The visitors of Vimy Ridge

Working at Vimy Ridge is like a gift where you have no idea what's underneath the wrapping paper. It looks amazing from the outside because it's all wrapped up and beautiful and you're ecstatic to open it. So you start to open it and you're all excited because you're opening this wonderful surprise but then, you realize that the person who's given you the gift is watching you unwrap it and you begin to worry about what you'll do if you don't like it. You begin to think you have an idea as to what is it and it's not quite what you expected so you brace yourself for the worst. But then you remember that it doesn't even matter what the gift is in the end, because it's about the person or the people who gave it to you. Most of the time we end up loving the gift that we're given because it's a gift, and it's special no matter what. And sometimes, if you're like me on Christmas morning, and you get an absolutely terrible/ridiculous gift from your mother, you screech and laugh and make her realize how hilarious it is that she should have thought to buy you such a thing. But that's not Vimy. No, it's not a terrible gift at all. In fact, it's one of those ones where you get a bit of sinking feeling in your stomach when you begin to think that it's not quite what you expected, but then you finish unwrapping it and it turns out to be magnificent, especially when you think about the people. Because really, regardless of what anything has to do with anything, it's always about the people, isn't it?

And that's what it's like at Vimy. It's super thrilling and exciting to arrive in France, to start training, to put on the uniform for the first time and give your first tour. And when you really start to feel like you know your stuff, it feels amazing to be able to give that kind of detailed and confident information to visitors. But then, the honeymoon ends and you start to have those days when you just don't want to be at work, can't bear to stand at the gate of the monument for another single minute and you just want to kick those kids who are climbing on the trenches off the site and back to Timbuktu. But, you can't - because you're a representative of Canada and you work to commemorate the Canadian soldiers who served in World War I. And it's at these moments, when you think of the people, that your job always feels worthwhile. When you put what you're doing into the bigger picture, it's amazing to think of what you're doing and what you're accomplishing in a days work.

What really hits home for me is when I meet those visitors, those special visitors that you will always remember. I've certainly had a few of those moments when I've helped someone find the name of a relative on the monument and watched the tears form in their eyes, found where a loved one was buried and helped get them to the cemetery, listened to the story of how a family was tracing the exact route that their grandfather had taken during his time on the Western Front in WWI. Those visitors and the passion, interest and appreciation they have for what the site is all about and what we do is truly inspiring and motivating. There is one visitor in particular that I touched me beyond any other, one which I will forever remember. He was a Canadian soldier on leave from Afghanistan who had tears spring to his eyes the moment he mentioned where he was visiting from. The tears remained for the rest of the day - while he found his great uncle's name on the monument and throughout the entirety of the tour I gave him of the underground tunnels. It's almost impossible to describe him and how he was. All I can say is that when you looked in his eyes, you saw the most tragic combination of loss, sadness, appreciation and love. The things that he had inevitably experience in Afghanistan were probably similar on some levels to the things that the soldiers of the First World War would have experienced and seeing Vimy, where all the Canadian soldiers fought, was most likely an extremely moving and real experience for him. But it was more than that - I wish I could better explain it, but he was simply lost, touched and yet so full of love and appreciation for what Vimy was all about. His name was Keith, and he was from Cold Lake, Alberta. Visitors like Keith and the soldiers who fought at Vimy Ridge and in WWI are really what my job is about, and they are the ones that I keep in my mind throughout everyday of my work at Vimy Ridge.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

La Belle Vie en France

To: Faithful blog readers

From: Unfaithful blogger

So finally, at last, I feel as though I have caught up with my life. Well, at least to the point where I actually have the time to sit down for an hour and write. I've been making these lists of things to get done and they just seem to keep getting longer, never shorter.

