Category Archives: International

Going global

Posted on 5 October 2007 | Comments Off on Going global

Before I came to UBC, I was quite keen on doing some exchange programmes. That was actually one of the things I was considering when applying to the UK as well, but then I remembered that there are only three years and it would be kind of pointless to be traipsing about elsewhere if I wanted to do a straight English degree. Only now that I’m here, I’ve decided that I’m not going to go on exchange during the academic year.

Thanks to the IB, I have a lot of transfer credit. This makes me eligible to apply for third-year English at the end of this year, and as English is what I want to do more than anything else, I want to stick around and study as much as I can as fast as I can. I also want to do Creative Writing, which is essentially only open to second-year students. (Which reminds me, I need to check whether being a second-year student doing third-year English makes me eligible for Creative Writing. It would be too cruel if I wasn’t eligible next year, wouldn’t it? Because I couldn’t enter second-year English this year until I got my IB results, which were well after registration dates, so I wasn’t eligible when everything became full either.) I might still think about going to Glasgow for third year, but then again, I’m also thinking of doing co-op, so it’s one or the other. I’ve also noticed a lot of the partner universities only offer lower-level courses, which I am personally no longer interested in.

Despite this, I still plan on going abroad. I sincerely believe that going to different countries opens you up to so many new experiences, opportunities and challenges. After talking with some secondary school friends who went to places they’d never been to before to pursue their tertiary education, I have to say I am envious of their courage and the rewards they are reaping because of it. I am learning the hard way that great rewards only come with great risks. I wish I took bigger risks.

And so I am going to apply for summer school — or more specifically, the Spring Term (May to mid-June) at Queen’s International Research Centre in Herstmonceux for 2008. Credit transfers very easily from there; you do three courses there, equivalent to nine credits at UBC. My parents are very supportive of this idea (more so than the idea of me staying on at UBC for summer school).

I also have dreams of volunteering abroad one summer. I’m not sure where that would fit into my schedule… I need serious help planning out my degree with all the stuff I want to do.

Comments Off on Going global

Posted in Academic, International

Sleep is good for you in so many ways

Posted on 2 October 2007 | 5 comments

I was planning to go to the UBC Careers Fair tomorrow and Thursday, but I am so exhausted that I don’t think I can make it, so you go for me!

I went to the doctor today mainly so my mother won’t worry as much far on the other side of the world, and there isn’t anything majorly wrong with me that more sleep and rest won’t cure, so I’m following doctor’s orders. My sore throat which started a couple of days ago is mostly gone, although my nose is stuffy and I’m running a fever again.

P.S. To international students on the iMED or domestic students on the Global Campus Health Plan, both offered by David Cummings Insurance Company, go to the University Village Medical Clinic above Staples. The clinic does direct billing to the company so you don’t need to deal with claim forms on your own, something I know I don’t feel like learning when I am sick. I didn’t have insurance thingymabobs to deal with in Hong Kong, so this is an entirely new concept to handle.

I’d just like to add a few words about sleep: It is good for you. I need about eight hours of sleep a day to function happily (it’s an improvement from my nine-and-a-half minimum requirement during secondary school, but apparently that is the average time needed for teenagers — adults need eight). I used to sacrifice my sleep to catch up on schoolwork and then I’d get sick because I was too tired and miss school, meaning I’d have to catch up on homework and schoolwork again, leading to me not sleep — it was a vicious circle. During the IB, I insisted on my having adequate sleep so I wouldn’t miss school as much. This sleep regiment of mine meant I couldn’t really procrastinate as I needed to get everything done in time for bed. Funnily enough, or not really, sleeping more meant that I was well-rested and processed everything quicker, so I could do better in school and finish homework faster than if I stayed up all night.

Mmmmmm, bed.

5 Comments

Posted in Careers / Work, International, Wellness

One of those awful summaries I write to make up for not updating more often

Posted on 15 September 2007 | 2 comments

Somehow or other, time has flown by and I’ve been at UBC for over a month.

