// I am UBC.

Yesterday was one heck of a day. I woke up early and got to the bus stop in time to catch the 480. Matt Force, Jin and Olena were at the bus stop so I was chatting with them a bit. Olena and I stood the whole time on the bus and man, that bus is crowded. I gotta find a better way to bus to school. Then I had to walk a bit to find my meeting place for Imagine UBC. It's UBC's first day orientation program, mandatory for all first years. It's apparently the biggest event of its kind in Canada. Wow.

Anyway, my MUG leader (MUG = My Undergraduate Group) was a girl named Tia from Sydney, BC (on the island, not the Australian one) and she's super rad. She actually knew a couple people that I used to camp with! Anyway, we had our morning tour which ended at the Chan Centre. There, all the Arts students sat in for a presentation by Dr. Nancy Gallini (our dean) and Dave Classen (president of the Arts Undergraduate Society). It was great! Then we went to a student success workshop, which was really more of a Q&A with the profs in the Foundations program.

Finally! We went to the pep rally! Imagine a university sized gym, filled with students all over the bleachers and the floor. It was crazy! So loud! And so much yelling! Each faculty has their own cheer and ours is something like, "We're loud! We're proud! We take up half the crowd! Bigger is better! Arts kicks ass!" It was funny. Forestry's cheer goes long the lines of... "Wood is good." HAHA. Apparently, Foresty, Engineering, and Science faculties are mortal enemies of the Arts faculties and it's been that way for years!

After Imagine UBC was done, I cruised around campus for a while by myself, just trying to get familiar with the buildings and whatnot. SO MANY PEOPLE. Crazy! Then I ran into Emily and Curtis so I hung out with them for awhile. We played DDR in the SUB arcade to kill time! I got owned. Ouch. Anyway, I got Subway for dinner and then found Sam. We went to the UBC Improv show in the evening and oh my word. FUNNIEST STUFF I'VE SEEN IN SUCH A LONG TIME. "You ever love a woman, Cigarette Pack?" "You'll be my whale wife? For and entire whale's life?" Oh DEAR! There was one game they played where there were three improvisors and each of them had a different character/personality/illness and someone has to guess what the three of them are, so Sam and I were yelling out the greatest things. They took two of our suggestions for the three! I yelled that one guy should be Oprah and Sam yelled that this other girl should be addicted to soap operas. It was great. I am SO joining the UBC Improv Team.

Afterwards, Sam and I walked back to the SUB and the bus loop with a couple other people from her residence. They are SO funny. This guy Travis was telling all these jokes about Michael Jackson and gosh. He's hilarious. Then I ended up meeting with Curtis, Matt, Megan, and Shaunacey to bus back to Richmond together. Hurrah for not getting stuck alone!

All in all, it was a great day. I'm still a bit intimidated by the sheer size of the campus and classes but really. I love it. I love crowds. I love being busy. I love noise and being in the city and having things going on everywhere. It's great! I was surprised at how busy the campus was. I mean, I knew it was going to be busy, but I mean, it is BUSY. You guys gotta come see it. It's intense.

It just feels so good. I was sitting in the pep rally and the President of UBC was talking. She was saying how she knows every student is probably going through a million doubts but she reassured us that we made the right choice, that we belong at UBC. And it feels good. I mean, I've only had one official day of classes and one day of orientation, but I feel at home already.