I'm sure there's a reason why the trains have to blow their horns as many times as they do, but it's pretty annoying. Particularly late at night. They keep doing it for ages, as well. Would it not make more sense to have barriers on the crossings and not need to announce their presence quite so loudly?
Anyway. One just went past, and it has now stopped bugging me.
I finally tidied my room! The floor beneath the window is now clear of clothes and stuff, and if I ever get round to sorting out the clutter on my desk, the room will look pretty neat. I think I might have to pick up a dust pan and brush at some point though, there's no carpet so the floor is covered in little bits of dust and grit and stuff. I imagine the floor is going to be pretty cold come winter, especially since a few people have mentioned how cold this rez gets in winter anyway. I don't know how cold it's actually going to be, but there's been mention of -40 C which is more than cold enough. Hopefully we'll be going to the mall at the end of the week so I can get some proper winter stuff. I don't think a hoodie and gloves will be enough, somehow...
Saturday was a lot of fun; we ended up spending 5 hours on Dewie's and then watched films in my room. We ended up watching two, and then going back to Dewie's for a snack because we were hungry again. Then we nearly finished the fourth film before the RA was giving out free pizza (at 2am. I love uni) It was a lot of fun just sitting around talking and watching films and stuff. Then on Sunday they were showing cartoons on the big screen in Dewie's when we were in there for lunch. They're much more interesting than news!
It's the strange thing about the news here; they have a bar going along the bottom of the screen showing headlines, but you never actually find anything else out about the stories... There was one a few days ago about a baby having been found in an airport. I have no idea if the baby was ok, or whether anyone had found out who the baby belonged to. It just said a baby had been found. Not exactly informative.
It's starting to look like autumn outside now. There are leaves and fir needles falling all the time, and behind one of the sports fields there's this mass of trees that are just starting to turn. They're going to look amazing soon; I can't wait. The weather's been a bit strange the past few days. It's been raining on and off, but yesterday was so humid and stuffy, it was actually horrible being sat in class. It didn't help that I'd barely slept and kept nearly nodding off in my first class, but I ended up skipping my other two classes and staying in my room instead. I don't think I could have taken anything in anyway, and at least one of the classes is mainly done from a powerpoint. Classical myth could be more complicated because he basically stands and talks, and occaasionally writes a random word on the blackboard.
I can't believe they still use blackboards here... A couple of the rooms have white boards instead, but I haven't seen a blackboard since I was about 13 or something. Such a throwback! The computers in the library are cool though; they're all Macs, but you can choose if you run Windows or Mac on them. There are so many Mac snobs here. If you see someone with a laptop, it's pretty much guaranteed to be a Mac. From what I've seen on the news though, Blackberry are releasing their own version of the iPad. I don't really want one, I just like the idea that there's at least some competition in the market.
The drama department are doing three nights of 'New Plays' this week. I went last night with a couple of people, and it's so good! They're actually pretty brilliant. Red claims the best play is the first one tonight, and considering how good the ones we've already seen were, I'm imagining it's going to be pretty epic. I will wait with bated breath, or something. It's a great way to spend three evenings though, and $15 for three nights is a pretty good deal.
I had a lie in this morning, but I was mainly making up for the lack of sleep yesterday. I only have two classes today, which is so much easier than the three back to back on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I probably could have made it through all of them yesterday, but I barely made it through the first class, and the thought of sitting through another three hours of class just made me more sleepy. I haven't skipped any before yesterday though, so I don't think I've missed out on too much. I'll have to ask about Myth tomorrow.
Think I'll stop writing now and try and get some more reading done before class.
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Thursday 23 September 2010
Just keep swimming
It's been two years. How did I manage to forget that? These things keep seeming to pass me by this year, and I don't really know why. Is it because none of them are 'firsts' anymore? I've been through one, so the second time just doesn't seem so hard? I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm here. It's so completely new and exciting, and there are so many other things I need to be doing that the horrible things just don't take precedence in my mind.
I feel better this week, at least. My epic cold is pretty much gone, I'm just waiting on the throat stopping itching and I'll be all good again. Finally stopped sniffing through classes, and they're actually really interesting. Playwriting today was pretty brilliant, even if I'm not sure how much of the homework I can actually do... We had to write a scene (which was easy) but now we have to 'cut' it. Basically I need to go through and remove any unnecessary directors notes/stage directions/words of speech. It's already seriously minimalist, and it doesn't have any stage directions. The only thing other than dialogue are the characters names and ages, and we had to put those in... I think there are maybe a couple of words I could possibly remove, but literally all of it is needed. It wouldn't make sense without them...
