Back to reality...

Fraser, Me and Aldous taking a break from snowboarding

Aldous, Fraser and I snowshoeing

Aldous and I laying on Lake Prichard

Aldous doing crazy ski tricks at Mont Restigouche

Fraser and I :)

Well, Reading Week break has come to a close, and it’s back to the Sack for me. Thankfully, I’ve caught up on most of my sleep, though I’m the type of person who needs about 10 hours every night, if possible. I slept ‘til noon almost everyday... It was simply blissful.

So, what did we do over break? Well, Aldous and Fraser hiked up Sugarloaf Mountain in the snow one day, but I was still recovering from two overly-intense days at the gym, so I didn’t tag along. We did, however, go snowshoeing around and on Prichard’s Lake for a few hours, which was really beautiful and fun! An evening of snowboarding at Sugarloaf Park was a really good time; it was Aldous’ third time and Fraser’s second time. Aldous got the hang of it really quickly, and by the end of the night he could carve better than I could, and certainly had more guts than I did, because he was taking jumps and attempting 360s, haha. Fraser got a little tired of hitting his head so damn hard, so half way through, after breaking one of his bindings, he switched to skis, which were much more familiar to him. The boys also went downhill skiing yesterday at Mont Restigouche in Quebec, and from the videos they made, it seems as though they had a pretty good time; backflips, 360s, making their own trails through the trees... They’re so extreme, haha. We saw some good movies too; An Incovenient Truth, Little Miss Sunshine and The Illusionist. They were all really good, rent them if you haven’t already! :)

Aldous and Fraser got a lot of work done, especially when they got up in the mornings at like 9:00... Craziness. I got my presentation done for my interview for the Parliamentary Guide Program, and it’s pretty cool. I did it on Tetes a claques, which is a French-language website that posts absolutely hilarious skits about ridiculous situations. Again, it’s at www.tetesaclaques.tv if you want to check it out, which I recommend you do! I also got some reading for Religion done, though I still have more, of course. I was supposed to have a German midterm on Friday morning, but funny, our professor simply didn’t show up. So, now I have to re-study for that test, which will be on Monday. Tres annoying.

On the bright side, Stuart McLean is coming to Convocation Hall on Sunday afternoon, and I’ve got a ticket! :) He’s a radio personality on CBC Radio, and always tells the most amusing stories on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Hopefully, Aldous, his girlfriend Jess, Fraser and I will be going out to dinner on Friday night, since Jess and I handily beat them in a best out of 5 pool match last weekend. Also, Ballet Jorgen will be performing Romeo & Juliet in Convocation Hall on Saturday night, which should be wonderful :) Oh, but wait a minute. I think Hunton House is holding their St. Patrick’s Day party this Saturday, which should be a blast! Speaking of parties, Harper is holding a massive Floor Crawl not this Saturday, but next, and the theme is going to be a tribute to all of the best House Parties of the year, ending with Harper Havoc, which was by far the best, ahem. Haha.

Now, I know that this blog has been pretty un-MTA related, but well, I’ve been pretty un-MTA related for the last week, haha. But, I am very excited to get back to school and see all my friends again! Just one more month of classes left and then finals start... I can hardly believe it, haha. It’s going to be nice to have a four month break, but it’s going to be so hard to be away from everyone for so long! I wish that the time we were in high school was shorter, and the time we’re in university was longer...

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca


P.S. - Oh!! I just remembered such exciting news!! My best friend from home, Sacha, has decided to come to MTA next year!!! I’m so excited!!! :D

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

I am writing to you today from The Ocean, a northbound Via Rail train, and I’m heading for home, which for me, is Campbellton, New Brunswick. My boyfriend, Fraser, and my good friend, Aldous, are both on board as well, and will be spending this Reading Week with me. Fraser is from a town just south of Edmonton, Alberta, while Aldous is from Victoria, British Columbia, so it would be just a tad more expensive for them to go home. So, they’re coming to the North Shore with me, and I’m excited! Fraser has already been to Campbellton over Remembrance Day weekend, but it’s Aldous’ first time. Aldous is a real outdoors and travel guy; he’s backpacked to more countries than I can count, and has even worked in the Yukon during the summers as a kind of outdoor adventure guide, involving a lot of kayaking, rafting, canoeing, mountaineering, hiking and fishing. And, since Campbellton, and New Brunswick in general, are very nature and outdoor oriented, Aldous is very excited that we have plans to go cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, snowboarding and hiking while we’re at home. I’m pretty excited too, because I haven’t gotten to do any of these things in ages!

This past week has been a tad strange; it’s been both wonderful and disappointing, busy and relaxed. As most of you probably realized, Valentine’s Day was Wednesday, and I have to say, it was the best Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had, and it was complete with red and white carnations, dinner and coffee, a beautiful card, and the most adorable stuffed beaver you’ll ever see. He came with the name Bibbers, but I decided I would name him whatever the German word for “beaver” was. After I searched it, it turned out to be “biber”, which is quite a crazy coincidence. So, Biber it is!

