My road to Vancouver consisted of 26 hours of plane rides, over 45 hours cramped into a bus seat, and many, many rest stops at various Tim Hortons. The long journey started at the beginning of August, a full month before the fall semester started at the University of British Columbia. During this time, I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit so many incredible places that look just as breathtaking as they do on Instagram, to meet people from all over the globe, and to try as many Canadian delicacies as possible. Let me break it down for you: New York, Chicago, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebéc City, Montreal, Niagara Falls, Whistler, Sun Peaks, Calgary, Banff, Vernon, and, lastly, Vancouver. Spending a month racing across the United States and Canada may sound like a lot, but time has gone past like a whirlwind.
It’s been two weeks since I first stepped foot in the bustling city that I’ll call home for four months. After getting past the shock of how big and densely populated the city of Vancouver is, I came to realise that Auckland and Vancouver are fairly similar. Both cities are filled with large green spaces, are surrounded by forests, mountains and beaches, are places where strangers will walk past one another with a smile and a friendly “hello,” and experience different seasons all in one day.
However, there are some aspects of Canada that I’m still adjusting to. For starters, I can’t help but look the wrong way whenever I cross the road, and the additional tip and tax on top of marked prices make shopping and eating out relatively expensive. The biggest adjustment, though, is having a public transport system that actually shows up. That’s a win for Canada.
UBC is like one giant, closely-knit community. The campus takes over the entire Western tip of Vancouver and is over 400 hectares, surrounded by forest and ocean. The stunning campus comprises beautiful buildings, two museums and an art gallery, a botanic garden, a Japanese garden, a rose garden, a tree walk, a working farm, a massive stadium that hosts concerts and the ice rink for the 2010 Winter Olympics, multiple sports fields, a golf course, a (nudist) beach, and a gorgeous regional park that boasts almost 75km of hiking trails. Also, it only takes 30 minutes on the bus to get to Downtown Vancouver. It really is impossible to get bored around here.
The first two weeks of the semester have been chocker with events as well. All classes were cancelled on our first day for a massive orientation event and Clubs Fair. An entire street was closed down to showcase the stalls of over 400 different university clubs (including a Quidditch club and a very popular Taylor Swift club) and to walk away with an entire tote bag filled to the brim with free merch (the bag was free too, obviously). The freebies didn’t stop there. Every day over the past two weeks, someone will be giving away something, including UBC supporters shirts, coffee, cookies, burgers, and much more.
All of the exchange students at UBC were very quick to meet up with one another. Almost instantly, Whatsapp group chats of hundreds of people from all over the world formed to enable us to meet for different purposes: a hiking chat, a sports viewing chat, a running group, a parties and events chat… I could go on. Thanks to these chats, during my first week at UBC alone, I saw Stephen Sanchez’s concert on campus (which my friend Annalise won free tickets to and was nice enough to bring me along), attended a Vancouver Canadian’s baseball game, saw Orcas breach during a whale-watching cruise, went hiking twice, played volleyball on the beach, and watched the UBC Thunderbirds teams play soccer and American football. Thankfully, the first week was only syllabus week for our classes.
Speaking of classes, I’ve noticed a lot of differences in the way that UBC structures its classes in comparison to UoA, at least from a Law Faculty perspective. The classes are very small, with my largest comprising only twenty people. This makes it easy for the lectures to be more discussion-based and in more of a seminar style. The lecturers actively try to get to know you and to create a personable environment, with one of my lecturers bringing us snacks every week. However, that isn’t to say that the classes are easy and laid-back. Each of my courses consists of a three-hour long lecture once a week, which isn’t recorded, and a long list of readings. Most of my courses are assessed on a 100% final exam or a 5,000-word research essay. Needless to say, December will be busy.
I’m super excited to see what the next few months in Vancouver will bring. I’m eager to explore the city further, try new foods and hike as much as possible. I’m also looking forward to some cool upcoming events, including Homecoming, Fall Fair pie tastings, pumpkin patches, Halloween and Thanksgiving, the Grey’s Cup, and lots more. I can’t wait to share all of this with you.