university (in)experience

whats up!?

2008-10-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

I think I know what I want to do for my question! Maybe? Somewhat? A vague idea anyways. I NEED TO DO SOMETHING WITH NATURE! Or more specifically - something to do with making sure nature sticks around. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY WHATS UP NOW??
I think this sounds like direction. and I think this sounds like the lonnggg road to a PhD! wooohoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

OCTOBER IS NOW!

2008-10-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

well well well!

It's been nearly two months now.

I'm back at Quest again, and it feels more like home than ever.

here are the highlights from the sparksnotes version of where I am right now:

-I voted last week for the first time ever!

-I'm waking up early tomorrow to start a furious bout of cooking for a massive thanksgiving dinner

-I LOVE THANKSGIVING

-For the entire month of september, I dragged my mattress on my porch and set up camp! It was so great because I would wake up surrounded by trees and birds and the sun creeping over Mount garibaldi. I never wanted to leave my nest - something that made me repeatedly late for class

-I've started confining my wardrobe to fleece, long johns and hiking socks. Less because it's cold, and more because I feel so comfortable and weirdly fashionable

-I think I want to be an ecologist!

un mois qui reste!

2008-07-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

QUEST IS SOOOO SOOONNNNNN!
I'm really excited for orientation and I can't wait to see all the tutors and staff and old students and new students and the mountains and sea to sky highway (minus the rockslides) and THE NEW TURF! and my bagpipe band in squamish and to relax in the artsbay and the one breakout room with the killer view and to just be working and busy again. sdgkiyfiogydfghdkjhf!!!!!!

Until Aug 22nd when I board the plane for BCCCCCCCCCCC, I'll be busy planning for next year and working for my dad and writing music . It has been so nice to hang out with my brother (he's teaching me how to sail and how to play banjo) and have time to writewritewrite and thinkthinkthink. I'm already thinking about my question! huishgeubdnkfh But I'm so thankful that we have an entire block dedicating to working out our question in december. I've got time!

I cant' wait I cant wait I cant wait

love,
caro

CHINACHINACHINACHINA

2008-07-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

nieeeeeeeeee haaooo!

I just came back from 2 months of traveltraveltravel in the Peoples Republic of China! Along with Jen Yip! (a wicked awesome quest kid), Jen's momma and one of our other best friends, I spent 60 days making my way through the narrow alleyways, crowded subways and busy markets of a country determined to make its mark. We started out in HongKong, and then traveled throughout the Guangdong province and then to the Northwest to Yunnan province and we finished our trip in Shanghai and Beijing. Whichhhhh basically means that we had the opportunity to see a large part of the masssiiivvee country. And we were amazingly lucky throughout our travels because Jen has family scattered across China, so we had apartments and eccentric families waiting for us in major Chinese cities like Beijing and Guangzhou.

There was one problem however; Jen's family members didn't speak much english, and we definitely weren't fluent in Chinese. This language barrier presented some serious communication problems. By the end of our 60 day trip, we had basically mastered the art of hand gesturing and facial expression because they were the only things that existed on a common ground. But as much as we managed to get by without speaking the language, I really regret not being able to communicate fully with all the amazing people that we met around dinner tables, in taxis, bicycling through villages and in busy squares at night.

Although it's hard to communicate the sheer epicness of our trip - one of my favorite legs of the trip was the time we spent in Yunnan province where 25 of china's 56 recognized ethnic groups are located. Some 38% of the province's population are members of minorities which explains why the province is so reknowned for its ethnic diversity. We usually rented bicycles and went on leisurely loops through villages that have yet to be too tainted by globalization, where we saw little grandmas and grandpas carrying huge baskets of vegetables on their backs. Squating on the sides of the roads, middle aged men wearing tanktops and flipflops smoked cigarettes would watch farmers leading their waterbuffalo through the street. I had never seen anything quite like it in Canada.

But probably the best moment for all of us happened in this small town called quite fittingly, Shangri-la which is as close to Tibet as you can get without actually entering Tibet. This one night, we were driving through the town and we happened to pass by the town square and there were more than 100 locals dancing to traditional tibetan music. And it wasnt a tourist show - in fact, we were the only foreigners around. There were people ranging from old grannies in traditional wear to rowdy teenaged boys - and then there was us foreigners trying to keep up with all their footwork. IT WAS AMAZING AND AWESOME AND MAGICAL!!!!!

