I'm on a plane right now

I’m on a plane right now, sitting next to a sleeping guy that smells of cheap aftershave and keeps coming closer to me as his head leans to the side in his sleep... No, I don’t have Internet here, but I’m writing in a Word document and will copypaste this later. I’m on my way to Mexico City (woot woot!) to do the same thing as last year with Student Recruitment. Together with an International Recruiter and Advisor and another Mexican student from UBC Okanagan, we’ll have an informal presentation and Q&A session with prospective students and their families. But this is a more targeted recruitment, you may say, than going to high schools or university fairs, as these students have already applied to UBC and are waiting to be accepted, or they have been accepted and are going to make a decision soon, or have made a decision and want to get excited about their future university. This will be on Saturday so I’m flying Thursday night to have the Friday to hang out at home.

I’m feeling pretty comfortable: I decided to dress normally with tight jeans, boots, blazer and nice coat, when usually it’s like, ok I’m going to the airport, I’m going to be moving and carrying stuff, so I’ll wear ‘comfy’ clothes like sweatpants, a hoodie, and sneakers, oh and I will wear glasses instead of contacts and tie my unwashed hair into a bun… NO. This, ladies and gentlemen, is not the way to fly. If you’re hoping not to meet someone you know at the airport because you’re feeling self-conscious of how you look, then you’re not comfortable.

Anyway. Yesterday I was told I will be GOING TO SINGAPORE ON EXCHANGE NEXT YEAR! Well well isn’t that great. More about the Singapore thing in the next post. Right now on the plane I’m trying to make a life-changing decision for my summer right now and deciding whether I should accept an amazing job in Chile, accept an awesome internship in Germany, or go to Indonesia to film an incredible nature documentary. Here are the options:

1. Borneo, Indonesia

5 months, from June to November

PROS

·      The project is AMAZING and really epitomizes everything I wanted to experience when getting into the conservation field (this is exactly what I say in my video!) The winners will be part of a team of 10 young people that will be restoring a full forest ecosystem, save thousands of orangutans and work with renowned conservationist Dr. Willie Smitts! It’s really hands-on conservation work in South East Asia.
HERE ARE THE INSTRUCTIONS TO VOTE, BY THE WAY!!
1. VOTE here http://gg.tigweb.org/tig/deforestaction/judge/ Sign up with new account (takes 30 seconds) or use your facebook account. VOTE! I'm the one with the 3D glasses (~5th row bottom-up) 
2. VIEW&RATE! here http://gg.tigweb.org/tig/deforestaction/48895/ by clicking on the 5 stars

·      This will be filmed and converted into a TV series and 3D action movie documentary by Virgo Productions and National Geographic Entertainment. These will be directed by Cathy Henkel and filmed by the same person that shot Wolverine, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge.

·      Viewed all over the world! The movie is meant to raise awareness, and the 10 young people will be telling youth around the world how the project is coming along. Really exciting stuff!!!

·      Would count as Co-op!!

CONS

·      This option is not certain. The 10 selected candidates will be chosen based on votes, views, ratings and media attention. I currently have the 2^nd most views and ratings, so I’m doing pretty good considering they will pick 10. Voting closes March 18^th, but I’m not sure if they’ll pick the 10 then or if there are other stages to come. I need to make a decision for the Chile option by the 18^th…

·      There is not much information available, as the project is being created as participants keep applying. I don’t know what the terms and conditions are.

·      I will be going on exchange to Singapore next year, so I could go to Borneo when I’m there and volunteer at an orangutan sanctuary (although I wouldn’t be filming an amazing documentary).

2. Santiago, Chile (co-op)

3 months, from May to August

PROS

·      The job sounds quite awesome: coming up with a strategic plan for one of largest forest products companies in the world to give value to the assets the company holds in its 500 000 ha of conservation forests in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil in order to increase public awareness of the company's efforts in conservation and sustainability, and therefore increase the value of the company’s shares.

·      All expenses paid: airfare to and from Vancouver, trips in Chile to and from conservation forests, furnished apartment, meals in the company’s canteen.

·      I will finally visit South America, and Santiago looks awesome.

·      I don’t know if I will have this job opportunity next year.

