"We aren't at Aviation anymore"
Title was my response to seeing some of the local "Wildlife": a girl with shredded clothing (including jeans) and an obscenely fuzzy shoulder bag.
I have finally fled the country, dad and I left on the 31st at one in the morning (happy birthday!) and arrived at 9. That day was boring though, we just took care of some logistics (like getting a debit card), and had a glass of milk at the local tavern. Where the fun begins is the next day, September 1st. This was the day of the "International Student Welcome" (I made sure not to inform anyone that since I am Canadian citizen they were all paying more than me). I expected this orientation to be more of a "cultural assimilation" presentation, but they hardly told us anything about Canadian culture.
Let's start from the start (I hear that's a good place to start) where Dad had just dropped me off at this international thingy. So I wander in expecting everyone to be just as lost and confused as I am, but EVERYONE seemed to know somebody else. I ended up just wandering around with my little glass of water until I found a nice comfortable corner to lurk in. I think during this first half hour period of time I ended up talking to one guy from michigan, a from india, and three girls from the US who happened to notice where I was from (we all had name tags with our country).
That half hour conveniently ended and we all entered the lecture hall, where I expected the "cultural assimilation" speech. What this ended up being was actually a long speech on culture shock and being respectful of the fact that this culture is different. Seeing as my hometown was just across the puddle, I didn't find this presentation particularly helpful. (though I did meet the nice Japanese girl sitting next to me).
After another break we were put through the "how to manage your time at uvic" speech, which was mostly about study permits and work permits (stuff I didn't need as a citizen).
Lunch happened next, where I grabbed my meal and strategically placed myself in a perfect eating area with open places around me. Basically, I was trying to get people to come talk to me rather than me talking to them (aren't I clever). This was successful as I met two more people, a kind girl from Germany and a kid named Andrew from Oregon. Andrew and I actually have successful conversation and thus we spent the rest of this event with each other basically.
Next was the SCAVENGER HUNT, which was a rather simple hunt. Basically they forced us all to split into groups of six (andrew and I joined with two girls from singapore, a girl from china, and a guy from sweden), and then we went on the exciting scavenger hunt of finding buildings! They indicated to us what buildings to find, and we just had to use our map to find them... not too hard but actually rather helpful. Upon finding the buildings a volunteer would explain the building to us and then let us continue. Our team found all of the buildings except for the church (it was far away and we didn't feel like walking all that way).
We met again at the first persons house where a chieftain talked about the importance of family for natives (not quite sure how it applied to us, but it was a good story). We were then set free to go about our business, unless of course we had opted to go on the optional stuff (which I obviously did). Also, I met another nice girl (actually one of the three US girls from the 30 minute mingling) who was fun to talk to while we were waiting for the optional things to start.
The first optional thing was a photo bus tour, where the bus took us everywhere that my father had not only taken me to the night before, but has taken me to several times in the past. I managed to fall asleep on the bus (it was so darn comfy).
The next (and last) optional thing was dinner in chinatown. This was fun due to the people that andrew and I ended up sitting with. Besides the volunteer student (who was in the engineering program) everyone else at the table seemed to come from the same place and speak the same language. They were kind enough to speak english most of the time, but once they started cleaning out the beer bottles they sort of reverted back to their own language (by the hand gestures I believe they were discussing whales). I think each of them managed to down 2 drinks, and they were plotting to go out to a nearby bar for the rest of the night. I drank tea and respectfully decided to opt out of the bar trip.
I then left and wen back to the hotel, where dad showed me the fancy new awesomeface supah android phone that we had looked at for me to have in canada (so that I am not calling internationally just to inform my lab partner that I am on my way). This phone will be handy for when my prof decides last minute that he doesn't feel like teaching class that day (things like that happen).
So far my experiences of victoria have been supah awesome, but I haven't yet seen the inside of my dorm. That experience is reserved for tomorrow (as well as the blogalog that will follow).
As a note, driving halfway around the campus' circle road resulted in seeing approx. 50 rabbits and 3 deer.
