Well, today I participated in the great UBC tradition, Storm the Wall. Unfortunately, I ended up soaked, freezing, and covered in mud and bark mulch. Of course, since it is Vancouver, I was expecting the wet and cold part. The mulch was a surprise.
The best part was definitely the wall. You get a real sense of accomplishment looking at that mammoth. I really recommend doing Storm the Wall… once. If you live on campus, though, you have nothing to fear since you can look forward to a hot shower instead of uncomfortable classes and bus rides.
In other news, I also learned how to take my bike on a bus. I watched some random guy yesterday to see how it was done. He made it look so easy: rack down with left hand, lift bike in with right hand, and pull up hook over wheel with left again.
Apparently, this process is not as simple as it seems. I’ll leave it at that.
Category: Commuting
Hello Everyone! (although I think that calling the two or so people who may look at this post “everyone” is a bit of a hyperbole) I am back, I did not die or drop off the face of the earth as you might suspect after my long absence. Here is my explanation (*cough* excuse *cough*)
Anyway, the wonderful thing about being in the second semester of first year is that you finally know what is going on. There is no more getting lost on campus and I am finally feeling like a real university student. Instead of doing absolutely every bit of reading mentioned by the prof and panicking that I didn’t have enough time like I did at the beginning of the year, I can now judge what is important to read, and what is just interesting reading to do if I have time (and, of course, there is the occasional reading that is just completely useless, boring, and hundreds of pages long that just has to be avoided altogether. I honestly don’t know why profs sometimes assign these readings. Do they just think that we shouldn’t be able to go a day reading only for recreation?)
Anyway, the negative side of being in second semester and being used to university life is that you can start to take on way too many extra responsibilities because they just sound like so much fun. For example, I just joined a dodgeball team with my sorority. I can’t wait, but I’m also running for a place on the Panhellenic (all greek) Council. And I just started my duties as director of website for alpha phi and found myself having to transfer a domain which I had no idea how to do. Thanks to Eastwood for helping me with that. I’m so close now, and just waiting to get something called an EEP code that I had never heard of before.
So that’s why I have been gone for so long. My to do list no longer fits on my computer screen even in 12pt font. However, despite getting kind of stressed out with all these tasks, I’m also kind of loving it. Its good to be busy again. (But if you ask me if I still feel that way tonight after 16 hours out at UBC, I may give a different answer.)
My de-stress activity: Buss meditation with the soundtrack from Mamma Mia. Give it a try sometime.
Categories
Back Again.
Well, it’s back to class time. I was dreading having to work again but after going to class for two days I realized that I had forgotten how much I actually like university work. Not the papers/exams, but the material. If you want something interesting to look at, here is the philosophy website. I am really getting into philosophy. Maybe it can be my major… (I have no idea what I am going to do for the whole major/minor thing. sigh)
It may be great to be back in the classes, but the campus sure leaves something to be desired. Thank god for rubber boots. Every day, I have to trek through Lake SUB (student union building) to get from the bus stop to my classes. The deck out front looks normal enough on a sunny day, but on a wet day, the flat surface magically changes into a crater that fills up with water. How does this happen? Maybe I should have gone into sciences to unravel the mystery of suspicious sinking concrete.
Happy Tuesday Everyone!
P.S. I applied to become a MUG (my undergraduate group) leader! Mostly because I really really want to go to the pep rally again.
Categories
Halfway There
Well, we are halfway through the semester and I am beginning to seriously look forward to winter break. I have written two papers this week, the second one finished half an hour before it was due (I know, I know, but in my defense it was only because I forgot to put it in mla format and had to do it at last minute, and my printer was acting up… you know).
Now that it is raining, the commute is even more horrendous. I love living at home, but I am looking at living on campus next year just to avoid the commute. I am sick of being too hot, too crowded, and motion sick for three hours a day. Plus, living on campus I would not feel guilty about keeping my mother up when I am out late. Every time I tell her not to wait up, and every time she does. I guess thats just mothers though.
Thats about all of my rant, university is loads of fun, but crazy exhausting.
P.S. All my classes are fun, but if you are choosing an elective I would recommend Philosophy 100. Trust me, you will never be the same.
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.
🙂
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.
“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.
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.
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
Categories
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!