I was absolutely amazed by how the Tibetan monks made the sand mandala over the last 7 days in the MoA. Here is a short video about it…
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6b7iro-qZ4[/youtube]
I keep being amazed by the number of opportunities to experience and live other cultures here in Vancouver.
Starting today there will be five Tibetan monks for seven days in the Museum of Anthropology. They will be making a sand mandala, which is an image used for meditation. It will be made with millions of grains of colored sand. They will also answer questions about Tibetan culture and practices.
If you only have time to go once I would recommend going Sunday Nov. 15 at 2:00, when they will dismantle the mandala and through the sand in the sea.
I’d just like to let anyone interested in the topic of my previous post that Nancy Gallini, the Dean of Arts, has made available another space for discussing the issue of violence and rape on campus. It will be this November 18 at 12:00 in MASS (BUCH D140). I’ve added the date to my ‘November, dates to remember.’
I think it’s a great opportunity for students to be heard by the UBC administration and you can still come even if you’re not in arts. I think. :)
Every first Wednesday of the month Nancy Gallini, the dean of Arts, hosts a discussion session with any interested Arts student in MASS (BUCH D140).
Today’s focus was on a controversial article published last month in The Underground, the official AUS newspaper. The article, titled “So-Called ‘Campus Rapist’ Simply Exploring his Sexuality”, is a very offensive satire of rape. Many students immediately expressed their discontent with the article and the newspaper as a whole, some even demanding it to be shut down. Apologies were expressed by emails, the Ubyssey and by person by members of the AUS and the editors of The Underground and all copies of the issue have been removed from public spaces (you can still read the article in the Facebook group Rape is Not a Joke).
Many students expressed that they thought that the UBC administration is not taking enough and effective steps about the culture of violence and rape on campus. Representatives of the Women and Gender Studies Undergraduate Society and VDAY spoke about campus being an unsafe place for marginalized bodies. There were also many concerns about the way in which sex and women’s bodies are used by the AUS, especially in the very derogatory Campus Kickoff poster. 
The dean’s position was that she thought it was very important for the faculty as a whole to have means of expression like The Underground and that she didn’t want to impose herself on student’s voices. She was very open about her interest in engaging the Arts community in debates, conferences, meetings and the like about the serious issue that is rape and violence on campus.
Some of the solutions suggested were the use of a faculty/campus wide emergency system to inform all students about violent acts on campus, which happen all the time even though many students don’t know about it.
Unfortunately I couldn’t stay until the end, but a friend of mine told me that the dean said that she was going to talk about all of the points raised with the AUS executives. I wonder, however, if that will be enough. I feel that the AUS executive’s position was very lacking. The VP External’s argument, for example, was that he had so much work that he only had time for four classes and he was going to have to extend his degree as if that made it OK for these things to happen.
I agree with the comment that the dean’s office should support marginalized voices in UBC. I really don’t want to live in a campus that sexualizes our bodies to sell and blames victims of sexual assaults instead of perpetuators because of social constructions of heterosexual masculinity.
To take this even further, I think that there are many things that the Arts faculty and students have to reconsider. How about the slogan “… because size does matter”? How about the very disrespectful habit of calling girls “bitches”? How about the fact that today’s Meet the Dean session was attended in its majority by women?
I was originally planning on getting a degree in Human Geography or Latin American Studies… however, it looks as if my degree might end up being a little bit more gastronomy oriented. How about doing four years of undergraduate studies in free-food-finding?
This Saturday as I was doing Trick or Eat my group came upon a girl that told us in a very matter-of-factly way that she was a student and all the food she had was in her belly! Moral of the story: we’re students, we shouldn’t have to spend too much on food!
The good news is: there is A LOT of free food on campus!
So what is the trick to find it? Something called UBC Events. You would be amazed at how many events on campus offer free food, from cookies (like the free cookie day at MASS) to pizza (like house council meetings) to full healthy lunch with dessert and coffee breaks (like Terry talks and CLASS). Also, if you joined any clubs, go to their events! They usually have free BBQs, cheap dinners and other free food events! The best thing is that all these events turn out to be super interesting, you meet a lot of people and usually learn a lot too, what else could you ask for?
