Post-Secondary Ramblings

I noticed that there is a shortage of posts recently, and that’s understandable. It’s midterm season yay! A friend once told me that the time to take a break is when you don’t have time for it. I thought it was really true, and it has stuck with me ever since. Here I am, taking a break from studying for my Chem121 midterm in approximately 3 hours to write up this blog entry. I guess the most logical thing for me to talk about right now would be study tips, so here are a few that I have discovered!

Things that I found really useful while studying:

1. Make a cheat sheet for every exam whether you’re allowed to use it or not. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one out there who isn’t caught up with readings. What I found was that making the cheat sheet forced me to actually go through the material, or at least skim it. It was really good review and I picked out a lot of facts that I missed, which coincidentally happened to be on the midterm.

2. If you’re not good at focusing, head into a library where everyone else is studying. Chances are, when you see other people around you working hard, you’d start working hard too. If you like to study in a group, know which friends you will be productive with and resist the temptation to meet up with those who distract you. Those who know me will know that I am very easily distracted.  However, just by merely sitting in the Bookstacks and noticing that everyone was busy studying, I felt compelled to study too, and ended up studying for 5 hours at times.

3. Just because you’re not a Sauder student doesn’t mean you can’t study in their building. One of my favourite places to study is ironically the BCom lounge at the back of the Henry Angus. In fact, I’m actually sitting there right now. Those who like to work with laptops and find trouble finding an outlet need to worry no more! There are plugs galore in the lounge and I’ve always been able to find a seat here. Sure, I had a few weird looks when I took out my Science notes, but that’s about it. Sauder students are paying $500 each for this building, you can experience it for free.

And finally,

4. Take time to get out and have fun! Yes, I have two midterms this week and homework and other stuff in my life, but that didn’t stop me from playing Ultimate and attending not one, but two Thanksgiving dinners. Chances are, if you’re just going to do nothing but study, you’re going to burn out, and even if you aren’t, your studying won’t be as efficient. Take that much needed break and come back to your studying feeling all refreshed. You’ll thank yourself for it.

Good luck with midterms everyone!

Carmela + Team Kaba Highlighters, if you’re reading this, this is for you :)

Picture is yet again in colour to highlight my post. Get it? Haha. Yes I know I’m lame.

In my last post I talked about a club that I joined, in this post I will talk about the UBC REC Ultimate team that I joined.

A little about my playing history, I first picked up the sport way back in Grade 7. I would play Ultimate literally every recess and lunch, rain or shine, even in the snow. I loved the sport, but unfortunately I stopped playing when I hit high school. It wasn’t until Grade 10 when I picked up the sport for real. I started to take it more intensely. I had a great season with my high school team. We didn’t have many wins, but ask anyone on the team and they will tell you we had many great memories together. I changed high schools in Grade 11, and though I did join the school team there, I was not able to find the same type of chemistry. I tried VUL Hat League, Summer League, JVUL, but I wasn’t able to find chemistry anywhere. Attending games and practices felt like a chore and I eventually decided to take a break from ultimate.

I was not involved in with the sport at all until I entered UBC and was approached by a friend from my Grade 10 team. She asked me if I was interested in playing Ultimate again. I jumped at the opportunity as I was looking to start up the sport again. I am glad to say that though I’ve only been to three practices with my new team, I feel the chemistry already. Even though my classes end at 12, and I have to stay on campus until 5 for practices, I don’t mind at all. I’m always pumped and excited for practices, and totally refreshed after sweating through an entire tshirt.

So ya,  a super warm welcome back to my life, Ultimate. I promised I won’t ditch you again…at least not for a while :)

Yes, the sunglasses in my picture were given at Science Frosh 2010. I was one of the lucky 300 that registered within the first 20 minutes. I owe it all to being in Shanghai when the registration opened. I don’t think that I would’ve been able to wake up at 9:00AM just to register for Frosh. Frosh was amazing. Though we were all wet from the rain, it was a fun filled day for sure. Of course, the cupcake buffet topped it off perfectly.

