As one might have noticed, I haven’t been really keeping up with the blog. Sadly, I’ve become way too busy to post blog posts weekly, so it’s best if I just post whenever I have something to write about. I’ll definitely try hard to post, although not weekly, on a somewhat regular basis… don’t hold me to that though 😛
I’ll still be doing an update on the courses I took once first year end, just in case any potential first year UBCO Science student finds this blog – I know they’ll really need it!
But I’ll do a quick update now while I’m at it – jumping from a small 4-course load this year, I have decided to take a whopping 6 courses this term! I know, it’s suicide but I might as well try it right? And what better time to do it now? I don’t think I could be able to handle taking 6 courses if I lived away from campus so since I only live a walk away, it’ll be at least a tiny bit less stressful than it usually is 🙂
I PASSED ALL MY FIRST TERM COURSES!! A big pat on the back for myself that’s for sure 🙂 I got a B in MATH 100 – a shocker cause I’m bad at math, and this is CALCULUS for crying out loud! I barely passed Calculus 12! Anyways, my average wasn’t as high as I had hoped (no thanks to BIOL 116), which made me think that if I had taken another course like an english or arts course it would at least be a little bit higher… sigh. Hopefully taking 6 courses will bring my verage to be good enough for either Nursing school (only a mere 1-2% away from competitive GPA!!) or the Land and Food Systems Faculty at UBC Vancouver, I’m determined to work harder this semester!
CHEM 123 is OK but my prof is kinda weird so I actually don’t know if I’m learning anything right now to be honest… plus with that final exam being worth 60% of the final lecture mark, I don’t know if he’s setting us up for success or total and utter failure. PHYS 122 is good, I’m actually learning something from my prof, but I miss my previous prof. I mean, I actually know what I’m doing on the assignments and Pre-Tutorials, but I get bored. My first term prof was actually fun and coming to Physics was actually fun! MATH 101 is… meh. If you took Calculus 12 in highschool, and at least tried to learn the concepts you’re all set. Well not really, but it definitely helps. My prof is wayyy better than my first term prof, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. With bad profs, I have to study harder but with good teachers I feel so laid-back, which probably isn’t a good thing. BIOL 125 is great – I love everything we’re learning so far, especially with all the animal physiology, I’m so excited to learn about human physiology if I’m able to take the course at the Vancouver campus in the summer! Except MasteringBiology – it’s a great tool for learning things I’ll give it that, but they give me a huge headache. Taking two English courses simultaneously is kinda weird – ENGL 112 and ENGL 153, but I can deal 🙂 Except the due date for the research papers for each course at the end of the term are a day away from each other.
And now it’s 2AM (LOL 2AM for all those K-Pop fans out there) and I’m still not sleepy.
I’ve been so busy this week, that I’ve had no time to write a blog post until now, so this post will be about the past two weeks! It was the same routine as usual – eat. Sleep. Study. Repeat cycle. But it wasn’t so bad, There were two events this week that I thought would be worth mentioning:
Firstly, I got in the PATH Leadership Program! It’s really chill so far, and the first session was really fun. Our group is really small, so it was a good setting and everyone felt comfortable with each other. It’s only been the first session, but I’m excited about the different things that I’m gonna do in this program and what I’m going to be learning about leadership! So far, all I’ve been hearing from other people I know who have taken the program before is that it’s a really good learning experience, especially if you aspire to be a leader or gain the qualities of one.
