(no subject)

[elly427]

I don't wish to be crude here, but seriously, Vancouver, I am sick and tried of all of this motherfuckin' rain in my motherfuckin' city.

I mean, it rains here. Make all the jokes you want (and suffer the same fate as David Duchovny, but I digress) but this is absurd and now I have to boil my water? Man. Man.

At least I have electricity. And yet, more rain the rest of the week. Oy.

*kvetches*

Comments

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

I went there, and UBC parking is hellishly expensive. And much of it is in lots far away from the buildings where the actual classes take place. You want to park somewhere convenient, you have to pay even MORE than to park in one of the cheaper lots and then hike. [penniless liberal arts major] Mind you, I understand the cheaper lots are marginally closer to the science and engineering ghettos than they are to the buildings where actual learning takes place. [/penniless liberal arts major]

Also, every UBC student gets issued a U-Pass automatically, which means you can ride transit for free. It's a massive saving compared with buying a regular monthly pass,a nd they take it out of your student fees whether you use it or not, so you might as well. Transit out there is very crowded particularly at peak times, but there are a lot of buses. Some of them are express buses that only stop at major points and are therefore a good bit faster. However, driving on the West Side is pretty chance-y, and so is bussing. Every so often shit happens and all the buses and cars just sit there instead of actually moving.

There are no plans right now for a light rail link out to UBC, which is annoying, as Skytrain and similar are less subject to traffic snarls than buses. So yeah, the buses are crowded, but there are lots of them and usually fairly reliable. Usually, not always. But when it's total gridlock, everybody's late. I remember when I was living off campus, sweating bullets because I had a midterm in an early class. Got to class almost fifteen minutes late and arrived before the prof did!

The campus is large and spread out (the rumours of cougars in the wilderness areas who eat drunken frat boys are just rumours. Or so they say. The coyotes, however, are real. They're nocturnal and stay away from humans, but don't be surprised to see them come out of the wilderness parts to hunt in the built-up parts at night. They keep the squirrel population down. Well, there are still tons of squirrels, but there'd probably be even more if there weren't coyotes). Cell phone reception can be poor in parts of campus, although that's improved a lot over the past few years. A lot of people who live on campus or just off campus use bicycles to get around because it's so spread out, and the express buses actually have bike racks on the front of the bus for people who bike 'n' ride. The first time your 60-year-old prof shows up to class in his cycling gear it's weird, but you get used to it soon enough. There are lots of bike racks outside all the buildings, but invest in a really good lock, because bike theft is rampant.

The bad news. Point Grey (very nearest neighbourhood), Kitsilano, and Kerrisdale are hellaciously expensive. Not much rental housing available, and you pay for the location. They're mostly quite wealthy areas. There's not much in the way of affordable stores in the vicinity, either.

Most students can't afford rental apartments near campus, and either live in apartments on campus (marginally subsidised, so slightly cheaper, but long wait lists. Apply early. There's a small fee, but if you're reasonably confident you'll probably get in, you're better off putting your name down now and just swallowing the deposit if you end up going elsewhere) or have a bedroom in a shared house off-campus. There are private landlords who rent out houses in the area, generally to students, but you'll have quite a few roommates, and the houses are often not in terrific condition. It's the closest to cheap you'll find within easy distance, but it's also the closest to dorm life, only without the resident advisor to kick people's asses when they don't do their chores. If you can cope with shared housing, it's a good option. It'd drive me stir-crazy, but some people like it.