First Day of the conference

          Today is the first day for the IB World Student Conference. I have to wake up early because I arrive at University of British Columbia in the evening yesterday and the registration counter had closed so, I have to register the next day. I woke up quite early today because I was I didn't want to be late to meet my teachers and classmates.

CIRS

          After breakfast, I meet my chaperone, Mayra and she brought the other students and me to the CIRS Theatre for the conference opening remark, followed by the speech of John Robinson. His speech open my eyes to new perspective of view. He influenced me to think of ways I can protect the environment yet, also can improve the condition of our environment.

          Then, we went to the Swing Space for my Global Action team group orientation and ice-breaking session. I was quite happy that I managed to make a few friends from the group because usually I'm quiet and timid. I feel that I'm more sociable than I thought. This is a different experience in making friends for me because nearly most of my existing friends are Asian. After some conversation, I gained a little understanding about their country or state.

          In the afternoon after lunch, there was a sustainability core session, which we have to make a presentation of our idea about what is sustainability, constructs a few Socrates dialogues and create a sustainability model to show what do we think we need in order to sustain. We were also talked to about what can be preserved and I was given a short lecture before the activity begins. Through this activity, I realized that I have so many things to talk about sustainability. I see there's potential for myself to express my thought and ideas better.

Kira and Cassandra at the rose garden during the scavenger hunt.

          Before dinner, I choose to go to Scavenger Hunt instead of soccer. I made a few friends during the hunt. We were running around the whole UBC to take pictures that we need to participate in the competition. From that competition, I feel that I got closer to the new friends that I made here.

UBC Botanical Garden

          At around 7.00pm, I went to the Botanical Garden to explore the west coast rainforest. It was a great trip over there and I really did enjoyed the wonderful scenery there. I was completely awed by the scenery and excited because I have spent most of my time there capturing some pictures of the plants that I can't see back in Malaysia. Then I started to think, if we didn't protect and improve the condition of the environment, all those beauty of nature will be gone and the next generation will only able to see it as something from the past. The fresh air in the botanical garden also reminds me how bad have human polluted the air and I wish that the air will become fresher than now, one day in the future. I've been so busy with my study that I almost forget the existence of the treasure that is very close to me yet I still didn't see it.