Sunday 31 October 2010

Happy Halloweekend!

I hadn't realised it had been ten days since my last update, so I figure I'm probably overdue.

I have finished my midterms, and just had a panic attack thinking the next essay was due in four days. It isn't. It's not due until Nov 23rd. This is very good news. I did wonder why nobody had mentioned it at all, but now I can be calm and not have to stress about it. To be honest I would be perfectly capable of doing it, but I don't really want that sprung on me that suddenly. The only reason I got thrown was because she was away for a couple of classes and the schedule got shifted. The original syllabus said the 4th, but the sheet she gave us a couple of classes ago says it's the 23rd. Stupid schedule changes scaring me...

Panic over. Breathe.

I do have two essays due that week though, so I'm guessing I'll need to be a little further ahead of schedule than usual. That's perfectly fine. It's far enough away that I don't need to get worked up about it.

We had the first proper snow last night. There's only an inch or so on the ground, but it settled, and that's the main thing. It's not even November yet! Admittedly it gets significantly colder here than it does back home, so it's perfectly reasonable for it to be snowing at the end of October. It's 0 degrees at the moment, but it was about -1 overnight. It's not actually feeling too cold out there, but the wind has dropped from the past couple of days.

Tonight is the final night of the BU Halloweekend. Last night was pretty noisy, but hopefully it will be quieter today. I won't be doing anything even if people are out celebrating again. I'd rather stay inside where it's warm and reasonably quiet.

We watched Jaws on Friday for Film Adaptation class. It's hilarious. It's not in any way scary. It's actually probably the best film we've studied in that class so far. The rest have all been pretty bad (even if they are apparently classics). I think this is the last one we're studying, though, so at least we're doing one good film. I can't believe I've never seen it before.

I think I'll stop writing this and warm up a bit.

Thursday 21 October 2010

I should be taking notes right now

I may be sitting in class playing with the internet...

I am also half paying attention to the prof, but he's not telling us anything new (not just because he's talking Greek myth). This class is only interesting because we're studying mythology. Without that I think I'd be even more bored out of my mind than I already am. He's moved on from the Iliad to Hesiod, which is more about the birth of the gods and stuff, as opposed to Homer which is all about Achilles' anger and the interference of the gods in mortal lives - see? I have learnt something while messing around online!

I'm also really hungry. I've been in class for nearly four hours and I didn't eat that much for lunch. Going to the Lion for steak tonight though! I can't wait. I am getting some serious steak craving right now. Plus it's not Dewie's so it's pretty much guaranteed to be amazing.

Don't think anything particularly exciting has happened this week. I had a midterm in Playwriting. I think I've failed. I did so badly on that thing. I did pretty well on my Canadian Short Story module though, I got a B, which considering she's the toughest marker in the uni, that's pretty damned impressive. I'm rather pleased with myself. Totally failed that midterm though.

Still waiting on the results for the Intro to Lit midterm. I don't think I did too badly, but I'm going slightly crazy what with all the people panicking and feeling the need to rehash everything again and again. It's done and gone. Is there really any point going over it all the time? It's not like we can do anything about it...

That class was pretty good, the other day. We spent half of class watching trailers for different films based on Arthur (Arthuriana, apparently). It was vaguely academic in that we were looking at how the myth is portrayed depending on the social concerns of the time... It was a valid way to spend the lesson, honest.

How did the prof get onto the Big Bang Theory? I think I missed something. Oh right, he's talking about Hesiod explaining 'the beginning'. Well, he says that in the beginning was Chaos. I love that he doesn't need to explain these things. They just are. Don't you love the Greeks? Chaos meaning 'void' rather than, you know, chaos...

I can totally multitask...

I think he's going off on another tangent. Something about voids and yawning.

The Earth is female! See? We didn't just come about because Prometheus stole fire from the gods! We were here first. The Earth came along into Chaos, and then came Eros (love - as in sexual. Nothing romantic about this stuff). The Earth is called 'Ge' (as in Gaia). Eros is male.

Erebus and Night gave birth to day... I think I got lost. It's pretty hard to follow when he starts reading. I think it would make more sense if I read it myself.

Some parthenogenesis (literally 'virgin-birth') - the Earth gave birth to the ocean with no male input. All of these things are anthropomorphic, because they're the Earth and the Heavens 'laying together' - this is primordial incest.

I really don't know what's going on now... I was paying attention and everything. Kronos cut off his father's balls, because Uranus didn't like his children and buried them in the Earth. The balls got thrown into the sea and grew into Aphrodite. This makes basically no sense, but I love it anyway.

I think I'll stop writing this; class is nearly over. Food!

Saturday 16 October 2010

Leaving Lennoxvegas

I finally managed to go on the shopping trip we've been planning for the last month. We had decided to go the weekend it flooded, so that didn't end up happening, what with the road being closed and all. Then the weekend after was Thanksgiving so basically everybody had gone home. We all had a free day and no other plans, so we went yesterday and had an epic day of retail therapy. I finally have a winter coat! It wasn't the most expensive anyway, but there was also 40% off, which is just a bonus, really. I also managed to get some new trainers to replace my old ones that are worn out and got drowned in the flood. I don't know how much they were supposed to be, but the label on the shelf said $80. When I paid for them and some hairbands that were $6, the total only came to about $51 something, so maybe they were half price as well? I'm so not complaining.

