Jonathan @ Carleton

First month 2007

2007-10-06T18:44:00.000-05:00

Hello again everyone. I know I promised a post 3 weeks ago, 2 weeks ago, 1 week ago and everywhere in-between but that is all in the past now. If you really have to know a very subtle “I know it was promised to all of us about 3 weeks ago; but I can't see it !!!” from my dad is the thing that got me working on this post.

The Week of Nothing.

When we last left our hero he was at his new house in Ottawa. He found himself heroically accomplishing absolutely nothing for all his time before school started. Well all referring to myself as a hero aside, I really did absolutely nothing for the week leading up to school. Now you may ask me “Jon, surely you did something, don’t you have to eat or drink or breath?” Well you got me there but trust me, if I didn’t have to I probably wouldn’t have done those things either. It was really that bad, I ate wasted time and slept. Hmmm, I really don’t know what else to say about that week, oh I was going to get a job, and then decided working was overrated... Now I just need to figure out how to make money without working. Oh that’s right government! I knew I was in the right faculty.

School again School again lickety split

After the week of nothing had concluded it was time to head back to class. Walking back onto campus was like walking back into a dream (and on some days nightmare) from which summer vacation was only a brief awaking. With each step came a million memories of last year, and I quickly found myself back in the student mind set. It was good to see everyone from last year again, especially those people in my program who I had gotten to know well. I suppose I could re-cap each and every individual class I have experienced over the last month with painstaking detail, but not only would it put you all into a deep REM sleep, it would also be missing the point, which is how the classes have effected me. Overall I think I like class selection a bit more this year than I did last year. The most significant difference is the lack of Canadian history, which is an important subject, but also one I find extremely boring. I am currently enroled in 6 classes this semester they are: ECON, PHIL, PAPM, PSCI, LAW, COOP. Of course most of these shortened forms mean little or nothing to most of you, so let me go through each individually. ECON is economics, this year because I am in the development stream of my faculty I am studying Economic development. Overall I am really liking this class, the prof is good and the information we are learning is right down the ally of the job I will (hopefully) have one day. PHIL stands for philosophy, and the PHIL class I am currently enroled in is The History of Ethics. Right now we are reading Aristotle’s writings on ‘The good life’. As most of you are probably aware I love philosophy so this class is always a delight. PAPM stands for Public Affairs and Policy Management, which is basically political science. Right now we are studying ‘the policy cycle’. Not exactly riveting stuff, but I could think of many worse classes (grade 12 math!!!!). PSCI stands for political science. This particular class is called Empirical Research methods in political science. Again this isn’t riveting but could be much worse. LAW stands for law (didn’t see that coming did you?). The law class I am enroled in is public law and is in a large part review from my social 30 class, but I don’t mind because we have a cool professor (who is also a lawyer). Finally the last class I have is called COOP, which stands for Co-op surprisingly. This class is a pre-requisite to getting a co-op job. In this class we learn ‘work related skills’ (most specifically how to write a proper resume). So overall school is treating me alright, I just handing in my first assignment and did my first presentation this last Thursday, and they both went well.

6 guys + 1 house = good outcome????

Who would have thought it eh? My money was on the health inspectors breaking down the door some time in the second week after we all moved in. But we some how managed to keep the house clean, and it is starting to feel more and more like a home. I finished setting up my room and am happy with the results. Although we some times have trouble determining whose turn it is to do the dishes (the dish washer is still broken....) we are all getting along pretty well.

A Series of Protests

Yes as the crazed left wing hippy communist I am, I have found myself participating in a few protests over the last little while (mostly at the beginning of September).

9/11 Protest

Now I can hear the questions coming in just from the title ‘Why on earth would you protest 9/11?’. We’ll its hard to answer the question in few words but I will try. First of all it was not a protest ‘of’ 9/11 (ie. Saying something ridiculous like 9/11 never happened) it was a protest to re-investigate 9/11. My friend Karl introduced me to a number of interesting facts about 9/11 that seemed to question the traditional explanation of what happened. I can imagine the look on my dads face (the skeptic he is) as he is reading all of this, and in response, yes I do realize we shouldn’t believe everything we read and I don’t, but there were a lot of interesting and compelling arguments made against the conventional explanation of 9/11. Questions like ‘why did World Trade Center building #7 collapse?’ And ‘Why did NORAD fail?’ Are questions that I don’t believe are answered satisfactorily by the conventional explanation. I believe a re-investigation is critical because 9/11 was an event that justified a dramatic and aggressive shift in American Foreign Policy.

These Ideas and many others caused Karl and I to express ourselves in the way any good citizen would, through peaceful protest. On September 11 we took our signs and stood outside Parliament and the American Embassy where we handed out flyers and answered question from people. Unfortunately for use it rained, so our signs got wet and we got cold, but we still ran the protests from 9:30-3:00. The protests was originally designed as a two man protest (Karl and I) but a couple other guys who were looking for a 9/11 protest in Ottawa joined us for a bit. I feel the protest itself went well, though admittedly it would have gone better on a warmer and dryer day.

AIDS walk

The Annual Carleton AIDS walk happened again this year, and just like last year I walked and pledged money for this important cause. The turn out was not as good as last year due to a strike that happened on campus for the first few weeks of classes. Although the turn out could have been better, the weather was beautiful and the walk ended just in time for me to make it to my philosophy class.

Eco-Criminals

This was a small protest on parliament hill I got an email about and Karl and I decided to attend. Basically the premise of this protests was that Stephen Harper and his environmental minister were ‘Eco-Criminals’ and we were being deputized to ‘arrest’ them next time we saw them. We lined up and said the ‘eco deputy pledge’ and after a few speeches the protest was over. Overall it was a cute protest, and it gave Karl and I an excuse to be down town where we later bought our bikes.

New Bike

As I mentioned before Karl and I went bike shopping. We went to a place called ‘The Bike Dump’ where there were literally hundreds of used bikes to chose from. The store had a really cool feel to it and I found myself looking at some of the cheaper (and older) bikes. Although I didn’t intend to buy a bike, I found one that I really liked. I took for a test ride and I was sold. The bike was 70$, and I won’t waste any time explaining what it looks like, because that’s what the pictures are for.

The OCTOBER CHALLENGE!!!!

Well maybe that is a little over dramatic. My October challenge is to use my $70 bike as a replacement for a 65$ bus pass for the month of October. If I manage to do this without dyeing of a heart attack my bike will only have cost me 5$ (70$ bike - 65$ pass = 5$). So far (7 days in) its working out well. I’ve gotten to every class on time and have only had to have double bypass surgery twice (just kidding). Hopefully it doesn’t dump snow anytime soon, but if it does I can always buy bus tickets, which are way cheaper than a pass.

