My dear readers, classes are over and I am far away already! I am working on a salmon farm on the remote north west coast of Vancouver Island. It's time to try to put aside some money so that my student loans next year at UBC will not be as enormous as they otherwise would be. This summer, other than working, I will be camping on the shore of Cowichan Lake with my cousins, and I'm going to try to get out to Squamish for a music festival (Bass Coast Project).
This last semestre's strike action has left me graduating with a sour taste in my mouth, but looking back over my blog, I am reminded that I did have many good times at VIU, and I should try to focus on these instead. I don't have much else to say to you now that school has ended except thank you for reading my blog over the last year and a half. According to Google analytics, my blog was visited 5007 times, from 66 different countries! That's pretty spectacular, and I think it says something positive about our institution.
I don't have a new blog to direct you to, but I'm sure I'll be starting a new one before to long. Until I am inspired (or paid) to write, so long, and thanks again!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Looking Forward
How is the post-strike depression treating everyone? I know I'm not the only one suffering from it. One of my classmates recently described it very well. With our short semestres, we are usually forced to build up a lot of momentum and energy to get everything done in the four months given; it's like rolling a boulder up a hill. With the strike-break, we've lost that momentum just before the peak, and now it's like we have to go from 0 to 60. All of that built up energy dissipated. This is basically how I've been feeling.
While working to wrap up my semestre here at VIU, I've also been planning my escape, so to speak. For the last five years I've kept a summer salmon farming job with Marine Harvest up in Quatsino Sound, and it looks like I'll be going back up there again. I actually leave for the farm next Thursday, so I've had to arrange with some professors who had intended to schedule classes on that day. I'm sure I'm not the worst off. There are students who had planned to start picking up shifts, or leave for work much earlier than me.
I'll be working pretty hard this summer, trying to earn as much of my UBC tuition as I can for the fall. My salmon farming job, plus living with my parents, has allowed me to stay off student loans all through my undergrad, but I'm going to have to go into debt when I move to Vancouver. So, I'll be bouncing between the farm, my parents place, and Vancouver all summer, and come August I'll have to find a new place to live. Haha, but i guess I should be focusing on the present. I still need those grades if I ever want to go to grad school.
While working to wrap up my semestre here at VIU, I've also been planning my escape, so to speak. For the last five years I've kept a summer salmon farming job with Marine Harvest up in Quatsino Sound, and it looks like I'll be going back up there again. I actually leave for the farm next Thursday, so I've had to arrange with some professors who had intended to schedule classes on that day. I'm sure I'm not the worst off. There are students who had planned to start picking up shifts, or leave for work much earlier than me.
I'll be working pretty hard this summer, trying to earn as much of my UBC tuition as I can for the fall. My salmon farming job, plus living with my parents, has allowed me to stay off student loans all through my undergrad, but I'm going to have to go into debt when I move to Vancouver. So, I'll be bouncing between the farm, my parents place, and Vancouver all summer, and come August I'll have to find a new place to live. Haha, but i guess I should be focusing on the present. I still need those grades if I ever want to go to grad school.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Semestre Abridged
During the strike my school-related anxiety metre reached boiling as the "contingency plans" roll out, and the administration's terrifying scare-tactic emails washed over me. It's only been a couple of days, but I think I've returned to my normal level of disquiet.
Since the strike ended over the weekend I've seen or exchanged emails with all of my profs, and the tendency seems to be toward flexibility, which is extremely helpful. I've gone from four exams to one, and most of my research paper deadlines (I still have four of them plus a poetry portfolio) have been pushed to the end of the month. Professors have been open to negotiating with their classes, adjusting dates to fit our work schedules, and collecting opinions on grade percent distribution.
Things are going well. Still, I hope next year's students don't have to go through the same thing, when the faculty's contract is up next Spring!
P.S. If anyone has been wondering why I so consistently spell the word "semester" incorrectly, it is a style choice. Call it a Canadianism, if you will. It looks better to me when it is congruent with "metre" and "theatre" etc.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Life After Strike
This has been a very stressful time for me, as I know it has been for a great many others, but many of us can have a great sigh of relief now that the month-long faculty strike is over. I was recently accepted into UBC's 12-month secondary education program, to begin in September, but my acceptance is conditional upon my graduating with my degree from VIU. If it had not been possible to salvage this semester I would have had to stay another full year at VIU to finish, and re-apply to UBC later.
As a student it's very difficult to chose a side when you are put in the middle of a labour dispute. We hear the most from our professors because they have the soapbox. Although the administration got better at communicating with students, their emails began very cryptically, and my professors claimed that the information they were giving us was false or out-dated.
