Month: October 2010

Halloween is definitely one of my favourite holidays, and there are so many fun things to do in Vancouver this time of year!

1) Fright Nights at the PNE: Every year the PNE opens late, and you can go on the rides in the dark! There are also actors in costumes, and haunted houses! This is definitely something to check out, but if you’re only going to do one thing this Halloween I would recommend #3.

2) Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Ridge Theatre: This only goes on for two nights (the 30th and 31st) at midnight. I went last year for the first time, and it was really fun, and also a little bit strange. If you’ve never been to a live showing of RHPS, I’d highly recommend it. You get to watch the movie with a cast of actors acting it out right in front of the screen, and throw things at the screen (toast, toilet paper etc.) If you haven’t been to one, the it’s a little hard to describe. It’s only $12.75 admission, but get there early so you’re guaranteed to get in.

3) The Haunted House in Dunbar: Wow. This haunted house is amazing. It’s free to get in, but you’re encouraged to give a donation (all proceeds will be donated to the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund, the Christmas Bureau, and the Vancouver Police Union Charity Foundation). The sets and costumes are all very professional, and it takes the owners about 10 months to organize and create! Yes, this is done out of someone’s house, but I wouldn’t underestimate it. In my opinion, this is one of the best haunted houses in Vancouver. Their website can be found here: http://www.dunbarhauntedhouse.com/

x

OK, so I can now breathe a sigh of relief. My first set of midterms are over. YAY!

I can’t really judge how I fared on the midterms, because I always get really superstitious about my grades. This thing always happens to me where I think I did really well, and then I get my test back and I’m disappointed because I set my expectations too high. However, if I don’t expect too much, then I’m usually (somewhat) ok with the mark I achieved. It’s kind of weird, but that usually happens to me when I get cocky about my mark before I’ve gotten the actual mark.

If that makes any sense at all. haha

So I didn’t have as many midterms (exams) as other people I know, mostly because some of my courses don’t have midterms, only projects and papers. For example, in Visual Arts we had a project we had to hand in that week, and for Arts Studies we had a paper to write. Stuff like that. I only had 2 real exams; one for Sociology, and one for Human Biology.

Sociology Midterm: I was told to study the “big picture” stuff from those who had taken the course before, and they were right. Our profs (Flynn and Ketchell) don’t expect you to memorize the nitty gritty facts, like dates, but they really expect you to understand the material and know how to explain it in detail. For this exam, the multiple choice was pretty tricky, and there were those types of questions that are just frustrating. You know those ones where basically all the answers are right, but you have to choose the one that’s the best? yeah.

Biology Midterm: I’m taking Biol 153 (same as 155 but with a lab) which is meant for dentistry and midwifery students. I’m not really sure why I’m taking this course, because I don’t want to become either, but whatever. The midterm for this course was word-for-word almost exactly the same as the practice exam on the professor’s (Harris’) website. It’s frustrating because I looked that over, and if I get a lot of marks off, I know I’ll be really mad at myself because I’d seen the questions before.

Anyway, I’ll probably update later on more midterm news. (Maybe not if I do really poorly.)

x

So every year my family goes to the Apple Festival at UBC, and every single year it rains. But not this year! For both days there were nice blue skies and it was actually warm! Thus, it was super busy, and they sold out of a couple types of apples by the time we finally got there.

BTW, we got to there at 11:20ish on Saturday, and I think it starts at 11. So that’s totally crazy! They had already sold out of some types of apples within 20 minutes of opening!

Anyway, we bought 5 bags of apples, and my favourites (the Honeycrisps) taste really good this year. We also bought a jug of apple cider, which is always tasty, and an apple pie, made by a family from Squamish. I’m not kidding you, these pies are freakin’ delicious. I think it’s because they sprinkle the crust with sugar.

Here’s a picture of one of their pies.

From their website:

http://www.goldencrust.ca/index.htm

Anyway, I encourage all of you to go to the Apple Festival if you’re in town next year. (Try one of those pies!)

x