My first week at UBC

Hi guys!

 

I have survived my very first week at UBC!! Sorry I haven't blogged as much as I did when I was travelling, but I don't want to bore you with every single detail of my days haha. So I thought I would wait until I had more exciting things to blog about!

 

I think I'm finally starting to settle in here. My room is starting to feel homey, and I've made so many friends on my floor. Apparently we're the only floor who is actually bonding and doing stuff together! Lucky I'm on this floor! A lot of us go to dinner together which is great :) I've made friends with Canadians, Americans, and international students from Ghana and Spain, which is pretty awesome. I've also met a lot of exchange students through the orientation days we had; from countries like Australia, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, the UK, Nepal, Italy. I feel so internationalised (if that's a word)! Here's a photo of some of the girls from my floor at dinner:

 

 

 

We've been keeping so busy with a lot of firstweek events. We had the ice-cream social, then that night a bunch of us (about 15) went to a frat party. I know, you guys would never picture me at a frat party. It's not really my thing but I just had to experience it! It was seriously just like the movies. It was so crowded and people were drinking from those red cups and playing beer pong and dancing and going crazy. A few of us ended up leaving after half an hour, but I'm glad I actually got to see what it was like. There has been two open-air movies that we went to. The first was on the field at our residence and was the movie 'Across the Universe'. Even though we got a free blanket, we were still freezing, and after an hour a couple of us left early. The next night we walked to another residence for the open air movie where they were playing 'American Pie'. I love that movie, and because we knew how cold it would be, we came prepared and stayed for the whole thing!

 

 

After one of the exchange orientations (where we missed out on the pep rally!!!) we got to walk through the club fair. UBC has about 4 times the amount of clubs and societies that USYD does back home. It was insane! UBC has a quidditch team! I didn't join though, sorry guys. I joined the mailing list of a few like the food society, and the World Vision society because it seems like they put on cool fundraising events. The other night our floor got together to decorate the floor lounge. It was fun being all crafty together.

 

 

It still isn't finished but when it is I'll take some photos. Last night we went to the Welcome Back BBQ which is like an outdoor music festival. We had to wait in line for about half an hour just to get in. In line we met these two guys from Mexico who also happen to be on exchange! They were really nice. Once we got in I was so hungry so we got in line for burgers. We were in line for over an hour!! I eventually got my burger and I scoffed it down in like a minute so we could go dance. A DJ called Morgan Page was playing. Normally I don't like techno music but he was awesome. We weaved our way into the crowd and got pretty close. It was seriously so much fun! Everyone was jumping with their hands up at the same time. It was awesome :)

 

 

Afterwards we walked back to our rooms and I saw a family of raccoons!!! I know it's dark but if you look closely you can see them.

 

 

 

I know a few of you want to know about the food in residence. It's been pretty good actually! There is always so much to choose from. There's a salad bar, a selection of fruit, pastries, a sandwich bar, soups, cereals, lots of different drinks, and then the hot food stations. For breakfast there's french toast, crepes, pancakes, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, bacon, and sausages. I'm trying to be good so I've just been having cereal, but there's so many cereals to choose from! For dinner at the hot food stations there's pizza, quesadillas, burgers, fries, calamari, then there's an Asian section, and like a roast section. For dinner the past few nights I've had pork satay with fried rice, pizza, butter chicken, roast beef with vegies and mashed potato, and a pork chop with rice pilaf. The only thing I haven't liked so far is the pork chop, so it's been mostly good.

 

I guess since I'm on university exchange I should also talk about my classes! I only have class 3 days a week, and on those days I don't start till 11am so it's pretty chill. I'm doing 4 subjects, the same amount as I do at Sydney uni. I have a couple of exchange friends in 2 of my classes, and the other two I don't know anyone yet. The way the classes are taught are pretty different. I don't have any tutorials, just lectures. Only two of my classes require participation, and I think we get into small groups in the lectures and then discuss. At Sydney uni, I only ever had to do essays, but here basically all of my assessments are exams! Some of my classes have two mid term exams and a final.

 

UBC is gorgeous. The weather has been so great. On the exchange orientation I got to go on a campus tour so I took some photos.

 

 

 

I miss you all so much!! I want to Skype all of you!