But I'm not complaining. How could I complain about what I've been busy with? I live in Arras, France with 15 of the most hilarious people you could ever meet, work at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, have been learning to cook, go on random, ridiculous and wonderful adventures all around Europe and basically have the best possible time every day of the summer. I've decided that this summer I would be very 'in the moment' and focus on each day, one at a time, leaving the past and the future for another time. This has, however, meant that I haven't spent as much time as I might normally have keeping in touch with family and friends, writing in my journal or blogging. But, in exchange, I've been in France for a little over a month now, and I think it safe to say that I've squeeze just about everything out of every moment so far this summer, which I'm really glad about. But here I am with an hour on my hands so I think I should fulfill my blogging commitment and let you all know what I've been up to so far this summer :)


As I said, I work at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in Vimy, France, which is Canada's First World War memorial in Europe. The site itself is about 107 hectares and the land was given to Canada in 1922 in appreciation of their contribution to WWI. It is run, for the most part, by Canadians, 10 of whom are Canadian university students like me! Five others are part of our group and they work at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland memorial, commemorating the actions and sacrifices made by the Newfoundland soldiers during the battle of the Somme. Here's a break down of the guides:

• Liz (University of Ottawa, from Ottawa, ON)
• Michel (University of Ottawa, from Ottawa, ON)
• Carleen (University of Alberta, from Edmonton, AB)
• Tara (University of British Columbia, from Summerland, BC)
• Jonathan (University of Ottawa, from Beaver Bank, NS)
• Trevor (Memorial University, from Rocky Harbour, NFLD)
• Ken (Memorial University, from St. John's), NFLD
  
• Ann (Memorial University, from Mount Pearl, NFLD)
• Marie-Elise (University of Ottawa, from Ottawa, ON)
• Julie (University of Ottawa, from Gatineau, QC)
• Marie-Eve (University of Ottawa, from La Pocatiere, QC)
  
• Elyse (McMaster University, from Hamilton, ON)
• Diana (University of Ottawa, from Kitcher-Waterloo, ON)
• Roger (Memorial University, from St. John's, NFLD)
• ... and me!
  

So the fifteen of us live in two house in Arras, a town about a 50 minute train ride North of Paris, and my particular house is known as 'Vauban' (because it's on Vauban street - original, I know) and I share it with eight other people. My room is shared with three other girls, which has been both interesting and wonderful, seeing as I've never actually shared a room with another person before. I always had a single room at home and for both my years in Harper. But, it's safe to say that I'm able to now fully attest to how wonderful it can be to have a roommate, especially if you all get along super well, like we do. So yeah, double rooms, don't knock them before you try them, haha. The other guide house is about 5 minutes away and is shared by 7 people, including our program officer, Scott (University of Ottawa, just graduated and returned from his convocation today!). We all drive to work in the morning in these huuuuge vans which are waaaay too big for European roads (we've already had two small accidents - oops!) but it's always an adventure, haha.

So there, a nice little introduction to what I've been up to the last little while, and I'll write again soon with more information as to what it is that I actually do on site at Vimy and all that other fun stuff :) Also, travel stories are coming too, haha.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

The feeling of the end

Spring in Sackville is a very strange time, at least it is for me. It's a time filled with endings and beginnings, smiles and tears, hellos and goodbyes. It's a time when the weather gets nice and the breeze blows warm and the sun only sets long after dinner. A time when all you want to do is walk through the Waterfowl Park and sit by the Swan Pond and yet your mounting pile of work pulls you into the Library each and every day. When everyone is happy because summer is fast approaching and new opportunities await, and yet this feeling of nostalgic sadness lingers as we think of leaving Sackville, saying goodbye those we care so much about and yet another wonderful year coming to an end. It's a time when you are being pulled in all directions - to your desk, to your friends, to your bed, to the Quad, to coffee and dinner dates with all those people you've been meaning to spend more time with. Work has never been harder, you've never been more torn and you've never had less motivation to get it done. And yet it always gets done. All of your things get packed away, you manage all of your goodbyes, do well on your exams and then suddenly it's over. And you just don't want to go.

I have never known a place that is loved more by a greater number of people than Sackville and Mount Allison. It is certainly one of the only schools where I've encountered an incredible number of students who would be happy to spend all of their time at school, minus some of the work of course. I don't know what it is, but there is something about Sackville that makes you feel like you belong, like this is your home and like this is just how life is supposed to be. Surrounded by friends at all times, lovely weather gracing your day on a regular basis and way too much fun to be had.