But I'll deal with that later. There's not much I can do about removing what isn't there. The class exercise was good. We had to write a scene about 'painting the shed' until the end of class. I write quickly. I ended up with a sore hand and seven pages of dialogue. The prof took them in at the end to read over - I did warn him that he might not be able to read it, because I haven't done lots of hand writing in months and I tend to start missing letters when I write quickly... Ah well, I warned him. It should be pretty legible, hopefully. If he can read it I'll be happy. There were all sorts of dips and rises in the speech though, because I kept getting to the end of one rise and there was still ages til the end of class, so I had to keep writing. I'm actually kind of proud of it... I love writing.
I finally managed to get to the store to buy snack food for my room. That's one of the problems with the meal plan; you can't get anything to eat at random times of the night if you get the munchies. Plus it's a bit of a trek to get there, so I tend to leave it until I really need to eat until I go, unless someone else is around and going. I keep spending two or three hours in there in the evenings, because we go to eat, and then end up sitting and talking for an extra couple of hours before we eventually decide we should probably move. It's pretty fun doing it, and sometimes the food is really good. Other times it's a bit iffy, but it's generally edible, at least. So now I have food in my room for those midnight munchies. And yes, I have actually managed to stay up til past midnight a couple of times this week! Still been waking up at like 6am or 7am, but it's a slightly more normal sleeping pattern.
I feel like I've done loads in the past week. I don't think it's actually been that much, but I also feel like I've been here forever and it's barely been three weeks. I sang on my own the other night. A couple of us were hanging around in my room singing showtunes before one of them had to go to rehersals, and I ended up singing a solo (because he didn't know the girl's part of the duet and I did) It was surprisingly OK, given how bad my nose and throat were at that point. I can sing when ill! Yay me! I don't know if it's more surprising that I can, or that I did so alone and in front of other people...
I managed to work out how to charge my ID card so I can use it to do laundry now, and I know how to get print credits! Progress has been made! I left laundry right to the last minute this week. I'd been planning to do it all day, but what with one thing and another it ended up being about 7.30pm when I suddenly thought 'Laundry!' and actually made a move to do it. I had run out of clean socks, so I couldn't really leave it until the next day. Plus doing it in the evening means nobody else is using the machines so I could use the washer that only charges 50 cents a load (who knows why, but I'm not complaining!) It does make a wonderful change doing laundry that's actually warm and dry when it comes out of the dryer! After a year of using a combination washer that didn't dry anything, ever, and a summer of forgetting the stuff in the dryer until it was cold, it makes a nice change. I love sorting warm laundry. I did manage to get myself trapped sitting crosslegged on the bed though, because I loaded my legs down with sorted underwear and socks and couldn't move...
I watched Finding Nemo last night (hence the post title) in a bout of childish nostalgia (ish). I was already a teenager when it came out, but the sentiment is the same. I might watch Robin Hood tonight, or maybe something a bit more grown up... Nothing that involves songs I'll want to sing though, the itch in my throat makes singing kind of impossible right now. At least good singing, anyway. Bad singing is a different matter entirely, I suspect. I might do some more writing, too. I'm in a creative mood. I probably shouldn't be listening to my 'musicals' playlist if I don't want to sing...
Let's go find something productive to do with the rest of my evening! (That doesn't involve going out, I may already be in my PJs...)
I feel better this week, at least. My epic cold is pretty much gone, I'm just waiting on the throat stopping itching and I'll be all good again. Finally stopped sniffing through classes, and they're actually really interesting. Playwriting today was pretty brilliant, even if I'm not sure how much of the homework I can actually do... We had to write a scene (which was easy) but now we have to 'cut' it. Basically I need to go through and remove any unnecessary directors notes/stage directions/words of speech. It's already seriously minimalist, and it doesn't have any stage directions. The only thing other than dialogue are the characters names and ages, and we had to put those in... I think there are maybe a couple of words I could possibly remove, but literally all of it is needed. It wouldn't make sense without them...