The Philosophical Dilemma
I am currently experiencing a dilemma on wether or not I want to stay in my program or switch into philosophy. I find myself more and more drawn to philosophy and less and less interested in the specifics I am learning in PAPM. This is not to say that I dislike PAPM, it is just to say that it is not something I would learn on my own time, unlike philosophy. The two main benefits PAPM has is that 1) it will provide a good job 2) it will allow me to impact an issue that I feel I have a moral obligation too (world poverty and human development). Despite these benefits I cannot deny my love for philosophy, and the immediate enjoyment I find in contemplation. But alas this problem has no simple resolution, and for fear of the repercussions I will probably stay in the program I am in.

Pictures

Room Pictures:

New Bike

Aids Walk

Eco-Criminals

9/11 Protest

Blog: Summer edition

2007-09-05T23:06:00.000-05:00

Well long time no text everyone. I’m sure some people may be unhappy about the fact that I haven’t updated my blog in over 300 melania, but look on the bright side, you have no doubt used the time you could have spent reading my blog doing something far more productive, like sleeping or twiddling your thumbs. Well since you have decided to spend your precious thumb twiddling time reading this I’ll do my best to make it worth your while. Here’s a condensed version of my summer that will shock, entertain, and distract you from whatever it is you should be doing for a short amount of time.

Summer Job:

Ah yes summer time, a time for fun, sun and... employment. Yes just as many other people young and old I spent much of my summer at a job. You may have noticed I have said ‘job’ and ‘employment’ but never ‘work’. This is no accident, my summer job was certainly not work by any extent of the imagination. The position utilized my honed skills of sitting, opening beer and taking money. What position requires these skills you may ask? Working in a kiosk at the golf corse in my town (Redwood Meadows). This ‘job’ required me to sit in a kiosk on hole 4 or 14 and serve the golfers beer or other refreshments. Of corse the beauty of this is that golfers only came by every ten minutes (because of the time it took to play the corse) and only every second group wanted something. This equates to 20 minutes of free time and then 1 minute of the backbreaking task of opening beer. Sufficed to say it was not the most trying position. On top of the simplicity of the 10 hour shifts I would work (and the 10 hours of pay that felt like robbery) I had a great boss and some great co-workers (even though I only saw them about 2 hours of the 10 hour work day).

Although it may seem like a dream job, the excessive amounts of ‘free’ time became taxing. After enough music and reading one becomes tired of being restricted to the same place 10 hours a day 5-6 days a week. This desire to actually do something with my summer led to the road trip Greer and I went on.

Road Trip:

For those of you who don’t know Greer is a friend I have had since I was 5, and as such almost feels more like a sister than a friend. About 3 weeks before this road trip Greer had jaw surgery to correct a chronic under bight. Due to this surgery, she was wearing a mouth cast the entire time we were on this trip (giving her a lisp that only cruel people like me could find hilarious). The idea of a road trip happened when I was visiting her after a long day of ‘work’. I mentioned I wanted to do something other than sit in a booth all day. Having to be in bed for quite some time after the surgery Greer understood where I was coming from and together we came up with the idea of a road trip. She knew of a really good camp spot that was 4 hours away and so I got off 3 days in a row and we head out on the road. It has been a while now since the trip so I don’t remember all the details, but the memories I do have are all good. We drove down through Longview and had some famous Longview beef jerky, after visiting the Longview Liquor store. We also drove through Frank Slide where I picked up a souvenir rock. After a couple more hundred kilometers we arrived at Kickaman lake (don’t know how to spell it but it sounds like kick-a-man). It was so incredibly hot out when we arrived (36 degrees celsius before humidity) we went straight to the water. The lake we were camping near was the ‘boating lake’ so the water was not very clear and there was a lot of drift wood but that didn’t stop my stinking-sweating-pasty-sunburnt body from diving in. Getting in that water made the entire trip worth while, I cant remember the last time I felt so refreshed. Greer assured me that there was a better lake a short drive up the road, so after setting up our tent we got back in the car and headed to the other lake. It was absolutely beautiful. Crystal clear water, surrounded by sand and forest. That evening there were a good number of families and other groups enjoying that same beautiful spot. We headed back to the campsite and had dinner and a few drinks before passing out and going to sleep. The next day we packed up the campsite and enjoyed a picnic lunch at the lake. The lake was even more beautiful in the morning when there was no one there. Floating on a air mattress in the lake I saw a loon in the water followed by a dear on the shore. Eventually we had to pack up and head back to the car to make it home in good time. We stopped at a Tim’s on the way back where by some incredible luck we ran into Greer’s friend from Scotland who she was planing to meet the next week. After a ‘short’ chat (I would hate to see a long chat...) we headed back on the road, stopping along the way to cool off in the rivers. This trip was most certainly a highlight of my summer.

The next several months past in what seemed like a never ending routine. This routine was defined by the triad of eating, going to work, and sleeping. Although this may seem like a recipe for insanity, my routine was fortunately interrupted by my friends, and the occasional out of house adventure.

This exiting chapter of my summer was ended when I headed east with my family. For those of you who don’t know, my family always heads out east to visit our extended family. This year was a bit different than most. The first difference was that the kids weren’t heading home with the parents. I stayed in Ottawa and my sister took a train ride across Canada with my Grandmother. The second big difference was that we scheduled our trip so we could go to my cousins wedding. This was a big deal because I have never been to a wedding and because it was my first cousin to get married.

The Trip Out East:

We began our trip out east as many begin trips of great distances, with a single step. The difference between us and about 100 other people is that step led us into the ‘executive’ line, where the checked-in took less than 2 minutes. After a ‘short’ plane trip we arrived in Montreal where we continued to exercise dads old company benefit by checking into the Hilton. We had some R and R by the pool and then went to visit my Grandmother Gill. After a nice visit we heading back to the Hilton to rest up and prepare for the days to come. Future events in Montreal included going to Ambers wedding, visiting the La Ronde Theme park, and chilling with the rest of the family.