 

Love,

Emily





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



 



Seaplanes, Biking and Campus galore!

On Wednesday we walked down to the waterfront for our sightseeing tour on a seaplane! We waited a couple of minutes in their tiny airport terminal, where we had coupons for free coffee, tea and hot chocolate. Mum and Dad got drinks, but they only had time for a couple of sips before our flight was being called, so they had to leave the rest of it! Lucky they were free! There was 7 of us on the plane, and the captain. Here's a photo of us taking off:

 

 

The flight was so much fun. We got fantastic bird eye views of the city of Vancouver, Stanley Park, North Vancouver, and West Vancouver.

 

 

 

 

 

We also flew up near the mountains and the clouds were low so they gave it a cool effect.

 

 

We then flew in a valley between mountains and were so close to them it was pretty scary! Landing back in the harbour was fun but a bit bumpy with the water spraying and splashing.

 

 

 

We then walked back to Canada Place and did the Canadian Trail walk around the building. We got to see two cruise ships docked there which were pretty impressive. We then had lunch at food carts. Mum and I went Mexican while Dad had Japadog. Afterwards, we walked back along the waterfront to Stanley Park. It had started to rain so we stopped into Starbucks so Mum could have her much needed coffee. Luckily, the rain stopped and we went to hire bikes. Mum and I got pretty pink bikes :)

 

 

Starting off was so hard. I hadn't riden a bike in probably 8 years and Mum in 10 years so we definitely struggled! Eventually we got the hang of it again. Stanley Park has a path around the whole edge of the park just for bikes, so it keeps you away from pedestrians, and it's all one way. We ended up riding about 9km, and we stopped a few times along the way, like at these totem poles:

 

 

This is the Lion's Gate Bridge which takes you into North Vancouver:

 

 

Once we finished our ride we took the bikes back, tried to fix our helmet hair, then caught a taxi back to our hotel. Mum and I had sore butts from all that bike riding! We chilled in the hotel for awhile then went down to Canada Place and had a really nice dinner at an Irish pub down there. We then stayed along the waterfront to see everything lit up at night which was really pretty. These are the sails at Canada Place:

 

 

The lights changed every so often. This is the Olympic Cauldron lit up. It changes colours

 

 

We then went for gelato at a place that won a gelato festival in Italy. There was 30 contestants, 29 from Italy and one Canadian, and the Canadian one. The gelato was so delicious.

 

Yesterday we caught the bus to the UBC campus. It took about 40 minutes from downtown. The campus is huge. When we first arrived we were feeling so overwhelmed and lost. There's also a lot of construction going on to make new buildings, so it was hard to really get a feel for what the campus looks like. We walked to the building where I'll be living on campus. We couldn't go inside, but the outside looks nice. I'll either have a view of some trees, or tennis courts. We then checked out the Commons Block and saw the dining hall from a distance. We checked out some of the buildings including Chemistry where I have one of my classes, so we looked at the room. We also saw the Student Union Building, and the University Village which both have stores and places to eat. I picked up a brochure for their Recreation Centre and I'm thinking of signing up for yoga classes!

 

At the Village we went to Mahoney & Sons, the same restaurant we had dinner at the night before. I had beef dip, which is almost on every menu here in Canada. It's a sandwich filled with shredded beef and caramelised onions, and you get given a small bowl pull of like a gravy or jus, and you dip the sandwich into it. It's so good. I also had a side of yam fries (or sweet potato fries) which are pretty much a Canadian staple. Before we left, we went into the UBC Bookstore which is absolutely huge!!! They sell practically everything in there, and so much merchandise with UBC plastered all over everything. I got a UBC hoodie which is so comfy, notebooks, an academic planner, and a drink bottle. Dad got two Thunderbird shirts, which is the UBC football team. I also collected my textbooks, which I ordered online. Some of them seem pretty interesting, a couple are thick and heavy though! We didn't get any photos of UBC yet, we were just trying to take it all in. I will soon though!

 

We caught the bus back to downtown, then went into a pharmacy and stocked up on more toiletries for me. We went back to the hotel to chill for a bit, then went shopping on Robson St for last minute things. I got to skype my best friend Emily which was a lot of fun :)

 

We went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant on Robson St. It wasn't very nice, and it was our first disappointing meal of the whole holiday! We went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store afterwards and got ice cream to cheer ourselves up.

