Post Script

I should go to bed, but I’m on a roll.

Why do I always feel like writing when I should be sleeping?

Maybe the irresponsibility makes it all more fun.

First

It’s a disgustingly beautiful day here.

I just walked down to the beach and sat on a rock and looked out over Vancouver and the ocean.  It’s warm enough that I didn’t need a jacket, and the leaves were everywhere and even climbing the four hundred steps back up to the college wasn’t so bad.

Fall, I’m okay with you.

Holy October, Batman

I haven’t posted in so long!

So sorry.

Here are the highlights from the last few weeks.

1. Running Into Greg Hemmings
I surprised Greg by meeting him at a film screening downtown (thanks for the tip, Mom), and got to spend some time with him and his lovely baby Kaiya. It was so great to see a face from home! And then, of course, because basically life is like, “Here’s a present,” he ended up with an extra ticket to the festival closing night gala. Hmm, a fancy event where I get to dress up (cocktail), hang around near fancy people, and catch up on more news from home? Don’t mind if I do.

2. Vineyard Conference
I spent last weekend hanging out with the BC Vineyard folks at the west coast edition of the “Naturally Supernatural” conference. I got to give hugs to Gary and Joy Best, Beth Wood, and Monique Tute, so my life was complete. Also got in some great time with my new church folks (the Strathcona contingent of the North Langley Vineyard), which was two thumbs up. I’m really appreciating having a church family here.

3. Hanging With Program People
I’m slowly getting to know the people in my program, who happen to be a really great group. We get along well, so have had some fun evenings of Wii, writing five-minute stories, and being pals. I’m a fan.

4. U2
Yep, you read it right. U-freaking-2! Last night! Of course, in true Vancouver style it was raining, so by the time I found my way to the stadium (without getting lost, I might add), my feet were wet up to my ankles. But The Black Eyed Peas opened, and then there was Bono! And The Edge! And the other guys that nobody remembers their names but everybody knows they’re stinking amazing! *Hyperventilates*

 

Yeah, that's pretty much Bono.

 

Okay. I’m okay now.

And coming up I’ve got some fun stuff, including, in no particular order:

1. Halloween (I’m going as a Freudian Slip).
2. Regina Spektor concert.
3. Lights concert.
4. Various poetry readings (attending, not reading).
5. Winter gala, Green College style.
6. Heading home for a month on December 7th!

My life is so full here. I’m so rich.

Miss you all.

Thanksgiving

It’s been a long weekend here at Green College.  I hate to say it, but I’m actually starting to get bored – I need to have classes to keep me properly petrified about school.

That said, it’s been a good week.  I discovered the Pacific Centre Mall downtown (oh dear), and spent hours on two separate occasions picking up clothes I couldn’t buy at home (see: Nine West shoes).  There was a poetry reading on Friday evening that was pretty mind-blowing, and I finished knitting a scarf from the fantastically pretty yarn I bought.  Complete with tassels.  The only trick is that the yarn bleeds a bit, so I might end up with a blue neck.  May need to rinse it first.

I think my next goal is going to be getting active and getting off campus.  They’ve got aquasize classes at the university pool that are free for students, so Wednesday evening I think my roommate and I are going to check one out.  And I need to be more determined about leaving my room – I’ve been curled up with movies a lot of this weekend.  But Harry Potter was calling, and sometimes you just have to answer.

So if I were to sum up my life at this present moment in history, I would say that I may have plateaued a bit and need to keep pushing forward.  No point getting comfortable – there’s way more to see and do.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Busy

Um… how is it October?

I’m finding myself busier than a one-armed paper hanger (as my mother would say) these days. I handed in my big scholarship application yesterday (although I put the pages in the wrong order, so I’m reprinting them today and handing them to the department secretary, bless her), and I’m finishing up my very first screenplay assignment for 2:00. We had to write a four-page screenplay adaptation of a couple scenes in A Christmas Carol – when Scrooge comes home to find Marley’s face on his door, and then Marley appears in ghost form.  Lesson learned: screenplay is FUN.