This year has been unbelievable. There were some lows and many highs but most importantly a lot of growth and a lot of learning. I can hardly believe that two weeks from now, my undergraduate career will be half over. Half over. Nuts. Absolutely nuts. A number of friends of mine will be graduating this year, and it's gotten me thinking about the whole process of graduation and made me quite sad about the whole idea, actually. The grad banquet, the election of the Valedictorian, Convocation, the grad trip... It's going to be amazing, but wow, do I ever not want to leave this place. University is such a strange period of time if you really think about it. The notion of "home" changes for a lot of people, you are constantly meeting, getting to know and parting from an unbelievable number of people and living your life in these weird chunks of four or eight months. Things are constantly changing and nothing is for certain. No one knows what they're doing for the summer, next year or tomorrow night and even if you think you do, you don't. University life is constantly in motion and things can fall into turmoil pretty quickly. But if you can step back, take it one day at a time and love what you have today, you'll be okay. Appreciate, relax and everything will get done and come together in its own time.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

A day in the life of an RA

Life as an RA (Residence Assistant) is a pretty sweet job. You get to hang out with your fellow RAs, make friends with all the incoming frosh and returning students and earn some money while doing it. As potentially incoming students, you won't be assuming the role of RA (at least not until your second year that is!), but RAs will play a big part in your life while you live in residence, which I hope you'll all be doing! (Photo - Ryan and I on duty for Harper's toga party!)

Alright, so what exactly does an RA do? First off, they're older students (so either 2nd, 3rd or 4th year students, but 2nd year seems to be the trend) who are employed by the University through Student Life to kind of act like older brothers and sisters to those living in residence. They do all the typical stuff like making sure that everyone is following quiet hours which are different in every residence though the average seems to be starting at 10:00pm on weeknights and starting at 2:00am on weekend nights. They're able to fine students in the residence who break rules and the money goes to the residence house council in most cases. The RAs get the fine money for things that they have to deal with personally, such as... vomit. Ah vomit, what a fun part of the job this lovely substance has turned out to be. But more about that later.Stephen, hanging out with some frosh during a weekend duty :)

But other than the kind of run of the mill things that an RA can do for you, they're trained to be prepared for all kinds of different situations from fire alarms to suicide intervention to boyfriend/girlfriend issues to academic problems to course selections. Basically, your RA is there to help you with whatever they can, to listen to what you have to say and to point you in the right direction when you need more than they can give you. As an RA, I was surprised to find how incredibly rewarding it became to be the person that others turned to for help and guidance in a number of very different situations. I was also surprised how much I came to care about the people on my wing and how quickly we became like an actual family. Everyone on my wing seems to know where the others are at any given time, who has construction paper you can borrow, who so and so has started dating, who's turn it is for recycling or who's birthday is coming up on the weekend. There are no secrets in residence, and when living in this kind of environment with 19 other people, you can't help but feel attached, proud of and close to the people you live with. (Photo: Dancing frosh on their way to the Pub!)

One of the more visible roles of an RA is what we like to call "duty". As an RA you typically have three duties per month - one Thursday night, one Friday night and one Saturday night. There are two RAs on duty each night and their job is to sign residents' guests into the building, make sure everyone and everything is running smoothly throughout the house and generally deal with any issues that come up. Some typical things that we deal with are hilarious residents who may or may not be slightly inebriated, breaking up overly rambunctious room parties, hanging out with lovely visitors, cleaning up/dealing with vomit in all of its wonderful forms (the least fun part of the job, but also what happens the least), and occasionally putting out fires in the outdoor garbage can, hahaha. Definitely fun when you get to whip out the fire extinguisher... bahaha. Well fun, but not funny, because fires are serious... ahem. (Photo - Members of a Celtic gang (?) offering entertainment for RAs on duty.)

So yeah, being an RA is a seriously fun job, though there are certainly moments when you just don't want to deal with overly loud techno music at two in the morning or really have the time to listen to the same story about so and so's cheating boyfriend. But hey, we do it because we love it and because we love the people we live and work with, and at the end of the day it's all worth while and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

A reading week with very little reading is the way it should be!

Well it's been back to reality for a few days now, though the reality part hasn't really hit me yet. I really do still think I'm on holiday, as for the past two days I have somehow managed to stay in bed until at least 11:00am... So brutal, haha. My body just hasn't gotten used to the normal schedule of going to sleep sometime before 3:00am - sounds like trouble. (Photo - Fellow guide Ben (McMaster) and I out at The Brig in Ottawa)

