My week has revolved around the University of British Columbia. This may seem like a very obvious statement to make as a student at UBC but as you read on I hope this may make a lot more sense!
In my conservation class this week our three hour tutorial (usually a pretty painful Tuesday afternoon sat in a classroom fuelled only by cookies) was spent at the UBC Farm. The farm is currently a controversial issue as it occupies land ripe for housing development which is clearly not a popular idea! Unfortunately the trip didn’t quite live up to my expectations of cows, sheep and pigs to admire as the only inhabitants were a few chickens, some bees and a lot of plants. Nevertheless it was preferable to being stuck in a room with no windows, especially given that it wasn’t raining! From the conservation perspective it was also pretty interesting. International exchange has certainly allowed me to learn about my subject from a localised point of view (as well as global!) many professors draw on examples and studies within North America and British Columbia in particular. In Edinburgh, Scottish flora and fauna would come up a lot in lectures and I feel like this year has given me a chance to focus on a different area for a change!
Later on in the week I was spending my sunny afternoons sat in the UBC Thunderbird Football (not soccer, football!) Stadium watching the UBC men’s varsity rugby team play University of California, Berkley in the home leg of their annual “world cup.” I feel like the naming of this event is rather misleading as it only ever involves two teams both from the same continent. However! It was quite possibly the most entertaining rugby match I’ve watched in a long time – the lead swapped three times in the last five minutes with UBC clinching victory 24-23 with a penalty in the 79th minute!!
The women’s varsity and junior varsity games on Saturday and Sunday were slightly less exciting although watchable as ever given that I know all the girls in yellow, white and blue on the pitch!
As well as rugby watching the rest of my week involved a bit of culture, an Irish jig and some more UBC varsity team supporting, this time at the Rowing. On Thursday one of my friends was in the UBC Concert Winds performance in the Chan Centre which was a lovely way to spend an evening (well, some of the evening - the rest was spent awake until the wee small hours writing an essay!) Friday night I ventured downtown with a fellow rugby-er and her visitors from the States to spend the evening skipping, dancing and drinking in the BEST Irish Pub called the Blarney Stone. I can’t believe it’s taken me seven months to get there!
It wasn’t too much of a drunken or late night as Saturday morning I was up at 7am to head down to the UBC Boathouse to support my friend and the rest of the varsity women in their race for the Brown Cup against the University of Victoria. From what I understand it’s the one race they haven’t won and the one race they want to win so I was very happy to see them a whopping twenty-three seconds ahead of the U Vic team. I was also rather pleased that I had successfully navigated myself and the bicycle I had borrowed safely along the course, and without accidental attempts to join the race in the water (it had been a minor concern as I left my house in my semi-awake state that morning.)
Later that evening I was back with the women’s rugby team to celebrate the end of the season with Kangaroo Court. This is an annual event to say goodbye to those players that are graduating and to ridicule any members that may have some something stupid during the season. Unfortunately it seems my declining a place on the varsity squad in order to go to Whistler on the weekend of my birthday was considered stupid and so the necessary jelly shots were taken.... There were far worse so I can’t complain really! When I got home I was up waiting for the celebrating and intoxicated rower to return from her night out. Once she got here I then spent the next hour laughing at her attempts to sober up and send an email. It was such a fun evening I started to realise how much I’m going to miss everyone when I go home in May.
Sunday morning was another early one as we were up at 6.30am all in the name of rowing again (!) as we listened to the commentary of the Boat race. As an Oxford girl, I was very happy with the result. My companion was less impressed as a supporter of the Cambridge team but differences aside I think we’ll still manage to retain our friendship!!
See! Concerts, classes, rugby, rowing..... It’s like living in a little UBC bubble and I love it!!!
