The Calm before The Storm

After having written last Sunday, the remainder of the day was dedicated to solving a Microeconomics assignment and a brief break. On Sunday afternoon, Hiro, Zina, Youngmin (another of our cohort members) and I walked from our office out to Alumni Hall (another building on campus) and attended a performance of the University of Western Ontario's student symphony which featured its Concerto Competition winner, a talented pianist named Timothy. The concerto, Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No.2, was superb! The orchestra and pianist put on quite a virtuoso spectacle. It made the follicles on my freshly-shaven legs stand on end, and everyone threw themselves up into a roar of applause and a standing ovation at the closing bar. I was impressed. I was particularly impressed because where the concert was hosted was not at all impressive. Where at UVic such a concert would have been hosted at the University Auditorium, with a gigantic stage and scenic backdrop (an organ), this one was hosted in what seemed to be a huge gymnasium with a stage at the front. There were also rows of theatre-like seats kind of across the gymnasium floor from the stage (so the gym floor was sandwiched between the stage and the rows of theatre-like seats). The gym floor was covered with bright blue plastic - perhaps to prevent the chairs that had been set up there from scratching the gym floor. We sat in those chairs because they were closest to the orchestra and the piano. Then the background on the stage was also somewhat bizarre. It was a large number of greyish panels that were straight across the back and kind of curved into the stage at the sides. And from the ceiling of the stage hung different colors of cloths, like banners, in various widths of trapezoids. It was all very tacky and unappealing and nonsensical. To say the least, it was a strange juxtaposition to the classical and romantic music we were going to hear. Before the concert started I thought to myself that UWO puts emphasis on its sports, and so when it has to host an artistic performance, it just does so in its sports halls. This must be the case, but it doesn't mean its art is poor. The orchestra was in fact very good, and the pianist - he was great! The only thing I can critique was the last piece that the orchestra played. It was Brahms' fourth Symphony and perhaps quite a challenging piece for an orchestra that had likely only been preparing together a couple of months. The opening section of the first movement had some strange-sounding areas and I'm pretty sure the violins were a bit flat, but it got better as it went along and finished with a bang. Overall it was a perfect break from a heavy week (and weekend) of work.
The rest of the week went by calmly but with growing, bubbling nerves in our stomachs because this upcoming week has two midterms: "Economic Mathematics" and "Econometrics" (which is really Statistics and Mathematical Statistic Theory right now). The upcoming week was supposed to have three midterms but our Microeconomics professor told us that that if we all reached a consensus, we could have the midterm moved to one week later, and finally the consensus was reached. Phew!
I went to a beautiful concert on Wednesday evening, too. It was the "London Orchestra" concert that was held at St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral downtown. It was beautiful and the main reason I wanted to go was because the performance was to include Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23, possibly my favourite (I don't know them all yet...) but that piece was the weakest on the program... at least in my opinion. There was too much reverberation in the piano's notes (perhaps due to the pianist, perhaps due to the acoustics of the cathedral) and the second movement was played perhaps a hair too fast for my liking. Still it was a treat, and we got student-rate tickets. This time I went with Hiro, Peter, and we met Sunghoon there (more people from my program). We actually claimed a pew as the Economics pew (among the four of us). When we left that evening it was raining and the sky was a dark, cloudy pink, colour. It was very romantic and stunningly beautiful.
Thursday was a difficult day. Who knows why? Perhaps it was the full moon. Everyone was feeling down and out, and nerves were perhaps flying high. But it got better as the day went along... as it usually does. Also, scholarship applications are still due. I'm late on my SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) application now. I'm frustrated about these applications being mandatory, too, because there is just not enough time to put a reasonable amount of effort into them right now. Midterms and other dire tasks (such as (i) assignment completion and (ii) personal upkeep) take priority. I also have started having brief episodes of homesickness. London is very beautiful and for the most part people are nice, but customer service still appalls me with its lethargy, unnecessarily long waiting times, and the people's listlessness towards clients (and possibly towards life). I shouldn't be so all-encompassing with those statements. Some representatives have been sweet and energetic and helpful, but not many. Also, I miss Victoria's unique, full-of-character coffee shops, its authenticity. Oh! And lest I forget to mention the ocean's absence. I must admit, however, though, the river is equally tantalizing to me... if only it weren't kept at such a distance by the various and many traffic bridges that pass over it. There's really no way of safely being close enough to feel its energy. And of course I miss being close to everyone or anyone who is close to my heart. Don't get me wrong. My cohort here is wonderful and I am very grateful to be part of such a friendly and intelligent and altogether fantastic group, but all that does not entirely make up for being unmistakeably distant from those whom I love and the city that will always hold a precious place in my heart.
My next midterm (Math) is on Monday, so I have to go study for that now, but I hope you have enjoyed my brief and perhaps not all too informative but honest entry for another week.
Until next time...

