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.
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.
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