YIKES!

In less than an hour, I will be attending my first tutorial as a teaching assistant. It’s for a course I never took while I was an undergrad here at UBC. I just received the tutorial worksheets yesterday but not the answers. There are 58 students in my section. A prof is supposed to lead the tutorial and I’m going to back him up. Despite that, I’m feeling kinda nervous right now.

Well, I have to get ready.

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE – YEAR TWO

The first official day of school is over at UBC and two thoughts weigh on my mind. One is that I’ve been back to school for exactly one year now. It is an appropriate time for reflection. My second thought is that it is very clear that I am no longer a new resident here at SJC. Old residents, my good friends, have moved away and new residents have come and taken their place.

I’ll deal with the latter of those thoughts now. So yeah, over the course of the week while I was in New Orleans, many SJC residents moved out. Some of these people were good friends of mine. They are good people and they made the SJC community that much better to live in. Some have moved just to different places within Vancouver, while others have moved to different cities. Regardless, their absence from the College will be noticed. I will miss seeing them on a regular basis.

The other side of the coin, of course, is that when people move out, others move in. Over the weekend, over 70 residents moved in to join the close to 70 people that were left here. A year ago, I was one of those new residents. Now, I’m the old veteran of the College. It is a weird feeling to say the least.

On Monday, I went to the dining hall to have dinner. I had to line-up for my food which I haven’t had to do for months. I sat down at one of the tables and looked around. There were entire tables full of people I didn’t recognize. I turned to Dana who was next to me and I said, “Wow, this feels really weird.”

“Now, do you know why we resented you when you moved in a year ago?”

He was half-joking of course, but I knew what he was talking about. Who were these new people? Two weeks ago, we were all a small intimate community where everybody knew everyone. Now some of our friends were gone and these new people had come to take their place.

In WWII, it was commonplace to replace dead or wounded soldiers in a unit with fresh troops. The soldiers who were already in the unit often did not warm up to the new guys right away. I think I’m going through the same thing right now. While it maybe wrong, I am wondering how the new people will be as good as the people that left. It’s just natural at this point that I’ll want to hang around the old residents because they’re known quantities and it does take some work to get to know new residents.

Over time, I am sure I’ll get to know the new residents and I’ll discover that for the most part they too are good people. At least I hope so. 🙂

It will take several weeks for everyone to readjust to the new dynamic at the College and settle into their patterns. A year ago, I felt some awkwardness as I tried to find my way here, what I didn’t know was that the old residents also felt some weirdness as well. It’s all about perspective.

So while I’ve been dealing with the new influx of residents, I almost missed the fact that it was one year ago almost to this day that I began this new adventure in my life. One whole year. What a difference a year makes.

I have no regrets about going back to school. While things didn’t work out exactly the way I had planned, everything in the end wound up exceeding my expectations. When I decided to go back to school I think I was seriously in danger of getting caught in a rut of life, just going through the motions and letting time (and life) pass me by.

A year later, I’ve learned a lot, both academically and otherwise. My life is much richer for being back and everyday I continue to learn some more.

So, as I begin the second year of grad studies, I am happy where the last year has taken me, and I look forward to the next.

OUTTA GAS

I was thinking all day about making a really nice post on my blog, but here I am nearing 2am in the morning and I’m exhausted. Damn. So tomorrow is the first day of school. Wow. More about that later, after I get some sleep. Have a good one everyone!

AW CINNAMON AND GRAVY!!!

The miracle of modern transportation is that you wake up one day in one locale and the next day wake up in a totally different one. This was the situation that I found myself in this morning.

No longer in the French Quarter, I was woke up on campus. I got dressed, ate some breakfast, and headed out to run some errands. Almost immediately as I left SJC I could tell the campus was much more alive. There were people everywhere, mostly it seemed, first-year students. They crowded the sidewalks, they got in my way, and they were loud. It got worse as I approached the Student Union Building. The calm which had been my pleasant summer on campus had been disturbed by the influx of younger students.

The SUB was jam-packed with newbies and their entourages, ie. their parents or other newbies. The line-up for pizza at Pie ‘R Squared was out the door by a mile. I had to go the SUB to send off a mail before I got on the bus to do some off-campus stuff. I had to use one of the public terminals.

These computers are really close together. I sent my mail and I know I shouldn’t have done this, but I kinda stealthily peered over to the screen to my left. The dude to my left was young looking, probably not more than 18 years old. He was sending mail using AOL webmail. That should have been my first sign this guy was trouble. I quickly scanned some sentences in his text box. Here’s what I read:

“Well, here I am in ‘beautiful’ Vancouver. Everyone keeps calling it ‘beautiful’.”

“Overall Canada is pretty shitty”

“I already miss the Chicago skyline”

When I read that, I wanted to turn to him and say, “Look, I don’t know who the hell is forcing you to be here, but if you don’t like it here, get the fuck out of my country. Go back to Chicago and your fucking ‘beautiful’ skyline.”

Of course, I didn’t say that. Why? Because he’s young, he probably hasn’t even been at UBC for more than a week, classes haven’t started, and he doesn’t know a damn thing about university life. He’s probably homesick and misses familiarity, even though this is most likely the greatest adventure he’ll go on for quite a long time. I thought it was quite Canadian of me to keep my comments to myself.

His comments though, embody what I dislike about first-year (and some undergrads) the most. They’re immature, quick to judge, tempestous, impatient, and egotistical. The idea is though, that university will change these people into smarter, more mature, and more thoughtful individuals.

