Fall, Sock Wars, Hockey, Haunted House, and Dessert Day!

Hi everyone!

 

It's been awhile since I last blogged. Have you guys missed me?

 

Well, where to start? Let's talk about the weather ;) The much talked about Vancouver rain has officially arrived and my new rain boots are getting a work out! Apparently this rain is classed as nothing and it's going to get much worse. Great... haha

 

It's only fall here but it is getting so incredibly cold! Today it's only 8 degrees. I can't imagine how I'm going to survive in winter. But fall here is so gorgeous. Look at all the pretty leaves!! (Notice I'm now saying fall and not autumn? I'm being Canadianized!)

 

 

I've had four mid-term exams since I last blogged. They went alright. I survived and that's all that matters!

 

I've (unfortunately) now booked my flight from Vancouver to New Orleans (with stopovers in Portland and Houston, 3 flights, 10 hours! Yuck!) I don't arrive in New Orleans until the morning of the 20th which means I'm going to be late to the start of my Contiki tour :( The only thing I might be late for is the optional cooking class, which I'm dying to do, so hopefully I can just make it!

 

The latest event that Vanier, my residence, is putting on, is known as Sock Wars. Basically, you get given a slip of paper with the name of your target, and you have to stalk them, find them, and hit them with a clean sock to "kill" them. But some other person has you as a target, so you have to make sure not to get killed yourself. Once you kill your target, you get given their target, and that's how the game continues until there's a champion. However, there's safe zones like your own room, the bathroom, the stairwell, and the dining hall. There's also safety items. The first one this week was a visible piece of green clothing. For some reason there was controversy about what that actually was so they ended up changing it. We had to print off the cover of the book Fifty Shades of Grey, stick it to a textbook, and carry it around, haha! During the week I got a note slipped under my door by the person who had me as a target. It basically said that they've been stalking me super hard, and that I don't seem that into the game. Well obviously, I had 3 mid-terms that week! They then told me to text this number if I wanted to give in and get socked, otherwise game on. I never texted the number! The other night I thought I socked my target, but it turns out it was the wrong girl, she just had the same first name! Dammit! That night after dinner, I wasn't carrying around 50 Shades of Grey, and I was killed by a sock :( So now I'm out of the game!! The safety items for the next few weeks include a stuffed animal, wearing a paper moustache, and wearing underwear on the outside of your clothes.

 

On Wednesday night, we went to the Vancouver Canucks vs. UBC Thunderbirds charity ice hockey game!!!

 

I wore my Vancouver Canucks shirt :)

 

 

 

The game was so exciting! Normally I find watching sports so boring, but I actually really enjoyed ice hockey! The players were so graceful on the ice. I wish I could ice skate like that. But unfortunately, I'm one of those people that is constantly holding on to the edge of the rink, wondering when I'm going to fall over next. A bonus to this exciting game, were the super hot hockey players, on both teams!! Let's just take a moment to admire these photos, shall we?

 

Oh, boy. I picked my favourite player based on his looks, and it turns out he isn't even a Canuck! He plays for the Anaheim Ducks! His name is Rob Pelley <3 He's only 28, not too much of an age difference, right? Mmmm...

 





I told Mum that I now want to marry an ice hockey player. She told me I'm not allowed because I'd have to move away from her to live in Canada for his career. Bummer :(

 

Here's some photos from the game:

 

Because it was a friendly charity match, there was no typical hockey aggression. The Canucks ended up winning, 7 - 8, yay!!

 

After the game, the Canucks signed their jerseys and gave them to children from the charities they were supporting. So cute!!

 





 



At this game, there was also a celebrity in attendance. Michael Buble!!!! He wasn't there to perform, but he is friends with the Canucks. The game raised $100,000 for three charities, and Buble matched it, so $200,000 was raised! A hockey game is broken up into three periods. In the breaks between periods we would run down to the glass to see the hockey players and Buble. At one stage I was about 30cm away from Buble, with just a piece of glass separating us. Here's some stalkerish photos I took:

 





 

I also got pretty close to the hockey players too

 

And here's a random picture of a Zamboni, just because:

 





On Thursday I went downtown with Clara to do some shopping, and go to the grand opening of Topshop. It was a huge store, and they had so many gorgeous things in there. I wanted to buy everything! It was quite expensive though. I had a $20 discount, so I had to use it! I got a black blazer :) They took a photo of us at their photobooth

 

 

Now to talk about Halloween! I ordered my Halloween costume online and it finally arrived the other day! I'm going to be a zombie prom queen!!

