It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here so I’m a little out of practice but the last week was pretty eventful so I actually have stuff to talk about plus I have pictures. I dunno if I mentioned it last time but my camera charger is broken at the moment so I’ve been using my phone and getting other people to bring cameras places so I can actually have some photographic evidence of my time here.
So I guess the biggest thing I did lately was go to a BC Lions game (American football). Now I’m not a sports person at all but in saying that I actually enjoyed the general experience of going to a game. It was the western final, which as far as I can tell is the semi-final of the CFL (Canadian Football League), between the BC Lions and the Edmonton Eskimos, Edmonton being the capital of Alberta the next province over from BC, so it was a pretty big game. Needless to say the stadium was packed, I think they said there was about 41,000 people there, so the atmosphere was crazy. I’m going to assume that people reading this aren’t familiar with football so I’ll explain that it’s a very stop-start game, so in order to keep the energy in the crowds up there was constantly music and commentators trying to keep the energy up by getting everybody shouting and screaming. Plus there were several prize give aways involving things like zorbing and flag relays down by the field, I have to say they know how to keep a crowd entertained. In saying that I did find the amount of advertising and activities going on around the sidelines really distracting, I barely watched any of the game to be honest. I kept watching everything else that was going on and then looking down to see that I’d missed like 2 plays, although I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on even when I was watching.
Despite not really knowing what was going on I could still see when points had been scored or there had been a really good pass or interception so I knew when to cheer and when to boo, which hopefully let me blend into the crowd a bit rather than standing out as the person who has no idea what’s going on. From what I’ve seen when it comes to football we actually saw a pretty good game, the Lions won by a good bit. I think the final score was 40-23, with the Lions dominating. I mean there were some impressive plays going on, even to somebody who doesn’t really know much. The whole day was surprisingly enjoyable and I’m extremely glad I was coerced into going, here’s some less than exciting pictures for your viewing pleasure:
Myself and Tess
BC Place
Alex and Michelle
That probably the biggest thing I did recently, we also went ice skating:
We coudln't resist playing with the kids skating bars
Myself and Tess buy all our clothes at the campus bookstore
Alex and Ed
Tess and Michelle
Alex showing off his figure skating moves
Apparently I don't know how to show I'm having fun
We also went for sushi afterwards which resulted in some always funny chopstick walrus photos that I can’t upload cause I can’t find the cable for my phone.
It also snowed recently but it wasn’t cold enough for it to stay frozen so everywhere was just slush and deceptively deep puddles, although the mountains look really nice now. Again the photos are trapped on my phone.
The only other thing I can think to tell you is about the most amazing brownies I’ve ever had. We all went to friends house during the week to hang out and she decided to bake for us cause we were looking for something to do. So she made brownies and then made a cookie dough icing to go on top, I really don’t think I’m doing them justice right now because these were amazing. I would recommend you all ice your brownies with cookie dough from now on.
That’s pretty much all I have to say, the semester is nearly over now so I have plenty of assignments due this week which I really need to work on. I’m kinda halfway through them all but have yet to actually finish one. Tomorrow is just going to be a day long essay writing session. I’m kinda dreading finals but I have a nicely spaced timetable so they should be ok. It is a bit annoying though that my last one is on the last day, by which time most of the roommates will have finished and gone home so I’m going to have to try and balance study and fun so I can have a proper goodbye night out at least once before we all head our seperate ways. I’ll definitely miss the guys, but I’m still kinda looking forward to being home.
Anyway I should go to bed, I have a long day ahead of me. I’m sure there will be a stressed filled finals post coming soon so watch out for that.
D
One thing I definitely didn’t think of was how different living in res would be. I’ve lived away from home before, I’ve had roommates and I now how to take care of myself in terms of cooking and cleaning and all that adulty stuff. I have never lived with strangers before though, or lived somewhere with strict rules in place.
Thankfully I get along really well with my roommates, they’re not exactly strangers anymore, but as you can imagine 6 guys living in one relatively small apartment has its issues. We each have a decent sized bedroom which is nice but the living areas are a little cramped and get messy very quickly.
My Bedroom
The rooms are actually decent and have plenty of storage space (my wardrobe isn’t in the picture), I’d find things a lot harder if we didn’t have our own personal spaces. I know some residences have shared rooms which would drive me mad.
