What a good morning!

Ahhh, what a wonderful morning. Well, it wasn't really all that wonderful I guess, but it was one of the first mornings since I've been at school that I haven't woken up and been ridiculously tired/exhausted/incapable of getting out of bed. Maybe its my new air freshener... or maybe my big comfy cushion... or maybe my new bamboo rug! Orrrrr, maybe it's the fact that I had one of the most relaxing and lazy weekends in a very long time.

Remembrance Day weekend is a bit of an odd one: it's a solemn occasion, meant to remember our veterans and soldiers, but also one that translates into a much needed rest for most university students. The majority of people go home with the intention of getting tons of work done - catching up on mountains of reading or writing a paper (or at least trying to start one). But again, the majority of people... get nothing done. And you know what, that's okay, even good, in fact! Because man, I, like I'm sure most other students here, have been running on high since... oh... September, and a rest was most definitely in the cards for me this weekend. I did get some reading done, which was very good, but it was relaxed, pressure free and at my leisure. And hey, one morning, I even woke up and stayed in bed to read something that was, heaven forbid, non-academic. No offense to my professors, but reading about suicide terrorism, power politics, the security dilemma and the hopelessness of the developing world alllll the time can get a little bit depressing. Now fiction, there's some good weekend reading! And I didn't even have to take detailed notes - nice!

And apart from the reading, I did lots of other useless things - things like watching trash TV with my Mom until the early hours of the morning, roasting marshmallows over a fire in the basement, snuggling with my cat, Fluffy (who hates being snuggled, might I add), cooking supper, going bargain hunting at Rossy and lazing in my bed with my best friend Sacha (who, upon returning home, was pulled over by the cops for speeding as she tried to make it home to see her Mom before she left for work. What are the odds?) Useless things, but wonderful things. Things that I never get to do here so it felt really good to do them. It's made me very excited for Christmas break because then, I can't even do any work! Zero, zilch, nadda - 100% home free. Ohhh yeaaaaah :D

It was kind of depressing to come back to school this time, I'm not going to lie. It's really weird for me to feel that way because I'm always the cheery, gung-ho, motivated person, but ouf, I did not have much pleasant stuff awaiting me at MTA this time around. It wasn't just like I had a rough week coming up or anything - it's the fact that it's go-time all the time, all the way until the end of the semester. I've got 2 papers, 2 midterms, a formal debate and 4 final exams coming in the next month. Bruuuuutal. And you know what? There's absolutely nothing I can do other than put my nose to the grindstone and get 'er done... for the next month. All hardcore, all the time. Oh, I'm going to be sleeping so, so much over the Holidays.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

PS - One interesting thing I can put up here since I have zero applicable photos this week:

Campbell Hall (a MTA residence) and Eco-Action (an environmental group here on campus) are coordinating a clothing drive and clothing swap over the next two weeks, and here is a link for the promotional video for the campaign, 'We Propose Clothes': http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=YS5x8YSX7Yg

Happy Halloweeeeeeeen!

Greetings all you ghosts and ghouls! Are you having a wonderful Halloween so far? I'm not sure if I am or not... I even forgot that it was Halloween today until I went downstairs to meal hall and saw a wonnnnderful sight! Who was it but Carol, the wonderful checker with her face painted green, donning purple hair, a witch hat and complete set of witch robes. The counter was completely covered in black garbage bags, Halloween glitter as well as moving and shrieking hounds and witches. Awesome! It got me into the Halloween spirit, which I feel I have definitely been lacking these past few years. Halloween was always one of the funnest days I had growing up, and I definitely went trick-or-treating until I was in grade 11. It seems as though since I've stopped trick-or-treating that Halloween has lost its lust for me, especially now that I'm no longer at home. At home, my Mom and I were the ones who would get pretty hyped up about Halloween. Mom always said that I was the holiday spirit in the house because I was the one who got everyone else pumped about whatever we were celebrating. So yeah, I would put up all our traditional decorations: the ceramic pumpkin with a tea light on the dining room table, the plastic ghosts on the lights outside the garage, the Dracula face on the entry way doorknob, the cackling witch and her cauldron by the main door and a couple other spooky witches and cool candles around the house. Ahhh, that was so much fun.

Now, I just don't find there's enough hype for me anymore, especially at university. Last year I spent Halloween night in the Library, studying for my Astronomy midterm. Booooo. This year I might go to a little Halloween-themed gathering at Cuthbertson House, the sustainable residence, which will probably end up being a bunch of us with minimal costumes, lots of tea and sweet treats. Sounds good to me! I did, however, get dressed up this year for a party. Thalloween is the big party on campus for Halloween, and it's put on by Thornton House, one of the South side residences. (See the name, Thalloween, it's a clever combination of 'Thornton' and 'Halloween', get it?) I hadn't been planning on going to the part, buuuuut some of the wonderful people on my floor and a good friend Kyle convinced me to go. I had no costume, but what the heck. Ahhh, but then, then I remembered... ANDY'S COSTUME DRAWER! I don't know how many people bring costume drawers to university, but wonderful Andy on my floor did and man, is it awesome. So I found a huuuuge pair of bright yellow baller pants and a faded Sussex basketball jersey, threw on my signature blond wig, some ballin' trainers and a sports bra (clearly visible on the sides, obviously) and voila! instant gangster. It was a pretty sweet costume, I'm not going to lie. Definitely the most comfortable one I've ever worn.

