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32 things i did at ubc that you can totally do too : thing #6

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THING #6: SAW THE UBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

A slightly fuzzy picture of the UBC Symphony Orchestra.

I had no idea that UBC had a Symphony Orchestra, but we do! A friend asked if I wanted to go see them play at the Chan Centre at absolutely none of my own expense and I thought it’d be a pretty great way to spend an evening. It was. I came out feeling incredibly cultured, and me and my friend did a little bit of frat boy spotting in the audience. Who’d have thought, right? We must have been doing the cool thing.

It was an incredible show. I know very little about music, especially classical music, but I enjoyed it a lot. And I came out feeling all kinds of cultural. Their next concert, while not free, is just $15 for students, and features the the UBC Choral Union.

I’ll be keeping an eye out to see if I can go see them again sometime soon. They were incredibly talented.

32 things i did at ubc that you can totally do too : thing #4

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THING #4: SAW THE SUN RISE FROM THE WRONG SIDE OF NIGHT

Sunrise from my window.

Let me preface this by saying that all-nighters are evil. Sometimes they’re a necessary evil, but evil. All-nighters leave you feeling awful the next day. They are not worth being able to say you’ve pulled one. It’s really not that great.

However, this was not an all-nighter. Not a studying so hard you don’t sleep all-nighter, anyway, and it was pretty brilliant. It being a Sunday when I went to sleep helped.

The night started with drinks in the floor lounge with floormates. I was supposed to be going out, but we made a large sort-of bed with all the couches in the room and I was way too comfy, so I got left behind and ended up crashing a movie night instead! Best decision I think I’ve ever made? Why trek across Vancouver to stand in a line, and then pay $20 to then wait half an hour, to spend another $7 on a drink, when you can laze around with friends and watch a really great movie? (I did say this’d show how lame I can be, didn’t I? I have definitely said that before.)

“I saved Latin, what did you ever do?” – Jason Schwartzman in Wes Anderson’s ‘Rushmore’, 1998.

We watched Rushmore, which is a fantastic movie. Would recommend. Then – and it was about 1am at this point – we heard a rumour of a movie marathon in one of the other Totem houses. We crashed it. It was a Harry Potter marathon. Another best decision ever.

After watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we headed back to the floor lounge and hung out with the guys who had just got back from Downtown Van. There was pizza and weirdly philosophical meandering talk, and three of us stayed up until five. None of us were tired, and we just talked a load of rubbish (sorry: trash – but, wait, does that even have the same meaning here? Still working on my Canadianisms…) and it was really great.

Then watched the sun rise from my bedroom window before finally sleeping. Sometimes all-nighters are worth it all.

32 things i did at ubc that you can totally do too : thing #1

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Here marks the beginning of a thing I’m trying, in that I’m going to try to pick out something I’ve done each week (and I have 32 left before the end of exam period in April) and talk about how brilliant it was. Very probably this will showcase how lame I am, but that’s okay. I live for other people to laugh at. I have come to terms with that.

So, without further ado:

THING #1: WATCHING THE SUNSET AT WRECK BEACH

Wreck Beach at sunset.

If you don’t know, Wreck Beach is right at the west edge of campus. Follow University Boulevard all the way down (if at any point you hit the Village, you’re going the wrong way; turn around and start again) until you hit Marine Drive. Then turn right and you should see the top of the stairs down to the beach. You’re there! And we have just discovered that I should never give directions! Hooray for learning new things!

So, yes, it is a nudist beach. Yes, that meant there were bits out in the open that, regressing to school kid age, I kind of wanted to laugh at. But, whatever, you know why it’s a nudist beach? Probably it’s got something to do with the cliff you have to climb down (via stairs, but that’s not as much help as you’d hope) that keeps the naughty nude people away from the innocent eyes of the students who live up top. But, also, more importantly, Wreck Beach is genuinely a place of beauty in that actually breathtaking way that seems to happen a lot more often around Vancouver than I, deprived traveler that I am, am used to. It’s inspiring. It inspired the group of friends I was with to whip out a ukulele and sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Likewise, it inspires a lot of other people to take their clothes off. Each to his own.

Wreck Beach, post-sunset.

Wreck Beach is a beautiful place to be, and, if you can handle the stairs back up, watching the sunset down there, maybe singing a little, and, maybe, if you’re really brave or stupid, going for a quick swim, is the loveliest way to chill out after a packed day of classes. It was warm, the sky was clear, and the sun took its sweet time setting. It totally cured me of homesickness for that day, too. Go try it.

(A note on the stairs: I thought I was going to die. It was so horrible, and there is a reason the UBC Fun Run Club holds a Wreck Beach stairs challenge. Don’t think you are better than the stairs. You aren’t, and they will beat you. Bring water and someone to collapse on who you can dramatically grip by the collar and make promise to carry your body and last words back to civilisation. When you get to the top, have a sit down. Grab an ice cream. Celebrate having survived.)