April 22, 2012 · 9:49 pm

UBC Botanical Gardens

Vancouver is a stunning place in the spring time, and nowhere is that clearer than in the UBC Botanical Gardens.  My parents were here this weekend to help me pack up my dorm room (which I’ll make a post on later), so for fun we went to the Botanical Gardens.  Rhododendron in all the colours of the rainbow, giant magnolia blossoms, and those iconic BC conifers that reach high into the sky.  And boy, does the air smell fantastic!

Admission to the UBC Botanical Gardens is free for UBC students, but if you’re willing to pay a little more, I would definitely recommend paying the extra fee to go on the Greenheart Canopy Walkway. At its highest point it goes up to 70 feet above the ground, and walking across the swinging bridge is fun! Believe me, I’m afraid of heights and I enjoyed myself!  Plus if you get the guided tour (at no extra cost) you get a lot of great information and insight into the forest around you and the walkway itself.

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April 13, 2012 · 7:15 pm

Fave Places to Eat On Campus

I’m no foodie, but as a first year living in residence, you can’t eat in the cafeteria EVERY night.  I mean, it’s good as far as cafeterias go, but there are definitely nights when you walk in and you’re not in the mood for anything they’re serving.  So as a non-food-expert, here are my top five places to get some noms on campus.

5. Subway in Pacific Spirit Place.  What can I say, I love Subway.  Conveniently located in the SUB, I can just go get me a good six inch sandwich. Omnomnom. And y’know, they happen to take your meal plan dollars there, if you happen to be a student living in a first year residence.

 

4. Booster Juice.  I don’t normally go here for actual meal-type food, but I sure do love me a Booster Juice smoothie.  (I realize it’s in the Village and not REALLY on campus, but it’s close enough.) Real fruit and healthiness and boosters with more nutrients in them… Ah.  So nice.  (And yes, they take the UBC Card/flex dollars!)

 

3. The Honour Roll.  Well, when you want sushi, you want sushi.  Many experienced sushi eaters I know have told me that the Honour Roll isn’t the greatest and is over priced, but for me, well hey, it’s pretty good.  I mean, yeah I have had better sushi, but it was in a higher end sit-down restaurant.  And this stuff sure beats the boxed sushi they sell in the dining hall.  And as an added bonus for students on the meal plan, they accept the meal plan flex dollars, so you don’t need to pay anymore than the couple thousand dollars you already have.

 

2. Pie R Squared.  When it comes to pizza on campus, this is where I like to eat.  Heck, when it comes to pizza anywhere, this is where I like to eat.  I used to be a Fresh Slice fanatic, but I’ve made the switch to Pie R Squared; there’s just something about their dough and their ingredients that makes the pizza lover in me happy.

 

1. Blue Chip Cookies.  Okay, it isn’t a place where you’d get a substantial meal, but dude!  Those cookies just make life a whole lot sweeter.  The Marbelous just makes my world go round.  And the muffins are pretty great too.  And you can use your meal plan flex dollars there, which if you couldn’t tell is a huge plus for me!

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April 10, 2012 · 11:15 pm

The Undie Run

Only a few moments ago, I was peacefully lying on my dorm room bed doing a word search with a crayon when from outside in the Totem courtyard I heard shouts of “Olay, olay olay olay…”

Yep, if you’re on campus you know tonight is the third annual Undie Run, when students stressed from exams ditch their clothes on the knoll and parade around campus in their tightie whities.  (The aforementioned ditched clothing is collected and given to charity, of course.) Apparently it has become a new campus tradition to de-stress by de-clothing, and a pretty hilarious one at that.  I decided not to go, since I prefer to keep my underwear colour a secret between me and my dresser drawer, but it was amusing to see a crowd of mostly-naked people running into the commonsblock.  I hope they had fun!

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April 2, 2012 · 8:08 pm

Take a Second to Appreciate

Today as I was hurrying from the music building to my next class in the chemistry building (it’s actually a philosophy course; I don’t know why it’s in there), I sort of had a little magic moment.  As I walked past Koerner Library onto that big lovely square looking out at Irving, I was struck by how awesome UBC is.  I walked up to the railing that overlooked the mini-valley between Irving and Koerner, and watched as three friends lay sprawled out on the grass, eating their lunch; a man was practicing yoga on the pavement not far from them, and all around me people were walking, talking, laughing, rushing off to their next class; across from me people were puring in and out of Irving, and over my shoulder construction workers were getting on with their work, contributing to our ever-changing campus.

I took in a big breath of cool spring moment-of-sunshine-between-rain air, and thought:

Wow.

I thought, right in front of me, there is so much; there is beauty, there is friendship, there is happiness, there is progress, there is energy, there is innovation and love and opportunity and so much energy, oh my goodness, isn’t it so amazing?

You know when you go to recruitment and welcome events?  When you went to a campus tour?  When you went to Imagine Day, do you remember how you felt?  When they played that slide show, that movie, didn’t you feel so incredibly inspired?  Didn’t it all feel so magical?