And that was China. Loud, friendly, smoggy and I can't wait to watch the Olympics and return to the country in a few years - but maybe with a few more Chinese words in my vocabulary.

Caro

ev-o-lu-tion!

2008-05-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that I have been a terrible blogger as of late. I've been so absorbed with my last block and making plans for summer that I haven't even had time to write about it. But here it is! (finally)
It's the last block of first year, and it has been one of the most intense months at school - not just with academics - but with student life planning for next year. We've also been 'saying goodbye' to our first year at Quest. It's going to be really weird to leave our little campus on the hill and live alone and not see my friends or my tutors. But at the same time - the year really does feel complete, and I think it is finally time to take a break and go adventuring. I'll get to the adventure in a bit, but first -
In my last entry I promised to make updates about government and residence leader elections! As the first student body of Quest we had a pretty big assignment - to start building the student life from scratch. From choosing the school mascot to spearheading clubs on campus, this year's group of students played a fundamental role in the creation of the atmosphere of the university. Being part of the inaugral year of a university also meant that components of student life that are usually necessary to the ability of a school body to function (such as the student council) were left to us to design. For the entire second term, a group of dedicated students met at least once a week to formulate a constitution to act as the framework for the student council. After much heated debate, insight and teamwork - the constitution for Quest University Canada's Student Representative Council was approved by referendum. The students from this year who will hold office next year were also voted on by the student body, and they will fill the following positions:

The Executive Council
President (Caleb Tomlinson)
Vice president of Internal Affairs (Jen yip!)
Vice President of External Affairs (Kevin Eastwood)
Chief Financial Officer (Eric Goldstein)

Ministerial Positions
Minister of Academics: Caroline Hedin (it's me!)
Minister of Athletics: Chelsey Forsberg
Minister of Clubs: Christian Kieller
Minister of Community Service: Celeta Cook
Minister of Enrolment Management: Dimitar Kaschiev
Minister of Health and Food: Anna Stoll
Minister of Internationalization: Bezaleel Tekka
Minister of Spirit: Adrienne Dalla-Longa
Minister of Second Year Experience (Internal): Sean Hamilton
Minister of Second Year Experience (External): Andrew Ward
(Ministers of 1st year Experience will be elected in the fall! So there is still a chance to be involved with the council if you're interested!)

We have only been in office for a few weeks - but we have already started meeting and planning for the upcoming year. I'm so excited to be a part of government (and to work with some of my good friends), because I feel that with a council in place student life next year will be way better organized. I also think the student's council will not only be fundamental in creating a stronger bond between the student body and the powers-that-be of the university, but also with the community and other universities. Things are starting to happen!

In addition to creating the students council, we also elected residence leaders for next year. On each floor, there will be one elected representative to basically act as the older brother or sister to answer questions or offer their infinite wisdom hahah. I was lucky enough to be elected as a floor representative - which means that in addition to being big-sister-caroline, I also get to come back to school early to help during orientation and meettttttttt neeewwwww stttuuuuddeeeennnnnnttttsssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I'm obviously not excited at all)

There is so much to look forward to in the coming years, and even though things are going to change (we're not going to be the only 80 students any more!), I can't wait for new students to be woven into our classes and for new additions to the faculty. I can't wait to learn about molecular biology and philosophy and anthropology. And I can't wait to use the brand new science labs - so basically - I can't wait for nerdism part 2 to begin hahah.

Thanks for year one of four

Caro

neuronerd

2008-03-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

I am almost finished my first year of university! I started my 3rd week of neuroscience today, which is my second last block of the year. So far the term has been super interesting - maybe just because I'm a huge bionerd, but I love learning about the body. Although I was amazed by the brain before I studied neuroscience, this class has really made me appreciate the complexity of the squishy pink organ that floats around in my skull like highschool never could. I like the way the course is organized because in addition to learning about the intricacies of the brain in class - we get to design our own experiments and use other students as test subjects...dun dun dun. Although we don't get to use scalpels, we still get to participate in experiments that physically demonstrate how the brain processes visual images or sound for example. For my visual experiment last week, my group and I used what's called "the waterfall illusion" to test if complex cells (which are cells that are responsible for processing moving images) are affected by long-term caffeine use. You can see the illusion for yourself here. It's pretty intense though - and as experimentation went on, we started to refer to the effects of the illusion as free drugs hahah. So be warned.

