Mountains of Homework

We're about halfway through the semester, as it is very evident I have been wicked busy and have forgotten all about my blog.

Awesome.

Ok, so what has been going on up here?

Classes have buried me in a mountain of projects and reading. I have been approved for work-study (as of a few weeks ago) but time has been flying like mad and I am not in a place right now to manage a job and school. Maybe after winter break.

Really the main issue at the moment is that the work piled up too much before I finally figured out good routine for doing homework as well as taking notes in class. As a result this semester is just going to be what it is, which right now is a bit painful and avalanche-y.

Partially my own damn fault, anyway.

On a positive note, in some senses, a decision was made on the relationship front.

It's a go.

Long story short, as most of it is not my story to tell, the distance is being kept at about 6-7 hours and, if things go as planned, could be shortened to about 4 hours in the near future. I find this to fall into my "manageable" category, espcially since there is a definite timeline for our long-distance status (until I am done in school). Only 18 months to go! Ha.

Oh, and I am happy. Very much so. :)

Leading into my next topic, next week is "reading" week. Which we have off.

On the plus side, I am going to do my best to utilize some of this time to catch up on readings for class, and perhaps get back on top of the mountain. ::fingerscrossed::

In other news...

Originally a friend of mine had planned to rent a car this Friday and drive down to Boston for the week. He asked if I wanted to catch a ride. I decided what the heck, why not? I have plans for next Monday back here, but would just catch a ride back up on Suday with my boy.

Everything was going smoothly until we discovered something about renting a car in Quebec (at least from places that are affordable for po' students). If you have a Quebec liscense you'll have a hard time renting a car, if at all, because you're local, I guess, and therefore don't need to rent one...and should just take the bus or buy a car?

Both of us, being international students, are not from Quebec and don't have Quebec liscenses...but to "prove" you are not local, even with a liscense from somewhere else, you need to show flight records. You have to prove you arrived in Quebec by plane to qualify. Granted, this is not all rental places, but it is for the convienent and cheap ones. Why?

I have no clue.

So, no go. My friend is now going to take a bus, which takes about 10 hours (car would take 6 hours) and costs almost $100 (car would have been $40-$50 splitting it between 2-3 people).

Since I wasn't planning to go home otherwise I've just sticking around here, and may try and finagle a trip home sometime during the week. We shall see!

That's all for now, I guess.

Along with catching up on readings during break I'm also going to set-up a game plan for posting on here at least once every 2 weeks, if not every week.

Social Butterfly-Networking

Last week I did my first round of classes, though, due to the holiday I didn't have my Monday class until this week. So now I have had all of my classes at least once. Go me!

Also, since I don't have classes on Fridays I started the school year with a 5-day weekend, with which I did no homework. Because I am lame.

Having been out of school since last December it was a bit more difficult to get back into the swing of things than I thought it would be. I finally plunged myself into reading, etc. last Wednesday after class and since then it's felt a lot better, and easier to get started on assignments.

Though, now I definitely understand that it is true, once you stop it's hard to get back into the school mind-set, real life is easier to just float by in.

In that made any sense at all...

Anyway. What have I been up to?

Been out for drinks with people from my program. Both of my roommates had guests over last weekend, which was a lot of fun. Oddly enough they both had friends who were guys coming over, which, although we have guys in our program, was a bit refreshing, because we had been hanging out mostly with each other and then other girls from school.

As the week progressed, though, we all met more and more new people, so it wasn't all girls....

Also, introduced one of my roommates to Apples to Apples, because everyone should know the joy that it is.

Other than classes last week I am drawing somewhat of a mental blank until the weekend. With the way my schedule is set up Wednesday and Thursday is like my main "week" because I have 3 classes between the 2 days. Also, the weeks are already flying, and I haven't even been here a month. (Yet, only 3 days til that's reached)

Thursday some friends and I checked out the Midnight Kitchen on campus. It's a soup kitchen run by volunteers and that happens during the week, every day at 12:30pm (even though it's called Midnight Kitchen...)

It's an vegan meal that is supposed to have all the nutrients you need, and it comes with a dessert. It's also a pay-what-you-can operation, which is perfect for the miserly graduate student me.

