Hello!

I’m Nirel. (:

Who I Am:

Where I’ve been:

I grew up in sunny South Florida and moved to the Seattle area in high school. Now I attend the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and absolutely love it here in the Pacific Northwest. My family lives in LA, so I spend a lot of time there, and I have lived in Spain twice — on exchange in Granada, and doing my end-of-degree research project in Valencia. I’ve traveled around Western Europe and plan to keep exploring. (:  Please feel free to ask me anything about exchange, UBC, student life, health, travel, long-distance relationships, etc. I have benefitted a lot from the Blog Squad as a resource, especially before coming to UBC and in my first couple years. I would love to give back — that’s why I write!

Some things I like (to do):

I love health & fitness and outdoorsy activities, such as hiking/kayaking/rock climbing/running/biking/snowboarding/going to the beach/doing yoga etc. I love discovering places to eat around the city, as well as new recipes. I have been vegetarian or vegan throughout my life, and now I also eat fish/seafood.

In 2013 I started VegUBC, a community of students interested in a healthy / plant-based lifestyle. We host monthly potlucks, restaurant outings and cooking demos aroud Vancouver throughout the school year — and you’re invited! Find us on Facebook or give our instagram a look at @VegUBC. (Edit: As of November 2016, I no longer run the VegUBC club. It was so much fun creating and being a part of such a wonderful group of people, and since I’m graduating this year, I’ve passed the torch on. You can still be a part of the group, and feel free to ask me questions about it, though!)

Music artists/bands I’m into in the moment include Kendrick Lamar, 20syl, Ratatat, Queens of the Stone Age, Rodrigo y Gabriela, J Cole, Georges Brassens, Movits!, Kanye West (yes, I’m a fan), Jacque Brel, Juanito Makandé and many, many more. I really enjoy seeing live shows as well as making music (mostly playing drums).

I’m in the Faculty of Arts and am a self-proclaimed ‘brain and people dork’ majoring in Cognitive Systems. It’s an interdisciplinary program we have at UBC (in both Science and Arts) that combines Psychology + Computer Science + Linguistics + Philosophy, and it is SO COOL. If you are interested in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science or Robotics, definitely check it out.

I am also really interested in cultural anthropology, perception, human and/or machine interaction and languages, among other subjects. In addition to English, I speak Hebrew & Spanish.

I’m really friendly, so if you go to UBC and see me around campus, say hi! Feel free to comment below and give me a shout out, as well. I lived on-campus first year and have since moved off-campus, and will be graduating this spring. (:

What I Blog About / Where Else You Can Find Me:

This blog is an archive of my adventures at UBC, in Vancouver, on exchange in Spain and in my travels during university. It’s also a platform where I provide helpful tips to students and wanderers who end up here.

This platform is more oriented toward UBC / student life – related material. If you are looking for more recent content by me, check out my other personal blog. There you’ll find posts related to health, travel and other fun stuff. I also contribute to the Flight Network blog and plan to start an active Youtube channel soon (so keep yer eyes peeled! (; ).

Contact:

instagram: @nirel.mar                       email: nirelmar (at) gmail (dot) com

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