Living Room
Our living room is ok, the couch isn’t the most comfortable one in the world. There’s not really anywhere to eat, I mean we have the little bar thing under the window but it’s usually full of stuff so you can’t actually sit at it. Somebody must have tidied up a little. The tv came with the apartment which is pretty handy, one of my roommates brought a N64 so we tend to play Super Smash Bros. a lot.
The Kitchen
The kitchen is always a mess, always. It’s pretty much the centre of all disputes, no matter how hard we try to keep it clean it just manages to get dirty again. We’ve tried to locate the culprit and there are accusations flying every day about who left food out or who didn’t clean up after cooking but for some reason things are never resolved. Basically there’s just a lot of banter going on in the kitchen, we all know we’re messy and it’s not just one persons fault but we still try to blame other people for the mess. Ultimately we all just say “well I cleaned up my stuff so…..” and then play some Smash. It has led to a fruit fly infestation which is unpleasant but not as bad as a normal fly infestation.
Our Recycling Pile
We’re all pretty good when it comes to recycling except the actual taking it out part. The whole balcony was full of recycling until I decided to organise it a little and now it looks like this. I probably should have just emptied it all at the same time but you have to bring it all down to the basement and it would take at least three trips so I just sorted and ripped and squished to tidy it up a little.
Our Hallway
The hallway is basically where we all just dump our random stuff when we get home. That table did not come with the apartment, it may have been obtained through less than savoury means but it’s very useful and many a good time have been had around that table.
The Bathroom
Finally we come to the bathroom. You can’t see it in this picture but the door to the toilet cubicle thingy has actually fallen off the wall and has yet to be fixed by maintainance even though they’ve been here twice with the intention of fixing it. You may have noticed the extension lead just casually dangling from the counter top, not at all dodgy. Oddly enough the bathroom isn’t as dirty as one would think considering 6 guys and one toilet. That’s mainly thanks to me since I live in a female dominated house so toilet hygiene is important.
So that’s pretty much where I live, not very exciting at all but I felt I needed to post something and it needed pictures so this is what you’re getting. The last few weeks have been pretty standard, I haven’t done anything touristy that would result in pictures I could show you. I’ve just been hanging out with my roommates or studying for midterms. I need to remember to bring my camera with me when I go places.
Anyway that’s all for now. I’ll try and do something a bit more exciting for my next blog.
Oh and Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving.
D
Academics. Important stuff when one is studying for their bachelors degree. Especially important when you’re an exchange since you need to make sure you cover what you’re missing back home. Arts students have it easy because the exchange adds an extra year onto their degree so they’re not technically missing anything by going away so they can pretty much take whatever classes they want to a certain degree. Non-Arts students on the other hand are missing a semester or two of classes back home so they need to match up the classes they take while on exchange with those they are missing at home as much as is possible.
This leaves you with very few options when picking classes, and in some cases it can be quite difficult and frustrating. This was definitely an issue for me. In order to receive the credits for your time away you need to get academic approval, basically just the head of your department needs to sign off on the classes you’re taking and needs to be informed of any changes to them in case they’re not happy with what you’ll be covering in them. Sounds simple enough and initially it was, I got my academic approval fairly soon after I knew I was going to UBC and there were no problems. Then UBC updated its course list for 2011/2012 and two of my carefully chosen courses were only being offered in the second semester this year. Enter first spanner in the works.
Unfortunately this happened after UCD had finished up for the summer so getting hold of Professor Newsholme, the Head of Biochemistry at the time, was quite difficult, not helped by the fact he was on a research trip of some kind. When I realised I wasn’t going to get an answer from him I emailed the International office to find out who I should email instead, it actually turned out that Prof. Newsholme was leaving UCD and a new faculty member was taking his place; Dr. Worrall. So as you can probably guess I emailed her and then it was just a waiting game.
I actually ended up having to wait quite a while but eventually I heard back ( a week before I left ) and everything was ok with my new course choices thankfully. So I made my way here and I thought that was the end of my troubles with courses. I was wrong.