Secondly, UBC’s Vancouver Campus held a session here in UBCO about their Pharmacy school. Although my main career focus is to go into Nursing, I told myself that I had to keep myself open to other options while I was still in Sciences. So I decided to check it out, and it was pretty interesting. Pharmacy School is just as competitive as med school and nursing school, maybe even more competitive than the latter. I was planning on taking the PCAT exam in January, but then I realized that I didn’t have enough English credits to even apply anyways. If I don’t get into Nursing School, then maybe next year? 😉
It was Halloween on-campus too! I didn’t really go out in a costume, just cause I didn’t wanna have to spend money to buy one, especially since I’m probably only gonna end up wearing it once. There were events that were held for us living on-campus though, like there was a Harry Potter theme party at the EME, and there was an event called Humans vs. Zombies, which is kinda like a less-intense version of the Sock Wars back at UBC Vancouver. I didn’t have time to participate in the events, though I wish I did! The closest thing that I did to celebrate Halloween on Halloween night is probably watch a scary movie on Halloween night. LOL 😀
The end of October come the start of November (obviously), and I guess people get over Halloween pretty quickly, since the Orchard Park Mall has already put up their Christmas Decorations. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and I do get in the mood for it, but not as early as more than a month before the actual holiday. But I did get extremely excited when the UBCO Starbucks at Fipke decided to put out the holiday latees – guess who’s going to be at Starbucks drinking a Caramel Brûlée Latte every morning for the next month in a half? (Though I’m pretty sure my meal plan is gonna take a huge hit for it :P)
I have a Biology midterm on Thursday, then a 4 day weekend since there will be no school on Monday and Tuesday next week! So while other people are going back home to Vancouver, I have to be a hermit and study in my room – I have a Math and Physics midterm the day after the long weekend ends. Yup, they’re on the same day. One hour apart from each other. Hooray :’(
By the way, expect a lot of Taylor Swift songs for songs for the week – I recently bought RED (her latest album) and it’s been on replay for a while now.
SONGS OF THE WEEK(S): Extra songs since it’s for 2 weeks!
Missing – Ayumi Hamasaki
6 weeks into university, and things have been pretty busy. I think this weekend had been the first weekend that I haven’t had any midterms to study for since the end of September… I finally get a bit of a break for myself!
I actually have pictures for this week, but somehow, WordPress won’t et me upload them. And there’s a whole bunch of copyright thingies which is confusing me :s
As usual, the week went by pretty quickly… had my first Physics midterm and second Bio midterm. It wasn’t bad, but as usual, I just aim to pass 🙂
Last Friday, I went to a bowling event that was organized by the Chemistry Course Union. I learned quite a few things in this experience. Firstly, I cannot play bowling with the large bowling balls. Secondly, Kelowna seems to have pretty nice bowling allyes (But then again, it’s not like I’ve been to many). Thirdly, if you and a few other people are the only first years, and the rest of the attendees are a bunch of older students, it gets pretty awkward. I mean it wasn’t bad, they tried to include us, but it was just… awkward. But either way, it was fun!
As much as I was so happy that I went back home for Thanksgiving, I think it threw me off my routine. When I came back, I had to catch up to my courses, but I’ve noticed that I’ve been going to classes later than usual and my sleep cycle has been kinda messed up. Like on Thursday night, I went through a Biology midterm, a Chem lab right after, then a Math lab while only running on two hours of sleep. Another thing I learned this week – as much fun doing an all-nighter is, DO NOT DO IT. I would be able to get away with it in high school, but it’s a big no-no here. Always get a good amount of sleep!
And as usual, there was the Physics clicker quiz. Our teacher was so funny! She had “a dream” where the whole class (100%) would answer the question with the same letter, and it would be right. I’m sorry, but I think the only time that will happen is if the class decides to troll her and just presses E on a question that only had A, B, and C 😛
I wish I had more to write about, but my week really has been just full of studying and taking midterms. It wasn’t like the first few weeks where something’s always happening (though I kinda wish it were) and so things are slowing down a bit. The midterms are still flying by like crazy, and before I know it, it’ll be November and I’ll have to start studying for finals!
And there would actually pictures, but… *sigh*
So that was my somewhat-eventful week. Maybe next week will be better since I only have a Biology lab exam. Lab exam? Like what in the world is that?
Oh, the new Taylor Swift album comes out really soon! I’m so excited for that! Will be buying the deluxe editions of Speak Now and the new album (hopefully)!
It has now reached my 5th week of Freshman Year, and I’m not on campus! Instead, I am here in my bedroom, enjoying the comforts of my home while enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday with my family. Before I get into how and why I’m here, I should start with what happened in Kelowna before I left.
To be totally honest, not many eventful things happened other than preparing for the torture that was my MATH 100 midterm and packing for my trip back home for the weekend. I thought i failed, but I actually just barely passed, so not bad 😀
The more interesting part about my weekend would probably be going to Vancouver for the long Thanksgiving weekend to see my family and friends – I’ve really missed Vancouver and everyone there! I could describe my whole trip in words, but I’ll just write under the captions of my pictures! That and I’m feeling too lazy to type 😛
SFU + UBC sandwich. Sister not knowing I was coming home = great surprise!
UBC INVASION AT SFU! One of the many things I’ve always wanted to do ever since stepping foot on the SFU campus.
Typical picture in front of the mosaics that many SFU students do – it’s actually such a pretty background!
Suprising my friends while “shopping” in Metrotown!
One thing that I will say is that even though I didn’t see my friends for a while, it’s nice that when I was talking to them, it felt like I never left! Sure, we had a month’s worth of stories to catch up on, but it was a good feeling to know that we haven’t drifted apart. Then again, it’s only been one month since I left and I think it helped that we communicate each other through Skype – some I talk to every night, some once in a while. Every moment counts, and as long as both sides of the friendship are making the effort, it’s bound to last! 🙂
I did visit SFU quite a few times during my stay, I went there for 3 of the 4 days I was in Vancouver LOL It’s not a bad school at all, in fact I’m one of the few people who can publicly admit that I love the campus and its whole concrete-feel. In my opinion, it’s not jail-like at all! I went to my friend’s linguistics class for LOLZ and I just ended up watching asian dramas for a good hour.
An actual SFU student and a not-so-actual SFU “student” in LING 100
Unfortunately, cause my arrival to Vancouver was secret and already planned out before I left (I spent most of the weekend with my family at home), I didn’t get to see all of my friends, but once December comes, I’ll be sure to see everyone I can!
I realize this post is SUPER LATE, but I’ve been so busy during the weekend and when I came back to school I’ve hardly had time to write!
SONGS OF THE WEEK:
Hug – DBSK (Oh the DBSK5 days…)
인생은 빛났다(Viva) – DBSK
Rainy Night – Junsu
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together – Taylor Swift
I think this post is a day late. I could’ve posted yesterday morning (like I usually do) but after all the work I did this week, I decided to be lazy and give myself a little break 😛
This week, I think I truly realized how quickly the social life of a student in Sciences can diminish. I had TWO midterms this week. That’s right, two. Having to study for those plus trying to catch up to Math and Physics has been a bit stressful, and cause everything is so time-consuming, I haven’t had time to do any social activities. It was either study for the midterm with other people, or study in my room by myself. Social isolation FTW!
Speaking of midterms, I think I underestimated Bio, while I overestimated on Chem. What I mean by that is the Bio midterm wasn’t bad (until I got my mark lol) and even if I studied the textbook and learning outcomes religiously for about a week and a half, I still feel like I wasn’t sure of what I was doing what I was reading, especially when I was looking through the midterm questions. So I’m gonna have to switch up my learning strategies for the next Bio midterms. Meanwhile, Chem was easier than I h originally thought. In terms of studying, my friend and I looked over the past midterms from up to 2005 and discussed how to do each question. Then the night before and the morning of the midterm, I did all the midterms after knowing how to do all the questions. So when I went in the midterm, a lot of the steps and procedures on how to do questions were still fresh in my mind, and so I found it pretty easy. Despite that, I’m sure I screwed up on naming and finding the element with only the number of electrons and protons. The answer key has been posted, but no thanks 😛
So that was my first two midterms – Bio was harder than I thought, Chem was easier than I thought. Look forward to my comments about the MATH 100 midterm on Friday! With my limited math and calculus knowledge, it’s bound to be a funny experience!
Speaking about social isolation, I didn’t really do much of that in the weekends. Last weekend, I went with my friends down at the big field (I still don’t know what it was called) at around midnight and just looked at the stars. It was pretty fun, but some cops came over cause we were bring a bit too loud and they thought we were drunk. Another thing I found different in university as compared to high school – If I ever laughed hysterically, people in highschool would just think someone said something really funny or I was just going crazy. In university, people will think you’re drunk. Understandable, yet pretty funny. Just wanted to point that fact out.
Stargazin’
Then yesterday was the Toga Party, I have to admit that the event was kinda lame cause there wasn’t very many people as compared to the blacklight party two weeks ago, but the night was still memorable in a different way.
Yeah, I’m definitely not gonna forget 😛
It’s hard to be seen, but there was a big mess lol
I also Skyped with my family a few times this week. It was so weird, seeing that only my two younger brothers were the only ones left at home while my older sister and I are at university. Time passes by so fast…. Anyways, my brother has the same phone as my sister and I, so I decided that it was a momentworthy of a photo.