But I'll deal with that later. There's not much I can do about removing what isn't there. The class exercise was good. We had to write a scene about 'painting the shed' until the end of class. I write quickly. I ended up with a sore hand and seven pages of dialogue. The prof took them in at the end to read over - I did warn him that he might not be able to read it, because I haven't done lots of hand writing in months and I tend to start missing letters when I write quickly... Ah well, I warned him. It should be pretty legible, hopefully. If he can read it I'll be happy. There were all sorts of dips and rises in the speech though, because I kept getting to the end of one rise and there was still ages til the end of class, so I had to keep writing. I'm actually kind of proud of it... I love writing.
I finally managed to get to the store to buy snack food for my room. That's one of the problems with the meal plan; you can't get anything to eat at random times of the night if you get the munchies. Plus it's a bit of a trek to get there, so I tend to leave it until I really need to eat until I go, unless someone else is around and going. I keep spending two or three hours in there in the evenings, because we go to eat, and then end up sitting and talking for an extra couple of hours before we eventually decide we should probably move. It's pretty fun doing it, and sometimes the food is really good. Other times it's a bit iffy, but it's generally edible, at least. So now I have food in my room for those midnight munchies. And yes, I have actually managed to stay up til past midnight a couple of times this week! Still been waking up at like 6am or 7am, but it's a slightly more normal sleeping pattern.
I feel like I've done loads in the past week. I don't think it's actually been that much, but I also feel like I've been here forever and it's barely been three weeks. I sang on my own the other night. A couple of us were hanging around in my room singing showtunes before one of them had to go to rehersals, and I ended up singing a solo (because he didn't know the girl's part of the duet and I did) It was surprisingly OK, given how bad my nose and throat were at that point. I can sing when ill! Yay me! I don't know if it's more surprising that I can, or that I did so alone and in front of other people...
I managed to work out how to charge my ID card so I can use it to do laundry now, and I know how to get print credits! Progress has been made! I left laundry right to the last minute this week. I'd been planning to do it all day, but what with one thing and another it ended up being about 7.30pm when I suddenly thought 'Laundry!' and actually made a move to do it. I had run out of clean socks, so I couldn't really leave it until the next day. Plus doing it in the evening means nobody else is using the machines so I could use the washer that only charges 50 cents a load (who knows why, but I'm not complaining!) It does make a wonderful change doing laundry that's actually warm and dry when it comes out of the dryer! After a year of using a combination washer that didn't dry anything, ever, and a summer of forgetting the stuff in the dryer until it was cold, it makes a nice change. I love sorting warm laundry. I did manage to get myself trapped sitting crosslegged on the bed though, because I loaded my legs down with sorted underwear and socks and couldn't move...
I watched Finding Nemo last night (hence the post title) in a bout of childish nostalgia (ish). I was already a teenager when it came out, but the sentiment is the same. I might watch Robin Hood tonight, or maybe something a bit more grown up... Nothing that involves songs I'll want to sing though, the itch in my throat makes singing kind of impossible right now. At least good singing, anyway. Bad singing is a different matter entirely, I suspect. I might do some more writing, too. I'm in a creative mood. I probably shouldn't be listening to my 'musicals' playlist if I don't want to sing...
Let's go find something productive to do with the rest of my evening! (That doesn't involve going out, I may already be in my PJs...)
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Let there be chicken soup
I'm ill. I don't know if I'm more annoyed about being ill, or about the fact that I haven't made it through university without getting ill during freshers week... Well, OK, technically Frosh week is over. But it's basically fresher's flu, and I'm not happy about it. I only have a small pack of tissues, and it's about a ten minute walk to find the grocery store to buy more... And food. I have no food in my room; which sucks when I get the munchies in the middle of the night, because there's nothing I can do about it.
So admittedly I'm not hungry right now, but I could do with a drink other than diet coke or water, which is all I have. OK, maybe I am hungry if the stomach growling is any indication. Plus Dewie's will have closed about three minutes ago, even if I was dressed and had the motivation to go and find something.
My throat is killing me. It's sore and a bit itchy, so I keep coughing and swallowing. I want to be better! I've been having a few days of feeling rubbish. I nearly passed out in the shower on Friday, so I made the decision to nap for an hour and then do laundry, before spending the rest of the day in bed. I felt better for it, even if I did miss the film screening for The Birds. They didn't get to watch it in the room with the epic cinema chairs, so I'm not too heartbroken about it.
I'm pretty wide awake again. I was so close to falling asleep, but then I really needed to blow my nose, which meant getting out of bed, turning the light on and finding the tissues. Then I decided that it had been too long since I'd updated this thing, and that now would be a brilliant time to sit and do just that... I wonder about myself sometimes.
