01/1/13

Be Happy Being Alone

Playlist: Dirty Pretty Things – Waterloo to Anywhere, The Black Keys – Brothers

When I first arrived at UBC, it was the first time in as long as I can remember that I was not surrounded by the hustle and bustle of a big family. Trust me, I love that excitement – but shortly after moving here, I realized that I also really enjoy being alone.

Doing things on my own gives me time to think, wander and appreciate my surroundings in a way that is distinct from when I am with other people. It gives me more of an opportunity to learn what I like to do, rather than which activity is the most convenient compromise among whomever I am with at the time.

And, if I do desire the company of others, there is always the option of starting up a conversation with a stranger. I have actually made some of my closest friends that way. My only disclaimer is to use your better judgment to elect someone you’re fairly sure would be safe to interact with (ie. accepting candy from creepy old men = probably not the safest way to make new friends).

Some of my favorite adventures that I have embarked on by myself so far at UBC have been:

  • Going for a run on a beautiful sunny day and discovering the UBC Botanical Garden
  • Meandering around Kitsilano and finding the quaintest/yummiest ice cream and sipping chocolate café
  • Signing up for a free splatter-painting workshop through UBC Thrive and having a blast making art
  • Being at Wreck Beach with a good book on a gorgeous afternoon and reading/watching the sun set
  • Attending several interesting free/$5 lectures (outside of class) and meeting many of the speakers afterward
  • Going to the UBC Jazz Café and Swing Club Halloween event and enjoying the liveliness of the music and people

Keep in mind that your plans don’t have to be (and probably shouldn’t be) contingent on your friends’ plans. While it may be reassuring to go everywhere with friends, breaking out of your comfort zone and exploring somewhere independently can be a very liberating experience. If you haven’t done so already, I recommend you give it a try!

-N

Splatter Paint Art by Nirel

My Splatter Paint Art

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12/19/12

My heart just melted.

Playlist:  The Frames – Lay Me Down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNxxGKPCxrg

Wilco – I’m the Man Who Loves You

The Beatles – Girl

I’VE JUST discovered this wonderful Facebook page that someone at UBC recently created, through which people at our school anonymously post positive messages directed at an individual or group.

This page gave me such great reassurance that despite what I’ve heard/experienced about Vancouver being somewhat of a “cold” city (in regards to the way people interact with one-another – ie. waving goodbye rather than hugging/kissing on the cheek), UBC is filled with kind, loving and compassionate individuals.

Anyway, this page is something you’ll have to see for yourself. Even if you’re not affiliated with the school, the heart-warming posts are sure to brighten your day.

It’s called UBC Compliments. (:

Love,

Nirel

 

Edit: I mean, I don’t want to give you the wrong idea about Vancouver – the people here are overall very nice and polite. It’s just that the “warmth” that exists in some other cultures (ie. in Latin America) doesn’t exist as prominently here.

Edit x2: I should give credit where credit is due! As I found out after writing this, Queens University in Kingston, Ontario started the whole “university compliments page” trend. Thanks, Queens U!

 

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12/7/12

I hate silent hours.

And I don’t use that word lightly. It’s pretty much 24-7 quiet hours in first-year residences during finals. While I understand and respect that students should be comfortable studying in silence in their own rooms, it’s just not for me. Growing up with 3 younger siblings, my house has always been loud and crazy and fun. I like it that way.

That is why I’ve come up with a solution to silent hours. A few, actually:

1. Discover practice rooms. I don’t know if upper-year residences have this, but Totem Park and Place Vanier have a couple practice rooms in their respective commons blocks. Take a study break and GO SING/PLAY YOUR HEART OUT. I brought my guitar and djembe drum the other day and was in there for two hours.

2. Have a silent dance party in your room. What you’ll need: an mp3 player loaded with your favorite tunes (you can even use your laptop, as long as you don’t mind the limited range of dance moves you’d be able to exercise) and a pair of headphones. Plug in and silently dance your heart out!
This can be done by yourself or even with friends – just make sure each person you invite brings his/her own mp3 player with headphones.

