Not So Hot


What I need in class to make things more interesting.

So far, second year university has hardly been enlightening and only somewhat interesting. With classes like Sociological Theory and Research Methods, I didn't quite expect it to be enthralling, but I think there was a sliver of hope in there somewhere.

I have often said that it hardly matters whether or not the class material is interesting; I think that the success of the course always lies in the professor. Par exemple: my Research Methods prof.

She takes 10 to 15 minutes every morning to try and figure out how to work her PowerPoint presentation. She inserts the disk, opens up D drive and finds nothing there. Checks the actual physical drive. Yes, CD is in. Opens up the folder, checks again, folder is empty. Checks the CD. Checks the folder. Checks the CD. Checks the folder. Again and again and again. Meanwhile, I'm sitting in the 3rd row, my mind just screaming at her, "Just check the other folder for goodness' sake! It's in E drive woman! E DRIIIIIIVE!!"

So then she calls in the guy from the IT department who's been dealing with her every lecture, showing her how to work the microphone and dim the potlights. Is it just me or do professors have a certain repsonsibility to learn things like PowerPoint and how to use simple machines? Granted, she's of the generation that didn't grow up with computers so it's understandable that she doesn't know how they work blah blah blah. But if you're going to use it as part of your lecture, don't expect us to sit around and watch you fiddle with things you should really have a grasp on. Didn't we just pump a crap load of money into the education system a few years ago with the promise that teachers would be better trained and junk like that? Well, I think they should seriously introduce things like How to Use PowerPoint and Light Dimming 101.

To make matters worse, she spends whatever time we have left treating us like 5th graders, repeating everything she says twice and saying it s l o w e r the second time around to make sure we all wrote it down. Are you serious?? And I know I'm not the only one; every time that I walk into that lecture hall, I see fewer people and more empty seats. Prediction: course will not be good. Duh.

Personally, I see two options right now, shoot myself or shoot the prof.

9:57 am

Sunday, September 26, 2004

My Life In This House


Fancy dragon head at the Royal Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand.

• The internet is up and running, which means that I'm back for regularly scheduled (photo) blogging.
  
• Whether you like it or not.
  
• It's been 2 weeks since I moved in and we still have no phone.
  
• And we might not get one until the 30th.
  
• Ergo: Sprint and their stupid Bell technicians suck.
  
• Note to self: Call back tomorrow and bitch so we can get either (a) more discounts or (b) a freaking working phone line.
  
• Another note to self: Learn how to bitch.
  
• Weekends tend to get lonely here; one girl goes home to work, one is with her boy all the time and the other one stays in her room all the time.
  
• I've officially decided that I never, ever want to live alone.
  
• Ever.
  
• It's been 2 weeks since I moved in and I've already ruined one of my non-stick pans.
  
• I can't tell if it's grease or teflon flaking off into my food.
  
• Living with 3 other girls has actually not made me more 'girly'.
  
• I've managed to assemble my desk, put my computer together, change my lightbulbs, put up curtains and rearrange my furniture twice, all by myself.
  
• And I still don't own hairspray.
  
• Or a hairdryer.
  
• We have, however, had a long discussion on the merits of waxing over shaving.
  
• It turns out that our little residential street has lots of rumbly trucks, roaring motorcycles and speedy cars constantly going up and down.
  
• So it ends up being louder than the city's main road.
  
• Which is annoying as heck.
  
• Good thing I've got the number for local dispatch unit handy.
  
• Anyone need a party-pooper?

12:57 am

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Feeling Sad


A beautiful temple in Da Lat, Vietnam.

I think that one of the worst things in the world is that sad, melancholy feeling that just gets you down. Way down. It sits deep under your skin so that you can't really get at it and make it go away. It's that stupid stupid ache, the one that makes me drag my feet on the sidewalk and sit at home alone with Mr. Bean on a Friday night.

I'm managing to have fun with some friends and even enjoy work, but every happy moment just seems like a giant band-aid that gets ripped off when I get home. And the worst part is, I sound like I'm in the middle of some hormone-y teenage soap opera (case in point: dumb band-aid analogy). First I blamed PMS, now I'm blaming stress, but classes just started and if this is the first couple of weeks, then the rest of the year is definitely not looking up.

Something to look forward to: The Sprint technician knocking on the door because this will = a working phone line, which will = me calling my girlfriends to go out for lots of fattening ice cream.

1:32 pm

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

What My Housemate Really Thinks Of Me

I've figured out that the best way to make me feel better when I'm generally down in the dumps is to sit around with my housemate and her boyfriend and talk and laugh.

Housemate: Hey, how are you feeling?
Me: Eh.
Housemate: Wanna talk?
Me: Nah, I think I'm okay....
Housemate's Boyfriend: Hey Shirley, wanna a rum n' coke?
Me: Oh god YES.

And having a few rum and cokes in our hands helps too.

I didn't bother doing any reading that night, but it was definitely time well spent. We all got to know each other better, which is a good thing considering we're living together now (her boyfriend might as well start living with us since he spends more time at our place than he does at his own).

During this little get-together over the weekend, we got to talking about celebrities (because the housemate's boyfriend looks like Ron from the Harry Potter movies). This conversation of course, took place after we had imbibed the alcohol.

Me: Y'know, it sucks that I don't look like a celebrity.
Him: Well, you could look like a Chinese famous person.
Her: Who's a famous Chinese person?
Me: I could look like Lucy Liu!
Him: Lucy Liu? Nah, I don't think you look like Lucy Liu.
Her: Yeah, me neither. She's pretty!
Me: o_O

Thank goodness I was tipsy, otherwise it would not have been funny. We all laughed over it, I got chip n' dip all over my chin and we now have an inside joke to share.

