Forgive me for my shortcomings ;)

I could attempt to push out a rushed update but I feel that a weekend trip to PEI deserves better than that. I had a mandatory meeting to attend tonight followed by some hectic work to recover some epic pictures I accidentally deleted followed by homework; because class starts so early in the morning my post will have to wait until after lunch tomorrow afternoon. Sorry.

Blogzilla

I MOVED!

Today in class the main supervisor (the lady you do not under any circumstances speak English in front of) informed all the classes that she needed to have a meeting with all the girls in the program immediately after class and all the activities for the day had been cancelled. Initially, of course, we were concerned. As it turns out the university had decided it was time to renovate the apartment style res we were living in needed to be renovated (one across the street was already being renovated) and we needed to be moved. Hurrah! They moved us into semi-apartments. It was funny, after the meeting the sun came out and spirits of the group were clearly looking on the up and up. Everyone was elated.

I have a room to myself with my own bathroom including a shower. I have a desk, a small table, a microwave, mini-fridge, and the internet!! And downstairs we have a common room that has a tv, billiards, ping-pong, and other such game tables. It is amazing. We went to eat lunch, pack, and move. It was magical.

Now to tell you about Thursday the 3rd. It was not much to be excited about. Another rainy day in Moncton. Early mornings, class, exhaustion, lunch. Our activity for the afternoon was what we would call "wide games" in Alberta. I don't know if this is a west coast thing but like when I said "budged" instead of "butted" I got weird looks. Anyways it was raining so we had to play inside. It was very much like summer camp, except this time I was 23 years old and didn't want to play. I hate when people sit on the side lines and don't want to play, I'm very much a join-er in-er as opposed to sitting out. Joining in is generally much more fun. However, I was very tired and during these activities the rules against English generally stand because there is supervision, as such I generally can't speak. Anyway, I was glad when they were done.

We went along our merry way, I did some homework, went to dinner, and returned to watch a film en français. We were supposed to watch "Good Cop, Bon Cop" a hollywood half and half French and English film but it couldn't be attained so instead we watched some Québécois cop comedy. Luckily they took pity on us and included English subtitles. It was pretty funny.

We returned home later than I had hoped as I had a test in the morning. I studied and went to bed.

Friday the 4th

Early as usual, breakfast as usual. In class we wrote a test, it was pretty easy, which was good because I only have 3 days of French knowledge under my belt. Class is great. The prof really understands that this is a basic, slow moving, intro class. Although we do cover a lot of material she speaks so slowly, fills in the gaps with English, and is always willing to give extra help. After class we had said meeting (as mentioned above).

After the move I unpacked, and went for dinner, following dinner I made a trek to Shoppers which was actually great. Sometimes a walk is just what is called for post dinner. And now I'm caught up on Glee and getting ready for bed.

Sounds like people might be going out on the town tonight and I have to admit that the last thing I feel like doing is entering awkward drunk social atmospheres with new friends. Mexico ruined me. 26 days of drinking with amazing friends makes me want to go to bed so I'm not tired. ha. Tomorrow is our only free Saturday of the month. A group of 7 of us are renting a van and driving to PEI. I didn't think that I would be able to go anywhere because we were told that we were busy the whole time and had to stay in res every night. We asked and got permission to stay overnight so for the weekend I'll be living it up in another province. I don't really know much about "the island" but I've heard it is pretty. I'm sure it'll be great.

Because I have CAA and insurance that covers the rental I will be the driver of this van adventure. I'm not too worried because I like driving and I don't find it nerve racking but I'm a little worried that something will happen to us and my insurance will pay the price for any mistakes. I trust myself though so it is all good. We are leaving just after 8am (when the rental place opens) which gives me additional reasons for getting extra sleep.

I can't believe I've only been here for 5 full days. It feels like an eternity. I miss my Mexico friends so much, which is odd because I didn't think that I would form such strong bonds while there. Today more photos were posted via facebook and they made my heart sad that I was not in Mexico with those amazing people. Don't get me wrong this is a great experience but Mexico was perfect.

Today I learned:

• More like I realized that I am only 2 years away from 25. Soon I'll be a bona-fide adult
• The true nature of my addiction to technology

I am grateful for:

• Wifi
• My amazing French professor who baked us chocolate, chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate icing and sprinkles for todays class because there were two birthdays

The sun came out. Then it went away.

