I'm in a good mood today.
Maybe it's because I just had my third day of classes and my lecture and tutorial seem totally manageable. When I got here, I was very, very afraid. This is UNIVERSITY. Smart people go here. It's an intense program. What if I can't keep up with it?
Falling into a routine has helped. Waking up, getting breakfast, going to lecture and meeting up with my friends. Then discussing lecture, eating lunch, going to tutorial. After tutorial I have my time to do whatever needs to get done. Right now it's been a million different errands I need to run, phone numbers I need to call, people I need to talk to, etc.
Maybe I'm in a good mood because my room is finally cleared up. I'm working on a system that will work well for me, and I'm not completely finished yet, but last night I stayed up until 1:30 am clearing up and reorganising my room. Now I walk in and feel calm.
Maybe I'm in a good mood because this morning when I woke up I turned on the CBC and listened to the news and it made me feel... safe. It's familiar.
Maybe I'm in a good mood because it's another gorgeous, sunny day outside and after I finish writing this I will go outside to read on the quad.
Maybe I'm in a good mood because I won beer last night at the casino night I enjoyed way more than I thought I would.
Maybe I'm in a good mood because I'm incredibly lucky to have my two best friends here with me supporting me, holding me, laughing with me, crying with me.
Maybe I'm in a good mood because I'm not thinking about the two 6:30 am practices for rugby next week, or the pain that much of my body is in because of rugby and instead basking in the alien but pleasing idea of me on a university varsity team.
Maybe I'm in a good mood because I had eggs for breakfast. I love eggs.
This weekend I'm skipping the last Frosh activity ("Beach Day") and sleeping in and chilling and reading and settling into my new space. Nesting. Also, ignoring the fact that we've been assigned our first essay and it's due a week from Monday and I'm totally stumped. I'm hoping the ideas will come, cause in case you didn't know, the Epic of Gilgamesh is totally awesome. I'm guessing I'll be spending a lot of time inside once the remnants of tropical storm Hanna hit Halifax since I don't have my rain boots yet. And it's gonna be yucky outside.
But today is for the sun!
Friday, 5 September 2008
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
A vicious attack
Last night I was violently beaten up by Rugby.
Technically, I was the one who elected to try for the girls' varsity rugby team, so it was self-inflicted, but I still felt like a group of hooligans had been at me with bats when I woke up this morning. Big ones. Probably made of metal.
It didn't help that rugby came at the end of a long day involving waking up early to make it to breakfast, a wonderful lecture about traditions at King's*, and a three and a half hour long trek around Halifax disguised as a "scavenger hunt". By the end my legs were ready to fall off, but then... rugby! I sat down on my bed and briefly considered taking a nap instead of going. I seriously weighed the idea in my mind. Then I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on some workout gear, and went to meet the team.
Instantly, I was pretty terrified. I haven't played rugby in two years, and I haven't been doing much physical exercise lately either. There had also been horror stories told to me by my Frosh leaders about fitness runs up Citadel Hill. If you've been to Halifax and seen the Citadel, you're probably cringing right now. Unless you are a runner, in which case I envy your cardio abilities a lot, because by the middle of the rugby practice, I wanted to lay down and die. Actually, the low point came while lying on the ground in the middle of a "jump up off the ground and sprint" drill. I almost puked, provoking a yell of "If you have to puke, puke, but just run!" from the beast coach Ronnie. Yikes. I tried to make up for it by focusing and yelling "LEFT!" and "RIGHT!" really loudly to get the ball. Since the team is so small, they don't do cuts; if you show up to practices, you're on the team, basically. Hopefully.
After rugby, I was seriously considering bedtime, but most of the girls from the team were heading to Retro Night at the campus bar (the Wardroom), so I hurried back, took a shower, donned some retro gear and ran off to a party. Now, for those of you doing the math, this means I'd missed dinner, I was dehydrated, and now I was drinking. This adds up to the killerest hangover of my life, mixed with every muscle aching. I spent a good chunk of today sprawled in various places, trying to work up the will to move my body.
