I really love being a grad student. I know I complain a lot, and get super stressed out and paranoid and everything, but really I do love it. I don't want to be doing something else right now. I love school, more specifically I love university. I like being around people who use the same crazy jargon I use, and people who are from crazy different places around the world with diverse life experiences. I love it!
As you might be able to deduce, I'm in a pretty good mood right now. I leave for Germany tomorrow, which is very exciting, but also very nerve racking. I got some euros today, so I won't have to hitchhike downtown Leipzig from the airport, that could have been very tricky with my appaling lack of German language skills.
Eeee!
March 26, 2008
March 21, 2008
Super Mega Post
Good Good Friday everyone. There's something about Easter that is so much more real and down to earth compared to Christmas. Christmas is so commercialized and secularized and overblown by get-togethers and vacations. But Easter is one simple extra long weekend right before exams (at least when I was in undergrad) where I can actually focus on what the holiday is really about. Good Friday is a solemn kind of day, when you think about Christ dying on the cross. I think I like Good Friday more than Easter Sunday even though the latter is all about the swaying back and forth and shouting out "Hallelujah!" with the choir. That's fun times too, but there's something extra profound about today and what it means.
I haven't been posting so much recently. My life has become super stressful, and right now there is a lull which will last a very short time, but I will use it anyway. I hope you're not on dial-up because today is all about PICURES! (No spelling error here.) And a one, and a two, and a one two three four!
There was a total lunar eclipse a few weeks ago. This was my attempt on caputring the magical moment, but I have a very shaky hand and its difficult to get a good picture of the moon standing in the street of a light polluted city. To describe it to you instead, it looked red. That was mostly it. I didn't stay outside to watch very long because it was FREEZING cold.
These are taken from a lookout a little more than halfway up mount royal. Inthis picutre you can seen the Olympic park with its crazy tower. The white dome beneath is the Biodome, which we will get to in a few pictures down.
This is just a picture of the city scape. I've seen it in the summer and it looks a little more lively. I'm still not super familiar with Montreal's skyline, and if I'm way down south down town it takes me a while to figure out where I am. Its not like Toronto where all you need to see is is the CN tower or the BMO building and you're perfectly oriented. (Notice the use of oriented rather than *orientated? That's because orientated is not a word, since there's already a word for that, and its called oriented.)
Some friends came for their March break, which of course means doing touristy things you wouldn't do otherwise. This included the Biodome, which used to be the Olympic stadium, I believe. I actually have been once before, so I think I'm all Biodome-d out, and if you come and visit, I probably won't go with you. The picture above is supposed to be of some adorable tiny monkey on the branch. You can kind of see them behind the branch. Click to make bigger.
These are some pretty pretty parrots. I think the sign said the kind of parrots whatever they were were the largest parrots in the world.
This is an alligator (or crocodile, I have no idea, did you know the Spanish word for crocodile is a text book example of metathesis?: cocodrillo) with a little buddy tortoise by its tail. The tortoise was cuddling up, inch by inch, to the alligator and I began to fear for the little guy. But I'm guessing they let the two types of animals in together b/c it was safe. The shell of the tortoise is probably to large and hard for the alligator to get through anyway.
The three above picutres were from the rainforest area of the dome. You walk in and its super humid and warm. I had issues with my camera lens fogging up.
This little treasure was in the Laurentian forest section, which is right after the rainforest. This means, you go from tropical to cold winter Canadian woodlands. I don't know what the point of having Canadian type forests in a biodome in Canada is. Anyway, there's a porcupine, just in case your dog has never tried to bite one and you're unfamiliar with the porcupine concept.
I think the bidome is probably most well known for the penguins. Here in the arctic section this little tub-a-lub just lay on the rock, and once in a while wiggled his legs and wings as if he were trying to swim. But clearly, he had to move an entire metre to make to the water where he could actually swim.
I got a new microwave. My last microwave was bought in August, but it decided to short out and stop working a couple months ago. Since my friends came with a car, they were nice enough to drive me to Canadian Tire to get a new one. People are often like, "What do you need a microwave for? Don't you cook?" Well actually, I do cook, thank you very much. Do none of you know the level of difficulty involved in reheating food without a microwave? Its ridiculous. So you may not judge me for needing a microwave.
We got sweaters. They say "McGill Linguistics". Totally awesome.
