Veronica at Quest

Community Day

veronicagalvin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:58:15 +0000

This past week we had Community Day on campus, which is basically lots of fun bonding games with all the students, staff and faculty. After the fun and games we have sessions about various parts of Quest to see what might need changing or works great the way it is. A day to improve the community, and incredibly fun. Check out some of the pictures on the Quest Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/questucanada/

click on the tag for latest photos to see ones from Community Day!

Wednesday

veronicagalvin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:32:37 +0000

Hey all,

How is it already Wednesday? and December? There’s only a week left on campus at Quest, which seems totally crazy. The end of the block is always a bit busy, and this block is twice as bad because all the last minute things need to get done and everyone still has to pack! This month on campus we’ve been doing a huge secret santa exchange, but instead of giving your secret santa gifts, you give them random acts of kindness! It can be harder than it sounds to come up with small acts of kindness that don’t involve spending money on material goods. People have been pretty creative though, writing inspirational chalk messages on the stairs, baking vegan cookies, sending a serenade to them in class… etc.

I’ve also been running around trying to get everything organized for Borneo before heading home for break, it’s staring to sink in that the trip is so soon. A few of us from the trip got together last night to try and learn a little Indonesian through podcast lessons. Selamat! (hello). Another student Jill and I will be blogging about the expedition in Borneo through the Ranforest Action Network site. You can check it out at: http://ryse.ran.org/

veronicagalvin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:55:19 +0000

The final full week: time moves much too quickly when you’re busy. It’s already the third week of December block which means next Wednesday is that last day of term! Things have been a little hectic lately trying to do so many things at one time. The days are counting down until our group leaves for Borneo, so we’ve been having dinners and paperwork deadlines and last minute meetings, which coupled with work and homework and clubs, can get a little overwhelming. But everyone (me included) is getting incredibly excited for the Borneo expedition! Another student Jill and I have the opportunity to write a blog about our trip with the Rain Forest Action Network (RAN) on their website, so that’s exciting news. We also found out recently that The Nature Conservancy is partnering with us, and Willie Smitts will be meeting up with us for a few days on the expedition!

This week in class we are working on a project called Agenda 21 about creating a plan for making Quest campus more environmentally friendly and sustainable. We are also working on a small project involving watching a documentary on a global issue and creating a presentation about it. I watched Stolen Childhoods with my group, a documentary about children being forced to grow up too early, though forced child labor and child sex slaves.

Garibaldi from the Chief

veronicagalvin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:44:23 +0000

Squamish from the Chief

veronicagalvin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:38:41 +0000

The Chief

veronicagalvin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:33:39 +0000

The weather has been beautiful this past week, so on the full moon a group of us decided to hike the Chief at night. Check out some of these pictures!

December

veronicagalvin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:30:03 +0000

This month has been busy! The new block I’m in is Global Perspectives. I think it is one of the most interesting classes I’ve ever taken, and incredibly useful information, but a lot of work too! The material is mostly looking at global issues with economics and the environment. We’ve looked at things like news sources, trans-national corporations, child labor, exploitation in developing countries and various sides of the ecotourism market. We went on a field trip to Vancouver last week to visit the Vancouver Aquarium and a green technology building at UBC. It was interesting to visit the aquarium specifically thinking about whether it was a ecotourism attraction or not. The UBC building was also incredibly interesting. The building had composting toilets and used a variety of recycled materials from other construction projects.

Thursday

veronicagalvin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:50:48 +0000

There was some sun today! Always a nice surprise in the morning in Squamish. The snow line on the mountains keeps getting lower and lower too, its exciting, and Whistler opens on Saturday! There are definitely a bunch of students headed up to get prime use of their passes on opening day.

It’s getting down to crunch time with the end of the block on Wednesday, lots of library time spent working on final essays and presentations and projects and studying for tests. Chemistry has a big final exam on Wednesday for the entire 3 hour class, so that should be fun. I’m definitely planning on having a few study group sessions to make sure I am prepared!

Things are starting to get rolling with preparations for the Borneo trip as well, we just got put into research groups based on similar research questions for the more specific things each student or student group will be focusing on for their documentary videos. I’m in a group with two really fun girls, Elise and Michaela, and am getting incredibly excited about the trip! We all leave in less than two months which seems pretty soon after such a long preparation period starting (for me) in the summer and really slowly having deadlines for things. Time to start getting more organized!

veronica

Checking out the fish hatchery on a Ecology class field trip

veronicagalvin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:46:03 +0000

Fall on Campus!

veronicagalvin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:39:04 +0000