 

On Friday night, I had organised for 8 of us from our floor to go to the Dunbar Haunted House. Apparently it's really well known and is on the news every year. It's run by a family and all the money from tickets goes to different charities. Here's a photo of us girls before we left :)

 

 

We had Japanese for dinner, which was so good, then got Starbucks. I had a salted caramel hot chocolate. It was amazing. I probably shouldn't have tried it, because I'm sure I'll become addicted while I'm over here!!

 

We then had to walk to the haunted house. It was so confusing, and we got lost a few times, but we eventually found our way. We then had to line up for about an hour and a half. It's very popular! It didn't feel like that long though because we were being entertained by the actors.

 

The policeman guy was so hitting on Clara. It was hilarious! He loved the fact that she's a cheerleader and he wanted to take her on a date! Hahaha. We were even dancing with some of them. It was fun :)

 

We finally got to go in, and we had to go in two groups of 4. I was in the first group and we walked in two rows of 2, and I was in the front with Clara. We were all holding each other so tightly. We walked through so many different themed rooms. It was actually sooo scary!!!! The other 4 girls were so scared that they ended up running to catch up with us, and we ended up going as a group of 8. I wanted Clara to go through first, because she'd brave, but she was getting pulled back by the other girls, so I had to go first!! That meant that everything jumped out and scared me because I was first! I was seriously screaming the entire time. A guy dressed up as Freddy Krueger jumped out at me and was putting his knife claw hand in my face! Then he was crawling on the ground and grabbing at my feet which was so freaky!! They actually took some photos of when he was scaring me. Surprisingly, I don't actually look that scared!

 

 

Near the end a guy with a chainsaw jumped out towards me! That was definitely the most scariest part!!! They took a photo of that moment, but I haven't found it online yet. I hope they upload it because I bet my face is priceless. Afterwards, my hands were shaking so bad and my heart was beating so fast. It was so scary, but it was so much fun and definitely worth the wait.

 

I have some more Halloween celebrations coming up. On Tuesday I'm going with my friend Sally to the Ghost Train in Stanley Park. It's mostly a Halloween thing for families and little kids, but we're going anyway! The theme this year is scary fairy tales, so that means like a scary version of Snow White and other princesses! We're going early that night so we get to carve a pumpkin, which is so exciting!

 

Next Saturday Vanier is having a Halloween dance called the Horror Ball. This is where I'll be dressing up as a zombie prom queen with face paint and everything. Don't worry, I'll take a lot of photos!

 

On actual Halloween night, each house in Vanier has a theme and you can go around to each house to see what's going on. There's things like a costume contest, a haunted house, pumpkin carving, and trick-or-treating. I've already bought a Halloween bag to collect all my candy, haha!

 

Today I went out with two exchange girls downtown for a dessert day :) First we went to Soirette Macarons & Tea, and I got 12 different macarons to take home.

 

Next we went to Thierry's Chocolates. We sat down here and I had a liquid chocolate drink with caramel and whipped cream, and then ate a maple eclair. It was amazing

 

 

And last, we went to Ganache Patisserie. They had a lot of wedding cakes here. I got a little red velvet cake to take home.

 

 



My time here on exchange at UBC is going by so quickly. I can't believe I already have less than two months left. I have to make the most of every single moment!!

 

I miss you all so much.

 

Love,

Emily



 



I love being a tourist

Hi everyone :)

 

On Sunday, I got to be a tourist again, as Abby and I went downtown. We caught the bus from UBC, and got off where we were supposed to get another bus to Granville Island. We couldn't find that bus stop and ended up getting lost! We had to ask for directions, and the man we asked just happened to have a map that he gave to us. Granville Island was only a 10 minute walk from where we were.

 

 

We walked past some store, then went into the Granville Island Public Market. It is mostly food, but there were also some stalls selling arts and crafts, jewellery, and soaps. The food looked amazing and was so fresh! Very different from cafeteria food here in residence.

 

I just made you hungry didn't I? Sorry about that!

 

We ate lunch, then for dessert I got a turtle cheesecake, and a peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie for later.

 

 

It was amazing!!! Another bonus about the market was the super hot guy we saw working at one of the fruit stalls. We walked past about 3 times, haha! We then caught the cute little ferry over to Yaletown.

 

 



We walked up to Robson St, which is the main shopping and restaurant street in downtown. We walked along checking out some of the shops. We went into the Canucks team store, and I got a Canucks shirt to wear to the game on the 17th. I also met a pretty cute guy. Too bad he's made out of cardboard :(

 

 

I also got a top, some postcards, and more halloween decorations to put on my door. There was an amazing halloween store filled with everything you could imagine. They had so many hilarious costumes.