I suppose the first few days of university life went by really smoothly for me. The fact that I’ve been on the UBC campus numerous times before, finding my classes was not a problem at all. It was also a pleasant surprise to see the familiar faces of my high school friends in a lot of my lectures.

The transition from high school to university was not bad for me. The only real difference I noticed was the increase in class sizes. Coming into university the classes of 30 multiplied to classes of 250. Even with such a large class, I didn’t find it intimidating at all as I was immersed in the lectures and amazed by the amount of technology that each room had, math is an exception with its chalkboards.

A major change in studying habits would be that prereading changed from being something I do to stay ahead to being a must. I found out quite quickly that the lectures fly by really quickly and that you will not be able to understand the material that is being taught thoroughly. When I didn’t understand the material that was being taught, I found my mind wander and start daydreaming.

As you can guess, I haven’t been updating because I’ve been drowning under all the reading that I’ve had to do for my classes. Thankfully I was able to climb back up, and hopefully I’ll be able to stay out of that hole and update more frequently!

Are you one of those people with ridiculously long breaks in your schedule and don’t know what to do with them? No, I can’t help you fix your schedule but I can recommend killing one of those at the Museum for Anthropology!

Situated conveniently at the Northeast corner of UBC, the Museum of Anthropology is a nice place to delve deeper into North America’s Native culture in the large First Nations Gallery. Take out a $20 bill. Did you know that the sculpture of the raven on a clam shell is located in the museum? Bill Reid, the sculpter of Raven and the First Men, also has many other works that are located in the museum.

For those of you who would love to spend the day lost in the museum looking at every artifact, the museum’s Multiversity Gallery has pull out drawers filled with surprises to keep you occupied for hours. Maybe even days. They also have a European ceramics gallery so you can check that out too.

Best of all, it’s free for UBC students! That’s right, just show your UBC Card at the counter to redeem your free admission.

Happy museum-ing!

I was one of those lucky ones who rarely had to bus to school. My school was on the way to my dad’s workplace so I would carpool along with my dad. After school, my friends would watch in jealousy as I stepped into my mom’s car for a ride home. Next year will be different. As UBC is located in the most westernly part of Vancouver, it is no longer en route and I will have to bus to school.

Bussing isn’t totally new to me. Aside from rides to and from school, I use public transit as my main mode of transportation. Imagine my excitement when I finally received my U-Pass last week! I have to admit though, public transportation has frustrated me many times as the busses aren’t exactly always on time.

I’m sure that one of the busses that a lot of us are going to take is the 99 B-Line. I mean, why not? It’s fast, it’s frequent, it’s reliable…most of the time. However, during the rush hours in Vancouver, Broadway can be a pain to bus through. I would also think that taking the same bus route daily would make life less exciting. Have you ever considered the other bus routes that may bring you to UBC?

Students who take the Millenium Line to Commercial-Broadway can consider taking one more stop over to VCC-Clark. After getting off the SkyTrain, take the 84 at Bay 1 and it should take you to UBC in about the same time as the B-Line. In addition, it runs along 4th Avenue, giving you a nice tour of Kitsilano before heading into UBC.

Another option for students taking the Expo Line to Commercial-Broadway would be to stop at Joyce and take the 43. Running only during the peak hours, this bus takes the same route as the 41, except it only stops at major intersections. I haven’t bussed rush hour along 41st in a while, but from past experiences the traffic can get quite conjested around Victoria. I’m not sure if it’s still the case. One last thing, the 43 stops at Bay 5 at Joyce which is not located with all the other bays. Rather, it is located at the south-west corner of Joyce and Vanness. Right in front of Sunflower Bubble Tea.

If you’re waiting for the 99 late at night, taking the 9 instead may not be that bad of a choice. The 99 doesn’t come as frequent at night, and there is less traffic along Broadway. The 9 may get you to your destination just as fast, if not faster, than the 99.

Those are just a few alternatives that came to mind. Feel free to comment with your own!