One month down, seven to go……. As of tomorrow I will have been a Vancouver resident and student for one month exactly which has somewhat taken me by surprise. I still feel as if I’m settling in and getting to grips with all that this place has to offer. For example today I went to my first rugby training with the UBC Thunderbirds and on Thursday I’ll be at the new members meeting for the Varsity Outdoors Club. So I guess in some ways it seems like I’ve got off to a pretty slow start.
Academically, this is definitely not the case, in the last week I’ve had three exams, one assignment and an assessed tutorial. The assessment has given me a chance to see how my grades might compare between here and back in Edinburgh, so when I was initially delighted to see 73% on one of my papers (an A grade back in the world of Kings Buildings and George Square) I later learned that this translates to a measly B minus on the UBC campus. Ultimately this year is all about passing; the grades don’t count towards my degree classification so all the pressure rests on fourth year. Realistically I really need to get myself in to a working frame of mind or next year will be a disaster!
Anyway, back to more current events! Highlights of the last week include spotting my first Canadian celebrity. Dion, (Stéphane not Celine!) the Liberal party leader for Canada interrupted my cocktail drinking in a bar on campus to make a grand entrance after he had made an appearance at one of the university theatres as part of his campaign trail. There is a general election on October 14th so in theory I may have seen the future prime minister! By all accounts Vancouver has its fair share of visiting celebrities as it pretends to be other cities in various films such as X-men and Juno. Rumour has it that Julie Andrews and ‘The Rock’ are to be seen around at the moment, although what they’re doing in a film together no one knows.
Over the weekend I spent one day working then took advantage of the good weather on Sunday to hike up Grouse Mountain (Vancouver’s equivalent of Arthur’s Seat…. only 900m higher.) The “Grouse Grind”, as it is affectionately labelled, is a 2.9km trail which climbs 853 metres which basically equates to being a lot hard work and 2,830 stairs. I made it to the summit at 1,127metres in 90 minutes which by all accounts is about the average time of most mere mortals. For those who fit into the superhuman category, 24 minutes is apparently the time to beat. I arrived at the top and appreciated the stunning views of Vancouver before watching the sun set which was a truly memorable experience. I think it was the first time in my life I’ve ever heard a group of people applaud the sun as it disappeared behind the mountains.
The journey down on the Skyride cable car was equally as impressive as it provided an aerial view of Vancouver and all the city’s lights. After a day of being a tourist I arrived home immensely tired; needless to say the 7am alarm clock the following morning was not appreciated…. Welcome to week five!