It seems like the Vancouver rain has begun. I’ve been feeling exhausted and head-achy lately, and someone told me today it’s just an adjustment to the air pressure or something that lots of people go through, so that’s a relief. I thought I was dying.

My Editing and Managing a Literary Magazine class is going well – we met today to discuss cover layout (I’m on the design team). Cool stuff.

I bought the most gorgeous yarn (found a yarn store – hooray!) and am knitting myself a scarf. Learned how to do yarn-overs, which is just endless amounts of joy.

SO HAPPY for friend Jen, who got an apartment back home and is moving today. Yay for Jens! Yay for apartments!

I miss my Mom.

I need to get back at it, but if you’re from New Brunswick and I know you, I’m probably missing you. Hope all is well.

Happy Thursday.

Phone

I now have a BC number.  If you need it, feel free to let me know.  I have unlimited texting within North America.  :)

Rest

It’s a lazy Sunday here in Vancouver.  I should go get groceries, but I’m so comfortable and warm and unbothered.

It’s been a good third week of UBCness.  I’m settled in to the point that I can chill out with a movie and have it be restful, which is especially handy after all the running around of this week.  I attended a poetry reading, a program orientation, a residence welcome dinner and party, four classes, a SSHRC (grant) meeting, and had a girls’ night out to see “Bright Star,” all in the span of about five days.  Inactive I am not.

A week from tomorrow the big grant application is due, so I’m sure I’ll be chipping away at my proposal all week – then I’ll actually get to do the work I came here to do!  It’s taking me time to adjust to the idea of getting to do something I really want to be doing.  Very strange.

I like it here.

Happy Sunday.

Week Two

It’s Thursday evening here in Green College, and I’ve wrapped up my first week of classes.  If last week was slow, this week was pretty lightening.

Things continue to go well.  So far I’ve had Fiction, Poetry, and Screenplay, and all the classes seem like they’re going to be a good time.  The Fiction and Poetry classes are mainly workshop-based, meaning the majority of time will be spent handing in and critiquing each others’ work.  I’ve had a bit of experience having my work hung out to dry, so I’m not too worried about the workshops – I’m here to learn.  My Screenplay class is actually an undergraduate course (the grad students without experience were encouraged to start at the bottom and work their way up), so there are about ninety people in the class – it’s weird going from workshops of fifteen to a crowd of a hundred.  Today we were shown a couple early silent films, circa 1915, the prof’s point being that you don’t need dialogue to tell a story.  Which is good, since dialogue isn’t my forté anyway.

Aside from class, I’m starting to feel settled in, and I’m getting to know my roommate Natalie, who is also in the Creative Writing program.  I’ve made a couple forays into Vancouver for groceries (mmm, granola bars), church (tried a couple, will probably try a few more), and house items (HomeSense! Glee!), and the bus system is really manageable.  Hooray for effective transit!  I have a feeling the time is going to go by rather quickly.  My main goal/challenge is to make sure I’m writing every day and being purposeful with my time – the master’s level is very self-motivational, and I want to be sure I’m behaving like a proper writer.  I’m also working on a major scholarship application for the end of the month, so keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.

So I know it’s boring to keep saying that things are good, but things are good!  I’d like to see more of the city, definitely, but I’ll hopefully get into a schedule where I can get my adventures slotted in between my actual work.  I’ve got lots of time.

Missing all the folks back home.  If you want to visit, there are cots here.

Happy Thursday.

Friday in Vancouver

Day four. I can’t believe it’s Friday already. And I still can’t sleep past 6:30.

What’s been going on: Wednesday Matt and Laura picked me up and took me out for the day. We visited Granville Island, which is an arts/shop community that features a market and art galleries and a great view of the ocean, which apparently cuts into Vancouver. The space used to be some sort of industry, so all the buildings look like cheerfully-painted warehouses. Very cool. I bought local strawberries and had butter chicken from one of the stalls in the market.

