September 25th, 2011

So I forgot to mention but a few days ago, my floor did a tie dye event and the shirts came out really cool. We now wear them whenever we go out as a floor.

Anyways, yesterday Casey, Kevin and I went to the men's soccer game. Kevin actually plays on the team but he wasn't on the starting line up today so he had to watch from the stands, much to his aggravation. The girls played at 12 noon and the boys played at 2 p.m. They played decently well but lost 3-0. Oh well its just one game. After the game I went up and did laundry. It took like 3 hours so I had a lot of time to sit and study while I waited for them. Overall it wasn't a bad night.

So today I woke up and could barely breath because my sinuses were so clogged, being sick is no fun. I was supposed to go downtown with Kevin and Casey, good thing I cancelled because everything was closed. Sundays really are a bother sometimes. I walked to Subway on campus for lunch because I wanted a change from CJ's. I had a nice chat about customer horror stories with the girl. Other than that I pretty much spent the day studying. At 5 I had to get ready for the Bid Ceremony for the Delta Eta Iota sorority. I was really cool, I got to meet my "Big Sister", her name is Shanna and she's really nice. My first pledge class starts on Tuesday at 7 p.m. so I'm excited for that. Now its back to more studying, oh joy!

September 22nd, 2011

So today was a meeting for VESA which is a volunteering opportunity in third world countries. There are three trips to choose from, Ecuador, South Africa or Figi. You spend a week volunteering, so building schools and teaching English to students, etc. And the 2nd week is touring around. Its only $2000 for the two weeks (not including airfare) and it sounds like and amazing experience. Plus, there are a ton of fundraising opportunities that can cover or exceed the cost of the trip, which is excellent for a student on a budget. Me and my friend Alisha are looking into it because we both love to travel. They have several trip times throughout the summer and it sounds like a lot of fun. Essentially, if I could possibly fund-raise enough, I could go on all 3 trips as the money is due 45 days before you go, although Alisha and I are planning on doing 1 trip per summer. I'm super excited! They should be mailing me an information package (not sure if it's coming to me or to home, if it comes home I can pay for postage if it's expensive) and I shall let you all know what's happening. Also, since I have to buy my own ticket, I could go a few days early and get to see the sights on my own for a while (all on my own dime of course). The trip is not just for students either, so long as you are 18 years old before day of departure. If anyone reading this is interested (and its not only this year, they've been running this for several years now and probably will for several years to come) their website is www.vesabroad.com .
Aside from that, I'm just doing a lot of studying. Welcome to University right!

September 21st, 2011

Hello everybody!

It has been a while since I last posted because things have fallen into a routine and I doubt my ramblings about nothing are very interesting. Today, however, was unusual. Usually on Wednesdays I have no time for lunch. Classes start at 11 and run straight through until 3 but today my French teacher let us out of class early so I got an actual lunch!

Throughout the month there has been different evening information sessions for the residents of University Hall which offer free pizza if you attend (the greatest word to a university student is free). There was one tonight, I stayed for a while but it got pretty boring.

Also, my friend Kelsey and I have finalized our gym plans and we went tonight. I did 1/2 hour of cardio on the treadmill then an hour of weight training. Needless to say I'm pretty sore right now.

So I get back from the gym, hang out with some of the people on my floor and I get bored so I start sketching, and if you know me I'm not very good at drawing faces, well the face I drew kind of looks like Angelina Jolie with the big lips and protruding cheek bones. Its pretty cool actually. Well, just as I was finishing it off, a loud beeping goes off. And guess what! Its the fire alarm, and we're having a drill at 10:15 at night. Fun! I had to explain what was happening to Daniella, whose from Ecuador and doesn't understand English very much, that it was only a drill and that her passport would be safe in the building. So that has been enough excitement for one night, some of the residents are watching a movie (Country Strong) but I am definitely going to bed!