 

This morning we rented a car and drove into North Vancouver to shop for dorm essentials! We went to Staples and got all my stationery, and also got a printer for $40. The ink cartridges are more expensive than the printer though! We then went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and bought practically everything. Towels, sheets, a comforter, a pillow, a mirror, an iron, ironing board, cork board, shower caddy, alarm clock, cutlery, drying rack, etc. We finished our shopping before lunch time, so on the drive back we stopped at a viewpoint in Stanley Park.

 

 

 

We had a light lunch a cafe in the park, then went back to the hotel. We then walked down to see the BC Place Stadium where their soccer and football games are played



 

 

We walked around the whole stadium and we saw Rogers Arena where they hold ice hockey games and concerts.

 

 

We then walked through the neighbourhood Yaletown which was a really nice area with lots of restaurants. We're chilling at the hotel right now. Tonight we're going out to an Italian restaurant on Robson St

 

Tomorrow I move into housing at UBC. Mum and Dad are coming to help me move in. I have to admit, I am definitely more nervous than excited. I just want everything to go well. Saying goodbye to Mum and Dad is going to be really hard :( Wish me luck, guys.

 

Love,

Emily



Vancouver

Hi guys!

 

On Tuesday our adventures in Vancouver continued as we walked down to the waterfront and Canada Place to catch our free shuttle bus to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in North Vancouver.

 

 

We walked across the suspension bridge which actually swayed and wobbled much more than I thought it would. It was so hard to walk straight and we felt dizzy once we reached land again.

 

 

On the other side we did the Treetops Adventure, which is stable.

 

 

We then wobbled back across the suspension bridge and checked out the gift shop. I got a Vancouver Christmas ornament, since I'm now collecting them for my first Christmas tree when I eventually move out of home. I have Banff, Jasper, and Vancouver so far :) Next, we did the Cliffwalk, which is like a suspended narrow walkway hanging from the side of a cliff, which is stable. No wobbling on this bad boy. Look how high up we were!

 

 

Some parts were just glass on the floor! Along the way through the park I had collected the stamps on my brochure from each part, so on the way I out I received an "I made it" certificate! If you read it, I now have bragging rights for the next two years ;)

 

 

We took the shuttle back to Canada Place and got some photos, then walked to Gastown. Gastown has two main streets, Water St and Cordova St. We were trying to find a restaurant we've heard really great reviews about, called Meat & Bread. We walked around in circles across both streets maybe three times, then gave up and had lunch at the Steamworks Brewery which turned out to be really nice. We walked down Water St and stopped for photos of the Steam Clock.

 

 

We also saw the sculpture of Gassy Jack

 

 

We walked back up the street and back into downtown to check out the Pacific Centre Mall. There's some nice shops in there. They also had a store called Ever New which is exactly the same as Forever New in Australia. Did they just forget the 'For' at the beginning? We also went into Sears, which is a department store in Canada and America. They were having a store closing down sale and were selling all of their fixtures too, including their shelves, desks, mirrors and mannequins! We didn't buy anything though. We then walked back to our hotel and relaxed for awhile. Later that evening, we caught a taxi to English Bay Beach, which is a gorgeous area. We had heard how good Cactus Club Cafe is (there's a couple of them in Vancouver, and one right on the beach here) so we put our name down for a table. While we waited, we took some photos of these sculptures of a laughing man. They look kind of creepy.

 

 

We also saw this Inukshuk sculpture.

 

 

We walked along the edge of the beach. It was sunset, but it was pretty cloudy. The beach had lots of logs along it for people to sit down on.

 

 

We got our table at the cafe and it was outside with a great view of the beach. The food was really delicious. We shared a white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry compote for dessert. Yum! We then caught the taxi back to our hotel.

 

Much more to blog about but it's late and time for bed!