We also had some wicked awesome wing-decorating in my residence, Harper Hall. Each wing got $30 from the House Council to spend on decorations for their wing and the best wing is going to win a prize! Not sure what the prize is, and I don't think we won, but we had a ton of fun doing it anyway! Here are a couple pictures from the decorating extravaganza :)

Some of the girls in intense decoration deliberations...

Zack climbing the walls to put up cobwebs. Very Spiderman-ish...

The finished hallway! Creepy, huh?

Well I'd best be off to German class, but I hope that you all have a happy Halloween! No... wait... not a happy Halloween... a terrifying, spooky, cackling and ghoulish Halloween!

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

What do you do after the hardest week of life...?

Soooo yeah. Last week: le shitty. Big time. Why you ask? Well maybe it was because I had two midterms, a research paper, an assignment and a quiz! Do you think that's cause for a crappy week? I think so. Gross gross gross.

I honestly don't think I've ever worked so hard in my life. I clocked about 6 hours at the library every day, sometimes more. Not only did I have all that to do, but for one of the classes (Economic Growth, with a midterm and assignment for it) I had absolutely no clue as to what was happening in the class. So, I spent two full days attempting to learn all of the material I didn't understand, and then I ended up knowing it really well. But, lo and behold, none of that stuff was on the test!!!! Baaaaah, of course that would happen. But I have to admit, learning all the math really helped me understand the theory, which was what the test focused on. But man, I was so ready for that math. Poop! Hopefully it went well nonetheless - cross your fingers for me.

And so finally, Friday came, and I was soooo happy. And not only was it Friday, it was planned to be a wicked awesome Friday. My friend Alex (he's the co-social chair of Campbell Hall) was celebrating his 19th birthday on Friday and decided to throw himself a little floor crawl, haha. And on top of that, two of my best friends, Kyle and Colin, came to MTA from UNB to visit and celebrate :) How wicked! The floor crawl was a time warp theme, so I got all decked out in my 80s aerobics instructor outfit and hit the dance floor with great passion. A much needed and well deserved break if you ask me! This is a picture of (back row) me (yes, I'm a natural blond), Carolyn, Alla, (front row), Sacha and Laurie in our sexy 80s gear for the Campbell Floor Crawl. How much more attractive could you get? Damn, it was so much fun, haha. Here's another one of (back row) Colin (UNB), me, Alex (birthday boy!), Kyle (UNB) and (front row) Mayme (co-president of Campbell Hall). All these lovely people, straight from Campbellton, NB, having a wonderful reunion at Mount A, and in style, might I add.

Now you may think that that sounds so fantastic that it just couldn't get any better than that... Well, not necessarily better, but there was certainly more fun to come! I managed to sleep in until 11:30 on both Saturday and Sunday (aaaaamazing) and on Saturday afternoon I did... nothing (which was wonderful), followed by a cozy dinner at Joey's with the Campbellton gang (plus Ryan and Niall from Nova Scotia, haha). And then, I spent the evening at Ducky's, a very chill pub in downtown Sackville (yes, I said "downtown Sackville" haha) with my German lab TA, Raphael (on exchange from Marburg, Germany) and ran into some other friends as well. Ahhh, how... nice. And relaxing. And not working. And not in the Library. And yeah. Just not in the Library. I am so, so sick of that place, haha. And well, unfortunately, I'll still be spending a lot of time there this week because I'm now behind on all my readings because of studying for my midterms. And I have a paper proposal for Canadian Federalism due on Friday. Annnnd I haven't started. Boo, why won't work just... stop. For a few days. Just, one or two, really, that's all I want.

Ah well, so you see, this week has been prettttttty draining, but it was followed by a wicked fun weekend. And I made it through that week. I survived and I didn't fail anything (well I really don't think so anyway! Frig, that would suck.) So the lessons to be learned from this week are:

• No matter how bad the week looks to be, you can and will get through it.
• No matter how impossible the work seems to be, you are capable of it.
• You can do nothing more than your best.
• You are a human being, not a superhero. Do what you can and leave the rest.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

(As always, feel free to e-mail me, add me to Facebook or MSN if you have questions or just to chat :D)

Thanksgiving...? That happend already? Really?

So yeah, Thanksgiving... That's already happened? Come and gone? Done like dinner? But how is that even possible? There's no way it's already the middle of October, and there's definitely no way that I'm accccctually in the middle of midterms and papers. Nah, can't be true. I mean afterall, I just got to Mount A a few weeks ago. Yeah... a few weeks ago... Holy cow, where did the time go? Well, to be corny... Nah, I can't say it, it's too lame. What? You want to hear it? I'm telling you it's bad... Okay fine: I guess it's true what they say, time flies when you're having fun! Like all of these Harperites in this wonderful picture! (Particularly Brent, our House President, the one in the yellow, hahaha.) And just think, this could be you! Living in Harper Hall, the best house on campus (obviously... don't listen to what anyone else says!), screaming yourself silly at Spirit Night, pretty much one of the most fun nights in residence life :) All the houses get decked out to the max in their house colors, bring banners, mascots, props, the whole shabang, and dance, cheer and indulge in ridiculousness all night long! There are also wicked obstacle course games, and man, are they a good time, haha.

