After a busy first semester and the end of Christmas holidays, many students start making their way back to the little town of Kamloops, home to Thompson Rivers University.  It is here that I have made some amazing friends, connections and learned an abundance of information that will help my fellow students and I in our future careers.  Thompson Rivers has been the perfect University to study at.  The campus isn’t overwhelmingly big which gives you an instant sense of comfort, especially if it is your first time away from home.  Classes are quaint allowing you to really connect with your professors, which, I have always found beneficial in the learning process.  Not to mention Kamloops is an amazing city full of friendly people and endless opportunities to explore.  So who wouldn’t want to spend their University career in such a wonderful place?       

I make my way down the hall to my first class of the day and ran into my good friend Anastasiia.  Anastasiia is an international student from Russia that I met on orientation day first year and we are now on the home stretch of our third year. We catch up a little bit before class starts and but that time quickly runs out.  We decide to meet at The Den, the on campus pub so we can finish talking about our Christmases spent at home.  The Den, located in the center of campus at the Campus Activity Center,  is one of many great places to eat on campus and is very affordable for students.  There are daily specials that cater to any diet and it is a great spot to have a social gathering with friends.  Anastasiia and I order our meals which included a delicious teriyaki rice bowl for myself and Anastasiia’s favourite, a vegetarian burger.  Our visit is full of laughs and stories from our hometowns and it’s great to hear that although she had an amazing time at home, Anastasiia is very excited to be back to continue her studies even if it’s far away from home.  Over lunch we agree that we would both like to get a head start on our assigned homework and decide to pack up and head over to the library.   

We exit the doors and right there, at the Common Grounds, a little square that gives you access to all the campus buildings, we bump into Anastasiia’s friends Aksa. She is a Pakistani girl and smiles brightly. Seems like she’s in hurry but she still stops to give us a proper hello.  She invites us to her dorm room for a movie and some snacks with a couple girls around 7 o’clock tonight. The dormitory she lives in is just one of the three housing options students can choose to have a direct access to all campus services.  Aksa gives us some details and looks excited about the event but obviously has to go as she keeps checking the time on her phone.  She then hurries off to into the campus activity center.

We continue our walk heading to another part of the campus. Weather is a bliss today. Having a temperature of two degrees above zero in the mid-January is a miracle everyone enjoys. The evenings are pretty cold, so the snow never really goes. The mountains are covered in it, and the white tops of the trees glow in the winter sun. I wish we could stay outside longer. While walking we are talking about how skiers and snowboarders must be happy with the weather, and that Sun Peaks is probably going to be super busy this weekend.

We approach the Main Library faster than we wanted. Fully packed during the exam period, it’s pretty empty today and we easily find a quiet corner for ourselves.  Taking out our textbooks and laptops we keep talking about our common friends, volunteering opportunities in Kamloops Immigrant Services and the upcoming trip to Kelowna with L.E.A.P. We definitely have to study, but for now, we want to make sure we’re not missing anything. At the end of the day, having fun is a big part of student life.