The Wedding:

My cousin Ambers wedding was certainly one of the highlights of my summer. Not only was this the first wedding I have ever been to, but this is also the first Jewish Wedding I have ever been to. Now I don’t know what normal weddings are like but I can only assume they are less festive than Amber’s wedding was. Although the meet and greet and the ceremony were fairly low key, the dinner and dancing after were crazier than any party I have ever been to. Regardless of the amount of Alcohol consumed this is the first time I have witnessed people running around in circles, tossing people around on chairs, and throwing people into the air. It was like a mosh pit on steroids, needless to say a lot of fun. If the dancing wasn’t enough there was also the food, 4 large corse servings that even I had a hard time finishing (If you know me you know that’s a lot of food.) By the time I got the last fork full of the last corse down, I swore to myself I would never eat again. Shortly after I mad this vow to never eat again, a fake wall on one side of the auditorium parted to reveal a full desert table complete with cake, truffles and a chocolate fondue fountain. Despite the fact that it hurt to move, I managed to make it over to sample a bit of everything. After the food was done I hardly felt like partaking in the open bar, but that certainly didn’t stop my cousins or my uncle. I don’t think the grooms family will ever make the mistake of having an open bar around the Gill boys again. By the time my family left, to my count Trevor (my cousin) had finished his 8th Heineken and was starting whisky shots at the bar.

La Ronde:

The day after Ambers wedding we planed to go to the six flags theme park La Ronde. After some breakfast Alison (my sister) met up with her friend from Calgary, Cam, who was coincidently in Montreal the same time we were. We then drove to the Trevor and Ryan’s family and relaxed with them for awhile. We then convinced a very hung over Trevor to accompany us to La Ronde. We were really lucky with the weather because it was overcast in the morning, but cleared up in the afternoon. This meant that no one went to La Ronde and so we could just walk on to all the rides. I could go on for pages about how each ride was, but I’ll spare the detail. The one thing all the rides had in common were enjoyment and that they were followed by the moans of a hung over Trevor. We rode all the rides we wanted to, and many we rode more than once. Overall it was a great time.

For the following days we continued to visit our Gill relatives include Mary Rose and Lilly’s family. When we finished our long goodbyes we hit the road to North Bay and my Grandmother Jane’s Cottage.

The Cottage:

Every year when my family goes east we always stop at my Grandmas cottage in North Bay. There are many years when my Dad, his two brothers and their respected families all invade at the same time. Unfortunately that was not the case this time. This time only my family and my uncle John’s family (minus Joel) visited. We spent a lot of time in or on the water. One night when there was a meteor shower we rowed out into the middle of the lake to watch the night sky. I have never seen the stars in such a pronounced way before. It was really good to see the other Courtney’s again and in what felt like an instant our several days at the cottage had run out. My parents drove my Grandmother and my sister to the train station in North Bay to catch a train all the way to Vancouver. My Grandmother has always wanted to do this, and she invited my sister along for the ride. I’ve talked to them both about their trip and they both agree it was a great experience. After my parents dropped off my sister they came and had dinner with Uncle John’s family and me. A delicious meal and some long goodbyes later, we hit the road to Ottawa.

Ottawa:

After a long and scenic drive of Ontario (Rocks and trees and trees and rocks...) we arrived at my mothers friend MiMi’s house. As always MiMi was in an upbeat mood and was there to greet us and help us with our luggage. After showing me to my room, Mimi brought my folks down stairs to their room. My mom quickly noticed that the room they were staying in was usually MiMi’s room. “Where are you sleeping?” My mom asked. Mimi only responed “Don’t worry about it.” MiMi often houses students from other countries studying in Ottawa, and at this time she had two guys, one from Korea and the other from Kazakstan. We found out later that because her billets were taking up the other rooms, MiMi slept on the sofa and let my parents have her bed. She is one heck of a lady.

The next few days were dominated by buying things for me and my new house. We dropped by the house the day after we arrived in Ottawa. I met up with Rafik at the house and my parents toured the residence that I will be spending the next (at least) 8 months in. My mom stayed behind to clean the basement while dad and I went to find the most important article in any bed room, the bed. For those of you who know me well, you know I love to sleep so I had considerable invested interest in finding a comfortable bed. We found a great queen sized bed at a good price and tied it and the bed set to the top of our van and headed back to the house. The rest of the day was spent buying and setting up a desk a chair and all the cleaning products that are very necessary when you have a house of 6 guys. That night my parents went back to Mimi’s to sleep and I slept at my house for the very first time. The next day we bought food and a number of other things we needed. After a long goodbye and a few “mommy mommy mommy”s my parents headed out to Montreal to fly home.

The Stop the SPP Rally:

Shortly after I finished setting up house in Ottawa a friend of mine, Karl told me about a protest he wanted to go to. The protest was held to raise awareness and demonstrate our disapproval of the SPP. For those of you who don’t know what it is, the SPP is the Security and Prosperity Partnership, an attempt to bring further economic and security unity between America, Canada and Mexico. The SPP talks occurred between the presidents and prime minister of the three countries and also a select group of cooperate representatives from big businesses. The discussion would take place at Montebello Quebec, behind closed doors with no video or audio recording of what was happening. People who took part in the protests represented interests from environmentalists to aboriginal rights activists to trade union executives. I am personally apposed to the SPP for many reasons, the main one is that increased North American unity would mean that Canadian troops would be used for Americas War on Terror (continuing the trend Afghanistan has started). Another reason I appose the SPP is that increased Economic unity usually disproportionally benefits the rich and would put more economic and therefore political power in the hands of a smaller elite. But that is enough about my crazy communist beliefs, if you want to know more about the protests and the SPP please check out http://www.stopspp.ca/stopspp/index.php

All right, well that brings you guys more or less up to speed. Hopefully I will have another post up in a couple weeks to talk about my first weeks of year two. Until next time, keep on rocking in the free world.

Pictures:

Stop The SPP Protest:

Speech's starting up on the hill

KKKAAARRRRLLLLLL

moving from parliament to the street

Ambers Wedding:

MAZEL TOV!!!!!!!!!!!

Grandma Gill and the father of the bride

awwwwww

Road Trip:

On the road again...

Lunch

yes jerky!

Frank Slide

Thats one fine looking souvenir

Campsite

ah refreshing!

Greer is not feeling very photogenic
(perhaps its the face cast?)

Glorious!

You think you have a big truck?

Cooling off on the way home.

First house meal:

February 7th

2007-02-13T00:05:00.000-05:00

Hey guys sorry this took so long to post, things have been crazy with exams and such.