3. Go to a concert. Check websites like Songkick and Ticketmaster (and subscribe to their e-mail list if you want to make it easy!) to see what major concerts are coming up around the area. Note: If you’re looking for smaller, more intimate shows, websites like LiveVan and The Georgia Straight’s website are great resources. Many of the shows they advertise are super inexpensive, too! ($5-15 for a show)

Hopefully that’ll help you create an outlet (or multiple!) for those urges you have to BE LOUD during these next couple weeks.

Love,

Nirel

PS. Playlist: My brother’s playlist (which includes artists like Lupe Fiasco, Chiddy Bang & B.O.B)
ALSO GUESS WHAT I GOT TICKETS TO SEE ALT-J!! EEEP SO EXCITED.

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11/2/12

The Black Keys Is My Christmas Music

Playlist: Little Black Submarines

THIS SONG is so beautiful it makes me want to cry. The first part features Dan Auerbach’s simple guitar and soothing voice that practically drips with honey, alongside Pat Carney’s tambourine-and-bass-drum beat — both of whom combine their respective elements to form the perfect bluesy-ballad intro. After about a minute or two of that (depending on the version), Auerbach lashes out some classic-sounding guitar and Carney pounds a heavier pulse for the rest of the song. The juxtaposition of ‘soft & sweet’ and ‘explosion of passion’ components makes this one of my favorite tunes on the album.

Speaking of the album…The Black Keys released this album, El Camino, less than one month ago, and is has already been pretty solidly successful. Co-produced by Danger Mouse (who also composes ½ of Broken Bells and Gnarls Barkley), the record is, in my opinion, an excellent follow-up to Attack & Release and Brothers (The Black Keys’ last two albums, which I consider to be “perfect albums”, or albums that I love every song from).

Other favorite spins (songs) of mine off this album include: Oh, wait. Hold up. This is also a “perfect album”. It’s so hard to choose just a few songs to recommend! As;dflkna;gknarg I guess I’ll just post links to their two most popular songs off the album.

Lonely Boy

Gold on the Ceiling

I say that The Black Keys is my Christmas music because for whatever reason, they make me in the mood for winter. Hot cocoa, debate season (in high school), snowboarding/sledding, bundling up in front of the fire, reading a good book and listening to The Black Keys… If retail stores are already beginning to play their Christmas music, why shouldn’t I play mine? 😉

Love,

Nirel

 

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10/30/12

Intellectual Curiosity

Playlist: The Black Keys – El Camino, Attack & Release, Brothers; The Head and the Heart

Sam Harris and me!

“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.”

-Frank Herbert (1920-1986)

 

FOR THOSE OF YOU whose thirst for knowledge is not quite satisfied with the classes you’re already enrolled in, allow me to introduce to you some more opportunities to learn (right here at UBC!).

Exhibit A:

Last week, I attended my first UBC Philosophy Students’ Association meeting. While I am not an intended philosophy major (and neither were the majority of the other students at the meeting), I very much enjoy reading about and discussing various philosophical topics (ie. epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, free will, existentialism, etc.). We talked about chapter two of Daniel C. Dennett’s book, Freedom Evolves, last meeting – which was really interesting, despite not having had the chance to read the chapter prior to the meeting.

If you’re interested at all in philosophy, drop in on a meeting! Upcoming ones include:

-Tues. 10/30 from 5-7pm in the Henry Angus building (AKA Sauder School of Business), room 235

-Thurs. 11/01 from 4-7pm in Buchanan D229

You can join their mailing list here and be up-to-date on when & where the meetings will take place.

Exhibit B:

This past Friday night – the weekend before Halloween, while many of my floor mates were getting ready to go to a frat party – I headed to Irving K. Barber to attend a lecture on the psychology of good and evil by Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani (who is actually a prof. at UBC!). A few of the beautiful things about this lecture were that:

                 1. The lecture was totally optional, so the people who were there wanted to be there. This made for a more interested and engaged audience – which worked out super well because Dr. Jhangiani created a very comfortable environment free of time constraints and embracing of question-asking and answering throughout the lecture (as well as during a designated Q&A period at the end).

                2. I am a total BRAIN DORK who basically oozes with excitement over psych. lectures – especially those that overlap with elements of philosophy (in this case morality). I took extensive notes, of course. (:

                3. The event was put on by the Vancouver Centre for Inquiry (CFI), which hosts lectures like this one every month!! “Like” their facebook page and stay updated.