What else has been going on here in Mountie Land? Well of course, there was the BIG DAY... HOMECOMING! And you know what was the craziest part?? MOUNT ALLISON WON THE FOOTBALL GAME! Isn't that mad?! I'm really sorry if any Mount A football players are taking offense to this, but please, if you are, don't. I mean, if we're honest and take a look at the facts, Mount A just hasn't won many football games, let alone Homecoming, for quite some time. It was hilarious that when Mount A beat St. FX (yeah, that's right!) no one quite knew what to do because well... we're just not used to winning, haha. People were like, should we rush the field? Should we stand here and clap? Should we cheer? Should we just go home? Haha, very funny indeed. Here's a shot of the scoreboard, just to make the win final in everyone's mind, haha. 25-13, baby! Now that's what I'm talking about!

But, other than the actual win of the football game, it was wicked awesome to see soooo many people out for the game. Everyone was wearing garnet and gold, everyone was at the game, and everyone was having an awesome time. Some of the houses made big banners to support the Mounties and all the residences met up in the Quad and headed over to the game together. It always feels like I'm in a movie when I go to a football game here, particularly at Homecoming, because we didn't have football at my high school and the atmosphere is just kind of... magical and surreal, haha. Everyone's cheering, the home team is actually winning... how fairytale-ish!
And finally, here's one last Homecoming photo, of Mayme (co-president of Campbell Hall), me, and Emily. Both girls are best friends whom I grew up with and are now loving the life with me at Mount
A :) And hey, how perfect is this photo? You've got the Mount Allison University sweater, the two ladies in garnet, the crowd of people in the background, the crisp blue sky... Ah, Mount A is a fairytale indeed, hehe.

So yes, the time up until Thanksgiving was wonderful - lots of friends, fun events and good times :) Thanksgiving itself was also really nice... I was definitely feeling like I could use a break from school and all the work that was going on. And it was just really wonderful to be able to see so much of my family - many of them that I hadn't seen in quite a long time. Going home for the first time since coming to school is always so wonderful, especially if it's your first time living away from home. Mmm, here's a fun picture from my Thanksgiving in Moncton this year! My dad, me and my aunt Kay, acting crazy during Thanksgiving dinner, as per usual.

But alas, it's now back to the grindstone... This past week and this coming week are gross... After this two week period I'll have had 4 midterms, 1 paper, 1 assignment and 1 quiz. Gross gross gross! Buuuuut, if I can make it until Friday, everything will be a-okay, because it's my good friend Alex's 19th birthday, and since he's the co-social chair of Campbell Hall, he's decided to throw himself a nice little floor crawl to celebrate, haha. And, added bonus, two of my best friends from UNB, Colin and Kyle, might be coming to MTA to celebrate as well! Huzzah! Time to buckle down and get to it... wish me luck!

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

You know what makes me happy?

Swing dancing! I love swing dancing. Yes, yes I do. I love the music, the people, the spinning, the jumping, the laughing, the falling and the awkward moments. I love teaching new people moves that they’re so excited about. I love messing up and falling to the floor laughing. I love sometimes not knowing what I’m doing and not knowing what’s coming next. I love sweating like a pig and not caring about it. I love how many people are coming to the classes. I love swing – it makes me so, so happy.

No matter what kind of day or week I’m having, I look forward to Thursday nights at 9:00 when I can put on my dancing shoes and dance, dance, dance for a whoooole hour. It’s a little bit different this year since I’m teaching the class with a few other instructors, but teaching is also so much fun! I love watching new students’ first few awkward basic steps, watching them turn the wrong way and getting tangled up and looking confused. I love laughing with them, helping them work it out and then seeing them get it right and look so, so excited and proud of themselves. Haha, I just realized that I’m even smiling while I write this. Never mind boys, I dream of and am in love with swing!

And it’s not even just the wonderful funness (yes, I know “funness” isn’t a word but it’s really appropriate so I’m going to use it anyway) of swing that I love. It’s the opportunity for release that makes me feel so good and refreshed. Like last night after class, a few of the instructors and students stuck around just to dance around a bit more and at one point, my friend Aldous and I ended up just throwing our arms in the air, jumping, shaking and twisting around to the music. As silly as that may sound, it actually made me feel so liberated and refreshed – shaking off the stress and seriousness of the school week and letting loose. Finding something like this in university is so very important. If you spend all of your time in the library (like I and so many other students do during the week), you’ll go crazy and just become really unhappy without some kind of really engaging and fun activity.

University life is all about balance. I know you’ve probably already heard that from friends, cousins or siblings who are already at university and think that balance comes pretty easily. Well in high school, it’s definitely a lot easier to achieve balance in your life; your parents are around to make sure you eat relatively well, get enough sleep, and they’re there to take care of you when you’re sick. Your teachers get after you to get your work (of which there isn’t very much) done, and your friends are there for you to lean on and have fun with. So, work, play, health and all that good stuff just naturally fall into place. But in university, you sometimes have to actually make a conscious effort to find time to relax, have fun, sleep enough, exercise, and keep in touch with friends and family. You have to be careful to take some time for you. Swing is my time, my favorite time of the week and one of the only chances I have to forget about everything else and have ridiculous amounts of fun!

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

So long sweet summer...

