Better News!

Phew, budgets are a wonderful thing. I reworked the numbers. I can make it work, thanks to a contribution from my amazing mother, and a part-time job with about 10 hours a week (a manageable number on top of 60 hours of class, plus homework, plus any kind of social life outside school).

Back on track. Application in the mail in 20 minutes.

Happy happy me.

Sad News

My funding fell through. You would think that osap would take into consideration the fact that condensed programs have a much high tuition and therefore give you more money, but they don't.

No college for me. No massage therapy.

I'm a very sad almost university graduate.

Photos from Fall Term

The anthropology department finally put up photos of the night with Drs. Resaldo and Pratt, so I thought I would share a few with you. Here's me with some of my peers and professors:

And again, from the other angle:

Here's me talking to Dr. Resaldo (!!!) He's in blue, I'm in white.


And here is a classmate pouring coffee on my head:

Yes, these pictures were taken with the department's camera, and yes, I most certainly had to explain this last one to the acting department chair. She wasn't upset or anything. I think she found it rather funny. Rightfully so.

End of Term Madness

It's midnight! Past midnight really. I'm within a page of being done my paper that's due tomorrow at 12:30, and I've made study notes for my term test that's tomorrow morning at 9:30am. I've begun the memorization process too. Is it a little down to the line? You betcha. I wasn't anticipating struggling this much with this paper. How hard could it be to say that changes in communication technology have better enabled people living in diasporas to negotiate their national identity and maintain ties to their place of origin? Apparently pretty freaking hard! To make it worse my prof told me she was "really looking forward to reading" my paper. Gah. Talk about pressure.

I'm pretty sure I know what the questions will be for the test tomorrow. Looking at my study notes I know what I would ask me. But then, this prof is incredibly unpredictable and a little bit nasty, so quite likely I'm wrong. It makes studying for her tests somewhat complex. Never mind that she is the world's hardest marker.

Oh, and that midterm I thought I rocked? The one where we could have written down everything we ever learned and wrote for hours and hours on? I only got a 79%. Seventy-Nine! All that work, the studying, the careful thinking, the writing of all that stuff, and only a 79%?!? I totally deserve at least that one more point to bump it up to an A-. I'd go talk to her, but she did that annoying thing that profs often do and just put down a grade with check marks, and no indication of what I missed so I have nothing to go in with and show that I demonstrated something she just missed - which I'm SURE I must have. From what I hear a lot of people are upset with her marking. She changed the grade on one of my friend's papers from an A to a B, with no explanation why.

It reminds me of that petulant "if you don't know what you did wrong then I'm not telling" thing that stupid people do. Professors out there, please, for the love of pete, at least tell us what points we missed on the test/assignment/whatever. How else are we ever going to learn?

And now, back to stuffing my head full of terms and random facts about Rumba. Yes, I said Rumba. A whole half course on Rumba. Ask me anything people, I know it all. Who knew there would be so much useless trivia about a dance? Of course, I don't want to stuff my head with information. I want to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and go to bed. But No! Head stuffing!

What Kind of Soul are you?

You Are a Retrospective Soul

The most misunderstood of all the soul signs. Sometimes you even have difficulty seeing yourself as who you are. You are intense and desire perfection in every facet of your life. You're best described as extremely idealistic, hardworking, and a survivor. Great moments of insight and sensitivity come to you easily. But if you aren't careful, you'll ignore these moments and repeat past mistakes. For you, it is difficult to seperate the past from the present. You will suceed once you overcome the disappoinments in life. Souls you are most compatible with: Traveler Soul and Prophet Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

An Overdue Update

"Update your blog", says Jackie. Oh yeah. I guess I really should do that. It's only been...two weeks. That's actually not as long as I thought it might have been.

We're into the end of term, full of papers and presentations. In just three weeks I will be done my university education. How wonderful is that? Believe me, I am very much ready to be done. I'm tired of the papers. Not so much tired of classes and reading, but tired of papers.

Boyfriend is enjoying his time in Africa. He's been gone for a whole 51 days now. I'm insanely jealous. I want to have escapades with monkeys stealing my mango and get to dress up in tribal wear and denigrate an ancient tradition while on safari. I don't so much envy the jellyfish stings, sunburns, or vicious hazing though. I suppose you win some and you lose some.

This past weekend I took a Introduction to Massage course as part of the application prerequisites to Massage Therapy at the local college. A seemingly random change of life goals, I know, but I feel somehow better suited for this, at least right now. I do know that I am wholly unready for graduate school, and I've always been fascinated with the concept of the healing power of touch. I had an interesting conversation with one of my favourite professors (who's retiring this year, sob) about massage therapists as a folkgroup, and analyzing them anthropologically. He's a very cool guy.

The course was a lot of fun. We were taught the absolute basics in terms of draping, tactile techniques, direction, and patterning of movement. I found out a little bit more about the program. It's 2,200 hours completed over 18 consecutive months in which time I'll learn massage techniques and diagnostics, as well as the same level of anatomy that an M.D. learns. I'm rather excited to start something new, and different. It's a much better mix of hands-on learning and academics than anthropology, and I think I'm really going to enjoy that. I do the applications by the end of the month, and classes would start on the 30th of April. It's all happening pretty fast. Boyfriend is on side, being supportive and wonderful as usual.

I've got this starting, Mum's wedding in May and possibly a trip to Ohio to see my cousin graduate, and then my graduation in June and Greg's return to Canada. Hopefully with this many things going on the time will fly.

Math

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

I'm so proud! Glad to know that I haven't lost it all in my four years of math-less university. Truth be told, I kind of miss it. The puzzling and problem solving, with the relief of knowing that there is always an answer. None of this abstract concept junk.

Snow Day

Yesterday afternoon the university decided to close at 2:30 due to inclement weather. I didn't make note of this, because my 2:30 class had already been canceled and I still have to work even when the university closes because the restaurant is an "essential service" (meaning that if we close the poor little first years have to walk a WHOLE BLOCK to get to some place they can buy food, pft).

Needless to say, I was slightly bitter.

Today, however, after working on my presentation until 11:30 last night, and falling asleep after midnight, and being woken up at 7:00 in the morning by the snowplough doing our parking lot, I rolled over, slept for another hour, got up when my alarm went off, turned on the computer to check my email, and there, on the university homepage, is this:

University Closed Friday March 2nd due to weather conditions.

Wheeeee!!! Snow day! Again! And this time I get to enjoy it!

So what did I do with my snow day? I cleaned the bathroom. Because I'm cool that way.