Category Archives: Academic

A day off

Posted on 31 March 2012 | 3 comments

Exactly eight weeks after my last day off and the day I succumbed to my Epic Illness of 2012 (thus far), I finally ran downtown with Little Friend Ber to give ourselves a day of fun.

If you’d bumped into me as I flew towards the bus, you’d probably have heard my excitement: Who cares if it’s raining right now? I’m freeeeeee!

I should probably explain that I just submitted the bulk of my graduating essay to my supervisor this week and am currently waiting for the latest review before I edit it to submit the “first” official draft. As in, I am actually happy with my progress at the moment and can see the end in sight. Oh, yeah.

But who’s in a homework mood on the first free day in two months? Now that I’m able to walk and talk and eat as much as I want again, what better way to celebrate than with copious amounts of chocolate?

Chocolate fondue, ice cream, fruits and pastries

Chocolate fondue for two at Capstone Fondue

Capstone Tea & Fondue is located downtown on Robson and Broughton, with a noticeable green-and-white logo hanging outside. LFB and I have wanted to try this place for almost three years, but only just got around to it, thanks to a nifty Groupon purchase we acquired a few months ago.

Capstone is immensely popular — the first time we tried to go, they were full up. This time, I reserved a table a week before for as soon as they opened (3 pm), and it was a good thing I did — not fifteen minutes after we arrived and sat down to order, the place was almost entirely full with a long line and growing.

The chocolate fondue was exactly what we wanted, with a nice selection of fruit (strawberries, pineapples, grapes, green apples and bananas), pastries (lemon loaf, banana loaf and some kind of cookie), and ice cream. The ice cream was a new, delightful experience for me, because I discovered that the chocolate actually does freeze around it.

Which obviously led us to play with our food:

Smiling ice cream

Look! The ice cream's smiling!

We are so grown up.

3 Comments

Posted in Academic, Recreation

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Posted on 30 December 2011 | Comments Off on Looking Back, Looking Forward

Being sick multiple times over a few weeks teaches you a lot about patience. It provides an excellent opportunity for introspection and increased self-awareness. It helps you reassess your priorities and renew your appreciation for the things you might otherwise take for granted, like (usually) having good health.

My milder mood has also made it easier to review my resolutions for 2011 which, frankly, bombed. As in, not only did I fail to achieve them, they dropped quite sharply downwards.

Oh, well — sometimes, you just have years like that despite your best efforts. 2011 was one of my most challenging years, just as it is most likely going to be one of the most life-changing ones in the long run. Instead of focusing on the difficulties and wishing, as I have every December since 2007, that next year might be better, I’d like to look past the fog of discontent and pay attention to the aspects I might otherwise forget until it’s too late.

because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing

(source unknown)

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Posted in Academic, Careers / Work, Involvement / Leadership, Wellness

Chugging along

Posted on 11 December 2011 | Comments Off on Chugging along

road sign: hope, next right

The last time I asked for good songs by which to burn the midnight oil, a friend responded with the sage advice of using 8tracks.com, a site dedicated to handcrafted internet radio playlists. Popular playlists at the moment include several lists for study music. I can’t believe no one’s ever mentioned this site to me before — many thanks for the suggestion! I’m following it well.

My brain, by the way, is sizzling in a thick layer of bacon fat. I’ve been wrestling with my thesis argument for an embarrassingly long time and I think I just might have pinned it down. It’s looking back at me from my latest five-page outline, anyway. (A completely different outline to the one I last talked about, by the way.) Theoretically, all I need to do is clean it up a bit, streamline my introduction and gather the last of my primary materials before I start writing for real on Thursday.

Honestly, I’m a little terrified that my ‘aha!’ moment of the argument finally coming together — that mystical moment everyone kept telling me about but which I thought was never going to happen — is going to turn around suddenly and shout, ‘HAHA, FOOLED YA, THAT ONE’S A DUD! YOU HAVEN’T CAUGHT ME YET, NA-NA-NEE-POO-POO!’

We’ll see what happens. I’m pretending to be the Little Engine that Could: I think I can I think I can I think I can…!

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Posted in Academic, Recreation

The Garden Statuary Issue 1.1

Posted on 2 December 2011 | 2 comments

The Garden Statuary

is out and about! There are poems, photos, fiction, essays and even a YouTube clip that I’m sure you weren’t expecting to see, so go ahead — click the above header or go directly to our new website to discover what UBC’s undergraduate students are making and creating.

You can totally pass it off as expanding your intellectual horizons in the run-up to exams.

2 Comments

Posted in Academic, Faculty, Recreation

Thesis pains

Posted on 17 October 2011 | 3 comments

As I sit here working on an outline for attempt I-don’t-want-to-count-anymore of my thesis, I can’t help but worry how I’m ever going to produce 20-25 pages of good writing that I, my supervisor and my second reader will be happy with.

The goal this week is just to produce something, period.

I usually hate talking about my thesis. I don’t hate talking about my topic or the questions currently occupying my brain — I love talking about those at length with people who want to discuss them when I feel safe enough and not defensive — but I hate it when people who clearly are not interested ask anyway just to compare notes on our progress and pat themselves on their backs for how much better they are doing than I am.

I hate excusing myself from answering these questions as much as possible, and the lengths to which I will go to talk about anything else: the food, the weather, oh look, there’s a squirrel! Because most of the time, I don’t want to explain that I have an extension on my thesis and why that is; I don’t want to explain that there are a number of complex reasons why it’s not going nearly as well as the work I’m used to producing, or anywhere close to where I want it to be. I’m not used to not being a good student. I hate that this piece of work that I was looking forward to doing, and which I would otherwise be completely in love with, is tied up in all kinds of negativity because of personal issues I have no intention of divulging to nosy strangers who raise their eyebrows gleefully at my snail-like progress (if one can raise one’s brows gleefully) and say, ‘Really? Well, I’ve done [insert so many pages in so little time], so I know exactly how hard it is!’

No, you don’t. Go away. I honestly don’t give two hoots what you’re writing about either, because it is probably something as obscure and meaningless as mine is to you if we aren’t in each other’s fields. Let’s talk about something we might actually have in common, why don’t we, like that squirrel over there. (I wish I were brave enough to be rude in person.)

Meanwhile, I am going to get back to this exhausting outline. I just rediscovered a 15-page paper that I wrote for a graduate class a couple of years ago that even got a decent grade, and am now telling myself that another 5 pages on top of that can’t be such a great difference. If I did it once, I can do it again.

Right?

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Posted in Academic