A year from now, I’d like to see where Mr. Chicago is. What will he think of UBC then? I sincerely hope he will have found the year to be a superb learning experience. If he still thinks Canada is “shitty”, he’ll find someway to make it back to his beloved Chicago, and maybe my wait for pizza will be one less person.

BACK

Yeah, I’m back at UBC now. My flight got delayed… twice! Once going to Dallas and then my flight going to Vancouver from Dallas got delayed.

I didn’t get back on campus until nearly 1am. My room is a mess. Not only have I unpacked my crap from the trip, my father stocked up on Cosco stuff while I was gone. He brought it to the airport. So along with a half million Mardi Gras beads, I have cases of water and Coke lying about my place.

I need a shower in a really bad way and I’m getting hungry. I have nothing to eat though but Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Fear not, I will recap my trip is installments, but I really need to take care of some things right now.

SEE YOU IN A BIT

Sorry about not posting in a while. I got caught up in a whole combination of things: my last day at work, deciding on this new TA offer, organizing a farewell dinner, finalizing a stag, saying goodbye to some departing SJC people, and packing for New Orleans.

Friday was my last day at work. I haven’t had a “last day” at work since March of 2002. This most recent last day was fairly easy-going at first. I generally did some housekeeping things and tied up loose ends. Then near the end, there was a flurry of activities as I raced to finish some tasks.

The three women I worked with gave me two cards and some chocolate. It was a nice touch. It didn’t really dawn on me that I was leaving until I was out the door of the building. I started June 16th and finished August 22nd. It went by in a flash. I am really thankful for having the job. I’m not sure what I would have done without it. Now I can pay for tuition in September.

As for the TA offer, I’m still not sure what the hell I’ll do. I’m almost inperceptibly leaning towards taking it because it’s the difference between not having tuition next term and having it. I’ve talked to some people about it and they’ve both said they think I can do it and not kill myself. It’s essentially an extra three hours of supervising a lab a week. However, there’s also time to be taken for marking and preparing for the lab. I hope I find some time on the plane to find a resolution.

In other news, the summer has definitely signalled its end. As if almost on cue, the weather has turned colder. Even in the sun now, I don’t feel as warm. The cloud cover this weekend only punctuates the point. Another sign that summer will soon end are the increased throngs of people on campus. Last week, I was at the bookstore. Already, there were eager first-years with parents in tow, buying up books for their classes. I’m pretty sure some of them even bought their books for the entire year. They will soon learn buying textbooks from the bookstore is a last resort and should be only done for the semester that is coming up next.

After I went to the bookstore, I went to the CIBC in the Village. As I stepped up to the ATM machines, I saw a bank employee helping a guy activate his bank card. Standing faithfully next to him was his mother. I gather this was his first “university bank account”. I could almost see the Mom beam with pride. That was me a long, long time ago.

I’ve been talking with some other grad students, we are lamenting the start of the school year. All the undergrads come back and clog up the campus. They’re everywhere, lining for this, lining up for that, it’s almost impossible to get lunch on campus in a decent amount of time the first two weeks of September. The funny thing is, the crowds always seem to dissipate somehow. By October, the lines won’t be gone totally, but it’s somewhat bearable.

I can now see why summer time is the best time for a grad student. The campus is deserted and the weather is nice. I was told in May that it’s really nice at SJC in the summer. It’s easy-going, light, and carefree (well, for the most part). They were right.

Alright, that’s it for now. I’ll be back with at least one more post before I take off for New Orleans.

NAWLINS

I’m going to New Orleans on Monday. Yeah, I’m pretty surprised myself. It kinda just happened in less than a day.

I’ve got a million things to do before I leave. It got complicated today when I got offered another TA position. It’s good money, but I need to make sure it won’t conflict with my current TA duties plus the courses I’m taking myself. The problem is I haven’t decided on the final course I’m taking this semester. This offer has made me decide early but to make that decision, I have to talk to three professors.

On top of trying to finish things at work, I’m really quite stressed right now. Also, a few people here at SJC are leaving and so I’m having to say goodbye. It’s a maelstrom of activity and my life would be somewhat easier if I didn’t go on vacation. Ah well, when is the next time I’ll get to go to New Orleans?

I’VE COME A LONG WAY BABY… OR HAVE I?

The last time I was at my parents’ place, I dug out my old yearbooks and took them back to my place. I’ve only had time to flip through them, but I saw a really interesting photo of me from my grade eight yearbook.

I can’t believe I joined the computer club. Not only did I join the computer club, I was willing to get myself photographed so there would be evidence that I was in the computer club… forever.

I can barely remember what the hell we did in the computer club. We basically met after school and played around on the computer. We had these slow and underpowered Apples in the lab. Monochrome Apple IIs I think. Anyways, I vaguely remember some Choplifter-type game, but we had to pick up letters or some sorta crap. Edu-tainment I believe is the word they use these days now. Our first “frags” were still many years away.

I’m not sure why the hell we had a sponsor. I think she was there just to make sure we didn’t goof off and take the computers home with us.

I’ve lost touch with most people in that photo, but I guarantee you, with the exception of myself and possibly one other guy there (I’ll let you guess), everyone is pulling in six figures right now. And you if asked them how they did it, they’ll answer… it was the computer club.

DEAR LORD!!!

This story must be read.

The report mentions that a hospital employee was trapped for 20 minutes inside the elevator. Any guesses on what else was trapped with her for those 20 minutes? That’s something she won’t forget for the rest of her life.