February 27th, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink
While Yiruma’s works span a great range of emotions, his happier pieces are the ones I immediately resort to when I’m in need of more positivity in my life.
In this latter half of midterm season/beginning of term paper season, I highly recommend listening to the album this song’s from, First Love. It’s good background music for studying, or taking a break from your work. :)
– Jennine
P.S. I’m SO excited for Yann Tiersen on Friday (anyone coming?)!
February 24th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink
The first part of this series was a rant, and so, I shall make this one more positive.
Yesterday was, long story short, not one of those good days. HOWEVER, I always attempt to find the positive side in everything. Oddly enough, in retrospect, all the positive things I could think of centered around my commute.
February 1st, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink
So this post is a bit late, but what can I say, like any student, I blame impending doom in the form of midterms.
Anyway, there’s only one word I can use to describe my experience at the Arts Career Expo: awesomesauce. I learned so many useful things, met amazing alumni, ate great food, and had a lot of fun!
Most importantly, I’m taking slow, cautious steps towards saying yes to the idea of law school. The panel was amazing, and so very informative, but in a way it was also a slap of reality to my poor, naive face. Becoming a lawyer, especially a lawyer who’s a woman, will take a lot of work. I need to toughen myself up and really make sure law is what I want to do in order to succeed in the field. However, it is a challenging and rewarding job, perfect for anyone who likes to always be thinking and helping people. Needless to say it’s starting to look like a good career choice for me.
The second panel I attended was networking, which was very lighthearted and interactive and really fun. I learned not to give a fail!handshake and other skills that helped me rock the Mix&Mingle session.
So, things I learned, in a nutshell:
1. Being a lawyer does not guarantee a lot of money, nor a glamorous job in your first year of employment. It’s a long, hard process to get to the top, but one that’s very much worth it.
2. If you want to be a lawyer in another country, go to law school in that country! (I can’t believe I never knew this).
3. Learning French can be reallyyyy awesome job-wise. (Says the FREN123 student)
4. Alumni go to networking events because they want to. Really. Stop being hesitant and maintaining a gloomy mindset- just go for it!
5. Networking is a two-way convo: don’t just ask questions- don’t be afraid to say what you think about their response, or talk a little about yourself.
6. Sweaty palms? Wear something with a pocket to wipe your right palm with before shaking that alumni’s hand!
7. Send a thank you message to the people you talked to! This I did- I got a reply from all of them. Man, I feel like a pro-networker already. :P
Ever the boyband lover (I’m listening to Westlife right now, don’t judge me),
Jennine
January 25th, 2011 § 4 comments § permalink
I’m a weird one, but for me, piano music and such types of instrumental music is the best music to study to (that and Les Misérables for History, but that’s another story). So from now on, I’ll only be sharing such type of music in this blog. Just click on the “study music” tag for the rest of ’em.
This piece will sound familiar to anyone who’s watched the French film Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain or just Amélie. This is from the film’s soundtrack, which was composed by the amazing, amazing Yann Tiersen. He’s coming to town in March, and I BOUGHT TICKETS TO SEE HIM, and I’m really, REALLY EXCITED. While the rest of the city is spazzing about Katy Perry, I’m spazzing about him.
Before you think I’m a nutso, click play and you’ll see why I have done such spazzing. He is terrific, seriously. ♥
January 20th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink
I don’t know about you guys, but when I was little, I went through “phases” of career aspirations; one year I wanted to be this, then this, then do this again. It all depended on my current obsession e.g. astronomy, theatre, etc. (all of which I’m still obsessed with, ha).
See below:
Really little-first grade: Pediatrician (insert tumblr lolface here)
Second grade-third grade: Astronaut
Fourth grade: Archaeologist
Fifth-sixth grade: Editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine
Seventh-eighth grade: Broadway performer
Ninth grade: Editor-in-chief of a nerdy magazine
Tenth grade: Radiologist (see lolface above), then website designer, then diplomat (a very fun year- I won a website design contest in SFU, and attended my first MUN)
Eleventh-twelfth grade: Foreign Services Officer
So I start as a First Year here in UBC, with aspirations of being a hotshot diplomat, with Europe being my geographic specialty.
While being determined and having a clear goal in mind is a good thing, being in a place like UBC makes it essential to keep one’s mind open. There are so many choices of things to do, and now I find myself like a little kid again. I am second-guessing my ambitious plan of a double PoliSci + IR major (well, there’s only self-esteem issues associated with that, but that’s for another entry). I find myself interested in fields such as the Science Studies Minor and European Studies. And most importantly, the idea of law school is slowly but surely becoming a goal in my mind instead of a mere possibility.
