Last Minute Shopping for University + Some Ramblings

Ha, yeah. That’s right. Last minute shopping….3 days before move-in(can you believe August is practically OVER?!?!?!?!?!?!). I guess it’s not TOO last minute, just the fact that I’m pretty busy thursday and friday, and saturday I leaveee!! I went to Bed Bath & Beyond the other day to buy linen and other things for my room, so that it looks nice. BY THE WAY: I absolutely LOVE that store. UPDATE:  my house has been completely repainted inside, and it just got new carpets installed… YESS!!!!! 😀 Screw the new dorms…we got new carpets and freshly painted walls too.. haha! Everything that I’ve bought for my dorm has a theme to it…it’s mainly blue-green…just putting it out there. 

I have STARTED to pack…barely….all my shoes that I’m taking are all packed up now. I sometimes feel like I’m moving away to some faraway place…but I’m not really going THAT far. I still have some laundry to do, just did a load today, and have one more to gooo!!! I picked up some storage bins as well…one massive one…and then 3 smaller ones.

It really does make me a bit nervous to know that I’m going to be leaving in 3 days…..3 sleeps away…..until I start out on my ‘NEW’ adventure…  

Also…..my laptop sleeve came in the mail today…I’m sooo HAPPYYY !!!! 😀 It’s AMAZING.

Lately I’ve noticed that my views have been kinda spiking..back when housing assignments were starting to get released my views spiked A LOT…and then it went down, and now it’s back up again…it really makes me curious as to who all is actually reading all this…. hmmmmmm…

Thoughts on the UBC Freshman Reception

So Monday (yesterday), I attended the Freshman Reception at UBC. I’m definitely not going to say that it was a ‘waste of my time’…or anything like that. So no negative feedback, maybe just suggestions. The best part of the day was the fact that I got to explore a bit of the campus (with my friends), met new awesome people AT the reception, and most of the speakers at the reception were quite good speakers and very charismatic. It was a fun experience for the most part, although I wish they could have provided some more snacks, after all it did go from about 12-4 30. and that’s lunch time. I’m not saying that they should have served us lunch or anything, but definitely more than oranges that couldn’t be peeled, and kool-aid. 😛 I was STARVING!!!  I learned quite a bit about the Greek system, which I’m happy about because I had a SLIGHT interest in it. So now I feel like I’m pretty well educated about it. And the speakers were willing to stay behind for students to ask them questions. I think they should have a variety of workshops at the same time, so that people can go to the ones they feel are more applicable to them. I know that some people found that some of the talks we got were more directed toward Commerce/Business students. I liked the fact that they informed us of places to sleep (other than residence haha) , and places with good food, and all that good stuff. And maybe a little tour of some of the campus would have been nice as well…but I guess there are other events that give you tours….and plus you can sign up to get a campus tour. Another thing I wish we could have seen were the insides of our residences… 😦 ohh weelll.

So all in all, I’m happy I went and DON ‘ T  regret it, it really was a great experience overall. 🙂 

RandomRamblings: Annual UBC Freshman Reception, Academics, Imagine Day

I really don’t know what the heck is wrong with my mouse(it won’t let me highlight properly, or click things properly,it’s just being super stupid.), on my desktop computer(the one I’m using right now) …I’m pretty sure its time is up 😦 ….and it may need to get replaced. Besides it feels cooler to write blogs on a laptop anyway.. 😛

ANNUAL UBC FRESHMAN RECEPTION

So this is happening on Monday, August 29th ……IT’S THE END OF AUGUST…OH WOW. Anyways, tomorrow, about 300+ students get together at UBC….to get talked to about a bunch of things. I feel like they didn’t COMPLETELY give us enough information as to what to expect, but I’m thinking for the most part we just go to workshops and pretty much get talked to, haha. I heard that last year was a success…and this year is supposed to be even better….so I will be the judge of that, once I  attend it tomorrow, and I’ll share whatever is worth sharing with all you folks that care to read this. But the thing I’m looking forward to the most is, meeting people and just BEING AT UBC!!!!! 😀 😀 I’ve heard so many good things from the people at JumpStart, I CAN’T WAIT!

ACADEMICS

I’m slightly feeling a bit uneasy at the fact that university is going to be so much harder than high school…just hard in a slightly different perspective. I mean, personally, I didn’t really find high school THAT hard….sure there were times when I didn’t get concepts and stuff, but I always knew that there were people there to help me, and I knew all my teachers super well. And at university, they DO have help available, it’s just the fact that people don’t fully branch out and use the available resources. And this year, my goal is to get to know all my professors at UBC…and to use ‘Office Hours’ wisely. I have heard from many students that their biggest regret in first and second years was not getting to know their professors. It definitely seems intimidating…but if you want to do well, you’ll need to step out of your comfort zone…. the whole first year experience is going to be ‘getting out of my comfort zone.’ FUN. But I just have to SUCK IT UP….and surround myself with supportive people that know how to balance academics and socializing. 