Here is a picture of our experimentation -

and this is my neuroscience class on a field trip to the SFU library to do research on our final paper.

The field trip was actually the most endearing thing - because we all filed off the bus, and immediately got overwhelmed by the cold, grey concrete of SFU. We felt so small and lost and we were immediately struck with the fact that no one at the university acknowledged eachother. It felt like wandering in a mall or in a big city. It felt so anonymous. I'm pretty sure everyone appreciated Quest the moment that our bus pulled into the parking lot - because all we could talk about throughout the three hours we spent on the SFU campus was how much we wanted to go back to our little university on the hill. My friend Alana summarized our feelings the best: "Even though Quest is a small school, in some ways, it's bigger than a university like SFU. Schools like SFU may have more students, but at Quest, you know more students."
I definitely came back from the trip with a little more appreciation for Quest, and I came to the conclusion that I am so happy to go to a small school instead of a mall- sized-mammoth university. Hallelujah!

stay tuned for updates about the upcoming residence and student council elections which will be happening over the next couple of weeks!

love,
caro

The Juan da Fuca Adventure

2008-03-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

At five in the morning a few days after school got out for Spring Break last week, some of my closest friends and I piled into a van and started out for the Juan de Fuca trail on Vancouver Island. We could hardly all fit considering the size of our backpacks (I'm pretty sure I would have been able to fit inside my bag), but we listened to John Mayer pretty much all the way there which made the journey to the trail cramped but tolerable. When we set sail on the ferry to the island we were lucky enough to see the sunrise, but the closer we got to the trail head, the more nervous I got. Considering that I had never even been on an overnight hike before, I really didn't think I would be able to handle 4 nights and 5 days - but there was no going back. When Jenn Segger-Gigg (one of the atheletic directors at Quest) dropped us off and drove away with the van, we were finally on our own and into the wild.

The Juan de Fuca is a 47 km trail located on the western coast of Vancouver Island beneath the West Coast trail. It's pretty rugged, and it hugs the coast line while weaving in and out of dense forest. We hit the trail super early into the season and managed to miss the wettest part of spring, but the trail was still soaked and muddy. Although we avoided crowds of hikers by going so early, we couldn't avoid being just as soaked and muddy as the trail. We waded through trenches of mud, hopped from tree stump to tree stump and gingerly crept across logs. But despite our best attempts to step as carefully as possible, we still spent the majority of the trip with soggy socks and mud caked clothes because we slipped and fell so much. I was even christianed with the nickname "Autumn" because of my falling record (I still have bruises as a testament to this!) 47 km doesn't sound like that far of a distance, but the terrain was rough and the hills of the trail were gruelling - which made doing even 7 km a day long affair. But even though our muscles complained, it was so rewarding to emerge from the forest to catch a glimpse of the open ocean.

We even got to sleep by the sea! For two out of the four nights, we were lucky enough to set up camp on beaches (and it didn't rain!) The first was on Sombrio beach which is a huge surfing hangout - so we got to sit by the fire and watch the last surfers of the night weaving through the waves as the sun set. Pretty romantic. The second beach sleep was a little more exciting however. We had stumbled off the trail after 10 hours and 19 km of the hardest segment (the 11 hills of death) to collapse on the sandy shore of Mystic Beach, and we quickly set up camp without checking our tide table like we had been doing throughout the journey. We were just too tired to care about anything besides sleeping and dinner and we hastily pitched our tents on ground that looked pretty safe. Bad call. We woke up at 1 in the morning with the sound of the tide roaring in our ears, and we peaked outside the tents to see the waves crashing about 3 meters away. We went into panic mode and everyone climbed groggily out of our sleeping bags and dragged the tents further upshore. Somehow in the total darkness and in bare feet we managed to hoist the tents over heaps on driftwood - which was well worth it considering that the next morning, all the footprints we had made the night before had been washed away by the ocean. But we survived!

Despite close calls, long days and lack of sanitation, the Juan de Fuca was nothing short of amazing. I learned so much about working together, and I really appreciated being envelopped in the wilderness with some of the most hardworking, clever and supportive people in my life.

