What is it like to live in British Columbia?

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BBXX

Number one thing about living there is that it is expensive. You have an advantage at UBC because you can liv on Rez, which is ten times cheaper than renting a basement suit or apartment.
The people are pretty much the same as any other place. You have your nice people and your mean people, and everything in between. There are huge style differences in groups though. You will see punks, goths, paris hilton wanna-bes, sporty, blah blah blah. Everywhere you go you will pretty much see one of each.
The weather is pretty rainy through most of the winter months, and early spring. It can get really grey at times. In the summer it's mostly sunny and clear weather and very warm. On average you will probably see snow for 2 weeks max in the year, and normally means school will be closed (UBC was closed for 3 days because of it and so were other unis) with less than 5 inches. So the free days are nice
If you are 19, then you are legal in BC. which means there are TONS of things to do. Vancouver has a bunch of great clubs (some of my faves: Fabric, caprice, pop opera, mirage, aubar, the roxy) tons of bars as well. If you like sushi you went to the right place as well. There is a sushi restaraunt on every corner and it is always good.
Make sure to hit up english bay and take a walk/bike ride on the sea wall. Stanley park is amazing, Whistler is only 2-3 hours away and it is a must see. GM place is huge for canucks games and concerts, There is always something happening there!

T20T

Vancouver is huge, so many things to do, there's the tourist things such as Stanley Park, etc. but there's many other places to eat and tour, many places to shop. Vancouver's weather is very moist and wet as the west coast usually is, the mountains are there but are not as close together as they are in other parts of BC. Its very expensive living in BC, especially in Vancouver. There's good transportation though to get around and its pretty cheap. People wise, its city life, busy and crazy during rush hour and many people are ill tempered around that time of day I find, but other then that really friendly, you will find many different cultures there, there are many gang fights right now, and there's a lot of homeless though they are trying to do something about that before the Olympics...cost of living in Vancouver will go up before Olympics, so its a bad time to move there unless you are going to be on campus.

Brad

I mostly agree with poco, its nice but its also expensive. Did you know that BC actually stands for Bring Cash?

Russell V

Most responses have been geared towards Vancouver... but as you mentioned British Columbia I'll let you know about the Okanagan Valley. UBC also has a campus in Kelowna. The valley is classed as semi-arid (desert qualities) - the summers are dry and hot with not a lot of rainfall, and although you'll see more snowfall here than on the coast, it's much milder than many areas of Canada.

Kelowna is the largest city in the valley with approximately 115,000 people. Some of the neighbouring cities/towns (within an hour drive) are... Penticton, Summerland, Peachland, Westbank, Lake Country & Vernon. The region is known as a 4 season playground with lots of outdoor activities to take advantage of. In spring you could be skiing in the morning and playing golf in the afternoon!

http://web.ubc.ca/okanagan/welcome.html

The Mrs.

Vancouver is a beautiful city. You are right next to the ocean, lots of mountains and you are right next to the US border. I moved here several years ago. At first I was hesitant, but once I got here I couldn't of imagined living anywhere else.

The people are very friendly. I find the atmosphere is very laid back. Its a very welcoming place from what I have experienced. Very multi-cultural.

The weather stays relatively mild. We rarely drop below the freezing mark. This winter was a strange exception with the snow we got in December. Typically winters are do not go below freezing and consist of lots of rain with very little snow. The spring has, I would say anyway, equal amounts of sun and rain . .if not more sun. The summer is beautiful. Mainly sunny, but we do get the occasional rain shower. The fall stays fairly nice until you get to mid October, thats when the rain usually starts to kick in. From then on its usually a good mix of rain and sun. The best part of being in UBC is if you get too hot you can walk on over to Trail 6 to Wreck Beach and take a dip in the ocean. Wreck beach is clothing optional if that is something that bothers you.

Neighbouring cities include Richmond, Burnaby, Coquitlam, New Wesminster, Delta, White Rock, Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge and further off are Mission, Abbotsford and Chilliwack. Chilliwack being the furthest is approx. 1hr 20mins or 104km. So you have a lot of cities within easy driving distance. Which can make for some good entertainment if you want options.

We have a fairly good transit system here. The sky train can get you around most of the Greater Vancouver Area. When the sky train fails there is the bus, sea bus and ferries. This linke will take you to the sky train and other transit information: http://www.translink.bc.ca/Transportation_Services/SkyTrain/

There are plenty of things to do around BC. You can go see all sorts of things at the different concert venues: http://www.generalmotorsplace.com/ or http://www.bcplacestadium.com/ . We also have the PNE which is in the late summer/fall: http://www.pne.ca/ . There are endless things to do. For a more touristy aspect check out: http://www.tourismvancouver.com/visitors/. As far as local places there are way too many to list. In the winter you can head on up to Whistler and do some skiing/snowboarding. In the summer there are plenty of places to take up some swimming. There are some rodeos in the spring/summer. There are plenty of lakes/provincial parks to go camping at. Lots of hiking trails in the area for bike riding and getting a taste of nature. If your more of a pub/bar/night club kinda guy your best to ask once you get to UBC. Wreck Beach is nice. Lots of guys go down there and do the skim bording. Its fairly popular in the summer. There were some real hardcore people down there a couple weekends back.

A lot of people out here take advantage of the beautiful outdoors. So hiking/biking/camping/skiing or in general being outdoors is very popular with a lot of people out here. With that said you still have a lot of city people that like to take advantage of what Vancouver has to offer. There are so many shops/restaurants/bars/night clubs/cafe's. With all the unique shops, that alone can keep you fairly busy.

All in all, its a great place to go to UBC. If I could do it all again, I would definitely be signing up to go to UBC instead of where I choose to go.

POCO!

Oh my goodness, what a wonderful question! Haha, I'm a perminent resident here in Vancouver! Did you know Vancouver is the WORLD'S top 3 most livable places to live? Clean water, good sceneries, amazing views of the pacific and mountains and oh! The fishes and seafood.
The weather is quite moist though, rains ALOT. Make sure to buy a good umbrella when you come XD
In "upper-scale" Metro Van, there is Robson street, I like to call it the 5th ave of Vancouver. So many designers and so many shops!
Depending on where you live, the transportation should be convinient, we have buses here and skytrains too.
Overall, it is a quiet and peaceful city.
Really amazing, no better place to go than here.

P.S- I'm applying for UBC too :)

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