Enjoy writing? Have an essay you’re proud of? Want to showcase your photos, art or music? We accept all these and more at The Garden Statuary, UBC’s English undergraduate journal. Deadline for submissions is February 17th — check out the website for more details on submission guidelines and/or to see what we do!

I, for one, really love seeing students’ creative and academic work and can’t wait to see what you’ve got!

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In other news, my professor invited me to observe a symposium running today and tomorrow. The symposium is being hosted by SFU and is on the topic of “Can there be a World Humanities?” I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to attend, since it’s by invitation only and is completely in line with some of the questions I’ve been exploring academically.

It’s been really fascinating so far, not least to see what a scholarly conversation in a formal setting actually looks like. To my relief, I’m actually keeping up with most of the papers — only one out of six went over my head (and I know I’m not the only one who felt that way!). Lots of interesting thoughts I’m gleaning from here, and am looking forward to the more open discussion portion happening tomorrow.

(And lunch! Lunch was great!)

great background music: John Butler Trio’s ‘Ocean’

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Lunar New Year celebrations • egg salad sandwiches • tangyuan • putting up paper decorations for the new year • calling home • seeing a good friend for the first time in a month • hearing Chinese again • the steady flow of baked goods that come into the office • people who share awesome events and articles of interest • mandarin oranges • my Res Advisor for leaving chocolate chip cookies on my door for LNY — they were magical and completely consumed in one sitting

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to everyone who hasn’t heard it yet: Happy Year of the Dragon!

Or maybe that’s just because I spent my entire day entering data into Excel.

The Program held its second pre-employment undergraduate conference on Saturday and I was engrossed in entering data from well over 100 forms to report upon during our next staff meeting. The really fun part was learning the COUNTIF function to help me tally several responses. For an English lit student who doesn’t need to touch Excel for anything other than tracking personal expenses, it was a very ‘woah’ moment followed by a very excited inner ‘I can do this!’ feeling. Oh, how I grow.

Welcome to my new job as the Arts Co-op Student Advisor. This is my third and final work term before I graduate, and normally, I don’t talk a whole lot about my work or academics, but I’m probably going to natter on and on about this one. It brings together many of the aspects I’ve enjoyed most over the last few years: student advising in a university setting, editing, and written communications, to name a few. No wonder I already find myself wishing I could stay for more than four months.

Instead, I’ll just blather away to my heart’s content about it while I can. Seeing the end is nigh has really triggered my urge to just dump every resource and piece of useful information I’ve ever learned about UBC onto the internet before May rolls around, because I’m sure not going to talk about being an undergraduate after I’m done! And Co-op has definitely been one of my better decisions during my degree that I’d like to acknowledge and pass on something of the experience to anyone who might be curious.

Plus, I just really wanted an excuse to talk about my supervisor’s dog:

Meet Parker. She flops down behind my chair about once a week. If you ever drop by when she's visiting, I'll be the one who's petting her madly.

This is definitely going to be one of my better terms.

newest British singer on my radar: Charlene Soraia covering The Calling’s ‘Wherever You Will Go’

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lucking out on featured presenters at the SLC • the Neglected Global Diseases Initiative • the marvellous little space heater lent to me by the office • my very long, very red scarf • successfully catching snowflakes in your hand • Peking duck • 高丽豆沙 • achieving financial independence (yes!) • finding a new direction for postgrad • finishing a gruelling novel • the brilliant burst of winter sunshine after any kind of precipitation • dancing for three and a half hours • the amazing people who organized and attended the Mental Health Networking Event • tracing patterns in the snow

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over the next few days, I hope to start writing posts on my current co-op work term experience, as I think that might be useful to students who are wondering what a work term might look like

Today’s been a long day because of work and school. Tomorrow will be a very different kind of long day because of a work-related event — the very important Mental Health Networking Event that will be going on in Ladha (4-6 pm) — and some serious chilling out in the form of happy feet.

UBC Swing Kids are coming back this term with a free Welcome Back Dance in the SUB Party Room tomorrow, including free lessons!

7-8 pm: West Coast Swing beginner’s lesson
8-9 pm: Lindy Hop beginner’s lesson
9-11 pm: Social dancing! Yay!

Now there’s nothing like actually seeing a dance to get a glimmer of what it’s like. Lucky for us, we have YouTube. Check out the crazy Lindy Hop and improvised West Coast Swing (my personal favourite).

A note on the instructors for WCS: Emlyn and Kaedra are fantastic teachers. They’re clear, funny, and teach at a good pace that challenges everyone without leaving anyone behind. If they’re teaching tomorrow, I can guarantee it’ll be enjoyable. Heck, it’s going to be grand regardless of who’s teaching tomorrow — free dancing!

Bring yourself, your friends or clueless passers-by, it really doesn’t matter. See you there!