Summer, my friends, is officially over. Some of you may be thinking that’s a bit sad – and it is. After the wonderful summer I had, livin’ the life in Ottawa, it’s definitely sad to see that come to an end and say goodbye to so many friends. But, at the same time, autumn is such an exciting time in my and many other students’ lives. Especially for those of us at Mount A... because Mount A, well, it’s kind of awesome. Coming back here in the fall was absolutely wonderful – moving back into Harper, meeting all the new frosh, lying in the sun by the Swan Pond, strolling through the Waterfowl Park, chatting over tea at Bridgestreet annnnd remembering how the Library makes me feel. It’s so weird how smells are, for me, the most powerful memory triggers. And with the library, as soon as you walk through the front doors and step inside, it smells like “Oh, no. I have so much work to get done.” That’s what the library smells like for me – how sad. And, what’s crazy, is that I used to only have to spend a lot of time at the library during exam period – but this year, I’m here almost every day (and if I’m not here, I feel like I should be and really, I should be). I’m stunned at the difference between the beginning of first year and the beginning of second year. In first year, I honestly felt like I was at a wicked awesome summer camp for the first... oh, I don’t know, 2 months. This year, I arrived, had Residence Assistant training, Frosh Week and bam! mother of a workload. The first week of class I actually had about 275 pages of reading. Say what? I probably read that much in a month last year! Maybe it has to do with the three third-year courses I’m taking this semester... Silly, silly me. One of those classes, a third year International Relations (IR) class, I actually feel like a grade 9 student sitting in on a grade 12 class. Some of the people in that class just have so much more experience and just plain knowledge than I do, which makes it pretty intimidating. We have to give a 10 minute presentation on a United Nations agency and I feel like some fourth year IR guru is going to ask a question during mine and I’ll have no choice but to answer, “Oh, sorry, I’ve actually never heard of that”, while watching my professor trace a nice, big, oval zero on the piece of paper in front of him. Gulp.

My friend Sam and I at The Joel Plaskett Emergency frosh concert!

Okay, so I’m sorry if that was utterly terrifying or depressing for any of you. But really, second year is proving to be a step up from first year, while first year really wasn’t that big of a leap from high school for me. At the same time though, it’s refreshing to be challenged in a big way, even though it can be really hard to think of it like that at times. Like now – I’m writing this blog and I actually have two books and three articles stacked next to me, waiting to be read. Thank goodness it’s interesting material or I’d really be out of luck then.

Me and Rowan, an exchange student from New Zealand, at the infamous SACKVEGAS!

So my transition back to Mount A has been both wonderful and eye opening in the way that it is so good to reconnect with the fantastic people here, get back into my old activities and get involved with some new ones, while at the same time, realizing that second year isn’t going to be as much of a cake walk as first year was. But you know what? That’s okay, I’m ready for it, bring it on. I don’t want to get to philosophical with you but I found a really great quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. the other day: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” You need to step out of your comfort zone to realized what you are capable of, and that’s where I’m at right now. I can’t wait to see what happens.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

This time next week...

This time next week I’ll be back at Mount Allison. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. I’m excited, nervous and anxious all at the same time. I can’t wait to see everyone, and yet I don’t know if I’m ready to go back to reality. But, then again, I’m sooo excited to meet all of the new Frosh and give them the best and biggest welcome possible. Hmph, what a strange mix of emotions. I guess the only thing to do is to go back, welcome change and go from there. I can do that.

Liz, Me and Tejas during a classy night out in downtown Ottawa.

I’m writing this from the airport in Montreal while I wait for my flight back to Moncton. I’ve just left Ottawa this morning, but said most of my goodbyes last night at a farewell beach party. I can’t believe that I won’t be seeing many of the guides for a very long time... That hasn’t hit me yet either. It’s amazing and frustrating how you get closest to people near the end of your time together – it’s so sad to say goodbye to so many wonderful friends. The more great experiences I have, the more my life seems to get torn into a dozen different pieces. It’s overwhelming to think of how I could possibly try to stay in touch with everyone from this summer. It’s sad to realize and know that I just won’t be able to. But what’s great about these people is that I feel that we have the kind of relationships where even if we don’t talk for a month or a year, we can meet up at some point in time and pick up right where we left off. I guess that’s what living, working, partying, celebrating, crying, laughing and learning together for four months does to you. I’m so, so thankful to have had this opportunity and to have met these 40 amazing people. I love and miss you all.

Team Timbit at the Green Door Restaurant for our last Team gathering of the summer.

(Fun fact: Peter McKay, the newly appointed Minister of Defence, is sitting a few seats away. Pretty pretty cool, haha.)

So, what have I learned this summer? I don’t even know where to begin. Well, most obviously, I’ve learned to live on my own in a new and big city. I’ve never done either – lived on my own or in a big city – before, so that was certainly a big learning curve for me. I feel great about that experience. I’ve made friends with forty of the most different people you could ever encounter. I’ve realized that you take and learn different things from different people, that there are people you can go to to laugh with, to cry with, to work with, to grow with, to share with, to confide in, but always, always to learn from. Everyone is a teacher and everyone has something equally wonderful to offer to the people they meet. Just because they or what they have to offer may be different or new doesn’t make it worth any less. In fact, it may make it even better, because it’s allowed you to see things from a completely new perspective. To embrace that and learn from that is one of the things I’m most grateful to have learned this summer.

Ben and I and a few other guides at Acadian Day Celebrations!

But what else? What have I learned about myself? I’ve learned that I am an independent person, but not as independent as I once thought. I’ve realized that I depend on other people at times, and that that’s not a bad thing. In fact, that’s what makes us human, normal. We thrive on the relationships we develop with other people, but with that comes a price: we have then put ourselves in a position where we can be hurt. But, that is a risk we have to take because if not, we would be missing out on so many wonderful relationships. I have, unfortunately, been hurt by a relationship this summer, but the support, love and advice that has been offered to me by others in my life has been truly amazing and humbling. Again, I am so grateful to have learned this, but more importantly, to have learned to appreciate all of the wonderful people in my life.

A few of the guides at Westboro Beach in Ottawa for a bit of a farewell celebration.