Classes have been good so far; I think I've got all of my books except for a couple that had sold out/not been ordered when I went last time. Apparently they're all in now though, so I will probably go get them tomorrow morning. Maybe get some pjs in there too... My Classical Myth class this afternoon was seriously boring. He basically rambled on for an hour and a half giving us the entire history of Ancient Greece. To be honest he could have just given us the sheet and moved on, but he felt the need to go through all 24 'important' occurrences of the entire civilisation. I think we're getting started on the interesting stuff next class though, so it should get better.
I need to go shopping. Not just for the food/tissues/winter stuff, but I just want to go shopping. I've been on this campus for eleven days, and I've only left once to walk into Lennoxville and back. I think we might bully our flatmate into driving us to Sherbrooke so we can have a bit of retail therapy at the weekend or something.
I might stick a dvd on and try and get to sleep, I'm supposed to be meeting people for breakfast at 8am tomorrow, so I'll need to be up in time to shower and stuff. Plus I'm feeling rubbish and sitting like this is killing my neck and sending my foot to sleep...
Think this is classed as a short update - considering the length of the last one...
My nose hurts ¬_¬
So admittedly I'm not hungry right now, but I could do with a drink other than diet coke or water, which is all I have. OK, maybe I am hungry if the stomach growling is any indication. Plus Dewie's will have closed about three minutes ago, even if I was dressed and had the motivation to go and find something.
My throat is killing me. It's sore and a bit itchy, so I keep coughing and swallowing. I want to be better! I've been having a few days of feeling rubbish. I nearly passed out in the shower on Friday, so I made the decision to nap for an hour and then do laundry, before spending the rest of the day in bed. I felt better for it, even if I did miss the film screening for The Birds. They didn't get to watch it in the room with the epic cinema chairs, so I'm not too heartbroken about it.
I'm pretty wide awake again. I was so close to falling asleep, but then I really needed to blow my nose, which meant getting out of bed, turning the light on and finding the tissues. Then I decided that it had been too long since I'd updated this thing, and that now would be a brilliant time to sit and do just that... I wonder about myself sometimes.
Classes have been good so far; I think I've got all of my books except for a couple that had sold out/not been ordered when I went last time. Apparently they're all in now though, so I will probably go get them tomorrow morning. Maybe get some pjs in there too... My Classical Myth class this afternoon was seriously boring. He basically rambled on for an hour and a half giving us the entire history of Ancient Greece. To be honest he could have just given us the sheet and moved on, but he felt the need to go through all 24 'important' occurrences of the entire civilisation. I think we're getting started on the interesting stuff next class though, so it should get better.
I need to go shopping. Not just for the food/tissues/winter stuff, but I just want to go shopping. I've been on this campus for eleven days, and I've only left once to walk into Lennoxville and back. I think we might bully our flatmate into driving us to Sherbrooke so we can have a bit of retail therapy at the weekend or something.
I might stick a dvd on and try and get to sleep, I'm supposed to be meeting people for breakfast at 8am tomorrow, so I'll need to be up in time to shower and stuff. Plus I'm feeling rubbish and sitting like this is killing my neck and sending my foot to sleep...
Think this is classed as a short update - considering the length of the last one...
My nose hurts ¬_¬
Thursday 9 September 2010
Beaurocracy sucks
The registration process in this country is stupid. I'm serious; who ever thought it would be a good idea to make courses a first-come-first-serve deal? It's all well and good if you're allowed to go there at the beginning, because you don't have to worry about classes being full etc. I was told I could go at 3. This is the last time people can go. All three of the English classes I wanted to take were full. All of them. I only just made it into the Classical Myth module, and if I hadn't asked the guy behind me in the English queue to hold my place for me, I don't think I'd have made it into that one either.
So I've spent an hour standing in the sun waiting to get inside the building, and then I have to find the queue for the English department. Quick dive over to Classical Studies because that table's clear, and then back into English. Had to basically say 'what classes can I take?' because there really isn't much choice left at this point in the day. Finally manage to get signed up for Intro to Lit, Canadian Short Stories (which I don't really want to do at all) and Film Adaptation (which admittedly was on my original list of modules before I found out it clashed with Creative Writing Prose).
I only just got into Playwriting I as well. They were debating whether they could fit me in, and in the class yesterday, the prof (who looks like a bald Jeff Bridges) said that the class was supposed to be capped at 18, but there were about 21 of us. I am so glad they mixed up and didn't cap it, or I'd have been stuck with yet another module to choose that I didn't really want to do.