September 17th, 2011

So first thing this morning I went to Shoppers and got my percription, plus stoped at the bank machines to get some cash. The first Rex cabaret party is tonight at the Zoo (the campus bar) and its Kummoniwannalaya, a tiki themed event. Once I got back from Shoppers, Kelsey Graham and I went to the gym for a couple hours. Its very satisfying going to the gym and actually being able to work-out without feeling self-concious! Kelsey and I have decided that we're going modivate each other to go to the gym more often because we can both stand to get in shape. Life is so much easier when your healthy! Then it was just chilling, putting up some more pictures around my room, Kummoniwannalaya was good, it was pretty much a big dance party!

September 16th, 2011

Classes today were nothing special, until I got to Religious Studies. It turns out, my professor has and "accident" or something happen to his and now the right half of his face is paralyzed. The doctors don't know how long it will last, it's nothing serious the only difference is he now speaks with a slur, p's and f's are especially difficult for him. After classes though was my doctors appointment to see what's up with the rash or reaction or whatever that was under my arms. It has pretty much cleared up since then but I showed him pictures and he said with 98% certainty that it was a bacterial infection and some people are more prone to them than others. He gave me a perscription and said that the next time it happened I was to rub the medication on it, cover it in a thin layer of gauze then put my heated wheat bag over it and it should clear up in no time! After the appointment was the first meeting of the Musical Theatre Society! It is officially my favortie club!!!! Its like multi except with more guys! We start actual rehearsals next week. Todays meeting was getting to know everyone (and there's a lot of us) plus some theatre games. Our first performance is for charity event in mid-october and we're performing for kids so its Disney songs! Woot! I'm super excited!

September 15th, 2011

So today I woke up at 6 am and applied for residence housing next year (ya it's early but if you don't apply early you wont get a room). Classes were good, Telus is still being stupid so hopefully we can get it figured out soon! Tonight however, was the "Spa Night" with the sorority. I'm an official pledge and, according to them, we have a pretty good chance of becoming members. They'll be taking in 46 girls into their family so as long as we attend the events and are respectful, show that we'd be an asset to their sorority, then we should be okay. They have a BBQ tomorrow that I can't attend because of my doctor's appointment but they're going to the campus bar on monday for wings. Next week will the the official bidding ceremony where those "chosen" are presented to their "older sister" in the sorority. After a 30 day period of that, we become official members! I'm super excited! They all seem every nice and welcoming! I also made a new friend, a girl who I didn't know lived on my floor. Her name is Meagan and she's super sweet!

September 12th, 2011

So this week just isn't my week. My phone's being stupid, French screwed up my schedule, the Bookstore won't refund my French 1100 text, Rez Wars didn't go to well and now, the heat rash or whatever it is under my arms have flared up again so I just made an appointment for Friday to see the doctor. Hopefully things will get better. Overall though my classes have been fantastic which is a good sign. I've also signed up for the Musical Theater Club so I can get back to performing. Classes today went fine so nothing to report there. Although it is amazing what I'm learning in Religious Studies. I never knew that all three "Western Religions" i.e. Christianity, Judeism and Islam (Muslim) claim Abraham (Abram, Ibrahim) as the father of their religion. Christianity says he fathered them spiritually, Judeism was fathered through Isaac and Islam fathered through Ismail. I guess it is true, you learn something new everyday!

September 11th, 2011

I woke up this morning to raging cramps, oh joy. Plus the TV was blaring the football game on TSN (which tells you how late I woke up, like 11) once I got to the common room, TSN was having their moment of silence for those who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks ten years ago. Once football resumed it was pretty boring so Alicia and I went up to C4 and did our laundry. Thank goodness I brought my homework because it took like 2 hours. Once laundry was done I put them all away and started ironing my clothes. One of my room-mates friends, Anthony, came in, saw me ironing my shirts and asked, if he paid me a dollar, if I would iron his church shirt as well. So I've gotten my monies worth out of that iron already. Once my room was all tidy I vacuumed, and yes mom I dusted too. Then it was 5 p.m., time for the first Rez Wars event, the Tug-of-War!!! Everyone met in the common room and we dressed in orange and put orange face paint and hair gel and wrote on our arms! The whole nine yards. Our team unfortunately was eliminated in the first round, but we had a match with the white team and we beat them then. Then practically every on the floor went out to McDonalds for supper, those of us who couldn't afford it stayed here and scrounged for something to eat as all the places on our cards closed during the Rez Wars events. At 8:30 I went to Anderson Hall for the first Management Students Society meeting but by the time I got there it was finished already so the student in charge said she'd email me the details. For a Sunday I got everything pretty much done. Homework's all done until Wednesday at the earliest, laundry's done, room's clean. And it's only the first week!

