Oct 2006

Week 5 was really about two things. On Tuesday we held our Exchange Fair at the SUB. Basically this was about selling the whole ‘exchange’ thing and telling people to come to Australia. Seriously – our country sells itself! All we had to do was mention Australia and people were so positive! Made me kinda proud even – which is unusual! We were given lots of magnets and brochures etc. from the Consulate so that was awesome – and people loved the plush koalas etc.! Always a winner! In fact, we were voted as the third best stall there!

The other thing (and far more important really) was my family coming to visit! It’s been AGES since I’d seen ‘em (July 2 to be exact) and I really wanted to show them Vancity! We had dinner together every night and with them I met Norman and Anne (my 2nd uncle and aunt I believe), Mel (my 2nd cousin), Rena (my grandmother’s sister) and saw Susan again. Being Canadian Thanksgiving weekend too we had a proper family reunion dinner (as one is meant to be) at Mel’s place.

It was great being a tourist in my own city – we did so much too because the weather was perfect. We visited (and eat at) Granville Island, Gastown, Chinatown, Downtown Eastside, Yaletown and along the Seawall to Stanley Park (seeing the Push for a Cure skateboarders reach Vancouver too). Most of that was spent cycling – the ultimate Van pastime! Flis even came with us to watch some Canadian Football – the Shrum Bowl XXIX – which UBC won convincingly! Although neither of us really got into the game, the atmosphere was great (despite it being so one-sided). UBC beat SFU (the other college in Greater Vancouver) 41-6.

They even found the best places for coffee and cheesecake in the city – Trees on Granville and Caffe Artigiano at Hornby & Robson. With Norman and Anne we also went to an awesome seafood restaurant near Stanley Park called The Boat House, where I had my first-ever fresh salmon steak (i.e. not farmed). Wow, was it amazing! I never expected there to be such a difference!

All too soon it was over and they flew off to their next destination – Los Angeles – to see my cousins. Bye guys!

Week 4 began as I think all weeks here at UBC will – with laundry on a Monday. As I (essentially) have the day off (except for a 2hr class in the evening) I tend to use it to finish off all the stuff I should have done on the weekend. So very similar to back home then! Tuesday saw my first assignment due, ‘cept it wasn’t a real assignment. It was just a POLI321 reflection piece. At least it went well!

On Wed the fun really began, as a group of us (Chris, Maybelle, Lauren, Dheera, Claire and I) decided to do the Grouse Grind. The Grind is essentially a 1.5km hike up Grouse Mountain. I think, if memory serves me correctly, it’s a 700m rise down in 1.5km. So basically straight up. And god it’s tiring. It took us over 2hrs to do, although it really was worth it. The weather was perfect and the view was wicked. Once we had got up there though all we really wanted to do was sit for hours and not move! We were even tempted to stay for the cheesy woodchopping show just to avoid moving again! I did have excellent sushi and crap bubble tea though, so there was some consolation! Oh, and we rode the SeaBus across to North Van. The SeaBus is a fancy name for a ferry, but unlike our wonderful Sydney ones, this one has one route, does it every 15mins all day and doesn’t crash! Sounds good, doesn’t it?!

Alas that was not to be, as Wednesday was also the day The Presets were in town. Again, in my quest to not hang with the Aussies, what am I doing? Going to see a Melbournian band with a bunch of Aussies!!! They did put on an excellent show, however, and the DJ set afterwards was wicked too. I miss Aus music!

Thursday was mainly spent in class and doing random stuff. Not much to report.

Friday was awesome – it’s another of my days off and the weather was great. In the morning I met with a bunch of Aussies to work out our plan of attack for the Exchange Fair and the Australia booth. We exchanged tacky souvenirs that we’d all brought and designed an awesome poster. Looks like it’s going to be fun!

That afternoon, Amanda, Daniel, Hanneke and I headed down to Wreck Beach for one last time before summer-like weather ends and went trekking around campus looking for things to do. We ended up at the bouncy bushes (behind Henry Angus) which are so thick that you can stand on them and not sink or break the branches. Also did the echo rock again. Great fun!

That night, however, was less successful as Claire and I attempted to enter the Frog & Firkin to see the AFL final. It was full and so we ended up at the IGA bumming around. Had an awesome time rescuing a very drunk Natasha from the depths of Fairview . Remember that, Tash??!

Saturday continued the fun with the actual Day of the Longboat competition. We capsized in the first race (at a very chilly 9am), earning us our official team name: Team Capsize! We managed to score McDonalds vouchers and some hard-earned time in the Jacuzzi though, so there was some consolation. We came back in the afternoon to come 3rd in our 2nd race, however, so go Team Capsize!

Saturday night was the first (of hopefully many) Gage E13B Party. It had an Aussie theme (which was only adhered to by some of the attendees – although seeing Clayton in hot pants more than made up for it!), and was SO much fun. We had emptied out our common area and crammed about 40-50 people in the space. The music was wicked and everyone (as far as we know) had a great time! Our wall got a lot of attention too, which was great! Personally, I got very very intoxicated and ended up at Mahoneys with Chris and others before crashing at 1am! AWESOME night!

Sunday was the first day of October and was spent tidying up the place and engaging in some very important R&R. I think I watched some Eddie Izzard and an Enron doco that Clayton kept on recommending. It’s good stuff – I think it’s called The Most Important Guys In The Room (or similar).