I left for the trail without any hiking experience and came back dirty, bruised and with amazing memories of my first spring break at Quest.

This is the crew pre-Fuca when we were clean and dry

We stopped for lunch on the beach and ate in a cave!

We had to climb across so many logs over ravines and raging rivers.

Forest gymnastics - the balance beam

Anything you eat on trail tastes amazing

Fresh blood!

2008-02-29T14:25:00.000-08:00

Working in the admissions office makes me excited about next year! I am so happy to have a role (albeit a small one) in the enrollment process. I love filling enveloppes for prospective students - because I know how excited I was to get letters from the university last year, and it's an amazing feeling to know that I get to partake in that experience for someone else. In addition to keeping busy with mailouts, many of the student employees in the admissions department have had the opportunity to give tours of the campus to prospective students who come to visit the university. The excitement of touring is epitomized during Preview Days when prospective students and their families come from all over the world to see the campus, sit in on class taught by a Quest Tutor, and to meet current (and charming) Quest students. I acted as a tour guide at our Preview Day earlier this month , and I really appreciated talking to both students and parents. I still can't believe that we are going to have more students next year! I have gotten so used to only having 80 students on campus, that next year is going to be an interesting experience. Although the cafeteria lineup is going to get considerably longer, the prospective students that I have met so far reassure me at least I will have new friends to wait in line with. (p.s. If you are interested in coming to our upcoming Preview Day on March 29th, check out the Quest Website at www.questu.ca)

Other than that, spring break is coming up and my friends and I have planned an epic adventure into the wilderness of British Columbia! We are going to be spending close to a week hiking the Juan de Fuca trail, and I really hope we are going to be prepared enough. We went to Mountain Equipment Coop last week and spent wayyy too much money, and now we are desperately gathering camping supplies and making meal plans. I have come to the conclusion that it is going to be a week of soggy sleeping bags, lack of hygiene and sore muscles. However, I am looking forward to roasting weenies and telling ghost stories with some of my best friends in one of the most beautiful places Canada has to offer.
If we make it back alive, I promise to post pictures of our "Into the Wild" experience.

All the best,

Caro

artsy fartsy time

2008-02-08T16:34:00.001-08:00

After three and a half weeks of workworkwork, block break is finally here. Probably the funniest thing is to contrast students the night before the end of the block and the moment classes finally finish. I don't think anyone slept the last couple of days before the block ended- we were a school of zombies trying desperately to put the finishing touches on respective final projects (I finished my 20 page essay!!) I think that these 4 day breaks between classes help promote some level of sanity within the school-both for the staff and students. But it starts alllll over again on monday

Despite the copious amount of time I spent researching and powering through problem sets, the last block was one of my busiest months artistically. During the blocks before Christmas I was beginning to feel so stressed and unlike myself, mostly because I had forgotten to make time to play music and paint and draw and dance and do anything that didn't involve writing essays. But I think that I am starting to find more of a balance now between getting my school work done and remembering who I am. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I am starting to become more involved with writing music and making art again- either with Arts and Culture Council initiatives or most recently - helping out with the Quest mural project.

For the past week and a half, Quest hosted our first artist in residence: Patrick Thompson. Pat is based out of Nelson, BC, and has spent time all over the world (most recently in Barcelona, Spain) participating in art shows and collaborating with groups to create large scale murals. Quest was lucky enough to have him stay with us and design a mural in our soon-to-be art/music studio. A few students helped with the painting process (although Pat did the vast majority of the work) and the finished project is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was such cool experience to see how a large scale project actually materializes, and I am so happy to have had Pat as an artistic mentor. Apparently the plan is for Pat to come back again to add more to the wall - so if you missed out this time, you can always come back next year and maybe steal and autograph from him haha.
I'll upload photos of the Quest mural within the next few days, but if you want to check out some of Pat's past work go to:
http://www.allthingsfat.org/
or
http://them.ca/artists_profile.asp?mid=135
(Pictures of the mural are available on this website!) ch-ch-check it out