September 10th, 2011

First Saturday of the new school year woot!!! So today I slept in until 11, well actually everyone on the entire floor slept in until 11 except like two people. Got up, had lunch, and proceeded to realize that my texting wasn't working. It turns out I'm out of minutes, how that happened I do not know as the lady at Telus before I left said the minutes would stay until September 31st. So I walked over to Shoppers and bought a new phone card. Now my phone is being stupid because it won't top up my unlimited texting option. Ugg, stupid Telus!!! Today was also the last day of Fresh Fest, the Fresh U Jamboree!!!!!!!! Featuring Ill Scarlet, USS and Small Town DJ's!!!!!! The music tonight was absolutely fantastic along with the showmanship of all the bands. Although my new favorite has got to be USS! Those two guys are absolutely amazing! I got stickers and other stuff from them. The crowd was typical concert drunkenness unfortunately, a lot of shoving but that's something that cannot be helped. I went back to the Dorm after USS because none of the other bands really interest me plus I'm super tired! When I got back though, I opened my door to find a USS sticker with my name signed on it. Now the mystery begins as no one else has also received one. Everyone on my floor knows I love USS so it stands to reason one of them picked up a sticker and slid it under my door (my room-mate's still at the concert), however, whose signature is it? I'm hoping it's USS but I sincerely doubt it as it would've been nearly impossible to find them, have them sign it, slide it under my door, and be gone before I got back. I'm betting its Alicia..... well I guess we'll see in the morning. I can fall asleep listening to the rest of the concert through my window...

September 9th, 2011

Today was my first actual day of classes, I mean, introductions were over and we got down to business. I managed a seat in French1500 for the day but the teacher, after class, upon asking if I understood every word she said, told me I probably wouldn't be staying in her class. BOO!!!!! Her's is the only class that fits into my schedule. So that class was easy. Then I went to Religious Studies and yes, it is officially my favorite class. Ten minutes after Religious Studies (in the First Choice Savings Center on the West end of campus) was my Advanced French Proficiency Test (on the East end of campus) on top of that, I forgot the room number, talk about a close call! Anyways the test was super easy!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully I can stay in the class I've registered in but if not oh well, at least I know I'm good in French! Last event of the day, and second event of Fresh Fest was the Lemon Party!!!!!! We dress in Yellow and head to the campus club "The Zoo"! It was so much fun!!! Me and my new girl friends like Kelsey, Alicia, Meagan and Veronica all partied it up. Now as I've said my room-mate is a party girl well she was home long before I was and out like a light in one of the other rooms on the floor, it was pretty funny! But I had so much fun at the Zoo, putting an end to the "belief" that you need to be drunk to have fun.