For those of you who haven’t been keeping track, February the 7^th was the National Day of Action for the Reduction of Tuition Fee’s. The rally was amazing, but before I tell you about it I want to drop a few lines to explain why I participated. Obviously as a student I am the direct beneficiary of a reduction tuition fees, but this is not the only reason I participated. I believe fundamentally that education, especially higher education is the best investment anyone can make in the future of a nation, if Canada wants to stay completive in the rapidly globalizing market we need to specialize, and to do that training and higher education is necessary. Education, especially post-secondary education represents the perpetuation and advancement of everything extraordinary about society, whether it is in the arts or the sciences. It is not for my own selfish reasons that I was exited to protest on February the 7^th, it was because I knew that by participating I was encouraging a focus on education and that can only lead to a better future for all Canadians.

Anyway now that I have ranted I guess I can talk to you guys about the event of the day. The day started off with a 7 am information petition at the entrance of Carleton (which I was 2 hours late for). Then we set up in the Atrium to rally Carleton students. After that we got on busses to go to Ottawa University. When we got there we had another rally outside (brrrr) with a bunch of speakers. Full of energy we left the Ottawa U campus and started our march to Parliament. The march was a lot of fun, the cops shut down several streets for us to walk to parliament (2000-3000 students marching). Once we reached the parliament buildings we all gathered into the court yard where there bleachers and a sound system set up. A number of different people talked including my man Jack Layton (NDP Leader) and Mike Savage (the guy I have a ‘dinner date’ with). Overall the event was full of energy and tons of fun, this is why I came to Ottawa; nothing beats a showing of political interest and activism.

There is Nothing much else going on in my life right now, I have 3 more midterms in 3 days and then I am going home, and I cant wait.

Pictures:

Rally at Carleton

Jason and I on the bus (handsom devils)

Rally at Ottawa University

Marching out of Ottawa University

Grannies United Protest Group on the march!

Is it cold enough for you?

On the Hill:

Video's of protest:

I took so videos at the protest with my camera and posted them on YouTube.

You can see them in the following links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbtZhY3ARJU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frKpAJnH0A8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KetebhrJ54A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO7Wir_w75I

Almost Feb 7th!!!!

2007-02-06T18:06:00.000-05:00

The day before, and I am pumped, check out this flip flopping politician who is responsible for tuition fees going up:

http://www.reducetuitionfees.ca/en/ontario/on_main_en

Toilet Brutality!

2007-01-31T23:36:00.000-05:00

Not too much has happened over the last few days, but I will post what has happened to give you guys an update.

Friday Night:

Friday January the 26^th our floor had a party. It was an optional dress up party based on the theme of tennis and golf players. So the day of Robbie Karl and I all went to Value Village to get items for our costumes and shop for other items as well. I ended up buying 4 shirts, a 2$ golf club and a florescent orange bandana(GO NDP!). Anyway after all of that we eventually arrived back at residence ate and then got ready for the party. The party was a lot of fun, most people got dressed up and there may or may not have been drinking involved.

Broken Toilet

Although Friday night was a lot of fun, it unfortunately resulted in our toilet being horribly beaten. Some one who will not be named (who I don’t know personally) was angry (and drunk) and repeatedly kicked the toilet until he broke a watermein. This obviously put our toilet out of order, and also got a good deal of water on our washroom floor. I was asleep at this point, but fortunately Erik (shares a bathroom with us) got a plumber to come up and take a look at it. The plumber disconnected the toilet, turned off the water and turned it upside down. I was fairly distraught the next morning when I had to use the toilet to find it upside down on the bathroom floor.

Feb 7^th

So I am pumped for February the 7^th. It is the national day of action for the reduction of tuition fees. I am participating to not only save myself money and promote my political beliefs but also to stand against dirty politics. Basically McGuinty campaigned with the promise that he would reduce tuition fees and now he is raising them. There is nothing I like better than getting together with 6, 000 of my closest friends and sticking it to the man.

Anyway that’s all for now, until next post; stop needless toilet brutality, porcelains are people too!

Pictures:

Friday Night:

Tennis Robbie

Golf (drunk?) Me and Rafik

Tennis and Golf good times

Toliet:

OH.......

THE BRUTALITY!!!!

re-united at last! (you dont know what you've got 'till its gone)

Feb 7th:

Building Momentum

lucky number seven

Back in O Town

2007-01-20T17:26:00.000-05:00

Well it’s been a long while since I have posted anything substantial, but a lot has happened over the last few weeks, so I should be able to give you guys something more than a few paragraphs. I guess I’ll talk a little about my vacation back home and then focus on how I’m adjusting to University life again.

The Holidays:

A lot happened this Christmas vacation back in Calgary, and as with most other events in my life, I have forgotten the vast majority of it. The good news is that what I do remember is good.

Arriving in the Calgary airport was a bit of shock for me, not because of the dryness (though that did cause noise bleeds down the road) but due to the greeting I received… or lack there of. I don’t really know why but for some reason I expected to walk through the security gates and be greeted by everyone I have ever known waiting for me with streamers noise makers and a 4 persona band. Alas such was not the case, and although there were people waiting by the security gates, none of them were people I knew so I walked over to the escalator. ‘Of course’ I thought to myself ‘they all waited at the bottom of the escalator to avoid the crowd by the security gates.’ In anticipation I reached the bottom of the escalator to be greeted by… more people who I didn’t know. I headed over to the luggage pick up area and on the way who did I run into? My dad casually walking through the entrance to the airport. Unfortunately he didn’t have any streamers, but he did keep the car warm while I got my bag.

I may have not received the kings welcome I was delusional to expect, but I did get treated like a king when I got home. It turns out that my mom had stored up all the affection from the other four months of the year that I was gone, and decided to give it all to me while I was home for vacation. Needless to say after 2 weeks of that much affection I am still feeling good about myself.

Aside from being spoiled the whole time not all that much happened during the winter vacation. The day after I got back I went to my old school and received a… more than warm greeting from my friends from high school. That day I also had pancakes with Karen, Nichole and Libby, more people who I knew from high school (Karen is also in University and was also visiting the school.). Later that day I went to Stuart and Fraser’s house to relax and catch up on some much needed video game time.

On the 23^rd of December the family packed up and headed out to Sunshine for skiing. After my first day of less than rigorous skiing I had a good time relaxing in the lounge and having a dinner with the Kinnear’s, other Courtney’s (who were also staying at Sunshine for 3 days) and my family. The days of the 24^th and 25^th were vary similar to the 23^rd, they involved skiing, relaxing, eating some more, relaxing, eating, reading, relaxing, and then if I wasn’t too tired from all that, a little more skiing at the end.