Now, that was the wonderful part of the week. The disappointing part was the three mediocre marks that I got back in Psychology, Macroeconomics and Western Religions. The material in those courses isn’t extremely challenging, and I felt very confident going into the midterms. A lot of the questions on the tests were multiple choice, which I’m not a big fan of, because you’re either 100% right or 100% wrong, with no points for effort, partial knowledge or things like that. But that’s not my biggest problem with multiple choice exams; it’s the fact that some professors seem to look specifically for questions that will trick you, or ask such obscure questions that you remember reading about that piece of information, but thinking it to be such a minute detail that you focussed your attention on more central and important information. I just don’t believe it to be a good reflection of the professor or the testing method used when students like me, who understand, complete all the assigned readings, attend and pay attention in every class, come out of the midterm with a pretty average mark. I work to get above average marks, and it’s just frustrating when you’re not able to achieve those marks because of these reasons.

This week was busy and exciting in the sense that elections have been happening everywhere; House Executive elections in my residence, Harper, as well as in the residence next door, Campbell, where a bunch of my friends live, as well as for the Executive of the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC). Several of my friends from home ran for different positions, and there seems to be a great Campbellton presence on the North Side of campus this year: Mayme and another girl, Gillian (not from Campbellton, though) are the new Co-Presidents of Campbell Hall, while Alex and another guy, Dan (again, not from Campbellton), will be the Co-Social Chairs of Campbell. And finally, Brent, a guy I grew up with at home, is the new President of Harper. Next year should be awesome with executive teams like those!

I have an interview for a job that I want more badly than I’ve wanted anything in a very long time. The job is a position as a Parliamentary Guide in Ottawa, Ontario, and the interview will be on February 28. I have to give a 3 minute presentation with no notes, and it can be about absolutely anything except Parliament. Normally I would love this kind of assignment; I’m a big fan of public speaking, and participated in contests all through middle school and high school, but I just can’t seem to pick a topic. Right now I’m debating between the concept of home, and the hit Quebec website, Tetes-a-Claques. Tetes-a-Claques would be absolutely hilarious, and a very fun presentation. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to www.tetesaclaques.tv and check it out for yourself. You need to understand French, though, haha.)

So, let’s get to my lesson-learning section of the week.

1. Stuffed beavers are wonderful, cute, and can make you smile even when you’re having the worst day ever.
2. Going to the gym/getting exercise is important, and makes you feel great about yourself.
3. Don’t let yourself get down about marks that aren’t quite what you want. Learn from the experience by studying harder for the next test, and always know your true potential.
4. Valentine’s is more than a corporate holiday; it’s the perfect opportunity to tell those you love exactly how you feel about them.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

Weekends, you should really come more often!

What a relief! I thought Friday would never get here this week! When I think back on this past week with all I've had to do, I'm amazed I'm not still running around like a chicken with my head cut off! But, today, is Friday, and I think that this has to be my favorite day of the week, because it's the one day when I don't feel guilty about not doing any work. Saturday and Sunday are good and fine, but the afternoons are prime working time. But Fridays - oh Fridays - they are positively blissful. I go to my morning classes, have lunch, hang around residence, go to a voice lesson, relax some more, have some supper and get ready for a fantastic Friday night. No work! TGIF!


So, why was this week so crazy, you may ask? Well, for starters, I had three midterms: Psychology, Macroeconomics and Western Religions. They weren't intense studying, but still, it definitely involved some serious library time, which is always unfortunate. Also, as some of you may have heard, Mount Allison officially launched it's JUMP Campaign, which aims to raise $86 million for MTA over the next 10 years. The money will go towards three main areas: Teaching & Research, Student Life, and Community Outreach. Now, as a part of MTA's Swing Society, we were asked to perform a swing number (jumping... swing...?) as the opening for the launch ceremony. So, there have been tons of extra practices, and this week was crunch time. But, it turned out to be well worth it; the dance went amazingly well, and the Jazz Band that performed with us did a fantastic job. It was stressful to get it going, but it makes me so excited for our end of the year performance :)

Mmm, what else was big this week? Ohh! The day of action! So here's the deal: As a member of the External Relations Committee, led by our VP External, Mal Baxter, we, along with dozens of other schools across the country, held a day of action supporting a reduction in tuition costs for students, to be funded by the provincial government. We had free hot chocolate, hot dogs and veggie dogs all day long on Wednesday, and it was freezing cold while we were out there rallying support, let me tell you, haha. It was an awesome time, and we got tons of signatures on our letters to the New Brunswick Premier and Sackville's MLA. Sweet!

Now, this weekend is shaping up quite nicely! My best friend from home, Sacha, arrived on the train this afternoon and she's here until Sunday afternoon! She's thinking about coming to MTA and I'm trying to show her the best possible time so that maybe she'll come here :) We're heading to a play this evening at Windsor Theatre. It's titled Saltwater Moon and it's a two person production, and my good friend Kyle is one of the two actors. Then I believe we're heading to a campaign party for SAC Presidential candidate Marianne Greene, which should most definitely be a good time. We've been discussing the possibility of heading into Moncton tomorrow on the bus for some shopping, and attending the Valentine's Day Ball being put on by the Yellow Ribbon Society, a campus society that raises money for the Canadian Cancer Society. Ah, and Sunday will be recuperation I believe...