So, a very deep discussion has happened here, haha. But, that's okay... I feel that the end of the summer is really a good time for reflection, a time when certain things are coming to a close and other things are getting started. I'm getting more and more excited to get back to MTA the more I think about it, and I hope that everyone reading this blog is too :) For all the Frosh out there, I can't possibly convey how excited you should be... MTA and MTA's Frosh Week is extraordinary and I can't wait to meet you all and join in the fun with you :) And hey, if you recognize me around campus, please don't be shy to come and introduce yourself! I'd love to meet the people who read this blog and see what you think about it!

Weooooo, here come the best four years of your life!!!

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

35 days until Mount A...

35 days is not very long from now, but it seems ages away at the same time. I'm having a wonderful and busy time here in Ottawa, as you may have been able to tell from my serious inconsistent and lack of blogging, but I'm starting to get really excited to get back to MTA. With all the first year students getting their residence assignments I'm starting to meet (through Facebook, anyway) the students coming into Harper and onto my floor, 2nd East - which is so exciting!!! I'm looking forward to another great year and can't wait to get back into the swing of things :) So, just quickly, for those of you who are interested, here are a few of the things that have been keeping me busy these last few weeks:

• Partying with the Speaker of the House of Commons and some of my best friends.

All the MTA students (Liz, Jenna, Stephen and I) with Peter Milliken at his residence, Kingsmere.

• Meeting up with Arnold Schwarzenegger at Parliament.

Arrrrnold!

• Seeing Van Morrison, City and Colour, Sarah Harmer, Joel Plaskett, The White Stripes, Metric and Kanye West at the Ottawa Bluesfest.

The White Stripes!

Dallas Green of City and Colour

Carleen, Me, Ben (back), Avril, Allison, Laura & Andrew (front) waiting for The White Stripes!

• Hosting my boyfriend and best friend in Ottawa.

Fraser and I outside of Parliament.

Sacha and I lovin' the rain at the Kanye West concert!

• And of course, giving tours to thousands of tourists from all around the world!

Me, Tejas, Liz, Julie and Melissa rockin' the blue polyester.

So yeaaah, as you can see, I've been kind of preoccupied the last little while... But, here are some of the things I'm excited about that are coming in the next few weeks:

1. Seeing my family.
2. Seeing the "Mount Allison University" sign on the highway outside Sackville.
3. Moving into my new room in Harper.
4. Reuniting with my friends from Mount A.
5. Welcoming the Frosh to the best four years of their lives!

(Sorry I don't have cool pictures to go with all of these, haha.)

Now all of you first years out there, I'm not quite sure what to tell you anymore. The time is coming up really quick now, and I hope that you're as excited as is humanly possible. Because you should be. Because Mount A is awesome. And yeah. Be excited. Woooo! Get ready for the best four years of your life. I know, I've only been there a year, but it was the best year of my life, so I'm assuming it only gets better with time, haha. Some of you may still have questions about residence, courses, the campus, whatever, so pleaaaase, feel free to e-mail me at any time, I'd love to hear from you. T minus 35 days... GO!

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

Professors and Courses at MTA

Sooo, from the Facebook group, I see that there are certainly a few people out there wondering about what to expect from the professors at Mount Allison as well as what first year classes are like. Some of you are lucky enough to know people who are already at MTA and they can help you choose your classes and tell you about their relationships with certain professors. But for the rest of you who aren't so fortunate, I hope I can help you out a little bit to tell you about the professors that I had and/or met in my first year and the courses that they taught me. Unfortunately for you science students out there, I won't be of much help to you as I took very artsy courses last year. But feel free to post a plea for help on the Facebook group and I'm sure a science student or two will do their best to help you out :) Also, I know a lot of science students, so feel free to ask me and I'll put you in touch with someone who knows the science professors :) Wickeeeeeed!

Alex Fancy, Director of MTA's Drama Department.

First off, here is a list of the courses I took last year and the names of the professors I took them with:

• GERM 1000 - Elementary German - Dr. Renata Schellenberg
• FREN 2401 - Langues et Lectures I - Dr. Peter Edwards
• PHYS 1001 - Astronomy - Dr. Robert Hawkes
• PSYC 1011 - Introduction to Psychology II - Dr. Gene Ouellette
• RELG 2801 - Introduction to Western Religions - Dr. Fiona Black
• POLS 1000 - Introduction to Political Science - Dr. Sean Saraka, Dr. Tamara Small, Dr. Wayne Hunt, Dr. Michael Tucker
• ECON 1001 - Principles of Microeconomics - Dr. Niels Anthonisen
• ECON 1011 - Principles of Macroeconomics - Dr. Niels Anthonisen
  

Alright, now I'll go through each one and tell you what I think :D

Intro German (Dr. Schellenberg)
This was probably my favorite class last year! I love languages, and learning German was really fun. The class sizes are small (my class was about 25) and Dr. Schellenberg is wonnnnderful! Hilarious, clear, fun and fair. Unfortunately, she will be on sabbatical for the first half of next year, but Dr. Claude Desmarais is the other German professor and he's equally as wonderful. He replaced Dr. Schellenberg a few times and he was really helpful when it came to talking about exchange programmes and the like :) So all in all, the German department at MTA is excellent :D