After a difficult day on the ski hill we went home to open presents (where I received a lot off good loot) and then to the other Courtney’s house to enjoy Christmas dinner. It was here that I was introduced to the greatest video game of all time, Guitar Hero 2. For those of you that have never heard of it before, Guitar Hero 2 involves a special remote in the shape of a guitar that has a series of button on the ‘neck’ of the guitar and a button that lets you ‘strum’ on the bottom. In the game you hit these buttons in the order appearing on the screen to play the music of many different well known songs. Sufficed to say it was a really good time. Or at least it was a good time until I became very feverish and delusional at the end of the night (caused by a cold not by the game) and so I soon returned home to sleep for 15 hours.

The days between Christmas and New Years were filled with… well not that much. Most days were filled with relaxing, watching movies and catching up on the video games I left behind. When I wasn’t relaxing my time away I was usually out visiting my friends in Calgary. I didn’t get to see everyone but I did get to see Shannon, Rachel, Lewis, Kellan, Stephen, Ricky and the Kinnear’s (several times). It was really good to see everyone again; there really is no substitution for talking to people face to face.

On New Years my family went to the other Courtney’s for desert and fireworks (the fireworks were done by the Community association). For the New Years Eve party I went to Lewis’s house. It was a really good time, most of which is obscured in my memory by Crown Royal Whisky. I remember sharing more than one laugh with a bunch of people and opening Champaign when New Years finally rolled around. Eventually I found myself asleep under a pool table. All in all it was a great way to start 2007.

Due to its slow start Jan 1^st was more or less a write off to packing my bags and recovering from the night before. On Jan 2^nd I got up bright and early to ride the plane back to Ottawa. After some minor delays and a change in flights I made it safe and sound back to my residence room by 5 pm. My first cafeteria meal reminded me that a home cooked meal is a rare and beautiful thing.

After the first day back, days began to blur and I quickly lost all sense of time. Since I can’t remember on what day’s events happened I will simply list the events in attempted chronological order.

The New Years Resolution

Overall my new year’s resolution was a downward spiral (I am sure this comes as a surprise to most people who know me).

I started off really good but as I put more and more on my plate I was not able to change my old bad habits enough to reach my new expectations. I was able to go to the gym, but only 3 times a week, not 4 like I wanted. I haven’t been able to type out all my readings, and I have fallen behind 1 class in my history and PAPM readings. I originally wanted to be totally free of video games, but I allowed myself to participate in social video games, that is video games were I am playing with other people in the real world. All in all I was able to do more thus far this year (with involvement in model UN, application to be a Residence Fellow and increased academic productivity) but I fell short of the original target I set for myself.

Class in the New Year

Three of my classes are continuing from last semester, but I have new professors and material for each of my classes. My two new classes are Environmental Ethics and the Study of Development; both of these classes are really awesome. I am also in post-confederation Canadian history, Macro Economics and Intro to Public Affairs and Policy Management. Its tough to summarize the content of each class, but you know what they say, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” So I’ll be moving on.

Piano Purchase

Christmas comes late for Jon this year; I spent some of my money that I got for Christmas from a number of people on a musical keyboard. Many of you are no doubt wondering ‘why would you spend 100$ on a key board if you don’t know how to play one?’ Well that’s a good question. Firstly it was a good deal (the normal one goes for over 150$) and I have always wanted to know how to play piano, and I figured owning keyboard would be a good start. How am I going to get this home? What am I going to do with it in the summer? Who knows, I guess I’ll figure it out later.

Residence Fellow Application

Recently a great deal of my time and energy has been directed toward applying to be a residence fellow. In order to become a residence fellow you have to get 2 references and submit a resume as well as writing an essay. I actually managed to finish everything that was required which included getting hand written recommendations from Mr. Anderson and Ms. Boers (high school teachers in Calgary). All in all I am fairly proud of myself for completing the application, even if I don’t make it past the paper cut I will be happy. If I do make it past the paper cut I will be participating in an Evaluation Day where I will be testing my compatibility with others. Anyway there is no need to worry about these things until they come up, but I will do my best to keep u guys posted.

If you want to know more about what a Residence Fellow is check out: http://www.carleton.ca/housing/reslife/apply.html

Model UN

Model UN was something I always wanted to get involved in during high school, but I was not able to because it conflicted with band. I attended a small discussion on the form of the model UN and on Saturday I participated in my first model UN as the representative from Rwanda. For those of you who don’t know what model UN is, it is basically a student run model of what the real UN does. Many students get together representing countries that are in the UN and debate a topic with the overall goal to create a resolution on the topic being discussed. The Model UN I went to was an in house which means that only Carleton students can attended and it was only one day long (the main model UN meetings last 3-5 days). The in house topic focused on poverty reduction, and I helped to draft a resolution that eventually passed. All in all it was a great learning experience and hopefully I will be able to participate in a full blown Model UN in the future.

Philosophy Lecture

Not to long ago a friend of mine named Karl told me about a philosophy lecture that was going to be happening at Ottawa U. So Karl and I both got on the O train and went to Ottawa U for the lecture. When moving through the campus to get to the lecture hall I was fascinated by the amount of French written in the titles of posters and the amount of French being spoken around me. I never realized how English dominated Carleton was until I experienced the amount of French that existed in Ottawa U. I am sure many people at Carleton know French but they don’t speak it primarily. The book that the professor had written is in French, but fortunately for me this particular presentation was in English. The Professor spoke of many interesting topics many of which I have already read/thought about before. The lecture was advertised by promising to explain why “the body does not exist”. At the beginning of his lecture the Prof. said that he was not going to explain the entirety of his argument (due to time restraints) but instead he was going to present many ideas that would stimulate minds to pursue the answer further. He presented many arguments about how the senses only represent a fraction of what is in ‘reality’. He did this very interactively and at one point he used strobe lights to make a rotating fan appear to be standing still and then rotate in the opposite direct. I felt I understood everything he was saying except for the last several minutes of the lecture where he presented many concepts I had not herd of before and I could not fully understand. The lecture itself was very interesting but the best part of it was that we were given the opportunity to sign up for discussion groups. I signed up for one and I hope I will be able to interact with other people interested about these sorts of things.

SNOW!!!!!

Finally after months of brown with the occasional snow drift it finally snowed!!! We defiantly took advantage of the first snow fall by not only playing in the snow but going on an adventure into the snow filled park across the canal (Courtney, Bronwyn, Kayla, Sloan and I were the voyagers). I defiantly felt like a kid again rolling around in the snow, and just having snow on the ground has improved my mood!

Anyway that’s more or less what has happened over the last while. I’ll do my best to keep you all updated to the events in my life, and hopefully update more often.

