Category Archives: vancouver

32 things i did at ubc that you can totally do too : thing #2

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THING #2: DAY OF THE LONGBOAT

A longboat on Jericho Beach, on the clinic day the Sunday before Day of the Longboat.

There are things I foresaw myself doing while in Canada. Skiing; seeing a bear; going whale watching; eating a whole lot of pancakes. I didn’t foresee myself taking part in a longboat race. It just… it wasn’t something that it occurred to me to imagine. Longboats, I thought, were a Viking thing, maybe. Me, I love How To Train Your Dragon, but I ain’t no Viking.

I signed up anyway. I thought, hey, it’s nice weather we’re having. It could be pretty cool. I hoped I would, at least, manage to not be a dead weight in the boat.

It was the best. thing. ever.

Learning how to Longboat on clinic day.

I’m not lying now. It was so much fun. It was hard, and it was competitive, and my team screamed probably more than we paddled, but wow was it a good day. And my team came third, which was not only respectable but also a total shock to all of us.

My back, my arms, and my right hand still ache, two days later, but it was so much more than worth it. We did good, we paddled hard, and we definitely felt just a little bit like Vikings. It was an epic day. If you didn’t get to do it this year and you’re going to be at UBC again next year, I cannot recommend taking part in Day of the Longboat enough. It’s the best day I’ve had since getting here, and I’ve had some pretty freaking fantastic days.

(Should you come across yourself in one of my pictures and want it taken down, please just say so and I’ll do it ASAP. Cheers.)

i’ll be spelling realize with an s

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UBC Campus.

Let’s skip the introductions and go straight into talking about how absolutely beautiful British Columbia is, shall we? Because it is beautiful. I’ve been here for a week, and so far not a day has passed where I haven’t been knocked breathless and stunned by beauty. You Canadians ain’t so bad, either. *cheezy wink*. (I mean that in a spiritual sense. Mostly.)

You may have gathered that I am not from around these parts. Perhaps, for some of you, the stunning beauty of Vancouver is something you barely notice anymore, but I know some of you’ll be like me; new to this area and feeling a little overwhelmed by the picture-perfect-ness of it all. I come from a very picturesque part of the world, as it happens, but dang, Canada. Woah.

View from Comox, Vancouver Island, across to the mainland.

I’ve moved here for just the year on exchange from the UK and being here for just the year is already feeling like not enough time. How do I go back to Norwich (famous for precisely nothing, though maybe you’ll know who Stephen Fry is – he’s a national treasure to us Brits) after a year at UBC? Amongst the most beautiful sights you could wish for, in one of the most exciting and interesting universities in the world?

Fountain opposite Irving K Barber Learning Centre, UBC Campus.

I am a worrier, and this is a genuine worry for me. But, okay, I’m going to try to do the grown up thing and ignore that for now. I’m going to try to do all those things you get in annoying motivational emails like live for the moment and seize the day. I will endeavour to suspend my British cynicism and leap before I look a little. Not too much. I’ll be the one flailing in mid-air and screaming. It will not be graceful.

I come from a tiny little place in the north of England and I go to uni in a city that is, when compared to Vancouver, minuscule. Suddenly, I’m half way across the world. Time zones are the worst thing – when I wake up it’s already evening meal time at home, and my friends are waking up for class or work as I’m heading for bed. But I’m in Vancouver. I’m at UBC. I’m mid-way into spending my first night in res and this exchange thing is something I’ve been talking about doing since 2010.

I’m finally here. That feels amazing. You can throw anything you like at me, UBC. I’m in it for the experience – for the free-fall after opening out my parachute. And I promise to wave to you all – Queen-style – on the way down. Because this is going to be a fantastic year.

Sunset from Canada Place, downtown Vancouver.

(Note: Incidentally, I have no plans to parachute off of a very high thing this year. Partly because I’m terrified of heights.  Also because metaphors are awful and deplorable things and I am not going to encourage myself to use more by realising any of them. Everything I actually do, I’ll blog about.)