Langues et Lectures I (Dr. Edwards)
I took this class as an elective out of interest and because I wanted to keep up my French while I was at Univeristy (I was in French Immersion for 13 years). Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed in the oral and reading comprehension aspects of the class, though the written grammar that was taught was very thorough. Being a fluent speaker, it was rather frustrating to not be able to use my oral skills to my advantage, but I certainly learned a lot of grammar that I hadn't been taught in high school. If you're looking to improve your writing skills in French, this is definitely a good class for it, but not for oral practice. I believe there is an Advanced Oral class offered as a 3000 level class, so you'll have to tough out a bit of grammar before getting to that. As for Dr. Edwards, he is now retired, so it doesn't do anyone much good for me to tell you about him, haha. Also, one thing to note is that to take any French at MTA you need to take a placement test and coming in as a first year you are able to enter into FREN 1651, FREN 1700 or FREN 2401. For those of you who are placed in FREN 1700, I have heard nothing but good things about Dr. Lee (my boyfriend and several friends took this class with him) so he's a safe bet :)

Dr. Hawkes, with a huuuuge telescope at Elginfield Observatory.

Astronomy (Dr. Hawkes)
I took this class to satisfy one of the science requirements that are mandatory for all students, and am I ever glad that I did! A lot of arts students take this class as a science requirement, so the professor, Dr. Hawkes, is very understanding that you may not be a star mathematician. He explains things very clearly but doesn't lower his expectations of your knowledge of the material. His tests and midterms are very fair, and the labs are usually really fun, particularly the outdoor stargazing one! Dr. Hawkes is also one of the nicest people I've ever met; he's passionate about what he teaches, he wants each and every one of this students to succeed, and he's always available for extra help. I definitely recommend this class!

Intro Psych II (Dr. Ouellette)
I took this class to satisfy the second science requirement, and it was not very difficult or very sciencey. Intro Psych I is more science related, so I'm told, so if you want more science in your life, take Psych I. But if you want to learn about more artsy things like personality, stress, psychological development etc... this is the class for you. Dr. Ouellette is new to MTA, but he is excellent! He's very clear, very fair, and funny and interesting, even at 8:30 in the morning (no small feat, trust me). I would definitely recommend Dr. Ouellette to anyone :)

Intro to Western Religions (Dr. Black)
This course covers a lot of very interesting and important information, and the text book is wonderful. If you want to learn about Western Religions but don't have room to take the class, buy the textbook at the Bookstore, it's great! As for Dr. Black, she is a very nice woman and I've had the chance to meet with her outside of class on a few occasions. She's friendly, open to discussion, etc... However, her teaching style and my learning style didn't fit very well, but that's not to say that she's a bad professor. Not at all. I am a very organized and detailed person, and therefore like learning things in a natural progression with lots of detail to explain and back up different theories. Dr. Black can present information in a bit of a convoluted way and things that she mentions rather briefly can turn out to be really important. Careful on her midterm and final, I found them very long for the time period allowed. However, Dr. Black is on sabbatical this coming year, so this information is only useful if you're thinking of taking one of her classes in the year after this.

Intro Poli Sci (Dr. Saraka, Dr. Small, Dr. Hunt, Dr. Tucker)
This class was a great time, which is nice because if you want to take any other class in Political Science or International Relations, you need to take Poli Sci 1000 first. The class is divided into four different sections, with a different professor teaching each section, normally their specialty. Dr. Saraka taught Political Thought (he was only at MTA for last year, Dr. Michaelis is once again teaching Political Thought), Dr. Small taught Canadian Politics, Dr. Hunt taught World Politics and Dr. Tucker taught International Politics/Relations. This class is great because it lets you try out all four of the MTA Poli Sci professors and allows you to see who you liked and what area of politics you're most interested in. Sometimes a bit of a tough class for some people, but if you like politics and are interested, it's a great and fair class.

Micro/Macroeconomics (Dr. Anthonisen)
I took these classes as they are requirements for a degree in International Relations and luckily, they weren't very difficult. I'm personally not all that interested in Economics, nor have I ever taken any before, but I got through these classes with little difficulty. Dr. Anthonisen is wonderfully awkward and hilarious, and is very thorough when explaining things. He starts as if you know nothing about economics, which is good, because most people in the class don't. Sometimes he moved a bit too slowly, but he got much better as the year went on :) The problem sets are really helpful for practicing and learning the material, and the textbook is pretty useless in that regard... You really do need to go to this class to get a good mark... The text won't help you out much as he teaches things that aren't in it, and sometimes explains them differently. But yeah, go Dr. Anthonisen, he's wonderful, haha.

Dr. Summerby-Murray, Dean of Social Sciences

Well I hope I helped you learn a bit about a few first year professors and classes :) As always, if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me, message me, or Facebook me. I'm always around for you guys!

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

Friends and Frosh

Alright guys, I've been looking through the Facebook group last night and this morning, and I've decided that the next few blogs I'm going to write are going to deal with the issues that most new students are wondering and worrying about. Things like roommates, making friends, studying, keeping scholarships and frosh week are definitely a big part of the university experience and are all a pretty big change from what we're used to in high school. So, I hope to be able to share a bit about my experiences with these things and help calm a few of your nervous feelings and fears. Sound good? Wicked! Let's get going!

Edwards Does the Eras Party!

