This has been a week of trying new things. I cannot sing, dance, or steer a voyager canoe. Yet, somehow I ended up doing all of these things this week. I guess university is like teletoon (and by that I mean “never a dull moment” not “overrun with loony toons” though, come to think of it, that might be as good a description as any).
The singing and dancing part came in when I auditioned for songfest, through alpha phi. The paddling and steering part come in today, at Day of the Longboat. Wow, was that ever an event! Our steers person (if that is how you spell it), Miranda, couldn’t make it today, and we had no one who knew how to do it, so I volunteered. Actually, we didn’t do too badly. We had a horrible start (the horn went and we set off… in the wrong direction), but we really started to get the hang of it after. I was very proud of us.
BLOG! SQUAD! NUMBER! ONE!
On a not so nice note, October panic has set in a few days early. Suddenly I realize how many papers are due in the next few weeks, and how many midterms I have. This goes so much faster than high school, especially with all the extras like Day of the Longboat. Tomorrow is my first free day since school started, and I am going to spend it frantically trying to write a five page paper worth 20% of my mark, oh dear.
If you want to read more about day of the longboat, check out the other members’ blogs at blogs.ubc.ca/blogsquad.
Month: September 2008
Trust me, I know how completely depressing long bus trips can be. Here is one way I found to perk me up.
1. Make a playlist on you i-Pod called “Bus” or something.
2. Put all your most happy, bouncy music on it. (preferably fast music, though some slower songs work too)
3. Press shuffle when you begin your bus ride and turn the volume up.
4. Discretely dance in your seat. ( you can disguise this quite well by making it look like the bus just hit a bump or turned a corner )
5. Be Happy! The trip will go faster.
Also, If you see a crazy girl looking like she is having a seizure on a bus seat, come say hi to me. We can dance together.
🙂
Categories
UBC – Walt Disney’s Inspiration
| Â Ever wonder where Disney got the idea to make his cartoon animals into little people? Well, wonder no longer! Just come to UBC and you will see that those frighteningly human little animals actually exist. Don’t believe me do you? Well then I suppose you will just have to come see for yourself. Today, a squirrel escorted me to sociology. Last week a pigeon had a hissy fit at me as I entered the sub (student union building). |
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They walk among us, completely unbothered by the fact that we are inches away from stepping on them. They show no fear, and don’t run away unless you try to pet them, (which is a stupid idea anyway so don’t try it) and let’s be honest, wouldn’t any random stranger do the same thing if you walked up to them on the street and tried to stroke their back?
Maybe they are aliens. All I know is that these are not normal animals. |
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So, I spent this weekend at the sorority formal recruitment and it was both really fun and completely exhausting. In the end, I got an invitation to Alpha Phi and got to meet all my new sisters.Â
Fun Fact: Alpha Phi is technically a women’s fraternity, since it was founded before they came up with the word sorority. |
| Thats all for now, keep on smiling. I’m going to try to take my camera to school tomorrow so I can post some pictures of the amazing UBC campus. The animals are not the only reason it resembles a Disney movie. |
Want to build muscle and increase your stamina while meeting loads of new people? Try the Translink pole dancing course for commuter students! Registration is easy and free with your U-Pass, simply board a crowded bus, fail to get a seat, and grab a pole. Within seconds you will be swinging back and forth like a pro. And there is no better way to make new friends than by landing in their lap after a particularly violent jolt. It’s a full body workout suitable for all ages, come and try it today!
Freshman 15? Ya right, I think I get more of a workout taking the bus than I do when I go to the gym. Not to mention walking around all day with a bag the size of a small vehicle on my back. If I am not fit enough to climb Everest by the time this semester is over, I will be very unhappy.
All my classes are going great. Unlike in high school, the professors here seem to actually want to teach. Or at least the ones in the Coordinated Arts program do. The pace is crazy but it’s worth it. The thing that has been the hardest to adjust to is the reading. Not the act of reading itself, but knowing what it is that you are supposed to read for when. It’s not like in high school where they write your homework on the board at the end of class, you need to look ahead and see what you will be doing next class. Sometimes the reading that you do will have nothing at all to do with the material you are covering in class so it can get confusing.
I’m going to part two and three of recruitment for the sororities this weekend, it sounds like it will be a lot of fun, but it takes up so much time that I need to make sure to get my reading done tonight. Also, I should work on my french composition. Actually, I should be doing that right now.
Au revoir mes amis.
So my first week is now over, here’s how it went:
Tuesday: Imagine a dancing lab rat. Imagine thousands of people waving vaguely suggestive balloons. Imagine hearing loss. Imagine UBC.
The pep rally at Imagine UBC was one of the best events of my life. Everyone is shouting and chanting and generally trying to prove that they are a member of the loudest faculty, because we all know that if you are loud, you are cool.Â
“We are loud, we are proud, we are more than half the crowd! Bigger is better! Arts kicks ass!”
That was the world famous faculty of arts cheer. Scream it with a cheery smile and a spanish accent just for kicks.
Wednesday: First day of classes. I spent a grand total of nine hours at UBC and another three commuting. I was an inch away from death when I finally got home. How am I going to last a whole year doing that every monday and wednesday (and a bit less the other three days of the week)? I’m already exhausted and it is only the first week.Â
Here is a tip, if you are a commuter, try to schedule at least one day a week off. You are going to need it.
Thursday: I went to the Under the Stars Dance. Unfortunately, there was a limit of how many people could be in the party room, so there was actually more people waiting outside than there was in the room. I guess it was fire regulations or something. Apparently, if there was a fire, there are few enough people in the room that we could all safely make it out the doors… right into the 300 or so people waiting packed together in the room outside where we can all get trampled together.
Oh, and here is some advice for all the guys hovering at the edges of the dancing: Go ahead and ask us to dance, despite what you might think, it is very unlikely that we will say no.Â
Friday: What did I do friday? Well, it couldn’t have been good enough to share if I don’t remember.
Saturday: I went to the sorority tours. I would definitely suggest going to the wednesday one if you didn’t go to the saturday one (and if you are a girl, obviously). The sororities are nothing like the stereotypes and I found that it is the easiest way to make some great new friends. This is very important, because even if you have other people from you school coming with you to UBC, you will still feel kind of alone since it is such a massive campus.
Sunday (today): This morning I got to have brunch with all my fellow bloggers, who turn out to be just as nice and amazing as I thought. To any Blog Squad Members reading this: we must do that promotional idea soon, you know the one I mean… Once again, joining a club, or a squad, is a great way to make friends.
I also wrote my very first university paper today. I had no idea how to write one so the feedback I get may very well be… interesting.
And that is my week.
Categories
Check, check, check.
Ok, letter? check. water? check. utterly overwhelming panic? Yup, got it all. Now, I’m ready for Imagine UBC tomorrow.
Actually, the hardest part of getting ready for tomorrow was not getting my supplies, but finding the way to get there. Thank goodness for translink.com’s trip planner, because I have never really had to use the Vancouver buses, only the north shore ones.
If you are a commuter, use this website to find your way around: Trip Planning