The start of a dream; the start of a new beginning.

So why then am I freaking out?

Current Moods: frustrated, stressed, but I’m feeling excitement on the horizon.

Why? Homework. I’m having some difficulty understanding how people manage high grades in university. I’ve had a minimal, if any kind of social life at all in the past week.

I switched out of my anatomy class, because I thought it was too much to handle first year, so instead I enrolled myself in a Philosophy course. This gives me another 3 weeks worth of reading content I have to catch up on. Love it!

Aside from the hours of reading in psych, socio, english, philosophy, and anthropology, I have an assignment due tomorrow morning at 8 AM. I only found out about this two days ago, which is totally my fault. Regardless, it’d be nice if TA’s can go over the assignment so everyone understands what they’re supposed to do !

I left to my sister’s house yesterday so I can get some quiet time studying and doing this subject, but I ended up ripping out my hair for 4 hours. I built somewhat of an outline for the assignment, or abstract, as they call it, so now I’m hoping the research part won’t be too difficult. If anything, I can always just stay up until 4 in the morning doing it. I’ve only done that… 4 times now? I guess students weren’t kidding when they said university was hard.

Back to work! Just wanted to provide a quick little update.

You guys can expect an update sometime Sunday or Monday after Totem Color Wars (life or let dye), day of the Longboat, and GLOW. It hear it has quite the reputation, haha.

Oh, and one quick end note, whoever stole 1^st floor Dene’s PingPong Table and wrote 6^th Nootka on it with permanent marker, we are all unimpressed.

Can I just start by saying how sorry I am? It’s been over a week since I’ve updated my blog, and during one of the most exciting times of the year to boot. As you can imagine, the past 9 days have been nothing short of insanity.

Here’s a little rundown on the trouble I’ve been getting myself into.

Moved into Totem. This night may have been a bit crazier then I wanted it to be. The totem partying hype was lived up to, and by that, I mean to say it was a blast; from what I can remember. Moral of that story? Don’t mix drinks. The nausea isn’t worth it in the morning. I spent the day at my sister’s recovering.

Then there was the AMS events week. They were selling these manly blue glittery bracelets for 20 dollars, its supposed to get you into a bunch of the events that were being hosted. I bought this band, I wore it for an entire week. Did I make use of a single event that was planned? Of course not. Take note; cooler stuff happens.

Among other mini parties, I met TONS of people. You’ve heard your parents tell you: “Don’t worry about making friends ! Everyone is in the same boat, so it’ll be no problem at all”. I can’t deny though, that remembering everyone’s name is extremely difficult. You’re meeting hundreds of students a day, and most of the time, (don’t hate me for this), I forgot the person’s name by the time we finished our conversation. It made me so sad ! Good news is though, a lot of people’s names stuck. And for the most part, I hang around a lot of these people. Both my floor and our sister floor are amazing.

My RA, Dylan Denault, is really good at what he does. He’s so chill and down to earth. Even when we’re caught making too much noise in our rooms, or having a rave party in another at midnight, he doesn’t yell, actually, I don’t even think speaks. He kinda walks in, nods or smiles at the person, and walks off. Our floor and him have this mutual understanding, he has to do his job, and we don’t want to get him in trouble. It’s usually the people that randomly take over our common’s room from vanier that do the most damage. Someone stole our TV’s cable for crying out loud! Ces’t la vie.

OH, and the roommate !! This was a HUGE deal. After all, we’re living together for the next 8 months. His name is Kurtus, and he’s going into engineering. He’s a pretty cool guy. We agree on pretty much everything, and neither of us have done anything to really annoy each other. Unless you count me forgetting my keys at 3 in the morning and having to wake him up so he can open the door for me (still sorry about that budd!). We had roommate boot camp two nights ago, and we dominated together. Me and Kurt got an official paper with a star and cartoon (the works) with the “Most likely to survive eachother” award. I dunno, I was pretty excited. So I’m glad how that part is working out.

CLASSES. I’ve basically attended all my classes once already. I’m not proud that I’m falling behind on the reading, but I plan on doing all that this week. This isn’t high school after all. Classes I’m currently taking are:

PSYC100 – The teacher was intimidating, and seems a bit unapproachable. But his humour is starting to grow on me. Really interesting stuff!

SOCI100 – Tons of reading ! Between chapters in the textbook, to the random articles we have to print out for our discussions. It’s quite a bit. The profs seem really interactive with the students though, so that’s a huge plus.

ANTH100 – Probably my most confusing class. We have quite a bit reading due though, so maybe once I get started on the textbook and the two ethnographies we’re reading, I’ll get a vague idea on what anthropology is about. I’m worried about this class, but I’m going to try and stay optimistic.

ASTU150 – Arts English ! This class seems pretty fun, for an English course that is. Our teacher is very down to earth, and even encourages us to call her by her first name. Our main topic of studying has something to do with gender and sexuality? Needless to say interesting.