That’s how it felt for me.  And I think that sometimes we get so caught up in homework and tests and trying to pay our tuition and making plans for the weekend or for the summer that we kind of forget how incredibly amazing this place is we live in every day.

UBC is a really awesome and magical place, and I really encourage you to just take a second to breathe it in and appreciate it, because it’s still as magical as it was when you were sitting in the stadium on Imagine Day.

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March 26, 2012 · 7:24 pm

Stress Less: Pet Visits by Healthy Minds at UBC

Apparently, next week on April 4th, pet and owner teams will be coming to UBC as part of a pilot project aimed at reducing stress for students.  Students will be able to spend 30 minutes with a cat or dog and their owner to reduce stress and anxiety.  Did I mention it’s free?  I really want to go, but all the sessions are already full!  I wish I’d known about it sooner, but maybe if the project is a success I’ll be able to do it next year!  I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

 

This is the adorable one-eyed kitty my family fostered over reading week. I love cats! :D

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· 7:17 pm

Concert this Saturday!

For those of you interested, I’ll be playing with the UBC Symphony Orchestra this Saturday, March 31st at 8 pm in the Chan Centre.  Tickets are free but get there early, because they usually sell out!

http://www.calendar.events.ubc.ca/cal/event/showEventMore.rdo;jsessionid=30700443006B21A3033B44925C8705FA

 

Ludwig van Beethoven: Overture to Fidelio
Jennifer Higdon: Percussion Concerto
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2
Raffi Armenian, guest conductor

 

I’ll be playing in the percussion concerto featuring Jeremy Lawi.

I hope you can come out and see it!

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March 24, 2012 · 6:23 pm

Injury Prevention Presentation

Last Tuesday the school of music brought in a speaker to give an introductory session on preventing and managing musicians’ injuries over the lunch hour.  About thirty people came to listen, and almost all of them were injured or in pain in some way.  In a faculty the size of music, that’s a lot of people, and I know for a fact that there are others with injuries that didn’t come.  With so many people with injuries hampering their schooling and career, it’s great that the school brought someone in,  but it’s also not nearly enough. Continue reading →

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March 18, 2012 · 3:05 pm

Only Compete Against Yourself

Last Friday, some of my harp friends and I all played for one another.  We were playing some of our jury pieces which we’ll have to perform for marks some time in April (juries are what we call solo performance exams).  While I was listening to my two friends play, I couldn’t help but think, Holy smokes!  These guys are waaaaaay better than me! It discouraged me to see such a gap in skill between me and my friends, even though one is in the same year as me and the other is only a year ahead.  It was hard not to get depressed and think that I’ll never be a great player.

The thing that I realized though, is that our performances can’t really be compared as to who is the better harpist, and it isn’t a marker of how much either of us has learned this year.  I’ve been struggling with tendinitis since November (I still am), and that has seriously limited the time I can practice, whereas the others can practice for four hours a day.  So even though I want to practice my guts out so I can improve and play harder music and sound better and all that, I can’t – talk about frustrating! The other thing is that the other harpists have both been playing at least twice as long as I have.  That’s a big head start.

When I look back at September, I can see how far I’ve come over the last seven months or so.  I’ve come a really long way, especially when I consider the fact that I’ve be injured, too.  I am doing remarkably well, at least I think so, and I’m excited to see what I can do next year, when I’m not injured.  And the fact is, there will always be someone in the world who is better than I am.  If the only way I’ll be satisfied is to be the absolute best in the world, I’ll never be happy!  But I can be happy knowing that I’ve improved a lot and I’m giving the best performance I possibly can.  That is something to be proud of.

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March 15, 2012 · 9:05 pm

Failure is just a challenge to overcome

Today was my third rehearsal with the symphony orchestra, and I can tell you now, it’s way better than before.

I felt a bit lost at the first rehearsal (all right, entirely lost), but at this point I can come in when I’m supposed to, hit the notes I’m supposed to and play out without fear (well, mostly anyway). At the first rehearsal I was literally shaking with nervousness and thought my heart was going to burst out of my ears.  But I had way more fun today and feel a lot better about myself.  I feel that I am a valuable contributing member of the ensemble.  My first rehearsal was – well, it was my first rehearsal.  I had never done it before, so of COURSE it didn’t go perfectly.  At the time I was very upset, but I have a tendency to be very hard on myself, and now I can see that everything is working out just fine.

I suppose that I’ve learned from this experience that a “failure” is not a permanent failure, it is merely an obstacle to overcome, a challenge to keep working away at.  With time and more experience, it will get better and you will improve.

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March 7, 2012 · 9:43 pm

Concert this Friday!

This Friday (March 9th), the harp quartet I am part of will be performing along with the UBC Chamber Strings at 8 pm in Roy Barnett Recital Hall in the Music Building.  It’s totally free and promises to be a great concert.  Please come out and support us if you can!

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