                4. It was by donation!! So I contributed $2 – the equivalent of a cup of tea at Blenz – to participate in this extraordinary event!

Exhibit C:

Just yesterday, I had planned on going to another lecture I’d reserved a seat for online. I went to work out at the Birdcoop (our on-campus gym, for those of you who are not familiar with it) and finished with just enough time to arrive at Sauder and step into the elevator just as the door began to close. Once I did, I turned around and realized that Sam Harris — the person giving the lecture – was standing right beside me! I introduced myself to him and the woman I believed to be his publicist and expressed to them both my excitement to attend his talk. This guy has given a legit TED talk before, so he must be good – right?

Anyway, I walked to the main entrance of the lecture hall as Mr. Harris and his publicist (?) walked through a separate entrance – only to find that my seat had been given up since I’d arrived later than five minutes prior to the start of the lecture. Not only that, but a manager of the event had decided to cap off the attendance and wouldn’t let me, or the other elevator passengers, in.

What was I to do?!! I thought quickly and told someone I’d met on the elevator to come with me…[I had an idea]. We went down the hallway that Mr. Harris and his publicist (?) had gone down – and we saw her! I told her the situation we were in and she helped us sneak into the auditorium!! The lecture was incredibly interesting, and I was SO glad I’d had the opportunity to go! Needless to say, I took plenty of notes. (:

Afterward, I ran into them again and was able to snap a photo with Sam Harris! (See photo above). And later I e-mailed back and forth with him regarding an analogy I’d made for something he’d brought up in the lecture – it was SO COOL.

Oh! As for the content of the lecture, Harris is a neuroscientist, modern philosopher and author who talked about his belief that free will is merely an illusion. Interesting, huh??

Alsoooo….It was FREE. And he supposedly normally charges hundreds of dollars per ticket to attend his lectures!

THOSE ARE JUST a few examples of the thought-provoking events I attended and participated in – in the past WEEK. If you have a passion or topic you’d like to delve further into, check to see if there is a club or upcoming lecture at UBC that covers or relates to it! If not, start your own club or find a way to organize an event. It’s possible! This is an institution of higher learning, after all.

Love,

Nirel

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10/25/12

How I feel today:

Playlist: Asa – Jailer

The sun is out, the sky is blue — and I’m going to Nitobe Memorial Garden! It’s one of those days where regardless of how much school work you have, I promise you it’ll be worth it to take a study break and GO OUTSIDE! Bask in the beautiful, warm(-ish) sunshine and recharge before you go back to work.

Love,

Nirel

PS. A more substantial post is coming soon, I promise… (:

 

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10/10/12

The Little Things

No playlist today — just appreciating silence. (:

 

Today has been surprisingly peaceful. Ran a bunch of errands, but still found the time to befriend a really nice Japanese woman on the bus who invited me to have a cup of tea at the tea bar that she manages, help an elderly woman carry her heavy grocery bags to her apartment, treat myself to an ice cream cone, go for a swim and workout, meditate, attend a “relaxation room” event in my residence and skype with my family. Time well spent.

Turn everything into an adventure and life will be SO much more awesome! What I had planned to be a day for returning my borrowed wheelchair to the Canadian Red Cross (no more broken foot!!) and getting my sim card cut so it would fit into my new phone — ooh, errands! how…exciting? — ended up including all these fun little stops along the way. (:

No matter how busy you are, be sure to prioritize and make time to do the things you love. Life is short and, depending on what you believe in, you only live once (and no, that was not a #YOLO reference — unless you want to use it in its proper context, in which I guess that was a reference..). Anyway, the point is, don’t just work, work, work so you can play, play, play. Establish a balance between working hard and reaping rewards along the way (ie. taking the time to sit down for a cup of tea or enjoy an ice cream cone or a pleasant conversation with a friend — or a stranger-soon-to-be-new-friend (; ).

Speaking of busy schedules, I should probably get back to studying…but I hope you enjoyed my little insight of the day!

Love,

Nirel

PS. In case you’re interested, the tea bar is called O5 Tea (http://www.o5tea.com/) .

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