Perseverance really pays off! keep checking the UBC Events page, or do what I did and write your email in as many email lists as you can. Join clubs and councils or simply be lucky to have friends like Morgan that do random stuff like buying cupcakes to give them away! Believe me, free food will come to you!
Here are some places you might want to try in the next few days:
– NOW – Breakfast at the Life Sciences Centre, UBC Thrive week – meet Professor Toope!
– Tuesday Nov. 3 – Breakfast at the Suicide Awareness Day, Norm Theater, 9:00 – with guest speaker Lloyd Craig
– Wednesday Nov. 4 – Meet your Dean, free pizza with Nancy Gallini, MASS,12:00 to 1:00 – aren’t you happy to be in Arts?
– Friday Nov. 6 – Community Eat at Sprouts, 11:30- every second Friday go to Sprouts (SUB basement) for healthy, delicious food from the farm! Take you own container!!
Now, for those of you that enjoy any kind of free stuff, this week you get free massages, free pens, free highlighters and free learning with many amazing speakers all over campus all the time! However, you’ll have to find out when and where by yourself! :)
As my mid-terms finally start (and hopefully end) I have come to understand why there are so many note-taking workshops. I thought it would be funny to share with you sample notes from two of my classes. The first one is from Geography 121:
and the second one is from Creative Writing 202: 
So yeah… all I have to say is that I’m lucky that Creative Writing doesn’t have a mid-term !! ;)
This Saturday, October 24th, thousands of people are joining more than 4000 events in 169 countries to create awareness about global climate change.
Students in history have united and CHANGED THE WORLD with their demonstrations. They have spoken out. They have stopped what they considered wrong. They have demanded attention for their ideas. They have expressed their opinions and fought for their rights. Now it is your turn, my turn, his turn, her turn, their turn. OUR turn.
Let’s tell the world that we DO NOT agree with the governments’ low commitment to become sustainable societies. WE are the ones that want to grow old in this world. It’s ours. Let’s take the matter into our own hands and act.
If you care about global climate change, about the infinite number of plants and animals going extinct, about the rising sea levels and weather changes that displace populations and KILL… come to Cambie Bridge this Saturday at 11 AM. Show the world that you DO care. Bring your friends, family, dogs and cats, dress up, make signs, have fun!
Morgan’s post reminded me that I haven’t posted anything about the trees even though I’m amazed by them every day. In Guatemala we have rainy season and not-rainy season, pretty straightforward. So here is a small thing that I wrote in my notebook a few days ago
Every day I walk by the same trees
every day I have to meet them again
see the color for the first time
feel the leaves falling
and the trees going to sleep
wish to capture the perfectness
to experience
for the first time
to live
to know
and to laugh
and to cry
and to smell
and to feel the air
on my face
and the cold
in my lips
to experience.
Fall.
Have you been to the botanical gardens? they are super beautiful, I went today and I felt that I wasn’t in UBC anymore (not that UBC isn’t beautiful)… if you want to go, you should go this sunday… why? the apple festival!!
unfortunately none of my friends found it interesting enough to leave their bedrooms and walk over there in the rain, but I did, and it was good. I had, for the first time, a huge apple with caramel and almonds and there were lots and lots of apples, and fudge, and cinnamon rolls and pies and cakes and a lot of things that taste good and make you fat!!! I love it!!
It was delicious, so if this sunday you’re feeling bored or sick of studying check it out :)
What is I.Blogs?
well… you know how I.House is International House? I.Blogs from now on will be International Blogs (in my blog). I will be searching the web for blogs that can give us UBC students a good idea of what other countries and cultures are about (from an insider’s perspective). I don’t think many of the blogs will be in english, but it’s a good way to practice another language. I only have 3 for now… Las leyes de Laritza and Generación Y are from Cuba, both are in spanish and if you don’t speak spanish you can still look at some of the pictures of La Habana. The other one is Revista Ati, which is an amazing cultural magazine in BEAUTIFUL Lake Atitlan.
So, yeah… check them out for some really cool insight on Latin American cultures…
one last thing!! I’ll try to keep my eyes open for other blogs, but if you know about one please let me know!
