Tag: Canada

Categories
Academic Miscellaneous Student Life

#069: Of precocious children and one-liners

Currently listening to: “Fashionable People” – Joel Plaskett Emergency

I do hate to use the excuse of life and work distracting me from updating on a semi-regular basis; alas, I must throw that out here. Amidst the steady loop of midterms (take one) and term papers and midterms (take two) and commitments to various extracurriculars, this sad blog seems to have fallen by the wayside. Mea culpa. Nevertheless, it’s nice to note that as we hurl ourselves into the neverending cyclone of paper and pen, there is much cheeriness around to be thankful for.

Such as the hilariously inquisitive comments of the young. The other night at work, the up escalator was broken (leading to much grumbling from all parts, including a slightly batty old lady – but that’s really a whole other story). This conversation between myself and a small-ish child followed.

Child: (befuddled) Why is there no up escalator?
Me: Well, it’s broken.
Child: Oh. (pause) Will it be there next time we come back?
Me: Yes. Yes, it will.

That takes me to the man behind me on the bus, who, in a startling fit of insight, provided us with the following gem.

“I wish buses could fly.”

Man, trust me, so do I. Especially if it were to be a flying double-decker bus. That would take us to new heights of flying vehicular frenzy.

In more personal news, I am now, as of yesterday morning, officially Canadian. My roommates, delightful bats they are, have been entertaining me all day with their pitch-perfect renditions of “Canadian Please“. It is kitschy, gloriously cheesy, and alarmingly catchy. The inner political geek in me does loop-de-loops and twirls of joy at the prospect of being eligible to exercise my ~voting rights~. It is all rather exciting!

With reference to my previous post, I still have yet to acquire a laundry card. The washing of clothing in the sink seems to have gone rather splendidly so far. Though I am on the verge of caving; we have some rather grotty-looking dish towels which could use a good tumble wash.

Alas, the Poli Sci paper I’m supposed to be researching beckons. Back to the murky world of the IMF and World Bank! Thank god I actually enjoy reading about this stuff. Till the next time, dear readers, I bid thee adieu.

Categories
Miscellaneous Recreation

#058: No, I haven’t abandoned this blog.

Currently listening to: sorry, music-less at the moment. Yes, it is true and unfortunate.

My apologies for being missing in action for the past two months or so! Eastwood’s comment reminded me that I had neglected to update this blog for the longest time, so I’ll give a brief summary of life the past bit, and do a more detailed write-up of the past two months when I get home.

Home, you say? Mary, where are you?

Well, I am currently in Fredericton, New Brunswick, after having been on the road since May 1. Having traversed Canada from Vancouver out by bus/train, I’ll be home in a week or two. At the moment, I’m couchsurfing; tomorrow morning, I leave for Charlottetown.

So- yes, I’m alive and well, and perhaps eating worse than I ought to (too much poutine! Ahhh, Quebec City <3), but either way, all’s good, and I’ll write more about life + the end of term (god, it feels like such a long time ago!) when I get back! Cheerio!

Categories
Academic

#014: And so…

Currently listening to: “My Alcoholic Friends” – The Dresden Dolls

…let Round Two of the Arts One essay-writing begin.
I will keep you posted on the progress of this doubtlessly scintillating activity.

In other news, I have figured out how to play Viva la Vida on the guitar.

Life is good…
except someone has stolen my Green Party lawn sign!

hey, it’s October!

Categories
Academic Miscellaneous

#011: Of essays and elections

Currently listening to: “Ho Ma Jolie” – Les Trois Accords

So as of yesterday, I’ve completed my first Arts One essay.
A wave of apprehension (furry green sock-wearing, nail-biting, grapefruit juice-spilling, etc) is taking over as I await next week’s tutorial and the necessity of reading said essay aloud.

Now that we’ve got that proclamation out of the way, presenting…CANADIAN ELECTION COMMENTS AVEC MARY.
[Disclaimer: The subsequent expressed views are the expressed opinion of this writer, and do not represent the views of the University of British Columbia.]