And tomorrow is the next practice! Hurray! So after my first classes tomorrow, I will run to the shops to grab a mouth guard, some socks and a nose stud to replace my ring which I will get out of my nose... somehow. I'm incredibly anxious about tomorrow: starting lecture and tutorial, getting everything ready for rugby, keeping up with frosh events... Things no longer get scheduled for me. Things overlap and I just gotta choose, because no one is going to schedule it for me. It's all on me.
*ok, so maybe it was a propaganda speech about how awesome we are. The thing is, we are. No lies there. None of this scary U of T "FAMOUS PEOPLE STUDIED HERE" business. We are just legitimately awesome. Clearly.
Technically, I was the one who elected to try for the girls' varsity rugby team, so it was self-inflicted, but I still felt like a group of hooligans had been at me with bats when I woke up this morning. Big ones. Probably made of metal.
It didn't help that rugby came at the end of a long day involving waking up early to make it to breakfast, a wonderful lecture about traditions at King's*, and a three and a half hour long trek around Halifax disguised as a "scavenger hunt". By the end my legs were ready to fall off, but then... rugby! I sat down on my bed and briefly considered taking a nap instead of going. I seriously weighed the idea in my mind. Then I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on some workout gear, and went to meet the team.
Instantly, I was pretty terrified. I haven't played rugby in two years, and I haven't been doing much physical exercise lately either. There had also been horror stories told to me by my Frosh leaders about fitness runs up Citadel Hill. If you've been to Halifax and seen the Citadel, you're probably cringing right now. Unless you are a runner, in which case I envy your cardio abilities a lot, because by the middle of the rugby practice, I wanted to lay down and die. Actually, the low point came while lying on the ground in the middle of a "jump up off the ground and sprint" drill. I almost puked, provoking a yell of "If you have to puke, puke, but just run!" from the beast coach Ronnie. Yikes. I tried to make up for it by focusing and yelling "LEFT!" and "RIGHT!" really loudly to get the ball. Since the team is so small, they don't do cuts; if you show up to practices, you're on the team, basically. Hopefully.
After rugby, I was seriously considering bedtime, but most of the girls from the team were heading to Retro Night at the campus bar (the Wardroom), so I hurried back, took a shower, donned some retro gear and ran off to a party. Now, for those of you doing the math, this means I'd missed dinner, I was dehydrated, and now I was drinking. This adds up to the killerest hangover of my life, mixed with every muscle aching. I spent a good chunk of today sprawled in various places, trying to work up the will to move my body.
And tomorrow is the next practice! Hurray! So after my first classes tomorrow, I will run to the shops to grab a mouth guard, some socks and a nose stud to replace my ring which I will get out of my nose... somehow. I'm incredibly anxious about tomorrow: starting lecture and tutorial, getting everything ready for rugby, keeping up with frosh events... Things no longer get scheduled for me. Things overlap and I just gotta choose, because no one is going to schedule it for me. It's all on me.
*ok, so maybe it was a propaganda speech about how awesome we are. The thing is, we are. No lies there. None of this scary U of T "FAMOUS PEOPLE STUDIED HERE" business. We are just legitimately awesome. Clearly.
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Wet dance party in the Wardroom
So.
I am here in Halifax! And moved in! Into res! With people!
*looks around*
Well, there are people around. Somewhere. I think.
I have been hella busy since arriving, as you can imagine. Setting up a room takes more time than you think -- I understand just a little more everyone who has been moving this summer. Of course mine was on a much smaller scale, but now it is so PRETTY. I wish I could show you pictures, but the internet here hates most of us and it's shitty and I have to wait until Tuesday, but my room is PRETTY. I am accepting the 1.5 feet of hanging space (compared to 5 feet on all the other floors of my building) and the tiny dimensions of my room and the lack of space for my posters because one thing reconciles all of this: my beautiful, beautiful window seat. That's right, I have the biggest windows sill which I can sit on, on pretty cushions I got, and do my reading. Have I started any of this reading? No. It's frosh week, what do you expect.
The full story of my move in is long and mostly boring. There were some tears from my mother and I, but everything is feeling ok now. All Saturday morning we stood in lines, unpacked boxes, were given many Thing We Can't Lose and carried an amazing amount of papers and fliers. Then I joined Frosh, Purgatory style. So far I've heard a good concert, had a pizza party, got soaked in a thunder storm during Quad Olympics and made friends with more leaders than Frosh. But I'm sure that'll change; I'm hoping people stop acting fake so we can be friends. I understand the whole "wanting to be cool thing", so I'll have to wait.
