The holidays are now underway, and if you are a student, you might find yourself with a sudden abundance of free time on your hands. Upon opening Youtube, however, you see a similar abundance of red progress bars under the video thumbnails on your home page… Fear not! If you find yourself running out of…
“It is difficult to engage people about Syria, because it is so complex, and there are so many stories in the media depicting Syrians as passive and helpless. This ad is graphic and it presents the difficulty of the situation in a very real way.” – Jury of the Golden Radiator Award. Today when…
Over the summer, I made a goal to hit as many festivals and events downtown as possible. Some, I was able to volunteer at (Reggaefest, Fiestaval, or Opera in the Village, anyone?) and others, such as Canada Day and the Lilac Fest, I spent the day as a patron instead. One that really stood out to me…
As you have probably noticed in my past posts, I am not staying with a Danish family yet and am just spending time in Copenhagen. That defies the concept of a homestay, doesn’t it? Tomorrow our flight leaves to the city of Aalborg on a different island of Denmark, making today our last day in the…
The World Cup in the past week has been a really exciting event. So here are just some of my top 10 choices of pictures from FIFA 2014 so far. 10 : English Fans Cheering 10 : Ecuadorian Fan Cheering 8: Two Japanese Fans kissing replica of the FIFA trophy 7: Brazilian Fan holding up…
I have always learned, that in order to figure out politics, you have to (excuse my language) wade through the BS to get to the political truth. Here is my interpretation of that truth. Tensions keep rising in Syria as the chemical attack from Aug 21 stresses the nations of the world. Over 1,300 have died…
It seems Russian law has not been too supportive of homosexuality in the past. In fact, until 1999, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder in Russia’s list of mental illnesses. With the recent ban on ‘homosexual propaganda’, the Russian…
Summer break is just around the corner for most students and I just want to get the word out there of a cool program happening this summer called the Seminar on the United Nations and International Affairs. It is a weeklong camp for teenagers that focuses on international issues through debates with representatives of the United…
No, it’s not IB summer school (ohgoodnessno) – it’s a week-long stay at Beautiful (University of) British Columbia to meet fellow IB-ers and talk about sustainability! The IB World Student Conference is held at 4 campuses this year, and we’re lucky enough to have one in the province next door! The week is full of…
Last week, I was lucky enough to be in China for a Model United Nations conference. What is Model United Nations? Model United Nations, or MUN, is a simulation where participants in a conference are given a country and debate world issues, very much like the modern United Nations today. There are numerous of them…
During the 67th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Harper made Canada known on the world stage, with two of his actions each sending a statement. When asked to speak, Harper declined the offer, stating that he had nothing he wished to say to the Assembly at the time. In doing so,…
This July, rather than suffering at summer school or napping on a beach (wait – that did happen, too), I was part of a magical community called Shad Valley. (Sound familiar?) I’ve been hesitant to blog about my month at Shad – how do you fit all those miraculous experiences and incredible friendships into just…
Piano in a Factory, a film directed by Zhang Meng, tells the story of a father’s love for his daughter. Even as state-run industry begins to waver, the economic liberalization is evidently far from reaching the city that the film takes place. Chen Guilin (Wang Qianyuan) plays the accordion in a local band with a…
GlobalFest 2010 will be an explosive fireworks festival that will bring different countries together to compete against each other to produce a huge and spectacular display of fireworks! Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain will compete this year to try to produce the grandest choreographed display of fireworks, with an extra element- the compulsory musical piece,…
Hey YAA-Universe, this is Phung-Bot and I’m currently in Washington, DC. I’ve traveled here as part of a cross cultural exchange titled – Volunteerism: United We Stand. There are 100 countries being represented and yours truly is representing Canada. Washington, DC is fantastic! It’s so clean and there is so much to do. I arrived…