 

We then walked down to the waterfront and saw Canada Place. This is my favourite place in downtown Vancouver. It was Abby's first time downtown, so of course I had to take her to my favourite place!

 

While we were down there, Abby asked a random lady if she could take a photo of us with her dog! Hahaha so weird. Oh Abby...

 

 

We saw the Olympic Cauldron then walked to the Vancouver Lookout and rode the glass elevator up to the observation deck. We got there about 6pm and got to see it at the end of daylight.

 

Then at sunset :)

 



 





We then waited until the sun had set and saw the city at night with all the lights.

 



We got dinner on Granville St then caught the bus home.

 

Yesterday was officially Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I spent the day studying and doing laundry, I know, so boring. We got invited to a TweedSL Thanksgiving dinner that told us to dress up nice. So we got dressed up, but when we met up with other floors we felt so overdressed! We all looked so nice though :) We went to the dining hall and I got to have my traditional Thanksgiving dinner of roast turkey, mashed potato, stuffing, and gravy. Then for dessert we had pumpkin cheesecake, which was SO GOOD!



 

I'm going to be super busy studying for exams until the 17th! If you don't hear from me until then, that's the reason why!

 

Love,

Emily

 



UBC Life and Thanksgiving

Hello world :)

 

It's been awhile since I've blogged. I have to figure out where I'm up to so I can keep you all up to date!

 

Last Friday night we went to Wreck Beach for a bonfire. There was a pretty big group of us! We went down at about 9:30pm and luckily Mum told me to take my torch (Canadian version of the word: flashlight) because it was so dark going down those 500 stairs! It took us awhile to start a fire, but once we did we sat around and talked and roasted marshmallows :) It was a lot of fun

  

 

That afternoon I had skyped Mum, then Nan, then my friend Mitch. I think that contributed to my homesickness when I got back from the beach that night :( Homesickness is so random, it just comes and goes. The girls on my floor made me feel a lot better though. I love hugs :)

 

On Sunday we competed in Day of the Longboat! We woke up super early, put on our TweedSL house shirts, and went to catch the bus. Our team name was Fourth Floor Force. It's a tongue twister and I came up with it :) On the bus we put on facepaint in the shape of 4s!

 

Look how pretty it looked :) Downtown Vancouver in the distance again

 

We started the race, but Abby, who ran when the siren went off and pushed us off, couldn't get in because we had started paddling too early! We had to go back and wait for her to get in, and by then all the other teams had left the shore. The race was so crazy and funny. We were all screaming at each other! We had some trouble steering through the race but we got round the first buoy and Nichole jumped out, ran onto the beach, and grabbed the baton. We then went around a 2nd and 3rd buoy, before heading into the finish line on the beach. Raven jumped out with the baton and hit the gong. Our time was 20 minutes and 12 seconds, and we ended up coming 4th out of 6 teams. Pretty good effort for a team that was coming last at the very start! It was pretty much destiny that the Fourth Floor Force team came 4th :)



 

 

We caught the bus back to UBC and stopped at Blue Chip Cookies, which apparently sell the best cookies ever. I got a marbelous (milk chocolate and white chocolate) cookie and a hot chocolate. The cookie was sooo good!!! They have so many different kinds. I want to try a different cookie every time I go there!

 

That night, as I was studying for my first mid-term exam the next day, Clara was using my hairdryer in my room. Because her hair is so long and ravishing, she was there for about half an hour, and ended up blowing the fuse in my room!!! I had no power. We had to go down with our RA (Residence Advisor) to the front desk and get the key to the fuse box to switch it back on.

 

Then later that night, after I came out of the shower, my razor was sticking out of my shower caddy, and I accidently cut the side of my finger on it and it took about two layers of skin off of it. It was bleeding so badly and I had no idea what to do. Luckily my neighbour Naiomi went into full-on nurse mode, and helped me clean it and bandage it up. She put on 3 bandaids so the blood wouldn't seep out. When I woke up in the morning, however, the blood had gone through all 3 bandaids. I took them off, and my finger was still bleeding pretty bad about 10 hours later. I went to the front desk and I got gauze pads and tape. They told me if it bleeds for over 24 hours I have to see a doctor. Then I was freaking out about whether it would be covered by my medical insurance and where should I go. There was some frantic emails sent to my exchange advisor and to Mum. Mum would have been freaking out so bad when she woke up to those messages! Sorry Mum!!