Thanks to ye men who invented such technology as dishwashers, contraceptives, and especially laundry machines, all of which allowed us women to leave home, continue having empty wombs past twenty years of age, avoid scrubbing and wringing our hands' skin off, and most importantly: thank you for giving us the freedom and time to explore the depth of our minds' potentials...

This week has been somewhat of an oddity. Perhaps partially because Monday was off, perhaps because it falls approximately half-way through semester (so does the upcoming one), perhaps because the weather changed abruptly to the crisp chill one would expect of Autumn, or perhaps just because. Anyhow, this week has been tough, and not just for me alone - a lot of people in my program were feeling the same way. Alas! Perhaps long weekends are bad?!
So, let's see... not that much worth mentioning happened this week. I discovered that the hot-water dispenser near our office outside does not dispense free hot water. They charge us $1 (plus tax) for hot water, to which I gave the poor lady at cash a polite but disapproving lecture on how at my "old University we had hot water dispensers all over campus and it was always free..." to which she replied she felt everywhere charged for hot water and asked me where I was from. So I told her I was from Victoria and my old University was the University of Victoria. She was sweet enough but she still charged me for the hot water, which is appalling. Water should be a right and so should warmth. Our office in the basement of the Social Sciences Centre building is always very cold, and particularly in the afternoons. And somewhere on some contract we had to sign to get the office spaces we agreed not to bring kettles into the office. That's perhaps what should have been my first sign that that students get a lot of abuse here. But no, it didn't send off any warning signals. This weekend did. Not only do we have four assignments due every week (including this past week), and a week from tomorrow our week of 3 midterms begins, and it is mandatory to hand in Scholarship applications for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (due this past Friday - I'll get to that) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Scholarship (due this upcoming Friday), but this weekend was almost a complete homework-write-off -- thanks to my lovely University, UWO. On Friday I had to prepare materials for the undergraduate tutorials I teach, then I taught 3 tutorial sections in a row, 12:30-3:30pm. Finally, I had a brief break - during which time I went to the grad club and socialized for maybe an hour. At 6:30pm I had to start preparing for a proctoring/invigilating session I had from 7-9pm, which really lasted past 9pm because after the undergraduate students have finished their exams, the proctors have to collect them, do some counting jobs, and take them back up to the professors. The first twenty minutes of proctoring were eternal. All we do is sit there or walk around watching students to make sure they don't cheat, etc. Then we started the walkabouts checking student cards and collecting signatures, and it started slowly feeling less long from there onwards.
I finally got home to scarf down some leftovers for dinner at around 10pm. Then yesterday, Saturday, I had two more proctoring sessions. Each one takes up about 3 hours of your day. So there went 6 hours of my Saturday. Those sessions didn't feel as long as the first - thankfully - but the last session was a mess. The last session was for the "Principles of Micro" first year undergraduate students -- those are the ones I hold tutorials for. Of course I only hold tutorials for a very small subset of those students, and the ones I was proctoring for were a new mix, but the professor and whomever else was in charge of the organization did a very poor job. We were about eight exams too short, the professor noticed this and then disappeared. Then I started scrambling around other classrooms (after the time the students were supposed to have started) trying to find more exams. The poor undergraduate students were mostly being very patient and understanding of the situation, but what a disaster show for their first midterm as undergraduates at UWO. We found a couple more exams here and there - from other nearby classrooms that were also proctoring the same exam. But then we were still short a few exams and we were also short on Scan-Tron sheets (bubble sheets for filling in the multiple choice questions so they can be sent through a machine and marked automatically). Then, 9minutes past when we were supposed to begin, the professor comes in. By this time only one person was missing an actual exam (a real personality disorder type person, too). Plenty of people were still missing Scan-Trons though. The professor came in carrying a huge pile of newly-photocopied exams. But there were about 20 page 1's in a row followed by 20 page 2's etc. all the way to page 18 of the exam booklet. So we had to madly race through this giant pile of papers trying to collate the pages into one complete exam booklet for the one student. The professor told everyone they could begin, now 13 min. past the start time. I never though so much could go wrong in the first 13min. of a proctoring session. We ended up allowing the necessary students to write down the answers to their multiple choice questions on scrap paper while we still scrambled to find extra bubble sheets. Finally everything was sorted and we could relax and just sit and watch the undergraduates like what is supposed to be the bulk of our responsibilities. The guy who was the last to begin - the one I mentioned I thought had some sort of personality disorder - kept putting up his hand to ask me sassy questions. I forgot to mention he wore his dark, shady aviator sunglasses the whole time during the exam. First, when he was the only person without an exam he asked me, "Can I just leave now and get 70%?"
"No."
Later he was asking me about a multiple choice question and said, "Any of these answers could be true under the right circumstances," which was actually not correct according to the economic theory he had been taught. He went on into some examples and I couldn't really say anything because I couldn't tell him what was right or wrong, but I just told him that if he had a problem with the question he would have to take it up with the professor (who was not in the room at the time) later. Another while into the exam he goes, "Can I go have a smoke?"
"No."
He already wreaked of smoke. My goodness. He left the exam early, too. I feel bad for whomever is teaching his tutorial classes... if he ever shows up.
During that proctoring session I also had to escort one undergraduate student to the washroom. The poor guy had just started, and about twenty minutes in he put up his hand and was embarrassed to tell me so but said he really had to go. I was proctoring with one other graduate student (a girl in fourth year PhD Econ), so she stayed watching the other students while I left the room with the one student.
And that's about it.
Now today is going to be dedicated almost exclusively to getting all my assignments done. But oh let me tell you about another mishap that happened this week. It was Thursday evening and I thought I would do some laundry - the towels. I went to the laundry room on my floor but the better of the machines was being used so I went down one floor and chose a machine there, hoping it would be better than the vacant machine on my floor. Maybe there is one good machine per floor? After I'd put my coins in and started the machine, a lady comes by and says some of the machines haven't been working that well lately. I thought, oh well, mine seems to be fine. I came back the "26 minutes" later to discover the spin cycle was what wasn't working well on my machine. I had to spend over twenty minutes wringing out my water-absorbent towels, each weighing about an extra 10lbs in water. Not only that - I got totally soaked while I was doing so. I had dreamed about wrapping myself in warm towels coming out of the dryer before I'd started, but now that dream had turned into a damp nightmare of tiresome wringing and wringing and wringing... My hands started feeling raw from the repetitive motions and the overexposure to water. In the midst of frustration and fatigue, I learned to appreciate our mothers' mothers and all their mothers before, who must have had skin like leather and patience of a thousand Buddahs, who sacrificed -- or perhaps never even saw -- their personal potential, for the pure purpose of making and keeping their families and their families' families. And it made me so grateful for laundry machines. I would have never made it in that era. My arms are too weak and my patience too short.
There is a brief happy ending for me, though: After 25ish minutes of wringing and another 65min. of the dryer's work, I finally achieved the long sought dream of wrapping myself in warm towels, fresh out of the dryer... Mmmm...

