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