Settling in to UBC, Vancouver

We stepped off the plane bright eyed and bushy tailed with a touch of jet lag and made our way down to passport control. The flight was reasonably long and quite turbulent however, each one of us had sat next to a super friendly person, who reassured all of us that the next four weeks were going to be a lot of fun.

As we walked past the Native-American water feature at customs and trundled down to luggage claim we realised we weren’t in Wales anymore. The mountains rolled passed us as we sat, pressed to the window, on the shuttle bus organised by the university to get us to our new home.

Once off the bus, there was only one thing on our mind; food and then sleep. Having been told that the ‘University Village’ was close-by we decided to make our way over there and pick up anything we could find to fill our bellies with some sustenance that would help with the jet lag symptoms we were experiencing by this point. Starvation was avoided and we waddled home with stomachs full of sushi and Canadian McDonald’s. We spotted the famous UBC sign on our way back too and a posey photo of the jet-lagged crew was just something we had to do! (check out the instagram @GlobalOppsCU)

Having arrived at UBC late on the Saturday, we were excited to learn that we had three days of ‘settling in’ activities to get us excited for the courses we’re about to embark on over the summer as well as meet other students that will also be with us at the university.

Our favourite by far was the city tour that the faculty leaders had organised for us. A herd of 500 students piled on to a fleet coaches which arrived at 8.30am sharp. We spent the next three hours on a ‘whistle stop tour’ of Vancouver. Stopping at ‘instagram-perfect’ locations and getting a feel for the city and what neighbourhoods we wanted to explore next time. The experience was made even more enjoyable after a sighting of a Netflix star with flaming red hair (Riverdale fans will know who I mean)! We left with at least another 500 photos in our camera roll and tears in our eyes from laughing so much.

It’s been a fab few days so far and we’re looking forward to seeing what else this beautiful city has to offer, but for now… we have to get back to studying… maybe!