Summer in October

The weather in London has completely changed since my last posting. Of course, after the day I bought my umbrella, the sun has come out and is smiling radiantly all day every day. The past three days have had highs above 23 degrees Celsius, which is essentially late-June weather in Victoria - on a good day! I've been walking around pleasantly warm in my t-shirts and sandals, whereas before that I was wearing my Victoria-winter coat. I should have brought out the shorts yesterday! Of course, though, I'm always afraid the weather will spite me if I make such a decision and the wind will start blowing and give me terrible goosebumps.
The scenery in London is becoming ever so beautiful, too. The trees have been changing to all shades of crimsons, scarlets, burnt oranges, lemon-cream-pie yellows, and everything in between! The other day it rained huge droplets - holding entire worlds within them - as I was walking home from school (of course my umbrella was at home). But it wasn't even cold, and the sun was shimmering through the clouds- getting ready to set itself to sleep for the evening, and there was a gigantic rainbow in the East, and it made me smile and sent my spirits so high, even though there was a midterm coming up in a couple of days... and my mascara was running down my face and sticking to my sunglasses. And every time it rains the river swells with joy and bubbles and accelerates and laughs gratefully - because (due to some dam issues related to the city's council decision) it is generally lower and slower than it likes to be. I think I forgot to tell you that the other day when I had just crossed over the river, I was walking well on the sidewalk and I almost stepped on a little frog! I then turned around to observe it and tried to make it jump by tickling it with a strand of weed, but it just budged lethargically. That was a bit of a disappointment because I was really hoping it would take a tremendous hop - my adrenaline was even starting to pick up - like those little origami frogs that leap when you press on their bums.
Alright, so here is the long and long overdue update...



So it was Tuesday night two weeks ago (almost to the day). We were at school in tutorials until around 7pm. We had finished all our assignments but during our 5-6pm tutorial we realized that the Math assignment we'd completed -- which was due the next day (Wednesday) at 10am -- was done improperly. Alas! So Zina invited me and Hiro (our friend who is also in the program and is from Japan) to her place to have some dinner and work on finishing the math assignment. We were quite productive and successful in finishing the corrected assignment within just a couple of hours. Then Hiro and I went to wait for the bus outside at around 9:45pm or so. It was dark out, and the busses don't come very often - maybe one every half hour around that time of night. Anyhow, we didn't miss the bus, but the bus missed us! We were waiting for about 10 minutes and then I guess the bus driver was excited that no one was on his bus so he was speeding home for the night and didn't even see us! We waved at him when he passed by (we were kind of just around a curve in the road so we only saw him when he was already speeding past us). Unbelievable. Seriously: more evidence that customer service in London is appallingly awful.
So Hiro and I walked back to the university and then he walked me home and caught his bus - good timing - back to his home. He was very gentlemanly and didn't even let me walk on the traffic side of the road the whole night... which I turned out to appreciate particularly when a car drove by and splashed us and he shielded me with his left side, and then another time we were on the other side of the road and he shielded me with his right side from another car splash. Thank goodness he was at least wearing a raincoat. It wasn't raining when we were walking home but it had been pouring earlier, hence the road puddles and the splashing. We were walking for over an hour, but the night was beautiful and the walk was refreshing.


At the end of that week I had to give a quiz to the undergraduate students I teach in my tutorials. Throughout the week I was becoming frustrated with students asking me all the time what would be on the tutorial quiz, which I had announced clearly and repeatedly the week before. It was obvious that a number of students weren't showing up to my tutorials and were still wanting to be able to be fully informed about the mandatory and graded quiz that was coming up. So after replying to one too many emails asking the same question, I posted an announcement on our "WebCT" website (where I can post notes, announcements, etc.; it works as a supplement to the classes). It read as follows:

This is the first and last quiz for which I have replied or will reply to emails asking about what will be covered for the upcoming quiz. I made these announcements in class last week and if you were not attentive or were absent, you will have to deal with the consequences of finding out from someone else.
My email has been bombarded with questions regarding quiz coverage, so I am posting here that the quiz will cover Chapter 2 and what we covered in tutorial last week. That includes topics such as PPF, productive/allocative efficiency, trade and specialization, opportunity costs, marginal cost, marginal benefit, normative vs. positive statements, factors leading to economic growth, etc.
Again, I repeat, this is the last time I will be doing such a favour to people who were inattentive or absent. It is your responsibility to make it to the tutorials and thus know what will be covered in the quizzes. No exceptions.
Thanks and see you all Friday.

(Note my fancy use of HTML in indenting that paragraph above).
Reading over that again I realize I may have been a little harsh. They are, after all, first year students for the most part, and have only been attending a post-secondary institution for a few weeks. Still, I do realize that I may come off as very lenient and kind and tolerant, because I am petite and female and smiley. I wanted to give at least a slight impression that I was no personal, assigned aid. I realize that for a lot of those no-show students, you give an centimeter and they'll take a kilometer (to speak in Canadian terms), so - as one of my friends in my program puts it - I'm starting to rule my tutorials "with an iron fist." Ha!