We spent some time hunting down a Wal-Mart (hooray for laundry baskets and irons), then went to Lighthouse Park, which features, surprisingly, a lighthouse, and lots of nature trails. The trees here are SO tall – I can’t get over it. I was fairly un-athletic,  so by the end of it I was tired and cranky, but I got over it. The place was certainly beautiful. Oh, and I put my toes in the Pacific for the first time!! Fun!

Our next destination was Anton’s Pasta, an apparently famous Italian restaurant just outside of technical Vancouver. To get there, we drove down Hastings Street – the place everyone warns you about before you move to Vancouver. It was the most poverty I’ve seen outside of Africa. The few hardest-hit blocks are a ghetto – boarded up buildings and graffiti, and people everywhere – physically disabled, dirty, and broken-looking. I want to go back.

We found Anton’s, which had a line that stretched down the street a-ways. Our wait was an hour, but so worth it – they give you SO much food, and I had fettucini alfredo that was the best thing ever. The place wasn’t big, but I now feel like an insider, knowing where the best Italian restaurant is. I had leftovers, but couldn’t figure out how to get into the common kitchen to put my food in the fridge (turns out I have a key), so it went to waste. This is very, very sad.

Yesterday was orientation from 9:00 to about 4:00. The morning sessions were in the Chan Centre for the Arts, which is a round, cement-looking building on the outside and a breathtaking theatre on the inside. The stage and seats are light-coloured wood, and a huge circle of lights hang overhead. Made me want to do a play something awful. The sessions were a bit dry, but if I hadn’t gone I would have worried that I’d missed something.

They fed us a BBQ lunch, and I milled around with a couple people from Green College. It was such a relief to have familiar faces, even if we’re still mostly strangers to each other. The afternoon featured a selection of sessions, so I took in “Getting to Know Vancouver” (the girl was totally biased towards sports), “Surviving and Thriving: A Student’s Perspective” (I have learned that getting along with my supervisor is critical to success), and “Money Matters,” which I may have found more stressful than helpful. Big scholarship applications are coming up. I’ve got no time to sit around being lazy.

I hung around with a Greenie (Green College resident) named Rhoda, and after the sessions we wandered around campus. It was my first time seeing any of the campus, and it’s SO beautiful – like a small, friendly city. The bookstore is basically a a mall – I’m planning on going back this morning to get my UBC Card and textbooks. We found “The Village” where there are some shops, so I don’t think I’ll starve over the weekend, and I now know where my program buildings are located. Very handy.

Over supper I met more people (as I imagine will be happening for the next few weeks), and one of them was a second-year Creative Writing student, and also editor for the university’s literary magazine Prism. It was such a relief to talk to someone in the program!! And it sounds like everything I was looking for. I’m a little excited to start class – I want to do well. I can’t believe I get to study something I actually like doing (although check back with me in a couple months).

After supper the Welcome Committee held a scavenger hunt for the newbies, and everything was pretty new and useful to me, since I hadn’t had much time to explore beforehand. The college is so stunning – kind of like a posh family camp in Vermont or something, except with some England and West Coast thrown in. I love it. We all ended up in the common kitchen (my team came last), and I got to spend a bit more time getting to know people. It feels like it might someday feel like home here. I’m not anxious much, and I’m not really even bothered by all the meeting people (which is definitely not my default setting). I’m trusting that I’ll have friends eventually, and we all have our newness and dorkness (we are graduate students, after all) in common.

Which brings me to today. I’m going to go get ready for a wander around campus – I tried to make myself sleep in, but I can’t manage it. I hope I don’t look all haggard in my id photo.

It feels right to be here. I can rest easy in that feeling.

Love and miss the home peoples.

Friday, here I come!

Arriving

I’m here! It happens to be 6:55 in the morning, but hey, I’m here!

