Settling in to UBC

Hi everyone :)

 

Yesterday, I moved into my dorm room at UBC. In the morning we had a really nice breakfast at the hotel, then picked up the rental car, jam packed it with all my things, and drove out to UBC. We parked, then headed to the commonsblock to check in. There was a huge line. All the odd numbered rooms were to move in at 9am, and the even to move in at 12pm. I was at 9am, and we were in the line for awhile. I finally checked in and received my UBC card and my keys in my move-in package. We had to attend a quick 10 minute orientation, then received our vehicle parking pass. They have a really efficient system here for moving in! We went back to the car, and drove it round to the front of the house I'm living in, and unloaded the car. Dad went to park the car, while Mum and I carried some stuff up, but the student volunteers basically carried everything up, even my super heavy suitcase. The building I'm living in is quite old and there's no elevators, just stairs, and I'm on the 4th floor, so I was impressed with their strength! This is what my room looked like when I first got in:

 

 

 

We spent the morning unpacking everything. Dad made sure to set up my internet and printer for me. My room now looks like this:

 

I brought a lot of photos over with me, and I put them all up! Can you guys see yourselves in any of the photos? You have a place in Canada!

 

 

This is the Place Vanier residence sign and the outside of my building

 

 

We went out for lunch, then went to the bookstore to pick up some things. Mum and Dad ended up leaving just before 5pm. Saying goodbye to them was so hard. Even now just thinking about it I'm starting to tear up. There was a lot of tears from Mum and I. They left, and I just organised my room. When they got back to the hotel, Mum skyped me straight away just to make sure that that part of our communication was working.

 

My residence advisor, Lotem, came knocking on our doors for dinner. First though, we had activities on the lawn with my house, and the house next door, as we're sister houses. We got into big circles and played a game called "move your butt". Someone stands in the centre of the circle and says something like "move your butt if... you're not from Canada". If it applies to you, then you have to run and change spots in the circle. If you're last to find a spot then you're in the centre next. I was never in the centre. The residence advisors taught us some military chants for the Vanier Olympics which are coming up, then we marched to the dining hall. The dining hall is pretty impressive, there's a lot of options. I sat with two girls on my floor who are both Canadians. After dinner, we had a floor meeting. I'm living on a single-sex floor, with about 20 other girls.

 

The bathrooms are better than I was expecting, and in the lounge there's a TV, fridge, and sink for everyone to use which is good. My bed is a bit hard, but it's alright. I didn't sleep very well because it's a new place, but also because my room was so hot!! So today I went out and bought a desk fan, which I assembled myself :)

 

This morning I had breakfast with some girls on my floor, then about 8 of us went exploring on campus to find some of our rooms. We went to the bookstore so they could get some things, then they headed back to their rooms, but I stayed out to find the rest of my classrooms. I only have class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday but I have back-to-back classes in the mornings. I timed my walk from building to building, and I'm going to have to walk pretty fast! I came back to my room, then went with the girls to Vanier Field where they were having Slide N' Tie. The field had a slip n' slide, $1 burgers, and free tie dying. The line for the burgers was so long, so we bought tshirts, then tie dyed which was a lot of fun. My shirt is now sitting in a plastic bag, still tied up, where it has to wait for 12 hours before I wash it out. We went up to the dining hall for lunch, then I came back and did some much needed laundry. Tonight there's a house ice-cream social, and then a pool party afterwards. I'm going to the ice-cream social, but I didn't really want to go to the pool party, and it's sold out anyways. Right now, I'm just chilling in my room while Mum and Dad are on their flight to L.A. Tomorrow I have an exchange student thing to go to, then tomorrow night there's an open air movie :)

 

I really miss you guys back home. Settling in is hard, but I'm getting there. How's Sydney? Am I missing out on much?

 

Love,

Emily