By: Mo Said

Starting your first year at UBC brings a wealth of opportunities. The steep learning curve, the hyper social environment, and numerous deadlines will consume most of your time. However, university is also a time of self-discovery where many people pursue what they are passionate about. In my first year of university, I took advantage of the various speakers and events happening at UBC. These opportunities helped me discover my true passion: studying international politics and developing a deeper understanding of the world.
The current challenges facing the world are numerous and require your attention. Why? Knowledge of current events allows you to speak intelligently on a topic. Here are just a few of the issues making the news right now.
The civil war in Syria has resulted in over 100,000 civilian deaths and over four million refugees who have fled to the neighboring countries of Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. The UN recently said that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against a civilian population, violating a norm of international relations. The Syrian civil war threatens to upset the entire Middle East for decades to come.

Longstanding alliances

On September 21, the Somalia-based militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab attacked a mall in neighboring Kenya in response to Kenya’s contribution to African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). AMISOM is currently fighting in Somalia to support the government from the Al-Qaeda allied rebels who vow to establish an Islamic state guided by the principles of sharia law. Why does this story matter? The post 9/11 crackdowns on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq have resulted in a new frontier on the global war against terrorism. Islamist groups elsewhere in Nigeria, Libya, and Chad also threaten to destabilize the continent.

In Canada, the arctic sovereignty debate is heating up. A Danish cargo ship carrying coal from Vancouver to Finland is currently heading through the Northwest Passage, which would make it the first ship to attempt the voyage for more than forty years. If the Northwest Passage becomes a viable waterway for international shipping, the Canadian government needs to make the necessary investments in infrastructure to ensure that Canadian sovereignty and the environment are not compromised.
That’s it for this edition of the Totem Times. I hope to have piqued your interest in these pressing issues.

The AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) offers The Anti-Violence Ally Program, an educational opportunity raising awareness of and promoting conversations about sexual assault. The program aims to foster a welcoming, inclusive atmosphere on campus for all people.

How do I get involved?

• Anyone at UBC can choose to become an Anti-Violence Ally.
• Attend a one-time, 2.5-hour training session facilitated by the staff of the SASC.
• Display your button and poster, should you decide to become an Anti-Violence Ally.

What does training include?

• An opportunity to learn more about sexual assault, the Canadian legal system, and consent, as well as access to resources and basic support skills through an informative, fun, and interactive workshop.
• A certificate that recognizes your participation.
• A button and poster to display, should you decide to become an Anti-Violence Ally.
• A free packet of information so you can continue to learn at your own pace.

How do I get register?

• The next Anti-Violence Ally training takes place on Wednesday October 23rd from 1.30pm to 4:00pm. Alternatively, SASC staff can come to your space and facilitate training on demand. The SASC also offers various workshops tailored to your group’s needs.
• Find out more at www.gotconsent.ca
• E-mail sascprog@ams.ubc.ca with the date/time of the training(s) you would like to attend.

By: Chris Goodchild

I was born in Malaysia, grew up in England, Holland, the USA, and Canada. I have English parents, who, along with me, have lived most of our lives outside of England. I can speak three languages (sort of), and I enjoy eating food from all around the world. I am an international student at UBC, and I love it.

Being an expatriate international student can be hard at times, especially if it is your first time out of your mother country. When I first moved to Calgary, Alberta to finish my last two years of high school in 2010, I had already moved around the world several times—therefore, it should have been an easy transition, right? Wrong. Everything changes when you move to a new location: new friends, new lifestyle, new experiences—life gets jumbled up in the most spectacular way. I was shy, scared, tired, and nervous—a bit of a wreck to be honest!

I have found that, while the transition into a new place can be tough, it is not as hard as it may seem to be. Think of all the amazing things you get to experience by going to a school in Canada: skiing, snowboarding, surfing, hiking, the amazing city life that is Vancouver and, for me personally, an amazing music scene with new bands and artists performing every week! As daunting as moving to a new country can seem, the easiest way to get around it is to take part. Immerse yourself. Find a new outlet. Explore and be creative, try new things! Life here can be as amazing as you want it to be, but you have to want it to be amazing before it can become a reality!

By:  Jan Bartolome

Midterm season is fast approaching (or may have already approached), and you might be unsatisfied with studying in your room. Personally, I have never been able to effectively study in my room, and I found that I had to look for other places to keep me focused on studying. Studying in your room can work really well for some, but for others, it’s nearly impossible. There are so many distractions within arm’s reach. People might make the smallest excuses to not study.

There are numerous study spots around Totem that I stumbled upon over my two years here. The most obvious spots are the designated study areas in the commonsblock. There is a silent study room located beside the front desk for the “zero-noise” studiers. For those who like a bit of noise and like to be with friends as they study, there is the group study room found right next to the entrance of the Dining Hall. A little less obvious but still well known are the house lounges. Every house has a lounge for all the residents to use. I find this to be the perfect place to study with your friends on a rainy day or on a late night study session. It’s close to home and you can still have that study environment. The dining hall is also a nice place to study after the evening rush of people trying to get dinner. While feeding your body with nutritious food, you could also be feeding your mind with knowledge from your books. It’s hard to be upset about studying while you’re eating.

Go on an adventure and discover some of your own study spots. Don’t worry about being too far from home either, because UBC has a whole range of study areas. You could find a place that no one knows about or an area with the perfect balance of quiet and loud. You are here to learn, so make learning a reason for you to explore the campus!

By: RJ Reid

Entering into October means midterms, Thanksgiving, and leaves falling all over Main Mall. It also means you can realistically start thinking about the upcoming ski season. While this may seem a little like daydreaming since good snow is still a couple months away, planning early can help you manage your time properly and also save you some serious cash. Ski bums aren’t meant to be full-time university students, after all, but with the following tips you just might be able to swing it.

First off, there is the Whistler Student Season Pass dilemma. It’s a dilemma because coming from a university budget it’s a hefty price (around $600 when you factor in taxes), but the flipside of this is that the student pass is an extreme bargain compared to a normal season’s pass which comes in at just under $2,000. With a bargain like that, it would seem wasteful not to buy the student pass, but is it worth it?

The factors to consider here are the quality and the quantity. There are some good mountains in British Columbia, and buying a Whistler Season Pass will make you feel like you are wasting money anytime you go ski at another mountain. Whistler Blackcomb, however, is usually considered the best of the best, and with great trails, a great village, and located a mere two hour drive away, it may not be a bad thing to be restricted by.

The other factor is quantity. If you think you will be able to ski seven or more times at Whistler this season, then the season pass is cost efficient. Anything less than that, and you should stick with an EDGE Card, which provides discounted lift tickets to BC residents (which as a UBC student includes you).

Whatever your decision, you should make sure to purchase your Season Pass or EDGE Card before the early bird deadlines, which is December 2nd for a Season Pass and November 25th for an EDGE Card. This will save you some money which you can use to get to Whistler.

Getting to Whistler is an art form in itself, and all I can really say here is: Get creative and be friendly. Snowbus and Greyhound both offer a bus service (the Greyhound option sometimes departing from Vanier which can be super nice), but it can get expensive. Alternatively, search Facebook, Craigslist, the Ski and Board Club, and your own residence hallway and house for anyone with a car who would be willing to drive you up in exchange for some gas money.

If all of this is sounding like too much effort and/or money, check out Seymour Mountain’s weekly student night and Grouse Mountain’s annual 24 Hours of Winter event for affordable and close alternatives.

Enjoy the slopes!

By: Aaron Bailey

It’s an indescribable feeling when you realize that you’re crossing a boundary into an epiphany. I’d compare it to becoming lucid while dreaming or being aware of a new understanding. However, an unsettling uncertainty also accompanies it.

It started between the stones of the granite memorial in central Berlin. Something about their stark plainness, how ordinary they were, made me stop and consider the idea that they could still exist even if all of their context was destroyed with us who put them there. That, as entities, they might still stand, but the millions that they were made to memorialize could easily be forgotten. I thought of an article that I read announcing the death of the last WWI veteran, Frank Buckles. I remember feeling so very young when I read it, but I failed to grasp the substance of such an event. With Frank left the last remaining, primary source of history about the First World War. Such a vastly significant piece of human existence is now only known through written accounts, oral tradition, or the limited media that we have from the time. And how fragile those pieces of history suddenly become. Memories seem hard to kill, but what strength is there in paper or the tangled telephone line of passed-down stories? Avoiding Orwellianism as best as I could, I still stuck on how the truth of such records could be upheld if there was no living person to refute their first-hand authenticity. I remembered my Grandfather and Grandmother, who served in the British army and met during WWII. Although I was fortunate enough to directly experience their stories and memories, soon the last of their generation will also move on, meaning that my children and their children’s children will only learn the terrible lessons taught by the Second Great War from textbooks and videos. Without the ethos of those who lived it to preach, can we be sure that something just as unthinkable won’t grip our world again? Will the books, pictures, and stories fight hard enough, or will the field of granite stones eventually become just that? Realizing this, the last stage of my epiphany balanced on myself. My experiences will also be caught up in the stream of time, and there isn’t anything to be done to stop the process.

Awakening to your own insignificance is at first breathtaking and panic-inducing, but it gives way to a silent tranquility and a freedom to live for the sake of living, instead of trying to carve out some niche of legacy in the riverbed of history.

By: Hussam Zbeeb

It’s almost the end of your first month here. You’re in a place of higher learning now; a place that brings some of the most captivatingly diverse people from all around the globe. You’ve met all your professors, gone to all your classes, and are starting to get a grip on how to manage your time here at university. There are still a lot of things you have yet to discover, however. Your professors are telling you that midterms are coming up. (The word midterm, I’ve realized, is merely a post-secondary education’s way of saying test, but I digress). There’s a massive amount of people you’ve met over the course of the past few weeks, and to say you remember all of their names would simply be a bluff. You’re anxious, nervous, worried and excited all at the same time. So far, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what first year is like, but not really.

As a residence advisor this year, I’ve been asked several times what my advice to first-years should be. You want my honest advice? My advice would be to not take anyone’s advice on what your first year should be like. There, I said it. The experience you go through in your first year is simply something that cannot be put into words. Your transition from high school to university may not be an easy one, but the most important thing is to learn some important lessons and discover different aspects of yourself. How do you adapt to change? How do you handle high stress situations? Do you have wholehearted interest in the courses related to your major? Decide what it is that you want from here on out. After all, Tuum Est, or simply put, it is up to you.  Regardless of what made you choose to come to UBC, the reflection of your choice of university at this time of the year is almost inevitable. One thing I can tell you for sure though, it’s the greatest decision I’ve ever made.

By: Cathy Wang
Nurse on Campus Student Assistant

It’s not uncommon for us university students to go to sleep late knowing we have to wake up early the next morning. Facing academic and social pressures, we can find it difficult to get sufficient quality sleep. Contributing to this is a culture of “bragging” about how little sleep one got the night before. However, research shows that a lack of sleep impacts our ability to learn information, perform fine motor functions, and fight off new infections. Not to mention, it contributes to fatigue, which can leave you feeling drained. Keeping in mind the importance of sleep, let’s explore how to get the best sleep possible.

1. Get to sleep before midnight
Getting to sleep early promotes deep rest. Effective time management skills can help with accomplishing your daily tasks before bed. Prioritize important items by putting them on the top of your to-do list, and bask in the glorious feeling of accomplishment when you cross them off.
2. Avoid alcohol and caffeine
Alcohol may help you fall asleep faster, but the quality of sleep is worsened. To avoid the negative effects of caffeine on sleep, it is best not to consume caffeine after mid-afternoon.
3. Improve your sleep hygiene
Keeping books, computers, and food away from the bed can strengthen the association between bed and sleep. Similarly, you can try a pre-sleep ritual to signal bedtime. This can include drinking a cup of warm non-caffeinated tea, doing a crossword, or even brushing your teeth.

If you find yourself living a semi-nocturnal lifestyle and wanting to readjust your daily rhythm, it’s best to do so in small increments of 15 to 30 minutes over a week or two. This will prevent extreme tiredness during the adjustment period.

Medical conditions such as depression (or other mental illnesses) and sleep apnea can severely impact sleep. If you suspect this to be the case, visit a healthcare professional to treat the underlying cause.

To find out how you can improve your sleep habits, check out the Nurse on Campus in Totem Park commons block from 3-6 pm on Wednesdays, or drop by the UBC Wellness Centre.