Now, I really liked my last little bit in last week's blog. You know, the whole thing about what I learned this week? Let's see what I can come up with this time.

1. Sacha is my soul mate, and I love that girl to death.
2. It's all a question of time management; you can have your cake and eat it too!
3. Swing dancing makes me smile.
4. There are too many Hebrew terms in Judaism.

Well, maybe those weren't serious lessons, but they're fun ones, and I'm in a super good mood, so ha! Rock on guys, have a great weekend! :D

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

Oh, the choices!

Choices are so fundamental to the entire University experience. You'll obviously make a few bad ones, but hopefully most of them will be good. But most importantly, I hope most of them will be wise.

I don't think I've ever been quite so overwhelmed with choices, or the consequences of choices. First off, I made the decision to pass up a role in this year's production of "The Wizard of Oz" in favor of attending a Model United Nations Conference put on by McGill University in Montreal. Both were big time commitments, just in different ways. The Wizard of Oz was really quite spread out, but McMUN was one big event that took me away from classes and got me behind in work in a significant way. McMUN was so awesome though; I got to know a lot of students from MTA I hadn't known before, and got to meet tons of students from all across Canada, the US and parts of Europe too. I'd never been to a Model UN conference before, and it was a fantastic first experience. Montreal is a fabulous city too, and I mean hey, the parties were a pretty good time too, haha.

But that 17 hour train ride home was a long one, what with writing a paper for my Western Religions class and thinking about the mountain of reading I had waiting for me back in my room. And upon my arrival not only was there reading for me to do; oh no, there was much much more. I had a midterm this week, I have 3 next week, an Economics assignment due on Tuesday and all kinds of extracurriculars going on too. A few of us from the Swing Society are putting together a swing dance routine for Mount Allison's JUMP Campaign, and we're rehersing several times a week. As part of the External Affairs Committee, I'm helping to plan a national day of action that involves asking the provincial government to give more funding to universities in order to reduce tuition fees, making post-secondary more affordable for everyone. So yeah, if you want some advice, never leave Sackville for 5 days, haha.

Now, those are all the consequences of one simple choice I made back in... November? Haha, that seems like aaaages ago now. And speaking of that, it's February 1st! Where the heck did all of January go? They've already released the April Exam Schedule, and that's a little bit scary for me. I mean, I'm almost done 1st year... It's passed by soo quickly, it's unreal! Only two more months of classes and I'm leaving for 4 months. Funny how I don't even want to leave this place. I'd rather stay here I think, than have to leave my friends and my boyfriend for 4 months... My boyfriend, Fraser, is from Alberta, and he's hoping to spend part of his summer in Quebec on a French Language Exchange and the other part either back home, or in British Columbia at a children's camp. As for me, I have an interview at the end of this month for a position as a Parliamentary Guide in Ottawa, which would be absolutely phenomenal! But saying goodbye to everyone all over again? Ouf, I'm not looking forward to that. Not at all.

Hrm, now where was I actually planning on going with this? ... Oh! Yeah! Choices... Fun fun fun. Fum fum fum. Isn't that a Christmas song? ... Moving on. Yeah, choices! Now see, as I mentioned before, I live in Harper Hall, the most supercool residence there is, and probably ever will be. Yeah, we're that cool. Anywho, considering my absolute passion and love for this residence, I was planning on running as President of House Council this year. However, I also applied to be a Residence Assistance, which would also allow me to express my love for this place. Sooo, here's the catch. I had an interview for the RA position, and I've been offered the position, but, I have to let them know if I accept it by Monday, February 5! The elections for House Council only happen the week after that, so if I want to run for President, I have to refuse the RA position. But what if I don't win the election? Then I'm left with no position at all, which would be really kind of crappy. Sooo, I'm leaning towards the RA position as of now. You get paid a whole lot more, which is cool. But you don't plan sweet parties. But you can help. This is going in circles, totally pointless. I think I should call my Mum, she's super wise. (I know what you're thinking. In high school, I didn't think my parents knew much about what it was like to be a teenager. But, unfortunately and fortunately, they actually do. I guess we just listen better when we're 4 hours away.)

So, what have I learned these past few weeks? Let's see.

1. Make choices based on what you want the most.
2. Be prepared to handle what comes from those choices; be it good, or bad.
3. Never let yourself get overwhelmed. Step back, take a look at the big picture, but then focus on one assignment, one meeting, one day at a time.
4. Laugh a lot; it makes you feel amazing. I can thank my friend Ben for that.
5. Don't hold back. Get what you want.

Well, now that, that was cool. I think this blog is really good for me; it makes me reflect, take time to really sort things out and think, stuff I wouldn't normally find the time for. Awesome. You know what? I can do this. I can write these midterms, read all this stuff, pull off this dance, and smile the whole way through. What other choice do we have? Love life, that's it!

Always,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca