Student Blog: Briana

Well, my amazing job is taking me on a five-week tour of our neighbouring prairie provinces – two weeks in Saskatchewan, two weeks in Manitoba and back to Sask for a week. Our week in Regina has come to a close and it was so much fun!

I’ve only ever been to Regina in the winter before, so I didn’t realize how gorgeous it is in the summer. It’s small, too, with only about 250,000 people there. It’s really my kind of place. We did some touring and some shopping and I did my daily runs on the grounds of the Saskatchewan Legislature, which was absolutely beautiful. I also got to stop in at the Regina YWCA and learn about some cool things they do with the Big Sisters program. I have great ideas to bring to Lethbridge!

The highlight of the trip so far was definitely the Rider game that I went to. Football is a sick obsession of mine. I am absolutely passionate about the CFL and I know the sport and the league inside out. Though I’m Alberta born and raised, my dad has always been a Rider fan and naturally, I grew up to be one as well.

Friends of mine from northern Saskatchewan texted me at 8am on game day to tell me they’d found an extra ticket, and it was mine if I wanted it. Of COURSE I wanted it! I was jazzed the entire day, knowing that I was leaving work at one to head to Mosaic Stadium!

Regina is crazy on game days. We were working a Home Depot event, and I kid you not, every other person had on a Rider jersey or a t-shirt or a hat, and almost every single vehicle had some kind of Rider plate on it! (I put my Rider dice and my Rider plate on the DeWalt truck… I finally feel like I fit in!) Everyone had an opinion about the team, or the coach, or the outcome. I couldn’t wait to go. I had only ever been to one game at Taylor Field before this one – a playoff game in 2008, where we were defeated at home by the BC Lions.

The game was great! The Riders trailed until the fourth quarter, when a field goal and a forced fumble shut down the Eskimo’s dreams. The crowd was loud, crazy and unbelievably friendly. Us three girls attending the game had a great afternoon. It’s hard to explain what football is like at home in Regina. It will suffice to say that McMahon has never compared to the passion that lives at Taylor Field and I can’t wait to be back in August and tear up another home game!!

Well, that’s my update. Busy living the dream! Four more weeks of hotel living, and then back to my lovely home province! So much left to do before summer’s over! Can’t believe July is almost over already!

What a whirlwind of a summer this has been so far! I got the greatest student job in the world – traveling all summer long. I’ve been up, down and all over Alberta for the last month and a half, and I’m about to leave on a five-week trek of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

In between gallivanting all over Canada, I’ve been coming back to Lethbridge to get my condo in order. All the rain we had dumped on us has made for the greenest coulees I’ve seen in all my time living here. It’s been nice to come home and go for a relaxing run in the river valley. The one thing I haven’t missed, which all Leth-bians can attest to is the wind! Taking time off from this city always makes me forget how strong it is.

I’ve reached that point in the summer where all the not going to school is great, but you start to miss classes. You know what I mean? I don’t miss the workload or the stress, but I miss my friends who moved away for the summer, or I miss how everything is busy and filled with people. But there’s only about a month and a half until things get started again!

I’ve started getting emails and Facebook messages about Fresh Fest. New students, returning students and especially first year students… look forward to this! This is the greatest party of the year! The Fresh Fest team puts tons of effort into making sure everyone has a blast the first weekend of the school year. It’s a great time to meet people, tour the campus, talk to older students and have insane amounts of fun. It sounds like there’s going to be great music coming to Lethbridge, and I hope I’ll see everyone out there! The two month countdown is on! For more information about this and to help select bands (or volunteer, for us older students – you younger ones just enjoy!), go to Facebook and search ULSU Fresh Fest under groups.

Now that I’ve talked about how excited I am for school to get underway, I should explain why. I got accepted into my program, Social Studies Education! I stopped by the U today and filled out all my paperwork, so it’s official: this girl is going to be a teacher in two more years! I can’t tell you how exciting it is that all my being a keener last year to get good marks has paid off. This is what I’ve worked my last three years for, and I am looking forward to joining the Faculty.

So bring it on, September! I expect yet another great year from the U of L, and you should too!

– Bri

My name is Bri, and this fall I’ll be going into my fourth year at the U of L. I’m a Women’s Studies/Sociology major and I’m applying to the Faculty of Education (for my second time) this fall, so I’m playing the waiting game as far as next year goes.

I grew up in Red Deer and moved down here straight after graduation. Lethbridge is my adopted city and it has become my year-round home, which isn’t as common as you might think with university students. My view on post-secondary life here is a little biased, I’ll admit, because I’ve never gone anywhere else – or even applied to any other places. My dream, however, is to one day attend McGill for a Master’s degree and live in downtown Montreal, but for now I’m excited to get into Ed and enjoy my last two years in Leth.

During school, I work full-time, so I’m always on the go. When I’m not at the U of L (from here on out I’m shortening this to simply, the U) or at work, I like to play and coach volleyball or climb in the Ascent Climbing Centre on campus. I also do Big Brothers Big Sisters, which has been great for getting me involved in the community. We’ve gone to ‘Canes games, Bulls games, the Japanese gardens, the Galt Museum and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAAG). Lethbridge has a bunch of things to do and a surprising amount of culture.

This summer will be my first summer in neither Red Deer or Lethbridge. I landed a summer job traveling around the prairies and selling tools at trade shows, so I can’t wait to get started with that! I’ll be home every week or second week, doing some upkeep jobs on the new place I’m renting, poking around the U, doing some climbing and getting ready for the Faculty of Education to let me know they desperately want me to be a teacher! Should be pretty quiet around here until fall, when 6,000 or so students all move to town all at once in a matter of few days. September is always the most fun, I’m looking forward to it!

Until next time!

– Bri