I decided back in the midst of my fifth and non-final year of school that I needed to do some great things. Great things are difficult to do because the logistics of life seem to take over, the bills need to be paid, debt needs to be paid off, insurance and groceries come over month. These are all things that stand in the way of great things, that and perhaps fear. I like to think I don’t fear many things and when I do fear them I logic out ways to throw those fears into the proverbial wind. See the thing is that it is these great things that write the stories of our lives. Yes, going to school for six years to get two degrees and work experience is a great thing, working hard and getting good grades is also a great thing. But sometimes when you are surrounded by so many people doing the same great thing one feels the need to differentiate and do other better great things.

Ok ok, sorry to ramble, my point is that these great things – travel and life experience – often seems like the least logical thing to do because bills and debt will almost always haunt you after you take time off work and pay money to go new places BUT these things seem to be the most rewarding and the most distinguishing. Although it is rare that your experiences can be shared with those who were not with you it is amazing what they do for you. I often have trouble getting rid of the worry of where money will come from and how much bigger my student line of credit will get, but when I don’t think about it and I just enjoy what life hands me things can be great, until of course I am faced with purchasing things. Well as is life I suppose.

As for my day. Yesterday, like all days here at the UdeM, started early. Early breakfast; early class. Class was good. I feel like the prof really understands that we are actually beginners as in she goes very slow and speaks in English a lot of the time. She is also very helpful. I guess class was great. I understood what was going on and although I still have nothing memorized I hope it won’t be too tough.

After was lunch – then a break during which I utilized a free couch in one of the buildings for its internet. At 2pm we had our afternoon activity – a walk to the mall, it was really my first trip into Moncton to see what it had to offer. I have to say I am having a hard time getting a feeling for this city, I don’t really know what it is about or how I feel about it. I hope to get out and about in it eventually, walk around its downtown area and really get a sense of it. Until then I’ll say that I’m not used to being on a campus that is this small and spread out. UofC is organized and packed full of buildings, buildings that are linked together and easy to find. UdeM is a bunch of little buildings spaced out with no real rhym or reason.

We walked to the mall. It took quite a while as walking with 100 people down residential streets and streets with stop lights takes a very long time. Also groups are slow. Slow walkers make everything slow in a group environment. We made it to the mall, which I didn’t even see the entirety of. As previously mentioned I don’t have a great deal of disposable income or any income for that matter so shopping is generally looked down upon. I did however buy a few French books to aid my studies.

It wasn’t long before the group I was with was heading back to the school. We wanted to make it back in time to have our dinner. See, again, our dinners are free on campus so it was advantageous for us to be back in time.

After dinner I did my homework and waited to go to the pool. I haven’t done anything physical in quite some time. It usually leaves me in a level of pain I am unwilling to put up with and I don’t like to be on Advil all day everyday. Because of this I have avoided most physical activity, which breaks my heart. I love being physically active; it gives you a rush, a feeling of power, and an exhaustion that nothing else does. It makes your muscles ache in a great way, well, until my muscles start to ache in a horrible way. Regardless, it had been too long and I was in need for some activity.

I love swimming but I don’t do it very often at the UofC pool. It is stupid busy and there are hardly any times for public swimming. The pool is overrun by private clubs booking time which although profitable makes it a difficult pool to find a free lane in. The pool here at UdeM requires you wear a swim cap (lame, they give me headaches), but it also happens to be not very busy during their 9pm swim. I had a lane to myself and even, at times, a pool to myself. I swam almost the entire 40 minutes it was open and I was exhausted. I don’t usually feel sore after swimming but it is clear that I have grown lazy and my muscles have gone soft. My arms and legs were crying when I stepped back onto the solid ground of the deck.

I ended the night with a bowl of Cheerios and a hot shower. (Snacks after swims are must).

Today I learned:

• How to conjugate –er verbs
• About a possible PEI trip this weekend! Sign me up :)

I am grateful for:

• Being able to swim for half an hour straight after months of inactivity
• Extra blanket and pillows for my bed

Rhythm is a Dancer

As previously discussed I do not have internet in my home. It is also applicable to let you know that they keep us very busy here at the Universite de Moncton. That is my explanation for the gap between posts. I'm still trying to figure out how to make this work best.

When I talked to you last I had just completed my placement exam and who would have guessed it, I am in the beginners level, along with almost all the Albertans I arrived here with (go figure).

Monday afternoon we had our meeting in English followed by a countdown for us to only speak French. It was rather informative, you may do this, you may not do this. Just your average orientation meeting, it just happened to come mid-way through the second day. Monday night we had a tour of the campus, this proved to be of limited use to me mostly because it was entirely in French. Although from what I’ve heard from my French speaking roommates it wasn’t that great either way. Because we had already been on campus for two days we had to have figured out where all the buildings were before that. After the tour I was exhausted and didn’t end up doing anything exciting except watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall that one of my roommates had on her computer. We cheated and watched it in English.

Tuesday started early because our classes began at 8am. Breakfast was equally early and had me leaving the house around 7am – that is outrageous. We did some pretty basic things, greetings, alphabet, sounds, etc. What you really need to know to get started. We were given some basic homework and sent out for lunch at 11:30. Lunch at 11:30 is awfully early, I am more accustomed to lunch around 2pm, and this is not just because of my month in Mexico, this is very much a schedule I was used to prior to that.

After lunch I was exhausted and as much as I wanted to go try out the gym or work on homework I ended up napping on my bed. Don’t get me wrong, naps are great but we have so little free time that napping almost seems like a waste at times. The problem is our home tends to get very cold or very hot. We’ve yet to establish a great middle ground. I woke up cold, which is never a nice way to wake up.

At 2pm we had our afternoon activity – this was ‘ice breakers’ the worst kind of activities, but the ones that always happen at any gathering of this nature. This wasn’t too painful because you, mostly, were not required to speak and some instructions were given in English. We were split up into 4 groups of 25. The human knot, a card game that involved sitting on others, holding hands and getting through a hula-hoop were the basics. We also had to see who could yell the longest on with one breath. Believe it or not I won. It was an elimination process where half of the group was eliminated every time. I’ve never known myself to have any ability to do such things, I cannot hold my breath very long. But beyond some shaky legs, dizziness, and feeling like I was going to pass out I would say it was a major success on my behalf. Today, however, I am rethinking my victory because my throat feels awful.

We were once again released for free time – this time I did do my homework. It didn’t take too long, we were conjugating verbs and writing a short journal entry. Mine was 3 sentences. I don’t really know much about sentence structure in French, or even how to form basic sentences, or how to talk in the past tense. For all these reasons as well as a general lack of understanding of the language I kept it short.

Then it was time for our evening activity. We had a choice between dodgeball outside (it happened to be pouring rain) or tea and board games inside. I’m all for tea and I do enjoy a good board game now and then, but board games in French are a whole ‘nother ball game. It was ok, it lasted about an hour, we played snakes and ladders, which equates to counting to 6 in French, a skill I feel I have mastered.

After a group of us debated going to see a movie but because it didn’t start until 9:30 we decided it would be better to save it for another night. Being up early and very busy is exhausting. Instead we went to WalMart to find a few essentials we felt we were missing out. For me this included buying a sweat suit to sleep in as well as an additional blanket, some pencils, erasers, and other small things. By the time we got home it was late, well it was likely 9:30 but it felt late. I made a phone call and headed to bed.

In order to create some sort of order I will leave out what I accomplished today thus far and hopefully I will post tomorrow morning about my day today. That might seem confusing but just stick with me.

Weather: Cold and rainy

Today I learned:

• I can yell forever!
• Yelling forever makes ones throat hurt, a lot.
• Sleeping in a sweatsuit is great, for the first few hours then it is just damn hot.

I am grateful for:

• Umbrellas
• Peppermint tea

Torn Up.

It's been a few days, but I've been busy!

Friday was a laundry day. Saturday was a packing day. I packed up two suitcases this time because while in Mexico I decided I didn't have enough clothes, I also decided that the weather in New Brunswick is a whole lot more variant than in Mexico. I packed summer clothes, spring clothes, and even some stuff a little warmer. Saturday afternoon Mom and I headed to Calgary so I could do some last minute shopping and meet my brothers for dinner Saturday night. It was a busy day. That evening we ended up going for Chinese food, it was great. We stayed over at the boys' house because my flight left early the next morning and they live very close to the airport.

Sunday started around 4am. My flight was to leave at 7am. All the usual airport happenings occurred, I boarded my plane to Hamilton. We ended up leaving late, very late, almost an hour late. This was because some ice had messed with the computers and the plane had to be de-iced. The plane ride was long, I have to admit I wasn't really feeling up to coming or in the mood for more travel. As soon as I arrived in Hamilton I boarded my next plane to Moncton - it had been held for those of us switching flights.

I arrived in Moncton, found a girl who was also headed to the program and we took a cab to the University. We arrived at the university around 5:30pm local time. We were given instructions about residence and sent on our merry way. There were about 7 of us that arrived on the flight from Hamilton, most from Alberta, one from BC, and one from Hamilton.

The residences are, well, not as nice as the home I stayed in Mexico. We were told we would be in two bedroom apartments, sharing with a roommate. This was fine by me. But it appears that the females of legal age (19+) were put in residence on the edge of campus, there are two bedrooms and two beds per room. What I am most choked about is that we do not have internet access in our homes, nor do we have tvs. The tv isn't really an issue for me, but I hate being without internet. Well I don't mind being without internet in a situation where it seems appropriate, on holiday, camping, etc. But living on a university campus away from home demands internet. I guess I am also choked because the boys and the underage-ers live in what have been explained as very nice, spacious two bedroom apartments that they share with only one other person, with internet, beside the cafeteria, right on campus. I'm a personal space kinda gal and although I don't mind spending time with people all the time I cherish having a room of my own to hide in once and a while. But I'll just have to make the best of it.

I met my roommates and they all seem really nice. Last night I walked to Shoppers Drug Mart to pick up some things I didn't want to lug across the country. When I got home my roommates were just going to watch a movie before they went to bed. I was exhausted but because I didn't want to go to bed too early and end up waking up in the middle of the night I waited until about 10:30.

Classes start early here. 8am every weekday morning. This means waking up around 6am, which with the Alberta time differential felt like the middle of the night. Well it didn't feel too early until I was sitting in class. We had breakfast, it was good. As far as I can tell the cafeteria food won't be too bad and there seems to be options enough to satisfy.

Today we had a placement exam to see what group we should be in. It is my understanding that there are 5 levels with 1 being the beginners. Although I think it would be easier for those who actually don't know any French to just say so and be put in the beginners I think the test weeds those who actually don't know any French (me) out from those who claim they don't know any French (there are many). It took about two hours and ended with an interview portion. There was oral comprehension, written comprehension, grammar, etc. The exam was multiple choice with about 80 questions. I am certain I failed, but that is a good thing. The interview was not hard for me. Most people went in, sat down, and had to answer a set of questions, I hear the last 6 were especially difficult. Knowing no French made this simple. I walked in, said "I don't speak any French" he asked if I would understand anything he would ask me, I said no and I was out the door. Tomorrow I start in the beginners group.

This afternoon we have a meeting, I've been told it is our last opportunity to speak English. This seems a great deal more likely for the students who are already speaking some French around here. Not that I'm not interested in the whole immersion thing I just find it impossible. I guess I won't be speaking much in class. It is also interesting because everything that I think of in non-English is coming out Spanish. Numbers, greetings, etc. is all Spanish in my head right now.

Hopefully this meeting will provide some information about what is going on, how to get around, etc. because I feel like I have no idea about anything. I'm also having a hard time giving it my all. I just want to sleep in my comfy bed with my blankets and here I have one thin, grey blanket.

Because I have no internet at home I will not be able to guarantee updates regularly, or as I like to do them on a daily basis, or at least covering a day in one post. For now I'll do the best I can and hopefully I can find a time that works best.

Today it is kind of cloudy with a cold wind.

Today I learned:

• Many many names of new people
• The gravity of my desire for a private room, I just like it ok.

I am grateful for:

• Home
• Warm socks
• 5% gst - do you believe they have a 13% hst here!?

Once Upon a Time In Mexico

*This post and my trip to Mexico has/d nothing to do with Johnny Depp, eyeless or not.

The last few days have consisted of me sleeping and watching back episodes of shows I missed. Thus far I have caught up on Glee, Grey's Anatomy, and House. The rest will come slowly. I had intended to go to Calgary today, run some errands, and meet up with a wide variety of friends for some drinks to celebrate my birthday but I got lazy and was more tired than I expected and so I called it off. Sorry friends but sleeping on my couch trumped you. Sad but true.

Because I haven't really been up to a lot, or anything for that matter I figured I would tell you a few things I left out about my trip.

First, I haven't yet told you about the evening of the 25th. I told you we were going out early to celebrate our last night and my birthday. What actually happened was a wonderful surprise. As I've told you before there was one particular homestay Mom who took special interest in making sure I was comfortable and never lonely. This lovely lady has to have one of the biggest hearts around. Every time I saw her she insisted that I spend more time at her house with the students she was housing (this was an easy request to fulfill because the girls staying at her house were top notch). The last night came around and she (a chef) was cooking a wonderful meal for her students and two other students who were staying with her parents for the trip.

I on the other hand was packing my things and heading out for drinks. That is until she found out that the next night was my birthday. I got a phone call from one of the girls informing me that I just had to come over for dinner, the mom wouldn't have it any other way. I had heard great things about the delicious meals so I was eager to head over. I walked over, it only takes about 5 minutes to get there. Once I arrived I was informed that I wasn't allowed into the house - I had to go for a walk. ha. Very sneaky.

Once I got into the house I was greeted with hugs and happy birthdays. Dinner was amazing. Part way through the son arrived with a beautiful cake and balloons, oh and did I mention the mom had invited other friends over to celebrate my birthday. It was amazing. I wasn't expecting a full out party.

After dinner we were exhausted but we had said that we would go out for goodbye drinks so we made our way down to 1800 a lounge that we'd been to a few times. As it turns out quite a few people had bailed out of exhaustion and the looming day of traveling ahead. I stayed until about 12:30. Long enough for me to do a shot on my birthday and say goodbye. It was an adorable evening.

Today I learned:

• Sometimes it is necessary to drink a cup of coffee to trick your body that it is necessary to stay awake
• I don't really want to re-pack anything

I am grateful for:

• Multiple couches
• TV episodes on the internet

For these pictures I thought I'd include a few things that are different in Mexico:

Nails like this are all the rage in Mexico. As far as I can tell the bigger, brighter, and more bedazzled, the better!

I ordered fruit and yogurt with granola. I received this soupy bowl. It was tasty but somewhat disconcerting because in Canada if yogurt is runny it hasn't been kept cold. Here all the yogurt seems to be runny.

Look at the size of their pieces of gum! Outstanding. I think you still get the same amount as our longer pieces, they are just thicker.

Look at the size of that key! It was huge! It was for the exterior gate to my home.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

05/26/10

Traveling on your birthday sucks.

The day started early, very early, around 5am to be exact. I'd got to bed around 1am the night before so I put in a solid 4 hours and the previous night had got me about 2hrs of sleep. (That's the thing about this trip, there was so much going on at night and so many wonderful mandatory activities in the mornings that at one point I was about 10hrs of sleep in 4days). Needless to say getting out of bed was rough.

Showered, packed, and got a ride to the bus. We boarded the bus in Colima saying goodbye to the few who were staying behind and started the 3hr bus ride, and the entire traveling day. We left a little late and we had to detour because there was an accident on the main road, this left us practically running to catch the plane. We had stopped at the wrong terminal then we had to check bags (mine was 50.0 on the dot, amazing) etc.

It was a weird experience because security in Guadalajara seemed really easy but when we boarded the plane they searched everyones carry on and told us we couldn't bring our drinks we had purchased inside security. Weird.

I was lucky and got two seats to myself, which as far as I'm concerned is practically first class. Arriving in Houston our group had been separated onto two buses. We went through customs, well the group I was in was unaware that you could skip the line and go through because we were in transit, it wasn't the worst thing ever because I was in line with some good people, but it was an additional hour of waiting.

We sat down for a drink before we got on our next flight. Houston to Calgary was pretty average, there were two of us to three seats, we watched a bad chick flick (Leap Year) that I laughed through the entire time (I'm sure I was disturbing everyone around me, but it couldn't be helped). We were also served chicken and cheese burritos, which after a month in Mexico was not the most welcome plane food I'd ever had, although it was funny. We arrived in Calgary a little early, made our way through customs, met our respective families, and said our goodbyes.

The drive home wasn't bad, I made my Mom stop so I could buy a salad! Yes, green veggies - how I'd missed them.

Arriving home was nice, until I discovered that my beautiful coveted green painted ceramic fruit bowl was in pieces. It can be repaired and glued back together but its just not the same. I packed my entire two suitcases with it in mind but it just couldn't handle the hustle and bustle of the airport. Hopefully when glued together the cracks won't be that noticeable.

I got to sleep in my favourite bed, which is the most comfortable bed ever.

To summarize, traveling on your birthday sucks. In total I spent 4 hours sleeping and 20 hours traveling. It wasn't like it was a horrible day of traveling but it was a day of traveling and I don't think anyone likes that.

Today I learned:

• To pack better, or maybe I should just buy a hard suitcase instead
• Birthdays in airports don't feel like birthdays at all

I am grateful for:

• Wonderful friends, old and new
• Rainy days in May! My fave.