Categories
Housing Recreation

Egads! This year has thirteen months!

New term, new year, new post.

 Okay, so it’s about a month late for that kind of talk, but the thought is still there.  A whole lot’s happened since my last post, the most important of which is my new laptop, which will permit me to update with more frequency than I had in the past.  I guess I’ll make a quick overview of notable things that may have permitted a full blog post at some point…

– For those of you who read Sam’s blog, she came to Toronto with me over the winter break.  She met my family, who loved her.  I also went to the CN tower for the first time in about ten years.  I’m not sure if it’s because I think it’s too tourist-y or because I’m deathly afraid of heights, but I really don’t like it there.  But if you’re taking someone to Toronto for the first time, I guess it’s the proper thing to do.  Also yes, I bought her a bracelet from Tiffany’s for Christmas.  This might seem like overkill if you don’t realize that Sam got me like, a million presents for Christmas and I only got her one.  I enjoyed seeing my family again, and I was reminded how much I miss them.

 -I got to shake Jack Layton’s hand a few weeks ago.  This isn’t a big deal for people who aren’t pro-NDP, but to me he’s probably the most relevant active Canadian politician there is.  One of the things I find so refreshing about BC is that there’s a lot more NDP support than I generally saw in Toronto.

-It’s almost February and we in Totem park STILL have no commonsblock.  I, like many other residents of Totem park, am becoming frustrated with the constant delays, and particularly the lack of compensation we’re being offered.  We’ve paid full fees for our residence, just like anyone from, for instance, Place Vanier, but we’ve been denied the benefits that we’re paying for.  I thought this was going to be for only half the year, but the way the delays are going (they currently say February 18th, but through any kind of inductive reasoning you can speculate they’ll probably delay it until March) we’re going to get maybe two months with a commonsblock.  I am thankful we’ve had a cafeteria for the majority of the time, but we’ve been inconvenienced in many ways.  For instance, we have no bathroom facilities where we eat.  I personally don’t consider myself hard to please, so I can cope with all this, but quite honestly it’s hard to explain to my father that he’s paying for things that I’m not getting.

-Yes. I failed econ last term.  Math isn’t my thing at all.  I did quite well in my other courses, however.  During the final exam for econ my professor came out and talked to me about how badly I did…  It made me feel kind of bad for not trying as hard as I probably could have.  UBC really has some good professors in this respect.  You can tell most of them really care about their subject and the students.  This is the general opinion Ive heard from other UBC graduates, as well.  In spite of my academic struggle in things involving mathematics and my griping about things like the commonsblock, I’m still very grateful to be here.

Okay, I’ve only had my laptop for a month and the damned enter key is already sticking.  I must attempt to remedy this now.

Categories
Academic Recreation

I have been coerced!

Yes, so it’s one day short of a month since I updated.  This is due to a few factors, one of which being midterms, and another being the fact that I’m not able to update from  any place except this computer.  I just realized today that this is probably because I need to sign out.

On what’s happened in the past few weeks, well…  Me and Sam went to California for a weekend, which was good in practice(seeing as we got out before the Wildfires could catch up with us), but the trip home was quite troublesome.  First, they lost my luggage.  Second, my room keys were in them.  Third, it took me a day before I was informed the front desk gives out temporary keys if necessary.

Vital information for new students at any university:  If something goes wrong, don’t expect the bureaucracy to slap you in the face.  This school has had so many students come in and out, the likelihood of there not being some kind of person or program in place to help you with your problems is highly unlikely.

On the Academic front, I’m pretty sure I’m going to fail microeconomics.  I’m not giving up, but that’s the way it looks right now.  It’s kind of what I expected, since I’m terrible with numbers.   I just hope this isn’t going to make it difficult for PPE.  I’ve been asking around about how failing one course in relation to the rest works in coordinated arts, but there doesn’t seem to be any set rule.

I can’t quite remember exactly what’s been happening outside of that.  I’m not sure if I haven’t been blogging because I can’t keep track of my life or vice versa.  Oh well.

