So it’s the infamous first week of finals and my plans are to study. Lies. Lies. Lies. Today I planned to go to Metrotown to buy some sweatpants and other various things, but instead I slept in until 2:30. But I had time to do that since I studied over the weekend. More lies. On Saturday, I went to Robson Square and ice skated, then saw Ninja Assassin (absolutely hilarious movie), and went out to dinner. Then to make up for all of that, I’m going to study tomorrow. For real this time, I was going to, until I figured out that if I got 0% on my hardest final (except English, but I can’t calculate that grade right now), I would still get 49.97% in the class. Hopefully I’ll be able to motivate myself at least a little to study tomorrow, but it will probably end up happening on Wednesday and the final is on Thursday.
So while I have been procrastinating/relaxing/not stressing, I’ve really come to notice the amount of different animals that live around my house: (The pictures are from my phone when I randomly saw them, except the squirrel, so sorry about the quality)
| The common black squirrel:
These guys are pretty much everywhere and I think that squirrels are not supposed to be black (at least in California), but I’ve seen these so much that I can’t remember anymore. They seem to not be as scared of humans as I expect, but they still do run away. |
| The reminder-that-we’re-next-to-water seagull:
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| Whenever I see a seagull on campus, I’m always confused why they are around until I remember that we are mostly surrounded by water. I don’t see as many of these and not as much around Vanier, probably since there are so many people walking around, but they seem to not be scared easily. |
| The “birds in the hood” crows:
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| We would have these en masse on our lawn at home and they’ve been deemed “the birds in the hood” since they were everywhere. (Thanks to my mom for that!) The ones I took a picture of are actually by the SUB, but we do get a few around Vanier. |
| The fierce raccoons:
I wish I could get a picture of these guys, but they’re only around when it’s dark. The first time I saw one I was entirely scared since I had a fairly big furry animal looking at me a few feet away. I thought they were pretty cute until I was coming back from dinner one day and I saw about three or four of them growling (or whatever raccoons do to make loud nasty noises) and running after each other. I was also walking around at night once and I passed a tree to find a raccoon right next to it, looking at me at an uncomfortably close distance. |
5 replies on “Les Animaux de Vanier”
Yay for UBC’s infamous raccoons!
I look forward to seeing some photos on the marine life (look underneath the rocks and below the algae… they’re there).
Just a heads up about finals… …a lot of courses have the policy that if you fail the final, you fail the course. So even if you get 100% in the course up to the final, but then you get 30% on the final, you fail the course. So you might want to double check your course regulation thingers before you secure yourself in “I’m safe” mode XD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_squirrel
I am from Quebec and I never saw black squirrels before either, until I came to Vancouver. According to wikipedia: “Vancouver, British Columbia has a growing population of black squirrels after they were introduced to the Stanley Park Penninsula before 1914. The squirrels have thrived and spread throughout the Vancouver area”
My googling also turned up a list of top 10 black squirrel spotting locations, which lists UBC as #9:
“University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia. The black squirrels here reached urban legend status here, as they are said to be extremely large, compared to a plague, and felt to be like rats around campus. Black squirrels were introduced to the Stanley Park Peninsula in Vancouver, British Columbia, prior to 1914 and have now spread from Vancouver, into the North Shore and the Fraser Valley area surrounding the city. Reportedly, as well, these squirrels have migrated from Vancouver into Whatcom County, in northwest Washington State.”
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/2006-bw-squirrels/
And that’s it for today’s lesson, kids.
mad props on le titre en français :D
The seagulls are terrifying.
Gotta love the “wildlife” on campus ;) You don’t get any pigeons around Vanier? Now that’s odd. Those birds are everywhere I find.
Regards,
Rabi
P.S. Props on the photos =D