Twenty Thousand Leagues to UBC

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.

I have officially finished my first university paper ever! I couldn’t believe how difficult it was, mostly because I have never had to write anything that long before. The hardest part was getting motivated enough to start. Here are five things I learned about uni papers.
1. No matter how early you try to start, the majority of the work is done in the two days before the paper is due.
2. MLA is a killer when you have never done it before. How on earth do you cite a royal charter anyway? I’m sure I got that part wrong.
3. The actual writing part is the easy part; the planning is brutal.
4. Chocolate doesn’t make the paper go away.
And
5. You feel really good when you are finished. Unlike high school homework, you get a real sense of accomplishment when you are done.
Not that this means I want to do another one anytime soon, but I have to. I guess that is what happens when you choose Arts.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.