As most people knew, there was a grand open house in Edmonton at the University of Alberta. For the fair at the Butterdome, all faculties from all the campuses came to host their individual booths, providing brochures and little goodies.
Considering the individuals from Calgary, the U of A were as thoughtful as they could and arranged two ebuses which would take you to the U of A and back for a deposit fee of $25.
In order to be on the ebus, I register online for a spot and paid a fee of $25 (to be honest, at the time, I did not know it was refundable). The process was legitimately a no-brainer; all you need was a name, an email address, an address and information on your credit card. To make it easier, the University of Alberta even joined Eventbrite so that you can just add the ticket on to your phone instead of using a printable copy which might get lost.
So, on Oct. 18, 2014, I woke up when the sky was still dim and the moon was still hanging. Before 6 a.m., I hopped onto the Somerset/Bridlewood C-train and sat there as one of the six people until 3 St. After walking for two blocks, I finally saw the Calgary Centre for the University of Alberta, which I didn’t know existed previous to that day. Similar to any event, the super duper nice people there scanned my ticket, but for this, there was FOOD provided, along with a yellow bag with a folder in it. There was Tim Hortons coffee, timbits, fruit platters and beverages. The bottled water from Safeway seemed really weird because the bottles were pink. Organized stacks of the admission books were also supplied.
Moving on, after the bus started to move, I spent around three-four hours on the bus that had an electrical plug-in, wifi and a washroom. (How awesome is that!) During the ride, we went by graveyards, farms and numerous convenience stores, honestly they were not very interesting. However, Erin who was the Calgary Recruitment Advisor gave a brief description about the university and went seat by seat to help everyone register for the tours they’d like to participate for.
When we actually got to the university, the volunteers and the mascots there showed their hospitality which allowed us as to feel as we belonged. Also, there was a lot of selfies taken with the mascots (pandas and bears) for the contest.
At butterdome, a HUMONGOUS stadium was crowded with individual booths that has being set up by every faculty on campus, and from above it looked like the place was packed. I was very impressed by how organized it was. After getting a stamp on the hand at the entrance of the “fair,” I walked myself through every stand there was and collected all the brochures that were available. The exhibition at all the booth were so fascinating, for example, there was skulls on display, chemistry experiments being conducted, and little pine trees being given out. But one thing that I noticed was that the Faulty of Engineering had a booth which was the same size for the Augustana Campus booth. Guess that shows how popular engineering is!
For the general tour which was soon after, two of the students at the North Campus led a group which walked through most of the campus and introduced each and every one of the buildings with fun facts here and there. The a building which really attracted my attention was one of arts buildings, combining gardening aesthetics with European architecture styles. (Apparently, some people even rent it for a day so they could get their wedding pictures taken there.) Another thing which interested me was the HUB, a three blocks-long hall which serves as a mall, as vendors open shops on the two sides. According to the volunteers, approximately 2,000 people walk through the HUB every hour on a average winter day. Here comes the more interesting part: the level above the shops are actually dorm rooms!
After the tour, I have lunch in the HUB with a $15 lunch card issued by the University. To be honest, the smoothie at the dessert place was bland, but their mixed berry frozen yogurt was really delicious.
That concludes my day at U of A, it was a tiring but an AWESOME WAY to spend my Saturday!