September 8th, 2011

So today was second day of classes and it wasn't quite as good as the first but it wasn't absolutely terrible. My first class was at 9:25 in the classroom farthest from me (ugg) but i made it there on time which was fantastic. It was geography which is a lot cooler than it sounds. One of the bigger units is weather which I'm super excited for. After Geography I go back to my room to charge my laptop only to find I have an email waiting for me from my French teacher. Professor Rosen emails me to tell me that she can't have me in her class because I'm too advanced for the materials. So I panic as all other seats in the higher levels are full. I even go to the Registrar's Office and not even they can help me. I reply to my prof about my predicament and she explains that the easiest way to prove I deserve to have them add a seat is to take the Advanced Placement Test, which takes two hours and I need to sign up for that with a different professor. So I email the next Professor and thank goodness because Professor Rosen already explained to her my predicament. So I start to calm down. The next email I read is from my dad telling me that one of my moms dearest friends past away last night from her cancer, my condolences if you knew Lil and are reading this, she will be greatly missed. This email making me feel bad about being so concerned over an extra test.
My second class of the day was Psychology. The teacher looks more like a Philosophy teacher than Psyc. He is tall with practically waist length dirty blonde hair and a big mustache and bristly beard. It was epic. He's super nice and really funny. I'm already starting to really enjoy Psyc. After Psyc was MicroEconomics and I could not for the life of me find the classroom. I walked up and down University Hall (which has the record for longest hall in North America) three times before I managed to find a sign point down this hall thing to the class. Needless to say I was slightly late, but I was not the last one so at least that's something. My Econ class is packed! There is not a single empty seat in the entire class, they even had to bring in extra seats to accommodate all the students. Econ is another class that seems good.
After all my classes were done, it was time for Fresh Fest!!!! Which is the biggest back to school bash at any University in Canada. Day One today was the Luau and Fresh Flix movie. The luau is a BBQ outside my dorms and there's free food and games, inflatable obstacle courses and a 100 ft. Slip & slide!!!! It was so much fun. Then at 8 p.m. was the Fresh Flix movie and they showed Bridesmaids, which wasn't too bad. I'm so pumped for Day Two of Fresh Fest tomorrow even though I'm going to be an hour late because of my Advanced Placement Test.

September 7th, 2011

Yesterday we had our last day of orientation. They had a booth fair up on the track in the gym where all the different clubs and people were set up and talking to us. Groups like Students Union, the Security Office, the Health Center, etc. That was neat, got a ton of free pens! After the booth fair, all new students went to their "Main Hall" (mine is Markham Hall) to have an orientation specific to their major. The Management Faculty got together and we had a guest speaker, then we did a scavenger hunt for information around the faculty. There was also a faculty/student soccer game. I also won a T-shirt and sweater, both with Faculty of Management on them. After that, Daryl (one of my fellow Rookie-campers and a student in the Faculty of Management) went to Safeway to pick up some fresh fruit and teas because my floor is planning a tea party in the coming weeks.
So today was first day of classes and it went really well. My first class was French 1100 and I had to take a placement test just to make sure I was in the right class (still don't have the results back but oh well) so I was in there for maybe 20 minutes. I was also supposed to have a French Lab class but since it was the first day all Labs were cancelled, which also cancelled out my Economics Lab, woohoo! Last class of the day was Religious Studies and so far that looks to be my favorite class, although it may be too early to tell. After supper, my room-mate, some friends and I all went to the gym to get in a work out. I jogged on the treadmill for an hour straight and it sounds lame but I'm pretty proud of myself. If my legs at least aren't in shape by the end of the year something is seriously wrong because there's something like 295 stairs from my rez to my religious studies and geography classes. And thats stairs alone, not steps. But that math is for another night!

September 5th, 2011

So yesterday I bought some groceries like cereal and milk which I had this morning. I'm on the meal plan here at the University but it's just easier and less expensive to eat breakfast here in the common area instead of buying breakfast at Timmies every day. So today was my first free day since getting here so I slept in and then bummed around Rez all day, looked for my classes, plus, for lunch, there was a $2 BBQ where we got a burger, a bag of chips and a pop. It was fantastic! Our floor now also has a new mascot! One of the girls found him at a garage sale. He's a penguin wearing orange glasses and an orange polka dot bow tie (Orange is the color of our floor) Now we're having a Big Bang-o-thon (watching all the Big Bang TV episodes). Everyone is supper cool and a ton of fun, we've known each other for a few days and are already acting like best friends. I love it!