Peace and love,
Caro

generative spirals

2008-01-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

I'm finally starting to get back into school life again. When I was back at home over break I felt like I never wanted to leave my house ever again. I didn't want to go back to school, but I didn't want to work either. All I wanted to do was read and write and do art (and be with my family). I was so adamant about it that my mom even offered that I could take a block off if I wanted to - but I realized that I would regret not going back. Before coming to university, I had never been away from home and my family before. In some ways, I understand that it is important to start learning to provide for myself and survive on my own, but at the same time, I find it such a foreign concept to be away from my house and my family and my old life for so long. At school as the months go by, you feel like everyone at home is starting to forget about you and move on, but then you go back for a break and you realize that everything is almost like you left it. It was comfortable to be home again, but now that I'm at school and far away, its comforting to know that my family (and my bed!) will be waiting for me until I come home next.

And its hard to pine about home much-because school is so busy right now. Math class is not as scary as I thought it would be, its actually really entertaining and I have been learning a lot. This term, there were 3 choices of math classes: math puzzles, history of math and modelling math. I chose the "math for the arts child class" which is history of math, and most of the kids in my class chose it because we hoped it would be the least math-oriented class. On the first day of school, we basically had a 2 hour counseling session led by our prof. Glen Van Brummelen about why we hated math. We went around the table sharing the scarring math experiences of our childhoods, most of them involving tyrant math teachers. After a lengthy discussion, we came to the conclusion that the reason our relationship with mathematics was so dysfunctional was due to the teaching methods we had experienced in our youth. We dubbed our past math experiences "drill sargent math training". My high school experience with math involved blindly copying and applying formulas to questions formulated in tattered textbooks that were last updated in 1976. It's hard to feel passionate about a subject when everything feels so mechanized and oppressive.

That's where my History of Mathematics class is different. Instead of just applying concepts and equations, we are learning about WHY we use them. Although plenty of math involved, it's not just a math class. I've learned about the Babylonians, the Egyptians and the Greeks. I've learned about their histories as nations, and I have studied their philosophies and have come to understand how their mathematical discoveries made sense culturally. In addition to class work, historical inquiries and problem sets, a large portion of our final grade is geared towards an independent research project. Its pretty daunting: a 10-15 page paper due at the end of the semester, involving hours of late night library sessions. My topic is about the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence and their relationship with the naturally occurring spirals. Even though it is a large undertaking, the more I read about how math hides in leaf formation in plants, hurricanes and even music, the more I appreciate what I am learning about. I guess that I'm becoming a little bit of a math nerd. Thanks Glen.

caro

back to school

2008-01-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

It's weird to think that I am already half way through my first year of university. Growing up, university always seemed so far away, but I guess that now I am the one who is far away. Far away from home and my family and my field hockey team. Although I miss what I have left behind in Calgary, I have been too busy adventuring in the forest, writing papers and spending days in the Vancouver Art Gallery to get too homesick. But it always feels good to be home again-I'm on winter break right now, and I have been cramming all the sleep and friends and family I can into my days before school starts again on Monday. I have also been catching up on novels that I have been longing to read - 1984(George Orwell is such an amazing author!) and Timothy Findley's Pilgrim. I have also developped a compulsive obsession over the Presidential elections. Chances are that if I know you, I have interrogated you about your political values and most importantly-which candidate you want to lead the United States. My best friend and I are definitely nerdy political junkies, and I also happend to have convinced her to come to Quest with me. We have been pretty inseparable since highschool, and I can't express how much I have appreciated having her at our little university in the mountains.

School. On Monday. To tell you the truth, as much as I have enjoyed my luxurious time off, I feel like it's time to work again. I've been looking at my syllabus for my next class (History of Mathematics) and since I am definitely not a math person, I'm a littttle nervous. I know it is going to be hard, but what I have loved about my classes so far is that they are a challenge. I will admit that there are late nights involved, but after the block is finished I feel so satisfied that I actually learned and accomplished something. I have also noticed that my writing skills are improving. I looked at essays I wrote in Cornerstone, and I can't believe how much I have reformed my writing style (I have a tendency to be excessively flowery sometimes).

One of my other best friends went to McGill this year, and I think that I have written more in a single week than he has all semester. But what I have come to realize, is that the only way to improve is to practice. I don't mind the workload anyways because so far I have loved my classes, my profs and the subjects, and I find that homework is actually interesting if I like what I'm learning about.

I hope that this semester is just as good (even math).

caro