Category Archives: All things UBC

The Best of Semester One

In 2 quick days I’ll be starting my 2nd semester of first year. After watching both seasons of Dorm Life in my short time that I’ve been home, it inspired me to show you what my first semester in Totem Park looked like. Dorm Life follows the lives of a floor in residence as they go through their first year of university and each season covers an one semester. If it wasn’t for living in residence, I wouldn’t have had all these memories to post from the last few months. If Dorm Life was following the lives of those who lived on 2nd Nootka, viewers wouldn’t be disappointed. I’m a firm believer in the university residence experience and I wouldn’t want to be living anywhere else. Here are photos of my friends and I from Totem Park & some of the memories we’ll always have.

AMS Annual Welcome Back BBQ with Thinderheist & Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head

First Week Under The Stars Dance with Totem ladies

The Thunderbirds Homecoming Football Game
We still have no idea who the girl on the left is who jumped into our photo

Nootka at Totem Colour Wars!
The front of our shirts say, “Where da gold at???”
Apparently it’s a YouTube video that I’m yet to see

2nd Nootka on our way to the legendary Glow Dance

We climbed the “E” outside of the engineering buildings on Main Mall
Quote: “We’re like Sex and the City but younger.. and hotter.. and we live in Totem.”

A bunch of us from our floor went to Fright Nights at the PNE, for a lot of us our first time. We loved this actor. She slid on knee pads towards unsuspecting people, rock on.

My Thanksgiving weekend trip to the Okanagan with Lindsey and Elia from Dene
We took a hike up a mountain for an awesome view


Having our American Thanksgiving dinner that we made in Marine Drive Res
Mmmm… homemade Marine Drive apple pie!

18th birthday dinner with the girls from 2nd Nootka
(We went to Enigma on  W 10th, really good!)

Totem Winter Formal
The dining hall had AMAZING stuffing, not gonna lie!

Totem Gets Classy Dance after our Winter Formal dinner

Flying like Mary Poppins with my extremely broken umbrella outside the SUB on Megan’s birthday

AMS Dramazz: One Pro and One Con.

We’re missing a few important things that come out of this whole AMS/UN/BLAKE & TIM affair. No, it’s no that the AMS can’t function as a whole or that this is a lesson on communications and less about the complaint to the UN. There are a few things we can learn from all the dramazz and I haven’t heard anyone mention these ones yet. So, here they are. One positive and one con that I’ve learned from sitting back and watching it all unfold.

Positive: The UBC student body is actually paying attention to what the AMS is doing and what is happening on campus. It’s exciting for me when the front page of the Ubyssey says in vibrant red writing, “We received over 47 letters on the AMS/UN debacle. Read a random selection on page 9 or read them all at ubyssey.ca/ideas.” On Totem Park Formal night I tuned into the Live Blog of the emergency council meeting. I was so into it that I didn’t want to go to the formal and I wished I was in Hebb Theatre to hear students express their thoughts. I even got a few laughs from others in the Live Blog when they were serving pizza in Hebb before the meeting started and I commented “pizza = the last supper.”

I would forever be pleased if a large number of students beyond the members of the AMS continued to be engaged in campus politics and always question the actions of the AMS. After all the Twitter trending topics like #amscouncil and #amsUNfail, don’t you think that all of this has been exiting and interesting to follow? If I had one #decemberwish it would be that UBC students continue to be engaged in what the AMS does and stays interested. Maybe with growing interest we’ll breed even better student leaders and create a better sense of awareness of what is happening on campus. A few weeks ago the Ubyssey had a short news brief that TransLink is going to start charging us for the Canada Line $2.50 and our U-PASS will not cover the charge. I was shocked when I didn’t see it blow up into a big news story!

I met Blake, AMS President, for the first time a week before this whole UN debacle, as the Ubyseey calls it. This was around the time that I first read about the $2.50 charge on top of our U-PASS  that comes into affect on January 1st, 2010. I asked him if the AMS was doing anything about it. He said that our contract for the U-PASS says that it covers everything that is TransLink. But, the reason that Canada Line is thinking that it can charge us is because it was built under a third party. Blake said that the AMS is looking into this- which pleased me a lot. I really do not think TransLink should be charging us $2.50 plus our U-PASS every time we want to travel on the Canada Line between Bridgeport and Templeton Station. I’ve been asking people I know if they were aware of what we will be charged when we fly into YVR for January 4th classes. They had no idea. I think that most UBC students will be in for a shock when they come back for Term 2. I wish there was more discussion from students on this issue now instead of in January when the “Add Fare” has already came into affect.