Categories
Academic Careers Clubs Recreation

Everybody Wing Chun tonight!

So, on the subject of clubs week, I’ll say which clubs I joined. Or rather, which one I officially joined and which one I plan on joining. I joined the Anime Club. I don’t care if that makes me a gigantic nerd. I like anime. You never quite see TV shows or cartoons getting so epic and high fantasy or, in the case of comedy, so damned weird when you watch the stuff that’s just made in North America.

Also, I went to the open house for UBC’s Wing Chun club, as I mentioned interest in previously. When I went to the booth at clubs week, it seemed kind of intimidating and off-putting, as did the first little bits of the class, but Dr. Khoe, the head instructor there, was pretty friendly, and was anything but intimidating or off-putting, so as the class started it got a lot easier. What’s surprising is how fast the class goes by, considering that their classes go for three full hours. So I’m joining them on Monday.

If anyone’s curious or interested and has no idea what Wing Chun is, it’s a Kung Fu style that’s considered one of the more “street effective” self defense styles, but unlike ones like it that I’ve tried, such as Muay Thai and boxing, it doesn’t stress power at all (Actually, in my first class they kept telling me not to do all the things I did in boxing to generate power) so it’s highly recommended to people who aren’t very big or women who want to learn self defense. Wing Chun is also the original Kung Fu style of Bruce Lee, and one of the really interesting things about it is that unlike most martial arts, it was revealed to the public fairly recently by a guy named Yip Man. As a result of this, you can check the credibility of any Wing Chun Master by asking him to trace his Lineage to Yip Man. This isn’t as hard as it sounds. For instance, Dr. Khoe trained under a man named Wong Kiu, who was one of Yip Man’s original students.

In any case, I’d highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested and doesn’t mind sore forearms (you’ll understand once you see it) they meet at the International House on Mondays and Wednesdays, and they have a website here

Though, it hasn’t really been updated in awhile, so I’m not sure how informative it is.

Also, I went to the gym the other day. Did I mention I hate gyms? I love weight lifting, but gyms bother me so much. I hate all the waiting around for other people to finish and worrying about bumping into people. It’s not a good environment for exercise. This isn’t necessarily me trashing the BirdCoop, which is a fully functional gym for all intents and purposes (though, I do think it’s a little small for a gym that’s supposed to be used by a University as big as UBC) but I think the design of the modern gymnasium is fundamentally flawed.

I think this is about as much as I should write for now. I’ll try to be more frequent next week. Writing stuff about the career fair (anyone else noticed that the career fair is sponsored entirely by spies and accountants? Scary.) and Day of the Longboat (I hate water and boats, but Sam made me join her team. Expect much unpleasantness from me on this front) so I should be less of an update slacker.

Categories
Academic Housing

A good title is like a good woman: They’re hard to find, and most of them are already taken.

Wow.  It’s been almost a week since my last post.  Time here has been passing so quickly and so slowly at the same time.  It’s a strange feeling.  I don’t feel homesick or anything like that.  I just kind of feel like I’ve always been here.

One of the reasons I haven’t posted too frequently is me and Sam (As in, Sam from this very blog squad) are…  Well, I’d hesitate to describe us as “dating” because dating implies that you set up dates and times to meet and do activities together.  With us we pretty much spend all our time together except for classes, so that would be wholly inaccurate.  As a result, most of our activities are the same, and some questions are raised as to who posts what when and where.  It’s all quite confusing.  As a result, virtually none of the time we spend together (about 90% of the day) tends to be acknowledged here.

Here at Totem, we don’t have a cafeteria because we don’t have a commonsblock yet.  To remedy this, there’s a film catering company working at a tent, which serves as a makeshift cafeteria.  It’s cheaper, but it comes with more than a few problems:  First, we don’t have a convenience store for after hours, so if you’re hungry after 7:00, you’re pretty well screwed unless you feel like walking up to Place Vanier.  Furthermore, the workers there are kind of mean spirited.  For instance, they make you put away your bags and purses before entering the tent because they think we’ll steal milk and juice from the buffet area.  I may have mentioned that both my parents are in film, and I’ve got more than a little experience with this eating situation.  I don’t particularly care for the food, mostly because my dad always refuses to eat it and has convinced me of its poor quality, but also because it’s my belief that any kind of “All-you-can-eat” food situation guarantees that the food will be of poor quality.  This is because if it tastes good, people will eat too much of it and they’ll lose money (something they’re clearly concerned with, since they get so enraged over the idea of a handful of starving college students stealing $2.50 worth of orange juice) and also there are only so many kinds of food that lend themselves well to the buffet style.   The catering people are usually a lot more courteous, though.  I think they treat us differently because we’re college students and not film crew.

Anyway, as a result I tend to eat at the Place Vanier cafeteria, which I prefer quite a bit.  The staff is friendlier and the food has more variety.  I’ll be happy when Totem has one similar to it in the next month or so.  Though I eat a little too much.  Like, yesterday my dinner consisted of a hamburger with bacon, swiss and cheddar, a plate of chicken strips, and an omelette with ham, bacon bits and cheese.  Then I had some fries.  In other words, if I don’t finish my Economics homework for tomorrow, it’s because I had a massive heart attack.

I really need to make use of the gym soon or my eating habits will begin to show.  Also, my father will be enraged if he finds out he shelled out $250 for facilities I’m not even using.

Categories
Academic

I am your TA! Fear my leather carrying case!

So it’s been awhile since I updated.  I was meaning to for awhile, but I didn’t.  First classes were to be my subject.  It’s kind of too late for that now, seeing as I’ve had several classes since then.

However, there’s one thing I would like to state which several of my fellow bloggers have made apparent: Faststart is lousy.  I apparently got pretty good results from them, but they still didn’t give me my reading package for Poli Sci.  This is a pain, because that’s all my Prof is using right now.  Also, the bookstore is really bad about getting them.  Some of my classmates said more were supposed to arrive yesterday, but when I went there and looked into it, there were none there.  When I asked the people there, they told me that there were four in stock, but I’d have to look around for them if they weren’t where they were supposed to be.  then they told me there were no others available for order.  I fixed that.  I ordered about ten or so more, since I figured I wouldn’t be the only one who’d need the package.

Actually, it’s not a major issue.  The readings thus far have been from Plato’s Republic and Machiavelli’s “The Prince” both of which I have read previously, and both of which are available online anyway.  However, the situation had potential to get frustrating fast, so I’m glad the package will be available by Monday.

So, let me make this clear, as others have: Unless you feel lucky, avoid faststart!  You may think you’re saving yourself some hassle, but you could very well be causing much more trouble for yourself at a later date.

My professors are pretty cool, though.  The whole experience is very different from High school, which I loathed.   Economics is the only one I have a little bit of trouble with, but not for the reasons I thought.  It’s actually very interesting.  It’s just that I have it at 9:30 in the morning, and the professor talks in kind of monotone, so it’s difficult not to be lulled to sleep, which saddens me because I really am interested by what he has to say.

In Philosophy, someone thought I was a T.A. because I dress so formally and I use a leather carrying case instead of a backpack (Though I haven’t dressed that way lately.  All my clothes reek of mildew due to a Totem Park Laundry Room related drying accident) ironically, the T.A. for my Philosophy class is also named Max.  It got confusing in the discussion group today when at the end of the class someone shouted “Max!” and I turned my head.

So that’s my first experience with the academics here.  I’m actually looking forward to more classes.

Categories
Academic Housing

Apparently, I have come to suck your blood.

Well, I’m all moved in to Totem.

Okay, so that happened three days ago. I think I’m fairly settled now. I flew in on the 1st with my dad, and he helped me move all my stuff. I don’t have a laptop, so I had the distinct honor of hauling a rubbermaid containing a desktop computer onto a plane and then bringing it into rez. Following my move, many people commented on my clothing. Apparently I dress like some kind of vampire or other form of undead. Maybe it’s Vancouver. Everyone here dresses all in bright colors, since there’s such a strong hippie influence here (While I have some objections to hippies, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it certainly contributes heavily to both the natural beauty on campus and the environmentally friendly nature of the entire university) so my tendency to dress in black coats, black jeans, white dress shirts and motorcycle boots must come a bit out of the left field for some people.