So yes, I'm still relishing in the beauty that is reading week, though I'm still unable to figure out why they call it "reading week". I mean honestly, very little reading usually gets done, though there are those select few who are just incredibly hardcore and get like, a paper written or a book finished or some serious lab work done or something crazy like that. But me - oh, no - no reading for me! The only reading I did was finishing one novel and starting another, just for pleasure - what a novelty! But besides that, my break was absolutely awesome. As some of you may know from having read a few of my past blogs, I worked as a Parliamentary Guide in Ottawa last summer and met a ton of great people, a lot of them who still go to school in Ottawa. Sooo, I decided it would be a fantastic idea to head out to Ontario for a little over a week and do some serious visiting and catching up with my wonderful guide friends. And this is how it went! (Photo - Jess, Tejas, Liz and I in downtown Ottawa)

I got to Ottawa on Friday night and was enthusiastically welcomed by two of my best friends, who were also guides last summer, Liz and Tejas. Liz went to Mount A last semester but now goes to school in Ottawa, where her family lives, and Tejas is from Vancouver and also goes to the University of Ottawa. We were an inseparable trio during the summer so it was just awesome to be back with the two of them :) I stayed at Tejas' apartment in downtown Ottawa for the week and it felt like we were an old married couple by the end of the week, haha. She had a big week of work and I was on vacation so I had tons of time to spend doing whatever. So, since I live in residence and go to meal hall and all that, cooking and grocery shopping and all those things are a bit of a novelty to me so I would go grocery shopping, cook us dinner, bake dessert.... Hahaha, it was so much fun and made Tejas pretty damn happy so it was great :) (Photo - Tejas, not looking too impressed at the paper she was writing during my visit)

Some highlights from my time in Ottawa included some serious shopping (put a student from Sackville in a big city with a large mall and watch out!), meeting up with my high school volleyball coach who now lives in Ottawa, visiting my apartment from the summer and my most lovely roommate Martha, heading back to Parliament to see the sights and Question Period with a Kelsey, a friend from MTA, and going out on the town with as many old friends as possible :) (Photo - Parliament Friends: Andrew, Marc, me and Ben at Zak's Diner)

So my time in Ottawa came to an end and I hoped on a Via Rail train bound for Toronto and then bussed to Hamilton to visit my friends Ben and Zsuzsi who both go to McMaster Univeristy. My trip there was pretty short, only a few days, but we had lots of fun nonetheless. Ben showed me all around campus, I went to see McMaster's production of Cabaret, checked out a house party with people from his programme (Arts & Science) and even managed to get a chapter or two read for my Islam class, haha. And then on Sunday afternoon I was off to the Hamilton airport, where I met a friend from Mount A, Mal, and we flew back to Moncton together. Since then I've been attempting to get back into the swing of things here, but really, I'm still very much in break mode. I'm having too much fun and not getting enough work done, but hey - we all know university is about more than the academics! (Photo - A notice to McMaster medical students in the Health Sciences Library, just in case they couldn't figure it out)

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

The Mount A Spirit

So, life at Mount A = busy + wonderful. There has been so much going on in the last little while that I feel as though my head is still spinning from it all and that it won't really stop until exams are over in April. But, I will get a nice little rest when I go to Ottawa and Hamilton to visit some friends from my summer as a Parliamentary Guide in Ottawa and I am SO excited. What is also just incredibly exciting is the fact that I just got offered a job to work as a guide at the Canadian National Vimy Ridge Memorial in France for the summer!! And on top of that, one of my best friends, Liz (who was also a Parliamentary guide last summer) also got the job so we'll be living together in France for the whole four months of summer. How perfect is that?! She called me a few nights ago to tell me that she'd also got the job and we both practically exploded on the phone... I can't wait to see her over Reading Week so we can start to plan all of our wonderful adventures :) Speaking of being a guide, I think somewhere around seven Mount A students just had interviews for the Parliamentary Guide Programme this past Tuesday - I hope they get chosen!

Liz and I rockin' out in the House of Commons last summer

Alright so back to Mount A life... Last weekend was particularly crazy but so much fun! Saturday was the biggest day with both the women's volleyball team playing in their last home game of the season and the Swing Bash happening that evening. The volleyball game was quite a big deal... Mount A had only lost to St. Thomas once all season and St. Thomas had only lost to Mount A once all season, so essentially, the tie breaking game was happening here at MTA last Saturday. So a bunch of us enthusiastic Harperites trucked downtown to Sackville's faithful Dollar Store and stocked up on face paint, pompoms and mad pompom wigs then went back to Harper to get ready for the game. The game itself was super intense though unfortunately we lost the first three sets, losing the game. The crowd, however, was just huge and incredibly enthusiastic, cheering and getting to their feet even when the Mounties didn't come out on top. It was so great to see so many students, faculty and community members out for such a big game and cheer so passionately for this team of girls. Go MTA, go MTA spirit!