Same phone!
Physics class is kinda boring. Sometimes it’s easy cause I’ve learned some of the concepts Physics 11, sometimes I just don’t understand what’s going on. All of yesterday was basically focused on catching up on Physics by doing all the online pre-tutorials and online assignments. It’s been somewhat difficult, but I need to start learning cause I have a midterm coming up soon.
Physics class is fun~
I also discovered some pretty good places to study, but for now I will only mention my favorite (so far) – the concrete steps at the Fipke building. It gets kinda noisy cause there’s a lot of human traffic once lectures are over, but when things are quiet, one can get a lot of stuff done. I was studying there when my sister went on Skype, so I decided to show her around the building. I was gonna keep it on while I walked to my Physics lab to show my sister the rest of campus, but then the wi-fi died on me. Curse you ubccsecure and your horrible connections!
Fipke Fun
I also had my first actual Chemistry lab this week! We didn’t do much, just read burettes and pipettes and did some measurements, no biggie. I’m excited for when we actually do some legit experiments with some legit toxic chemicals. It’ll be soo much fun! I didn’t get to fully enjoy it though – the lab was right after my Bio midterm, and I didn’t get a lot of sleep, so there was a lot of times in that lab where I almost drifted off to dreamland… oops.
Look at all I have to do for just one lab #braindead
Next week will be pretty interesting, after this week, I’ll have a week break from midterms… yay! Good luck to everyone else studying for their midterms! And for those in Grade 12, keep those academic averages up! First term doesn’t count for much (unless you’re doing early admission) but second term is really where it’s at!
I can’t believe that it’s been a month since I stepped foot into university! I’m still alive and kicking, and surprisingly not drowning in homework and have been keeping up with all the homework and readings. Except the Math homework, but one can’t help but procrastinate about it when the deadlines keep being extended.
This week, things have been finally been going back into school mode with midterms for BIOL 116 and CHEM 121 next week. I had a ton of epic fails this week. First, I studied for a quiz that turned out to be a take-home quiz, and only to learn that the actual in-class quiz will be on Monday. Secondly, probably the biggest fail – I missed the first Pre-Med Club meeting after being too absorbed into writing my Chem lab. I was very mad at myself. Thirdly, I volunteered to present how to do one of the homework questions in my Math lab, and I got it wrong. I did the method right, but I used the wrong numbers. I don’t think I got full marks. Oops.
But despite those two fails, this week has been very productive, especially with the labs! The Physics lab was mentally draining – we were doing an experiment and the profs hadn’t gone over the required concepts to properly do it, so the lab took way longer than everyone thought and everyone had to keep asking the TA questions. I felt bad for the TA since he had to keep running around and answering our questions, but what could we do?
I had my actual first Biology experiment in my BIOL 116 lab as well! It was so much fun, my group was testing whether mealworms would react better to brightness or darkness (“Come to the dark side, we have cookies”), and they obviously reacted better to darkness. All in all, it was basically watching mealworms move around a petri dish for 3 hours, but it wasn’t too bad. The mealworms kept trying to escape the dish, and that kept things interesting.
Me and the yummy mealworms
Our experiment – the white paper represented brightness while the black garbage bag represented darkness.
Our PHYS 112 class have weekly iClicker quizzes, and it’s been pretty easy so far, just all Physics 11 review. Except for the pre-tutorial assignments. Sometimes, I swear I’ve never seen such confusing equations before. But knowing me, I just probably forgot what they mean and what they do. Pretty typical 😛
Ready for this iClicker quiz! Us and our “Cleeeckers”
I got to explore more of the surrounding area when I went on an afternoon jog around the surrounding places outside campus. I don’t know if I was tresspassing or not (there were a lot of private property signs), but I didn’t do much but jog. I saw a LOT of horses, and a lot of crop fields. That’s Kelowna for you. But I saw a small lake (or is it a pond or a bog? Not really sure) and the view was amazing, especially with the sunset.
Beautiful view.
I should be eating lunch now, but all I wanna do is stay in my room and study for my upcoming midterms. When I write the next post, I’ll have probably done them already, so wish me luck!
Other interesting things that happened this week:
1. I finally got my first 100% BIOL 116 quiz. Probably not worth much, but doing my readings are actually paying off. Boo-yah.
