Monthly Archives: August 2009

First trip to campus.

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I’m so relieved. After reading other people’s posts about their first visit to UBC, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who has never been. Though some of you are actually international students which kind of changes things since I’ve always been in the area… but whatever. It’s fine. =D

Random fact about me #1 (because at this point I don’t intend on making a real profile): I am a local commuting student… is “local” the correct term? As in opposite of “international?”

I knew that UBC is big.  I just didn’t think it would be this big.  My friend and I spent 5 hours just walking around exploring.  It was a good way to spend our day considering we were too broke to do anything else.  5 hours sounds a little ridiculous, but we spent a good 20 minutes wandering to find the bookstore and another hour inside it playing with the Macs and looking at other random stuff.

Opinions (and facts?) of UBC:

  • the bus loop is kind of far from everything
  • the ocean can be seen from the Rose Garden, but the ocean is still a ways away.  It is still beautiful though.
  • Chapman Commons at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre looks like Hogwarts! Continue reading →

another letter from UBC.

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You know, I don’t think I’ve ever received a letter before that wasn’t related to school in some way.

The letter is about the first day of school.  aka IMAGINE Day/Orientation.  Here is what was inside among the letters:

I AM UBC.
A nifty sticker!

Is it supposed to be a bumper sticker?  Could you see yourself driving around with it on though… whatever, free stuff is always nice.  I guess it will come in handy if I develop a case of school spirit.

Another interesting thing about the little package,

It says "Swing Space"

It says "Swing Space"

I’ve very curious to find out what this is… and if it’s what I’m imagining.  Which I doubt.

Also on the map is a building called “Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre.”  Could it be?  Is it for the Olympics??

The first time I heard that the mascot for UBC is a Tunderbird, I immediately thought of Zapdos from Pokemon.

"I CHOOSE YOU!"

"I CHOOSE YOU!"

IMAGINE sounds like it should be a pretty good time.  Why do I capitilize IMAGINE?  I don’t know, that e-mail from UBC types it that way… but not the letter.  Those free root beer floats they speak of sound very enticing.  I am not, however, looking forward to getting to school by 8:15 am.  That is earlier than the time I woke up at for high school.  I guess it’ll be an adventure.

By the way, who is planning to buy their textbook at the Textbook Exchange? (Sept 8, 4-5pm, Koerner Plaza) Where do we find what books we need anyway?

last night: the clouds drifted away for falling stars

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last night: was the night for watching the annual perseid meteor shower
(don’t worry if you missed it, you may still be able to catch some shooting stars tonight around 2 am)

The thing about watching meteor showers is that when your eyes scan the sky so fast, you think you’ve seen a trail of light.  You end up wonder to yourself if you actually finally saw a shooting star.  But when the moment comes and you see one for real, you know it.  Without a doubt, you know that it was there and that you were there for it.

I wish I could be as decisive as that feeling.

Want to hear about my first “failure” at UBC (though school hasn’t even started?)

FROSH is the 2 night 2 day long orientation for new commerce students.   I wanted to go, but my parents were hard to convince. Their reasoning led me to waver.  Sign up starts, I leave the country to travel with friends, one month later, I decide I really do want to go to FROSH, finally convince parents, return home, sign up is full.

There is no real way of knowing what could’ve been, but if I weren’t so wishy washy about what I wanted, I probably wouldn’t be so regretful right now.

Decisiveness. Seems to be a big key these days.

Decisions… decisions… such as: should I be thinking about getting prepared for school right now?

My choice: No, I’ll pass and enjoy my last summer before being considered an adult.

And yours?

post #000: Challenges are not meant to be feared, but our greatest challenges are our fears.

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[As an unofficial start to this blog, I thought it would be nice to share the post I wrote for the Blog Squad application.  The topic was: What you think your biggest challenge will be in your first year]

I will first tell you my fears:

  • not getting the STT I want (but that is over now)
  • standing in a crowded bus for an hour every morning (that many people in such a small space freaks me out)
  • flunking out
  • making new friends (or enemies)
  • first impressions

Overall, I’m not afraid of the schooling in university itself but rather the fact that as a first year student, it’s a new start all over again. By the end of high school, I finally found my place and felt truly comfortable. It’s time to build that up again. With the building comes my greatest challenge: not losing things from the past.

I think my greatest challenge will be to stay close with the ones I won’t see everyday anymore. When circumstances (like school) don’t bring us closer, will we still stay close? I hardly have any contact with the good friends from elementary school that didn’t end up going to the same high school as me. Will university be the same? I sure hope not.

As I’m typing this I feel like I should pledge to myself not to let that happen. Sadly, deep down I know that though I feel this way right now, when September rolls around it’s hard to say if I will feel the same. The little world I’ve been living in, that even now feels big, is expanding once again… please don’t burst on me!