Last Wednesday was the first day of classes. That happened.
I feel like I should document this now so I can laugh/reminisce (or sob internally ) at how it all went down when I read this again some time later.
September 7. 2016 (First Day of Classes!)
The night before classes, so the night of Imagine Day, I remember sitting on the floor of my room, having a stare-off with my stack of newly purchased textbooks from the UBC Bookstore. (I obviously lost)
First thought: ugh new textbooks.
Second thought: oh no I don’t have a locker anymore. (I truly miss those, I really liked having a metal box to throw my stuff in and forget about)
Third thought: oh no I have to carry these things around with me…
I am even more fascinated by the students walking around with teeny bags now, and I have more respect for those that walk around with what seems like a library on their backs and make it look casual and effortless. I really don’t like carrying textbooks around.
Besides grumbling about having to lug my books around I was also stressing over the fear that:
[A. I would go to the wrong lecture hall, B. I would be late, and C. I would be late and go to the wrong lecture hall.] To ease that anxiety, I made myself a shady map to figure out where I was supposed to be…
It looked like that. Definitely not my proudest work, nor is it really legible, as one of my friends pointed out later. But that was what I depended on to navigate my lecture halls anyways.
So then came the next day, the Wednesday of beginnings and the new school new environment excitement/anxiety. I woke up at 7, got ready, ate breakfast, and sat in the living room for 20 minutes. I guess I woke up too early for the first day.
I also left the house too early, as I arrived way before the time I arranged to meet up with my friend. I had intended to get there earlier, so I could secure a seat in the front. But I got there even earlier than that, so it kind of disoriented me a bit. (I get disoriented quite often and quite easily) Thirty minutes early, I paced outside the Wesbrook building for a while. Thinking that no one else from my lecture would decide to come 30 minutes early, I decided to go inside the building to look around, and to make sure I hung out around the door so I could get in faster. When I opened the doors, what greeted me was about 70 people already standing outside the doors of the lecture hall.
Wait, what? People? Why are you here??
Turns out nearly half of my class also thought it was a great idea to turn up early to secure a good seat 😀
I later told this to my other friends, and it turns out no one else had a lecture where people were already showing up half an hour before the lecture was meant to start. I later also found out that all my science classes were like this… So basically what I learned was that every lecture will be a battle against my fellow classmates to find a decent seat.
I finally met up with my friend, the one person I knew from the mass of about 200 others that had already gathered, when the doors opened 10 minutes to the hour. Seeing as most of the inhabitants of the lecture hall were trickling out, I could feel the hallway outside the lecture hall tense up. Time for battle. Hanging onto my friend’s backpack, I was pushed by the mob behind me and into the lecture hall. It felt like I was drowning in the sea of people. We managed to secure pretty good seats near the front, and soon after the lecture began.
Things after that soon became a blur of running across campus, hastily taking notes on tiny tables, lunch period, and more battling seas of people. My first impressions of all my profs were fairly good, I quite liked them. Unfortunately I will probably appreciate the courses they teach way less.
At 3pm, my classes were over. It was also raining rather hard. I left the lecture building with my friends and a newly acquainted friend in silence. We were all too tired I guess.
We then found out that SUS was giving out free ice cream outside the Abdul Ladha building. I will be coming here very often, I think. Grateful for the ice cream, we then ate the ice cream once again, in silence. It was only after I finished I realized that I forgot to take a picture. For the record, I had chocolate ice cream, and I really appreciated it.
First day of classes were complete, and ice cream was consumed. Time to go home~
I remember being very very tired… but hey, I survived, and I am quite proud of that.
First Week Adventures to be continued…
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