Yesterday was an incredible day. We got up at 4:00 to head to the airport, where Jen and Robin met us (love you guys!) before my flight at 6:00. It worked out that a girl I knew from high school was headed to Vancouver on the same flights, so we got to sit together on the first leg of the trip – nice, because I didn’t have any time to be lonely. We had a quick stop in Montreal to change planes and get some Tims before the five hour flight to Vancouver, where I sat in a window seat beside an empty chair and then an older German woman. I didn’t talk to her – I don’t communicate well during transport. But I watched “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” and kept myself amused while also getting pretty antsy by the end of it. I felt bad for a little kid across the aisle – as we deplaned he was throwing up, and his mom said they had six more hours of flying. Poor little guy. (Note I did not go running and screaming from vomit – be very proud.)

So then I was in Vancouver airport, and met my friends Matt and Laura. They were SO amazing to pick me up – with three large suitcases it would have been a nightmare to try and get a shuttle. We zoomed around what I was told is the Richmond area, hit up a Shoppers (shampoo! yay!) and stopped in at Ikea where I did very well at both restraining myself and picking up some items – a duvet and cover, pillows, and a really cute ironing board with purple flowers on it. I need to get an iron – after flying I look like the queen of wrinkles.

Then we drove through some city – lots of kind of stubby, sandy-coloured apartment buildings, and then down a beautiful road with these mansions I can hardly describe – kind of mediterranean – and suddenly we were in UBC. It’s very green. I haven’t seen much of it yet, so more on that later.

We found Green College, and the next few minutes were…I keep using the word incredible, but it’s 7:00 in the morning, so I think I can be excused. The college is a grouping of several-story sort of rustic English looking buildings around a small courtyard area that looks like a nature trail. The trees are so tall! Then there is the building where dinner is held (I’ve forgotten the name), which has long tables and a beamed ceiling and is gorgeous, and then a garden out back with trees and benches and is beyond words. I met one of the ladies I’ve been e-mail over the past few months, got my keys, and we went to check out my dorm.

It turns out I’ve been assigned to one of the split-level dorms, and it’s so much more amazing than I thought it would be. There’s a small sitting area when you first come in, the bathroom, and then a set of stairs that takes you to the two dorm rooms (I don’t have a roommate yet, but I’m hoping I’ll like her when she gets here). It’s very bright and happy and I can see myself being at home here.

At this point in my day Matt and Laura left me to unpack, so I got settled in (need coat hangers), and met Nathan, who was to take me to supper to introduce me around as a newby. At this point in the afternoon I was getting pretty exhausted, but I got my computer hooked up (internet, yay!) and took a shower in time for supper. The dining room is gorgeous, and the food was good, although at this point to me it was 10:30 at night and I really wasn’t sure I wanted to eat. I met a girl from Nova Scotia, a few Americans, and a girl from Montreal – it’s interesting because everyone is in very different programs, so I was sitting at a table with a theatre major, a mathematician, and two environmental historians (or something like that). Then they started talking phd thesis topics, and I had to call it a night. I only had enough energy to concentrate on not falling into my dinner tray.

I curled up in my room with a book and made it to 9:00 before I had to pass out. So I figure sleeping till 6:30 is pretty good, and I’m hoping it won’t take me long to get sorted out.

Today Matt and Laura are coming to pick me up at 10:00 (bless ‘em!) and we’re going to adventure. A little more shopping, I think, and a trip to some park or something that they know. I’m excited to see more. I feel like I can’t open my eyeballs wide enough to take in everything.

So I’m doing well. I need to figure out things like laundry and the common kitchen (which is great!), but I know where to get breakfast and that my shower works. I’ve got a to-do list that’s fairly extensive, but it will all get done. Today I will adventure, and then tomorrow is a day of graduate orientation. I need to learn my way around campus.

I’ve had a couple rounds of homesickness, but I’m fighting them off by thinking that maybe someday I’ll be able to have friends visit and show them around this gorgeous place. It’s incredible.

I’ve written a novel, so I’m going to stop for now. But I miss you all.

UBC, here I come.