Start of school at the University of Alberta

We are on Campus! Stacked with snow everywhere..

Look at the ice cream cake bench!

I had my first lesson which is an Exercise Physiology lecture and it was oh so different! The lecture instructor and lab coordinator are two different people and the ones conducting the labs are Teaching Assistants(TAs). I felt like a fish out of water but it was really a different culture here. The topics for exercise physio is quite tough. The lab has loads of calculations man.

Today I had my first tennis lesson! The instructor is very well versed with the game and gave us the low-down of the history of tennis.. The evaluation of tennis even includes an essay question of how the tennis scene is like in Edmonton and is anything done for the game here in Edmonton. I think that is really a holistic approach that we don’t get in S’pore.

Today’s bio gave me another surprise/shock! They use a clicker to determine classroom participation. It’s like a Wii controller and students answer questions by pressing buttons that indicate the answers to the questions on the screen. How cool?! In S’pore, its so ambiguous and we don’t know how our class participation is measured. What’s NOT cool is that it costs $30 CAD.. super expensive.. And it’s already 2nd hand and im gonna sell it back also. Bio and pysch were okay with pysch being really quite fun and enjoyable. Ecology bored me to sleep..

Its been quite fun that we’ve been cooking at our house the past 2days. We had Japanese Curry the night before and herbal chicken soup with fried bean sprouts and omelette. Quite nice and fits our budget. Everything is so expensive here! Textbooks, food, stationary.. EVERYTHING! I really realize and treasure what I had in Singapore so easily which I took for granted last time. The past two days I survived on donuts and drinks which cost less than $4 CAD. It’s still quite expensive but no choice because I want to save to buy stuff and travel.

It’s been hard to make friends because I’m Asian, the minority. I can empathize how the immigrants in S’pore feel now. And we came in Sem 2, so there’s no orientation to help us to integrate. But we joined transitions.. hope that it really helps us to make new friends. I spoke to people in lessons but I wish they could be friendlier. I’m going for ultimate pickups tomorrow and I hope that I can make friends through it!

Thus far, the winter is keeping everything slow and quiet and I hope that it picks up with more activities soon! And its been a real eye-opening sight over here and I thank God for giving me this opportunity.2 years back, I would never imagine myself being here. I rejoice for he is my strength and he amazes me with his grace. Thank you Lord for loving me and giving me life.
I have joined UAOC (Outdoor Club) as a member and I may be going on trips this month to Jasper National Park for some skiing and snowshoe hiking! Keep you posted soon!