January 17th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink
Dear Commuters,
Commuting is no fun. That’s a fact. I believe that a huge part of this is that commuting is one of those times that people are at their worst- we’re cranky or groggy, we’re just plain tired, and we don’t want to be late. Think of this, though- what if you think of the fact that commuting=public transportation? Public, meaning that being amongst people is inevitable! The least we can do is be considerate, and look out for each other. We’ll be commuting with each other for what, 4-5 more years (and in my case, 7.5)?
In lieu of all this, here’s a list of absolute DON’TS when you’re on the bus or Skytrain or waiting in line. Keep these in mind and I’ll love you forevah~!
January 3rd, 2011 § 4 comments § permalink
The responsibilities of being a new student these past few months has been increased by the fact that I turned 18, got a job, and well, am considered an adult by my parents. While I’m a commuter and still get to enjoy the joy of homemade food, I still found myself having to adjust to all the responsibility.
It felt weird, it still does- instead of having my mom make my dentist appointments for me and my dad always driving me to the bank, it’s up to me to get all that kind of thing handled. I had to learn my dentist’s work hours, make the trek to the Village to deposit money and even made my own tax-free savings account. All by myself. It feels rather nice, though now with the dawn of a new semester coming upon me, I have a brand new daunting-as-always list of “adult tasks” I have to accomplish- paying tuition fees and selling my textbooks and letting my boss know my new work hours. Adult tasks=managing my own money, most of the time. I’m still trying to get the hang of it, but I think I’m slowly but surely getting there.
Besides these adult tasks are still the typical student tasks, the biggest one being cleaning up for Term 2. » Read the rest of this entry «
December 6th, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink
This is preposterous. For the past week, yours truly has managed to go into random bouts of sleep on her commute to school. Usually, this never happens- I’m way too paranoid that I’ll wake up and find myself in the middle of nowhere. Alas, it seems like my sleeping cycle is finally catching up with me.
This post does not contain any of the content I said I’ll be updating with. Instead, this post is for: UBC: A Constant Learning Process aka new things I keep finding out as a uni student (the unofficial first installment: here).
November 17th, 2010 § 3 comments § permalink
I’ve been way too inactive on this blog as a result of being too overloaded (see: previous post). I will use that classic blogger adage- I’ve been meaning to post, I swear, but life got in the way. It still is. Getting in the way, I mean. To solve this problem, this blog post will serve the purpose of being my “preview” of upcoming blog posts. Surely if I publicly declare that I’ll be posting about these, expectations will be high and I’ll be too afraid of being seen as lazy that I will end up posting. This week.
(I am not lazy, btw >_>)
Ever the blabber,
Jennine
October 30th, 2010 § 3 comments § permalink
(Super Girl, as in this Super Junior-M song, possibly)
Cough. Anyway.
Current Music: “Pills” by The Perishers. Beautiful, heartbreaking song.
My automatic response in job interviews (and let me assure you that I’ve had my fair share just this past summer), upon that dreaded question of “What is your weakness?” is always this: I take on too much work. Constantly I’ve had to just sit back and realize what my top priorities are, and drop and keep things from there. My planner is my constant companion, where events and due dates and most importantly, weekend to-do lists are jotted down. The past few weeks, my to-do lists have grown quite a bit.
It’s safe to say that yeah, I’ve piled a lot on my plate for the year, and I feel that once again I’m arriving at the stage where I have to realize what my values are. It’s one of the important things I learned during CLASS- really know the things you value, and make them the base for everything you do- how you spend your weekends to which clubs to join.
However, knowing this, I still have questions:
1) Values-wise, what if I’m not really sure? And, well, the key thing is to try out what works for me? I know that I want to play a key role in one of the charitable clubs/organizations in campus, but I still don’t have a clear idea of the cause I really, really want to work for. I haven’t found that certain passion yet. Right now, I’m a member of the Dollar Project, which doesn’t aim for one specific cause- just for heightened “individual social responsibility”. I love it right now, but I still feel like there’s something missing.
2) How exactly does the “get involved” mantra work if you’re a commuter student? I love being involved, but I’m striving to fit in studying time whenever I can, and it’s difficult when I barely have time to eat dinner and go to sleep on time once I’m home. People recommend reading on the bus/Skytrain, but my body doesn’t like that and instead makes my head go dizzy if I dare read on the 99.
(And you know, I believe this is quite the issue with commuter students. They just want to go home, and so involvement is not really much of an option. This makes me very, very sad, but I digress for now)
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