Dinah recently posted the view from her window, and mine is pretty cool, so I'm sharing it.
I can see Mount Royal from my window, and when I'm falling asleep there's the Cross that lights up at night. I like it.
Have you ever read an Archie comic book? If you notice, every sentence that does not end with a question mark (or a ... I suppose) ends in an exclamation mark. I dare you to find a single sentence that ends in a period. Trust me, I've tried.
This is the end of the Super Mega Post.
I haven't been posting so much recently. My life has become super stressful, and right now there is a lull which will last a very short time, but I will use it anyway. I hope you're not on dial-up because today is all about PICURES! (No spelling error here.) And a one, and a two, and a one two three four!
*LUNAR ECLIPSE!*
There was a total lunar eclipse a few weeks ago. This was my attempt on caputring the magical moment, but I have a very shaky hand and its difficult to get a good picture of the moon standing in the street of a light polluted city. To describe it to you instead, it looked red. That was mostly it. I didn't stay outside to watch very long because it was FREEZING cold.*MOUNT ROYAL!*
These are taken from a lookout a little more than halfway up mount royal. Inthis picutre you can seen the Olympic park with its crazy tower. The white dome beneath is the Biodome, which we will get to in a few pictures down.
This is just a picture of the city scape. I've seen it in the summer and it looks a little more lively. I'm still not super familiar with Montreal's skyline, and if I'm way down south down town it takes me a while to figure out where I am. Its not like Toronto where all you need to see is is the CN tower or the BMO building and you're perfectly oriented. (Notice the use of oriented rather than *orientated? That's because orientated is not a word, since there's already a word for that, and its called oriented.)*BIODOME!*
Some friends came for their March break, which of course means doing touristy things you wouldn't do otherwise. This included the Biodome, which used to be the Olympic stadium, I believe. I actually have been once before, so I think I'm all Biodome-d out, and if you come and visit, I probably won't go with you. The picture above is supposed to be of some adorable tiny monkey on the branch. You can kind of see them behind the branch. Click to make bigger.
These are some pretty pretty parrots. I think the sign said the kind of parrots whatever they were were the largest parrots in the world.
This is an alligator (or crocodile, I have no idea, did you know the Spanish word for crocodile is a text book example of metathesis?: cocodrillo) with a little buddy tortoise by its tail. The tortoise was cuddling up, inch by inch, to the alligator and I began to fear for the little guy. But I'm guessing they let the two types of animals in together b/c it was safe. The shell of the tortoise is probably to large and hard for the alligator to get through anyway.The three above picutres were from the rainforest area of the dome. You walk in and its super humid and warm. I had issues with my camera lens fogging up.
This little treasure was in the Laurentian forest section, which is right after the rainforest. This means, you go from tropical to cold winter Canadian woodlands. I don't know what the point of having Canadian type forests in a biodome in Canada is. Anyway, there's a porcupine, just in case your dog has never tried to bite one and you're unfamiliar with the porcupine concept.
I think the bidome is probably most well known for the penguins. Here in the arctic section this little tub-a-lub just lay on the rock, and once in a while wiggled his legs and wings as if he were trying to swim. But clearly, he had to move an entire metre to make to the water where he could actually swim.*MICROWAVE!*
I got a new microwave. My last microwave was bought in August, but it decided to short out and stop working a couple months ago. Since my friends came with a car, they were nice enough to drive me to Canadian Tire to get a new one. People are often like, "What do you need a microwave for? Don't you cook?" Well actually, I do cook, thank you very much. Do none of you know the level of difficulty involved in reheating food without a microwave? Its ridiculous. So you may not judge me for needing a microwave.*SCHOOL/DEPARTMENT SPIRIT SWEATER!*
We got sweaters. They say "McGill Linguistics". Totally awesome.*VIEW FROM MY WINDOW!*
Dinah recently posted the view from her window, and mine is pretty cool, so I'm sharing it.
I can see Mount Royal from my window, and when I'm falling asleep there's the Cross that lights up at night. I like it.Have you ever read an Archie comic book? If you notice, every sentence that does not end with a question mark (or a ... I suppose) ends in an exclamation mark. I dare you to find a single sentence that ends in a period. Trust me, I've tried.
This is the end of the Super Mega Post.
March 19, 2008
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