2. My Extra-small lab coat is way too small for me, so I exchanged it with a friend who had a small size.
3. I bought my Chemistry lab notebook at the UBC Bookstore. I have to stop buying things there, too overpriced.
4. The cafeteria was serving Roast Beef with Mashed Potatoes and Vegetables. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy it.
5. My friend made Chicken Bacon and I tried some. Not bad, but nothing beats actual Bacon.
6. I miss eating rice. I’m Asian, I’m not used to eating things like fries with chicken strips and pizza or even pasta every night! Rice ftw.
With Create Week coming to an end, I thought that things might die down a bit but apparently not. More events happened this week (though not as much as Create Week) but with a BIOL 116 and CHEM 121 midterm happening next week, studying is starting to become the biggest priority.
Before I start with anything, I have to announce that I officially recieved my UBC hoodie! I’ve been waiting for this since forever, and to finally have it and be able to wear it gives me a very happy feeling 🙂
UBC What?
On Saturday, I bought my lab coat at the UBC Bookstore! I bought a lab coat and the SPC Card, which will be useful when I go out shopping here and in Vancouver for the summer 🙂 In total, those two items cost $50. I got a financial heart attack (it’s been happening quite a lot these days), and the UBCO Bookstore made a profit. Curse you overpriced items. I have yet to buy my lab goggles, and I fear for my life. I also fear that this Extra small labcoat has sleeves that are too short, and I’ll have to buy another one. Sigh.
All this for $50?!?!?! *faints*
On Sunday, UBC Okanagan’s last day of Create week held a Pep Rally for the girl’s soccer team! It was also the same day as their match against Douglas College. It was pretty cool, people were giving out signs for people to hold up, and in the courtyard, people were giving out free towels and face paint. I was also lucky enough to get a picture with none other than UBCO’s beloved mascot Ogi Ogopogo! I didn’t really stay at the soccer game for long though, all my pep got drained by the 27-degree Kelowna sunshine. Even just walking back to my dorm was difficult. There was also a free pancake breakfast that day, and you know how much I love my free food!
Getting my pep on after the pep rally in my nice and cool dorm room with air conditioning
Going to the pep rally with some friends 🙂
On Tuesday, UBC Okanagan finally held their Clubs and Union Course Day! Being the extra-curricular activity lover that I am, I joined a lot of clubs, probably way more that I should have with the academic workload that being in the Sciences comes with. But I’d rather be busy volunteering and getting involved with the community when I’m not doing my homework rather than partying. 😛
The clubs/unions I joined were: UBCO Pre-Med Society Chemistry Course Union UBCO Community Outreach Club Asian Student Association Southeast Asia Club UBCO Student Union
I’m gonna be quite busy this year, but I don’t mind. I think I’ll be able to balance this out with the work I have now (hopefully)
I was finally able to see the new (and undoubtedly the best) residence in UBCO – Purcell! I was able to go there twice, the first time to see my friend’s room, and the second time to do my math homework at the rooftop garden. I love how the whole place didn’t have a dorm feeling, it felt like one large luxurious hotel to me. And the rooftop garden is an amazing place to go to in the sunny weather. Studying won’t be effective there though, trust me 😛
Studying at the rooftop garden in Purcell on a nice sunny day
Friday was a crazy day. First event was the icebreaker for the Asian Student Association. I don’t ever seen such a large congregation of Asians in my time here in UBCO, I felt like I was back in Vancouver! No actually, make that Richmond 🙂 We played some really fun icebreaker games, danced to some oppa Gangnam style, ate free food – it was a lot of fun! It was nice to meet more Filipinos that I could speak Tagalog with, so that was a lot of fun 🙂 I want to try to sign up as an exec, but I don’t think I’m Asian-ized enough XP
Next was the All White Blacklight Dance Party held by UBCO’s DJ Club. It was a pretty fun night, and the place was packed. I was lucky enough to get a ticket before the event sold out! It was crazy, the place was full if backlight, and people were dancing everywhere, it kinda felt like a nightclub to me LOL But it was a lot of fun!
That was one crazy night.
