Categories
Academics International Residence Life

A Journey

And I don’t mean the band (even though Don’t Stop Believing from my Journey & Rush playlist is on right now).

It’s almost the end of the break. Yay! 2 days and 18 hours left. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy my time in California, there are some things that California has that Vancouver doesn’t, which I got my full dose of (sun is one of those things in excess), and some which you can never get enough of (my mom, my dad, my dog, and my cat). Anyways, being the end of the term, end of the month, end of the year, and end of the decade, it’s a good time to remember what has happened. Because if I don’t refresh my memory, I’ll never remember later. Before I left, I subconsciously literally took a trip down memory lane on my last walk back to Vanier from Gage. There were so many “Hey, I remember when…” moments that time that I’ll just list them by each place.

Gage East Tower – This is where I lived for two weeks with fear, uncertainty, and pneumonia. And of course the best view (17th floor!). Even so, Jump Start was amazing despite my inability to be alive and awake for a good portion of it.

North Parkade – This is where my dad would always park his rental Mustang when he would come visit me while I was still at Jump Start. That was a beautiful car.

The grassy hills north of the SUB – This is where I would begin to be out of breath on my way to Buchanan for afternoon cohorts during Jump Start.

SUB – This is where I attempted to scavenge for food during Jump Start, went to origami club meetings, got my hair cut, and bought Christmas presents. Amazing how I can do all that in the same building.

IKBLC – This will forever remind me of all the filming that happens on campus. The IKBLC is FBI headquarters in an episode of Fringe (which is an amazing show by the way, you don’t need to watch it from the beginning, but it has more meaning and “OMFG!” moments if you do).

Hennings – This is the first building I would always go to at 9 in the morning for English. That is, when I could wake up. I think I did a pretty good job going to all of them except for 3 and that’s the class I missed the most of. It was also here where I met a very confusing person.

White Spot – This is where a good friend of mine had his huge birthday party. I love how conveniently located this place is…if only I actually liked White Spot.

LSK – This is where I would end all of my days (I think of my “days” ending after I’ve had every class once) in psychology learning entirely random things and meeting a certain lovely person.

Longhouse – Absolutely thoroughly I-want-to-lay-on-the-floor-and-die exhausted, I arrived here for the welcoming ceremony for Jump Start and it’s really a lovely place to be. Despite my condition, I still did enjoy being there and learning about its history.

Vanier – At that time of day and at that point in the exam weeks, it was entirely dead outside, which reminded me of when we moved in during Jump Start on my birthday. Step by step, my exhausted pneumonia-filled self dragged two full senior sized hockey bags up to the second floor to find my room not so inviting. Moths, stains, and spiderwebs don’t exactly get your hopes up on how living in this room is going to be. Luckily later that night, my friends and I had a lovely time eating chocolate cheesecake with chopsticks (and cut with chopsticks) on top of take-out boxes in what was true college style.

Adios to term 1 and 2009 and bonjour to 2010 and term 2! Happy new year everyone :)

Stay frosty.

Categories
International

The Transition

It’s been 24 hours since I arrived in California and a weird 24 hours it has been. Going from being at UBC in the rain in the morning, then through customs (and Myles getting searched twice), then on a plane, and then being back in my room in California in one day is an odd experience.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • On my first trip out, I forgot people were able to make U-turns here and I almost ran into someone.
  • I still feel like I need to catch the 99 to go anywhere.
  • At Safeway, my mom and I usually start on the left (bread) side of the store and go to the right (fruit side), but at the Macdonald Safeway, I would always start in the fruit section and go to the left, so I had to start from the right side in order to be less confused.
  • I almost walked into a store through the right door, but here it’s on the left side.
  • On the plane when we were nearing the airport, the sun hit my face and it hurt for a second and then I remembered what the sun feels like.
  • The sun was still out at 4:30 PM and I was very confused, it felt like 11 AM.
  • I woke up this morning and all of UBC felt like a super awesome dream, since everything was still the same…and the sun hit me in the face again.

And a few quotes:

  • “So what’s that in Celsius/metres?”
  • “My bed is so low…and the carpet is squishy and soft…”
  • “The roads here are so wide and everything is…expansive”
  • “You call THIS cold?! It’s not even close to freezing!”
  • “I want sushi…actually I just want kiwi rolls…which don’t exist in California.”
  • “I guess I’m going to have to start using one dollar bills now, this will be interesting.”

(14 days and 17 hours until I’m back in Vancouver!)

