Category: Residence Life

From The Oatmeal, via Gizmodo. (Click on any image to make it larger/go to original site)

…But I didn’t know it was THIS bad.

University students are always on the move, this is a known fact. This includes moving the location of the place you call “home” every year.

I’m not living in official UBC housing this year, but I’m still living off campus near unknown barely marked buildings that look super nice. (In fact, I can see into some of their living rooms/kitchens.) They look so nice that despite it being September, I’m looking into them. I made a post earlier about housing on campus, but none of these buildings were on it.

So what are these mystery buildings?

They’re the reason why people complain so much about UBC housing.

I’ve walked by a few, wrote down their names, Googled them, and then I stumbled across this link – a nice list of all mystery buildings on campus. I dare you not to cry when you look at how many properties are on that list and how much they’re going for. (38 properties from about $400,000 to $1,400,000, with a select few at almost $3,000,000).

I’m from California. It’s difficult to live there and it’s quite expensive. Some of these go for more than my house back there that houses 3 people and 3 pets spaciously. I understand that Vancouver is also quite expensive, but really? This is a university. There’s hundreds/thousands of students who just plain can’t afford that. How is it that UBC has room for all of these developments, but lacks the ability to create more affordable housing for students? A university is a place for students to live and learn, not for them to go broke over housing or to have other, more well off people living on the land that students deserve.

I could be entirely wrong about this. Maybe the university is making money off of these developments and uses that to fund student programs. Maybe they have an agreement with the city that in exchange for something, the development corporations are able to build on the land. Either way, I really hope that the housing situation improves to benefit all of the students, rich or poor, at UBC.

Someday in the future we will no longer need to eat. We’ll have permanent IVs and just plug ourselves in to get our energy.

But until that day, I will continue to almost cause fire alarms.

I’ve never had to cook for myself. I don’t really know how, nor do I have the motivation to learn because it seems like a hell of a lot of work just for a meal. First you have to decide what you want, then you have to make sure you have the ingredients for said dish (or go and get them), then you have to prepare for the cooking process (preheating the oven and such), then you have to do the cooking, then you have to do the eating, and finally you have to clean up the super big mess you made by just trying to get yourself fed.

This year, I’m living on the Gage side of campus (aka the non-cafeteria side) where the nearest food is a not so short walk in the rain away. Or in your kitchen, just daring you to attempt to make it. Given the amount of walking I do each day (more details in another post), I am not fond of doing more walking to the village to get food. Therefore, Chef Morgan has come out of hiding and has almost been burning down the house.

So in the past two weeks, I’ve learned a lot.

Don’t buy anything that expires within the next month unless you are eating it that day. Food in cans is awesome. Delivery is even more awesome (except more expensive). Minifridge freezers do not work unless you turn the whole thing into a freezer (which is possible). Remember what you’ve bought or else it may never ever get eaten. And last but not least…

Do not make pancakes with half-frozen milk, no eggs, and do not smush things around with the plastic spatula on the frying pan, or else there may be a ton of smoke, a small fire, and disgusting pancakes.

891 people later and yesterday I got housing in Gage. (I also got year round a few days before). So yes, it is indeed possible.

Also, I’ve been getting a crazy amount of spam comments on my blog recently, anyone know why that is?

They’re sounding pretty attractive to people on the wait list.

891 is my lucky number, so I’m not even thinking about living in res next year. I’ve never been in a situation where I don’t know where I’m going to live. In a catastrophe, I will be homeless next year because all of the other people on the waiting list took all the housing in the lower mainland.

But fear not! There are other options. They are outlined in the pretty daunting long email basically saying “Oh hi first year international student, there’s no chance you’re getting housing next year. Good luck!” But that email is not exactly fun to sort through, so here’s a few options for people. I didn’t know these existed until I got wait listed, so I’m pretty sure a bunch of other people don’t know about them either. (This list does not include graduate student housing.)

On Campus:

Year round housing: Self explanatory, pretty simple, and pretty repetitive. I’ve heard so many times to apply for year round housing, but one of the problems is (and with a significant amount of other places) that you have to be 20 for some of them. However, you can put in your application for free if you respond to the wait list email. Given that this option was one listed in the email though, I’m not sure of your chances of getting in since 2,000+ people got the same message. Either way, it’s worth taking into consideration. Marine Drive is nice, yet expensive, as most people know, but it’s really not that much more expensive if you’re looking for a nice place close to campus. I’ve never been in Thunderbird, but by the looks of the outside, it seems like a decent place, even though it’s as far as the forestry building.

Fraser Hall: One of the few non-religious and not affiliated with UBC housing places to live on campus. I can’t say I know much about this place or any of the others to follow, but I will provide links that will lead to more information: http://www.fraserhall.net/index.html

Greenwood Commons: This is run by the same people as Fraser Hall and Granite Terrace (below). http://www.greenwoodcommons.ca/index.php

Granite Terrace: http://graniteterrace.com/

VAPA: This is only open to female UBC students given that it is affiliated with sororities, however, I don’t think you have to be in one to live in their residence. http://www.vapa.bc.ca/

The following three are religious residences, which is not my specialty, so I will leave their websites to do the talking for them: (Also, just because these are religiously affiliated does not mean they aren’t worth checking out, but they might be harder to get into if you cannot get proper references.)