On Friday evening last week, a number of us went to the grad club again for drinks. A lot of people had a lot of homework to do, though, including studying for a midterm on Wednesday (5 days away at the time). I didn't drink - I only had a Coke. Somehow, though, I ended up staying late talking to the second year PhD students. In particular I was trying to get our Math Tutorial (taught by one of the 2nd year students) switched from Tuesday evenings to Thursday evenings because our math assignments are always due the morning after the evening of the math tutorial, and that is inconvenient - as you can probably tell from my story earlier in this same post.
Well as it turned out I was the last 1st year (PhD) left there. I told them I also had to go and get to my homework, but they talked me into staying longer and I hung out and ended up talking to Andrew for a while the first time for more than a few minutes. He is the only other person in the program who is from UVic and is in his 3rd year of PhD now. The students are all very friendly and entertaining to talk to.
Andrew is 26 and I'm 24, and one of the 2nd year students, Brandon, was only 22 (just turned 23 last weekend). He asked, "How come everyone in Victoria takes so long to finish undergrad? Is it really the drugs?"
Haha... that's our reputation apparently. And it's funny because - I'm not sure if I've told you this yet but forgive me if I'm repeating myself - anytime I smell weed around here I kind of smile being reminded of home. And even though I've never smoked weed in my life and I usually begrudge it when I'm home, but living in Ontario has emerged in me sincere BC pride, and that includes pride over our quality marijuana.


Last week's midterm increased tension because it was in Macroeconomics, which has the longest assignments of all and the professor has the reputation of writing midterms so long that there is not enough time to complete them. But I prepared for three days, went in with confidence, and at least completed the midterm. I haven't received the marks back yet but I think it went decently.
Then we have 4 days off this weekend. We didn't have to teach tutorials on Friday - which was a treat because preparing for tutorials always takes a significant amount of time. Thursday was a great treat because I went to watch Ballet Jörgen. My friend Alyssa whom I hadn't seen in over seven years and who now dances for the company got me a pair of complimentary tickets and so Zina and I went to see "An evening of Contemporary and Classical Works" at London's "Grand Theatre," which is a beautiful spectacle. The curtain matches the chairs and all are made of deep red, velvetty velour. And the walls are decorated with small fake candles with small lampshades. It might sound tacky but it was actually classy and warm. And the show was a delight! I actually knew four of the girls dancing in the company, and it made me reminisce of my past life as a dancer. Alyssa was wonderful! And I remembered our many times dancing together - we were often partnered together because we were always the shortest. All my other friends in the company were also a delight to watch. I was also glad to be able to watch the show and not long for my dance days. Yes it brought back sweet and great memories, but it also put my current life in perspective. I realized how different my life has become and how I'm happy with it, too... despite having to give up my past life of grand jetés and pirouettes and artistic expression set to music...
On Friday my friend Zina and I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at Zina's bachelor apartment. There were seven of us and a 9lb turkey, and apple sauce and cranberry sauce, and bread-pudding-like stuffing, and salad! It was delicious and very fun. Since then I've been working hard on homework and a proposal for a scholarship application due this Friday... and that's what I have to get back to now, so I hope you've enjoyed the current update and I hope I can write more soon.
Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving.

"We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch." ~John F. Kennedy

I'm sorry. I don't have time to update right now. I'm working on finishing a HUGE Macroeconomics assignment as well as a math assignment. And Macro midterm is this Thursday. I do have updates but they will have to wait! My apologies! It's been a topsy-turvy week: up and down and round and round and enough algebra that I fear it may be coming out my eyes and ears...
I will, however, add that the temperature in London has dropped comparably to the fall of the stock market around this time in '08. This past week was lovely and temperate, and even reaching about 21 degrees Celsius on a day or two. Then October 1 was this Friday. That was still alright weather-wise, but that night the temperature fell - almost as if the weather had had an afterthought, "Oh! It's October! Time to be cold!" And BAM! the atmosphere dropped to about 50% of it's original temperature. I went out and bought gloves today and an umbrella...