The trick is getting there early, it's very popular and the line wraps around the hallways. And around, and around.

Friday afternoon there was a potluck picnic for the SIS (School of Information Studies) crew, which had a good turnout. Met more new people and fended off a pack of squirrels. They're bold little critters around here!

just before he touched my roommate's leg

Friday night found us at the graduate-student pub for some hanging out meeting of even more people...I think after Friday my friend count went up by about 20 +

Sunday my roommates and I organized a trek to the Tam-Tam which is at Parc du Mont-Royal, about a 25 minute walk from us. Or so we thought. Turns out there was a bike race so they had most of Avenue du Parc was blocked off and also part of Avenue du Mont-Royal, and we needed to cross Parc but couldn't where we were. Ended up walking about an extra 30-45 minutes just to get across the street. Ridiculous.

Monday night my roommates and I organized a horror movie-night, inspired by Monday's full moon. We have a pretty small living room, and didn't really take that into account beforehand, but we still managed to squeeze about 15 people into it, plus a ton of food, picnic style on the floor. It was a good turnout though, and a lot of fun.

Other Stuff

Although I finally bought myself a bike pump yesterday I am going to have to hold off on using my bike until this weekend, when I buy a new bike pump. I foolishly bought a small hand pump, thinking it'd be a smart and cheap way to go. Only, it's a lot tougher to use than a regular pump, and I can only get my tires up to 50 PSI and they need to be at 100.

*facepalm*

My apologies for this update being a bit slap-dash and lame. Been a long week and I need more sleep...better updates to follow, I promise!

Hot in the City

School Update

We had orientation on Tuesday and Wednesday, this past week, and then classes started on Thursday.

Orientation went pretty well. The first day was mostly sitting in this one lecture hall from 10am until 3pm, which was surprisingly exhausting, though we barely did anything.

The second day was more active, we had meetings in different buildings and also had a "BBQ", which, while it was free food, only consisted of hotdogs, potato chips and sodapop. Oh, and ketchup chips, which I was told Americans all love. Myself and a girl from California, who tried them, were not impressed. They tasted like the cheap ketchup you get that's too sweet and a bit watery. Or...maybe that's "catsup".

In anycase, the BBQ was then followed by option tours around the campus, which added another hour or so of walking onto the 45-minute (one-way) walk to campus from home. The tour ended at the graduate-student pub, which seemed pretty cool, until I was charged $6.55 for one pint of beer. I thought it was for grad-students, not suburbanites with full-time jobs...

My first class on Thursday was at 8:35am so I was up pretty early. Walked to school with my roommate who is in the class with me. The only thing with my Thursday schedules is that I also have a 5:30 night class. I usually avoid night classes, but this was a required course that wasn't offered at any other time. So rather than go home I hung out with a few classmates who were also in both the morning and the night class. We did a lot of walking, a LOT.

I then walked home at 8:30pm. Why?

Because the subway here costs $3 to go ONE WAY.

Cah-razy. No thank you. I'll take the T's $1.70 any day over that.

Oh, and my schools non-academic support staff went on strike on Thursday, as well.

Other Recent Events

Yesterday began a 5-day off stint for both me and one of my roommates. Since Monday is Labor day we have no classes and we both only have classes on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

I had originally planned to wake up at the crack-o-dawn yesterday and try and talk to the coach for the swim club (they meet in the mornings at 6:30am) but ended up bailing because my legs were so sore from all the walking the last few days.

Ended up venturing out with my roommate in search of winter boots, because, y'know, when moving to Canada this is something I don't find necessary to have before hand...

Our apartment is shouting distance from Avenue du Mont-Royal and we stumbled upon a closed-street festival due to the holiday weekend. It made shopping a little more hectic with all the people but I did succeed in finding winter boots, and for only $99.99 (on sale because they were from last season, oh no, I am so out of style...) now I just have to wait another month or so to use them...

After trekking around for a good two hours or so we came back home and ended up vegging out in the living room watching Community which is pretty freaking amazing. Seriously spent from about 3 or 4pm util 12:30 in the morning just hanging out with the roomies, it was pretty cool.