Anyway, I had my first two classes yesterday. Intro to Lit looks good; I think Paradise Lost is the only part of the syllabus that I've actually studied before. Playwriting I looks basically the same as my Writing for Stage and Screen module that I did last year in England. I have my other three classes today. A solid four and a half hours or something. I hope there's going to be enough time to get between my first and second classes though. They're about two floors apart or something; which admittedly isn't too far considering I could have been in two buildings on opposite ends of the campus, but I don't like having to rush.
At least I don't have any early mornings this semester. My earliest class is Thursdays at 1pm, and I have a 1.30 start on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'll just need to remember to take a drink with me.
I've met my flatmates now, and I've got at least one class with some of them. I'm glad I'm actually meeting people now; the first few days were hard because there weren't many people around unless they were moving in with their parents, or they were out getting wasted. Classes have started now though, so I'm meeting people in those, and I've met people through flatmates and stuff.
I had a couple of 'OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE' moments earlier in the week, but I think I'm a bit more settled in now and not quite so scared out of my mind. I'm glad I've done this. The main problem is the way people keep going crazy when they hear my English accent. It's not that special! Honestly! I hadn't thought they'd be quite so amazed by it. I spoke to a girl from Australia who's just here for a semester. Apparently people keep thinking she's English, so I suppose I should be grateful they're at least getting my accent right...
It's raining again. The weather's been pretty changable the last few days. It can go from blazing sunshine to pouring down with rain and back again multiple times each day. At least it hasn't got really cold yet, though I'm going to have to go shopping and find some winter stuff at some point fairly soon. I don't think I'll make it through the winter without at least a coat... Until then I think it's going to be mild enough. It's been pretty much the same as summer was in England this year.
I managed to stay awake til a more sensible time last night! I keep crashing at like 10pm or something, and then waking up at about 7am. Made it to half midnight last night, although I still woke up at 7am this morning. I think I'm going to have to investigate laundry tomorrow, because my bath towel is driving me slightly crazy. It's new, so it doesn't absorb very well, and it sheds black fluff all over me when I'm using it.Think I'm short on clean socks as well. I'll look into it tomorrow, anyway. Right now I'm going to stop writing this, because I'm jumping wildly between subjects like a loon.
So I've spent an hour standing in the sun waiting to get inside the building, and then I have to find the queue for the English department. Quick dive over to Classical Studies because that table's clear, and then back into English. Had to basically say 'what classes can I take?' because there really isn't much choice left at this point in the day. Finally manage to get signed up for Intro to Lit, Canadian Short Stories (which I don't really want to do at all) and Film Adaptation (which admittedly was on my original list of modules before I found out it clashed with Creative Writing Prose).
I only just got into Playwriting I as well. They were debating whether they could fit me in, and in the class yesterday, the prof (who looks like a bald Jeff Bridges) said that the class was supposed to be capped at 18, but there were about 21 of us. I am so glad they mixed up and didn't cap it, or I'd have been stuck with yet another module to choose that I didn't really want to do.
Anyway, I had my first two classes yesterday. Intro to Lit looks good; I think Paradise Lost is the only part of the syllabus that I've actually studied before. Playwriting I looks basically the same as my Writing for Stage and Screen module that I did last year in England. I have my other three classes today. A solid four and a half hours or something. I hope there's going to be enough time to get between my first and second classes though. They're about two floors apart or something; which admittedly isn't too far considering I could have been in two buildings on opposite ends of the campus, but I don't like having to rush.
At least I don't have any early mornings this semester. My earliest class is Thursdays at 1pm, and I have a 1.30 start on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'll just need to remember to take a drink with me.
I've met my flatmates now, and I've got at least one class with some of them. I'm glad I'm actually meeting people now; the first few days were hard because there weren't many people around unless they were moving in with their parents, or they were out getting wasted. Classes have started now though, so I'm meeting people in those, and I've met people through flatmates and stuff.
I had a couple of 'OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE' moments earlier in the week, but I think I'm a bit more settled in now and not quite so scared out of my mind. I'm glad I've done this. The main problem is the way people keep going crazy when they hear my English accent. It's not that special! Honestly! I hadn't thought they'd be quite so amazed by it. I spoke to a girl from Australia who's just here for a semester. Apparently people keep thinking she's English, so I suppose I should be grateful they're at least getting my accent right...