St. Andrew’s Hall: http://www.standrews.edu/

Carey Centre: http://www.careycentre.com/facility/

Vancouver School of Theology: http://www.vst.edu/main/

Off campus:

I really haven’t looked into it that much, but there are some options listed at http://www.housing.ubc.ca/other-housing/off-campus-hse. I could be wrong, but most of what is there doesn’t seem to be long-term housing, but the one other link that is important on that page is http://www.amsrentsline.com/ which gives you off campus housing options close to UBC. There are also bulletin boards in the SUB and International House that have similar types of listings to those on AMS rents line. Finally, I’m not sure about the quality of the links on this site, but if you’re still having trouble or want to consider every option go here: http://www.housing.ubc.ca/other-housing/helpful-links (The fraternities and sororities also have housing if you’re so inclined.)

Good luck on your search! :)

I found out today that you really can’t argue otherwise to that unless you’re pretty much OCD clean. I consider myself to be a clean person, my desk may be a bit messy due to my being a pack rat, but I’m clean. I take out my trash every time it gets close to full, I don’t leave open food around, I do laundry every week, and I fold my clothes. I’m so bad that I clean other people’s rooms if I spend a decent amount of time in them.

The way I procrastinate sometimes is by cleaning and today’s reason for procrastination is studying for the chem midterm on Friday. I finally recharged my handheld vacuum, so I decided to go over my floor a few times with it. It’s not as good as my mom’s, but if you go over a spot a few times, it works. I was trying to figure out why it wasn’t working as well as my mom’s and I decided it could be that I need to clean the filter. Absolutely. Disgusting. Well, not as disgusting as my fridge, but that’s a different story. Good, maybe it’ll work better now, I’ll go around again. The amount of dirt, hair, lint, etc. was crazy. Maybe it’s just because I cleaned the filter and now it’s working better. I’ll clean the filter again and go around a third time. I picked up the same amount. Where in the world was this all coming from?! My floor doesn’t even look dirty, my vision may not be the best, but I seriously could not see any of that on my floor. And this is why I refuse to go anywhere in this house without shoes on.

…then I must be really sweet and melt in the rain.

I think it’s official that I am the junk food queen of the floor. I currently have a container of brownie bits, 4 packages of Tim Tams, 5 boxes of Gushers, 2 rice krispie squares, a package of Starbursts, a package of Jolly Ranchers, and a tray of mini cupcakes on my desk. I also have two bars and one square of chocolate in my fridge along with 7 containers of pudding. Not to mention that I also have a shelf dedicated to food and a box from Ikea also dedicated to food.

For the most part, the food on my shelf and in the box doesn’t change, but on my desk, everything gets eaten and replenished per week, so on my way back from Academie Duello, a mandatory stop is the new Safeway (the one at Macdonald, as opposed to the old Safeway on Sasamat which seems to be in worse condition with higher prices). Even if I have nothing on my “to buy” list, I still need to go in there and buy at least 2 packages of Tim Tams and 4 boxes of Gushers.

Then there’s the caf. Pumpkin pie. Apple pie. Berry pie. Chocolate cake. Lemon cake. Cheesecake. Jello. Coconut bars. Brownies. Cookies. Scooped ice cream. Ice cream on a stick. Ice cream sandwich. The temptation is always there to have them all at the same time, but I restrain myself to one or two of each per meal.

Therefore, the next time you see me, I ask you to refrain from getting me wet, or else I could melt into a puddle at your feet and then you’d have to carry me back to my room.

I decided it would be a good idea to clarify my last post and give a short update to my life.

Bonjour arts students and all that I have offended with my last post. I just wanted to let you know that making jokes is part of my style. I would rather read something that makes me laugh or smile than something that is hard to read, boring, and too serious. Before I came to UBC, I was a very serious person and looking back on it, if I was an arts student, I probably would have been at least slightly offended by my previous post. When I came here, I vowed to let go and become more lighthearted, since being so serious all the time was driving me crazy. The point of my last post was to give people a general understanding of my day, which would be really quite boring if it was just that, so I decided to add in the “stereotypical arts student” part to make people laugh. I’m not really sure what the “stereotypical science student” is, but I’m sure that it is a lot of what I am and a lot of what I am not, if you have any ideas on what he/she would be, let me know in the comments. Anyways, while I’m still on a serious note, I want to acknowledge the hours of hard work that all of you put into your studies, whether you’re in arts, science, or any other faculty. I’m aware that most of you are nothing like “John”, but I also know that there will always be a few people out there in every faculty that are like him. Cheers to all those who are not and are working hard to learn!

(Side note: I have been asked to moderate the comments due to rude and inappropriate ones being posted. Please be respectful.)

Anyways, when I’m not in class or doing reading that chomps away at my time, I have been getting more settled into my room. I was afraid that when I came here, it would be too gloomy for me (even though the temperature is just right), so you’ll notice that I added a lot of colour to my room through curtains, plants, and posters. Here are some pictures: