Tag: UBC

Not with a bang, but with a fizzle– Kony 2012

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It was 4/20 two days ago, and although you may be thinking that I was here to talk about a certain type of green plant, that is certainly not the case. I am sure if you are here reading this right now, you definitely have not been living under a rock for the past several months and have seen the Kony campaign video.

I remember when I first watched it and my eyes teared up. It was an excellent 30 minute short film that tried to get as much through to the viewer as possible, using simple concepts and language. It was a campaign that encouraged everyone to help make Kony famous so that his children army will be no more. Kony recruited children for his army, snatching them from their houses and forcing them into carrying guns. This campaign called for awareness, and encouraged everyone around the world to participate in an event named “Cover the Night”, where everyone would help plaster posters all over the city so that the public is made aware. This event was to occur worldwide on April 20th, 2012.

However, I have learned about the Lord’s Resistance Army and Joseph Kony a good 2-3 years ago while taking a course on Social Justice. It was not new news to me and I had background information on the event. That is when I realized those lacking background on the topic was really only given a shallow view of the situation. What really hurt the campaign was ultimately bad public reception. Of course, after first watching it,  everyone was shocked and touched by the video, allowing the short film to go viral and spread to all corners of the earth within several days. There was a time when I could not open my Facebook without seeing some sort of reference to Invisible Children and their campaign.

What made me a bit scared was how fast everyone reacted positively and everything was set in motion unquestioningly. On around the third day of public recognition, things started to go wrong for Invisible Children. You can see how people on Facebook were starting to doubt the campaign and started to question how their funds were used. (Link) Of course, Invisible Children fought back, explaining why only around 30% of funds raised went to direct services. I was relieved to realize people were not blindly accepting whatever they were exposed to, and managed to look into the details. (However, it is also due to public media that caused everyone to jump on the bandwagon towards skepticism.)

The other factor that brought this campaign to its fall was Invisible Children’s founder Jason Russell. Apparently, due to malnutrition and exhaustion, Russell resulted in acts of public indecency (including masturbating in public) and public disturbance. (link 1, link 2) This gave the organization and campaign bad media, encouraging even more distrust to arise. Of course, comedy websites such as 9gag started creating memes towards this event and only caused more ridicule.

So April 20th has come and gone, but downtown Vancouver, as well as the UBC’s Vancouver campus, is anything but covered in Kony awareness posters. I saw three posters around the UBC bookstore while I was waiting for it to open so I can get my monthly U-Pass. I have not been downtown, but according to the newspapers as well as friend’s observation, there was a lack of action. Apparently, a group of 17 did show up downtown and did their best to “cover the night”. With more than 21,000 people clicking the “join” button on the Facebook event, Invisible Children definitely expected more than the 17 who showed. What made me sad was that Invisible Children sent Lindy Bateman and her group of five volunteers, all the way here to help organize the event. Although they were volunteers, their expenses were paid by Invisible Children. (Link) Similarly, another 16 teams of the link was sent out to various parts of North America.

Whether it was because April 20th was a day where everyone got preoccupied with cannabis, or whether it was due to Coldplay being in Vancouver, “Cover the Night” lacked public support and ended with not a bang, but a fizzle. What did I learned from this whole ordeal? The public is easily persuaded to believe one thing, but can be equally receptive to new claims that arise. I agree that the search for Kony is important, and can save many who has to live in terror. I am disappointed with the way this campaign was carried out and its ultimate failure. Hopefully, people do not get too caught up in the fact that this campaign itself was a failure, but also realize that underlying all this is the fact that the LRA still exists and children’s lives are getting affected. One good thing that Invisible Children ultimately managed to accomplish was awareness– whether it was positive awareness is up to debate.

Keep On Trooping!

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Hey y’all!

It has been a while, but I think I finally found time to post! (Well, squeeze time out anyway.) I cannot believe there is only one more week left of my first-year university life! Although I am looking forward to getting a break from school, I realize that the last week of school means projects and essays are now due, not to mention finals are just right around the corner.

Throughout the last week, I really challenged myself to grab at opportunities. Aside from trying to manage my homework (Chinese oral exam script writing, English final essay draft, Political Science final essay just to name a few), I also applied for clubs and positions within Sauder. I spent much of my first year at university trying to find my interest and learning how to handle the university lifestyle. I went in believing I could easily juggle school, my social life and my family life. Then reality punches me in the face and tells me that it is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Needless to say, I spent my first year finding myself and concentrating on school…meaning I was not as involved as I thought I was going to be. I joined two clubs within my commerce faculty, and went to events for both. I really regret not going to any of the big conferences, so that is definitely on my bucket list for next year. But I feel just going to events was not enough. You need to find something you are interested in and then actually get involved.

I spend a good portion of my first term wondering what I was doing in business school. Thankfully, I asked around and explored some of the available majors. I think it is safe to say that marketing is what I want to concentrate on later on. It is not as rigid as accounting or finance, allowing your creativity and personal thoughts to come into play. I look forward to actually taking marketing courses next year, since year one was really a pre-commerce year. You only get a really brief overview of the world of commerce. I cannot wait for next year! Having said that, I am still plenty nervous because we are required to take more (and harder) courses. Oh well, guess only time will tell how well I deal with that.

So back to grabbing opportunities. This Tuesday, I returned home after my classes ended and I received a call later on at night. I swear, my heart stopped and my blood froze when I picked up the call and realized what it was about. Apparently I was scheduled for an interview on that day. Wonderful. I have no idea how that happened, but my name was clearly on the Google Doc. where everyone signed up for an interview slot, but I am 100% sure I did not sign up for my time slot. I was not even aware sign ups were available. Luckily, I asked if there was any way for me to reschedule and they agreed to let me come in the next day at 7 p.m.

I think if this interview was for some other position, I would not have minded as much that I had already left a bad impression on my interviewers. However, I really wanted this position. I was interviewing for the position of editor-in-chief of the Cavalier, Sauder’s very own newspaper. Those of you who know me will know that I love writing. And reading. Within Sauder, this position seemed like the perfect way for me to get involved with something I loved! Sure, my chances were slim, but I still wanted to know that I actually tried. I was disappointed with what had happened, but I knew I still had my chance at my actual interview.

The next school day was the longest one ever. I felt butterflies in my stomach more than once. It honestly felt like it was butterfly migration season, and their final destination was my stomach. I was a bunch of nerves as I headed over to my interview. The interview itself? I stuttered, I stumbled over questions and I think my nervousness showed. I was pretty disappointed because I have been to several interviews for various positions this year and have been rejected in all of them. I was at the low point where I believe I probably would never get a place anywhere. I walked out feeling horrible. I sat at the student lounge for a while with some of friends, just being sad.

What happened next was amazing. Riley, one of my interviewers and the current editor-in-chief of the Cavalier, came out and started talking to some of my friends. I think I was the last interviewee of the day and all the interviewers were finally done with their long day. I was kind of huddled in a corner, too depressed to do anything. However, I did eventually end up walking over to him because I wanted to question why he decided to change the Cavalier so much during his time as editor. He answered me and I was listening, but I guess I was not paying as much attention as I thought I was. I heard one of my friends say “She totally did not hear him” and someone else say “Can’t believe she didn’t catch that…”. This all made me pause and go “Wait, what?” Then Riley goes “Uhh, yeah, so you got the position. Congratulations, you’re the new co-editor in chief of the Cavalier.”

This is kind of embarrassing, but I cried. I was so surprised, and happy and relieved—basically a whole bunch of positive emotions just rushing out. I think that was the happiest I have felt for a very long time. Sure, this will add to my workload next year, since I will be responsible for making sure the monthly issues come out on time, but HECK, it is something I would gladly do!

I think my takeaway from this experience is to never stop trying. Again, I was rejected numerous times throughout the year, but hey, that is how it is with everyone. At times you may end up getting something on your first try, but most of the time, you will have to try again and again. Just do not give up and keep on trooping!

I have my Frosh Leader interview tomorrow and am definitely feeling the nervousness I feel before every interview! At the same time, I am still pretty excited! To end this off, I hope my little story motivated some of you guys and pushes you to go out and try your luck! I am also very glad I got a chance to post again!

Till next time!

-Karen

P.s I think you should all check out the Cavalier. Especially when I start editing 🙂

Spring…you can come whenever you want. No, seriously.

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School has started again and I am amazed at how fast I fall back into schedule. It is as if I never left for reading break at all. I guess good times always pass by a lot faster than you would think. I did do quite a bit during my break though so I am proud of that! 🙂 I usually spend all my holidays sitting in front of the computer/ TV being lazy.

 

Quick summary of my reading break:
18-20th: Started off going to Portland, Oregon and returned early Monday morning, on the 20th.
21st: Went to movies with Monica and Josh on Tuesday (Telus Tuesdays! Half price movie tickets!!) Ended up watching three movies: A Dangerous Method, The Secret World of Arriety, The Artist. We then ate dinner at Martini’s Restaurant on Broadway! Huge portions! Finished off with a trip to Marble Slab! Basically a fat day because we sat around for six hours and then just ate a lot.

23rd: Morning dim sum at Rainflower Restaurant at Richmond. Then Downtown gift shopping with Monica. Then went to Kody’s birthday 🙂 We got him a trollface T-shirt!

AHAHA! This was the fancy schmancy dim sum place. So we took a pic on their crazy sofas.

Fancy chandelier at the dim sum place...Probably one of the fanciest dim sum places I have been with friends.

Monica and I made chocolate dipped strawberries for Kody 🙂

24th: Went to Flo Tea Room with family! Love this place so much because of its chill environment. We can sit there forever, just talking and taking our time. 🙂

25th: Justin’s birthday dinner on Saturday at Red Robins on Broadway. Our side of the table spend quite a lot of our time playing UNO, which I only brought in case we needed entertainment. Turns out we would play it for the majority of our time there.
26th: Frantically finishing off homework and readings assigned because, once again, I left it to last minute.

Oh, and my reading break nails 🙂

Monarch butterfly nails! Crudely done, but it will have to do 🙂

——————————Ignore this part to skip my rant about school——————————

I still have not recovered from my lack of studying and am falling behind in my class readings! What is worse is that I have two term papers coming up. I NEED A TOPIC FOR MY ENGLISH ESSAY! I kind of have one formed, but I do not know how to go about making it into an academic research paper. Although they are both not due for at least another two or so weeks, I am already stressing out from it because of the amount of work involved in both papers.

Coming up, I also have my psychology and macroeconomics midterm exams on the same day. There is just so much to look forward to.
Registration for summer courses are also happening on the 9th and I still have no idea what I want to take. I definitely want to get some compulsory classes out of the way for next September, but taking intense accounting during the summer seems like a sure way for me to fail that class…
—————————————————————–

On another note, I am READY for spring! I was just thinking about that as I was walking to the bus stop on Monday, but this is what I woke up to on Wednesday:

It snowed...

Really? Mother nature gives us snow at the beginning of March, but fails to give us a white Christmas? Hmm… However, I did see small flowers blooming randomly on one of my neighbour’s lawn this week! Not a good picture, but it made me stop and stare because it really was random and unexpected!

I am pretty sick of trudging around in my rain boots and having to layer up because it is freezing outside. I cannot believe I am going to say this, (since I have always hated the heat) but I really would not mind a really sunny day. Not Hong Kong’s humid-hot sunny days, but more like a sunny Californian day where it is still significantly warm. 🙂

Well, to end off this post: spotted at UBC’s CIRS building:

Seriously, do not drink it.

 I read it then doubled back and took a picture because I think I made the You-don’t-say face after reading it, despite being alone in there.
Ohhh life 🙂
Wish me luck for my next few weeks! I know it is going to be a total nightmare! 😦
-Karen

Reading break at Portland! Friends, dining, shopping- the perfect trio!

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Reading break has officially started! But it felt like it had begun two days ago! My friends and I went on a road trip to Oregon basically right after school ended on Friday. It was a tough ride since the drive took at least 5 hours to get there, but it was worth it! Poor William (our friend who drove)! He had to pick up the car AND drive us there! But, we had a shotgun system where we rotated people who sat in shotgun so that they can keep Will company– even if everyone else was sleeping.

What kind of sucked was that I was a bit sick during the trip. Through my lack of sleep and unhealthy lifestyle choices during midterm exam weeks, I managed to get sick. Joy oh joy. My voice is currently gone from all the talking I tried to do with my sore throat during the trip!

Back to the road trip story… We all woke up at around 4am on Saturday and everyone was picked up at their house at around 5am. You can clearly observe that everyone in the car lacked sleep and all eyes were promptly closed around an hour into the drive. I had shotgun responsibilities first so I fiddled around with the music and talked to William while he drove. Honestly, I have not seen Will for a while and I wanted to catch up, but my lack of voice and my throat kind of hindered my efforts! 😦

We stopped by a McDonalds’ on the way, just like we did last time. Connie, Will and I headed over to Hagens to look for fruits or veggies to munch on…sadly we were sidetracked by the bulk section of the store. SO. MUCH. STUFF. Connie bought us all chocolate covered gummy bears, chocolate covered coffee beans and chocolate covered almonds!! Yum 🙂 Afterwards, we went back on the road and continued our drive.

After arriving at Portland, we parked and decided to hunt for their famous street vendors! It took us a bit before we found them…and it was amazing. There were so many to choose from, and I settled on a pulled pork sandwich meal! I have been craving pulled pork for a bit and Portland did not disappoint! I really wish Vancouver had something like this! I mean, it takes up so little room for these vendors and their trucks! Allowing a bunch of them to congregate around a parking lot would be a good use of space and a good source of employment. Anyway, after our tummies were full and our fingers were frozen from the cold, we headed over to our motel. We left again pretty soon after that to do some outlet shopping. We went to SO many different places to shop! So happy! But, my shopping expeditions did not go as well as I planned and I did not get as much as I thought I was going to. 😦

Us and our street food!

At night, we drove by a McDonalds’ to steal their free wi-fi so we could search up good eating joints around town. We finally settled on Le Bistro Montage, which had high ratings from everyone online. We arrived at the restaurant and we thought it looked very sketchy. It was kind of under a bridge, where it was really dark and creepy. It was around the industrial part of town and there was no other restaurants nearby…just the one. BUT, when we arrived, we put down our names for a table and was told that the wait would be one and a half hours! That made us curious as to what restaurant would require that long a wait! The actual wait took around two hours, and by then, we were ready to eat whatever was thrown at us.

Le Bistro Montage’s menu

The place had a nice vibe to it, though it was really dark. There were huge paintings decorating the walls, as well as little trinkets such as a skull of some sort of animal, and a dried puffer fish– things of the like. We all sat down and was ready to order within minutes. I got the buttermilk chicken with garlic mashed potatoes! It was served with veggies and corn bread! Delish! I also ordered a POG juice, which was as combination of passionfruit, orange and guava juice! I am so glad I tried it because I loved it! Wish they had it in Canada..or do they already have it?? Will do some juice hunting. Some of us also ordered oyster shooters, which were so delicious I went and ordered another one. Overall, the place was pretty awesome asides from the wait. I would definitely recommend it as it was not an expensive meal, and it provided a unique dining experience. Oh, and if you have food left, definitely ask them to help you wrap it up! They do the funkiest foil art for you! Connie took some of her Jambalaya to go and they came back with a scorpion-shaped package!

Buttermilk friend chicken and garlic mashed potatoes!

So delicious!

Scorpion shaped takeout!

Later at night we visited a Wal-Mart, where Connie and I freaked out about how big everything was! Big bags of candy? Hell yes! We all started grocery shopping and returned to our motel well after midnight. One thing I dislike about Portland? How far everything is from each other! I cannot imagine what it would be like to commute around that city…honestly, I am pretty sure everyone has to drive. Being from Vancouver, everything is pretty well connected, so it was hard to have to cross a million bridges to get to a certain part of town.

After spending a good chunk of time playing “The Game of Life” (we lost miserably. We as in Connie, Monica and I), we then returned to our respective rooms for a good nights sleep. Which was not that good because I woke up freezing since apparently we forgot to turn up the heat. We are so smart.

The next day consisted of a LOT of shopping. We tried to make use of Portland’s tax-free system, and then we headed over to Westfield Southcenter Mall for lunch at Jollibee. I was kind of excited because back in Hong Kong, so many of my friends ate at Jollibee! It was my first time eating a meal at Jollibee and I thought it was delicious! Sure it was kind of greasy and unhealthy, but delicious all the same! Us girls also split a halo halo, a popular Filipino dessert! It was also my first time trying that and it was DELICIOUS! If I was not getting so cold from the drink, I would of had more!

Halo halo!

Again, I am skipping the details of our shopping expeditions and moving on to dinner. We ate at Olive Garden! It was my first time in that American chain, but I am amazed by all the bottomless dishes! They refilled practically everything! Monica, Josh and I were still pretty full from lunch so we decided to each get an appetizer and share. I got a Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta, Monica got a Italian Sampler, and Josh got a flatbread, though I forgot which one. We ended up not even finishing our three appetizers because it was so filling and big!

At Olive Garden

Afterwards, we spent a good portion of time fooling around in the parking lot and rearranging our shopping bags and luggage. At some point, we accidentally set off a car alarm when we were messing around with breadsticks. Do not ask.

I am so happy that my reading break is off to such a great start! Friends, dining and shopping– the perfect trio! Hopefully I will also have more time to blog amongst other things! 🙂

What I’ve learned this week

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1) How to play mahjong

2) I cannot eat as much as I think I can

3) Santa Claus is Canadian

4) The idea of watching movies alone

So starting off with number 1, I finally learned how to play mahjong! Okay, so I am not at the level where you can play the version where you tally up the points, and you play certain different combinations, but I learned how to play the regular matching three up one! Honestly, in my 18 years of life, although I have watched my parents and many aunts and uncles around me play mahjong, I have never thought about learning it. However, now that I have, I cannot believe I never did! It is actually very fun, and I feel more connected to my Asian heritage. Okay, maybe not so much the whole connected thing, but it was still fun! Funny (or not so) thing is that we play at the UBC library. I think half the people wanted to kill us at Irving K. Barber and the other half wanted to join us. Okay, before you start tutting at me, you have got to realize that Irving is infamous for being the library you to go when you do not want to study. It is the nosiest library in the whole of UBC. At one point, some random guy came up and asked if he can join us for a round. Of course we agreed, but he had to leave before we finished our own round. 😦 Overall, I would say it felt like I have acquired another life skill.

Mahjong at the library...I won three times in a row!

Now to number 2…it all began (and ended) at Anton’s. So after everyone’s classes ended today, us hungry university kids were starving and William, one of my friends, said he knew a place. We all listened as he described how although it is like $20 a plate, the spaghetti portions were huge and you win a prize if you actually end up finishing it. Being who we were, we were like

It turns out that this place was Anton’s Pasta Bar, on Hastings and between Carleton and Madion. We got there and I was so hungry I declared I could eat half a cow. My friend said she was so hungry she would resort to cannibalism (*cough* Monica). There was a line, as my friend had warned, since it was such a popular joint. After sitting down, we basically took ten minutes before quickly flagging down the waitress so we could order. Looking around the restaurant, I saw everyone asking for a box to take away their leftovers. I was criticizing how people could not even eat one-third of their plate of spaghetti. WEAK! When our food came, we all dug in. Although there was five of us, we ate in silence for 10-15 minutes. That is how hungry and into our food we were. I got the Spinach Fettuccine Alla Fillippo, which was basically a white sauce spaghetti with spinach and chicken. Delicious! Charlie also got a white sauce spaghetti (the Fettuccine Alfredo), while Monica and Kody got the Fettuccine Creola. William was the only one who got something really different, the Tortellini Alla Panna. After a while I realized that this was an endless battle. In the end I think I ate 1/3 of my plate max. Kind of sad when you walked in with such high expectations of yourself. And I wanted the prize too (a pen). Sucked watching some table behind us claim a pen. Anyways, defeat aside, that restaurant was delicious! Probably not the place you would take someone on a date, due to having to pig out and dig through a heaping plate of pasta, but a great place with a cheerful environment for hanging out with friends.

Anton's Past Bar storefront featuring Valentine's Day

Our spaghetti 🙂

A feast! Challenge accepted!

Before challenge...

Challenge failed...though you have got to admit, I did plough through a lot!

And we shamefully walked away with half our plates in these containers...

Point number 3 came up as we were waiting for our takeout boxes at Anton’s. We narrowed down Santa Claus’s nationality as either Russian, American (from USA) or Canadian. We all started arguing our points and the argument went on from there. My friend and I argued that since he wears white and red, is super nice, and our coin (the quarters) has a picture of a caribou, which is the same as a reindeer, Santa Claus is Canadian. No one seemed to have as much evidence as we did so we kind of left that there. 🙂

Lastly, I was having a conversation with my mom the other day, complaining how I do not think I know anyone who would be willing to watch “The Artist” with me, though I desperately want to! All my friends definitely do not seem like the type to be into that type of movie…so I was stuck in a dead end. I jokingly said “I might as well go to the cinemas by myself.” My mom then told me that watching a movie by yourself is a whole new experience. When I thought about it, I realized how true that was. You do not have to censor your feelings and you can fully concentrate on the film! I really am thinking of trying it out one day, just to see how I like it. Who knows? It may even become a thing I do! Honestly, after consideration, I would most probably want to watch those cry-your-eyes-out movies alone because it gets so hard to control your tears when you are into the movie.

So for now, that is what I have learned this week! 🙂 Have a great weekend everyone!

-Karen