Also, our landlord and his family left for for the weekend and have been gone since Thursday and won't be back until tomorrow, so it has been nice. No small children running around on my head. We've had the blinds in the kitchen open for the last few days, and at some point we are also going to hang out on our front porch and drink some bee-ahs.

Let's get this settled: Post III

I spent most of today working on my studio, as today was my last day of freedom before orientation tomorrow and Wednesday and the classes start on Thursday, eep!

Before & After

Before & After

Before & After

Before & After

Basically, every piece of furniture in the room was moved except for the white drawing table because it's the only thing that fits (almost) perfectly over the radiator, and otherwise the space under the window wouldn't be usable.

This is just going to be a quick update with the pictures, actually have to be up at a decent hour tomorrow, holy-moly!

Let's get this settled: Post II

At some point today there will be three of us living here. For the past week there has only been two, and for the first few days it was just me. With each new addition comes more organizing and more motivation to get settled (and opinions of what should go where) I approve of this. :)

This has also motivated me to settle my own room more, which I spent most of yesterday doing.

My Room

I'm pretty proud of how my little set-up is coming along. Though, my dresser issue has not been resolved. Right now I am trying a remedy my roommate's mother suggested of this sponge-thing that comes in a plastic container that is designed to get rid of odors. I've been rotating it throughout the drawers, it (the sponge) is supposed to get smaller as it gets used up and sucks up odor from the air...I guess?

In the mean time, this is where my clothes are, if they aren't hanging up. Everyone and their mother (literally) has given me suggestion for what to do about the smell, but honestly, I have this feeling my clothing set-up is here to stay...

The wrinkle in my tapestry aside, I am happy with with my sleeping area. Those little white dots in the wall-gap are my LED star lights, maybe in my next update I'll get a shot of them in action!

We've also rearranged our living room and done the best we could with the kitchen table and it's stupidly large chairs.

Living Room

Before & After

Like our paintings? One of my old roommates found them on the street.

Kitchen

Now, with the kitchen, what may be hard to tell is that the table is much too big for the space, add on 6 chairs (two with arms that the previous tenant shoved into a bedroom) that all have large wings on the back and you've got a pretty cramped kitchen.

In this first picture it may look like there is tons of space, but then notice how close the table is the drawers & stove. It's right up again them, blocking the oven and the pantry, which does make more room for the the refrigerator (behind the shot). In the second picture the table is pulled out from the oven and pantry and it still looks like there is room, but what you can't see is that to the right of this shot is the back door and the kitchen window, which the table is pushed up against. (These photos were taken by my roommate before we moved in, so this is how the landlord had the kitchen set up.)

This is how we have our kitchen set up now. When I first moved in my dad and I flipped the table so it was going across the floor instead of up & down. Since my roommate has been here we've slowly moved all the large chairs away* and replaced them with chairs I had brought with me. While it's not the ideal situation it's working much, much better, and we can open both the oven and the fridge at the same time (though the fridge got the short end of the stick, we can only open the door part way before it hits the table.)

Other Things

This is our backdoor, which is in the kitchen. While our kitchen window has a pull-down shade the door had no shade or curtains at all. My own personal fear of first-floor windows (at night) aside...it was kind of awkward because our landlord and his family were always in the backyard, and also, working on fixing the porch, so it was like being in a fishbowl. Not fun.

Thus I took it upon myself to fix this problem. It also fixed the problem of creepy night-windows...

Curtains: Two large Command hooks, a piece of twine and two pillow cases I got from freecycle. Yay for resourcefulness!

This is a moose-head bottle opener I bought back in March when my family went on vacation in Waterville Valley. Unfortunately the test run didn't turn out too well...not sure if it's because the beer was actually a twist-off (seriously, a twist-off beer?!). In either case, it still looks neat.

Here is my lovely roommate making dinner. I really just took this picture to show off our supah-cool dish towels. Our kitchen has some what of a fish theme because in the back of all the cabinets is this teal wallpaper with fish on it. (Pictures to come, my camera just died...)