I have finally fled the country, dad and I left on the 31st at one in the morning (happy birthday!) and arrived at 9. That day was boring though, we just took care of some logistics (like getting a debit card), and had a glass of milk at the local tavern. Where the fun begins is the next day, September 1st. This was the day of the "International Student Welcome" (I made sure not to inform anyone that since I am Canadian citizen they were all paying more than me). I expected this orientation to be more of a "cultural assimilation" presentation, but they hardly told us anything about Canadian culture.
Let's start from the start (I hear that's a good place to start) where Dad had just dropped me off at this international thingy. So I wander in expecting everyone to be just as lost and confused as I am, but EVERYONE seemed to know somebody else. I ended up just wandering around with my little glass of water until I found a nice comfortable corner to lurk in. I think during this first half hour period of time I ended up talking to one guy from michigan, a from india, and three girls from the US who happened to notice where I was from (we all had name tags with our country).
That half hour conveniently ended and we all entered the lecture hall, where I expected the "cultural assimilation" speech. What this ended up being was actually a long speech on culture shock and being respectful of the fact that this culture is different. Seeing as my hometown was just across the puddle, I didn't find this presentation particularly helpful. (though I did meet the nice Japanese girl sitting next to me).
After another break we were put through the "how to manage your time at uvic" speech, which was mostly about study permits and work permits (stuff I didn't need as a citizen).
Lunch happened next, where I grabbed my meal and strategically placed myself in a perfect eating area with open places around me. Basically, I was trying to get people to come talk to me rather than me talking to them (aren't I clever). This was successful as I met two more people, a kind girl from Germany and a kid named Andrew from Oregon. Andrew and I actually have successful conversation and thus we spent the rest of this event with each other basically.
Next was the SCAVENGER HUNT, which was a rather simple hunt. Basically they forced us all to split into groups of six (andrew and I joined with two girls from singapore, a girl from china, and a guy from sweden), and then we went on the exciting scavenger hunt of finding buildings! They indicated to us what buildings to find, and we just had to use our map to find them... not too hard but actually rather helpful. Upon finding the buildings a volunteer would explain the building to us and then let us continue. Our team found all of the buildings except for the church (it was far away and we didn't feel like walking all that way).
We met again at the first persons house where a chieftain talked about the importance of family for natives (not quite sure how it applied to us, but it was a good story). We were then set free to go about our business, unless of course we had opted to go on the optional stuff (which I obviously did). Also, I met another nice girl (actually one of the three US girls from the 30 minute mingling) who was fun to talk to while we were waiting for the optional things to start.
The first optional thing was a photo bus tour, where the bus took us everywhere that my father had not only taken me to the night before, but has taken me to several times in the past. I managed to fall asleep on the bus (it was so darn comfy).
The next (and last) optional thing was dinner in chinatown. This was fun due to the people that andrew and I ended up sitting with. Besides the volunteer student (who was in the engineering program) everyone else at the table seemed to come from the same place and speak the same language. They were kind enough to speak english most of the time, but once they started cleaning out the beer bottles they sort of reverted back to their own language (by the hand gestures I believe they were discussing whales). I think each of them managed to down 2 drinks, and they were plotting to go out to a nearby bar for the rest of the night. I drank tea and respectfully decided to opt out of the bar trip.
I then left and wen back to the hotel, where dad showed me the fancy new awesomeface supah android phone that we had looked at for me to have in canada (so that I am not calling internationally just to inform my lab partner that I am on my way). This phone will be handy for when my prof decides last minute that he doesn't feel like teaching class that day (things like that happen).
So far my experiences of victoria have been supah awesome, but I haven't yet seen the inside of my dorm. That experience is reserved for tomorrow (as well as the blogalog that will follow).
As a note, driving halfway around the campus' circle road resulted in seeing approx. 50 rabbits and 3 deer.
"by the hand gestures I believe they were discussing whales"
ReplyDeleteHahaha...I was so intensely reading this, and then as read that line I just bursted out laughing! Sill Kyle, you're are super awesome! Glad to know all is good! :)