The start of a dream; the start of a new beginning.

Yea, not really. At the moment I’m sitting at home, with a pile of Clementine peels by my side, and having the phone to my ear organizing my few meagre days in Hamilton. Turns out, it takes a bit of organizing to fit everyone in if you’re on a time limit!

But before I get into my antics back here, I’ll go over some of my finals. Essentially, it was the most studying I’ve ever done in…ever. I had my face glued to paper for two weeks straight. The first week of exams, I had nothing. Then the second week, I had 5 exams, in 5 days. One, after another. Little overviews of the course are as follows:

Anthropology 100 – Rough start, quite a bit of writing. But I enjoyed the information I retained by the end of it. Anyone know what a kinship diagram is? Fun times. I have one made up for my parents when I practised for the midterm! But yea, final was the second hardest. I’m guessing mid 70s. I’m happy.

Sociology 100 – Reasons for big changes, basically. It didn’t make too much sense at first, but then when you started applying it to actually examples in today’s world, such as Jay-Z and his chances on immigrating into Canada, makes for a lot of entertainment (he didn’t make it by the way). The paper made me look at media differently. Anyone heard of the “The Medium is the Message”? Not what’s advertised, but HOW. It’s legit. The final was probably my worst. It was the last of the 5, and I couldn’t for the life of me study for it. I was drained. But after building a gingerbread house with the remaining people in my house, drinking hot chocolate, and slacking around for a few hours, I got back to it…at like 11PM. I didn’t get sleep much that night because I’m in the DOTA hallway. My ultimate vice that game is.

ASTU 150 – This course was a rollercoaster. Loved it, hated it, then left liking it again. I guess I never really understood what the point of this course was when I decided to start hating it. It was research strategies involving scholarly articles. I think what I really enjoyed about this course was the theme we researched. It was gender and sexuality. Heteronormativity in different demographics, how was perceive gender, what is acceptable, what isn’t, etc. We even had an article about professor’s and lectures. The phonemes and morphemes they use actually change the way we look at them. Are they approachable, or are they scary enough to avoid eye contact. The final was 3 hours, and I think I did pretty well on it. I think maybe even my best. Big bang bam, first year English requirement out of the way.

Philosophy 100 – Mark wasn’t smart with this course. He dropped biology and took this course because he thought it’d be easier. So much for that. Me and a friend went in it together, both decided to skip majority of the lectures, and only showed up for the discussions. Well when we had 2 days to study a whole course, we feared for our lives. But we crammed like we never have before, with our good friends Monster and 5 Hour Energy, and we killed the exam. It isn’t as complicated as we had thought. Although some of those concepts were confusing. I still don’t like you Hume, seriously.

Psychology 100 – My favourite course!! And my future major. What I love about this course is how applicable the knowledge you attain in this knowledge is to real life. Why are we less tired in the light? What exactly happens to the ears of a deaf person? Is hypnosis real? Why can’t you trust a sketchy banker? (for those in Coren’s class). Psychology answers ALL these questions! After learning from my mistakes and studying more for the final, I’m fairly confident in it. It’s a fun time guys, no lies.

Onward to second semester! Psych and socio carries over, and I’m also taking up two EOSC courses. Natural disasters and Mesozoic era. I saw of the same questions for this course, and I’m STOKED.

Update you guys with my adventures back home! Remember SADM? Yea. That night is coming. Pictures will be included.

With PRIDE, I announce that the last of the 9 papers due this semester are complete!! I know we’re not in the clear yet with finals ready to strike, but lordie its nice knowing all we have left is studying. Last Saturday Totem also got to blow some steam off at the formal dinner and dance. It’s insane how much better cafeteria food tastes when you’re surrounded by formal attire and decorations. The dance was wet and greasy, comparable to the GLOW dance in September; a fun time no doubt.  

I feel like mentioning also that the past few weeks have been indifferent for me as well. There were highs and lows, but in the end I was left thanking myself for coming out here. I’m not sure exactly what it was. Maybe it was the amazing friends I’ve made here, conquering inner demons (thanks to those friends), the independence, self realization, or feeling like the future actually holds a place for me, I’ve just been really grateful, to the point where I admit to my mother that I couldn’t see myself settling down back home anymore. It’s scary yet invigorating thinking like a grown up. Homesickness was still there, but I feel when I go back home in 3 weeks, when we reunite we’ll cherish our friendships even more since we survived such a split.  

This reminiscing might be from my sleepless euphoric state. I think I’m going to nap now. This whole sleep thing…it kinda rocks when you get a full 8 hours of it.