IMAGINE DAY

I just got an email from my MUG leader…SO EXCITING!! Imagine day is just 8 days away!!!! 😀 My MUG leader sounds pretty nice, and easy going….says me, judging from an email. HA. But I pretty much got a lowdown of what exactly is going to happen on Imagine Day….I really like to know what to expect before going to something, it’s just the way I am. 😀 And I really don’t even know ANYONE that is in my group….sooo I guess I’ll be surprised once I go to the meeting place…and see 9 random faces.. YAY. I hope I have a decent group of people, it’d be quite nice.

SIXDAYSUNTILMOVEIN.

RandomRamblings: Awkward Moments, Bad Haircuts, Friends From High School.

Yeah, so I told myself repeatedly, that I would take a break and not do a post today. BUT. I just felt the need to. Blogging shan’t take over my life..whatevz.

AWKWARD MOMENTS

Sometimes…I feel as if I am QUEEN of awkward moments. Other times…I just laugh at people when they tell me stories of THEIR awkward moments. 😀 The most recent ‘awkward’ moment that I have been facing, quite frequently, is when I’m driving. I mean it’s not THAT awkward..but to an extent it makes me feel a bit self-conscious while I drive now. Every time I’m driving…there is always AT LEAST one person in another vehicle that smiles/waves at me…and I get extremely confused and linger on the thought of whether I knew them or not. Like, were they just being FRIENDLY and smiling at me? OR do I know them…? ‘Cuz if I knew them…then I’d feel bad for not acknowledging them. Same goes for when I’m just walking, and I pass someone that smiles at me….I somehow manage to get too distracted to even return a proper smile back at them…I feel so bad sometimes!! Usually I find that it’s old men that smile (as creepy as that sounds…I’m not trying to sound creepy AT ALL!!) …I guess they’re all happy and go lucky whenever they’re taking  a stroll? Haha. 😀

BAD HAIRCUTS

So yeah, I just got my hair cut recently…like a couple days ago. And I got like 2 inches off…as much as I hate to admit it, my hair is almost like a security blanket..I’m very attached to it. 😛 My hair IS pretty long, but 2 inches seemed like a lot to me, but I needed to get the ends a bit freshened up…frequent heat usage does not do good things for your hair. But yeah, I just LOVE having long hair. I remember back when I was a little kid, around 4-6…I always WANTED short hair. My hair would grow a little bit past my shoulders…and I’d immediately want it to be shorter. Then once I got to grade 7, I got my hair cut to just above my shoulders…it looked fine when it was styled properly, but at that time, I didn’t totally care. Then once I got to grade 9….my hair was about 3 inches below my shoulders..I never really used much heat on my hair back then, so my hair was ‘not the best looking thing’ ..partially wavy, partially straight, partially curly, I had it all haha. So then during the middle of grade 9, I got my hair cut….a little bit above my shoulders — WORST MOVE EVER. I still can’t get over the fact that my mom let me get my hair cut that short… I CAN NOT pull off short hair..AT ALL. But I partially blame the person that cut my hair, she didn’t know what she was doing. And now when I look back at pictures from grade 9…I almost cry a little. Then finally at the end of the summer after grade 9…I got a good hair straightener, and the future of my hair was looking a bit better. So ever since that horrid haircut in grade 9…I have been extremely attached to my hair…and never want it to look so awful again!!! >.< 

FRIENDS FROM HIGH SCHOOL

I don’t really know how much I believed people when they said that you only talk to like maybe 2-3 people from high school, once you graduate. I mean I knew that there were some people that I probably would completely lose contact with/high school was as far as it would go with our friendship. Although I’m not going to lie, there were a couple people that I actually got CLOSER with during the last few weeks of grade 12/beginning of summer(this came as a total surprise to me). But what I’m trying to say is that I DID know that there were a few people that I would NOT lose contact with, and that I thought I’d just stay friends with as long as possible. To a certain degree, I’m still quite good friends with the people I KNEW I’d stay friends with….but then there are other people that I thought ‘meh, it’ll probably go on…we’ll see.’ <— yeah, about that….I said that about this one friendship I had with someone….it was SUCH an on and off friendship for like 5 years….and now I don’t think I’ve talked to them in like 2-3 weeks…and that’s quite a large period of time..usually we’re always texting/facebooking each other. And I think that whatever happens is for the best…and if there is something there, then it’ll work out, if not, oh well…MOVING ON WITH MY LIFE. I mean ‘real’ friends that want to maintain their relationship with you after high school…they’ll put in effort on their side, otherwise, it’s just not meant to be. Not saying that you should shun people that you ‘used’ to be friends with from your life forever or anything, for the most part, if you were pretty close in high school, they still ‘care’ about you, it’s just that you’ve probably drifted from each other from not seeing each other DAILY. But you just have to learn that not everyone will ALWAYS be with you..and sometimes you just have to let things work out for themselves. Life is about moving forward, and moving on from the past, and sometimes you can take some things from the past, but not all of it. 🙂

