Monthly Archives: September 2013

A Boston Cream and Hot Chocolate Kind of Day

Now people may consider me insane for saying this, but the reality is that I love the rain – probably because I have spent the past 18 years of my life in this beautiful city. And when it rains, there is a certain… excitement and nostalgia I feel towards it that I can’t really describe. But long story made short, although I love the sunny days (and the weather has been INCREDIBLE here in Vancouver past few months!), there is something that makes me very happy inside to see the rain fall again.

Mostly, that gives me the time to enjoy my hot chocolates and Boston Creams again, (and now this is turning into a Tim Hortons commercial) and that is EXACTLY what I did in my break today. The cold weather lets me have much warmer drinks and more chocolate-y treats, I find. It also reminds me of Christmas which is now a short three months away (yes, I start counting down in like August, and yes, Christmas is my absolute favourite season if you haven’t figured that out already :D)

Now there really wasn’t point in this blog post other than the fact that it is the time for Boston Creams and hot chocolates and hot coffee and pumpkin spice lattes. But I guess my message here is to find something positive about every negative situation. Maybe then you’ll find that you’ll love the rain as much as you love the sun here ^^

Until next time, I’ll be enjoying my hot chocolate at Tim Hortons. Cheers!

/end post

After the Initial Few Weeks…

So… the past few weeks have been truly amazing for me, even though whenever anyone asks me how UBC is so far, the answer I always tell them is “I’m exhausted”. But it has been amazing so far!

One of the biggest things that was keeping me going was quite honestly my birthday, which I celebrated with a few (like, VERY few) close friends and then family last Friday. (Shoutout to Willy, Jacinto, Haij, Big V, and Dan, y’all are awesome!) That’s the thing with September birthdays… is the fact that September is often the time for new beginnings, so for years like this one when there is a new beginning (I’d say University was a big transition!), it definitely is difficult to celebrate with anyone as everyone is either away from Vancouver or has a different schedule than you do. (Shoutout to my buds Austin, Anthony, David and Josh rockin’ it in MontrΓ©al right now!)

So now, as midterms approach, the hard and honest truth is evident that I actually haven’t been on top of all my work as much as I would have hoped to be at this point. It seems that a part of my brain is still wishing for summer to come back, and another part of my brain is still on summer mode. I am so far thoroughly enjoying all my lectures, so that’s always wonderful! But of course it’s the follow-up work and reading (For goodness’ sake Thomas, it’s just reading!! You LOVE reading!) that’s giving me a hard time right now.

I definitely don’t like the position I’m in at this point, because it is WAY to early in the year to fall behind! So I’m making it my goal to get on top of everything by the end of this week. MIDTERMS ARE COMING… EEEEK!!!

I’ll honestly need every last ounce of work ethic that’s still in me to make it through this week and get back into the groove of things, haha!

/end post

The Ultimate Journey

There are times when you become numb and you feel like every inch of your body is screaming in pain and every ounce of energy spent. There are times when you feel all hope is gone and all efforts wasted.

Then, I was running.

There are days when I feel like I simply want to give up, to give in to the obvious fact that I can never make it. The effort is exhausting, and when I think of the fact that no one basically cares if I make it or not, it motivates me to go on. But what for?

Everything around me is a blur as I sweat vigorously and my little feet pound the pavement, each step heavier than the next. Each step convincing me that I should just give up. No one cares. My breathing becomes increasingly rapid as I frantically continue. I tell myself giving up is not an option. But in situations like this, is trying even worth it? The pain, the effort, the heart?

With dying hope and increasing pain, the time keeps ticking on. Time makes cowards of us all; constricting us, limiting us, distracting us. My chest feels like it is on fire as it burns with pain. I find myself asking… “what is this all for? The glory? The relief? The exercise?”

My sack with my belongings continues to bounce on my back as I run faster and faster. It feels like an extra burden I have to carry on top of everything else I am suffering. It is pain. Some days I wish I could rip it off, get rid of that burden, run free, go on without worries.

The Tower. All you need to go is the Tower.

I climb stairs, I go down stairs, frantically searching for my destination. I am ready to break and my breath is harsh and quick. Why am I doing this? Why does it have to happen to me? I look at everyone else… they’re all… different. They don’t suffer from my problem. They don’t need to. They don’t have to. They don’t choose to.

With a final effort, I lunge into that beautiful wooden contraption called a desk as my English professor walks in. Too close for comfort.

She already said she didn’t mind if people were late.

But I fight my fight. For the ultimate journey is the ten minute journey from from one end of the UBC campus. To the other.

/end post

NOTES: This post was meant to be satirical. I am not actually suffering. (But it is a crazy journey.)

The Four Hour Gap, and other adventures

So, now that I’ve settled down quite a bit from all the crazy things that have happened past few days, including:

-Buying a purple UBC hoodie the second I got on campus the first time
-Dropping in and out of classes end of August and September even though I had an early registration time (DON’T DO THIS BY THE WAY GUYS). That’s the price of changing your mind during the summer!
-Gawking at how expensive all the textbooks are and then reluctantly lining up for around twenty minutes at the Bookstore to pay for them because a) I need them and b) I was too lazy to search online for used ones and c) it was cray cray season at the Bookstore.
-Meeting tons of crazy awesome people but still managing to not manage to remember their names
-Taking bus routes excessively to see if the 43, 84 or 99 gets me home faster
-Searching high and far for the cheapest place to eat. Then, settling for McDonalds because I need to gain weight.
-Meeting up with my high school friends because I feel lonely
-Taking the 99 B-Line to the University Village (one stop) because I’m too lazy to walk. Get judge-y looks from everyone on the bus as you get off one stop from the UBC bus loop.
-Using way to much money at the SUB Poster Sale
-Running frantically from CIRS to BUCH every M, W, and F because you don’t want to be late
-Searching for almost half an hour on the first day for a Starbucks (Yeah, more food!) and then realizing there’s one right in the SUB. *facepalm*
-Reading UBC Compliments, UBC Confessions, UBC Overheard, and other UBC things excessively and dreaming endlessly of the day I turn up on Compliments. πŸ˜›
and finally,
-NOT reading much of the reading homework I was assigned despite my best efforts.

Model student, I know. πŸ˜› *covers face in shame*

Anyways, this blog post was actually here to discuss the amazing and yet head-hurting idea of the four hour gap that I now possess on Fridays after all the rubble and chaos has cleared from course registration. Yeah, I now have a gap from 10-2 on Fridays, and I decided that it is a time to remain on campus because the commute home and back would certainly not be worth it! πŸ˜›

For all those who have a similar predicament like me (WE SHOULD MEET UP πŸ˜€ No, like seriously.) I’ve kind of drafted up a list (YAY ANOTHER LIST :D) of things I have done so far and some things that may be cool to try! πŸ˜›

-Play Candy Crush for the four hours straight, switching from phone to computer and back. (I have not done four hours straight, to keep that clear :D)
-Go on a bus ride to the University Village (and get judge-y looks from everyone)
-Walk to the University Village!
-Find a bubble tea place (By the way, I STILL have not found one! Where is everyone getting their BBT, it’s NOT FAIR D,:)
-Take a little walk around campus
-Stare into the windows of lectures creepily and see if anyone notices.
-Don’t quote me for the above, I haven’t tried it yet.
-Wear sunglasses and walk around campus with the “I’m pretty much a big deal” attitude
-Go home (sad face for me)
-Sleep
-Eat
-Text your friends rapidly to see if they’re in class, and if they’re not, to ask if they want to meet up. If they are, ask if they want to meet up anyways.
-Exercise… maybe? Naw, I won’t do that. I get enough running from CIRS to BUCH.
-…

I’ve run out of ideas. Funny, this blog idea sounded a lot better in my head. It isn’t really exciting at all. Haha.

Well, it’s been fun guys, stay tuned for more later on!

/end post

Welcome to My Humble Abode!

Hello everyone! My name is Thomas Chan (but I also go by Tom, Tom Tom, Tommy, T-Chan, T, John and more recently, Black Box [long story]…) and I am one of the new members of the Blog Squad! I’d just like to welcome you to my little place on the Internet and at UBC.

I am from Vancouver and am currently in my first year at UBC in the Faculty of Arts (reppin’ the purple!) and I’m so very excited at everything that I’ve seen and experienced so far. The campus is beautiful (and populated) and I delight in taking transit every morning and every afternoon (well, maybe not the afternoon, it’s a little annoying in the afternoon). The 43, 84 and 99 are my very very best friends (metaphorically speaking).

Through this blog I’m really excited to share with you my experiences at this beautiful institution of higher learning. A more detailed (or less detailed, depending on how you look at it) description of me can be found under “About Me”.

You can also follow me on my Twitter and Instagram accounts, both @TheTChan. I post some pretty random things!

Anyways, please do enjoy my blog and stay a while if you like what you see! Cheers!