It's raining again. The weather's been pretty changable the last few days. It can go from blazing sunshine to pouring down with rain and back again multiple times each day. At least it hasn't got really cold yet, though I'm going to have to go shopping and find some winter stuff at some point fairly soon. I don't think I'll make it through the winter without at least a coat... Until then I think it's going to be mild enough. It's been pretty much the same as summer was in England this year.
I managed to stay awake til a more sensible time last night! I keep crashing at like 10pm or something, and then waking up at about 7am. Made it to half midnight last night, although I still woke up at 7am this morning. I think I'm going to have to investigate laundry tomorrow, because my bath towel is driving me slightly crazy. It's new, so it doesn't absorb very well, and it sheds black fluff all over me when I'm using it.Think I'm short on clean socks as well. I'll look into it tomorrow, anyway. Right now I'm going to stop writing this, because I'm jumping wildly between subjects like a loon.
Monday 6 September 2010
You have reached your destination
I made it to Bishop's about a day later than originally planned. I think getting the coach from Montreal to Sherbrooke was the easiest part of the entire journey, and I got to do that after a decent (ish) night's sleep.
Last night was absolutely mental. All the Froshers were out drinking and shouting in a huge group, which I'm really glad I wasn't part of. I know they keep saying that drinking on Frosh isn't demanded of you, but it just isn't as good being in a massive crowd of drunk people if you're sober, and I'm not going to be drinking...
I think for a lot of people, this is the first time they've been legally allowed to drink, so they're going crazy about it. I didn't go crazy when I turned 18, I'm not going to now after two years of being legal... I think the insanity is carrying on tonight, so I'll be staying inside where it's safe and reasonably quiet. I don't care if it's boring.
The room is nice enough; it's basically what you'd expect from halls. It's bigger than my room was in halls my first year, but it's also right by the main door for the building (lots of loud talking and slamming doors) and a stupidly long walk to get to the girls' showers, which is going to annoy me quite a bit, I expect.
The food in the dining hall is pretty good, although I still haven't worked out how the hell you get coffee... I only worked out where the cups and cutlery were yesterday lunchtime, so I guess I'll find out eventually. Until then I will just be glad I don't have an addiction to coffee like some people I know. I doubt it would help with the minor case of jetlag anyway, what with it sending me to sleep.
Went to Walmart yesterday with one of the girls I'd met on FB and her mum. Managed to get a pillow and shampoo and other stuff I needed, so that should keep me going for a while, at least.
I haven't met that many people yet, but most of the stuff that's going on involves crowds of people cheering and singing, and there's no way I'd join in with that sort of thing. I'll probably meet some people at registration tomorrow, and then classes start on Wednesday. I think I've met about one person doing english, and most of the people around are freshers who will only be in a couple of my classes even if they are on the same subject.
Discovered I can't watch iplayer here; you can apparently only use it in the UK, which is mildly annoying, but someone's uploaded what looks to be every episode of Qi onto youtube, so I can watch that on there. Other than that there's probably not much I'm actually going to miss seeing.
I might go on a mission to get some food...
Last night was absolutely mental. All the Froshers were out drinking and shouting in a huge group, which I'm really glad I wasn't part of. I know they keep saying that drinking on Frosh isn't demanded of you, but it just isn't as good being in a massive crowd of drunk people if you're sober, and I'm not going to be drinking...
I think for a lot of people, this is the first time they've been legally allowed to drink, so they're going crazy about it. I didn't go crazy when I turned 18, I'm not going to now after two years of being legal... I think the insanity is carrying on tonight, so I'll be staying inside where it's safe and reasonably quiet. I don't care if it's boring.
The room is nice enough; it's basically what you'd expect from halls. It's bigger than my room was in halls my first year, but it's also right by the main door for the building (lots of loud talking and slamming doors) and a stupidly long walk to get to the girls' showers, which is going to annoy me quite a bit, I expect.
The food in the dining hall is pretty good, although I still haven't worked out how the hell you get coffee... I only worked out where the cups and cutlery were yesterday lunchtime, so I guess I'll find out eventually. Until then I will just be glad I don't have an addiction to coffee like some people I know. I doubt it would help with the minor case of jetlag anyway, what with it sending me to sleep.
Went to Walmart yesterday with one of the girls I'd met on FB and her mum. Managed to get a pillow and shampoo and other stuff I needed, so that should keep me going for a while, at least.