What to buy for university residence – UBC

VANIER + TOTEM

WHAT YOUR ROOM COMES WITH:

So it’s pretty basic what you get in your room…

• bed -XL twin size mattress pad + pillow (XL twin size – dimensions of mattress =39″ wide x 80″ long)  …and it’d PROBABLY be ‘nicer’ to buy your own pillow, just for comforts sake, but you don’t HAVE to. Personally, I’d rather just bring my own pillow, but it’s really up to your own personal preference.
• desk
• chair ….maybe bring a throw or cushion or something to make your chair more ‘comfortable’ ? haha
• bookshelf (not very BIG)
• a lamp
• there is internet in dorms, but it’s not wi-fi, so you’d need to bring an ethernet cord.
• one phone outlet, so if you really wanted to, you could have a landline in your room….but cell phones are much more practical.
• a trashcan
  

WHERE TO BUY STUFF FOR YOUR ROOM:

IKEA- http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/   – reasonable prices, and there is an IKEA trip from UBC on Monday, September 5th. 

BED BATH & BEYOND – http://www.bedbathandbeyond.ca/default.asp?  – they sell XL twin size linens!!! And they have a pretty good selection of other dorm decorating things…and everything you need for university.

FUTURESHOP/BEST BUY/COSTCO/STAPLES – these are all places that sell electronic appliances(as well as other things).

THINGS THAT I WILL BE BRINGING FOR MY ROOM:

• Linens + Pillow(s) (duuuh)
• Storage boxes….you have to try to MAXIMIZE the small bit of space you get, so any type of storage equipment is a MUST
• Slim hangers + other closet organization things
• Mini fridge
• Whiteboard/Corkboard (probably won’t be able to hang it up….but we’ll see)
• Blender
• Printer (having your own personal printer is a REEEEAALLLYYYY good idea) …and if you have a roommate…you have the option of sharing one….if your roommate helps with the costs (ink + paper)
• iPod speakers
• Alarm Clock
• Powerbar( there are about 7-8 outlets per room…so it’d be a good idea to just bring a powerbar as an extra)
• Extension cord
• Ethernet cord
• Flashlight
• Wall decor things (don’t want my room to look too dreary or drab)
• Photos
  
• Laundry bag/hamper

….and I think that’s it for now…..I’m still in the process of making my list though…but those are a few of the things to give you an idea. 🙂  (knowing me I probably forgot to mention something ‘important’ hahaha)

Also,  a suggestion, wait until you actually SEE your room IN PERSON, before you go out and buy super extravagant things. 😛 One thing you really want to avoid is a cluttered up room. And for those of you who have not for some reason or another been able to get in contact with your roommate….be careful of having too much stuff between the two of you…so really, just wait, if you can. And for those of you who have singles….if you clutter up your room with too much stuff, then it’s your own mess to deal with. 😀

UBC Totem Park: New Dorms, why are you so classy?

So I just saw these pictures on the Ubyssey website…and I am SO blown away by them… screw the distance to civilization if you’re in Totem, but these rooms are legit stuff. And the LARGE single room…I swear, it’s almost bigger than my own bedroom at home(and my bedroom is not tiny or anything)!! And the bathrooms look OH SO CLEAN (for now). As content as I am with my residence right now…..I am seriously in love with the new dorms. Once room assignments were out…I didn’t really care much for the new dorms…but now that I’ve seen the pictures…OHMYGOOOOOODNESS. LOOKK!! –> http://ubyssey.ca/news/totem-gets-classy-with-new-buildings0823/

SERIOUSLY. CHECK THOSE OUT.

New BC Provincial Exam ‘Regulations’ 2011/2012

Soooo I ran across this article…it’s about the provincial exams BC students have to write.

So in short…there are no more ‘optional’ exams because BC universities don’t even look at them (unless they’re higher than your grade 12 class average). The government decided to do this because not very many students were getting scholarships, so the government’s ‘scholarship bank’ has unclaimed scholarship money. So now with this ‘new’ thing….scholarships are based on the MANDATORY exams, which is supposed to mean that more students are going to get the scholarships. The link below also explains which exams are MANDATORY. Grade 12 : English 12, Communications 12, French 12. [EDIT]: So there are actually really just 5 exams that you have to take between gr 10-12..and the scholarships are based on those : http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/awards/scholarships/scholarship_faq.htm

SO HERE IS THE LINK TO CHECK OUT MORE ON THIS ARTICLE(‘cuz my explanation of it really sucks) 😛 

 

 

http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2011EDUC0066-001023.htm

 

 

 

 

 

ohh haiii. rain, won’t you stay for a little while ? Rest In Peace Jack Layton.