September 4th, 2011

So I just got back from Rookie Camp which was amazing!!!! For any of you who are prospective students to the U of L, apply for Rookie Camp, you will not be disappointed. Anyways, we met at Tim Hortons early in the morning and drove the 2 hours to camp Impeesa. The Rockies down there are absolutely gorgeous! We had beautiful weather.
We split into groups and did different activities throughout the day. In our groups we also had to pick group names and thing up cheers. Since our group leader's name was Charlie and he was leading all girls we were "Charlie's Angels". It was pretty funny, when we were trying to decide we were coming up with names like "Dragonflies" of "Flower Power", then he said "Whatever you do, don't be Charlie's Angels" well, of course since he said it that's what we had to be.
Anyways, we did zip-linning across the lake then an obstacle course, archery (which I can now check off by bucket list plus I hit a bulls eye!) and canoeing. During our free time, the 25 of us campers went to the volley-ball court and had a mass game of volley ball. It was so much fun, especially since the international students, Lindsey and Daniella, had never played volley ball before. After was supper which was a wonderful lasagna. Then it was campfire!!!!!!
Before the fun began though, we had a talk from Tracker, the camp man from Impeesa, come and talk to us about the bears, Yogi (a Spirit Bear) and Boo Boo(a particularly michievious young black bear), and what to do if we come across bears while we're here. It was kind of scary but at the same time reassuring to know the difference between what we should and shouldn't do for each particular species of bear. Then is was all fun stuff, we played games and talked.
The stars are beautiful out away from civilization. It was well after midnight and close to freezing when we all went to bed. It was like sleeping on a plywood board! It was so bad, my arms are so sore. But overall it was one of the best camping trips of my life!

September 2nd, 2011

So today was day 2 of NSO (New Student Orientation), and it was okay. We got a wake-up call at 8 a.m. telling us to be up, fed and dressed by 9 to attend the second session of the orientation. They were giving out prizes and I won a U of L hat, which was pretty cool. We had "Interest Sessions" throughout the day, which were different lecture type things on different subjects pertaining to our University experience here at UL. I went to three: one on how the library can help with papers and what my profs are expecting of them, the second on different techniques to writing papers and the third on Liberal Education and how it's integrated into the Universities courses. They were all pretty informative. Plus, if you attended you got free lunch which, to a student on a slim food budget, it a blessing. Everything pretty much wrapped up at 4 p.m. At 5, my RA's (Resident Adviser's) got everyone on the floor together for a group meeting in order to outline rules and expectations. We also tossed around some ideas of group activities we could do as a floor. The most obvious that came up (since we are certainly not the sober floor [under 18's]) was to go to the pub. Anyways, after the meeting we went up to CJ's which is pretty much the cafeteria as a group as our first "group activity". The RA's are really nice. There's Amy and Collin. After supper, we pretty much just bummed around campus. Most of the kids on the floor (our floor color is orange so if I start referring to the floor as the orange team that's why) went for a liquor run and started a party (what a shocker!) but me and a few new friends got the DVD player working and had a movie night. We watched V for Vendetta. I've finished packing for Rookie Camp, thank goodness, because now I don't have to do it in the morning. I'd also like to wish my mother a Happy Birthday tomorrow and to tell her, my dad, my sibs and my dog that I love you all very much.

September 1st, 2011

Hello All!
Well I moved into Rez today. Line-up took forever, even though we had already checked in online. Found out that my key is worth like $75 so I better not lose it. All my stuff is unpacked and boxes are all broken down and it already kinda fees like home. Lethbridge is beautiful and I've already started to make new friends. My biggest concern upon arrival was my room-mate. She hadn't arrived when I moved in so my mother and I went for a late lunch, when we got back, the other bed was made and some stuff was laid out. So I said goodbye to my mom and went to Orientation, which was awesome. We played games and won prizes, met our mentors and had supper plus tours and surveys. After that there was a bonfire for all us first year students. I went and grabed a sweater to find that my room-mates stuff was even more unpacked. I chated with some new people at the bonfire but in the end my tiredness won out and I returned to my room. Finally I've met my room-mate. Her name is Amy and she's wonderful. I think we'll get along just fine. That's all for now, talk to you later!

August 31st, 2011

Well today was the big move. Six hours from Stony Plain to Lethbridge. The trip was pretty much uneventful. It rained most of the way down so I didn't get to see the Rockies but hopefully it'll clear up a little for tomorrow. We're staying at the Days Inn and its really nice. We also had supper at Montana's on the East side because we had to buy some last minute stuff for me such as laundry detergent and windex. Overall a long trip down but worth it.