Okay, so after the game I was just exhauuuusted from cheering, yelling, clapping and stomping for 2 hours at the game. And then, that's when I remembered about the Swing Bash. As co-presidents of the Swing Society, my friend Aldous and I were in charge of organizing this annual dance/party. We had a ton of help from dedicated members of the Society who showed up for a few hours on Saturday afternoon to run errands, make decorations and set up equipment. I honestly don't know how we would have done it without them, so Aldous and I were incredibly appreciative :) We had tables with snacks and chairs for people to sit and chat at, a huge dance area in Hesler Hall, a sweet stereo that played swingin' tunes all night long and some fantastic hand made decorations. The night itself was a huge success - we had a great turn out, probably close to 100 people, put on two awesome performances and held a sweet dance off where we crowed the King and Queen of Swing. Now all that's left for Swing is the final performance which will be happening in March, which is still quite a lot of work. Aldous and I are working on three routines this year, which is proving to be really time consuming but a lot of fun and very rewarding at the same time. I'm so excited to see the final product come March 18th :)

So I do apologize for being late with this blog again, but I was insanely busy this past week with 4 midterms in 3 days and then 2 assignments due in the following 2 days. But regardless, I'm done my midterms now and am enjoying my reading week :) But more updates on that in a little while, promise :)

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

EcoAction Love

You know, I’m feeling particularly proud of myself, what with my regular blogging and all. I think this is my third blog in three weeks, which is what it should be, so go me! It’s a really good procrastination tool, such as when you really don’t want to get started on those five pieces of German homework or that summer job application... Bah, why is my best skill procrastination?

Anyway, last week I finally got around to sending out e-mails to my new e-mail buddies, who are prospective students thinking about coming to MTA. The admissions team matches them with volunteer MTA students who share similar interests and we talk to them about what life is like at Mount A and all that good stuff. The point of this story is that most of the students I was paired up with were people who expressed an interest in environmental issues and I ended up telling them a lot about EcoAction, MTA’s environmental society. The ones who wrote back were really interested in learning more about what we did as members of EcoAction, so I thought it would be a good idea to do a bit of an in-depth look at EcoAction in one of my blogs. So, here we go!

EcoAction is a group that is completely run by students and meets every week at MTA's sustainable residence, Cuthbertson House. Cuthbertson House is a really great place to live if you're committed to living a low-impact lifestyle with others like you. There are... 8 (or close to that?) people who live in this beautifully renovated house and they often organize discussions and activities that focus on environmental issues and are known to cook together on a nightly basis. They are really great people and if you think you might be interesting in living in this kind of unique residence environment, I would definitely recommend going for it. It's a nice alternative for those of you who are committed to sustainable living and aren't all that interested in the bigger residence experience, so think about it :)

So back to EcoAction. As I said, we meet once a week and new members are always welcome, no matter how far along in the semester we are. We aim to create awareness and educate students and community members about environmental issues and also promote environmentally sustainable choices and living, which involves a number of different activities and campaigns. This year we've already been pretty busy, and have organized a number of different activities. One of the first ones was our annual "Buy Nothing Day" campaign, which is an event that is held across Canada. On "Buy Nothing Day" we encourage people, well, not to buy anything, and organize a clothing swap where people bring in old clothes and take other people's clothes instead of buying them. We also give away free food and drinks to hungry students, haha.

EcoAction also has a strong relationship with the administration, and those who deal with the use of electricity, heat and those who run meal hall. We are constantly promoting the use of the least amount of energy as possible, and ensuring that residences are well constructed and maintain suitable for sustainable living. In fact, last year EcoAction was responsible for having electricity efficient bulbs placed in all the residences as a result of the money we save the University during our annual C3 event (I will soon explain). We've also been promoting the purchase of locally grown foods in meal hall, and have helped in educating students about the food scraping station in meal hall, which has reduced our food waste by 44% from the previous month when it was installed. What is also exciting is EcoAction's initiative to make MTA a cup-free campus, starting in September 2009. As of the beginning of the next academic year, paper cups will not be available at any location on campus, so all students in residence and incoming frosh will be given reusable mugs to use instead! Additional mugs will be available at cost for all other MTA students as well - how exciting!