CONS

·      Net salary. Not as much as you'd make in a Forestry job in BC, but still something!

·      Fear. This opportunity sounds really exciting, but challenging at the same time, and sounds like I will be in charge of my own project and will have a lot of responsibility (this is good I guess, but kind of frightening!)

·      I don’t know what a typical day will be like, or if there are other students in the office, or young people around.

3. Düsseldorf, Germany (co-op)

2.5 months, from mid-August to June

PROS:

·      Research internship assisting PhD student in molecular biology work related to peroxisomes in plants. Sounds super interesting and I love lab work!

·      I’d gain lab skills and I’d really experience all aspects of a research project. I will create connections in Germany if I ever want to go back there.

·      Benefits: 1625 euros stipend for the duration of the internship, which will cover living expenses. 150 euro three day rail pass to travel in Germany (so I’m assuming there will be opportunity to move around Germany and other countries). 3 day trip to Heidelberg where all the interns all over Germany will meet.

·      Will be able to see my family, as they will be in Italy.

·      Will become fluent in German (I hope!) and practice what I’ve been learning these past 2 terms.

·      Düsseldorf looks amazing, and there are a lot of students there.

·      The lab team consists of 25 researchers and students, so this is bound to be a fun summer.

CONS

·      I already know Europe, although never been to Germany.

·      Europe is expensive.

·      I can apply to the RISE internships again next summer (although the knowledge I’ve gained in my 2 terms of German will probably be gone by then)

I need to accept/reject the Germany thing tomorrow Friday. So right now it’s either Germany or Chile/Borneo. If I choose Chile/Borneo, by the 18^th I have to pick if I want Chile or Borneo, and I probably won’t know by then the outcome of the Borneo competition. 

Ski & Snowboard...

Vale and I have been here for 3 terms, almost 4, and we hadn't gone skiing/snowboarding until yesterday, despite the fact that everyone here loves doing it and some people even come to Vancouver and to UBC just to be close to the mountains. It took us quite some time because we had never had the occasion to do it or to go with someone that would teach us how to do it properly. Yesterday, however, was different. Vale's friend from Guatemala had told us he would be in Grouse all day with his friends, plus we are in the middle of Reading Week so we had free time. So at 3pm, when we finished work, we got some food from the Village and jumped on the 44, headed towards Grouse. We were starving so we ate on the bus, annoying the rest of the passengers with our food.

We arrived downtown, took the Seabus, and after getting to North Vancouver, took a bus to the base of the mountain. Of course by this time, Vale's friend had texted us that they were too tired and they were not going to stay on Grouse any longer... We considered turning back but decided that enough was enough and we had to do it, now or never. On this last bus we had a group of fully-equipped high school students from Mexico, all with new snowboards, gloves, jackets, the whole thing. Vale and I were dressed normally, and I hadn't even taken my snow jacket or my gloves (bad bad planning!) So, we got to Grouse, bought our entrance pass and took the Gondola up the mountain. This is an 8 minute trip in a lift that fits like 50 people and you go up up up to the very top, passing really tall hemlocks and cedars completely covered in snow. The visibility was poor and everything was super foggy. At the very top we got off the lift, and proceeded to rent our equipment. We didn't have anything so we had to rent everything... Vale got skis and I got a snowboard (our plan was to exchange them when we got bored so we could both try them. Of course we had no idea how the boots for skis were completely different from the ones from snowboarding, so we ended up just using the ones we had).

Everything was so beautiful there, the landscape completely covered in a blanket of soft white snow. After going outside the rental place, we just experimented a bit in the mini hills, and went down the 'Bunny Hill' (because it's so easy) run a couple times, falling a lot of course. I didn't get how to put the snowboard on without sitting down, or how to stop when I was moving. So even if I had no problem balancing and going where I wanted to go, when I gained too much speed I panicked and I had to use my hands and roll on the snow to stop. We would get to the base (a good distance from the top) and take the lift back up. After this, we decided to go where everyone else was going, to one of the main runs, and this is when the nightmare started.