Firstly, the Conservative-Liberal competition has taken a turn towards the extremely childish. Mostly on the Conservative side. After all the hoopla surrounding notaleader.ca, I decided to take a look and form my own opinion about it. (Goodness knows the media’s been all over it; it’s time I actually read through it…) Now I’m neither a Liberal nor a Conservative, so with a most neutral perspective, I approached with caution, and found a shambles of a website dedicated to the sole purpose of personally attacking Stéphane Dion. No, not attacks on Liberal principles or campaign platforms, but rather, a full-blown attack on his competence. Complete with little Flash animations, pop-ups and such. Now forgive me if I’m wrong, but all this slanderous back-biting seems terribly immature. The initial (and well, current) purpose may have been to waylay the Liberals, but the fact that they have stooped to such an extent to distract from the focus point simply reflects doubly poorly on the Tories.

Secondly, statements like the following are not useful when I’m deciding who to vote for.
“The Bloc talks a lot about child care. But what can they actually do other than talk? With the BLOC, we can’t achieve anything.” – The Conservative Party, on childcare
On the other hand, the NDP doesn’t even mention the Bloc, or the Green Party.

Thirdly, despite the fact that the Bloc Québécois serves absolutely no purpose for 70% of the country, they do have some of the more entertaining and creative campaign ads- including a singalong and a music video. (The songs from the 2005 election were better, though.)

Fourthly, may I just point out how much I love the layout and design of the Green Party website.

Fifthly, I intend on attending as many political rallies as possible (the schedule seems rather unrelenting at the moment), just to get a better first-hand view of everything up close and personal, rather than simply from the papers/news/websites. It shall be interesting, to say the least.

Now that I’ve rambled quite enough, I’ll be off.
Ta for now.

Categories
Academic Miscellaneous Student Life

#007: Of classes, clubs and Canada

Currently listening to: “Schadenfraude” – Avenue Q

I really ought to write a coherent entry once in a while; here’s my requisite sane entry of the week.
(Translation: This is not just random crack. OR IS IT?!?)

Courses:
Classes are going splendidly; I have just realized that I haven’t actually mentioned the courses I’m taking on this blog. So I shall. Arts One is a real lark; finishing the Iliad gave me a real rush of satisfaction. I’ve never been one much for epic poetry (as any of my friends will attest to my violent protestations against Paradise Lost, but that is A Story For Another Time). The first lecture has proven to be a mind-boggling madhouse; following the prof’s train of thought is absolutely ridiculous and dare I say, brilliant. It’s like watching the cogs in a watch turn, but in Every Imaginable Direction while shooting fireworks and water and – well, it’s just all over the place, but so insanely fascinating to listen to. Oh, and the note-taking bit goes well too- if your definition of “well” includes large, loopy scrawls diagonally across lined paper. Psychology 100 goes equally marvellously; I shall soon be better equipped to mess with your minds even more. I’m certain you await that with great enthusiasm; I do too. Finally, French 122 is absolutely nothing like I expected it to be. I was not expecting to be conjugating verbs in the Present Tense, or the Infinitif. I’m certain there are people who are enjoying it more than I do; I shall not destroy their little beam of sunlight – I’ll merely hide in a box in the corner and mutter to myself in a schizophrenic manner. No, I jest: I’m looking forward to Fr 123. How’s that?

Clubs and Other Such:
I’m really excited to join clubs and societies. The prospect of meeting people equally enthused about the French language thrills me, ergo, Le Club Français! I attended the first meeting today, and it was absolutely brilliant: I’ve missed hearing French on a constant basis SO MUCH, and I’m sure I could ramble on about this for ages…so I won’t. (But you all ought to come and check it out, because it is so wicked. BuchanantowerseventhflooronWednesday!!) I’ve also been to a Ubyssey meeting: more excitement on that front! I look forward to more mad writing; I’ll keep you all updated on that.

Other things I’ve been considering include: STAND, Journalists for Human Rights, Engineers Without Borders (and yes, you don’t have to be an engineer), and other random things I’m certain my friends have signed me up for during Imagine Day without my explicit consent…cough…random high school alumni groups…cough.

—

In other news, vis-a-vis Canadian politics, here‘s a newspaper clipping from Monday’s edition of The Province which I scanned; it’s actually really funny.

Anyhow, I shall prance off now; I am terribly tempted to sing along to the Avenue Q cast recording. OKAY, I’M DONE. Over and out.

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