I’m bummed I wasn’t there in the rare snowy conditions of UBC campus to see the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Student Union Building. Check out the raw video footage courtesy of the Ubyssey. For all prospective UBC Vancouver students, you’ll one day get to use this new fancy building.
Currently: Sitting on my back patio in the late afternoon, streaming The Peak, looking at all the big green plants, and the tall buildings of the Brisbane business district behind me.
This week, classes started at my exchange university, the University of Queensland. A school surrounded by water on three sides (kind of like UBC, except it’s the Brisbane river), with a lot of sandstone buildings and no textbooks in need of being purchased. After attending UBC for three years it is really interesting going to another university where every class has a tutorial (I think I’ve only had one tutorial at UBC), lectures are usually video taped and put up online, and readings are hardly mandatory (that’s probably why I have no textbooks).
The cool things about Brisbane are as follows:
– Busways, like having a subway or Sky Train, but with buses. Brisbane has dedicated bus highways throughout the city to guarantee few interruptions and have created elaborate bus stations almost like a stop on the Canada Line. For example, I know I need to take a bus to Woolloongabba Station to get home and I just need to cat something along the busway to get there.
– Limes are as cheap as in Canada! Where they were $5 for two in New Zealand, here I pay around 40 cents each. Important for a girl who’s residence floor made her fall in love with guacamole and you now make it once a day as a replacement for real dinner.
– Boost Juice Bars, the Booster Juice of Australia. I’ve been learning how to stick to a budget now that I’m paying rent and buying groceries (goodbye to my safe 3 years in Totem Park with a dinning hall). Just trying to justify $6.50 AUS a day in the budget for an original sized strawberry, watermelon, and pineapple juice with lots of lemon.
Other updates:
– Everyone thinks I’m American. One restaurant identified me as Canadian, only because he watches How I Met Your Mother, he told me. He’s in the know.
– My new Australian debit card sparkles. Shannon Sterling would like that detail.
– My house is the loveliest summer home. Here’s a photo of part of my room:
For the last two months I’ve had summer vacation. Next week I begin classes as a Go Global exchange student at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Here’s what has happened during my “summer vacation.”
Slept on my friend’s couch for two weeks leading up to the 2012 Student Leadership Conference (SLC), in their apartment they’ve named Naropa (named after a university in Boulder, Colorado).
My welcome letter to Naropa
Had my SLC Director make this poster for my friends:
Made this awesome video for the opening ceremonies at the 2012 Student Leadership Conference:
Later, agreed to take a break from throwing paint at people.
Chloe, our Volunteer Coordinator getting ready to shoot the opening ceremonies video
After months and months of planning, the SLC finally happened!
The Communications and Promotions Portfolio at the SLC awards reception
Then, only 48 hours after the SLC, boarded a plane for New Zealand with Brian and Dylan. Eventually, we showed up in Auckland and took this photo in a coffee shop the day we arrived:
Brain, Dylan, and I are all past Residence Advisors and this year’s members of the SLC planning committee. It worked out well that we are all on exchange in Australia this term, that way the three of us could travel together.
Began participating in WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) where we learned about sustainable and organic farming while living and working on farms on the North Island of New Zealand. Here’s a photo with one of our hosts, the Jones family, who own a dairy farm in Kerikeri. I can now add cow milking to my list of experiences.
The Jones family with Brian, Dylan, and I
Finished off the month with sea kayaking, islands, penguins, more organic farming, more weeding on organic farms, and more driving around New Zealand. Next post: what happened in month two of my “summer vacation.”
One of my proudest moments at UBC is making the “OurCampus” in the Ubyssey. For those of you who don’t know, every edition of the school paper features a new person who contributes to what UBC is today.
This year’s Faces of Today: http://slc.ubc.ca/
Videos to be released at the UBC Student Leadership Conference on January 14th, 2012 (see you then!).
Article: http://ubyssey.ca/
At the beginning of this month, one of my wonderful Assistant Managers, Anna, and her team from lululemon put on the first ever lululemon Yoga Rave. Over 400 people, all in white, glow sticks, in Gastown, participating in a kundalini class together. There was even a girl with a hula hoop.
Here is the video that lululemon made from footage of the event. Look for me somewhere around the 1:53 mark, and thanks to Brianna and Amanda (both past Totem Park residents of mine) for coming out with me!
I just have to post this video in case some people on UBC campus have not seen it yet. As Productions Coordinator for the 2012 UBC Student Leadership Conference, I was put in charge of filming a promotional campaign for conference registration. So, here’s the final product of that! You just need to see what that turned out to be, it’s a pretty good laugh and a really fun way to spend one minute and ten seconds of your day.
Stay tuned for more video content and an extended footage version of the shoot!
My goal setting sheet, updated November 23rd, 2011. Click the image to see it in a larger size.
Have you ever thought about what you want your life to be like in 5 years, or even 10 years? lululemon athletica provides these awesome goal setting worksheets and education materials on their website. Recently, I’ve started working at their Kitsilano store and tonight at our staff meeting I’ve been asked to hand in my goals for the next ten years (don’t worry, we get to update them every month). At lululemon athletica, the people they employ in their stores have their goals posted in store for guests to see. Why would they do this? It’s simple, it keeps you accountable to your goals when you share your goals with other people who are committed to achieving their own goals and helping you achieve yours.
So, here are my goals. It’s not easy putting things like this out there because of fears for criticism, but I’m willing to take the risk and hopefully inspire someone to explore writing out their goals by doing so.
Note: goals have been updated since blog post.
A postcard momma bakes mailed me that was cut from a Cheerios box. I didn’t know my family started eating Cherrios since I left for university.
I probably couldn’t get through university without my mom (momma bakes). Since first year, she has sent me several pieces of mail per week (I’m not kidding). Everything from stamps, to candy, to family photos, to cards, to gifts cards and more. Whatever can fit in a regular sized envelope, she sends. She’s never been to university, she’s hardly goes past our town’s boundaries, but she knows that it’s not easy.
This Cheerios post card she mailed me is one of the greatest pieces of mail I’ve ever received from her. The clipping from our address book that had a drawing I made when I was really little was also great. So was that time she mailed me Halloween candy and I opened it up in a lecture, with looks from fellow classmates, and began explaining what my mom does as I offered them treats in a forestry lecture.
Academics have been my biggest struggle at university. I’ve often felt like I couldn’t get the grades I needed in my classes, do well on assignments, or dig myself out of the constant low grades I was receiving in some courses. These cards let me know that even though I’m far from my mom and she knows nothing about university, I’m not alone and I’ve got a mom cheering me on from our small town in Ontario.
Lately, I’ve tried to remember the things my mom tells me. I’ve been passing it onto residents as their Residence Advisor and I’ve been keeping them post it notes in my room to remind me that things will work out in the end. Today, I put one of her phrases on my hand to put things into perspective. “This too shall pass.” When you are so far in, it’s hard to see that the present is so insignificant to the greater scheme of things, and that this is not the end of the world if things aren’t going your way. Everything will work out the way it is supposed to and whatever is the low of your day will not carry on forever. That’s exactly what I need today. Also a little, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Because I can’t change my bad grades, or the bad choices I’ve made, but I can focus on improving the future. That’s what I’m going to do. Thank you, momma bakes.
A photo of momma bakes and I at the ROM in Toronto, the summer after first year. She left our town’s boundaries that day, I had to be the one who drove to Toronto for us.
Arcade Fire- Sprawl II
I wonder if midterms could be classified as more difficult than finals.. because you need to attend to co-curricular activities, readings, and attending classes all at the same time. Where as in exams, everything seems to stop for you. I’m in the height of my midterms right now, although it seems as if they have been happening for 4 weeks now (they probably have been). I have to know everything about volcanoes for my ESOC 114 course by the end of today and I have the hardest midterm I’ve ever encountered for my FNSP theory class going down this Thursday at 11am.
That’s a snap shot of my academic life right meow for you.
Whenever I hear this song on the Peak, I get excited. This is Snow Patrol’s Called Out In The Dark. Although the music video is strange, and takes away from the vibe I get when I listen to the song by itself, I still enjoy it. I’m also eating caramel apple kettle corn from the UBC apple festival for breakfast right now, so you can be the judge of what is more strange.