So, if you can guess by the look of this first picture, the first thing I'm going to write about is making friends. For the most part, I really liked high school, and I was friends with a lot of different people from a lot of different social groups, but I only had a few really close friends, which I think is the case with most people. Going away to university really allowed me to realize who my real and meaningful friends were, and with those people I'm still very close. But university does a funny yet great thing to people. Most people seem to grow up from high school (though of course, that's not always the case) and you're able to have a fresh start. You're meeting all new people who don't know anything about you, so this is your chance to be who you always wanted to be, with no past judgments or reputations getting in the way. No matter where you from or what your high school was like, you will meet people who come from similar places, but also from very different backgrounds. MTA is an incredibly diverse school for being so small, so there is someone for everyone here :) Frosh week is the best place to meet people; you'll be meeting people in your residence, your frosh group and at the activities that happen all week long, and you'll soon realize that these people will become closer and better friends than any others you've ever had. This is because at university, your friends are your family, and you spend every waking, and sometimes sleeping, moment together. You study, party, eat, laugh, cry, procrastinate and live together. It's amazing and wonderful!

Harper Frosh Initiation 2006/2007

Harper Hall at Spirit Night!

These are a couple of my favorite pictures from Frosh Week, and I think that they really capture the feeling and point of Frosh Week. The first one is from the Harper Frosh Initiation. That was probably my favorite part of Frosh Week, just because I don't think I've ever felt more excited and welcome as a part of a group. Sure, the actual initiation was gross (down a huge slide of condiments, puffed wheat, etc... and then rolling in flour to make it good and sticky) but being totally sick as part of a group with all the frosh and upperclassmen cheering you on is a pretty powerful feeling. Definitely a bonding experience as a house and hey, just make sure you bring some clothes you can throw out, and then you all get hosed off and showered and you're back to normal :) The rules for initiation activities are very strict at MTA; no meat products, no dangerous activities, no discrimination, no forced activities, etc... So yeah, you don't have to do anything that you're really uncomfortable doing, but sometimes, stepping out of your comfort zone is a good thing. And, all your great new friends are there to cheer you on and laugh with you.

The second picture is from Spirit Night, which is an evening where both frosh and upperclassmen get together as a House, have themed costumes and compete in the gymnasium for the Golden Sneaker, the prestigious Spirit Award. The games are hilarious, there's tons of cheering and just a grand old time to be had! Harper dressed up like a deck of cards, complete with a magic top hat made out of an old ping pong table and of course, a magic bunny (me)!

Roommates are also a big part of the friend situation here at MTA. As for me, I lived in Harper last year, which has all singles, so I've never actually experienced the whole roommate situation. However, I do know a bit about it, so I'll see what I can do for you. Having a roommate is great for some people because it's an automatic first friend. Some roommates get along so well that they become best friends and will live together every year after that, and others, not so much. Some become more just acquaintances, and unfortunately, some people just really don't get along very well at all. In these cases, you are not sentenced to an unhappy year with a roommate that you really don't like. There is the possibility of switching rooms, either in the same house, or to another, so don't worry about being miserable with the wrong roommate. There are back up plans, haha. But the whole point of having a roommate is to work to get along, to respect one another and put aside your differences, so who knows, if you give it some time and work at it, they just may become your new best friend!

The Waterfowl Park

So, I hope that this gave you a bit of perspective on making friends and Frosh Week at MTA... Of course, no one's experience at Mount Allison is the same, so by all means, you may have a completely different one than me. But this is just a bit of a glimpse to get you ready :) As always, please feel free to e-mail me or comment on my blog! Until next time!

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

Days 1, 2 and 3... I survived!

The 2007 Summer Guides!

Ah, the Guide Program... What can't it do? It can make you smile, make your stomach knot, make you cringe, make you step outside of your comfort zone, and make you laugh so hard it hurts. And on your first day of actual work, you get to experience alllll of these things, haha. First off, you're super excited, so you're smiling like a mad man, and if you're like me, you are almost late, so you are sweating quite profusely after power walking a 20-25 minute walk in 15 minutes. But yeah, you're smiling nonetheless! And then, oh then, you find out when your very first tour will be. You're hoping with all your might that it's in your first language, and that it is not a group of uninterested grade eight students from Toronto. Now, don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with Toronto, nor the people from Toronto.. In fact, I've never even really visited there, so I've no opinion, and there are a few super cool guides from Toronto. But it is the inside joke among Guides about how grade eight students from Toronto are consistently (and consistently mainly because it is a massive city that is so close) very uninterested and well, just not very attentive during tours.

So yeah, you hope for first language, and not grade eights from Toronto. And lo and behold, yay! I had an English public tour, no grade eights, not even one! I had a few members of an Italian wedding party, some lovely ladies from Ireland, an Australian woman, a few visitors from China, and of course, a large number of Canadians. The tour went relatively well for my first tour, except when we got to the part where it made me cringe... Like I said, I had some lovely women from Ireland on my tour; real sweethearts. So when I was discussing the symbols on the ceiling of the Senate, I mixed up a few of them, including the symbols for Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Of course, the Irish women knew, and they came up to me at the end of the tour saying, "Darling, you were brilliant, but...", and proceeded to correct my silly mistakes. But they were so wonderful and kind that I couldn't help laughing at myself. But at least now, I know those darn symbols on the ceiling of the Senate, and hopefully I don't mess them up again, haha.

Ben (Ottawa, ON), Me (Campbellton, NB), Abbas (Toronto, ON), Liz (Ottawa, ON).
Yes, our uniforms are extremely sexy.

