Today after class (first real day of lectures!) I met a girl named Godot who just came from China and was looking for her ECON 101 class. We conversed in Mandarin and English and walked around campus looking for her classroom. She was cute. But I could see her dilemma, because I often found myself in the same dilemma on the great U of BC campus.

Let’s talk more about the UBC after you hit that jump =D.

UBC is pretty massive. A few things on campus remind me of the uC, like the pumping music that’s around during frosh week, the ridiculous amounts of first years all in the same-coloured t-shirt and the yelling barkers who get you to sign up for the best student deal ever. Then there’s this too:

I guess the goddess of freedom sure gets around. And of course, with Vancouver’s more temperate weather (I gotta face it, if Calgary’s weather were mood swings our city would need some sort of counseling) there are a lot more outdoor things going on, like mini farmers’ markets.

There’s a running fountain that stands almost immediately in front of the Faculty of Education’s building and it’s a popular place for lunch time. Except for during this picture, because I took this while exploring with Tika before the term even began. We ate a free lunch in front of the fountain because we pretended to be froshies (well, we are first years) and got a free lunch and drink for our dramatic efforts.

The buildings themselves and the architecture campus are also real nice to look at even when I’m lost, which is a relief, because I’ve been getting slightly lost quite often these past few days.

Small things about attending the UBC also amuse me, like how their buses have racks for bikes, or how the Teacher Education Office (TEO) has a picture of a church overlapping an Indian crest overlapping the Nicene Creed written in Latin (actually kinda comforting to have it there), or how the free agendas look like graphic novels or how a statue of King George I hangs out behind a few buildings.

Man, even the graffiti on campus looks classy.

I thought I could complain maybe about the long line-ups (because, you know, UBC has so many more students than the uC) but even that moved along pretty fast. I was impressed, because I took this picture when I was maybe halfway through the line and I was at the front probably within ten minutes or less.

So yeah, attending the UBC campus is pretty great, and I’m loving lots of it. Every hour that I spend on the bus though, thoughts of uC and home still come up though, and I find myself just missing people. I guess that’s what first week is like for a (somewhat) first-year.

Hello, Vancouver. I’m a Calgarian.