Skiing Whistler for the First Time

January 27, 2020

Skiing Whistler for the First Time

Hi everyone, sorry this post is a day late! I promise I have a good reason, if anyone actually cares at all, which I sort of doubt. School this week was normal, but I realize that I haven't given much of an explanation of what a normal week is this term, so I thought I'd give a little more info now.

Mondays I have lecture for my geological sciences class where we learn about the science behind climates and ecosystems. I also have my lab for this class on Mondays, but it doesn't meet every week. Monday afternoons I volunteer with Writers' Exchange at a school in East Van, and this week I headed over early so I could stop and get a picture for a project for another of my classes which I'll explain in a minute. Tuesdays are also a light day for me; all I have is my English class about academic research and writing. Each section of this class has a different "theme" that they focus on and write about, and my class' is creativity. It's been really interesting having so many connections between my classes this term, and I find it's helped me see the value in some of my classes more than I might otherwise. This Tuesday I also met with my partner for a project for another another class, which, again, I'll get to soon

Wednesdays and Thursdays are my longer days this term, although none as long as my 8-8 from last semester. Wednesday mornings start with geoscience, then I meet with my tutorial for my intro to environmental design class. These tutorials are mostly used to get feedback on projects from our TA and other students, and right now we are working on a project that is to design/make a snack and a container for said snack based on the interior and exterior of a building (we picked from a list). The goal is that every aspect of the snack and container will relate to some aspect of the building, without actually resembling it. This is the project I was meeting with my partner for on Tuesday. After tutorial I have a lunch break, then a three-hour architectural drawing class. It's a long stretch of class, but it's the only time it meets all week, so I don't mind it much. We haven't quite gotten to the architectural drawing bit yet, but so far we've had some cool assignments and exercises, usually either relating to drawing or architecture in general.

Thursdays I have my English class to start the day, then a lunch break. After that I have lecture for my sustainable cities class, which right now is my favorite class. I hadn't really known much about planning/urban design before this term, but I find it fascinating and could definitely see myself pursuing it later. It tends to be something taught more at the graduate level, but if I get into the design program, I should get some exposure to it over the next few years, and then could do a degree specializing in it later. After that lecture I go straight to lecture for intro to environmental design, which I also really like. It's a different type of lecture than I've ever really had, partly because the field itself is relatively new and only now starting to really catch on. For this reason, a lot of what we're learning about is still in the experimental phase, and it's been interesting to, as a class, sort of weigh the pros and cons of, say, a material, and consider how it could best be used, if it is worth using at all. While I only have three classes each of those days, most of them are on the longer side, so my days end up going until 5 or 5:30. I don't really mind now, and I'm sure when the sun is still up when I get out, I won't mind at all.

Fridays calm down again, with a lecture for geoscience, and then a tutorial for my sustainable cities class. This tutorial is used to discuss readings (again, a lot of what we're learning can be debated, and we definitely take advantage of that), and present projects. The project we're currently doing involves taking still from a movie that showed an intersection in Vancouver in either 1907 or 1956, and recreating that photo today. We then have to compare the two and write about what has changed, or not changed, and the role transit has had in those changes. I have found it fascinating to learn about Vancouver in the '50s, and to look through archives of old maps and photos and plans for the city, then to compile all that information to analyze what might have caused the changes. For those of you that know the city, my intersection was Broadway and Oak, and the changes have largely been an increase in scale, less about a change in function.

Now that I've written a good length blog post without getting to the thing mentioned in the title, I suppose I should get to the weekend. Friday night I went out with a bunch of my best friends here, and spent most of Saturday recovering, and "doing work." It's not that I didn't do work, it just wasn't the same caliber as usual. I did try to get stuff done though, because Sunday was not a day to do work. Sunday morning Amy and I got up at 5:15 am to get on a bus at 6 am to go to Whistler. The residence community at UBC puts together a bus that goes from campus to the mountain and back in the winter, so Amy and I got tickets for that so we could ski. We got to the mountain around 8:30, but had to wait in the line to pick up tickets for a while, and then stand in the worst lift line I've ever seen for at least 40 minutes, so we didn't get to the actual skiing part until late morning. It was raining at the base when we got there, so everyone was trying to get up to the top where it was snow, which led to some congestion and in turn some ice as stuff got skied off, but over the course of the day we found some good snow. We spent some time on the Whistler side and then took the Peak2Peak gondola over to Blackcomb, where my favorite part was a bowl off the top of one of the chairs. A lot of the bigger bowls were closed for bombing, which was a bummer because, as an east coast skier, those are my favorite runs to take advantage of on the west coast. The weather cleared up over the course of the day, and while there was still a bit of ice, it was nothing compared to a skied off trail at the end of the weekend at Sunday River. We finished the day with some crepes before getting back on the bus. Despite having slept on both bus rides, I went to bed at 8:30 last night, only about two hours after getting back, hence the late post.

Sorry this ended up so long, I hope it was worth the read! Here are some pictures, mostly from Whistler, to enhance your experience:))