Sunday, January 24, 2010

La vie glacée

So, as in the case of my grocery shopping, this blog is most likely going to become a solid weekly affair. This week in classes wasn't anything too special, despite the amount of reading assigned. It is rather a lot, along with all the papers that I have been given too. However, I also only have one exam during finals weeks, as the rest of my grades is determined by term papers. When I take a step back, I realise that it really isn't all too bad, just time consuming.

In other news, I have, of course, been researching post-graduate options this past few weeks. While some options moved to the front of the line, others did not make the cut and were quickly dropped. I am still planning on applying to two or three CSU's for the teaching credential program, but one certain Masters program came to the front recently. I emailed the graduate advisor for the french department at University of Nevada, Reno about a program that I heard about through a friend (sidenote: Thank's Leah, and Emily!) I had a few questions about the program, as well as a teaching assistantship position that required a different application. Her response was the following: APPLY NOW! Long story short, let's just pretend that the application for the TA job and the Masters is due on Feb 15th. I jumped on what seems like a great opportunity, including a reasonable stipend, and UNR employee tuition rates. I finished the application on Friday, having received the email back on Tuesday night. My reason for moving so fast? I wanted this upstart of an application to be out of the way before all my papers for cette session d'hiver kick in. Anyway, I am keeping my fingers crossed for that one!

As the application took up quite a bit of time, I didn't really do much non school related this week with a few exceptions. On Tuesday night, I headed to Leah's place and we had a great chicken dinner! Thursday, Bonnie came over and we went out for drinks at Sky Bar, and watched a drag show. Friday involved my weekly trip to Maxi for groceries, as well as a late night movie with Lauren, Morris, and Cameron.

Saturday night was IGLOOFEST! Essentially, its a big outdoor rave in the middle of winter! There were ice sculptures, a bar made out of ice (see pic with SAQ bar for details), along with a "dance floor" AKA frozen mud in front of stage. It was maybe around -10C, somewhere in the low teen's Fahrenheit. Even weirder was dacning in full winter gear, beanie (or a toque as they are called in Canada) and scarf included. It was tons of fun, although due to homework and tiredness, I went home early and had some hot cocoa with Bonnie and Camille.

Here are some photos of Igloofest:




Sunday was a nice day. I woke up early, and did some homework. Then, during the calm before our RAIN storm, rather sad considering its January in Canada as it should be snow, Leah and I went ice skating in Vieux Montréal. I decided that the purchase of skates was no longer required, as the amount of times that they would be used wasn't worth it. So I shoved on a rented pair, and off we went. Initially, getting our bearing, we stayed on the artificial section. But then the naturally frozen canal was open for business so we hopped onto that instead. It was much bumpier, yes, but also a lot less busy to overall, it was a lot safer. Plus, you could only skate on certain parts. Danger non existant. Overall, a nice week! As of tomorrow, I have three months left in Montréal. I cant quite believe that I have been writing from this desk for more than five months now.....

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