Category Archives: Rez Life

The hip hop happening at Totem Park and general tid bits of life in residence.

Welcome to my office slash gypsy fortune teller cave slash rainforest treehouse.

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Studio apartment sounds like a luxury when you’re living in a dorm room. I’ve finally got the chance to visit all the different residences on campus and I think I’ve done a pretty good job for living the sweet life in first year residence again. Yup, there’s actually crazy people called RA’s who willing do this again.

Between all the work-orders I’ve already had to call in about my bathroom, TV, the jammed keys, broken fuses and bugs everywhere it’s kind of funny how used to Totem I am.

The place where I find shelter is in my room. When I wake up in the morning at Totem magotem I feel like I’m in a rainforest. I’m only on the second floor, which is close enough that in case of some dire circumstance I need to break the glass window and jump out while running away from some rampage tiger that has escaped from the zoo and has come to hunt me down with a pack of vampires. While it would violate resident contract standards, I’m sure it’s possible. Despite the leafy greens that crowd my window, when I wake up in the morning I have a sense of familiarity of where I am. It’s strange but seeing the sunshine go through the “chlorophyll-ed” leaves, I can imagine I’m on an exotic island. The tree blocks the ground so you can’t really tell how high up you are, but it’s reassuring that I won’t have to worry about peepers or creepers.

I’ve set up my room in a way that when you walk in I’m seated like a receptionist at a dental office. I figure I’ll be spending lots of time in my room that I need to get productive work done. (And not just sit there listening to Enrique Iglesias all night or surfing IMDB). I’ve also put up some red drapes that apparently looks like a fortune teller’s gypsy cave. I hope that sounds inviting so that residents feel welcome to come in and chat at anytime.

I was asked last week to show my room to some visitors from Japan. Little did I know that three Japanese business men, a translator, a RLM and a representative from UBC Housing and Hospitality Services would all be crammed into my cozy dorm room. It seemed like quite an honour when they started taking pictures but I wasn’t really anticipating answering questions. When there’s six people staring at you and half of them are talking in a different language it’s slightly intimidating finding words in your brain to say. Never before had I had a translator speak on my behalf. It was quite exciting. Definitely something I could get used to.

While I love my dorm, I love crashing over at my friend’s place. You know you’ve got special friends when you can show up at their place at 11:00 p.m. Make blueberry muffins and coffee and watch Vampire Diaries – on a week night! I look forward to many more snuggle times in -40 degree sleeping bags.

I hope the rest of you are finding lovely posters to put up in your dorms and new apartments.

Kindergarteners probably look at us weird.

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From the obsessive galore of sparkly and fuzzy stickers, to running around chucking a chicken I’m sure the level of maturity of me and my fellow Residence Advisors is highly questionable.

I just arrived back in Vancouver yesterday after having spent five wonderful glorious days at UBC-Okanagan campus for UBC Residence Advisor Training. The last time I was in Kelowna was about the fifth grade on a family road trip but I truly forgot how absolutely beautiful the place is. Besides the 35 degree heat, which many Vancouverites would fine overwhelmningly sweltering, I found it, while indeed hot, just a great vacation with a taste of what it would have been like if I had stayed in Ontario for the summer.

Our days were full of many workshops, team time and general Rez Life family bonding. But one thing was for sure: I got thrusted back into “summer camp syndrome”. I define this as the feeling as if you are summer holidays, specifically a young child a camp. Your meals are planned out for you, you have designated ‘Rec Time’ and you don’t have to worry about “real life” stuff like homework, work, money, security etc. You are just there to learn what you can, make new friends and have fun.

Not only does this justify all behaviour that resembles that of a six year old at summer camp i.e. running around like a goof, spontaneously bursting into (camp) songs, screaming for stickers of Justin Bieber role model stickers, or eating an insane amount of catered food. It probably makes people outside of the Rez Life community seriously question our qualifications for managing other students as an RA.

Many people might say, “Nicole, you’ve been sucked into the cult.” And while I would agree with them, all I ask is for anyone reading this to try and understand balance. This may be the toughest year ahead of me with so much stuff to do I know it’s going to be hard to time manage and balance everything.

The point is, in light of the name of this blog, life is constantly changing and we have to deal with all of those changes. So my goal for the year is to try and be aware of all the changes my friends and residents are going through. Not to get mad when they can’t hang out, not to be frustrated our schedules conflict. Just try and understand that everyone has their own agendas, priorities and we all have to do what we gotta do.

For any nearly-there-oh-mah-gawd-there’s-just-four-more-days-left-future residents, you should know an incredibly passionate good looking team of RA’s await you across UBC. After meeting everyone, part of me actually did start to wonder how everyone was so physically attractive, whether it was a secret requirement or something and then more importantly – how the heck did I make the cut?

Of course I can’t wait ’til move-in on Saturday because we’re basically going back to the basics of kindergarten (at least for the first week or two). Have fun and make friends. Check and check.

Will the real Genevieve please stand up?

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Hi, my name is, (what), my name is (who), my name is… ugh not really Genevieve but I am a Genevieve. I…don’t even listen to Eminem so why do I incorporate two references in the first two lines of this post?

I am a Genevievist in association with the one, the only, the Mighty Dragon and the Genevieves.

So I don’t know if I’m actually authorized to disclose this information. As in,the same people who storm in on ostriches, with rams in the Stride commericals or who censor the Caramilk ads when ever some martyr tries to release the forbidden secret of how they get the caramel in the centre will come and destroy me.

But here goes.

This second term WTFL started. Which contrary to popular belief does not stand for “WTF – ladies?” it’s Women’s Totem Football League.

Basically, each floor forms a team together and on the weekends there are hour long flag football games. It can get pretty brutal two weeks ago I earned myself four massive black and blue marks and some cuts. But hey, scars are sexy right?

Our team has played some pretty epic games and it all goes down to three things. The good ol’ Haida Pride Honour Respect. Which will hopefully surmount to one thing – glory. How does this awesome team keep in track? Well as an extremely self-motivated team we have practice twice a week. Every Saturday we eat breakfast together, get pumped to “Be a Man!” from the Mulan soundtrack and Eye of the Tiger. We have matching black bandanas and war paint and pretty much yell at our brother floor and friends to get out of bed and cheer us on.

Over the term our floor spirit as exploded and now includes a legit dragon costume, with hand sewn wings and large flag attached to a tree branch. No comment on how we got that.

I’ve never really been a huge fan of team sports, mostly in high school I kept to cross-country and nordic skiing. Individual endurance sports which tested my own strength and determination but TFL has taught me a lot about supporting each other and encouragement. When we win, we all win and when we lose, we all go to the caf and eat and train a run a little harder and wash the mud off our legs.

This Tuesday one of our dearest supporters is leaving us. We are terribly sad to see her go and along with our fantastic 10 plays which include “The Beyoncé”, “Chaos”, “Little Man”, “Indian War Cry”, “Surprise Jamaican” and the long awaited never before seen “The Melanie”.

In honour of her epic presence on our floor and our (oh dear don’t get too sappy, Ned) friendship, we present the “Lady Jackknife”, the ultimate Pokemon fighter play. This one’s for you Harley. We’re going to make you proud.

See you on the field. Watch out for the Dragon and rogue tsunamis. Much love.