To the kind person who picked up my student card and gave it to the Vanier front desk. I knew that falling into the habit of obsessively checking my mailbox would pay off one day.
I send good karma and happy thoughts your way.
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Posted in Residence Life
My order for books has now been postponed to anywhere from February 6 to Febuary 25, which is just ridiculous. Thanks, but no thanks — I’ll get my books in person on Tuesday. The whole point about ordering online was that they would be here in the first week or two of school.
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Posted in Academic
Happy New Year to anyone who reads my blog, and I hope you have a good one.
I’ve been having a pretty lovely break at home, but now I’m getting ready to go back to Vancouver and to all the problems associated with that, namely ordering course textbooks.
You’d think it would be cheaper to go to the UBC Bookstore — they have a practically guarenteed market. But no. They are notorious for overpricing everything they sell and underpaying for everything they buy back used. Buying and selling between students is usually a better deal. There is a used bookstore down in the Village which has better prices, but which don’t necessarily have all the books you need. That said, the Bookstore isn’t a hundred-percent reliable either.
Since more than one person recommended amazon.ca to me, I’m using that. There are also many booksellers on amazon who sell for even cheaper, depending on the book. (Shipping and customs costs usually make ordering from US booksellers redundant, in my case.) My mistake, however, is to be ordering too late: I ordered them the day I left. No. Order two months ahead. I’m watching my estimated delivery date be slowly pushed from latest December 24th to latest January 16th. Really not that bad, but last time I wanted something, they pushed it back two months. Hopefully this will not be repeated.
With that rant done, there are some pretty exciting things going on this term to look forward to: volunteering for a children’s literacy programme, the Student Leadership Conference next Saturday, the Trek Learning Exchange programme (signed up just to see for now), my classes — once I sort out the Linguistics/English problem — are all ones I like, and I want to reorganise the furniture in my room. I’ve been planning how it will look so much, I’ve even had dreams about it.
Posted in Academic, Involvement / Leadership, Residence Life
The Add/Drop form is so commonly used, I can’t find a guide to how it works. I’ve found the form, but that doesn’t answer all my questions.
Basically, I want to switch my Linguistics class with an English one that is on at the same time. This English one is currently full. I highly doubt that it will open over the break, but even if it does, I won’t be able to register myself. It’s a 2nd-year class and blocks 1st-year students. Usually you go through Judy Brown to get it done, but it is the holiday right now. (I am also increasingly embarrassed about the multiple times I have emailed her already — this is going to be my third English class this term.)
Anyway, I emailed the professor asking if a separate waiting list was kept. No. But I am allowed to come to the first three classes and then ask to have the add/drop form signed. Me being my paranoid self, however, now have a trillion questions and one about how this works:
1. Am I supposed to say hi to the professor every class for that week, to let her know I have actually been attending the class? Or is it just for my own reference to decide if I really want to be in that class or not?
2. What if she changes her mind and refuses to sign it because she thinks the class is too full? That means I’ll have missed a week of Linguistics and an awful lot can be covered in a week.
3. I haven’t dropped the Linguistics course because I wanted to pay tuition in one go. I figured that each class that I’m doing is the same cost, so if I switch English with Linguistics on one day, I won’t be reassessed for tuition. Is this correct?
4. I don’t need to fill in the withdrawal section for my Linguistics class if I withdraw before January 21st, or whenever the date for withdrawing without a ‘W’ standing, right…?
go where we most want to go, which is most usually home.
Canadian Thanksgiving was hard on one level because everyone who lives in this area went home for the long weekend. We walked back to residence on the Friday to see lines of people waiting by the main entrance for their parents to drive them home.
It wasn’t so bad for me then, as I was nursing a fever and so just wanted to sleep (although being sick makes you miss home and people who take care of you more than anything else, possibly). I’ve also never celebrated Thanksgiving before, so it wasn’t like I was missing out on some great big tradition. That will be Lunar New Year.
But the Christmas break will be harder for people who still can’t go home, and sometimes I feel guilty about it. I’m lucky I can fly home, but for many people, that won’t be for another four months. Some people, a few years.
On the other hand, it’s the most natural thing for people to discuss what they most miss and what they are looking forward to having again, so you can’t forbid that. It must be difficult to tolerate, though, for people who aren’t going back yet. I know I miss my family more when I see other parents drop by to visit their kids.
I wish the world was nice and everyone could go where they wanted to go.
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Posted in Wellness
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