Tag Archives: Totem Park Residence

An End To A Beginning

With the return of home-cooked meals and the promise of summer approaching, my first year is over. Exams are finished, residences are empty, and I now have no place to get curly fries at 10:30. I’ll think about getting a deep fryer. But it’s truly over. I still remember being stuck in the ramblings of exam crazy brain, with a (not so) healthy dose of bulk juice bottles and cheese-flavoured everything. I still remember a lot of stuff. It’s probably because (and this competes for the most famous cliché) it all went so fast. So without further ado, I present to you my thoughts on first year. Bon appétit.

It was exhilarating, dynamic, and other such words you’d find in eyeliner ads. It was definitely an experience. I began as a Radiohead-obsessed plaid-wearing hipster. But I’ve changed. I’ve gone through a transformation. I’m now a Bon Iver-obsessed plaid-wearing hipster. I know, quite the change. But I don’t feel my first year was about that momentous change everyone thinks of when they look to university. It was more about the fine-tuning. I feel like, going into university, I was an empty house, with walls set up and a roof over my head, but with little in the rooms. Sure, there’ll be some high school passions I’ve retained, but this year was about discovery, about what I’d fill my rooms with, who I am and what I love to do. So let’s get to the fun details.

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So Much Done. So Much To Do.

I’ve been off the grid for a while. I’d like to say I was chosen as the new 007 agent and had to recover a priceless diamond/nuclear launch codes/world leader from utter catastrophe, but this, sadly, is not the case. The truth is much less explosive, much less dangerous, much more stirred than shaken. I was simply, in simple terms, referring to my simple actions, busy. I can easily look to the end of classes as validation, and I will. Papers and papers and papers. Seven pages about fascism. Ten pages about the Taliban. Nine pages about my trip to New York. Now, that last one does seem like the odd one out. It even sounds fun to some. But, what if I told you *flashlight under chin, said in spooky voice* THAT IT WAS WRITTEN IN FRENCH!

Yes, French, the bane of my education. Many call it the language of love. I call it the language of required credits. I’ll one day appreciate its beauty, its flow, its bravado (ironically, a Spanish word), but today’s not the day. Neither will the next thousand. This is one of those cases where my education won’t come from school, where it won’t come from a teacher. That reminds me, French teachers always had the best disapproving glares. Beat out Science teachers for sure. English teachers never seemed to glare. Probably because of their love of poetry and happy endings. But that’s beside the point.

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Don’t Waste Your Lulls and Don’t Fret In Stress

There’s a lull in the air. It just feels like UBC’s taking it easy this week. I mean, I’m sure somewhere the Klingon Klub is madly organizing their bi-annual Spock-a-thon, but the general vibe is like a surfer at the foot of the ocean: calm, cool, and collected, just waiting for that big wave. My flood of responsibility subsided Tuesday, when after the deadline of a Ubyssey article on Friday, my academic catch-up on the weekend, and a class-filled hailstorm on Monday, I was just left to myself, in my dorm, with no abundant task at hand. I mean, I did have to define the overarching concepts of justice and morality for Philosophy 100, but come on, an amateur philosopher could do that. Someone like Plato. Oh, philosophy burn! I kid the man. He’s a genius. Plus, he’s been dead for over 2000 years. I don’t think he’ll be that offended.

Anyways, I had a personal lull. And do you know what’s the worst thing for me during a productivity lull? Trying out season one of The Wire that I got for Christmas. Why didn’t I just turn down my productivity into negatives, like an anti-Spinal Tap:

“See, most people’s productivity can only go to -10, but mine, see, mine, it goes to -11.”

So, I guess my main report today, developed through tireless research, with selected help from four sign language-trained chimpanzees and one Yahtzee-trained elephant, is that The Wire is a very good show. But that’s just what it’s like in a lull. And maybe I should be rejoicing. The very fact I get to enjoy an HBO show, stuck between two sides of my productivity-laden space-time continuum, is a sign that I’m enjoying the time I’m given, spent idly taking in a well-crafted story or vigourously volunteering around the campus, be it for The Ubyssey, CiTR, or even my comfy home here at Blog Squad. So what I’m saying is, don’t waste your lulls and don’t fret in stress. The two balance out. If you relax, aspire, and produce, well then the world just keeps going ‘round.

Anything and Everything: A Review of My First Semester Adventure

A full semester of UBC. A full semester of equal parts haste, equal parts precision. It showed me that intuition and intellect go nowhere without hard work, much like the papers to prove said intellect. It was fun though. I felt like an high school exchange student in a foreign nation, recognizing key concepts and learning patterns but reveling in this newfound form of tweaked education. Also, I can see the difference between high school and university now. At high school you’re part of the mass, trying to shine just a bit brighter than that guy or that girl. But at university, you’re a shining individual (that’s why you were accepted!), making up the shining mass. I like to think of university as a league of superheroes, because I’m amazed by what people are doing around me, intellectually and socially.