Con: I am ashamed to be a member of the student body after finding content online of students personally attacking Blake about things unrelated to his actions. I’m ashamed of the images I found of Blake photoshopped with a Communist symbol added to the image. I’m ashamed that students would go to such lows and take this as an opportunity to take a hit at someone who had the guts to run for AMS President because I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who could never put themselves out there like that in fear of being targeted. In reality, those people who are scared of being targeted are the same people who are targeting Blake. Writing hateful comments is not the way to create change on campus. Plain and simple. We learned how to act like adults in elementary school. We’re university students.

Music Monday & the end of the term.

Here we are. The last few glorious and most stressful few days of the term. Where every major assignment is due and you spent your weekend partying. Things have been interesting this weekend. From emergency AMS meetings to making American Thanksgiving dinner in Marine Drive Residence to the UN taking over the knoll (which I visited the next day and with much disappointment I found that the flag was no longer there) and all the way to the annual Totem Park Winter Formal. I can say that I will not be sleeping until Thursday thanks to my exciting weekend as I have pretty heavy homework load. I can promise you that Thursday I will be in bed all day and you won’t see me until dinner time, if that.

Since it is the end of the term, it’s time for an end of the term resolution. Kind of like new years, but cooler.

Here it is: For Term 2 I will never have another sleepless night and I will plan better for all of my midterms, term papers and exams.

Here is Passion Pit‘s song called Sleepyhead for your listening and stress-crying pleasure. I know all I want to do is sleep and never endure another sleepless night after this term.

YouTube Preview Image

AMS Dramazz, again.

Are you aware of what is currently going down? UN Complaint? Dramazz? Resignations? Tuition increases? Emergency AMS Council meetings on a Saturday?

Check out the entire story here from the UBC Insiders so you are no longer going “wtf?”

Check out the most recent update from the Ubyssey about the newest dramazz of the President and VP External being asked to resign tomorrow. Read it here.

The Ubyssey is hosting a live blog during tomorrow’s emergency AMS Meeting at 5pm PST. Check it out here.

Check out the agenda for the Saturday AMS meeting here. Which, is full of dramazz asking Blake Frederick to resign.

Submit your thoughts as a student here on all the dramazz.

I’m Almost Done 1st Term!

I’m feeling like I really want to share some music.

YouTube Preview Image

Cazals- Somebody Somewhere

I can’t believe next week is the last week of classes. No more 9ams all week long. I’m also bummed that the winter break marks the half way point for the year. That means I’m halfway through my stay in Totem and I never want to leave.

I’m enjoying Vancouver a lot. I’ve noticed that the city loves to have as many restaurants as possible and everyone wants to dine out all of the time. Vancouver is also really big on marshmallow brownies and very sugary cupcake stores. It’s true- all it does is rain. It’s almost December and whenever I step outside I never feel cold but I’m always a victim of buckets of rain. One of the weirdest things I don’t understand is the glowing green sky that I saw to the south of campus last night, it was super strange. I wish I still had a BlackBerry so I could of taken a photo to show you. Can anyone explain why the sky would be glowing green?

Hey Joshua Jackson,

Hey Joshua Jackson,

It’s good to know you are on campus filming Fringe. I’ve missed you since TBS disappeared and I haven’t watched Dawson’s Creek in a really long time. Besides getting to know that your pretty face is hanging around UBC for the next little while, all the TV show cop cars that are parked at Buchanan Tower really make my day. I didn’t know that there was a ‘555’ number that I could use to reach the local police. You learn something new everyday. Just like I didn’t even know vehicles were allowed to park next to Buchanan Tower in the middle of a walkway. I’m glad I didn’t accidently scratch your cars with all my text books. I’m pretty clumsy at times.

I feel like no one has formally welcomed you to UBC. Well, welcome Joshy. Come by Totem Park sometime and I’ll feed you Lychee juice boxes and fill your pockets with Pocky. It’s only the right way to welcome you to campus. If you have some free time tonight, I’d appreciate some term paper help as well. I don’t know, you just look like that swell kind of guy who wants to help and you seem to enjoy Buchanan just as much as any other Arts student. Oh and if you happen to know whoever the guy is who chose Buchanan Tower as the place for the bad guys to hang out in for the X-Men Origins Wolverine movie, let me know. I wanna talk to him because that’s just wild.

