in which I b*tch about sloppy writing

I admit that when I am editing my own papers or writing lecture notes that they often resemble chicken scratch, but if I'm writing something that someone else will have to read, I make a note to be less messy. Or at the very least, LEGIBLE.

I've come across this numerous times in my educational career, as I'm sure have most of you. I'm trying to edit my very last paper ever, and I cannot seem to identify my professor's comments. I can see the underlining and the question marks, but for the actual comments/criticizms, I have no idea what he is trying to say.

Has this happened to anyone else? Aside from asking them what they were trying to say, what have you all done to figure it out?

Goin' to the country

Just a quick update and annoncement. Today I made my last treck to campus to hand in a paper. It was a very strange feeling; walking through the halls knowing I wouldn't be there again.

Later on this evening I'm leaving for up north for a few days. A friend from school has a cottage about 2 hours north of here so we're heading up there tonight to unwind after a very long school year. The weather is promising to be rainy and crappy all week, but thats what board games and cards are for.

Have a good week everyone!

8 Things!

E over at The Perkster tagged me in her note on 8 things, and because I love filling out surveys, I figured - why not!?

8 Things I'm Looking Forward to:

1. Going to Ireland this summer
2. Going to NYC with one of my close friends in august
3. Going to the cottage with everyone in july
4. Seeing Romania with my dad
5. Visiting my grandparents
6. Final grades being released at school
7. Permanent warm weather
8. catching up on reading for pleasure

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. Went to my last class as an undergrad ever!
2. Had lunch with my best friend
3. Bought a lotto ticket (and did not win)
4. Watched Kris Allen win american idol
5. Caught up on gossip with said best friend
6. Repeatedly thought that men are stupid
7. Got caught in terrible traffic
8. Talked to my mom

8 Things I wish I could do:

1. Read minds, haha
2. Travel the world
3. play the piano
4. cook something other then frozen foods and scrambled eggs
5. Shop with an unlimited credit card (a girl can dream!)
6. Write a book
7. Be an expat right this minute
8. speak a bunch of languages fluently

8 Shows I watch:

1. Greys anatomy
2. Criminal Minds
3. Gossip Girl
4. CSI New York
5. Americas Next Top Model
6. Sex and the city (on dvd)
7. House
8. Friends (on dvd)

8 Tags:

1. Kym
2. Bluefish
3. Life Abroad
4. My Wooden Heart
5. Sassy McSasserson
6. Isabella
7. Sarah
8. Jo (even though I know you already did this)

Last Class

That's right everyone. Today is officially my last class of my undergraduate (B.A) career at University!

I still have to go back once next week and hand in a paper and finish one more by e-mail, and then it is all over. I'm still waiting to hear back from the Graduate Schools that I applied to, so after next week I'm stuck in educational limbo so to say.

These 4 years have simply flown by. I tried to remember who I was 4 years ago when I started university, and the truth is that I can't remember. I know I was a very different person, and had a very different path ahead of me at the time, but I cannot seem to remember what kind of person I was.

I'm lucky to still have the same group of friends that I did then, and a few new ones that I have added to the mixture.

I learned a lot about myself in these last 4 years, both professionally and personally. These have been some of the best and the worst years of my life, but I believe everything that has happened to me has made me the person I am today and has made me stronger. I suppose I'm feeling very nostalgic and a tad whistful today, trying to reflect but at the same time look towards the future.

Happy Victoria Day!

For myself and any fellow Canadian bloggers, today is a national holiday. Victoria Day.

Victoria Day, colloquially known as May Two-four, May Long, or May Run, is a Canadian holiday celebrated on the last Monday before or on 24 May, in honour of both Queen Victoria's birthday and the current reigning Canadian sovereign's official birthday. It has been marked since before Canada was formed, originally falling on the sovereign's actual birthday, and continues to be celebrated across the country on a fixed date and in various fashions, also being considered an informal mark of the beginning of the summer season. As a federal holiday, Victoria Day is a holiday for Quebec; however, the government of Quebec in 2003 made 24 May concurrently National Patriots' Day (Wikipedia).

May 2-4 is the unoffical start of the summer season here where people often go camping or go up north to open their cottages for the year. For those of us who opt to stay in the city/suburbs, it is an opportune time to get together with friends and have parties. This is exactly where I was saturday night. I had a couple close friends over and we played rock band for xbox until the wee hours of the morning.

Today I'm taking it easy and relaxing. I have a fantastic bread pudding recipe I may make later :)

Happy Victoria Day to any fellow Canadians out there who are also enjoying a stat holiday today!

I won I won!!

My first blog award! I'm so excited! Its still morning here, so that just totally made my day! Sarah over at YOSH gave me this award, its called The Awe-Sum Award!

The rules: List seven things that make me awe-summm and then pass the award on to seven other people who I think are fabulously awe-summm.