The clubs we have are amazing. I had the opportunity to be in a UBCimprov workshop, and it was my social highlight of the semester. There’s a beautifully ridiculous aura you gain when telling a story about a goat’s estranged mother, a balloon party for lumberjacks, an amusement park in a swamp, anything you want to say. That’s what improv is. It’s those niches we crave which give us the experiences we treasure. How many 100-level courses will we vividly remember? A couple, I’d say. And only the ones that truly touched us. But that crazy and monumental Colour Wars, that chaotic yet fulfilling Totem One Acts, that quaint Lord of the Rings marathon in rez, those are my vivid memories. That’s my niche.

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Nothing But Smooth Sailing

Last exam today. Yes, I’m the sucker who has an exam on the 20th, but I’m feeling less stress and more a feeling of,

“Tuesday! Tuesday! Tuesday! One day left for DECEMBER EXAM MADNESS!”

That needed to be read in a monster truck rally voice. Otherwise, I just sound like a crazy lunatic with caps lock, which is now mostly for angry people on the internet.

The storm is over for me, its rough waves of sleep-deprivation countered with caffeine overdose a thing of the past. I feel smug eating an apple now, content that I have the time to enjoy a juicy piece of fruit, not crouched over my laptop, much like a troll would, separating my candy stockpile into sour and sweet, the sole organization I’d use for nights of sporadic cramming with the occasional maniacal epiphany that doesn’t make much sense in a rational morning. I’ve lost the “exam posture” too, that hunched stance on a leaned-back chair, paired with a scowl saying, “none of this makes sense and I have to prove it does in two days.”

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To Be Sick At University

I was sick last week, in the middle of personal midterm hysteria and the deceivingly challenging quest to craft a university paper. Imagine a knight set out to defeat the fierce dragon of responsibility, using the often-nonexistent sword of productivity. Now imagine that knight is sick. Totally changes the story, doesn’t it? Frodo wasn’t sick. Luke Skywalker wasn’t sick. Yet, I was. And it’s a total change to be sick in university.

In high school, people missed days. They commit to the day when they make the decision to go to school. They confide to the story of it all, because that’s what high school is, a story. The cliques, the clubs, the grade hierarchy. It was one big plotline. It’s the reason no one wanted to go in when they missed their morning classes. It would be like starting Lost in season 4. It just wouldn’t make sense.

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Adventures in the Dining Hall

Going into residence, I had preconceptions about the whole “dining experience.” I imagined intimidating women in hairnets serving out helpings of beef slop, veggie slop and surprise slop, which would just be a beef and veggie slop blend. I hate giving in to clichés, but there was a part of my brain that truly believed that’s how it would be. It’s also the part that tries convincing me Pop-Tarts are somewhat healthy and that walking to the fourth floor burns off routinely eaten pie.

Walking into the hall was a grand experience. There was no slop! There was pita bread, stir-fry, chicken skewers and roast beef. Oh how I love roast beef. I went straight for it. It was love at first smell. The succulent gravy, the lightly pink middle, the potent tang of that outer layer. I relished as the server carved the mighty roast, struggling, still fighting with it to slice out a serving of my favourite meat. She dipped the geometrically pleasing ladle in the gravy tub and poured sweet victory over my roast. I topped it off with some cauliflower and a strip of garlic bread to produce a meal worthy of a king. King of England, King of Floors, King of Late Night, any King. The food is great. What it lacks in love it makes up in quantity. Enough of anything trumps love eventually, especially when anything involves gravy.

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So Much Walking

Now, I could talk to you about classes, prepare you for the barrage of post-secondary academic turmoil. I could incite wisdom upon thy mind to be a better student and a better citizen. I could do that, but I’d much rather focus on something far more trivial, walking.

Think you’ll fall victim to the Freshman 15? Not if you’re an Arts student at Totem who likes baby carrots. So much walking. My exercise used to be getting up…and that’s it. So for someone who has to walk across campus and back every day, I both dread and treasure the experience. I dread it when it’s 8:46 am, my kettle won’t work and the shower is feeling quite cynical, or to put it un-pretentiously, cold. So damn cold. Seriously, did someone need all the hot water for a steam-powered car? That would suggest an Engineer. I’ll look into that. Although, I like walking when it’s a good morning, like in Disney sit-coms, which as we all know stands for Disney Situational Commercialization. There, I’m being all political and edgy. Deal with it establishment! It’s all the Man, man. Take your [insert political adjective] [insert political noun] out of [insert stupid cause, like domestic abuse against vegetables or petitioning for more cat-sitters].

Hey, I’m just the messenger, the incredibly confusing messenger who’s supposed to be taking about walking.

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The Move.

Ah, the day of reckoning, the final countdown, the gargantuanly supreme moment of life-altering totality.

The move out.

Or move in, I guess, but that all depends on your half-full/half-empty stance of life psychologists seem to rave about. Some see the glass half-full and some see the glass half-empty, but one idealistic genius, sarcasm semi-intended, saw millions of post-secondary minds mulling over a basic analogy for optimism and pessimism, a subject many people could have understood with a simple:

“Some people are happy. Some people are sad. That’s all folks.”

And then the Looney Tunes logo would play them out and everyone would return to life a little happier and a little smarter with a skip in their step and warmth in their heart.

But that’s not how life plays out. And that’s not what this blog should be about either.

All right, the move out. Or move in. Damn my repetitive mind!

Okay, I’ll paint the picture.

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