A First Glimpse

A wise man once said

Happiness = Reality - Expectations

… and ever since hearing this, I find it to prove true over and over again. The major reason for the constant smile on my face whilst in Mexico probably wasn’t the overwhelmingly beautiful Reality of Juárez, but rather the complete absence of any Expectation.

Sadly, the opposite is true for Vancouver. Here, I’ve been able to experience some of the best time of my life four years ago. For one, I attended an easy-going language school to improve my English (which has only gotten worse ever since…) and possibly deceived myself into thinking that this was just about as challenging as life could get. For the other, I got really lucky with weather and people; I experienced not only a mild and sunny spring, but also spent it with friends that felt like family. I mean, just look at some of my impressions from back then:

No wonder, my Expectations for this second trip to Vancouver were immensely high. And it is mostly because of this, that my Happiness during the first couple of weeks here was slightly dampened.

To make this more clear, let me give you some examples.

Thanks to the American movie industry, we all know what campus life must look like, right? Well, turns out not all housing on campus shares the same visual appeal.

Expectation:

Reality:

Reality < Expectations

Next up, thinking of Vancouver before my exchange usually prompted some memory of jaw-dropping sunset colors getting reflected in the ocean-blue skyline of Downtown. Coming here in winter this time around, such an expectation was definitely hard to be met by reality… but not impossible.

Expectation:

Reality:

Reality = Expectations

Lastly, I vaguely remember a very bad winter back in the days. So bad that I regretted bringing along my snowboard gear and decided never to do so again. What a mistake!

Expectation:

Reality:

Reality > Expectations

Enough math, now! Let me tell you what actually happened during my time here so far.

My Vancouver 2.0 experienced was kicked-off by a massive New-Year’s-Eve house party. Hosted by a fellow Swiss student, almost all the prospective exchange students gathered at his house in the middle of a residential area at some point throughout the night. As the place got more and more crowded, I found myself absentmindedly turning knobs of the loudspeaker (is this already called DJing?). This resulted in me meeting “new” people weeks after the party only to find out, that we’ve been within 5 meters of one another before. Seems like I haven’t been fully aware of what exactly was going on at the Tribe House that night. The host’s words possibly describe best what happened: “The house got smashed!”.

The Tribe House – before it got smashed.

During the day-light hours – there aren’t many of them in January – I grabbed my two new friends from New Zealand and we went on a stroll around Stanley Park.

Meet James… …and Hamish.

I was never really sure, whether it was the effects of jet-lag or the actual temperature, but I was seriously freezing my butt off.

Me, wrapped in just about every piece of clothing I have brought along.

Soon enough, the courses at UBC – the actual reason for this trip – started off on the second of January (weird, right?). In the beginning I had a hard time deciding on a selected few courses and instead went to see around 10 different lectures. After a couple of days without lunch and near starvation, I finally made my mind up and settled with four courses that promised interesting insights. All the while also allowing for the typical exchange-student-life on the side.

Pedestrian traffic on campus during break time.

This last point proved to be especially important: From day one on, our spare time was taken care of by the Exchange Student Club. It began with a full week of daily night-time adventures from bar-crawling in the city to hockey games on campus. To this day they are hosting a bi-weekly fest on Thursday nights that never fails to ruin my sleep cycle.

Partying at the Pit with my crew.

How best to recover from an aching hangover? Why not take a plunge into the freezing ocean water? Inspired by one insane friend of mine, I have taken up this practice and soon got rewarded with a mind-numbing cold.

Please do not try at home!

This voluntary torture came to a temporary halt when vast amounts of snow have fallen recently. Believe it or not, but Vancouver might be the Canadian city worst prepared for such an event. Because of a mere 10 centimeters of overnight sugar coating, UBC canceled all classes as the buses didn’t make it to the campus anymore.

Back home in Switzerland, this amount of snow wouldn’t even make the bus driver nervous ;).

Seizing the opportunity, a huge snowball-fight took place when students returned to the campus the next day.

Snowball fight between hundreds of people – I can now cross that off my bucket list.

Speaking of snow: As a proud owner of a Whistler season pass, I have headed up there the very first weekend and repeated that routine for several times already. Still waiting for that major drop of powder, though!

Beautiful day on the slopes with beautiful people! Failed attempt in ski acrobatics.

Just like four years ago, I am once again on a hunt for the best food I can find in the city. Even better than four years ago, now I barely have to walk to get to Asian food heaven right on campus. I can tell for sure, that there has not been a disappointment in this regard so far!

Serving of my favorite Chinese at the international foodcourt on campus.

Living somewhat close to the American border, of course I couldn’t miss out on their live event of the year. Hence, I made my way to the Tribe House once again just to witness the possibly worst Superbowl in history. At least the catering there was outstanding!

Freaking Tom Brady – when does this guy finally retire?

Regarding the proximity to the US, there’s one more striking similarity that has to be mentioned here: the strong bond between students and their alma mater. Everyone is walking around with these typical college sweaters. The UBC-mania/marketing goes to such extent that the “bookstore” on campus actually much more resembles a clothing outlet. The height of this hysteria was certainly reached when the men’s hockey team carried out its Winter Classic with half the university cheering at the stadium.

Don’t stop believing they played. Unfortunately that didn’t keep the UBC’s Thunderbirds from losing.

So much about the exciting and fun stuff. Apart from these highlights I’m usually quite busy with my classes spread across all of campus (both geographically and thematically). A bit of Global Politics here, a bit of Computer Science there. And in between some Wine Science. Next to attending lectures, I spend a fair amount of time at my shared flat. I am glad to get along quite well with my flatmates, however, I feel we don’t quite share the same idea of tidiness.

Is this the final form of laziness?

So much from my side, hopefully I’ll find more time later on in the term to update you on my life here. Oh, speaking of which, there has also been a personal update…

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