So here goes

1) I can do the splits. After 10 years of dancing, that has stuck with me. It's never come in handy really, but its a cool thing to announce to boys at parties haha.

2) I can put on mascara and curl or straighten my hair without the aid of a mirror. My friends all think this is awesome, and it allows me to watch TV at the same time

3) I drank home-made vodka in Poland

4) I know sign language

5) I taught my cat how to do tricks - its the cutest thing ever!

6) I can pick things up with my toes

7) I'm an only child and the only grand child on one side -so i get spoiled!


I'm supposed to pick 7 aw-summ people to pass this award on to, but I'm noticing that a lot of my favourite blogs already have this award! I'm going to give it out to 2 people for now, and save the other 5 for later :) My list of fabulous aw-summ people:

Life Abroad & Bluefish

The pleasures and perils of being a lefty

I couldn't resist the "Leftorium" picture..


I know I've been a little MIA this week with my blogging, both with my posts and with reading everyone elses' but I'm stuck in exams this week, so other then logging hours in the library and in front of my laptop, there hasn't been much else for me to do. Fear not, I write my last 2 exams tomorrow, so after that I promise I will catch up on all your blogs!

This leads me to the title of this post. I wrote my first exam yesterday. 3 hours and 9 pages SINGLE SPACED written. By the end my hand was cramping so badly my writing resembled that of a pre-schooler. I was also covered in ink. As a lefty, I've grown accustomed to the semi-premanent blue mark on the bottom of my hand. Yesterday seemed particularily bad for some reason, by the end my hand was covered in blue ink.

That got me thinking of the difference between right and left handed people. I remember as a kid growing up, there was really no one in my classes that was also left handed, so people used to stare at me in wonder going "how do you do that?"

My father is also a lefty and when he was younger, they used to tie his hand behind his back to force him to write right-handed (it never worked). I believe I've heard that in old myths people who were left handed were considered sinister and evil. Go figure.

The perils also include not being able to use proper scissors, can openers and baseball gloves

The pleasures...

I'll get back to you.

Being different I suppose, I always notice when someone is left handed, and I guess I tend to gravitate towards them. Five of my close friends are lefties as well, which is quite a number seeing as we're supposed to only make up a small percentage I believe.

I know there are some other fellow bloggers out there who are "sinister" so I'd love to know your opinions on this subject as well as all you right-handed bloggers and what you think.

Have a great week everyone!

The best kind of research, is trip research!

After what seems like months and months of only using my beloved laptop for school-oriented research, my mom gave a much more fun assignment this morning. I'm allowing myself today and half of tomorrow to do nothing before I have to start studying for exams.


This means I can devote some time to my favourite kind of research - Planning my trip to Dublin!

We're still trying to get the logistics down, such as how long we're staying and which hotel to choose, but its coming closer and closer, and I can't wait!

Today I'm researching restaurant choices and planning the itinerary. At most we're only spending 4 days in Dublin so I'm trying to squish everything the city has to offer into only a few hours. A few very jet agged hours no less. Seriously, wouldn't the world be a better place if jet-lag didn't exist? Especially flying from North America to Europe: the dreaded night flight when you arrive all dissoriented and then can't sleep properly for days.

I've heard of lots of "home remedies" for helping jet lag like drinking lots of water, doing yoga, staying up until the new time's bed-time etc etc, but I have to admit after 20-some years of flying transatlantic, NOTHING has ever helped me.

Do any of you have this problem as well on your travels? Or better yet, does anyone have any other home remedies that will work?

Multicultural Languages

I got the idea for the post from a mixture of a comment from Sara @ YOSH and a post by H @ Life Abroad

Sarah's comment (which I loved!) talked about typex/white-out. It made me think of certain words in the English speaking world that are different from region to region. That being one of them. I've always called the white stuff you put on pages to correct pen white-out, through Sarah I learned that in South Africa it is refered to as "typex".

Other words that come to mind are differences between Canadian, American and British English:

Appartment vs. Flat
Elevator vs. Lift
Pop vs. Soda
being in Grade 4 vs. Being in 4th Grade
Ball Point Pen (Pen) vs. Byro
Rubber Band vs. Elastic Band

Different spellings of words from region to region:

Colour vs. Color
Grey vs. Gray
Neighbour vs. Neighbor
Honour vs. Honour
Center vs. Centre
Check vs. Cheque

H's post at Life Abroad was about the Dutch word "Gezellig" which can mean a whole number of things, but yet has no exact English translation.

I didn't know the word in Dutch, but in German there is the word "Gemütlich " which I believe means the same thing as "Gezellig"

In today's world where so many people speak more than one language, I find it fascinating to see what words translate and what words have no translation.

Have any of you had these experiences with translation?

Also, for English speakers in other parts of the world, are there other words/terms that are different from region to region?