Ottawa Opulence

So, went to Ottawa last weekend, and a what a fine time it was! I got to see the Parliament buildings, a LTTE (Tamil Tigers) demonstration at said Parliament buildings, went to visit my lovely, wonderful great Aunt Mary, and saw inside the dreaded apartment of one of my oldest and dearest friends. And he has a cat named Bogart who is stone deaf. The very fact that he has a cat amazes me, because he's inherently a dog person. Who woulda thunk it?
To your left we have a great shot of the Tamil Tigers and their flags in front of Parliament. They were pretty peaceful, but Canada considers them terrorists. Hmm.
Tea and cookies with Aunt Mary in the sunroom.






Shap and Bogey. SO CUTENESS! He clearly adores this cat. He would shove his face in the cat's nose and yell "Don't love me, Dan, don't love me!" Priceless.

Ottawaaaaaaah

I'm going to Ottawa on Friday for the first time since high school. I think high school, at least. Probably 7 years, I'm just going over it with Mom now.
I actually really like Ottawa. I used to go there a lot as a kid because my mom's best friend Julia and her family live there. I like the old-world feel of Ottawa, and I like the museums. Parliament doesn't really float my boat or anything, but the history of the place and of my country I definitely enjoy.
I look forward to taking pictures this weekend, even if the weather isn't nice. If it's really cold I'll probably limit my movement to places that I can catch a bus back to Julia's house. They live in Barhaven, a suburb of Ottawa that isn't exactly close to the downtown core.
Anyways, I'm excited to get away for a weekend. I haven't been away for real (longer than a day trip, I mean) since I went to the cottage over Labour Day weekend and I think this will be good for my head.

-Laur

Springtime in the shadows

Lately I've forgotten about a lot of the things that I enjoy. I feel like I'm constantly struggling to keep up with just about all the normal everyday things I usually do around now. Maybe it's because my body feels like I should be gearing up for a teaching block, or exams. But this year is an anomaly, and neither of those things will be happening.
A lot of stuff has happened since I last blogged. For example, I returned to class from after exams. I did a presentation, the last of the academic-Arts class ones this year, on Austin Clarke's Love and Sweet Food and Stuart Hall's "Cultural Identity and Diaspora". I wrote my first essay for Inspiration, and was once again published in EDible News. I also got my convocation dates, and for 24 hours freaked right out about what was to be done.
We're having a big 85th birthday party for my awesome Gramma in Edmonton during the last weekend in June. It worked out really well because Mom would be done school, I would be done the AQ course I thought I was taking (more on that later) and Auntie Brenda would have been all moved home from Russia. The date was set for Sunday June 28th and it was going to be great. Auntie Bren bought our tickets using Aeroplan miles from Thursday the 25th to July 1st so we could all have some time together to visit; Auntie Reta, Uncle Jim and Maggie are coming over from Vancouver Island for the party so it would be the first time my mom and uncle had seen each other since we interred my grampa's ashes 7 years ago. I had been told convocation wouldn't be until July because of the messed up year, so we thought everything would be fine.
Well, turns out the powers that be at York managed to organize some tomfoolery and made the convocation ceremonies start on June 24th. My BA ceremony is on June 26th and my BEd ceremony, the one that is really important to me, is on June 29th. I would be in Edmonton over the whole convocation period. Crap.
After those 24 excruciating hours were up, everything had been rearranged. The party is now on Saturday June 27th and Mom and I fly back to Toronto on the red-eye flight on Monday morning. We'll sleep, shower, do our hair and makeup, and drive to school for 1:30 so I can get robed and put into the procession; the ceremony begins at 3:30, and we're invited to the Faculty of Education graduates reception afterward. Gramma, who was originally supposed to attend, will no longer be coming; it's too much excitement for her in too short a time and what if some of the out-of-towners stick around for a while after the party? It's not fair, of course, but it's what's right.
So like I said, I've forgotten about a lot of the things that I enjoy. This craziness has sucked all the fun right out of me, until last week when I randomly created the above image in Inspiration class during a particularly uninspiring discussion on plagiarism. I love to mess around with pictures and I thought the contrast between sunlight and shadows, caught on an afternoon in the watery spring sunshine, was particularly captivating. I also went out with friends for someone's birthday this weekend and my face hurts from laughing.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, kids.

-Laur

Third-World Myths Dispelled

Check out this awesome video we just watched in my Teaching Geography class. It's long, but the first 6 minutes are simultaneously hilarious and enlightening:



Let me know what you think. Maybe I'm just a geography nerd but this stuff is gold, especially with his hilarious accent.

-Laur

P.S.

It's not just men. It's women too. There's one talking right now. Showboaters.

-Laur

Blow haaaaard

You ever meet a person who looks so good and so awesome and then he opens his mouth and he's just a bloooow haaaard? I'm listening to one of them right now. He says "I" and "me" a lot and goes off on strange tangents and to tell you the truth, as cute as he is, I'm not interested anymore. He's expressing admiration for his mother right now, and that's all fine and good but he's still a big talker.
Anywho, I don't care.

Today FESA had a cupcake sale organized by yours truly (and Adrienne, she was awesome about baking and setting up and booking the room) and it was a SMASHING SUCCESS! We made $366 for Wikondiek school in Kenya and that just makes me so happy. Part of my job description is to raise money for that school and I take pride in going the extra mile to really help them out when they are in so much need. Lindsay R says it's the best FESA bakesale to date, and that's AWESOME! Woohoo!

Now back to Bryna's house to exercise the bunnies and clean up. Not that I left it messy. Not at all, I just need to take out the garbage and collect the rest of my stuff.

-Laur

Back to school, back to school

Back to school. After 3 long, bitter months, Queens Park legislated CUPE 3903 back to work. They should have done it 4 weeks into the strike when it was crystal clear that neither side was going to budge, but I guess we can just hope that the mistake will be a lesson.
SO, yesterday morning I woke up extra early and went to class (sick to my stomach on the bus, not sure if that had to do with the early morning or the dread) and surprisingly, it wasn't so bad. Acting was nice because I saw all my friends that I had missed for so much of the strike and being together again felt natural. Afterwards I rushed to my Teaching Geography class and my spirits began to flag because usually it sucks; not the case yesterday, however. We did mapping activities for 3 hours and it rocked. Halfway through that class I opened my FirstClass email account to the most amazing and ground-shaking news: our 4-week, 20-day teaching block, the one that we're supposed to do at the end of the school year, had been cancelled. I was overjoyed because I hate my placement; my MT is a cold, unhelpful woman who dislikes me and I think probably finds me tedious. The thought of teaching in her school for 20 straight days sent me skating toward the edge of a nervous breakdown. This is fantastic. This is the best news ever.
After class we had a Town Hall meeting in the Winters college dining hall to clear up any confusion about the Ed year. It was short but full of information, and to celebrate we (being a pile of FESA members who just kept getting bigger) went to Blueberry Hill (or Blueberry Mountain, according to Steve) for dinner before Mean Girls movie night. Move night was great, and then I came home.
Today is Tuesday. I lesson planned, went to the gym, and now I'm in class watching a video that suggests that breathing is God. Ha.
I don't need God to tell me that despite my doubts, everything is going to be okay. I just need me to say it.

-Laur