AH YES. I never thought I’d ever hear myself say this…but….it’s raining…and I LOVE it!!! It honestly has not rained in the longest time !!!! It’s like they say ‘distance makes the heart grow fonder.’ And now it’s raining pretty hard. This rain just reminds me of Fall weather…and how the new school year is QUICKLY approaching. Anyways. I was actually out for a bit this morning…. and I will say that I really didn’t like it. It’s so much nicer to be inside all cozy and stuff while it’s raining outside. And my friend and I are going to have a nice little movie night together…staying all warm inside, eating junk food til we get sick from it. OH HAPPY DAY. 😀 I mean, hey, we gotta live a little, don’t we.

 

And also, my heart and prayers go out to Jack Layton’s family. That letter that he wrote was definitely something. And coming from me, that’s saying a lot because I am NOT one for politics, I really have no interest in it whatsoever. But really, Jack Layton went through a lot, and unfortunately he did not win the battle this time. RIP Jack Layton.

My UBC Booklist 2011

Sooo these are the books that I will be needing for my First Semester/Term at UBC.

Courses that I am taking this term: Biol 112, Chem 121, Math 100, and Engl 110.

And I will just be mentioning the REQUIRED books. And I’m listing the prices right off of the UBC Bookstore website.  

N= New Price

U= Used Price

R= Rental Price

BOOKS

BIOL 112 –

• Iclicker – N: $41.3o ~ U: $31.00 ~ R: $18.90 …(remember iclickers can be used throughout your university education…so it may be a better choice for you to either buy a new one, or a used one, instead of renting it.)

• PKG 6 PC CUSTOM BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2ND EDN VOL 1, 2 & 3 W/ MASTERINGBIOLOGY ACCESS CODE & SHORT GD TO WRITING  – N: $159.75 (this is the only price listed on the website) ..and make sure that you get the RIGHT edition…it’d be pretty helpful to do that. 😛

CHEM 121- 

• Iclicker – (check above)

• Chem 121/123 Lab Manual – this must be bought NEW : $35.20 

• Custom Chemistry 121 Integrated Resources Pkg (Chirp) – N: $50.65 (so this one is a custom edition…and I wouldn’t be able to tell you whether you can buy this one off of older students or not….after all, I am just a first year 😛 )

MATH 100- 

• Pkg 2 Pc Calculus Early Transcendentals 7/E W/ Solutions Manual Single Variable – N: $150.35 (So yeah…this one is the 7th edition, in case you didn’t catch that.)
• OPTIONAL: Study Guide for Calculus Single Variable Early Transcendentals 7/E – N: $72.50 R: $32.65 (I know I said I wouldn’t put up the optional stuff…but this MIGHT be somewhat helpful? Maaaybe.. )

ENGL 110 – (this one varies depending on who your instructor is, mine is CHAPMAN)

• Cloud Atlas – N: $24.95
• Tracks – N: $17.99 ~ U: $13.50
• Sturdy Oak – N: $21.20
• Dracula – N: $16.40
• Turn of the Screw & In the Cage: N: $ 7.95
• Crisp – N: $17.95 

RandomRamblings: Shopping Excites Me! + UBC Blogs

SHOPPING!

Just the thought of shopping excites me…..is that bad? I have never been overly excited to go linen shopping…well the only thing that excites me about it is the colourful stuff. BUT I am excited this time, to go shopping for linen for…my bed in residence. I’ve even picked out a theme of colours…I sound super cool. I think I’m going early this week to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I wish I had some gift card for that place…I could seriously go crazy.

Another thing….Bath & Body Works… I absolutely ADORE that place…the hand sanitizers there (5 for $5) are amazing. They just smell FANTASTIC, and I am just in love with them. Everything in that store smells amazing!! Omigooodnesss. Seriously, once I’m at UBC, I am definitely going to Bath & Body Works (there are none very close to mee 😦 ).

Clothes shopping…I still have some little bits of shopping left to do. Gotta make sure I stay warm and don’t catch PNEUMONIA while I’m at UBC…. 8am classes, morning breeze from the water. UGH. I probably make it sound worse than it is…YUP YUP.

Room accessories ! This I need to talk over with my roommate, because we both decided, some things we really don’t need two of..so we’re going to be planning all that stuff REAL soon.

UBC BLOGS

So I visited the UBC blog page..and it made me think about having another blog….I’m so indecisive about this…maybe have one strictly about UBC/everyday life at UBC (which would be on the ubc blog thing) …and then keep this one for just other random stuff…. maybe I should just look into the UBC one a tad bit more… bleeh. 😛

 

UHM. 14 days until move in. :O