Of edjumacation n’ book learnin’

Well, now that I've actually gone to all my classes, the due date schedule is looking pretty damn scary – and you really feel all the pressures of being in a 1 yr program when you meet other grad students and they tell you they're only taking 3 courses per term, and then freak out a little on your behalf when you tell them you're taking 5 courses this semester. At least the schedule is fairly reasonable – start at 830 or 10, off the clock by 4 or 5 – it's almost like going to work – trying to do the thing where I work during my breaks so that I'd have time to socialize or do activities after classes are done for the day.

I've signed up for climbing, archery, and inter-mural volleyball. Obviously am not going to be doing all those things every week, be definitely one or more in some combination. The point of course is so that I can lead a double life – little Asian girl who's a diligent university student by day, but a wall-scaling arrow-shooting warrior princess by night, fighting the forces of evil lurking in the sleepy town of Kingston blah blah etc. You know, stuff that bad manga is made of. Perhaps it's time to buy a school girl outfit. Seriously though, I went to archery for the intro session today, I had so much fun – definitely therapeutic... I even hit the bull's eye a few times! =D

Went on a modified Sir John A MacDonald walking tour today after one of my classes. We had a guest speaker today from England, and I guess this was part of our prof's way of having him interact with the students, because we ended the walk at a pub, where the prof bought drinks for everyone. It's such a quiet and pretty town that it's hard to imagine Kingston as a hotbed of political activities in early Canadian history. Especially since these days, Kingston seem to be more a popular destination for old ppl looking to go somewhere for the weekend than anything else – I'd say the senior population about doubles in downtown Kingston (all 10 blocks of it) on Sat and Sun.

Fun fact: For a small town of about 5,000, Kingston had a really high concentration of pubs and taverns back in the day of Sir John A. In fact, there used to be two pubs located in city hall, where John A liked to go to quench his thirst after city council meetings. The Conservative Party was technically born in Kingston – in a tavern owned by Sir John A called the Royal Tavern. Once the pub where dear ol' Johnny debated politics, formed alliances, and bought votes with beer, now the hole in the wall where the local chapter of Hells Angel occasionally congregates, housing a copy of the mortgage signed by Sir John and random assortments of horse harnesses.

Procrastination is on an Early Start This Year… Hmm… - Sept 13, 2009

I really should be doing something productive, but now that I have internet, I want to do everything but what I'm suppose to be doing…

Right, so first week of "school" is officially over – I learned stuff, but probably not what they had in mind. In math, I learned nothing – though I did mentally thank Ms Bonnet for teaching Math 11 (also thankful that I actually paid attn in that class). In writing course, the only thing that I came away with was that the average length of a sentence in academia is 22 words. Not useful, or relevant to the assignment we had to hand in the next day, but interesting. Apparently, some woman wrote a paper on this (boring, but hey, someone has to do it)

Ok, on to more fun stuff – I went wall climbing for a general event for grad students, it was super fun – there was this 100 ft chimney that we could climb, except we didn't realize that it was there until the end, so I got about halfway up and got super tired… Before that, I was climbing a "cave" – dangling upside down and swinging from one side of the cave to another – felt like a monkey. =P Also featured this week, a fantastic BBQ with the best potato salad I've ever had, a Haunted Walk tour of Kingston, bowling, and dance club.

Interesting tidbit about Kingston – The town dates back to the 1800s, and since then, there's been a number of epidemics. As it often happens, the dead pile up faster than the living can bury them, so a lot of shoddy and shallow graves were dug. Graveyards were a mess b/c there were so many graves, and on top of that, the cows kept wandering into the graveyard and pushing over the gravestones. The city's answer – dump dirt over top the graves, plant some grass and trees, and call it a park. Thus the birth of City Park – also known as Skeleton Park – where human remains are found every time there's road work, and are often dug up by dogs and random kids who thought it'd be fun to dig up a hand or a skull to play with. Problem is, the park is smaller than the actual area of the old graveyard, and houses have been built over the graveyard as well – we were told about a guy who was having a backyard BBQ when the dog decided to bring over the human hand it's dug up. YUM!

Back to the Grind – Sept 8, 2009

Now that I'm out of Vancouver, the blog lives again.

After a fabulous 3 weeks home (filled with family, friends, dim sum, and sushi), I got on a plane (for the 7^th time this summer) on Friday to spend the Labour Day long weekend in Ottawa before starting my year in Kingston. Big thanks to Ana for letting me stay at her beautiful new apartment, coming to pick me up at the airport at midnight (my flight was delayed by 2 hrs... something about weather trouble in Thunder Bay) and for the delicious scones, Jeff for the fabulous send-off breakfast, and both for a fantastic last weekend of freedom! Also, I was very happy that Chris and Dominique had time to head out for a Sunday brunch even though both are busy either setting up or looking for an apartment. See you all again in October!!

Officially moved into my room yesterday – it's been pretty comfortable so far – pictures to come in the next post. I am once again in internet limbo but hopefully internet will be set up by next week. Until then, I'll be relying on school internet whenever I'm on campus. Since moving in:

1. I learned that Kingston has a business called Dial-A-Bottle – you call them, and they deliver booze to your door – type and quantity apparently doesn't matter.
   

   
    

2. Kingston really milks its affiliation with Sir John A MacDonald for all its worth – there's a Sir John A Walking Tour which includes all the sites that Sir McDo ever had anything to do with, from where he used to lived w/ his first wife to the house that he rented for his sister. You can get free iPods at the Visitors' Center – the recording was done by Jean Chretien!!
   

Today was the first day of orientations. Pretty easy going day, just a lot of overviews and introductions... Classes don't officially start until next week, this week is just activities and prep classes. I've signed up for wall climbing and a Haunted Tour - should be fun!

That's it for now - hope everyone had a fabulous long weekend!