I haven't met that many people yet, but most of the stuff that's going on involves crowds of people cheering and singing, and there's no way I'd join in with that sort of thing. I'll probably meet some people at registration tomorrow, and then classes start on Wednesday. I think I've met about one person doing english, and most of the people around are freshers who will only be in a couple of my classes even if they are on the same subject.
Discovered I can't watch iplayer here; you can apparently only use it in the UK, which is mildly annoying, but someone's uploaded what looks to be every episode of Qi onto youtube, so I can watch that on there. Other than that there's probably not much I'm actually going to miss seeing.
I might go on a mission to get some food...
Saturday 4 September 2010
Departure: Take #2
Success!
I finally made it to Montreal last night, but I have come to the conclusion that I hate travelling on my own. After the stupid cancelled flight of Thursday, I finally made it to Amsterdam where I'd been booked into a hotel for the night. Problem #1: I had no idea which hotel shuttle I was supposed to be on. The voucher I had said 'VD Valk' which is apparently the A4 or something stupid like that. Some security guy asked where I was trying to get to, and yes, I cried. I was sleep deprived and stressed, it's allowed. Got the the hotel, which was lovely, got a free meal, which was actually really tasty, and then went to bed. I needed to be up at about 5am, so I ordered a wake up call for then. When it came, she said 'this is your 5am wake up call'. By the time I'm showered and dressed and everything and gone downstairs, it's 4.35am. Brilliant. Not only was I sleep deprived and stressed, I'd also just been cheated out of an hour of precious sleep.
Get to the airport and onto my flight to Paris no problem, then end up missing my connection to Montreal. I don't know how it happened, but the gate i was supposed to be boarding from was showing information for the 11.10 to Caracas. My flight was at 11. There's no way they'd have two flights that close together from the same gate. Managed to get onto the next flight and didn't have to do anything except hang around for an hour or so extra.
There was a French woman next to me on the flight to Montreal, who kept asking me things. How do you explain to someone what Port wine is, when she doesn't speak English, and you have seriously limited French? We managed to establish that it was wine, but I honestly couldn't get any further than that. It's not something they teach you in school, is it?
Sitting in Immigration was horrible. Three hours. Sitting on the floor. With bad hips and a bad back. Unimpressed. So by the time I've left the airport, it's about 7.30pm local time, but I'm running on a timezone that says it's about midnight. I'm exhausted, I'm starving, I'm dehydrated, I'm grimy and being munched on by midges. I can't find my hotel. Lovely bus driver helped me by calling services and finding out where the hotel is, then he gets me as close as he can on the bus route, and calls me a cab to take me the last bit. Starving though I was, I dove in the shower, ruined another pristine white hotel towel with my freshly dyed hair, and passed out on the bed. Woke up at about 4.30 this morning and think I dozed for a while.
Just got back from breakfast (crepes with strawberries and cream) of which I managed one crepe and most of the strawberries, along with two cups of coffee and an apple juice. I was struggling to eat that much.
Planning on getting the 10.30 bus to Sherbrooke, which means I still have about 45 minutes to an hour to kill before I need to get going (it's 9am now). Thank god for free internet...
I finally made it to Montreal last night, but I have come to the conclusion that I hate travelling on my own. After the stupid cancelled flight of Thursday, I finally made it to Amsterdam where I'd been booked into a hotel for the night. Problem #1: I had no idea which hotel shuttle I was supposed to be on. The voucher I had said 'VD Valk' which is apparently the A4 or something stupid like that. Some security guy asked where I was trying to get to, and yes, I cried. I was sleep deprived and stressed, it's allowed. Got the the hotel, which was lovely, got a free meal, which was actually really tasty, and then went to bed. I needed to be up at about 5am, so I ordered a wake up call for then. When it came, she said 'this is your 5am wake up call'. By the time I'm showered and dressed and everything and gone downstairs, it's 4.35am. Brilliant. Not only was I sleep deprived and stressed, I'd also just been cheated out of an hour of precious sleep.
Get to the airport and onto my flight to Paris no problem, then end up missing my connection to Montreal. I don't know how it happened, but the gate i was supposed to be boarding from was showing information for the 11.10 to Caracas. My flight was at 11. There's no way they'd have two flights that close together from the same gate. Managed to get onto the next flight and didn't have to do anything except hang around for an hour or so extra.