One of the biggest initiatives that EcoAction undertakes is its annual Campus Climate Challenge, also known as C3. During the month of February, EcoAction challenges all the residences and academic buildings to reduce their energy use from their totals during the previous month of February and the winning house and building get great prizes. Last year the prize was an EnergyStar flat screen TV and this year we're giving away $600 worth of outdoor equipment (including crazy carpets, soccer balls, volleyballs, footballs, frisbees, Cranium and much more!) to the winning residence. This is the first year we've included the academic buildings, and the staff from the winning building will also be treated to some lovely reusable MTA mugs. Last year Windsor Hall was the winning house and managed to reduce their energy use by 24% which was fantastic!! We've just kicked off this year's C3 campaign with speakers from MTA as well as the president of the Canadian Nuclear Association, who spoke on the benefits of nuclear energy. Hopefully this year will be just as successful as the last!

Well that's quite a lot of info, is it not? I suppose I'll leave it at that, haha. But yes, if you're interested in environmental issues, MTA has tons of opportunities for you to get involved and EcoAction is just one of them. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me, I'd love to hear from you :)

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

Weekends = Love

The weekend, the weekend, oh how I love the weekend. I know what many of you are thinking: "How can the weekend be any fun in a place like Sackville? A place they've nicknamed Bagtown? Come on now." Well my friends, you are mistaken! It's actually quite wonderful when you think about how many great things there are going on MTA on the weekends. Some times there are just too many, in fact! (Crazy, I know.)

Friday night was the much anticipated Harper floor crawl titled 'Harper Evolves'. Running from fourth to first floor we covered the caveman era, the 60s, modern city times, and the futuristic. The decorations were awesome and the costumes were prettttty interesting. I think I distinctly remember seeing a guy in a pink blazer with no shirt underneath, a girl with a pom pom for hair and a girl wearing nothing but a sheet of sparkly material fastened together with safety pins. Yikes. But, other than those slightly sketchy costumes the party went off without a hitch. Well, except for one thing - I was on duty. It was, however, a fun party to be on duty for because there were mainly Harperites who attended so it was fun to hang around with all of them while they go their dance on and whatnot, haha. Next weekend is the famed Mardis Gras party put on by Windsor Hall and I'm sure it will be a great time (though not as great as Harper Havoc, obviously - I mean how is that even possible?)

I however, shall be missing it as my sister and I are heading home for my dad's 60th birthday! It's supposed to be a surprise, but I think I'm safe by putting on here as I don't think he quite knows what a blog is, let alone how to find mine, haha. Oh, that's mean, but well, true. Anyway, it's going to be a great weekend, I can't wait to see how he reacts to see my sister and I show up at the door on Friday night, haha. We're going to take a family portrait, go skiing, decorate the house, bake delicious cake... such fun :) I'll let you all know how it goes next week!

Saturday was a fun evening as well - I went to see Cinderella, put on by MTA's Garnet & Gold musical theatre society. One of my good friends Laurie was the lovely Cinderella and some of the high school kids from the Swing Society were in it as well (one of them, Justin, was the prince, actually!) It was fun to watch, I hadn't seen Cinderella in a long, long time. The last one I remember watching was the real film with like Whoopi Goldberg an Brandi in it, haha. Annnnyway, later on that night I went to my friend Sam's apartment to celebrate our friend Haley's birthday and then we went out to the Pub. It was a very enjoyable evening, I even made some new friends while getting back in touch with the old, how nice :)

Ah, and today was a lovely day. I haven't left the building and the day is over, hahaha. One of the many advantages of living in Harper, being attached to meal hall, it's such a bonus. I wrote to all my e-mail buddies today which was kind of fun, I hope I hear back from them sometime :) Oh my, it is quite late, and I am quite tired, even though I've done very little today... There is talk of a big snow storm coming tonight and tomorrow morning... Ohhhh I hope there's a ton of snow and it's real messy and they cancel classes... I could get so far ahead in my work - I can't believe I already have a proposal for a paper due this week :( Anyway, it's been a pleasure, as always, and I'll be writing again soon, promise :)

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

Back in the fast lane

Well it certainly hasn't taken very long for me to get back into the swing of things here at Mount A. Already I seem to be uber busy with school work - so busy that I've managed to put off my blogging... again. Man, I wish I had made that my New Year's resolution... Maybe I'll make it my January 21st resolution. Okay, here is it guys. I, Susan Joan Humphrey, resolve to blog more regularly starting today, Monday, January 21, 2008. There. Hopefully that will help me stop being such a dink and putting off this blog when really, it should be one of the first things I do. I mean hey, what normal person wouldn't rather write about their life than memorize German verb conjugations or read about Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth for the fifth time? Come on, Sue, do what's fun - blog!!

