EDUCATION
Wednesday, April 10
Information Session: I-Witness Holocaust Field School
Learning about a subject in a classroom is important, but there’s no substitute for learning about a subject in the field. It’s important to ensure that a tragedy such as the Holocaust is never forgotten. One way to do this is by educating about it through more than just a textbook. The I-Witness Holocaust Field School, also known as UVic’s Germanic Studies 489 course, discusses ways in which nations in Central Europe have chosen to memorialize the Holocaust. The course consists of one week of studies at UVic before students embark on a three-week field trip over to Germany, Austria and Poland to visit former concentration camps and ghettos, as well as cemeteries and museums. If you’re interested in applying to this course, which starts in May 2014, the deadline is Nov. 1, 2013. This information session features a discussion about the program by former students, as well as a travel itinerary.
For more info, visit oia.uvic.ca, call (250) 721-7320 or email helgat@uvic.ca.
UVic Clearihue Bldg. (Rm. C108), 2 p.m. Free.
Thursday, April 11
Café Scientifique — Lifestyle Cross-Training: A Healthy Living Track to Cognitive Fitness
Do you spend too much time browsing Reddit and eating leftover pizza with lukewarm coffee? If you do, your health — both of body and mind — is going to pay a price someday. To be clear, I’m really just talking to myself here. But if you happen to be in the same boat as me, it’s time to turn off the computer, go outside and get some kind of exercise, because a not-so-great lifestyle will definitely affect your life in the long term (unless you happen to be one of those old Russian guys you read about in the news who mysteriously live to be 98 while drinking vodka and smoking cigars every day of their lives). At this Café Scientifique encore lecture, host Stuart MacDonald of UVic’s Department of Psychology/Centre on Aging discusses maintaining good overall health throughout one’s life. He asks the question: how much does living a good lifestyle keep age-related health problems such as memory loss at bay?
Make sure to reserve a seat for this discussion by contacting the UVic Centre on Aging at senage@uvic.ca or at (250) 721-6369.
For more info, visit coag.uvic.ca/events.htm.
UVic David Strong Bldg. (Rm. C103), 6:30 p.m. (doors at 5:45 p.m.) Free.
CHARITY
Sunday, April 14
MS Walk Victoria
While driving to and fro can be handy, I’ve realized I shouldn’t neglect simply walking everywhere as a means of exercise. Walking, or any other means of self-powered transportation, really does make a difference in your overall fitness, which you realize pretty quickly after not doing too much of it over a period of a few months. And what better excuse to do it than to help raise money to fight multiple sclerosis? Join several hundred other participants in our city’s annual MS Walk, which starts off at scenic Willows Beach and stays scenic throughout its course (this is Victoria, after all). If you’re walking or using a wheelchair or scooter, you can choose between a three- or six-kilometre route; for those up for a good, solid run, there’s the nine-kilometre route. You’ll be checking in bright and early Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m., and the walk begins at 10 a.m. Be sure to visit mswalks.ca to register, and, oh yeah, if you’re able to raise $120 in funds for the walk, you’ll receive a fancy shirt!
For more info, visit mswalks.ca, call (250) 388-6496 ext. 236 or email sukhi.tomana@mssociety.ca.
Willows Beach Park (Beach Dr. at 2740 Dalhousie St.). 8:30 a.m. check-in time. Free.
Thursday, April 25
Dining Out For Life
Earlier I mentioned the act of walking for charity. Well, after getting all that walking out of your system, here’s an event Garfield the cat would surely enjoy: eating for charity! On April 25, more than 80 Island restaurants will be donating a quarter of their proceeds from food and non-alcoholic beverage sales to support the important work being done by AIDS Vancouver Island. I know Garfield is a fictional character, but this would be a good day to at least pretend you’re him. Go out and eat as much lasagna as you can handle. It’s for a good (burp) cause, after all!
For more info about participating restaurants, visit diningoutforlife.com.
ENTERTAINMENT
Thursday, April 11
Ray Frank: The Girl Rabbi of the Golden West
This one-night-only play is about a woman hired to serve, for a few weeks back in 1895, as a rabbi at Victoria’s Congregation Emanu-El Synagogue, making world history by doing so. One really interesting part about this play is that it’s being held in the same synagogue where the actual events in the play took place. How often does that happen? Imagine people doing a play about your life in whatever place you’re living in now 100 years in the future. Act One: Look at Reddit for three hours. Act Two: watch Star Trek: TNG episodes on Netflix. Act Three: Eat some leftover pizza, washing it down with lukewarm coffee. Hey, it could be exciting to someone . . . I guess? Nah, I couldn’t recommend going to see that. But I would definitely recommend you go see Ray Frank.
For more info, email info@congregationemanu-el.ca or call (250) 382-0615 (Tues. – Thurs.).
Emanu-El Synagogue (1461 Blanshard St.), 7:30–9 p.m. $10 (suggested donation).
NATURE
Saturday, April 13
Garden Design: Water Harvesting Workshop
The problem with using water is that it’s costly when it comes from the tap. Thankfully, it’s free when it comes down from the sky! Isn’t that handy? Unfortunately, as you will remember from Victoria’s weird weather in 2012, the rain doesn’t fall when we want it to. So, if you’re into gardening and you’d prefer to rely more on rainwater than your garden hose, you need to strategize. That’s why local expert Tayler Krawczyk will be hosting this event, which will teach you all about the various tips and tricks for capturing and storing rainwater and runoff. Thinking about gardening makes me think about the smell of a gardening section of a hardware store. For some reason, that’s one of the greatest smells ever. By the way, you need to pre-register for this event through Eventbrite. To register, visit eventbrite.ca/event/5209078494.
For more info, visit compost.bc.ca, call (250) 386-9676 or email info@compost.bc.ca.
Greater Victoria Compost Education Centre (1216 North Park St.), 2–4 p.m. $10 members/$15 non-members.
Tuesday, April 16
Botanica Poetica: Botany in Poetry
Okay, so you’ve got your poetry nerds (or “perds” for short), and then you’ve got your flower nerds (or “flerds”). Combine their passions into one single event, and what do you get? A nerd explosion of such magnitude that it nearly creates a rupture in the space-time continuum. Sort of like how I reacted when I was in a toy store and I saw a bunch of Star Wars Transformers for the first time. Or how I felt when I put chocolate sauce and chocolate fudge sauce on a bowl of chocolate ice cream. Anyhoo, Andy MacKinnon, the poet laureate of the Victoria Natural History Society, will be hosting this event in which flerds, perds and yes, even peflerds can contribute their own poetry, songs, flowers or other artistic expressions inspired by the beauty of poems and flowers.
For more info, visit vicnhs.bc.ca/calendar.html.
Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature House (3873 Swan Lake Rd.) 7:30–9 p.m. Free.