Pictures:

Friday night is party night:

party in the halls

Rafik and Jason in good 'spirts'

Super Smash Bros. in the common room!

Risk: the greatest game ever made

Model UN:

Model UN Carleton in house

Rwanda? Who me?

Voting for the resolution I helped to draft (the resolution passed)

There is no such thing as a free lunch, unless your in the UN.

Winter Fun Times:

Snow ball fight!!!!

Miles... er feet away from civilization

Bronwen stuck in a tree

Getting back to nature.

Piano:

My vary own keyboard

Underage Drinking, An Age Old Problem

2006-12-14T18:44:00.000-05:00

My Father in training.

I'm so proud.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

2006-12-12T01:57:00.001-05:00

Enough Said.

I probably owe you guys more than 1000 words after not updating for a millennia but sufficed to say exams are crazy now, and to be perfectly honest nothing that exiting has happened in the last month. Don’t worry though when I save a group of Nun's from a burning orphanage you will be the first ones to know.

Out Partied by Uncles

2006-11-04T02:18:00.000-05:00

I think I should formaly post this picture.

Now these guys know what higher education is all about!

It's been a while...

2006-11-04T01:56:00.000-05:00

Its been a while...

Who ever said it takes me a long time to do things?

Well I hope the last blog free month and a bit was enjoyable for all of you, and hopefully ill be able to motivate myself enough to have more than one post a month.

In summarizing a month I am most definitely going to skip over the bulk of things, but hey that means less reading for you so everyone wins.

In summarizing my month, I guess I'll just list off events worth mention and then explain them. I'll start with the most significant event of the last month which is of course:

MOMMIES VISIT:

What else could be more important???? For those of you who didn’t already know, my mom came to visit me (in Ottawa) for thanksgiving. It was really nice to see a familiar face again, and get out of school to see the sites. MiMi (don’t know how to spell...) is my mom’s good friend and she acted as both a tour guide and a host for turkey dinner. For the grand tour of Ottawa we drove all around and went to the market where among other things we went to a tea shop where I got some ‘real’ tea and something to steep it with. Next we had lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the American embassy (and the locked down road in front of if, be afraid of the crazy Canadian terrorists!). After lunch we headed back to MiMi’s to get ready for turkey dinner. I was feeling tired from a cold I was suffering from, so I took a nap in MiMi’s basement (In a real Bed!!). After a wonderful nap mom woke me up because MiMi’s family had started to arrive for dinner. After some discussion we all sat down for a delicious turkey dinner. Desert was also very delicious and after that various family members talked amongst each other until they went home. I decided to stay at MiMi’s over night in order to enjoy another sleep in the comfortable bed. The next day I returned to residence with memories of a good meal with family and friends. Unfortunately school work prevented me from seeing mom again before she went back home, but the time I did spend with her was great.

The Care Packages

Lots of awesome stuff from grandma and family. A pair of old shoes I left at the cottage, candy, and a “Courtney Test for Higher Education” (or as its known for most people a coloring book and pencil crayons). Yah, my family is hilarious.

Carleton got Jack’d

Jack Layton and MP Pail Dewar (NDP for Ottawa region) hosted an open forum in Rosters Café at Carleton. It was an excellent event and even though I had essays to write I took some time to be there. Layton is defiantly a good speaker and it was refreshing to see some one of such high political orientation to stop by a University. This is defiantly one of the advantages of being in the capital city!

CUND

The Jack Layton open forum was organized by CUND (Carleton University New Democrats). At the end of the forum the audience was informed of the time and place for the CUND ‘annual meeting’. After being inspired by Layton, I decided to check out this annual meeting. CUND turned out to be a pretty laid back group of people (surprise surprise). We established some goals and talked about some events we would like to be a part of. After a while we gave the people in the group some executive titles in order to give the group more structure. I was appointed as the “New Members Officer” which is basically a position that is responsible for knowing the history of the club and helping members integrate who join the club after the first meeting. It will be interesting to see how much I am involved in this club. In other news, an office for NDP MP Peggy Nash was looking for volunteers to work in her office. I got in contact with her Legislative assistant, Ricardo and set a date (Thursday) to come in and volunteer.

Volunteering in Peggy Nash’s office

It seems one thing has led to another in this NDP thing. First Jack Layton then CUND and now I am walking off the #4 bus into the west block of parliament. It felt strange to be so close to the building were federal governmental decisions are made. Surrounded by suits I walked into the west block building, and after being checked by security I headed up to the third floor to meet with Ricardo. It was fairly easy work, sending responses to letters and filing mainly. Riccardo was a cool guy and it was really exiting to be in the federal building getting more involved in the political process.

Of course the outcome of all of this is that my dad is now officially the most proud father on the face of the earth. I can hear him now, “My son an NDP, I’m so proud.” (Hahahaha). Anyway enough of all this political stuff, onto this thing people keep telling me I’m supposed to be spending my time on; Class.

Class in General

Class has been more or less the same over last the little while as it was when I first explained it to you all. I swear my political scientist teacher is the most monotone man on earth, but other than that I don’t have tooooo many complaints about my teachers. My Econ teacher still has a weird teaching stile and my Phil teachers has the heaviest unidentifiable accent I have ever herd. On the plus side both my PAPM and history teachers are coherent and logical in their lectures. I think I will take this opportunity to talk about my marks (Gasp the suspense!) So far I have completed one assignment for each class I have (yes you herd right, 2 months and only one assignment). The order (in marks) these assignments came in were a surprise to me, and the marks ranged from A+ (my econ test and my philosophy essay) to a C (my history assignment). The good news is that I only need to keep a C to stay in my program, but I would have liked to renew my scholarship (A- average), but seeing what is required to achieve that, I am skeptical of my ability to reach it. Even though I might not reach my scholarship, I am certainly glad I am not failing (as many first years have experienced in the past.)

The History Project

My History Professor has the tendency to treat his first years like they are graduate students. Where other professors would simply ask for an argument on the coarse material or one separate article, our first history essay was a histerographical account of 4 different articles that had a total page length of 80pgs. Not to be outdone, our second assignment is based on the idea of commemoration and requires us to visit the war museum and to take detailed notes on the visiting exhibit on the 7 year war. So on Sunday I went on an adventure with Robbie (a friend of mine who lives on my floor) to the war museum. The winds were devastating and cold, but we eventually made it after a dismal journey. Fortunately we had our spirits lifted by being reminded about people killing one another… I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank my History teacher for the best day ever.