So that was my first tour of life! Not so bad; only one little screw-up, and fortunately, I had a pretty attentive and interested audience, which makes all the difference in how you feel about a tour. Now what really surprised me, was how much better I felt about my second tour, which was in French, my second language. Don't get me wrong, I love French, and I'm comfortable and fluent in it, but it is certainly a lot easier to forget and stumble over words in your second language. But again, I was so, so lucky with my group. There were only six people on my tour; one of them was from France, one from Canada, and four people from Chile, who were pretty good with their French! What was nice about that tour was that the building was almost deserted as it was one of the last tours of the evening, so we could linger as long as we wanted in most of the areas, without having to be concerned about holding up other groups behind us. It was more like a really interesting discussion and question session, which really gave me the chance to build up my confidence in my French tour :)

Me (Campbellton, NB) and Tejas (Vancouver, BC), doing some serious dancing in our spare time, haha.

The next day I was on the Tower & Acceuil Shift, meaning that for the morning I was working in the Peace Tower, putting people onto the elevator, bringing people up in the elevator and doing some informal interpretation and question answering in the Memorial Chamber. In the afternoon/evening I was outside welcoming people to the Hill and handing out tickets for tours with a few other guides. Those jobs are pretty good positions as your sole responsibility is really just talking to visitors and giving them the information that they need. I met visitors from all over the world, and even got to practice a little bit of my German with a few visitors from Germany and Switzerland. Very cool day!

Today I was again on guiding duty, and I stopped by the kiosk to find out what my assignment for the day was... Grade eights from Toronto. Noooooooooooooo. Please, not me, anyone else, they scare me, honest! But no luck. They were allllll mine. Well, fifty of them anyway. The other fifty were going with another guide, Caroline, who was pretty much as excited as I was. But, we decided that it wasn't really fair to judge the kids before they even got here, so we thought it would be best to keep open minds. But then, they arrived. And well, they were just like everyone said; grade eights students, uninterested, always talking, and mainly, just wanting to be with their friends in a place other than school. I guess I can't really blame them. I mean, when I was in grade eight, I had the exact same mentality. But nonetheless, they were certainly not my best tour, just because I felt rather useless and boring, even though I tried to present some of the more interesting and startling facts about Parliament (yes, there are some). And when I talked to Caroline about her group after the tour she agreed that they simply weren't interested. Ah well, what can you do? Not everyone is as in love with Parliament as I am, and I suppose I can try to understand that, haha.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

Workin' on Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill with Jenna (Bridgewater, NS) and Maryse (Charlo, NB).

The Library of Parliament

Now I know that again, I have not been incredibly regular in my blogging duties... And again, I have an excuse? I suppose it will be up to you to decide if it is legitimate or not... Well, here it is: I've been living in Ottawa and working at Parliament Hill!! How freaking exciting is that! And in all seriousness, it has been keeping me really, really busy, requiring copious amounts of sleep, which I have been having a hard time to get during the week, so I decided to do a little catching up this weekend. So please, do forgive me, but please do enjoy what blogging I am able to do :)

I moved to Ottawa a little over two weeks ago, and it sure has been busy! I'm sharing an apartment with a girl who is currently guiding at Parliament, Martha, and I'm so lucky that we get along so well! In the short amount of time that we've lived together, we've already become great friends, which is awesome :) The apartment is in a fantastic location too... Only 3 blocks from downtown (Rideau Street) and 20 minutes from Parliament Hill. Though the building is slightly sketchy, the apartment itself is very nice, which is all that really matters I guess :)

The Guides outside of Rideau Hall, residence of the Govenor General.

Peter Milliken, Speaker of the House of Commons, and I.

As for training, we've been hard at work these past two weeks. There was a great mix of real work and good laughs, intense sessions and fun field-trips. We had some presentations on lots of historical aspects of government, such as social progress, confederation and constitutional evolution, as well as some other important issues such as important people, architecture, art, process and learning styles. We've also had presentations from both Speakers of the House of Commons and the Senate, as well as both Clerks of the House of Commons and Senate. We met with Toronto MP Bill Graham, and Alberta Senator Claudette Tardif, as well as the Parliamentary Carillonneur, Gordon Slater, who is the person that plays the enormous set of bells in the Peace Tower. And luckily for me, I've see famous faces such as those of Michael Ignatieff, Stéphane Dion, Gilles Duceppe, Stockwell Day, Jim Flaherty and Gordon O'Connor, which really excites me, haha. Nerd, nerd, I know, I've heard it before.

Carleen (Edmonton, AB), Me (Campbellton, NB), Ben (Ottawa, ON), Julie (Jean-Côté, AB), Julie (Gatineau, QC) and Zsuzsi (Toronto, ON).

As for the social side of things, the people in the Guide Program are absolutely fantastic. There are students from all across the country who are incredibly outgoing, funny and wonderful. Our managers, or Interpretation Officers (IOs) as they are called, are also great! They're young, hilarious, understanding and helpful, and they're all in favor of having an awesome summer :) Us guides have gotten together a number of times for themed parties, nights of dancing, cheering for the Ottawa Senators, and studying the famed Interprakit, the enormous binder full of everything you could ever possibly need to know about Parliament.

The four MTA students! Jenna (Bridgewater, NS), Stephen (Ottawa, ON), Liz (Ottawa, ON), Me (Campbellton, NB).

Some lovely ladies in uniform! Me (Campbellton, NB), Tejas (Vancouver, BC), Liz (Ottawa, ON), Julie (Gatineau, QC), Melissa (Hamilton, ON).

And now I should really get back to working on my tour! My first shift is tomorrow morning, and I can hardly believe I'm supposed to be able to give a complete tour of Parliament on my own, no notes, no help, nothing, haha. A bit of an overwhelming feeling, but I'm sure it will be an interesting day nonetheless! Talk soon!

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca