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
Residence Life

Phew.

I have officially been in Vancouver for a week and today’s basically my first day off. It’s been really tough since I’m an only child and I’ve always lived in the same house, so everything has pretty much been the same for me for my entire life. Now I have a shared bathroom, everything smells weird, and there’s a bunch of people without pneumonia having a lovely time around me, which makes it a bit harder of a transition, but I’ve learned a bunch already.

Here are some of the weirder things I learned:

  • Check the washing machine’s reputation: I had an experience today where there was a bit water sitting on the inside of the washing machine, but since everything was just foreign to me, I thought it could be normal. 30 minutes later, the whole thing was filled with bubbles, so I thought I put too much soap in and I ran it again. 30 minutes after that, there were still bubbles and all of my towels were soaked and quite disgusting. It was at that point I found out that washing machine was broken XD
  • Choose the bigger shower: We have two showers to choose from, I took a shower in both and I was so cramped in one, I could barely move to do the things I needed to, the other was just a little bit bigger, but it made a big difference.
  • If you aren’t 19, bring a parent if you can: It’s difficult to get a phone and a bank account if you aren’t 19, I’m told. I had my dad with me (Thanks, Dad!) so I didn’t experience any of this, but a bunch of friends have had difficulties.
  • Go to places with international students: I’m from the States so technically I’m an “international” student, but we still have Safeways. It is amazing to see someone who has never been to a Safeway look around. You can definitely learn a lot from them.
  • Know where there is food: I walked to a bunch of different places today and nothing was open, so I’m glad I had a bunch of different options. Also, crepes are amazing. I already knew this, but in California, honestly there’s only one good crepe place that I know of and in Vancouver, every crepe place I’ve been to is outstanding.

And a list of things I’m really glad I have:

Spam prevention powered by Akismet