August 2008 – Twenty Thousand Leagues to UBC

Bafflement – isn’t that a funny word?

I find it completely baffling that a person can live ten minutes away from one of the biggest cities in Canada, and have absolutely no idea how to get around. So this person… completely hypothetical , of course… spends two and a half hours getting increasingly more lost and motion sick trying to make a journey by public transit that should take about fifty minutes. When I… I mean this purely fictional character… finally gets home, she has missed a family dinner and has destroyed her back toting around two five ton bags of books that she has just purchased. Of course, it isn’t just her back that has suffered from this; her bank account is looking pretty sick too.

And so ends one of the most stressful days of my entire existence. At least I got my books.

At first glance, the UBC bookstore slightly resembles the magical world of Oz. It has not only books, but clothing, gifts, and cool stationary sporting the UBC logo. In reality, the bookstore has a darker side. It will lure you in, keep you staring, hypnotized, at all the clipboards and keychains until the announcement comes on the it is fifteen minutes until closing… and you have found all of one of your textbooks. See? I told you it is insidious.
I think I must have broken several speed records getting my books, but in the end I walked out of the store with 15 books right at closing time.

Now, I have everything I need and I can’t wait for school to start (well, actually I could go for a while longer without having to work, but it’s the Firstweek activities that I am excited for, specifically muggle Quiddich).

Also, check out this website: www.tvliveshows.com
It has most tv shows and a lot of movies, all for free! The quality isn’t great and sometimes you have chinese subtitles, but still… FREE!

Thats all for now, adios!

Revelations

This was actually written August 21, 2008

Okay, so I now officially know two things about UBC, which is a big improvement on absolutely nothing which is what I knew three days ago.

1. The booklist is totally not released when they say it will be. I hope it is released sometime this semester, or I might have a bit of difficulty on my finals.

And,

2. Ratemyprofessors.com is a great way to find out if you will be spending a couple hours a week with a brilliant professor, or an evil goat in a tweed suit. Apparently, the luck that I thought had abandoned me as a child seems to have made a surprise reappearance this year and my timetable has no evil goats in sight. In fact, all my professors have great reviews.

Actually I have just had one more revelation. It is really, really hard to concentrate on writing when Family Guy is playing in the background.

“The only reason we die, is that we accept it… as an inevitability.” Ha ha, oh the vast wisdom of Stewie.

My friends are watching the show behind me and my attention keeps getting drawn backwards. It would be much easier to write this on my own, but this is the last night that one of my best friends is in Canada. Tomorrow, she leaves for China for a year. Another friend just left for Brazil.

It’s so odd that the people I have known for eighteen years are all leaving. For the first time in my life (that I can remember) I have to make all new friends. It won’t be that hard though, right?… right? (Whimper).

I need to go now, I’m going to stay up all night trying to fit a years worth of chatting into one night. Wish me luck.