Tonight is movie night on the Quad and a ghost walk. I'll post pictures of various things as soon as I call the guy on Tuesday and then he comes and fixes my internet. Grr.
I am here in Halifax! And moved in! Into res! With people!
*looks around*
Well, there are people around. Somewhere. I think.
I have been hella busy since arriving, as you can imagine. Setting up a room takes more time than you think -- I understand just a little more everyone who has been moving this summer. Of course mine was on a much smaller scale, but now it is so PRETTY. I wish I could show you pictures, but the internet here hates most of us and it's shitty and I have to wait until Tuesday, but my room is PRETTY. I am accepting the 1.5 feet of hanging space (compared to 5 feet on all the other floors of my building) and the tiny dimensions of my room and the lack of space for my posters because one thing reconciles all of this: my beautiful, beautiful window seat. That's right, I have the biggest windows sill which I can sit on, on pretty cushions I got, and do my reading. Have I started any of this reading? No. It's frosh week, what do you expect.
The full story of my move in is long and mostly boring. There were some tears from my mother and I, but everything is feeling ok now. All Saturday morning we stood in lines, unpacked boxes, were given many Thing We Can't Lose and carried an amazing amount of papers and fliers. Then I joined Frosh, Purgatory style. So far I've heard a good concert, had a pizza party, got soaked in a thunder storm during Quad Olympics and made friends with more leaders than Frosh. But I'm sure that'll change; I'm hoping people stop acting fake so we can be friends. I understand the whole "wanting to be cool thing", so I'll have to wait.
Tonight is movie night on the Quad and a ghost walk. I'll post pictures of various things as soon as I call the guy on Tuesday and then he comes and fixes my internet. Grr.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
"Packing"
Today, my day will be occupied by something called "packing". I believe this means I'll pull out everything I own, go through it, and put it into bags. I can't be sure. At this point, I'm hoping if I ignore it, it'll go away. No? Bad plan?
Half my clothes are packed. My bags and coats and boots are in a pile in the front room. miscellaneous STUFF is all over the place.
Me: So what I'm wondering is how I ended up with so much STUFF and how it's all fitting A) into the car to drive and B) into my room. How did this happen? Where did it all come from? WHY DO I NEED IT?
Andrea: Oh, I have done that. My advice? PURGE. PURGE LIKE YOU'VE NEVER PURGED BEFORE.
Apparently, we are fully schooled in the ways of caps lock.
So today is my last day! Which is exciting, but also inconvenient because now suddenly there are all these people to see, but, I also thought Wednesday would be the best day of packing too. It's ok; if I chant "I do believe in fairies" and click my heels together three times I'm pretty sure my Fairy Godmother will show up and do everything for me. I'll get right on that.
Monday, 25 August 2008
Note to self
LC,
Take a deep breath. People are leaving; this is scary. However, you've been doing a pretty good job of keeping it together, and this is commendable, but it's important to continue over the next couple days. Just remember to keep breathing and keep repeating "It's ok. You can do this."
Be excited. Be psyched. Remember the feeling of each moment.
The warning, musical, the hour, irrevocable.
Take the plunge!
Take a deep breath. People are leaving; this is scary. However, you've been doing a pretty good job of keeping it together, and this is commendable, but it's important to continue over the next couple days. Just remember to keep breathing and keep repeating "It's ok. You can do this."
Be excited. Be psyched. Remember the feeling of each moment.
The warning, musical, the hour, irrevocable.
Take the plunge!
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Things to miss #1
Sometime, I underestimate how lucky I am to live by the canal. My walk home from downtown is a beautiful stroll that smells like nature. Whenever I have friends visit from out of town, I make sure to give them a canal tour, and they're always shocked that this is in the middle of the city. Luckily, there's lots of water in Halifax (duh), but I will miss my canal walks.
Today's post brought to you by the letter "gar"
I'm sleepy.
And guilty-feeling.
And stressed.
And scared.
And alone. I am so bad at being alone. Why does growing up mean learning how to be alone?
And guilty-feeling.
And stressed.
And scared.
And alone. I am so bad at being alone. Why does growing up mean learning how to be alone?
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