2:20 pm

Sunday, September 19, 2004

A Whole Lotta Nothing

I can't wait until I'm reconnected with the web. Photos will be back up, I'll be around more often, I can use Google whenever I want...life will be good again.

We've got a bit of an Indian Summer going on in Waterloo so the last week has been filled with beautiful sunny days. This makes walking to campus to use the computers a little more bearable. The winds are still a bit chilly but curling up with a mug of tea in a patch of sun keeps me warm enough. That or a good Ibex blanket (this may just be a Canadian thing, but I'm not positive).

I've been feeling kind of cranky and somewhat sad lately because things with the boyfriend are not well. This makes reading textbooks and enjoying tea difficult. Not to mention boring blog entries. But here's to hoping that my life will seem less like a movie in the coming days, and instead resemble the happy-happy joy-joy of before.

11:47 am

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Taking Care Of Business

It turns out that I'll be getting internet at my new house next Tuesday(!) and then phone the day after(!!). Communicating with the outer world has been very difficult the past few days.

Countdown to internet: too long
Countdown to phone: too long + 1

I'm settling into my new place slowly. My room still needs lots of work and we still have some house-y things to establish. Like do not use the dish towel to wipe your hands and do not wash Shirley's non-stick pan with the hard-bristled scrubby-thing.

I started using new shampoo since I've moved in too, some wild strawberry stuff. I thought that, combined with my cantaloupe/melon conditioner, I'd come out the shower smelling like a fruit salad. However, it seems that some strange chemical reaction is taking place between the two products and I come out of the shower smelling not like some delicious fruity melange, but like a wood fire.

Hrm. I thought I might be able to come up with something witty and funny about smelling like a wood fire, but I'm not so sure there is anything witty and funny or remotely attractive about smelling like burning.

11:41 pm

Monday, September 13, 2004

Back To The Grind Again

Did I mention that I'm still alive?

Oh.

Well, I am. I can be found somewhere in the mess that is my room or among the throngs of 17 year olds that are too young to be university students.

Since getting back from Chicago I have managed to get little sleep, do many things for other people, not unpack and clean my room, go camping, get very drunk, throw up twice, finally buy food, eat, and not buy my books for the classes that started today. Thank goodness I have Tuesdays and Thursdays off so I can collect myself and get my life in order before things get really busy. Maybe I can figure out how to get a phone line at my house before October 8th.

2:06 pm

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Chi-Chi-Ago

Our time in the Windy City has been...interesting. And by 'interesting' I mean riddled with problems in the beginning to being slightly less riddled with problems now.

Leaving Louisville, our bus was an hour late. An HOUR. The driver did give us his name and told us to call Greyhound to complain so we could get discounted tickets on our next ride though. w00t. Being an hour late meant that we didn't get into Chicago until 1am, and suddenly we couldn't find a place to stay for the night. The entire city was booked up and our hotel (as we discovered much too late) was about 45 minutes from the downtown area. A taxi ride to said suburban hotel was going to cost at least $55. Well damn.

After some waiting, calling around, yellow page searching and a long chat with an incompetent woman at the hotel we were supposed to be booked at, we decided to take the cab and head to Willowbrook where the hotel was. In the cab I realized that $55 USD equals about $72 CAD. Oh lord.

At 2:00am, we arrive in Willowbrook, IL, which is so not Chicago. This is the richest, most pretty little suburb I've ever seen. The city is at least half an hour away and the last couple of days we've been pilfering free shuttle rides from the hotel next door. The shuttle only takes us to the train station and we still pay for our tickets there so don't go thinking that we're such thieving people. Even though we know we are. Not that anyone would ever suspect us because the crime rate here is -7000% and it doesn't look like anything remotely bad happens ever. Especially not hotel-guest-fraud.

Downtown Chicago has been interesting...lots of things to see, manymany huge buildings, some of which are beautiful and gothic-y. Went to see Second City last night which was gut bustingly funny. We're spending lots of time just relaxing here at the hotel which is only costing us $32 per night, and gives us the pleasures of free breakfast, tea at all times, and a pool.

3:39 am

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Louisville (pronounced "loo-vul" here) So Far

Jason has been busy with conference stuff a lot so I've been roaming the city on my own the last few days. When the weather is nice the city can be beautiful. There's lots of well kept historical buildings, small roads and clean sidewalks. But when you get over the initial shock of litter-free streets, you realize there isn't much left to look at.

Downtown Louisville is full of tall office buildings, cutesy firms in pretty lofts, and enough restaurants to feed the hungry business people at lunch time. Other than that, there's not much else to do. There's no shopping and in 2 days I've managed to exhaust the list of tourist attractions. I keep going for long walks around the city thinking that I'll find something new and interesting, but so far, I can only find more middle-aged men who look at me in not-so-nice ways.

The old, published academics here at the conference haven't been too bad (there's a 25 year old grad student here! poor guy, I've been latching onto him like a needy schoolgirl). Most of them are smiley and friendly, but are more interested in Jason so that relieves me of The Small Talk Task. However, it further burdens me with The Stand By, Smile and Look Interested Task. I've managed to chat with a few, managed to have lunch with one, but that does not make me any less tense or any less bored. The big closing dinner was tonight. With big tables and lots of academic people sitting at them. Talking about intellectual things that are dangling somewhere 3 feet above my head.

Two words: Open. Bar.

10:28 am