I’ve sorted out most of my ‘official stuff’: what I like to call tedious, but necessary, matters such as paying my tuition, opening my bank account, buying necessities, and so forth. I went down to East Van — a rather sketchy place, it feels — last week to get my Social Insurance Number (as a Canadian citizen, I need one to open a savings account and I never had one before). My savings account is now open, I’ve been down to the dollar store to buy random things, and I’ve eaten way too many bananas in the past week.

For the record, I’m really glad that I came for ASSIST. Although I left earlier than most of my friends and shortened my golden summer, it gave me a head start on getting used to UBC and has helped me make a fairly smooth transition so far. I’m way more familiar with the resources and the campus layout than if I had just come for IMAGINE, or even GALA, but most importantly, it was a great way of meeting people, particularly since I didn’t really know (m)any people coming to UBC. (My own set of secondary school friends are mostly split between the UK and Toronto.)

So to any prospective students out there, I do recommend coming early to UBC. I count as a domestic student, but I’ve lived outside of Canada for as long as I can remember, so I felt more like an international student than anything else when I first came.

Returning to the topic of meeting people, I find it somewhat more difficult to make friends with people in my classes. This is mostly because when you’re in a lecture hall or even a smaller class, you don’t really get to chat with the person next to you and have lots of deep conversations. The person next to you may also change each time you go to class. Then, of course, people are rushing to and from their previous or next classes so conversations are limited to a hurried ‘Hello!’ and ‘Goodbye!’ Making friends in classes is, for me, slow going.

Which is why I’m looking forward to Clubs Week next week. I think everyone should go. As I’m only doing four courses this term, I seem to have a lot of free time on my hands. (This is bad for my studying as I procrastinate when there is very little to do. Classes go at a slightly faster pace than the IB, but I don’t yet feel as challenged. Yet.) There are a lot of clubs that I’m interested in and I want to join about three, give or take. Is it sad that I’m mentally categorizing clubs in terms of CAS (Creativity, Action, Service)? It is. Curse you, vestiges of the IB. You’ve changed me irrevocably.

2 Comments

Posted in Academic, International, Involvement / Leadership, Orientation

This is the view that I’ve been looking for

Posted on 21 August 2007 | 4 comments

21/08/07 - View from Gage

This, my friends, is the view from my room in Gage at 5:00 pm. Yes, those are mountains and ocean and forest. No, it has not been Photoshopped to look sunny. I don’t know how to use Photoshop; it scares me.

Isn’t it gorgeous? The scenery in Vancouver is one of the reasons — my second-last reason, to be precise — for coming to UBC.

As ridiculous as this may at first sound, I made a list of reasons for coming to UBC — in fact, I made many lists. I made lists about the pros and cons of going to the UK or to Canada. I made lists about the pros and cons of going to other universities. I made a list of things I wanted out of my university experience and gave each of them a weighting. I ranked each institution according to how they performed in each factor.

In other words, I was ridiculously logical and then I threw all my lists away and thought about what I wanted. The answer was the same.

Then I had to recite my list to friends, family, teachers — everyone who wanted to know why I was going to UBC — which is why I can still tell you that this view was the second-to-last reason.

The last reason was the weather. It’s not as cold as Ontario.

That list is, by the way, in order of decreasing importance. Of course.

So here I am, and hoping my heart and logic haven’t led me astray.

I’m participating in ASSIST, the academic orientation for international students which began on August 16th (academically speaking; the social activities began on the 14th). Both the academic and the social schedules have been absolutely packed so instead of blogging, socialising on Facebook or writing long-promised emails to friends, I’ve been doing the less interesting, but slightly necessary, tasks of opening my bank account, doing the laundry, buying milk… (I’m staying in Gage right now, which is basically the apartment-style accommodation with six single bedrooms, a shared bathroom, living room and kitchen. This means I either have to cook or eat out. I eat out a lot.)

There’s a trip to the Vancouver Art Gallery in about half an hour. Now I can either shower or find dinner, but not both. This is why I didn’t blog before. I always seem to be doing something “essential”.

I’ll probably find dinner because I can always shower later. Except all the cheap food outlets closed an hour ago. (It’s now 6:00.)

Cereal, here I come.

4 Comments

Posted in International, Orientation