First of all, this run was a never-ending run. It was sooooo long, and my fears with gaining too much speed and dying were made worse by the fact that this was steeper and it went on forever so there wasn't like a flat landing in the middle where you could slowly come to a stop and then resume the descent. No, it was steep and went on forever. Here we fell again but this time we did get hurt. One time, Vale got off track and crashed against a some small trees covered in snow and then she couldn't find one of her skis, which was buried in the snow. Our faces started to get super cold with all the snow being pushed in our faces by the furious wind and we saw people with facemasks and goggles flying by. Our hair was already frozen and stiff with snow. And then the thunder started, while we were about halfway. The lift stopped moving above us, and after a few more minutes of going down we met people that were going up the hill carrying their gear. We were stuck between stopping right there and strarting to walk up (we would have died) or keep going down and wait for the lift to work. We decided to go down, but the last part had to be done walking, as we just couldn't do it anymore.

So, we get to the base of the hill, and there are toooons of people waiting for the lift to work. Thunder was still going on, and the lifts don't get started until 20 minutes have passed from the last thunder. So we sat there and waited, and waited, and waited. The lift started, 5 minutes later there was thunder and it stopped again. We waited some more, and finally the lift started again and we managed to get on. By then we had been separated and we were each placed with 3 strangers. After 1 minute on the lift, there was this HUGE flash and crazy thunder right in front of our eyes, and the lifts stopped. Again. Completely. The thunderstorm intensified, and we would reach 15 minutes, and then another thunder. So we were stuck there for ages. After 40 minutes there was another huge thunder and the power went off. Every light turned off and we were left in complete darkeness. The fog closed in and we could no longer see the ground below us or the lift in front of us. The snow was covering us and my hands and feet were freezing because my gloves are basically a piece of fabric, they're not snow gloves.. The 3 strangers I was with were good fun, so I had a good time while hoping not to get electrocuted by a thunder. I didn't want to touch any metal and I was pressed against the guy next to me. When the lights went off after the thunder, I automatically grabbed his arm. One of them was all about preventing hypothermia, so every 5 minutes she'd check to see that we were not freezing our limbs off and she would repeat that we had to keep moving our fingers and toes etc. Then she wanted to document the moment so she got her phone out and we took a picture of the four of us, all smiling stuck in the lift in the darkness. Lady at the cafe later on that night: 'Woa! I've been coming here for the past 15 years and this had never happened to me!' Those kinds of things never happen, but they had to happen on the they we went there, obviously.

After 1 hour and a half, the power came back up, the lifts started, and we got to the top. By then Vale and I were freezing and just wanted to leave. We returned our equipment, took the Gondola back down, and then waited 30 minutes in the freezing cold for a bus. Then changed bus a couple times, ate a burger, and got home at 1.30 am all soaked. So this was our experience snowboarding/skiing.

Estimated time to get there: 2 hours
Estimated time skiing/snowboarding: 1 hour
Estimated time falling/walking/rolling: 1 hour
Estimated time waiting for the lift to work: 1 hour
Estimated time stuck on the lift: 1 hour 30 minutes
Estimated time to get home: 2 hours 30 minutes
Estimated cost: $50 (snowboard+showes), $30 (pants+jacket), $40 (entrance cost) = $120

Did we have fun? Yes! (Well, I say this now, while I write this from the comfort of my bed. They say there are two things you never remember: bad weather and pain. Which, coincidentally, were both there yesterday!) Good anecdote to tell and to laugh at once it's over.

Also, something interesting is how snowboarders and skiers are either hardcore snowboarders or hardcore skiers, never both. I've just tried snowboarding so I still don't know which one I'll pick, if I ever pick one. For now, it will be some time until I repeat this thing again. I'll stick to ice-skating.

Message in a bottle

If I lived by the ocean I'd be up for messaging with bottles, but since that's not the case, I decided I will start a small project to send random messages to the world using money bills. Today Kia got a 10 dollar bill back as change and on it she found a message hand-written with pink ink: 'Wonder where this bill has been? Go to whereswilly.com and register this bill's location!' So we did, and it's an amazing thing! You basically log in, write the serial number of the bill and the postal code where you got it. Then you can see all the places that bill has been, how many days it took to get to the location where you found it, and the speed of the bill. Our bill was quite the runner. It moved 37km in two days! I will write that message on all the 10 dollar bills I find, so everybody registers their bills.