Academic approval reared its ugly head again this weekend. One of the classes I was going to take turned out to be completely different to what I was expecting, it was practically a veterinary science class plus it had a lab attached which I did not realise and clashed with one of my other classes so I dropped the class. That meant I had to find a class to take its place, one which was going to cover advanced cell biology topics but no matter what I did I couldn’t find any suitable courses that were offered this semester or didn’t clash with my other classes. It was really starting to get on my nerves so I gave up and registered for an elective class (Intro to Philosophy) and informed Dr. Worrall of the problems I was having finding a class to cover the cell biology topics. Thankfully she was very understanding and said as long as I catch up with the material when I return, or cover it while I’m here via Blackboard, that she’s happy for me to take the classes I’m currently taking plus my elective.
Two weeks into my exchange and my academic approval is finally sorted, it would have been pretty bad if I was already here and my academic approval fell through but there would have had to be some serious problems for that to happen.
Anyway after that enlightening story I guess I should actually tell you about what classes are like here; they’re a little different. Mostly the lectures are the same as back home but people are a lot more vocal here, people actually ask questions and voice their opinions about what we’re learning. It’s a little daunting, especially when you’re taking two 4th year courses and people are asking questions about really technical things and mentioning specific research papers and experiments. It can feel a little overwhelming at times when everybody around seems to know exactly what’s going on but I’m still a little lost, I’m not used to it. The classes are really interesting though, the lectures actually discuss their own research in class and tell us about other research going on at the moment within the field, it’s all really up to date. So much so actually that those two classes don’t have specific textbooks because they would be outdated too soon.
My other two classes are really interesting too, one is on nutrition and then I have my philosophy class. The nutrition class is really informative because the lecturer is a working nutritionist and she frequently tells us about clinical cases she’s had involving malnourishment and deficiencies, it’s really engaging and informative to have real case studies as examples. Of course philosophy is really good class, it kinda hurts my head at time and makes me a little frustrated at times just because of some of the reasoning behind arguments but I’m definitely enjoying it. It’s a nice break from Science.
So I think I’ve talked, or typed, for long enough now. I could easily go for another 1000 words but you’re not here to read an essay about academics so I’ll spare you.
Until next time,
D
GALA finished on Saturday with a pancake breakfast and some last minute speeches from the people who organised it all rounding off a good few days of being orientated. The lovely pancake breakfast was swiftly followed by a hectic day in my residence; moving in day. In the space of a few hours the peace and tranquility of my big empty residence block was ruined by 100′s more students moving in. The lifts were constantly going and were always full, the hallways were full of trolleys piled up with boxes and suitcases, it was just general chaos so I decided to escape for a little while and let things calm down. I met up with my GALA group again and we headed to Jericho Beach to enjoy the sun, then into town for some food and a bit of a wander around. I’m definitely getting used to getting around here, the buses are really frequent and go everywhere plus as a student I get a UPass which lasts me the whole semester and gets me on any public transport for free (I did have to pay for the pass itself but it only cost $170 [~€120] which is a third of what you would pay in Ireland for just a semester worth of bus passes). It’s a really good system since the best way to get around is on the various forms of public transport.
Anyway you don’t care about public transport, my new roommates are much more exciting. So at this point they’re all moved in, 2 arrived on Saturday, 1 on Sunday and 1 on Monday (also 1 moved in last week which I may have mentioned but I can’t remember). There are now 3 Canadians, 1 American, 1 Brit and myself. It was a nice surprise for there to be an English guy here cause at least that’s one person who will have a vague idea what I’m talking about. It’s kinda odd since we have so many American tv shows at home we know a lot of American English but they know very little…….Irish English (?), basically I know what they mean by elevator and chips and cookies but when I say lift or crisps or biscuits they’re like “what?”. I’ve made it my mission to get them using some Irish slang while I’m here.
Anyway the guys are really nice and we all get along well. We went on a little shopping trip the other day to get supplies for the apartment which was a bit of a disaster cause we bought loads of food and then remembered we have nothing to cook with or eat off of. This would only happen to a group of 6 guys. It was probably quite funnny to watch, especially when we spent a good 5 minutes smelling different air fresheners to decide which one was the best choice for the apartment (We went with some sort of Fresh Water Spring type one) and then another 5 minutes deciding on which toilet cleaner we wanted (We continued the water theme by buying one with waterfall in the name). Then there was a bit of an issue half way through when we realised that we were all just throwing stuff into the trolley (or cart as they say here) but weren’t really thinking about who’s paying for what and how we’re dividing certain things. It was a bit of an ordeal but I think it brought us all a little closer together.