We also had beer that night, which, of course required cookies to go with (my favorite dessert combination). Surprisingly, despite being a twist-off top, this beer was pretty good.

I think that about wraps up this post, my next challenge is my studio, which is full of broken-down cardboard boxes right now. Monday is recycling day and it can't come soon enough!

* Where are all the large chairs?

Hiding in my closet. Being used for a desk.

Pulling weight in the kitchen

.

Being unwanted.

We also have the two large end chars with the arms on them. When I first moved in my dad and I asked the landlord if he could at least take those ones off our hands, since they were so bulky and horrible. He said he'd think about it. We put one of them out on the porch before my dad left last week (on Friday) and it's been there ever since, landlord hasn't said a word. The other one is now being used as a desk chair in my other roommate's room.

Let's get this settled: Post I

One of the mini-projects I decided to embark was to find a way to bring more light into my room.

The way my apartment is set up there are only windows at the front and the back, this due to the fact it is attached to the buildings on either side of it.

There are two bedrooms in the middle of the house, mine and one of my roommates (and the third is at the back and has a window).

Mine and the other middle bedroom don't have windows, but we do have large holes/gaps in the top part of one wall that lets in a little bit of light from the two front rooms that do have windows.

When my first roommate moved in last week her mom was nice enough to bring us to Ikea and a few other places not easily accessible without a car.

One of the things I bought was a cheap full-length mirror, from Ikea*, with the plan to hang it on my wall opposite the large hole, to help bounce light into my room.

My landlord, though, has a rule that if we want anything hung on the wall (that is significantly large like that) he has to do it. I can understand the reasoning, this means if anything gets damaged, or if he doesn't find the studs and the thing falls off the wall then it is his fault and not the tenants. It's only a pain because then I have to wait until he is around to hang things, and also either have him come in when I am not home (not something I'm entirely cool with) or be there and wait around while he takes forever (also not something I enjoy, but whatcha gonna do?).

Anyway, he hung up the mirror. Yay. It probably could be a bit higher, but I was here and he hung it where I told him to, so I can't really complain (and don't really feel like asking him to rehang it...took...forever.

Here are the results:

Before & After

It does bring a little more light into the room, but probably not as much if I had had him put the mirror higher...ah well.

I suppose my back up plan will be to wait until I know he is not home (which is never...) and rehang it myself, since now I know where the studs are!

*I had never been to Ikea, this was a novel experience for me...and yes we do have them in the states, just not where I grew up. They have a cafeteria!

Ring Ring Ring Ca-na-da Phone

I have finally acquired a cellphone. Go me.

The Verdict

As I mentioned in my last post I was going to try and get around Google Voice's not-available-outside-the-US thing. I tired, and failed. I had a friend sign into my account down in the states and set it up for me, then we tried calling my new GV number, and nothing. It was a good theory, and I know someone who claims their Google Voice works up here...so I don't know what I did wrong, maybe they are just magic.

Anywho.

I ended up going with a prepaid plan. I've never done a prepaid plan before, so there were some things I didn't consider. Like the fact I would have to actually buy the phone I wanted, and also that I will have to enter a code into my phone or "top up" my payment online.

I went with the prepaid not only because I didn't have a SIN and also had no desire to get a Canadian credit card, but because instead of having 2-year contracts they have 3-year contracts, up here in the great north. Even though my program is "2 years" it's really only about 20 months long, starting this September and going until April/May of 2013. Which means even if they offered a 2-year contract there wouldn't be a guarantee I would still be up here.

So, a 3-year contract? Forget about it.

I also figure that even with the $70 up-front cost of buying the phone, it's probably better than whatever "early termination" fee they would hit me with if I got a contract and then bailed.

Now my only puzzle is figuring out how to set up my voicemail...which only gives instructions in French...Also, since it is not set up for me personally yet, when someone calls it and gets the voicemail it tells them that my number is not available, please leave a message after the beep...in French. I suppose no one from home will be calling me on my phone, and some of my future classmates will most likely speak French...right now I am not worried about it.

I do wish I could change the text-message inbox set-up, and make everything bigger...

as you can see...I already miss my old phone. Alas.