 

The cut was on my right hand and I was worried about writing my exam that day. I left my first class 5 minutes early so I would make it to my mid-term exam on time, but I was the last person to arrive! Everyone stared at me when I walked in. The exam went alright. The multiple choice was pretty easy but the essay was confusing. UBC marks things so quickly here. I got my marks back 3 days later! I got 78 which I'm happy with :) At Sydney Uni I usually have to wait about a month to get marks back. The afternoon after my exam I checked my finger and it was no longer bleeding. Biggest sigh of relief ever! It's alright now, I just need to let it heal itself. But it's like I have a massive dent in my finger! Ew!

 

That night I checked my mail after dinner and I had a letter from Nan and Pop, and a package from Mum and Dad. I was so excited!! It had a letter, photos, and clothes in it. Mum must have been listening to my complaints about having practically no clothes and wearing the same things all the time. The clothes she sent smelt like home :) Reading both letters made me cry. I put the new photos up in my room

 

 

I watched the first episodes of Dexter season 7 and Hart of Dixie season 2 this week! Both were so good!!

 

Yesterday morning I got tickets to a charity ice hockey game between the UBC Thunderbirds and the Vancouver Canucks. The National Hockey League is currently on lockout, which means no games are playing until they sort it out. This could be my only chance to see the Canucks play, and it's right on campus! So exciting! It's on the 17th of October :)

 

This weekend is a long weekend for Thanksgiving. On Friday night our RA had rented out the kitchen in the commonsblock for us to cook a thanksgiving dinner. Since most people on our floor have gone home for the weekend, there's not that many of us left! There was 5 of us from our floor, and 3 girls from Tweeds house who came to the dinner. Since our RA is vegetarian, and is the one who bought all the food, we had vegetarian food. We had vegetable pastaless lasagne, salads, sweet potato mash, and roasted vegetables. Unfortunately, no traditional turkey :(

 

For dessert we had black bean brownies, which tasted like chocolate but had a really weird texture. Then we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream. It was store bought, and the only thing we didn't cook, but it was traditional! It was the first time I've ever tried it and it was really nice :) We were there cooking and eating for about 5 hours!

 

 

Yesterday Clara, Abby and I decided to get out of the UBC bubble and go to Metrotown for some shopping at the mall! It took a bus ride, then a skytrain to get there. It took about an hour and 20 minutes. You all know how much I love shopping and retail therapy. We got there at about 1pm, and we didn't get back to residence until 9:30pm!! The shops stay open until 9pm here. I bought some cheap black rain boots (for when the Vancouver rain hits), face paint for Halloween, Halloween decorations to put on my door, a winter coat, and perfume, fragrance mists, and body lotions from Bath & Body Works. Australia doesn't have Bath & Body Works, but it should! We spent so long in that store. They were having a buy 3 get 3 free sale, so I went a bit crazy in there. Before we left we went to the supermarket to get snacks for our room and something for dinner. On weekends the dining hall at residence closes at 7:30pm, and by then it was about 8pm! In our lounge we only have a fridge, a sink, and microwave, so we had to find something microwaveable, which was so hard to find! We ended up getting mini pizza bagel bites and marble cake. We sat in the lounge with our food watching a movie. It was really nice spending the day with the girls and not having to worry about uni work :) Here's a photo of us waiting for the bus at 9 o'clock at night with all of our shopping!

 

 

Coming up at the end of this month is Halloween. I'm so excited to celebrate my very first Halloween! It's a very North American tradition so I've never had the chance to celebrate it before. I think there will be a dance and trick-or-treating in Vanier. I already bought my costume online! I'm going to be a zombie prom queen haha!

I have become known as the Mother Hen on my floor. The girls come to me when they need to talk or need a hug :) I love being needed!

I've been studying a lot since it's now mid-term exam time! My next one isn't until next Friday though. Abby and I had a random dance party in my room the other day as a study break. It was so much fun :)

I've found out when my final exams are. I have 2 exams on one day, and the last one doesn't finish until 9:30pm that night, one exam in the middle of the exam period, and one on the very last day. This means I'm going to be late for my Contiki tour around the Southern states of the USA :( But I've been talking to Contiki and they're trying to work something out for me. Fingers crossed I can meet up with my tour group easily!

 

Today, Abby and I are heading downtown! We're planning on visiting Granville Island, Robson St, the waterfront, and the Vancouver lookout! Time for a touristy day!

 

I miss you all incredibly!!

 

Love,

Emily