As depressing as that all seems, the trip itself wasn’t all that bad and over all the last month and a bit was fairly enjoyable. That said I do miss everyone back home and I can’t wait for Dec 19^th when I will be flying home. Until next time remember, a month is a long time, but at 0$ an hour you get what you pay me for. (Except for my parents who pay ridiculous amounts of money, but I simply pay them back with love! Harharhar)

Pictures:

Lovely Shoes!

mmmm candy

The Courtney Test for Higher Education!

I Be a Genius

Did I pass the test?

A Cold Robbie

A wind ravaged Robbie (nice hair)

AAAHHH Girls on my bed!

JACK LAYTON!!!!!

A week in review

2006-09-20T20:22:00.000-05:00

After a week with no posts to be seen im sure most of you are thinking “Has he given up on the biog. so quickly?”. Alas that is not the case, I have just been distracted with University and such, so I have continuously procrastinated. I’ll try to put up a few key points about each day, best I remember them.

Thursday:

Cant remember much about Thursday, but I’m sure that I got up late since my only class was at 6:00pm (economics). Unfortunately Economics was much of what happened last week, mainly my teacher talking about things that were not really related to corse, such as Oklahoma and pop culture. But he got on track after not to long, (30 minutes) and we did notes on the corse material. The prof seems to take his information (and format) directly out of the text book, and rarely ads anything notable, so it is hard to stay focused when u already have read the corse material. After that I went and hang out with some people who are in my faculty. Among them is a guy that is a communist and had longer hair than I did! We had tea, it was a good time. That just about sums up that day.

Friday:

For the most part of Friday day I read and relaxed, what else is a Friday for? I should also mention that I went for a swim. Not very interesting, but I made up for it Friday night. Friday night I went to a house party off campus. Who’s house was it? None other than John Nater, my fourth year contact for Public Affairs and Policy Management. The party itself was for people enroled in Public Affairs and Policy management. This was not a dry party, in the sense that it was both interesting and full of alcohol. I personally involved myself in a drinking game know as the ‘Century Challenge’. This game involves drinking one shot of beer every minute for 100 minutes. I did not come to the party with beer but I found enough there to get me 70 shots of beer in 70 minutes. After that (6 bottles of beer) I was sufficiently drunk, and stopped drinkin. The memory of Jason vomiting in the bathroom was all too fresh in my mind. So after taking a taxi home with the people I was at the party with I went up to my room to sleep. Unfortunately there was no mattress on my bed frame.

I ‘borrowed’ some of my neighbors vodka to drink before I went to the party with every intention to pay him back (even wrote him a note). It seems that my neighbor had a perfect amount of alcohol to get drunk with, and because I had a bit, I had taken his ability to get drunk for the night. So in retaliation he, and some of the other neighbors ‘borrowed’ my bed. I eventually got it back (though my drunken state made it all rather confusing). After acquiring my bed I had an aspirin and some water and went to bed.

No Bed????

A Clue!

Another Clue!

"I'm to drunk for this"

I think I'll get my bed back now...

Battling Sickness (Wednesday)

2006-09-15T20:23:00.000-05:00

BLAH, being sick sucks. Enough said. Unfortunately I awoke early this morning with my joints aching and the unmistakable feeling of sick overwhelming my senses. But I was not the type of person to take these things lying down so I... went back to sleep. My first class was at 11:35am so I got out of bed around 11:00am so I could shower and grab a granola bar, some Clod FX and an apple while I went out the door. The class I was going to was Canadian History, and we discussed the Aboriginal peoples of North America and how they may or may not have been the First peoples of North America. We also discussed how the microbes brought over by the early European settlers devastated much of the Indigenous population of the Americas, bringing there numbers down from Millions to hundreds of thousands. It was all very interesting, but unfortunately I was sick and tiered all the while, so it was less engaging than it may have been otherwise.

After the class was over I walked to the Cafeteria in the rain (did I forget to mention it was raining?). Being as sick as I was I didn’t really want anything to eat, but I knew I should eat something. But then I found a god send, chicken noodle soup! After two bowls of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich I headed back to my dorm with new found resolve to beat my sickness. I got back to my dorm around 1:30pm and had more Cold Fx and a neocitrin and went to sleep. I woke up at 5:00 so I could get to my class scheduled for 5:35pm. I arrived at the class to find an empty conference room, realizing only then that the class I was going to was a discussion group for a class I had not yet had. This gave me enough time to walk to the other side of campus for dinner and then walk back for my other class, The comparison of Industrial States. I had an exceptionally hard time focusing in that class because 1) I was sick 2) the drugs were still acting one me 3) the professor was extremely un-charismatic (a great disappointment after having Mr. Anderson for social last year). I forced myself to stay awake and I actually found the corse material very interesting.

I then headed back to my dorm had more Cold FX and wrote this. I plan to go to bed soon. So until next time remember, the only thing in the polio vaccine is essence of chicken noodle soup.

Time Condenses

2006-09-12T20:34:00.000-05:00

Ever find that when you actually have to do something with your day, time starts to go faster? We'll to simulate this real life occurrence I will condense the last 3 days (including today) into one Blog. You may be thinking, "Is he doing this just because he procrastinated doing it and he is to lazy to do 3 separate posts?". We’ll if you thought that you would be right, but beggars cant be choosers and I kinda have a monopoly on the Jonathan @ Carleton thing.

Sunday:

No one knows what happened on Sunday, I actually have no recollection and when I ask people they get mad at me, so who knows. I ate 3 meals, went for a swim for the first time and went to bed early, that is about all I know.

Monday:

Gasp! I have to get up before noon?!?!? Yes that was the case I had to get up at the earth shatteringly early time of 8:30am. It gave me time to shower and eat and head to my first class of Public Affairs and Policy Management (PAPM) at 9:30am. The class was fairly interesting, although we only really discussed what would be involved in the class, so i didn’t have any home work to do afterwards (awesome). After that class was over I headed over to my next class (Canadian history). It was a fairly interesting class, but again it was mostly an overview. The professor talked about how Canada's history was defined by the interaction of separate colonies, so that would be the theme of the class. But more importantly there was no home work. So with nothing to accomplish in the evening, I had a swim and well, accomplished nothing. But I did buy 2 posters for my room at a poster sale at the University. One was a Dizzy Gillespie poster and the other was a poster on Ambition. So I went to bed and that was the end of another day.