And since you are in town, I was wondering if you knew that the Cullens were selling their home in West Van. Wanna buy it for me?

k thanks Pacey for the $3.3 million for the house, Erica. 🙂

An open letter to the Coordinating Editor of The Ubyssey

Dear Paul Bucci,

I wanted to express my adoration for the newspaper that is filled with juicy UBC goodness like a jelly filled doughnut. Every Monday I pick it up in Lasserre before I go to my scary modern art lecture and every Thursday I grab it in Totem on my way to the dining hall. Yes, I am one of those people who ask themselves, “what day is today?” only to figure out if there is a new issue printed and ready for my little hands to flip through. Thank you for being printed twice a week. Others should follow in your example like Christmas or birthdays. Wouldn’t it be magical- Christmas twice a week?

Thank you for keeping me company when I stand in long lines on campus like the sandwich bar in the dining hall or when I’m at Starbucks in the SUB. Paul, can I call you Paul? I will. Paul, thank you for working so hard on such an important piece of.. dare I say?  Literature. I can picture you now, working away in your office in the SUB, spending those long Sunday and Wednesday nights putting together the final pieces of the paper. If I wasn’t just some random UBC Blog Squad girl, Paul, I’d bring you some bubble tea or some yam sushi from the Honour Roll and I’d make your day a little less stressful.

I do have one question for you, Paulie. Who chooses the advertisements for The Ubyssey and where they are placed in the layouts? A few weeks ago, these “MULTI ORGASMIC SEX” advertisements started appearing next to other ads like “PROFESSIONAL EDITING.” I don’t know what the reader demographic is for the campus paper but, maybe if I was a lonely student or more adventurous, I would appreciate the photo of the girl with the sex toy in her hands. Even better is the line that states “15% Off with UBC Student Card.” Yippy.

I can only imagine the kind of person you are. Probably brown hair, maybe glasses, and you eat a lot of Subway. Those are my guesses. My biggest wonder is if you are an iPhone or a BlackBerry kind of guy. If you are a BlackBerry kind of guy, I think we could get along mighty fine and even search for my BlackBerry thief together.

In the end, words cannot describe my burning passion that I have for The Ubyssey and such a hard working editor. So much so that I write this over-dramatized letter publicly on my blog. If you ever need someone to bring you lots of Asian food or write articles like “Going drag for Cantonese opera” then surely you know that I’m your girl. Keep up your good work, Paulie.

Sincerly your dearest reader,

Erica

Music Tuesday & I’m back British Columbia!

I’m back from presenting at OSLC in Niagara Falls and I’ve returned to living life large in Totem Park. Ohh sandwich bar, how I missed you. Now it is time to crack down on my term papers. But first, tonight I’ll be in Lasserre 104 with the Art History Student Association watching the Rape of Europa. It’s a free film put on by the AHSA which is pretty awesome. Since it is an awesome event, you all are invited as my personal guests. A few weeks ago they showed My Kid Could Paint That which was a great documentary that came with free popcorn. I forgot to invite you.

Since I’ve been hanging out in airports and other provinces, I have neglected Music Monday. Well, I flew back in the middle of the night last night, successfully missed my VISA 182 studio by accident, and here I am with some Music Tuesday lovin’ for you.

YouTube Preview Image

David Bowie- Young Americans

Where in the world has Erica been?

The answer? A lot of red eye flights back and forth from Toronto. From one conference to the next and trying to keep up with my classes. On Monday I present at a conference in Ontario about youth in politics. I’m really stoked because I’m taking my creative juices in with me to the presentation. I was presented with a challenge from the conference organizers- to save money there will be no screens or projectors. So what do you do when you don’t have a powerpoint but you don’t want to just stand there and lecture someone? You create your own story book that tells the story of who you are and what you want to talk about for the entire audience. I’m working on that this week and super excited about it.

Also, I’ve always had the issue of never having business cards to give out. I could never figure out what I wanted to put on a business card that I wouldn’t get tired of after paying all that money to have them printed. My solution? I headed down to Deserres, the incredibly big and incredibly awesome art supplies store by the Granville stop on the 99. I’m making my own business cards by hand from hard copy scrap booking paper, cutting it to business card size, decorating it with thin strips of paper and stamping it with a bird on a branch. I’ll add my name and contact info in really nice print and make each card an individual experience. I actually think it is a great idea. It adds value, time, effort and tells a lot about who I am. I still struggle with what I should write under my name that captures everything I do.

