Category Archives: Community Involvement

Enormous mobs are kind of my new thing.

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If you thought Carmen San Diego was hard to track down, or thought Waldo was difficult to find then you wouldn’t think some first year blog squader would be so tricky to follow now would you?

If there’s one thing about me you should know is that I love giant crowds of people. I literally feed off of other people’s energy and I can’t get enough of other people’s excitement.

I always wondered what it would be like to dance with thousands of people. I got my first taste in this park on Granville Island with the Vancouver MOB. Then at WE Day doing the WE Day dance. But dancing with close to 1,000 UBC students. That’s pretty impressive. I got to do that at the UBC Lip Dub. Curious to find me? Try and spot the girl in the white blouse dress, gold chain necklace and olive sweater around 4:30 doing a little Irish jig. Filming the helicopter scene was totally epic and Barney Stinson legen-wait for it I hope you’re not allergic to milk-dary.

Speaking of thousands of people, have you ever tried running with 50,000 people?

Just this weekend I ran the Vancouver Sun Run for the first time with three of the coolest out of province kids around. The 10Km Club at Totem got together and signed up a few months ago. It was a gorgeous day and as I was running over the Burrard Street bridge I literally felt on top of the world. Nothing like a runner’s high. The route was beautiful, one of the best ways to see Vancouver. If I ran past any kid shorter than my elbow I had to bend over and give the a high five. My respect level is just sky high for these kids.

I made my goal which was to run the 10km in less than an hour. Originally, I would’ve loved to have “Phoebe” ran the entire course. But that takes an insane amount of energy. For those of you who are like “Um, who’s Phoebe?”. Well my F.R.I.E.N.D.S. allow me to explain…

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My running buddy stayed with every step of the way, which makes me realize how lucky I am to have such supportive friends. You know you get along, when you can sweat like a pig in front of them and still high five and non-awkwardly hug it out afterwards. The run was one of the endless cherries of this year as things are winding down. I say endless because I’ve had way too many “This is a great way to end the year” experiences.

The last month has just been a bunch of craziness from organizing my summer plans (which involved deciding between going back home, to staying out in BC, to going back home, to staying in Vancouver to… oh the suspense – exciting news TBA later!), applying for internships and jobs, writing papers, studying for finals, going to interviews.

But enough about work (Hah! Because who wants to hear about that? Durrh.) There’s been so much going on from the Tote Bowl Charity Football Tournament, Storm the Wall, Three Course Connection Dinner, Rez Spring Formal.

I promise to keep blogging over the summer. There’s four pieces of exciting news I need to share though! I got three promotions in three of the activities I’ve been involved with over the year:

1. I’m going to be on the Arts Tri-Mentoring Planning Committee next year!
2. I’m now officially part of the Anthropology Student Association executive!
3. I’m going to be an RA at Totem Park next year!

But most exciting of all…

4. I’m staying in Vancouver for the summer for a UBC Arts Internship!

Vancouver, you’ve stolen my heart. Looks like I’m here to stay.

Pop the bubble.

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There was an 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan today.

I’m sitting in the cafe at Buchanan and I’m looking around wondering if any of these people know? How long does information take to reach us?

As a member of the Global Citizens Committee at Totem Park I’m making an effort to inform myself. I set my homepage to The Globe and Mail in hopes of catching some headlines every time I open up the internet. But I can’t help but feel naive, uninformed and trapped in a bubble.

I have so much respect for people in International Relations and people who keep up with the news. For the next 7 days I’m challenging myself to read the news every single day.

How many of us are living in a UBC sphere? Caught up with midterms, essays, gossip, parties, personal health and work. How long does it take to think about the world around us?

How many of us are oblivious to what’s going on? Can you explain what’s happening in Egypt? Libya? Japan? Pakistan? Who even knows what’s going on with Canadian politics.

Read the news. Just do it.

UBCMUNWASFUN

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Former Blogsquader, and resident big brother Merkie Mark, told me that keeping up with the Blogsquad was going to be hardwork and it’s true. Here is a post recapping events from last weekend. As BBFF KrystalV says “better late than never”.

As if our school wasn’t full of enough acronyms, last week I volunteered as UBCMUN. That is University of British Columbia Model United Nations Conference.

The Conference was an amazing experience. My roommate often asks me how I find these things to begin with and I don’t have a straight answer to that question. I really just stumble upon them. I was on the AMS Clubs website and clicked the link and thought “Hey, this looks cool.” So I signed up to volunteer.

As a volunteer I was acting as a Page during the different council meetings. There was the UN General Assembly, UN Human Rights Council, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, UN Security Council, World Health Organization, World Bank, International Press Corps, and a Case Study on Myanmar.

Like in the real UN committee meetings, when delegates or state heads, council officials etc. want to pass notes to each other they can not simply get up and walk over, or shout across the table, they write a note and a Page will pass their note. Yeah, wish you had Pages in middle school, don’t cha?

I was lucky enough to sit in on the Case Study on Myanmar and I was amazed at how well researched the delegates were. I admit I was pretty intimidated at first by their knowledge and composure. But I realized that if you just act like you know what you’re doing, it’s easier to pick up what you’re supposed to be doing.

Sometimes people feel overlooked when they’re volunteering but it’s important to be diligent. My dance instructor used to say “There’s no small roles, only small people.” So no matter what you’re job is take it seriously and people will notice. After a couple of hours being a Page I was promoted to be a spy!

I even made the fake news!

It was pretty awesome. I got to sit in on one meeting and then went back to the next meeting and told them everything I heard. They were relying on me for important information and when I debriefed them, they took notes and asked me questions. Here I was trying to learn something from them, and there I was giving them information.

I think that the key to being a good volunteer: 1) Sign up for things you’re interested in. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from school it’s that you should do what you’re passionate about. If you’re able to find even just one thing you’re passionate about – anything whether representing Russia at Model UN conferences, flying planes, German opera, Settlers of Catan. Maybe you’re passionate about all those things. In that case you should call me. (So not subtle, Nicole) But whatever it is. Find it. Do it. Be good at it.

“Whatever you are, be a good one.” Abraham Lincoln

2) Be Proactive. While I was a Page I learnt to anticipate what was going to happen next. Was the person going to write a note back? Should I wait there? Being proactive and being able to be ready for whatever is next is a very useful skill.

The conference was so well organized. I was truly astounded by the Secretariat. Props to Dominika Z, the UN Secretary for the UBC MUN 2011 Conference. And Congrats to Lindsey R who will be spear heading the 2012 Conference. I was so lucky to meet such incredible people and it’s inspiring see how serious people take world politics. I know the Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar got really into character, standing, shouting and all. I met a lot of interesting delegates and who knows maybe I’ll sign up to join them next year.

We’re young, now’s the time to let our voices be heard.