 

Love,

Emily

 

 

 

Edmonton to Vancouver

Hello everyone :)

 

On Sunday we left Edmonton and flew to Vancouver. The flight was only about an hour and 20 minutes, and because of the time difference between British Columbia and Alberta, we gained an hour. Once in Vancouver, we caught the Skytrain to downtown then walked to our hotel. I was starving (and it was making me grumpy) so we walked around the downtown area near our hotel and went to Cafe Crepe and had savoury crepes which were so nice. I also had a nutella milkshake, which was so good! We strolled along Robson St, which is the main shopping and restaurant street in downtown Vancouver, before heading back to our hotel. We had a box of Lindt chocolates waiting for us when we got back, left by the hotel's management. We felt very loved :) I think our holiday had caught up to us and we were feeling pretty tired. Instead of exploring, we lazed around the hotel and read our kindles (Mum now has a kindle too. She got it at West Edmonton Mall. We're now a kindle family!). We went out for dinner at a restaurant called Joey's (I know, I thought of Joey from the TV show 'Friends', too!). Mum and Dad's dinners were really nice, but mine was a bit disappointing. However, the restaurant certainly did make up for it with it's desserts. We all shared a molten lava chocolate souffle, and an open apple pie with caramel sauce and maple ice cream. Both were heavenly :) In this hotel Mum and Dad have a king sized bed, and I'm on the sofa bed which is so springy and creaky and basically horrible. Mum's hoping it makes me realise how much better my single bed on campus will be.

 

Yesterday I had Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for breakfast, yum. We relaxed for a bit in the morning, then walked down to the fountain outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery to meet with our tour guide.

 

 

 

We went with the company Tour Guys who run free walking tours (tips are encouraged highly though, but well deserved). We did a downtown and waterfront tour, and there was about 25-30 people on the tour. Our tour guide's name was Lauren and she was about 21. I had a chance to talk to her and she has just finished up studying at UBC, so she was giving me lots of tips and answering all my questions. She also gave me her email address so I could keep in touch if I had more questions :) The tour was really great, and we heard lots of interesting facts. We saw the fancy Hotel Vancouver:

 

 

We also saw the Christ Church Cathedral, the oldest church in Vancouver. There was also some really interesting public sculptures like this swinging pendulum:

 

 

It actually swings, it's crazy. And this sculpture which moves and mimics the elevators inside of the building:

 

 

We saw the Marine Building and had the chance to go inside. It has some really impressive marine themed architecture on both the inside and outside of the building.

 

 

We reached the waterfront and saw Canada Place, which is where all the cruise ships dock.

 

 

Our tour ended at the Olympic Cauldron which was built for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

 

 

The waterfront view was really pretty :)

 

 

The tour ended and we stayed around at the waterfront for awhile taking photos. We found this sculpture called Digi Orca

 

 

We walked back to the Vancouver Art Gallery to start our Eat Your Cart Out tour. Our tour was much smaller this time, just us, the tour guide, and an elderly couple from Florida. Vancouver is known for it's food carts/trucks so our tour let us sample them! We started at the food truck called Feastro and got to sample a BBQ pulled pork taco and a watermelon mint lemonade which were both really good.

 

 

 

We got to walk through the Hotel Vancouver that we saw the outside of during the first tour. Our tour guide, Leni, told us that this hotel is one of the most pet-friendly. The even have a room service menu for pets! The hotel also owns two golden retrievers, Mavis and Beau. If you stay in the hotel and can't bring your own pet, you can look after them and take them for walks. When we walked through the hotel we got to see them! They were so adorable. I got to pat Mavis :)

 

 

Our next stop was Japadog, which is the most popular foodcart in Vancouver. It serves Japanese style hotdogs. The sample we tried had japanese mayonaise and seaweed on it. It actually tasted really nice.

 

 

We then stopped at Kaboom Box, and got hot smoked salmon sandwiches. Salmon is a specialty dish here in British Columbia. It was really nice

 

 

Our last stop was Mom's Grilled Cheese where we had a sample of the meatloaf grilled cheese sandwich. It was so good, the highlight of the day for me!

 

 

We were so full after the tour. It was so good to be able to get a small sample of everything. We then headed back to our hotel, freshened up, and went shopping down Robson St. We bought a couple of things, then came back and relaxed in the hotel for awhile. For dinner, we went to a quick and easy Japanese restaurant close to our hotel.

 

More blogging to come :)

 

Love,

Emily