With all of these conferences though, I’m spending a lot of time away from Vancouver and the weeks are flying by. I’m missing a day or two of class from the whole experience but that I’ve been able to manage. Some professors are scary but some are pretty cool. My French 101 Prof, Professor Bodolec, was awesome and was even willing to move my Chapter 3 test to another day so I could present at this conference on Monday. I let him know as early as possible (September) and he was really understanding.

The one thing that scares me is that I realized my first term paper is due in 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS! 30% of my grade! No one in high school taught me about intense research or how to write 2500 words! It’s super scary. I’m worried with being gone this weekend and preparing for the conference that it’s going to make 2 weeks turn into 1 week and then only a few days. I never realized how soon November 18th was.. especially since my Prof never mentioned the term paper in the lecture and I just so happened to think about it the other day and check the syllabus. This is the hardest thing I’m dealing with right now.. and this is what I’ve figured out.

1) I’m scared. 2) I can’t do it all and school on top of that. 3) Holy crap.

Here’s what I’ve done about it.

1 ) I’ve taken a leave of absence from my job. Even though I work under 10 hours a week, the commute kills me and it takes up my entire day. Don’t work! Don’t get a job! I am a shop-a-holic and I spend like there is no tomorrow but it is just something that has to be done. November is my focusing month and December is exams. I have a life size painting of myself that I need to complete, 3 term papers and 4 exams. I need those two extra days in my week.

2 ) I met with Vanessa Kam, the wicked-awesome Art Librarian in Irving K. She told me about how to research in the UBC Library (because I felt like no one so far has taught me much about research) and pointed me in the direction of who I can ask about writing. She also gave me an idea about the process of writing a term paper and offered more help if needed. It’s a good idea to seek help from subject librarians.

3 ) I followed Vanessa’s advice and I went to the Chapman Learning Commons and found out that there is drop-in writing help from 4-8pm Monday to Thursday for stuff like grammar and writing styles. There is also research help from 12-2pm Monday to Friday and 4-6pm Monday to Thursday which is great to get you started when you have no idea what to look for or what to do. I was told it gets really busy within the next two weeks and will continue until the end of the semester but right now it’s not so bad! I should meet with them next week. Turns out that room is for something more than just looking pretty.

4 ) I’m reading on the bus. Usually I sit there and relax on my long rides down Broadway. Now I’m diving into Canada’s Judiciary and reading what Prime Minister Harper had to say back in 2001 about building Alberta’s “firewall.” I can get through so much on a bus ride and I didn’t realize it. I recommend that everyone tries this. The only hard thing is when people are talking and distracting. That’s when you start to read the same sentence 6 times or you get through a page and then you don’t even know what you just read.

5 ) I’m trying to limit what I do during the week to make more time for school work if I’m gone all the time to Ontario for conferences. I can’t do it all, right?

6 ) I’m finding quiet study spaces other than Irving K Barber because as much as I love the environment- it is often hard to concentrate there. On Friday I studied in the 1960’s study space located in the 2nd floor links in the Totem houses. So quiet. No one knows they exist. They are ugly. Why go there. Exactly. Get stuff done.

7 ) Sleep is helping me stay awake during lectures! I actually didn’t feel sleepy yesterday in Art History for the first time in a while. I’m retaining more from the lectures. I still need to work on this, for example, it is almost midnight as I write this and I still have to start my readings for tomorrow. Long story to why it is midnight and why I am just starting now but let’s just say let’s not smash our lamps at nine in the morning, kids.

8 ) “Be Awesome.”

9 ) Don’t even bother putting in contacts instead of glasses. Don’t even bother with a hair straightener… people liked big hair in the 80’s anyways. And my boyfriend is still sticking around me with my messy hair. It’s all cool.

10 ) Don’t sit next to people you like to pass notes with in lectures. If you do sit next to someone you talk to during lectures, tell me what your lecture was about afterwards. I’ve now started sitting on the other side of my Poli Sci lecture hall for the first time this semester just so I can retain information and learn. Every little bit helps.

Please send me positive vibes as I embark on the painting, those SCARY term papers (especially the one due in 2 weeks that we will nickname “the Beast”), and my final exams. I’ll send you positive vibes back and keep you updated on the Beast.