We all Scream for Ice Cream

Residence life so far has been great; which has a lot to do with the awesome people living on my floor. Everyone is really friendly, and we often hang out or go down to the cafeteria in REV to have dinner together. Having people that you can talk to and escape all the work of university with (for a little while) is great! So when the signs went up for an “Ice Cream Crawl” in our residence I knew it was going to be a lot of fun. Friends and ice cream are a lovely combination.

The event was run by our dons and was really straight forward; start on the bottom of our residence and work your way to the top, adding something to your ice cream sundae as you get to each floor. 

After making our sundae’s a group of us went to our floor’s lounge to eat our ice cream. Something that is true for everyone in university - there is always lots of work that you could be doing. But taking a break every now and then is exactly what you need; and this break was short and sweet (thanks to all the sprinkles).

Back to School

School has always been something that I loved, I remember being in elementary school and getting so excited at the end of summer to head to Staples and buy supplies for the upcoming year. Something about the feeling of a fresh start, as well as loving school, has always made me happy to head back to classes. The feeling hasn't changed throughout my time as a high school, and now a university student. But it was last night between the excitement of picking out what to bring and wear to the first day of class when I realized something - I have no idea what university learning is going to be like.

When I walked into my first lecture this morning I knew that university lectures would be far off the familiar setting that I have grown to love. Desks and chairs with posters lining the sides of the chalkboard were traded for an auditorium sitting several hundred students and a stage for our professor; "there are 1400 students taking this course" was one of the first sentences she said. So for people who feel that they are going to stand out in university on the first day just by having your textbooks and iClicker tucked neatly in your bag... Think again.

In some ways I feel I will enjoy the  changes that the university class settings will bring; with so many students in a course there will always be somebody who you can ask for help.  University is also set up with numerous resources for students - study groups, meetings with TA's, tutorials and tutoring sessions are all available if you need assistance with classes (and workshops are always going on to help build good study habits).

Being a university student is going to be an adjustment in many ways, but I look forward to embracing the changes and working to love my journey at a student.
Happy back to school everyone!

Frosh, Friends and Feelings about my first week…

It is hard to believe that it has been a week since I moved into residence and began my journey as a university student. In some ways the week has flown by and in others it still feels like I am on vacation and will soon be returning home, to BBQ’s with my family on the back deck and washrooms where I don’t feel like cringing if I hit the walls in the shower.  However, orientation week overall has been great.

There were events all week and I was able to meet people from my program and make friends with the people on my floor (everyone is absolutely amazing). While all of the planned events were a lot of fun, my favourite parts of the week had nothing to do with the activities, they were the times where I just got to relax and get to know my floor mates a little bit better. Let’s face it, if thirty people sitting in the middle of a hallway singing Let it Go from Frozen while six people try to play along on guitar doesn’t make you happy not much will.

The dances, shows and events from orientation week were great, particularly the hypnotist (who was hilarious), but I have found that I am ready for classes to start so I can get into more of a routine. Also, I would like to stress that orientation week is what you want it to be, if you show up to events and are prepared to have fun and meet people you will. But, if you show up to orientation events and think that you are “too cool” to participate chances are you will leave disappointed.

So if you are reading this wondering what orientation week is going to be like… GET EXCITED! Get ready to get messy, eat lots of free pizza, cheer, play games and have a fantastic first week at the University of Waterloo!

Moving In...

Move in day was one of the things I was most anxious about when planning for university. Other than a packing list and the time that I should arrive at my residence there wasn’t a lot of information provided about the move in process which, as someone who likes to know exactly how things are going to happen, made me nervous. However, I am now sitting on my bed in REV and I have to say while moving into residence was an emotionally overwhelming day, (filled with goodbyes, meeting new people, and trying to fit all my clothes into the closet,) it was not disorganized at all.  

There was a team of student volunteers who unloaded all my things while I went to the front desk and got my room key. By the time I was back everything was ready to be moved up to my room. All the upper year students helping saved me and my parents many trips up and down the stairs which was great. My mom and dad stayed and we got all of my things straightened out, and when they left I spent some time putting up pictures and decorating to make my half of the room feel more like home.

One tip that I have for anybody who is staying in a double room (like me) is to talk to your roommate and plan when each of you are each coming so you don’t show up at the same time. The rooms are not small but they definitely would feel that way with two sets of parents, bags, suitcases, you and your roommate.  
 

Here is a little tour of my new room, it is not as big as I am used to but I have to say there is a lot of storage and I am happy with the way it looks!

One of my favourite parts of the room is the side of the closet door, it is one large cork board that you can decorate and hang up lots of pictures!

Adding decorations made the brick wall room seem more welcoming and cheery.

There is a lot of space under the bed so make sure you buy an under the bed container to make use of all the places for storage (if you are like me not all of your clothes will fit in the closet).

Here is a photo of my closet, it is pretty much as big as the one I have at home, and has drawers that fit a lot of clothes. By organizing everything and bringing some storage boxes of my own I was able to fit a lot in here.

One big desk and lots of space above for school supplies (which is much needed based on the size of some of my textbooks)!