4 summers ago, when I was in Florence with Caro, Vallie and Adrie, we threw a couple paper airplanes from the top of the torrazzo. We had written a message, but we forget what it said. We left our emails and signed it with semi-aliases (Adrian = Adria, Valeria = Val, Carolina = Carlos, Olivia = Bob. I must say, mine was the most original semi-alias hehe...) On January 23rd (Adria's b'day!), 6 months later, we received the following email:

Adria, Val, Carlos and Bob,

  Howdy. My name is Dan and I'm from Santa Barbara, California. I was backpacking Europe this summer and found a paper airplane on the ground with "Read me" written all over it. Inside was your addresses and names. Apparently you chucked it off the roof of Giorro's Tower at 10:13am on 22/07/07, about 2 minutes before I found it.

..and you thought you'd never hear about it again.

 Sorry for the delay. I placed the not in my backpack and then my pack was stored away until recently. I like this sort of thing, so I thought it would be fun to say hello.

Cheers,
  Dan


 Well isn't that nice... So I want to start writing quotes and messages and funny stuff on bills, because I'd love to get a bill with something that would make me smile. I'll think more about how to solidify this project but it's just an idea.

Reading Week Week-end

The first week-end of the Reading Week is coming to an end! I will probably stay here due to too much homework, catching-up and random stuff that needs to be done. Vale left for the Okanagan on Saturday, but the house is not less occupied, as one of her friends from UBC-O came to visit and she's staying in Vale's room with a friend of hers. Kiks is here. Yaku are in Iceland right now, they couldn't pick something more far away than that.

I just came back from Ricky's place and my stomach is so full, I just want to lie on the floor (yes, the floor, not the bed) and fall asleep. I ate at 4 and then left at 6.30 with Kia to go to Ricky's place for Popusas (which are similar to Mexican tlacoyos I find). It was a lot of fun as Ricko's family is super welcoming and everyone is really nice. They're from El Salvador and the dad, Nelson, always wants you to be drinking something (better if it's alcohol, but things like milk are okay as long as you're having a large piece of chocolate cake with it) and eating something. We watched the Grammys and it was really weird watching TV, as I'm so not used to it. Fairview events always have things like PlayStations and TVs for prizes, which just shows how much budget they have to put on events. We should go more to these kinds of things and win a TV. Well, anyway, watching the Grammys with them and commenting on everything was a lot of fun. Then the sister's husband had his android phone and kept taking pictures of Ricky and Nelson and making them look as if Brad Pitt was signing posters of their faces. And the dog, Pacha, is a pug that considers humans to be part of the furniture, so she just walks on your lap like if you weren't there and finds it comfortable to sit and lie on people's legs without their consent. She's so funny because she's a compacted fat pug.

On Saturday I went with Oscar, Nichy, Jessie and Manuel to a really cool party. It was a 20-30s themed party and everyone was dressed up really nicely. It was in the Waldorf Hotel, in East Hastings (and there was a positive correlation between the distance from UBC and the number of people of questionable character that got on the bus). Stepping through the entrance was like going back in time... the carpeted floor and the dim lights of the locale from the brass candleholders, combined with the wooden dance floor, flowery wall paper and deep-red velvet curtains, created an atmosphere which is in line with what I had imagined a party in the 30s would be like. Everyone was dressed up, guys wearing suits and dancing shoes, vests and suspenders, hair parted to the side. Girls with flowery dresses and dancing shoes (the swing dancers), long silk dresses, pearls and buns made with ondulating curls and peach-coloured fabric roses (the fancy-party goers), corsets, red lipstick and tattoos (the cabaretty-looking girls), beads, sequins and feathers (the flappers).

At the beginning swing music was playing, but then we had two really good live bands. One of them was called Maria in The Shower, and one thing that I thought awesome was how the vocalist stood on top of a leaning chelo while playing the trumpet (and while the chelo guy kept playing the chelo). Really cool. I was next to the stage getting a good view and filming, and was really happy because I got some good shots with good music, and today I checked and the sound quality is terrible because of the closeness to the huge speakers. Speaking of which, there also was a baby too close to the speakers. The baby was a HUGE baby - looked 2 years old but was 10 months - and his mom was tiny, which made the baby look even bigger. But seriously, this was the biggest 10 month old I've seen in my life. He was also super cute, but apathic, like if this sort of scene was normal for him. He was wearing sound mufflers around his ears, but still, he was literally next to the speakers. The mom had like a pouch kind of thing attached to her back and she would carry him around that way, breast-feeding him while drinking beer. I'm guessing he was the kid of one of the band members..

It was in the newsfeed...

[from urbandictionary.com]

It was in the newsfeed

An excuse you can use after Facebook creeping and getting caught. It always works, though the suspicious individual will likely remain skeptical.

Sarah: "Are you creeping on me? How did you know I commented on that picture?" 
Derek: "No, it was in the news feed!"

Sugar honey iced tea

It means "SHIT", you just say Sugar Honey Iced Tea when you can't openly swear.

"OH! Sugar Honey Iced Tea!!!"

Healthy

A more politically correct word commonly used to mean "fat" or "chubby". Ironically, the person in question is generally not healthy in the classic sense, although well-fed.

Snowbooking

To constantly update your status or post on Facebook during a snowstorm. Normally, because your stuck inside and bored out of your mind.
Also can be used to describe Facebook users who constantly discuss, complain, or post pictures about a snow storm.

Sarah must be snowed in and bored, because she's been snowbooking since the storm started.
The roads haven't been plowed so everyone's snowbooking.

Urban Dictionary Cover Up

The act of scrambling onto UrbanDictionary.com to quickly find out the definition of a word, usually when used over texts or IM. Used to cover up the fact that you did not know the meaning of the word prior to its use.

Commonly abbreviated to UDCU.

Person A: "yo dude, that jam was live last night." 
Person B: *quickly does an urban dictionary cover-up* 
"yeah, that was a pretty cool party."

Audience typing 

When a person's typing abilities degrade when they must type in front of others, leading to misspelled words, improper capitalisation and most likely resulting in blushing.
Worse if that other person is an older relative or someone you respect.

Father asks, "Put Manchester United into Google there for me"
Son, "Sure"
Results in - "Manchetser UNited" being typed into Google.

Little things we should appreciate

Nick-o just sent me a link to one of her 'favourite things to read'. It's a Blog called 'Little Things. A list of all the simple things we should appreciate'. I checked it out because the things Knickers sends are always good (you know? one of those people that have really good links to unknown blogs or webpages, which you end up Bookmarking in your browser..). Well, she didn't disappoint me this time either.

I really liked the little things blog! It's a collection of little things we should appreciate in life, and it's put together by this 15-year old in the States. People submit their suggestions and then she posts some of them. I liked the blog not only because all the things are quite funny and definitely appreciable, but because I got this amazing feeling reading all the little things people of all ages, from all over the world, write about, and seeing that I can really relate to each and every single one of those posts. I felt more connected to the rest of the world through the little things, if that makes sense. Some of my favourite little things that other people wrote:
240. Remembering the stories about how you met someone
234. Crossing things off your to-do list
172. Long-lasting nail polish
168. Free stuff
157. NICKNAMES!! (I looove nicknames)
131. Waking up and realizing you have more time to sleep
82. The cold side of the pillow
51. People who remember you after meeting you only once
40. Waking up with perfect hair

And some of the little things I appreciate are listed below. I submitted some of these, and will also write a post for some of them 'cause I have many things to say about them too :)
1. Post-its that don't fall off the wall
2. Camping in your own living room
3. Coming home at night to a 'Supper's ready!'
4. Staring into space
5. When someone bakes you a cake
6. Handmade gifts
7. Hearing stories of black parents that had a white baby or viceversa
8. Being pampered while sick
9. Loosing a pen but finding another one on the floor right away
10. Communicating through a wall with your roommate
11. When your sibling understands EXACTLY what you're thinking
12. Getting a good TA in a course
13. Reading in the car
14. Writing Santa a letter and getting a reply
15. Days when your handwriting is better than others
16. Red hair
17. Finding the perfect perfume
18. When there are two rainbows in the sky
19. Having 5 consecutive meaningful emails in your inbox
20. Having 0 unread emails in your mailbox after some arduous inbox-cleaning
21. People that reply to text messages immediately

paint dance

to see how this was done check the link below
http://vimeo.com/14955603