There was a French woman next to me on the flight to Montreal, who kept asking me things. How do you explain to someone what Port wine is, when she doesn't speak English, and you have seriously limited French? We managed to establish that it was wine, but I honestly couldn't get any further than that. It's not something they teach you in school, is it?
Sitting in Immigration was horrible. Three hours. Sitting on the floor. With bad hips and a bad back. Unimpressed. So by the time I've left the airport, it's about 7.30pm local time, but I'm running on a timezone that says it's about midnight. I'm exhausted, I'm starving, I'm dehydrated, I'm grimy and being munched on by midges. I can't find my hotel. Lovely bus driver helped me by calling services and finding out where the hotel is, then he gets me as close as he can on the bus route, and calls me a cab to take me the last bit. Starving though I was, I dove in the shower, ruined another pristine white hotel towel with my freshly dyed hair, and passed out on the bed. Woke up at about 4.30 this morning and think I dozed for a while.
Just got back from breakfast (crepes with strawberries and cream) of which I managed one crepe and most of the strawberries, along with two cups of coffee and an apple juice. I was struggling to eat that much.
Planning on getting the 10.30 bus to Sherbrooke, which means I still have about 45 minutes to an hour to kill before I need to get going (it's 9am now). Thank god for free internet...
Thursday 2 September 2010
Departure: Take #1
So I made it to the gate. We got there in plenty of time, and everything was fine. We got a coffee. We said goodbye and I went through security. I sat down at the gate and got my book out. I think I managed to read about half a sentence, when an announcement came on over the tannoy. My flight was cancelled. Brilliant. I nearly cried.
Then there was the having to go and collect our bags and queue. Again. I'd already queued for ages to check in, and now I have to queue again to find out what the hell I was supposed to do. Thankfully there was a woman with blue hair who was also supposed to be on the flight, and she very kindly passed the message onto my mum and sister, who were heading back to the car.
I was supposed to be on the 10.30 flight to Amsterdam, and then another flight through to Montreal, getting there in plenty of time to find the hostel, meet other international students, and have a nice evening making friends and stuff before getting the uni bus in the morning.
Now I'm getting the 17.20 (I think) to Amsterdam. I have a night in Amsterdam airport, and then I'm on a flight to Paris at 8.05 am. This means I have to get up at about 5 in the morning. Unimpressed. Then there's an hour-and-a-half or so turnaround in Paris before I finally board a plane for Montreal, where I should arrive at about 2-something in the afternoon. From there I'm going to have to probably find a bus station; find the right bus to Sherbrooke (or Lennoxville, or somewhere in that general direction) and then probably have to take a taxi from there to the uni.
This was so much easier when they didn't cancel my damned flight...
So yea, I am tired, stressed, and more than a little pissed off. And back home writing this in the few hours gap I have before we try this whole shebang again.
Got to cuddle the cat one last time, at least; he'd vanished this morning so I didn't get to see him.
I think this is my longest blog yet... Of the grand total of three there will be when I post this thing. Think I've calmed down a bit, and my rant may be over.
Stomach still feels weird though...
Then there was the having to go and collect our bags and queue. Again. I'd already queued for ages to check in, and now I have to queue again to find out what the hell I was supposed to do. Thankfully there was a woman with blue hair who was also supposed to be on the flight, and she very kindly passed the message onto my mum and sister, who were heading back to the car.
I was supposed to be on the 10.30 flight to Amsterdam, and then another flight through to Montreal, getting there in plenty of time to find the hostel, meet other international students, and have a nice evening making friends and stuff before getting the uni bus in the morning.
Now I'm getting the 17.20 (I think) to Amsterdam. I have a night in Amsterdam airport, and then I'm on a flight to Paris at 8.05 am. This means I have to get up at about 5 in the morning. Unimpressed. Then there's an hour-and-a-half or so turnaround in Paris before I finally board a plane for Montreal, where I should arrive at about 2-something in the afternoon. From there I'm going to have to probably find a bus station; find the right bus to Sherbrooke (or Lennoxville, or somewhere in that general direction) and then probably have to take a taxi from there to the uni.
This was so much easier when they didn't cancel my damned flight...
So yea, I am tired, stressed, and more than a little pissed off. And back home writing this in the few hours gap I have before we try this whole shebang again.
Got to cuddle the cat one last time, at least; he'd vanished this morning so I didn't get to see him.
I think this is my longest blog yet... Of the grand total of three there will be when I post this thing. Think I've calmed down a bit, and my rant may be over.
Stomach still feels weird though...
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