A Reflection

          It's about a week after the conference already, I've learned a lot throughout the whole week at Vancouver. I'm inspired and motivated. This conference really did impact me. I'm much more concern about the environment now. Every single action of people around me and myself makes me think of the impact that we have done to the earth. I think twice before I drive, eat and do something. How big is my carbon footprint now? I never record such thing in my life. Thinking of how much damage to the earth makes me feel very bad about myself. But it's never too late to change!



          I guess people around me already think that I have nagged them a lot so that they would recycle and turn off the electrical appliances that are not in use. I'm back, and I got even more serious. At home in Penang, I'm trying my best to let my family members realise the importance of being environmental friendly. I sat down with my family and I shared my experience at Vancouver. I hope that they have started to think differently now. I feel very satisfied when my sister told me to walk to the restaurant for breakfast rather than driving there. I hope this habit stays.


          I have even start to have more and more green ideas popping up in my head constantly. One of my latest idea now is about the reusable tote bag. I'm thinking of collecting old clothes through events and placement of box in public places, then pick up some shirts to make reusable shopping bags, send the other clothings to the orphanage or refugees that are in need. Sell the bags and the profit goes to charity. I think this is a wonderful idea and I'm trying to propose this to my CAS Coordinator now.

          There is a group in Facebook that my friends from my GAT N have created that is used to discuss and share our green ideas. We share and tried to improve each others ideas so that we can realise the ideas as a project together. We believe a small move can make a difference. Previously, I only talk about the environment but now, I'm trying to improve the earth to be a better. It feels very good when my friends and I motivate and inspire each other through conversations in the group.

          It's not all about environment at the conference, I learned a lot about people of different culture and background too. I've made a lot of friend from many different countries around the globe. Meeting friends from different countries remind me how special this world is. I learned simple greetings in foreign languages, and some trends of different countries. Sometimes it was so interesting that they kept me questioning more about it. I'm usually a quiet and timid girl but I was quite surprise to find out that I'm not as quiet over there at the conference. Having conversation people with completely different way of thought open my eyes to a brand new point of views.

          I have to say, this conference really have brought me a huge positive impact in many ways. My mind grow to become more mature. I appreciate and care about the environment even more. I'm more aware of the environment. I understand more different cultures now. I learn to motivate and inspire. I become more grateful of what I have. I feel proud of my identity as a Malaysian Chinese. I gained so much knowledge. The current me is a bit different from how I was previously, but for the better. I'm glad that I went to the conference.

A day after IBWSC

          I woke up early as usual to say good bye to my friends. I had my breakfast quickly and I went to bid my friends a farewell. It was very difficult to see them leave one by one. My flight is on the next day and there's not much people left. I received little notes and gifts from my friends. I felt so heavy hearted to see them leave. I gave some of my friends some Malaysia craft as a gift to them.
          After the last bus that send my friends to the airport left, I walked to the UBC Bookstore to check out if I want anything else there. Then, I went to the rose garden to look at the beautiful scenery for one last time. By the time I walked back to the Totem Park Residence, there's no one at all! I felt so alone and I started to look around for people to be with but there was no one at all. I looked for Manlai and Amanda to find out who's still there. Unfortunately it was useless, people went to the downtown already. Then I decided to a restaurant called The Point Grill for a late lunch.

 

This is my lunch at The Point Grill.

Anyway, I still prefer Asian food.

 

I found this antique hidden at the corner.

 

Japanese garden at UBC?

It was a surprise when I first saw it.

 

I love the smell of lavender.

 

The beautiful rose garden.

It's a really nice scenery. It's even prettier if you see if with your own eyes.

          I meet Amanda after my lunch to go to downtown. We decided to go to the beach to watch the firework. It was a firework competition that have been going on for nights. Amanda ordered me some Mexican food because I never eat it before. It taste a bit weird to me but it was not bad at all. When the sky is dark, the firework display starts, it was very beautiful. We went back after the firework and I was so tired that I kept falling asleep on the bus. I was really glad that Amanda was there with me, I had a really great time with her.

