Category Archives: Wellness

Not only is ‘screaming at the top of my lungs’ on one of my to-do lists, I think it would go a long way in helping me cope with things at the moment.

Does anyone have any recommendations for places I can go and scream my voice away without unduly frightening innocent passers-by?

• Always keep a lemon and a pot of honey in your food stash. You never want to realise you need these items to soothe a sore throat when your throat is actually sore. Hot water with honey and lemon is also just a great drink to wake up with on a cold, dreary morning.
• Make batches of freezable food over the weekend, or whenever you have any chunk of time. You’ll thank yourself for this later when you’re rushing deadlines and need quick, cheap, easy dinners to get you by.
• Convince your friends that running errands with you really is a type of fun. They wanted to hang out, didn’t they?

Feel free to add on to the list.

I shouldn’t have, because I was poorly to begin with, but I did—I’d missed the shuttle and had fifteen minutes to get from Marine Drive to Buchanan Tower before the English office closed, so I ran.

Afterwards, I suffered the consequences of low blood sugar and found myself stumbling towards the Speakeasy lounge to lie down before I was publicly sick or fainted away. Fortunately, there were volunteers there as usual who gave me chocolate and water, and I recovered after an hour or so.

All this so that I wouldn’t get 15% off my paper for being late. There have got to be better ways of living than this.

This misadventure got me thinking, however: if I didn’t volunteer for Speakeasy and didn’t have a volunteers-only lounge to retreat to, where would I have gone? Where is a safe resting place for a student who just needs to lie down and be taken care of for a little while, not dragged off to the hospital?

I thought about the restrooms in Buchanan Tower, because the women’s washrooms each have a cot partitioned off to one side, so I probably would have used that if I didn’t have any other options. The Centre for Student Involvement? There are sofas and vending machines there, so I could have purchased candy on the way if I had change (which I didn’t, having left my wallet at home in my rush).

Where would you have gone and what would you have done? These are questions you never think about until you need to, and then it’s a scary thing.

For the first time in weeks, the rain has come down again. A little part of me is going, ‘Nooo! I don’t want to return to the Vancouver that rains all the time! Not yet! Not now!’ — But wait. Wasn’t I the one who was telling my friends in other places that Vancouver rain is really not so bad?

Summer must be getting to me, because all I can remember of the other eight months of the year are dreary skies and a constant drizzle. Looking over my notes to friends, I can see myself asserting, ‘Vancouver rain isn’t as bad as everyone makes it seem. The weather here is actually fairly predictable: grey skies one day, rainy the second, and sunshine on the third. Rinse and repeat. It’s kind of nice to know that sooner or later, another clear, sunny day will pop up. For some reason though, everyone seems to forget the last sunny day we had two days ago, and focuses instead on the rain — which isn’t even real rain by Hong Kong standards. I’m dying for a total downpour. Here, it’s just a halfhearted drizzle that can’t seem to decide whether to come down or not.’

Well, at least I remembered the drizzling part right.

I think I just haven’t had enough sun. I ran back to Asia for three weeks over the summer to see my family and it was raining almost all the time there.

What I would like to do — as soon as my distance-education exam is over — is go out into the world and bathe myself in sunlight. I want to soak up every little last bit of Vitamin D that I can get before the weather turns and I’m wearing my minimum of four layers that make up my autumn, winter and spring attire. (Fashionable? Oh yes, if only being a very round ball would come into style this year. No matter, at least I’m warm.)

Of course, when I take a step back, I know the rain really isn’t so bad. It waters our garden, for instance. It keeps things looking green (and I love the green!).

It also keeps me indoors, forcing me to study after I’ve procrastinated sufficiently long enough to feel the stress. I admit it—summer weather is not conducive to studying. If I make myself stay at home to work, I end up standing beside the window feeling remarkably like a trapped pet.

So rain is clearly A Good Thing during the academic year. (Note to self: never ever again take a class that examines you for credit during the summer. Ever.)

The shortened daylight hours in winter? That I’m not so keen on. I’ve discovered my mood tends to dip when night falls, so it’s quite low during the winter when the sun sets at four. (I used to think that was an exaggeration, the sun setting at four. Oh, enlightenment.) Haven’t the faintest idea how I’ll fix that just yet — this year I’m considering investing in fantastically bright lights. Perhaps that will help? Hmm.

At any rate, I can’t wait for the sun tomorrow. Even though I do love

the cool smell of falling rain you can almost
taste on your naked skin…