So yes, I've been bad, as per usual (If I'm consistently bad, does that make me bad? Or is it then considered normal to be bad, which makes it not bad? Bah, I see why I'm not in philosophy now.) But yes, things have indeed been very busy here in the bustling metropolis of Sackville and I'm gonna tell you alllll about it! Huzzah!

It was great to get back to Sackville after being away for so long. My room actually felt a little bit foreign when I walked in for the first time, but it wasn't long before I felt right at home again. It was awesome to have everyone on the floor start arriving and now we're all back together as a cozy little 2nd East family :) We actually just had a new person move in, Zan, from Pakistan. It should be great to get to know him as well - he'll be part of the family soon enough!

The first week of classes went really well. My classes are all very interesting and I think they're going to be a lot of fun. Here are my classes for the semester for those of you who are interested in seeing what a second year IR student might be taking:

• GERM 2000 - Intermediate German (Dr. Desmarais)
• GENV 1201 - The Human Environment (Dr. Fox)
• GENV 2221 - The Developing World (Dr. Reiffenstein)
• RELG 3701 - Islam (Dr. Darwish)
  
• RELG 3941 - Religion, Revolution & Violence (Dr. Darwish)

The course 'Religion, Revolution & Violence' is a seminar class and they are such a pleasure to attend. It only happens once a week and runs for three hours instead of being three times a week for about an hour each time. Yeah, it's a bit long, but the way it runs is really cool. So far we've all been sitting in a large circle, Dr. Darwish throws out questions, comments or ideas and we discuss them. We'll watch movie clips to illustrate points, but mainly, we discuss, challenge and question one another. It's so cool, I think it's the way that I learn best. There are no tests in the class - there will be two presentations that each student will give, and a major research paper, but that is much preferable to midterms and final exams in my opinion. Wooo, seminars!!

After the first week of classes we all celebrated like it was our job by heading to Cancun Campbell, definitely one of the best house parties I've been to! As you can tell from the name, it was a 'Cancun' or tropical-ish theme, which involves everyone getting into shorts, running through the cold to Campbell Hall, wearing a dozen leighs and dancing their butts off in the main lounge to some sweet tunes. It was a great time and the decorations were awesome. They even had a tiki hut where you could get drinks! Saweeeet.

Hrmm, what else has been going on? Oh yes, of course! Stereophonic! For all you music lovers out there, you'll be more than pumped to hear about this one. Stereophonic is an annual music festival that is put on by MTA's campus radio station CHMA and involves a ton of bands coming from all across the country (but mainly the Maritimes) to play at a number of venues around Sackville. I went out to the famous George's Roadhouse on Saturday night and they had some wicked acts for the last night of the festival. Dog Day, The Stance, Two Hours Traffic and The Tom Fun Orchestra were there and they were so awesome!! The Tom Fun Orchestra was particularly amazing - they really are an orchestra of sorts. They had all sorts of instruments - trumpet, fiddle, electric guitars, banjo, acoustic guitar, drums, upright base, base. It was nuts, so so cool definitely get their album or download some of their music. I'd never heard the stance before but they were really entertaining and Two Hours Traffic was awesome, as per usual.

Wow, this is a pretty long blog... Oh well, maybe it makes up for the ones I've missed...? Haha, oh well. Enjoy, keep smiling and as always, let me know if there's anything you'd like to see on here or if you have any questions. Cheers!

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

So I'm a little late...

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays. There, those are all the greetings I’ve missed and failed to wish you in my recent disappearance as a Mount Allison blogger. I am a bad, bad blogger – well, not bad (at least I hope not), just late. Really late. But hey, now I get to write one big (well, maybe two), fun, exciting catch-up blog(s) – huzzah!

