Dis-Orientation

I'm in another world now. I'm glad I had my weeks of relative solitude bicycling around Washington, because now I am surrounded by about 40,000 students on the campus of University of British Columbia. I will live, eat, work and play here for the major part of the next 2 years.

My new "home" is St John's College - a residence for 150 graduate students from around the world. I don't feel like I'm in Canada so much as in a condensed version of the world. I've met people from Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Iran, Holland, Ireland, Venezuela, Crete, China, Korea and Kansas! My last few days here have consisted of meeting one new person after the other. ALL conversations begin with: "What is your name? Where are you from? What are you studying?" You cannot proceed into any conversation without having first established these three things. It's good though, since I'm more likely to remember a person by their country or subject area than their name. In my graduate student orientation they stressed the need to have a "balanced" life and to make plenty of friends. This should not be a problem here, as I feel like I have moved into a home of 150 instant friends.

Vancouver is living up to my expectations in terms of being a great place to live. In the last few days of sun I've toured around on my bike, and found endless paths of waterfront bike paths. I took a 5-hour adventure today out to Stanley Park. I think I can pretty much be content with just having Stanley Park to visit, as it has beaches, forests, biking and walking paths. And for a shorter expedition, I have the entrance to the local nude beach just 100 meters from my residence. Whether it be a need for some extra vitamin D during a rare sunny fall day, or a dose of counter-culture when the academic world gets to be too much, it's right here at my doorstep :)