Moving In, Working Hard, Having Fun

I moved in to Totem Park this morning, and was happily surprised with what I found. My room is at the very end of a hall, it’s a large single, which means it’ll be able to absorb my tendency to over-pack. Totem is so huge, each floor consists of two hallways with connecting hallways every so often. The bathrooms are big, as are the common rooms, and the houses themselves will be filled with so many people, I know I’ll make tons of friends. Though it was all a bit confusing at first, I think I’ve got it down.

We spent the last couple days driving up to Vancouver from San Francisco. We drove through Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington…two of my favorite cities. The sun set just as we crossed the border, so my first views of the city were in shadows and pools of light. It all took my breath away.

So far I’ve been drifting between loving the city and everything around me to being utterly confused and frustrated. This switch happens in seconds and occurs several times throughout the day. I know it is one of those things that will go away with time, I just have to wait it out.

Actually, we went to the mall today in search of a swimming suit and a bathrobe (both dorm necessities, in my opinion). I wasn’t that worried about finding them as it was a rather big mall and we had lots of time. Well, as soon as we walked in I knew it would be harder than that. We looked at the directory and only recognized the names of two stores, neither of which sold what we needed, so we set off in search of any store that even looked like it had either swimming suits or bathrobes. We found nothing. It was the first time I ever felt like I was in a truly foreign place. Don’t get me wrong, I know Canada is not America in the least, it’s just quite easy to forget that fact sometimes.

There is so much to do! I’ve got my room to unpack and decorate, my U-Pass and UBC Card to pick-up, a resume to write, a job hunt to go on, and more shopping to do! UBC so far is amazing, and it’s only just beginning.