I bought a Canadian phone too, so I can actually communicate with people here now! It's so much easier than relying on the internet, what with people not being online etc... I don't think the bus trip to the mall is one I particularly want a repeat of. It takes about 40 minutes to get there and about half an hour back, but it kept making me feel ill. I'm not sure why though.

No plans for today yet, but there isn't really much to do outside of class work. I'm sure I'll come up with something - spend the day in Dewie's or something.

The amalgamated 'Kailee' bought a couple of fish as well (aptly named Jean-Luc Bacardi and Axel Jagermeister) and spent the entire bus ride back trying to work out the names. It seems only right that the fish of Bishop's students should be named after alcohol, really.

I finally got to try real Poutine, yesterday. It's just not the same making your own in Dewie's.

I'm so glad I finally managed to get shopping though, I've had a list of things I needed for a while, but this was the first chance I've had to actually get it all. I even got a haircut, because my fringe was driving me crazy and it really did need doing. How I've missed shopping! I've been going slowly crazy since I got here, though I think part of that might be because I've barely left campus - there's pretty much nothing else to do around here...)

I had my first midterm on Wednesday; it was pretty easy, although my hand isn't any better at coping with a lot of writing than it used to be. I keep having to stop and stretch my fingers to try and stop it hurting. I got the test finished though, and hopefully I didn't do too badly on it.

I just got back from breakfast and now I have no idea what else I was going to write...

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Turkey, Turkey

This week has been less exciting than last week. We have had no crazy weather, or random acts of imaginary omnipotent beings. Life has been significantly more boring.

On the plus side, we had turkey. My first Thanksgiving was pretty epic, all things considered. A couple of the girls I have classes with were hosting a Thanksgiving meal and inviting pretty much anyone who was around and wanted free food. It was a lot of fun. We had real cheese (oh how I've missed it) and crackers, and an epic turkey dinner. We sat around drinking and talking, and we watched some episodes of Charlie Brown (particularly the Thanksgiving episode, as intended). We did have the scary and depressing episode aptly named 'Why, Charlie Brown, Why?' in which a random character with too much hair got cancer. We were terrified. What had become of lighthearted cartoons??

It's ok; she got better, And her hair grew back miraculously quickly. All is right with the world.

The wonders of youtube meant we ended up watching some random videos and sang some disney songs, because we'd passed the mellow part of the night at about 8pm and had become slightly insane.

I'm glad I got to do something fun for my first ever Thanksgiving. It sure beat sitting in my room alone and eating at Dewie's...

Other than the epic Thanksgiving, I have little else to talk about this week. I just felt I needed a new entry seeing as it had been a week since I updated this thing. People have started returning to campus now, so I actually have people to talk to again. I'm going to miss the quiet that was a near-empty rez, though.

Film or sleep? Film or sleep? Film or sleep?

Monday 4 October 2010

All the ducks are swimming in the water...

So the title isn't that accurate. There aren't any ducks around that I've seen, but there were plenty of seagulls...

Lennxville flooded on Friday. Everyone went crazy; people went swimming on the football field. I walked through it. And back. For no reason. Walking through water up to your hips is not a sensible thing to do, particularly while wearing shoes. I wasn't even going to walk through it, but then a massive truck went through and the wake soaked my shoes and half my jeans. I figured since they were already soaked it wouldn't hurt to make it worse. I think the weirdest part was tipping my shoes and having water pour out, and then having to wring the damned things out. It didn't help much: they were still sloshing as we walked back to campus, and I'm just glad we have dryers that actually dry things. Apparently it floods every couple of years though, and the uni even has an evacuation program in case they have to. I think they did it in 2005, but they were only a couple of feet from doing it this year too.

It was a lot of fun though, and I actually go the new camera out and took pictures. I have more from Saturday as well, but Facebook is having issues and not letting me upload them at all. I guess I'll try again later and see if it does anything. At least it's stopped raining, right? Even if it has suddenly gotten really cold. Autumn is fully setting in and all the trees are turning, so they look all pretty and colourful. It's really cold though, and it's going to be at least a couple of weeks before I get to the mall. It's Thanksgiving this weekend, so pretty much everyone is going home and I'll be one of the few people left on campus. I don't mind so much.

My first assignment is due on Tuesday. Considering how long I put it off for, it only took me about an hour and a half to write the whole thing. We had a working brunch today and went over each other's essays to make them better. It's about 300 words over the word count, but she said 700 words or three pages, and it's three pages. She didn't give us a max limit though, so I guess it's ok. No idea how I'll do on it, but whatever. This one isn't worth that much.

I might just make this a short entry, I'm sitting in Dewie's and my fingers are going numb. Might go curl up in bed where it's warm for a bit before lunch and classes.