 

While on my way to the beach.

 

The water is so much colder than I thought.

 

Amanda and our dinner!

I love the sky. Sunset and clear sky.

 

Firework display by the Vietnamese

  

Street of Vancouver at night.

It's the last day already?!

          I can't believe it's the last day already. Time flies over here. I had great time for the past few days. I have met so many people and there's still so much more people that I haven't meet. I have made some great friends here too. I feel so close and comfortable with them in such limited time. I feel like I don't want this conference to end and I don't feel like leaving this place.

         This is going to be the last day for me to eat a lot of bacon just for breakfast. The last speech for this conference is by Paul Nicklen, he is a National Geography journalist. He takes photos from many different places around the globe even from the location with the most adverse weather in the world. I'm amazed that the pictures can tell so much stories even without any words.

    

Penguins jumping out of Arctic ice water.

 

Paul Nicklen and me after his speech.

         At the final GAT group meeting, we prepare presentation for our ideas to improve the world. I help out in colouring the sample poster and I also volunteered myself to do any left over role that no one wants to take. I got to talk about the placement of the recycle and compost bins in the school.

          After lunch, I have to go to the CIRS Theatre for the last time to do my presentation. Every GAT groups' presentation are very different and creative. Some made a poem, some made a video, some just give a speech. The audience was really quiet when I was speaking. I'm not sure whether they like it or not. But I think that it was great.

          I walked to the IBWSC World Cup Finals. I cheered with my friends for my team, which is the Canadien. Even though the Canadien didn't won, but it was fun to watch.

 

Waiting for the bus to go to the beach.
A bad picture of myself being lame with the 14B sign.

 

Sunset at Spanish Banks.

 

Chloe, me and Kendall before we leave the beach.

          Then I get on the bus to the barbecue party at Spanish Banks located at somewhere not far away from UBC. It was very cold at the seaside. I was shivering in cold while eating and walking around. Then we went back to UBC early because it was too cold. Since it's the final day, I walked around with my book so that I can let my friends to sign it.

          Because of my flight is on Sunday afternoon, I have to stay one more day here at Canada. I was quiet worry about where I should stay and eat but after asking around the chaperones, everything is fine and have been arranged. I feel so relieved. I thought I'm going to be alone with no where to stay and live.

It's the fourth day already

          This is the forth day and I enjoy today the most! I kicked start my day with the same breakfast as yesterday. I'm starting to get sick of bacon now. Then it's followed by a speech from Robert Winson. From his speech, he made me realise that there's so many little things that I always worry about have pull me down from standing up and presenting myself without faking it. Every time he finish telling a thing that we should do, I start to reflect myself and I realise there's so many things that I'm so afraid to do.

Robert Winson giving his speech.

           After that, I went to the GAT meeting right away. We had a presentation to prepare for tomorrow. We have choose to talk about recycling and recycling is one of the most common problems between is in a group.

           Waited for lunch patiently, I was very hungry. We went to the Vancouver Aquarium and it was AMAZING! I get to see the penguin for the first in my life. I love the colourful marine. We also went to Stanley Park for picnic during dinner.

 

Beluga whale, one of the rare Arctic marine animal.

It's amazing to see such rare animal with my own eyes, right infront of me.

 

This is a species of frog which I failed to remember its name.

 

 I got a penguin!

  

The lady is feeding the African penguin. One of the species that is facing extinction. 

They are very unique because they can withstand warm and cold.

 

The effect of this photo just look so good!

           The last event for today is a party at the cruise! I had a great one there and this is one of the time that I allow myself to have fun without any problems in my mind. I danced and sang until I got tired with my friends. My energy drained a lot after leaving the cruise. I can't even open my eyes while waiting for the bus.

 

I have Vancouver right behind me!

 

Sakiko and I are on our way to the cuise on the bus.

 

 Another picuture of Vancouver from the cruise.

It's so beautiful and peaceful...

 Later... Everyone party real hard after days.
And sweat. A lot!

The third day...