Categories
International

A Change of Seasons

That song by Dream Theater (and a wonderful one at that) was the closest I really got to an actual change of seasons in California. I would hear stories about people jumping into piles of leaves, trees changing colors to red, orange, and yellow, and leaves falling off the trees. You really have to have a big imagination to think that actually happens in California, so I never really knew when fall was, except the time between the really hot months and the not so hot months. Leaves don’t really “fall” off the trees, they’re gone by winter for the most part, but big piles of leaves, or piles of leaves at all for that matter, are not formed. On top of that, the leaves that do fall off the trees aren’t exactly red, orange, or yellow, unless you count the orange/brown colour it turns once it dries.

Therefore, you can imagine my admiration of the always photogenic Main Mall. I can’t believe the amount of leaves I’ve seen and the piles that have accumulated, resulting in huge leaf blowers to get them out of the way so new ones can fall. Not only do these leaves actually fall, they’re also the correct colour! I’ve never seen such bright red, orange, and yellow leaves, only in pictures and even then I didn’t believe how vibrant they were. Thank you Vancouver for having proper weather.

Picture by Maggie Mann
Picture by Maggie Mann
Categories
International Residence Life Wellness

10 ways to win my heart <3

Dear future husband,

If you wish to make me happy, this is what you can do to make me feel like I’m at home again:

1. Let me use your car – Waiting for a bus/shuttle is a pain sometimes and going up a hill on a bike is not much more fun. (If it’s a dark blue Mustang with white racing stripes, that makes it so much better.)

2. Buy me ice cream – Do you know how expensive ice cream is?! In the SUB, I got an ice cream and it was $4.19! I thought maybe he charged me for two, but it was only one. Luckily this problem has been fixed by the caf’s lower ice cream prices, but…

3. Feed me on my schedule – I’m told the caf is not open past 7 (7 is my normal dinner time), so usually I get hungry before I go to bed, which means I need to keep food in my room all the time. And it better be good food too because I’m not going all the way to the village to get food at midnight by myself XD

4. Get rid of the moths – There are moths in this building. And it is disgusting. End of story. (Especially when you find them in your shower and then on your towel after your shower, followed by them flying frantically around your head.)

5. Send me things – I open my mailbox and there’s nothing in it and it makes me sad. I don’t care if it’s junk mail or a bill, I just like getting mail :)

6. Replace my wall with pillows – The wall next to my bed is more fatal than it looks. The past few nights I’d knock my head against the cement wall, so I put a pillow there. Last night, I was rolling over while half-awake and in my circle to roll over, I slammed my head against the wall, above where the pillow was. I remember saying something like “I can’t go to class today, I have a concussion.”

7. Hold my umbrella while I’m inside – So that I don’t get it out of my backpack, put it in my lap upside-down, and have the water pour out of it so that it looks like I peed myself.

8. Let me pet your dog – I miss my dog! I miss him more than anything really since he can’t Skype as well as others can. I almost feel like I’m attacking dogs when I see them and pet them since I’m just so excited to see them.

9. Help me decorate my dorm room – My mom did a lovely job helping me, but if there’s white space, I still think there’s room for improvement! XD She put a red curtain in my room and a few plants (real and fake), which really made my room feel more homey.

10. Take care of me when I’m sick – Going to the UBC hospital with pneumonia that was supposed to be much better already within the first week or two of arriving in the country is absolutely scary. Thanks Dad for going with me!

My dog, Charlie
My dog, Charlie :)
Categories
International

Arrival of the Fittest

Vancouver Day 1

Part 1: August 16th

I have officially arrived in Vancouver! Luckily, my altitude headache was taken care of as well as my boredom, so the flight was quite lovely. Customs was very nice and let me in more easily than I expected and issued me my study permit with no difficulties. The hardest part was the luggage, I have two full sized hockey bags and a backpack filled with anything I could fit…which probably won’t be a good idea, but I figured, “We’re paying for the extra weight/size so I might as well make good use out of it!” With the pneumonia, it was so exhausting (even with my dad helping) to get all of our bags through the California airport then through the Vancouver airport and finally through our hotel. And I’m going to have to do it again on Tuesday. (When I say full sized I mean that they’re about 40″x15″x18″ and 50 pounds each (I have no idea what that is in cm and kg, I’m still getting used to Celsius XD))

The most awesome part of the day was when we got our rental car. A black Mustang convertible with a white tape stripe <3 For anyone that knows me well, they know that my favourite car is a dark blue Mustang with white racing and tape stripes. So being able to be in one and ride in it in the most amazing place in the world was just beautiful.

After freaking out about the Mustang, we got to our room, went to go eat dinner at Red Robin (it’s a tradition that we go there every time we’re here), and then looked out of our huge windows and stood on the balcony to admire the sunset. It’s really amazing how beautiful it is (if you don’t believe me, look at the picture I took) and I can’t wait to see more. And now Monday awaits my visit to the bank, the Rogers store, and campus :D

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