This weekend we took our youngest daughter - known as Alice in her diaries here – to Victoria where she is starting university. It was a lovely weekend, if rather emotional.
Actually, the emotion was somewhat lopsided. Sue and I were sad to see her go, but Alice was more excited than sad. For her this was the start of a new adventure. If she was at all nervous, she hid this well. It probably helped that two of her closest friends from high school were also going to UVic, and judging by how often we heard shouts of “hey Alice”, there were a lot of others from her old high school.
We took her to the university book shop first of all. It was packed with other students, clutching their lists and scouring the shelves for the text books they needed. We were impressed with the efficiency of the whole operation. The line up was long, but it moved quickly and the checkout staff were very friendly and cheerful under the assault.
bunnies on campus
One thing you cannot fail to notice at UVic is the rabbits. There are bunnies everywhere. White, black, grey and everything in between. They are ignored by new students who want to look cool – but their parents are often seen taking pictures or even trying to pet one – very uncool.
When you are driving around the campus, you have to be especially careful. Not only are there the usual hazards of Canadian pedestrians, but there’s the self-destructive bunnies to watch out for.
Alice is staying on campus in one of the residences. These range from nearly new condos, to the ones built in the early 60′s. Alice is in one of the oldest ones. She is sharing a room and had not met her roomie until the Sunday. As it turned out, she too was from Vancouver and they were able to communicate well. No doubt there will be a period of adjustment but for now they look like they will get on ok.
Sue and I were a bit worried when we first got to the residences because we saw how much other parents were bringing. I kid you not, there parents with trailer loads of stuff to make sure their beloved had as many comforts as possible. We saw fridges, shredders, printers, chairs, bikes and laptops being unloaded. OK. We must be bad parents, but honestly there just isn’t room for half that stuff in Alice’s room.
We also figured that Alice would be back – with her dirty laundry and a shopping list of essentials. For now we are happy that she has friends around, a good room mate and a place in a great university. She should have the time of her life.