         I ate so much bacon for breakfast today. I wake up at 6am sharp automatically every morning here in Vancouver. Today is the day when Severn Cullis-Suzuki is coming to give us a speech. I have been looking forward to her speech for a long time. Her speech is very motivating and inspiring. I believe that she has such a strong power to influence people's mind. This is so far the best speech! I feel that I need to start to voice out and take action. I had so much ideas and thought popped into my mind right after Severn's speech.

 

Severn Suzuki is such an inspirational person.
=)

         After Severn's speech, I walked to Swing Space right away for the concurrent session which is about the organizational DNA. From here, we were exposed to real life situation of a company in Canada called SunCore. I have to identify problems and suggest solutions. I find that it's very useful because I got to know all sort of possible solutions to sustain a firm. The solution focus on different areas that enable more comprehensive improvement.

 

This is a little small to see, but here's my solution.

 

The others have their solution in sequence and pasted on wall with different pattern.
Mine seems to be boring.

          Followed by lunch then a speech by Quinn Runkle, one of the students in UBC that have been an active activist for years. She shared her experience and it gives me ideas of what can I do back at school for environmental sustainability.

         The GAT Group Meeting after Quinn's speech discuss about out thought on the Socrates Dialogue that we have wrote on Monday and Tuesday. It let the ideas and inspiration stay in my mind.

         The final  activity for today is the Kutapira music performance. It was very catchy and fun. Everyone in the CIRS Theatre stand up to sing and dance to the music. I enjoyed myself very much.

 

Everyone gone WILD with the Kutapira music after a while.
Even I lost myself and dance to the music like there's no tomorrow.

         I went to the Aquatic Centre in UBC with my friends from Japan, Miyu and Sasuki. While finding our way to get into the building, we met two girls named Danielle and Chloe. I had a great chat with Chloe while walking back to the dorm room. We shared our culture and life stories. I learned so much about her origin.

Second Day of Conference

 John McCall MacCain giving his speech

           This is the second day of the conference. The weather today is great! The temperature is just right and I really love it. I start of my day with a lot of bacons as breakfast. Then I head to the CIRS with some of my friends for the talk from the director of McCall MacBain Foundation. He his speech is very different from the others because it's a bit more interactive based in a Q&A form. So he just basically give us an interactive speech based on our questions.

         After that, we had a decision theatre. From that session, I realised that there are more people that are willing to make an effort to protect and improve the environment that I think. Not only individual should be willing to take action, but getting the top authorities to participate and help to save the environment is very important too. I really enjoyed this session because I find that it's very informative and I'm able to recognize the problem why most of the people are not sustaining the environment. I also have learned a little about urban planning and I really like to learn more about it.

         There was an UBC admission information session after lunch. I found out that UBC loves IB students because they give so much exemption. Even Economics SL can get an exemption! Then my friends and I question them about the details about the scholarship.

          Tim, Tang and I rush to the Swing Space right away for our concurrent session. My concurrent session today is called "You've done your homework". It's about knowing that we have so many wants in our lives and there's many people don't even have some of the needs that are well provided to us. Then we have to work in a group to talk about a goal that we want to set to ourselves on sustainability. We should help to remind the people that have the same goal to develop such habits. It was good to help us to build a new habit for environmental sustainability.

          Right after the concurrent session, there was a GAT group meeting. We have to write a few types of question related to the talk in the morning based on the given criteria just like yesterday. This session is just like a memory refreshment of the information from the speech in the morning by Mr. McCall MacBain.

          The trivia challenge was great because I somehow have learnt something random and new that I never know before because we were asked a lot of random questions to answer. My team is called Yellow, even though we didn't won, but I enjoyed myself there. I went to the dining hall afterwards for dinner. I was very hungry!

The Venezuela dance and costume

           The Singing in Global Harmony session was interesting. We create music naturally by only simple instruction. My throat got a little sore from so much of singing but I enjoyed singing there. The students from Venezuela performed their local music, songs and dance. That was one of the most amazing moment I had here so far. The performance is so colourful and lively. It was so fun that it made me feel like I want to be a part of them too.

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.