So, I am currently in the back seat of my family’s Ford Edge, about an hour outside of Moncton on our way home from Freeport, Maine (yes Ben, you’re hometown!). The end of the Holiday Break is fast approaching as I’m heading back to Mount A on Sunday morning. I think I’m ready to go back – I’ve been doing a whole lot of lazing, eating, reading (the fun stuff, not of the academic kind), and some may even say, too much sleeping. The days feel pretty short when you’re only crawling out of bed between noon and one o’clock in the afternoon, but hey, I am one well-rested teenage girl. I think I’ve finally established my natural body rhythm – up around noon, bed around 2 AM, a solid 10 hours of sleep – nice. But yeah, the point is, I’ve been doing a whole lot of pointless stuff and I’m about ready to get back on track with a purposeful life. It’s been oh so nice and very necessary for me to have a good long break, but it’s time to get back to my wonderful home at MTA :)

If I’ve checked correctly, my last blog was in the middle of November (oh goodness, that’s bad). But this time (like I say every time I’m late with a blog), there has been good reason. Maybe not so much reason for not having been blogging over the Holiday Break, but definitely good reason for not blogging during the final weeks of the semester. Just after my midterms finally wrapped up, I remember being in such a great mood – no work for a while, midterms are over, that’s wicked! Then, I thought I’d be a good student and take a look at my calendar to see what work I had coming up in the next few weeks, you know, get ahead of the game a little bit. That’s when I realized that the next few weeks were the last weeks of term. No work for awhile, huh? “Funny, this calendar is telling me I have three final papers to hand in and an in-class debate to prepare for during the next three weeks,” I thought to myself. That’s when my shoulders slumped, face darkened and high-spirits faded. Boooooooooo. But then, oh, then I thought, “Well, as long as I can get through these next three weeks, I’ll be fine after that.” Um... not entirely true. I kept reading the calendar – “Okay, last paper due here... three days of classes after that and then... finals. Finals. Oh my god. Finals. When the hell am I going to study for those?!?!?!” Minor panic attack occurred at this point. Mild feeling of hopelessness ensued. So I was going to go into major paper writing mode for three weeks, have three days off and then go hardcore into exam study mode for two and a half more weeks? “Hmm, well, maybe my exams will be nice and spread out and I can study for most of them in between each exam.” Load up MTA Connect on my laptop, log in, bring my exam study schedule up onto the screen. “Okay, no exam for German, knew that, awesome. Topics in IR on the 12^th, Global Governance on the 11^th, two in a row, that sucks... Canadian Federalism on the 13^th and Economic Growth on the 10^th. So that’s 10, 11, 12, 13. Wait a minute. 10, 11, 12, 13. That’s four exams in four days... THAT’S TERRIBLE!!!”

Needless to say I survived, as is obvious by my writing to tell you about it. But man, was it hard. I’ve definitely never worked as hard as I did during those five/five and a half weeks and I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it. I never realized how many hours I could work in a day, how many words I could write in an hour or how much information I could retain all at once. There were a few scary/depressing/panic-filled moments during these weeks, my favourite (looking back on it now, definitely not at the time) being when I met with a friend to go over Canadian Federalism at 9:00PM the night before the final and he asked me to explain a very basic situation and I couldn’t do it because I hadn’t had the chance to really look at it yet. Tears in my eyes and heart in my throat I buried myself in the 2^nd basement of the library (the most quiet and isolated place in the library), worked until they kicked me out and then crammed until 3 AM in the study room in Harper. Next morning, 9 AM, I was nervous as hell, flipped over the exam and kicked it’s butt. It was my last exam and I couldn’t have been more happy when I left that classroom in Avard Dixon. Freedommmmmmmmmm!

This is how my friend Hanna reacts to large amounts of studying and stress. (Don't kill me for posting this picture, haha.)

The papers came back with good marks, the debate was awesome, most of the exams went through without too many shaky parts and my final marks came back over Christmas. That’s when I really, truly realized that hard work pays off. Had I not worked as hard as I did for as long as I did, I wouldn’t have gotten the marks that I did and would have been really disappointed. I really hope that I’ll never have to go through a period like that again, but deep down I know I’m pretty much guaranteed to during my undergrad and/or what comes after. Well, at least now I know I can do it.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca

Oh, and the two photos of Mount Allison after the first snowfall are courtesy of another one of MTA's bloggers, Maria Maute. Thanks Maria! :)