It did make things a little confusing for me though, I didn’t know half the brands and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to get so in my panic I bought an odd, and slightly useless set of items:
Nesquik, Root Beer, Poptarts and Grapes
I also bought some bread and apples but they still don’t quite bring all this together into some sort of healthy, sustaining meal. I have since gone back to the supermarket and bought more practical items.
So yeah, my roommates are great and we’ve all had a laugh together over the last couple of days. One of them brought his N64 so we’ve been playing that a lot. They all seem pretty good when it comes to college work too so I can’t see any mad parties happening the night before midterms or anything like that, but at the same time they’re all up for a laugh so it should be a good semester.
I was going to talk about my classes but I think I’ll wait until tomorrow when I’ve been to all of them, so far I’ve been to three of four and I’m a little worried but more on that tomorrow.
D
Semester one officially started today, I have had two classes so far and both have been a little daunting. Before I start talking about those though I should probably fill you in on the last few days since a lot happened.
First of I had GALA, which is basically orientation for all international students whether they’re here for their full degree or just on exchange. It was quite similar to UCD orientation as we were all put in groups and assigned a group leader, kinda like a peer mentor, who tells you about what it’s like to go to college here and shows you around. It was really nice to meet some new people and our group got along quite well. GALA was actually quite informative and everybody involved was really welcoming, plus there was plenty of free food so it was a nice few days. I did initially feel a little homesick because there were so many people around and they all seemed to know each other and had settled in really easily but once I got to know my group a little better I was fine.
My GALA group
We actually ended up hanging out a little after the orientation events and heading to some of the social events organised, which was a bit of a relief cause I was starting to go a little crazy all alone in my apartment. On the second day we all headed down to Wreck Beach to lounge in the sun for a while and take a little walk. I don’t know which was nicer really; the beach or the walk down to it. You walk down this winding path through a forest to get to the beach itself and it feels like you’re walking through some sort of tropical rainforest and then suddenly you’re on this really nice beach covered in these amazing weathered tree trunks. I think I should just show you the pictures instead of trying to explain.
The Walk Down
Wreck Beach
It was really odd sitting on the beach with the sun beating down and then looking up to see snow capped mountains in the distance, and then you look to your right and there’s a sprawling city. It’s called Beautiful British Columbia for a reason I guess. After our little trip to the beach we headed to the Winter Classic which is a night of ice skating, various other activities on ice and plenty of hot chocolate and cookies. It turned out to be a really fun night.
Lisa F.
Jan-Christoph
Lisa
As if we hadn’t had enough activity for the day we also decided to head to the student bar after our escapades on the ice. The student bar here is called The Pit and is surprisingly nice, although the prices are pretty much the same as Ireland which was a little disappointing. It has a decent size dance floor and a really good DJ so it kinda acts as a night club too since town is quite far away so it’s easier for students to stay on campus.
This post has started to get a bit long so I’m going to split it up here in the hopes of maintaining interest.
(Continued in part 2 [obviously])
Today was my third day here and so far I’m really enjoying Vancouver and what it has to offer. I ventured into the city yesterday, I went to the Downtown area to have a look around and it was quite nice. The city is very different to Dublin mainly due to the large amount of high rise buildings, everywhere you look there are huge buildings looming over you which is very different to home. A lot of the buildings are quite similar to one another but there are also some very good looking ones:
The Living Shangri-La, the tallest building in Vancouver
The library in particular is a really nice building:
And the Science Centre:
I was still quite drowsy yesterday so I wasn’t sure exactly what I needed to get while in town or on campus, I just wanted to wander around a little and get familiarised with the area and the buses. I guess you could say it was like preparation for a more practical excursion today.
Today was definitely more productive, I opened my bank account, got myself a Canadian phone and explored town more. It was surprisingly easy to open a bank account, it took about 10 minutes to do and they handed me my ATM/debit card on the spot. Opening the account did highlight a small problem; as I’m only here for four months I don’t have to get a student visa which means I’m technically a visitor while I’m here. The people in the bank were very helpful and let me open an account anyway but it could have been a big problem so do be aware of it if you’re planning on going somewhere for a semester.
Getting a phone was a lot easier and kind of accidental, I went to the International Office to check in for International orientation and there just happened to be a stall from one of the phone companies there. I really only wanted to ask them about my options and such but I ended up buying a phone there and then which was actually really handy. It cost $100 which included $20 credit and the rates are pretty similar to home here. I’ve been told that bill pay is much better value here though but you have to sign up for at least a 1 year contract which would mean paying a cancellation fee if you’re not here that long, so I went for prepay.