It seems to me impossible for students to get a completely unbiased explanation of what has been going on over the last month, nay, further back a year or more. I'm ready to get back to work, and try to put all of this mess behind me. I hope our professors are ready to do the same.
As a student it's very difficult to chose a side when you are put in the middle of a labour dispute. We hear the most from our professors because they have the soapbox. Although the administration got better at communicating with students, their emails began very cryptically, and my professors claimed that the information they were giving us was false or out-dated.
It seems to me impossible for students to get a completely unbiased explanation of what has been going on over the last month, nay, further back a year or more. I'm ready to get back to work, and try to put all of this mess behind me. I hope our professors are ready to do the same.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Picket Line
Since Google Analytics tells me there has been a spike in traffic on my blog since our faculty went on strike, I am assuming that people want my opinion, but I feel like there's a picket line drawn across my blog in cyberspace. For now, I'll just say good night. I'm on hiatus until the strike is over, and I'll give you a full report at that time.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Surviving
Hey readers, I'm sorry I've been out of commission for a couple of weeks. Over the reading break I got a nasty flu and spent three days hovering around my bed with a fever. That turned into a chest cold, which I still have, and I've been working on trying to get healthy, but it seems as though this cough is here to stay! It's made it difficult for me to get motivated on my assignments.
I'm at that point in the semestre when I don't have anything immediate due, but I know I have four research papers, and a presentation due in two weeks, and then exams will be following that. It's a big dark cloud of late nights looming on the horizon!
On top of that are the graduation concerns, but I'm trying not to think about them too too much. I've my grad photo appointment this week, and I've got my applications done for my next wave of schooling. I guess I still need to get to the bookstore and order my paraphernalia. I feel like its a big grad class this year. Many of the students I've been with all the way through are graduating at the same time. At least there will be a lot of English students graduating. I think many them are going into Education like I am haha. But that's the joke, isn't it? Like what else are we supposed to do with an English degree?
A couple weeks ago my dad asked me what I would do if I won the lottery or otherwise became independently wealthy (I don't buy lottery tickets). I decided that I would forget about going into Education, and continue straight into an MFA program somewhere. Maybe do a few MFAs haha. I would dedicate my life to writing poetry. That's an artist's dream isn't it?
If you were independently wealthy what would you do? Maybe you have more luxurious dreams that continuing in academics like me.
I'm at that point in the semestre when I don't have anything immediate due, but I know I have four research papers, and a presentation due in two weeks, and then exams will be following that. It's a big dark cloud of late nights looming on the horizon!
On top of that are the graduation concerns, but I'm trying not to think about them too too much. I've my grad photo appointment this week, and I've got my applications done for my next wave of schooling. I guess I still need to get to the bookstore and order my paraphernalia. I feel like its a big grad class this year. Many of the students I've been with all the way through are graduating at the same time. At least there will be a lot of English students graduating. I think many them are going into Education like I am haha. But that's the joke, isn't it? Like what else are we supposed to do with an English degree?
A couple weeks ago my dad asked me what I would do if I won the lottery or otherwise became independently wealthy (I don't buy lottery tickets). I decided that I would forget about going into Education, and continue straight into an MFA program somewhere. Maybe do a few MFAs haha. I would dedicate my life to writing poetry. That's an artist's dream isn't it?
If you were independently wealthy what would you do? Maybe you have more luxurious dreams that continuing in academics like me.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Really Reading Break?
Today, after getting started on cleaning my aquarium, I am wondering: for how many students is this really a break? That's what we're calling it, right? "Reading Break"? On the VIU website, under "Important Dates", it's actually called "Study Days". That's what it's mostly going to be for me. As usual for this time of year, I have a pretty decent stack of books I should have read by now (see below). One of my profs was joking about all his students rushing off to the mountain after class to ski, but I doubt many of us really have the time!
Besides reading, I'm probably going to be doing a lot of knitting. My grandmother has been trying to pass on her skills (German style), and I've been working really hard to impress her. She seems to have a lot of faith in me, because she has me starting with a sweater! So this is what I'll be doing between chapters of Historical Fiction, and Literary Criticism, and writing poetry for my poetry workshop class.
If you're doing something besides catching up on readings, and researching your term papers, comment below, and let us know.
Besides reading, I'm probably going to be doing a lot of knitting. My grandmother has been trying to pass on her skills (German style), and I've been working really hard to impress her. She seems to have a lot of faith in me, because she has me starting with a sweater! So this is what I'll be doing between chapters of Historical Fiction, and Literary Criticism, and writing poetry for my poetry workshop class.
If you're doing something besides catching up on readings, and researching your term papers, comment below, and let us know.
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