BIOL155 – The damn anatomy class. I LOVE anatomy, and I LOVE biology. What I don’t love, is how there is only one time slot. It’s on Tuesday and Thursday’s from 3:30 – 5:00. Meaning, I have a four hour gap after my psych lecture. The gap right now actually ! I guess during this giant space of time I can head to the gym or go back to Dene and get some homework in.

There’s so much more to write, but before I save the rest for tomorrow’s blog (hopefully), I have to mention about my dear friend, and fellow blogger Erica Baker ! This girl is like a little piece of walking home. We’re both from Ontario, so we both know what we’re feeling. We can open up to each other in deep meaningful conversation or we can joke around, like in her latest blog; she’s modeling the blackhead strips I let her try! Fun times. But you guys will be seeing a lot of Mark and Erica Blogs. We have plans in the making, and you know they will be spoken of, with pictures taken of course.

More updates within the next three days, promise ! I’m thinking about making a fun fact Friday, or even fitness Friday? Just a separate blogging day of the week. Let me know what you guys think!

Aaaaaaaand a quick shout out to some people back home ! I miss you guys, phone calls with you all make it so much easier!

K seriously, I’m off to get ready for anatomy, and then our brother sister floor dinner ! We’re going to the mongolie grill or something like that? Needless to say, I’m pumped for some good food and fun times.

Holy crap!!

Can you believe it? I’m wondering right now, where our freaking summer has skittered off to. This whole summer, has basically been university prep and saying goodbye to friends, and now that both are officially done, you wonder…what now? Well, I guess the next step is moving in. But damn, did that ever come fast.

So the past week has been crazy. As mentioned before, Katy took me on a wild adventure around campus. We started by exploring Dene, which, to my suprise is pronounced “deh-NAY”. The floors were pretty deserted, but I did meet a few people that moved in early, including my advisor on the first floor. We sat around Katy’s super single and talked for a bit, planned out our day, even admired her two pretty fish Blair and Sarina (and if you’re thinking it’s a gossip girl thing, you are absolutly correct).

Our first stop was the UBC bookstore. So before we went to the carding office we decided to check out some of my books. For those of you who have yet to buy their books, prepare yourself. Buying my textbooks, may have been one of the most painful things I’ve ever had to do. After looking through the columns and columns of books and throwing them in the basket, I cashed my visa for over 800 dollars. Made me sad how someone could put a pricetag of $150 for 100 pages, paperback.Ces’t la vie. Guess people weren’t kidding when they told me University is expensive.

Next I waited in line to get my UBC ID and upass. It wasn’t a long line, thankfully. Seriously look good for this photo. Because they weren’t kidding when they say that picture stays with you for four years. Word of advice? Don’t try anything fancy. Stick with a look that you know is simple and makes you look good. I really wish I knew this beforehand. I decided to get fancy and try and flare out the ends of my hair. Well, by the time I got their, my hair was a semi waved mess. Majority of the ‘flare’ flattened so I was left with something nasty. Also smile. Show your pretty teeth. Don’t grin, don’t NOT smile, and definitely DON’T smirk! I have this thing, where everytime I smile, my left eye squints a bit more then my right. I thought a smirk would fix this problem, but it only made it worse. Needless to say, my kind british UPASS man told me I looked high in my photo. That’s great. Nothing looks better then a messy haired stoner kid as your University ID pic. Blah.

So afterwards, we stopped by fairview to pick up Katy’s forgotten UBC ID, and then with like 50 pounds of books to carry, we took the shuttle to Dene and dropped them off. We still had much to do, but we couldn’t bear carrying them around everywhere we went. It was murder for the shoulders. So we threw those in her room, chilled a bit, had a breather, and we were off again.

We realized we were actually starving, so we went to the subway in the SUB (haha!). Ordered footlong veggie subs, since we’re both vegetarian, and had some more conversations. Shortly afterwards we departed and the campus tour ensued. We checked out the rose garden, a bunch of buildings where my classes were being held, and the Irving K barber Centre I think? The “Harry Potter Room” is as amazing as people say it is. Check it out, it’s legit.

So its like 7 PM by this time, we’re so exhausted, we make one last trek to Dene. We sit around, talking about our experiences in highschool, some good reads, and afterwards realizing that I bought two of the same book. That was upsetting. I took care of that yesterday though so it’s all good. My sister came to pick me up, and me and Katy parted knowing how much of a great day we had.

The next few days I bought the rest of my belongings, and I’m happy to say everything is packed and ready to go; excluding posters for the walls. The bedsheets were also a pain but I managed to grab the last one at Sears today. Huzzah!

Which leaves me anticipating tomorrow morning. Moving into Totem is gong to be huge. A giant shock to the system. But I know it’s going to be something to remember for a long while. I’ll be moving in around 11 AM tomorrow, so if anyone wants to come visit me in 132 Dene, don’t be hesitant! My door is open, and all visitors are welcome!

Off to bed ! I seriously need to stop writing these blogs past midnight. Night!