Today was a really nice day, it was quite warm but not overly so which made my travels throughout campus really enjoyable and I got some good pictures.
Science Student Centre
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Koerner Library
UBC Rose Gardens
After my leisurely trip around campus I decided to head into town again and try to see a bit more than yesterday, and actually start picking up some of the stuff I need while I’m here. It was a good trip and I discovered some more reasonably priced shops amongst the high-end stores, the city centre is pretty much dominated by brand name shops and high-end department stores. Things are still a little cheaper than at home but still not the most affordable items in the world. I have noticed an odd trend though; most things are fairly similarly priced to home, if not cheaper, except more everyday items. For instance, a bottle of Coke here costs around $2.50 (€1.80) which isn’t much more expensive than Ireland but you would expect things like Coke to be much cheaper here.
I made my way down to Gastown, or at least to the outskirts of it, which is the cities oldest neighbourhood. It’s a much better looking area of town and it’s full of pubs, restaurants, clubs and small art galleries. I guess it’s the more fashionable part of town, undoubtedly populated by a younger crowd. It definitely seems like the place to go to experience a bit of culture, I would have liked to spend a bit more time there but I was exhausted from all the walking so I just had a quick look.
Gastown
The Blarney Stone, nowhere is complete without an Irish pub
Orientation starts tomorrow which I’m definitely looking forward to, it will be nice to make some new friends and find out a bit more about college life here. Next time I talk to you I’ll have been orientated and my roommates will have moved in so there will be plenty to tell.
D
So after a Summer of hard work and a disastrous trip involving a one hour layover turning into a one day layover I’m finally here; Vancouver. I guess I should probably introduce myself, my name is Daire and I’ll be sharing my exchange experience with you for the next four months. To find out a little more detail about this blog I would advise you click the “About” tab above or just click here.
So day one didn’t exactly go to plan, my first flight from Dublin to Amsterdam was delayed by 50 minutes which meant I only had 10 minutes to get to my connecting flight to Vancouver. As you have probably guessed I didn’t make it in time. This was a bit of an annoyance but KLM (the airline I was flying with) was very good and they put those of us who missed our connecting flights up in a hotel overnight with dinner and breakfast included so it wasn’t too much of a problem. The hotel was nice enough and being able to eat, shower and sleep before my next flight was actually quite helpful as I was fully prepared for a long flight across the Atlantic, or more up and around the Atlantic.
After nearly 10 hours in the air we finally touched down and were quickly and efficiently let off the plane, after two complimentary meals and several snacks and drinks in between I was very impressed with KLM already but this was just the cherry on top of a pleasant flight. The airport was very straightforward and soon enough I was walking through the arrivals lounge only to find that there were a group of International Orientation guides from UBC waiting for exchange students. The guides were extremely helpful and showed me exactly where to go and made sure I got a fixed rate on my taxi to the campus, I’m really glad they were there to help as I was quite tired at this point.
The drive woke me up a little cause there was just so much to take in along the way, it wasn’t long before we reached the campus and I realised just how big this place is. It took about 10 minutes just to drive from one end to the other, I’m really hoping that my classes are in nearby buildings at this point. We eventually reach my residence; Walter Gage Towers
The Northern Tower (where I live)
They’re not much to look at really, very reminiscent of the UCD Arts block which is a slight comfort I guess. It didn’t take long at all to get my room key and make my way up, each tower has 17 floors which would make them the same height as the second tallest building in Ireland, thankfully I’m only on the 7th. The apartment is a good size with plenty of space for storage and such, they’re a little old but comfortable. I moved in a little early since International students need to be here by the 1st even though residences don’t technically open until the 3rd (they offer early arrival accommodation for those who need/want it) so I have yet to meet my 5 roommates. It’s nice having the place to myself for the moment cause it gives me time to relax and get over my jet lag.
The rooms don’t come with any bed clothes so before I can settle in for a nice sleep I have to venture out in search of some….
…..thankfully the campus bookstore are stocking some for the first few weeks of term so I didn’t have to go far. Now that my bed is clothed it’s time to sleep of some of this jet lag. Tomorrow will be a day for exploring.
Night,
D