In terms of school, there’s nothing special to mention – more lecture, labs, tutorials, etc. I my first labs this week, for PHYS 112 and BIOL 116. For the physics lab we had to graph stuff on excel (difficult at first glance, but not that bad), and for BIOL 116 lab I have to create the most suitable living condition for mealworms by next week. Fun. I had my PHYS 112 tutorial too, and even though the TA had an accent as well (Spanish accent I think), it was considerable more tolerable as the class only had a bit more than 30 people.
And there was something that my CHEM 121 prof said that really stood out to me this week. He was comparing high school and university, saying that the study methods for both institutions are noticeably different. While in highschool, one could get away by simply memorizing concepts and ideas, that won’t cut it in university. One has to actually understand the concept, understand the ideas, and know all the general trends and patterns. He promised us that on the first midterm, we will see something that we’ve never seen before, but we should be able to know how to solve it if we understand the concepts and know the general trends and patterns. It’s apparently a good way of sorting out who just memorizes the ideas and who actually understands the concepts and uses their problem-solving skills to answer the questions. It really shows how different university is from high school, and you really can’t get away with just only reading the textbook and memorizing. You actually have to know the concepts inside and out, and understand what goes on.
Some other not-so-interesting things that happened this week…
1. I had my first in-class iClicker quiz at PHYS 112 yesterday. I’m sure I got 100% on it, but if not – huge facepalm.
2. I did my first two loads of laundry on Sunday! The process went quite well, but my reaction to the prices was not pretty.
3. I learned that next month, my MATH 100 and PHYS 112 midterm will be on the same day. THE SAME DAY.
4. We did limit laws in the MATH 100 lecture yesterday. The first time in a long time that I felt smarter than everyone else, since I already knew the concept. Thank goodness for Calculus 12. For those who are taking it in high school, don’t be intimidated by the difficulty of the course! Just try to pass, and it will be extremely helpful in the long run, trust me!
5. I felt a bit homesick on Thursday. Actually, I was really homesick. But I’ll make a more detailed post on that later.
6. I learned that I have a burning hatred for significant figures, but I’m probably gonna have to deal with it for the next 4 years, maybe even the rest of my life. I’m trying to find a compromise 🙂
I am looking forward to nothing next week, it’ll just be filled with me preparing for my BIOL 116 and CHEM 121 midterms. Oh, but I will have my first CHEM 121 lab next week. That should be interesting~
My first post on my first year in the BSc program at UBC’s Okanagan campus! This is a historic moment~ As you can see, I’m gonna post every week (on Fridays or Saturdays) on this blog on what I’ve done since my previous post. This post might have a large amount of photos LOL Let me start off an what is the best thing ever in my room.
The amazing view from my window!
( Before I get started, I have to say that if you’re from Vancouver or a big city and you’re expecting Kelowna to be exactly the same – don’t even bother. The difference is great: there’s no skyscrapers anywhere and just mountains and hills as far as the eye can see, everything is laid-back since there’s no rush, and there’s only one or two shopping malls around here. Most shops are like outlets that you’ll find in the US, like big box stores such as Superstore and Wal-Mart. The summer weather is really hot, I would compare it to California sunshine just cause it’s THAT hot. I’m not saying Kelowna is a bad place at all (in fact I love it here) I’m just letting people know that the lifestyle here is extremely different than a bustling city like Vancouver. )
I moved into residence about a week ago (September 2nd), and it is awesome here! The move-in process was relatively quick, and I was able to settle in my room in a few hours. The room is a lot bigger than I thought! Here are some pictures of my room at Valhalla:
What my room looks like from the door
My small closet
My desk/workstation – I’m always excited to do my homework now!
I’ve never had my own room, so it’s been a really exciting experience to have my own space and be able to do what I want when I want, as rebellious as that sounds.
My bed with my K-Pop posters!
I was also able to solve my problem with the textbooks, and I picked them up at the campus bookstore. All the books came in one huge box, which was a pain to carry back up to my room since I have to go up a crazy amount of stairs.
The week has been full of crazy events, especially since the UBC Okanagan Camus held its first Create week, which is basically a frosh week full of events for UBCO students! I went to a lot of events, but the one that stood out for me was the white t-shirt party, that was a crazyy event 🙂
Me and some friends at the White T-shirt party before it was full of random scribbles and signatures 🙂
I finally understand why UBCO is different than UBC Vancouver, other than the fact that the sizes are noticably different. This could probably apply with Vancouver and Kelowna as well. The place really does feel like one big community, everyone here knows each other. I’ll walk around campus and a lot of people I see as I walk to class would say hi to me and I’d say hi back and have a small conversation sometimes.