Anyway, I went to IMAGINE today. It’s not really my thing… Well, I liked the lectures (though I was tired, so I had to keep myself from nodding off once or twice) but the whole thing otherwise reminded me of summer camp. Let me state now that I bear an extreme hatred for summer camp. People in summer camps, especially the counselors, have a habit of getting ridiculously excited about everything. Like, a level of excitement I simply cannot begin to comprehend. This was especially evident at the pep rally. I mean, J.D. Salinger could show up at my dorm right now and say he wants to invite me over to his home for a chat and a read of his new book, and I still wouldn’t even begin to show a fraction of the excitement that I saw from more than 3,000 students today over the simple matter of what faculty they were in.

Fun fact: The sciences faculty, when they passed me, chanted “3.14195” when everyone knows that pi to the 5th decimal is 3.14159. Take that. And that’s from an arts student. Some scientists you turned out to be. See? I can show pride in my faculty. Just not by yelling and screaming and chanting.

Speaking of yelling and screaming and chanting, if any of you heard someone yell “McGill Sucks!” at the Chan Centre, that was me. And I think I owe McGill a partial apology. While I stand steadfast in my position that UBC is a superior university for my purposes, UBC’s development in its early history actually owes a lot to McGill. So McGill: You do not, in fact, suck. I’m sorry if I hurt your fragile, personified conceptual feelings.

I didn’t really stay long after the pep rally, but I took a look at some of the clubs. Since before I actually arrived here in Vancouver I’ve been intrigued by UBC’s Wing Chun Kung Fu club. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a booth or anything today. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to approach it through other means.

As a first year, I was exempt from classes today. However, tomorrow my summer truly ends. My father also left to go back to Toronto today. This is where both my independent living and my academic experience really begins. No, I’m not scared. No, I’m not excited. No, I’m not sad. I’m just ready. That’s all.

Categories
Uncategorized

HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!

Greetings and salutations!

This is Maximilian Marks speaking. But you may call me Max. Actually, since this is generally a one-way medium, you can really call me whatever you want and it won’t affect me one way or the other. But if you see me on campus, or we have a class together, or if we meet by some strange circumstance, keep in mind that it is my preference that you call me Max.

It was requested that our first posts be up by August 29th, so that it would be there in time for the newsletter so you could all begin your year being dazzled and amazed by my lightning wit and superior intelligence (and my refreshing humility, I might add. I’m just a big jumble of adjective nouns) but I’m afraid I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to write at this point. We’re supposed to be conveying to everyone the affect the UBC experience, and the UBC experience hasn’t exactly started for me yet unless the UBC experience entails sleeping until 3 PM and doing nothing but playing video games. Actually, that’s not entirely out of the question given the lifestyles of some college students I’ve met. Thus far, however, the impression I’ve gotten is that most students on their way here are actually looking forward to the opportunity to learn something. I consider this a good thing, because even though I’m a notorious slacker, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to learn new things.

Yes, I love to learn. Love of learning is the only reasonable justification for being a Philosophy major, so I’m not afraid to admit to it. Besides, the classroom isn’t the only place to learn. If that were the case, I’d know next to nothing right now, given the quality of my teachers in the past. I look forward to all kinds of new learning experiences.
But enough about me… Wait, what am I saying? This is about me. Me. Me me me me me. Look at me. Everybody pay attention to me. Yes, doesn’t that make you feel better? It makes me feel better.

In any case, it is now ten days before I leave for UBC. No, I haven’t packed. No, I’m not ready. Yes, I will miss my mommy. All of these things are issues I plan to deal with the night before I leave… Well, maybe not the last one, but I can cope with that.

Well, I certainly wrote a lot for not having anything to write about. I suppose if I’m going to maintain the cover of having nothing to write about, I ought to stop now.

Fare thee well.

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