Hi Everyone,

I apologize for the delayed start to my blog postings (although this is probably much more detrimental to my own success than any of yours) but I fully intend to be all caught up by the end of this week. Luckily, I am a prolific writer; I’ve always enjoyed written expression, especially because I find that my written voice is often more eloquent and articulate than my spoken one.

A brief background summary is quintessential for every self-introduction: I was born in Beijing, China, but immigrated to Vancouver at an age young enough to make this city feel like my unofficial birthplace. I attended high school right on campus, at the University Transition Program, and am now finishing up the final year of my B.A. in Political Science. Like many of my peers, I am an aspiring lawyer. Having written the challenging, but exhilarating, LSAT this past October and submitted all my applications in the months following, I am now in the (exciting) limbo stage of waiting to hear back from a number of law schools in Ontario.

In accordance with the academic interests I expressed in class last week, I’ve taken a number of comparative politics classes throughout my years at UBC. Ergo, when it came time to pick an interesting seminar for my last semester, I naturally gravitated towards this course. Little did I know, it would bear a strong (read: identical) resemblance to a course that I took with Professor Nyblade last year. I see this pseudo-repetition of a course as bearing both advantageous and disadvantageous implications. On the one hand, as I greatly enjoyed the course last year, and felt truly engaged by the material and the subject matter studied, I look forward to getting the chance to revisit everything, this time even more in-depth than previously (in terms of readings and expectations). On the other hand, as a result of my previous involvement, I have set exceedingly high expectations for myself. In retrospect, I feel dissatisfied with my first attempt to ‘measure democracy;’ thus, I look forward to trying again, and getting to know all of you in the process 🙂