After waiting several months, being excited one minute, scared the next and dreaming/thinking/scrutinizing about what it would be like… Move In Day finally arrived.

I woke up at approximately 9:00 and set about getting ready and loading stuff into the car until about 11:00. At 11:15, my parents and I (all very cramped due to the ungodly amount of stuff I had to bring for my room) set off from my grandma’s home in West Van to go to UBC. My move in time was 12:00 noon as I was assigned an even-numbered unit, so it was no surprise that there were about 100 cars waiting in line by the time we got to UBC.  We go to the campus at around 11:40 but didn’t get into the Vanier Commonsblock until about 12:30… (that’s a lot of waiting in line!)

Once we got there, I checked in and received my Welcome Package, which included: my mail box number, my address, a magazine on UBC life, my UBC Card (which I applied for online earlier) and the keys to my room and mail box. After that, I attended a short orientation in the commonsblock which briefed my parents and I and the other families in the group on how the day was going to go/where to unload the car/what to do, that kind of stuff. We got our temporary parking pass and drove to the unloading zone outside of Tec de Monterrey house…

… Upon walking into Tec, passing the house lounge and seeing my room for the first time, I fell in love. Seriously. Tec was significantly nicer than the house we were shown on the UBC campus tour that I went on last summer and my room was miles better than I was expecting it to be.

My parents helped me set up, and soon enough it was time for them to go and for me to be social and make new friends.

We had a quick mandatory floor meeting, which introduced us to the standards expected while living in res and went around with quick introductions. All feelings of nervousness and all that vanished and I was feeling good about my first night at UBC.

We went to the cafeteria (which was absolutely packed) and I mingled and met a few people who I’m still friends with now.

That was basically it! The rest of the night was just spent getting to know the people that I met and hanging out with them.

Overall, it was a great day and went a lot better than expected. I was so nervous for my parents to leave, but honestly, that lasted about 5 minutes, and then I was immersed in meeting new people and everything that I didn’t have time to be nervous or anything like that!

It was a great start to my UBC life. I wouldn’t have changed a thing :-)

Tanya ♡