, carrying lots of bags and a huge hot pink suitcase.  It was one of those shiny, plasticky suitcases, and it was at least half the girl’s size.  Automatically, I knew she was heading off on a long, extended trip.  It turned out to be that GWAPS and I were heading in the same westward direction (“GWAPS” is the Girl With A Pink Suitcase).  When we got onto the same 99 B-line bus, it finally occurred to me that GWAPS is actually another UBC student! And I’ll bet that she was a fellow first year, too. Question: Are non-international students only allowed to move in on September 1st?

Immediately, I started to notice other potential UBC mates.  There were the twin sisters with long braids; they looked about my age.  And then there was the glasses-wearing, Emma Stone look-alike.  In addition, there were lots of people wearing heavier school backpacks; typical of what you’d see on a normal school day.  I’m pretty sure I accused (all in my head, of course) about a dozen people of being UBC students before I even got off at my stop.

To be honest, I don’t know where I’m going with this. Maybe I’m saying that there will probably always be at least one UBC student on the 99 bus at any time.  I’ll just have you all know; if you see a small Asian girl squinting at you on the bus, it’s probably not me. That is all.

PS. Good luck this school year, GWAPS! I liked those shoes you were wearing!

Getting back into “School Mode”

5 nights until Imagine Day!

Every year, we make the transition from free-for-all summer schedules to rigid school-time routines. There’s a lot of cleaning, re-organizing, and mindset-changing that has to be done in the week before school starts!  Here’s a list of some things that I’m doing to get ready for UBC:

  • Sleeping earlier. This also means I’m forcing myself to wake up earlier, too.  Having become used to staying up way past midnight, I’m finding this really tough.  But I have to prepare myself for those morning classes! My goal every night is to get into bed before midnight (that’s reasonable, right?) and get out of bed before 9:30 the next morning. It’s… sort of happening.
  • Sorting pens.   Isn’t it annoying when you try to quickly scribble down a note, only to find it’s run out of ink?  I’m going through all my writing and art utensils (pens, pencils, Sharpies, markers, crayons, pastels, you name it), testing them, and tossing the ones that don’t work into the trash.  The rest get sorted into different pencil cases, depending on their type and usefulness.
  • Drinking tea. Earl Grey with cream and sugar in the morning, and decaf herbal tea at night!  I’m determined to not get addicted to coffee.
  • Labelling everything. I admit that I like having my name on all my stuff.  It was especially important back in high school, because I always seemed to lose either my favourite pencil or eraser.  Now, I have a surplus of stickers that say “Courtney” on them, so I’m trying to use them all up.  Labelled items include my (new!) textbooks and workbooks.
  • Reading and drawing and listening to music.  Right now, I’m doing all the lazy-day-at-home things I can, because I’m not so sure there will be time for them later.  Among the things I’ve been reading is this, a wonderful pre-UBC guide by a fellow blogsquad member.

Now I’m even more eager to get started at UBC.  September 4th, hurry up!

 

Hello world!

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Nope. This is my first post!

Today, I woke up at 11:45am, rolled over to the other side bed to check my email, and subsequently saw that I have the green light to start my UBC blog.  And oh, yeah, I have a deadline. So here I am; excited, nervous, and ready to start something new!

But first, let me introduce myself.

Salutations! I’m Courtney. I’m part of 2012’s BlogSquad. I’m an eighteen-year-old Vancouver native going into my first year of Kinesiology.  Yes, it is no longer called Human Kinetics, but Kinesiology. No, UBC Kinesiology is not actually a faculty, but a school within the faculty of education. I’m here to provide my own insight on the things that you don’t hear much about!  That includes UBC’s kinesiology program, my horrendous daily commute to school, and my sport of choice: curling*.

Anyways, I’ve got a bunch of errands to do (back-to-school shopping, yay), so I’ll keep this post short.   Hopefully I’ll post again soon before Imagine day!

* I’m vehement about this: curling IS a sport, and one of the most objective ones out there. 🙂