While grocery shopping, I also went on what is probably the only best thing about Kelowna’s transit system – a double decker bus! The transit here is embarrassing compared to Vancouver since the buses here are 20-30 minutes apart compared to every 5 minutes in Vancouver :s
A double decker bus in Kelowna heading to UBCO
Other than that, things have been basically been full of school. I’ve definitely noticed that university is a heck of a lot different from highschool, and homework has been piling up really quickly, and we’re just doing review in our courses!
Lectures have been particularly interesting, and professors have really different teaching styles as compared to highschool teachers. One thing that university really presses into your head is that YOU HAVE TO TAKE INITIATIVE, BE INDEPENDENT. There’s a lot of things that you have to do on your own, or you have to learn the material on your own, especially if the professor’s teaching style doesn’t mesh well with you. And it becomes that much harder since the teachers are just being fired at you like bullets from a machine gun, and if you get behind, it’ll be a really difficult process to catch up.
It turns out that the CHEM 121 profs have been totally switched up, so my CHEM 121 section has the best prof, and I really enjoy the class. There’s no professor that I’ve had any difficulty with so far. I didn’t like my MATH 100 and PHYS 112 prof at first, but I’m slowly starting to get used to their teaching styles so it’s going well.
To end off my week, I finished my BIOL 116 pre-assessment quiz and ended up with a 92%, did the textbook questions for the first chapter of my CHEM 121 textbook, and finished 90% of my Math online assignment. All while going to Create Week events/parties and having an actual social life. Not bad for the first week of university.
SONGS OF THE WEEK: (Music is one of the primary things I use to remember things, and so every week, I will include one or two songs I’ve listened to that remind me of the things I’ve done this week. Who knows, you light like the songs yourself :D)
I have finally arrived! I don’t move in residence until September 2nd, but I thought it would be nice to see the UBC Okanagan campus before I move in since I’ve never been there before, so I went on a campus tour! To all those who are planning to book a UBC Campus tour – book them early! Spots fill up like crazy – I booked my campus tour for today (August 22nd) in June, and it was full when I checked a few weeks later. Just letting people know 😛
Anyways, the UBCO campus really is an amazing place! Pictures really don’t do the place justice, cause seeing it in real life along with the beautiful Kelowna sunshine (and California-like heat) is really something else! The campus is extremely small as compared to the UBC Vancouver campus (well no duh LOL) but it’s not as small as I thought it would be. The buildings and lecture halls are exceptionally nice, and one of the lecture halls our tour group went into is actually the lecture hall for my CHEM 121, MATH 100, and PHYS 112 classes, so it was good to see where 3/4 of my classes will take place 🙂 I really was impressed, and now I’m really excited to start my first year experience! My mom and I took pictures around campus (Like the Asian tourists we are) since the new buildings looked so amazing. Although I’m not in Engineering/Management/Education, I can see myself going into the EME building a lot to study just cause the building is so quiet. And pretty 🙂
After the campus tour, there was still enough time for me to get my student ID and UPass, and so I did! The building to get your student ID (called the UBCcard) is located at the UNC building, just go up the first set of stairs you see and turn right. There’s a large counter there where you can not only get your UBCcard, but you can also get your tuition paid there as well! For those with BC Provincial Exam Scholarships, you can also get the voucher signed there 🙂
Well, that’s done and over with hahaha! I’m really excited for first year to start! 😀
Thank goodness I don’t have to buy this much textbooks – at least I don’t think I have to…
Oh, I remember back in June after highschool ended – I had anticipated textbook shopping would be one of the funnest experiences in terms of university preparation. Everything would go smoothly, and I would be able to quickly enjoy my textbooks and the smell of their new-ness (or used-ness).
Boy, was I wrong. I don’t have my textbooks yet either 🙁
My name is Earl, first year student in Sciences at UBC Okanagan. Hoping to major in Biochemistry (medical concentration). I like K-Pop and J-Pop to the point where I can almost admit that it's an unhealthy obsession. Join me as I talk about my UBC Adventures, from first year and beyond!