Tuesday:

Today was a little more civilized in concerns with when I got up (11 am). My first and only class of the day was Philosophy of the World Mind and Knowledge at 2:35pm. Before the class I went to the Home offices and I signed up for a practice room so I can start practicing my trumpet again. Anyway back to my class, my Prof is a great philosophy teacher because he has such a thick accent that you can't understand what he is saying in more than one way! When I could understand what he was saying It was very interesting. We talked about Descartes and I found out many things I didn’t know (as we'll as revisited things I already knew). After that was over I found out that we went suppose to get any textbooks to buy but would get the readings from the library. So after dinner and all that I went to the library and took out the book and read/ takes notes on Descartes first and second Meditations (more than half my homework for next week) . So as it stands now it seems my homework for the weekend will be limited, but I still have 3 classes tomorrow and Thursdays ECON class to give me some work. We'll that’s about it and I have nothing witty coming to mind so until next time.

Pics:

Ambition Poster

Dizzy Gillespie

Mary (Neighbor)

Erik (Jason roomate)

End of high school pic

2006-09-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

Fashion statement of the year. Did a little something with it in paint, enjoy.

Another Productive Day

2006-09-10T18:39:00.000-05:00

Not to break my streak of incredibly productive days, Saturday had lots of activity. It was another early morning; I woke up at 1pm, and Rafik, achieving the imposible, woke up later than me (at 2pm). After I woke up I got my laudrie out and luged it down the stairs to put it in the washer. I had lunch and put my cloths in the dryer. While I was waiting for a dryer to free up/ while my cloths were in the dryer, I watched Pulp Fiction. This was cool for me because I had always wanted to see the movie. Over all it was a good movie, though at times graphic (Samul L Jackson = awsome). I folded my laundrie after the dryer was done and put it away (arnt you proud mom). After that I basically sat around and talked with my floor. We were going to go to a pub called the Toad or somthing like that but it never panned out. It's probably for the best anyway, I have kinda had my fill of outings of that calaber for a while.

Sidenote: I'm still reading the book by Stephen Lewis and I definatly think I'm going to get involved with the AIDS awarness group at our school.

Anyway, while I was talking with everyone on our floor I had a chance to talk to Jacqueline who told me that she took a philosophy class in high school and she enjoyed philosophy. That was the biggest mistake she ever made. After she told me about her philosophical past I went on a 20 minute talk fest about every philsophical thing that came to my mind. It felt really good not to be talkinga bout things I found superficial for a while. Eventually she just got up and walked away, I dont blame her, most people would do the same, but if felt good to finally say those things to some one.

Besides my philsophical rant there were some other interesting things that hapend. There were several intoxicated girls running around screaming and making alot of notes until all hours of the night. A guy called "James" lives in a room on our floor, he always has sunglasses and gloves on and will respond in no way to people saying hello or anything. Every now and then he stumples in or out of his room. He’s not really a "loner" so much as a "staby staby" guy. It's faily creapy but the girls, completly drunk, helped him off the floor in his room (which had no lights on) and put him into his bed. A few minutes later he left the room and the intoxicated girls talking to him actually got him to say "I'm going to get a drink". Sufficed to say I lock my doors. Anyway I'm sure that will all work out in the wash and I only really put it in here so that the post would be longer. So.. I guess its long enough, Until next time, lock your doors.

The problems with memory...

2006-09-10T09:23:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately I procrastinated this post for 2 days and my short term memory doesn’t extend back that far, so a lot of this will be brief. Friday morning I woke up at the crack of 12pm. That means I got 10 hours of sleep sufficed to say, it was nice. Rafik got up early for a class (which I don't have on Friday!!) So he was out and back before I was awake. But wakening up late didn’t stop me from having a full day first I... uh I had lunch then... I sat around and read then I well... I had dinner and that took me to about 8pm. This productive regiment of activity was only possible due to my highly motivated personality and my ambitious goals for the day.

After all the activity of the day was done I figured I would actually do something in the evening, so I went with a bunch of guys on my floor to a club in Hall(Quebec) called Cosmo. To be honest I'm defiantly not the 'clubbing' type so I didn’t really enjoy myself but it was an interesting experience and it helped me to remember who I was and who I was not. So when the time finally cam around (12:30am) when the guys had enough clubbing we left only to have it start POARING rain on us! After running around in the rain for a bit (away from cabs who said they wouldn’t take wet passengers, back to a bus stop which bus we realized wasn’t running....) we eventually got into some cabs (with drivers who were not so stuck up) and got a drive back to Carleton. After that I went with Rafik and Jason to buy some food at the convenience store. I had "roast chicken" chips, which seemed strange to me so I gave them a try. They were surprisingly good. After talking for a while we eventually went to bed. There you have it my shortest post ever.

Pics:

Guys in the Cab

At the club

Getting out of the Cab

*Note to viewers* This looks like a rocking good time right? We'll most the people here were thinking it’s a bust so don’t believe everything you see.

First Day of Class

2006-09-08T10:52:00.000-05:00

Maby first "Day" of class is a little of an over statement considering I only had one class, Economics. When was this class you ask, well fairly early 6:05....pm. Ya, with that as my first scheduled event of the day my actions that preceded it were... relaxed at best. I woke up around 11:30am, I then showered and went for lunch/breakfast with some other people on my floor (including my room mate Rafik who had class at 8:30am!). After that I came back to the room, napped, read and did my blog for yesterday. By the time that heavy regiment of activity was over it was time to catch an early diner so I could get to Economics on time.

Good thing I was on time for economics, cause if I wasn’t I would have missed a lot. That is to say I would have missed a lot of my professor talking about his teaching experience in America, his childhood in Vietnam, moving to Oklahoma and other side tracked rants of nothing that consumed an hour of my life. After about an hour of this talk he tells us that we have course work we have to do and that "we better hurry up so we can fit it all in." WHAT!??!?!? Is this some kind of cruel joke they play on the first years ?? At that point I was ready to strangle my professor in front of a class of 300 witnesses. Anyway, I contained my rage and took notes on what he was talking about (stuff he ended up rushing through...) and I met some people in the class who were in PAPM (Public Affairs and Policy Management).

After that was all done I was in need of a good laugh so I went to the Yuk Yuk’s comedy show. It was absolutely hilarious. All the comedians toured with Yuk Yuk’s and two of them were on The Comedy Network on ‘Comedy Now’. They were incredible, I was in tears for a great deal of the show. After the side splitting was over I went back to my dorm.

When I got back I was talking with a bunch of people on my floor and they were all heading out to the ‘retro’ 90's night dance party. As most of you know im not exactly a ‘dancing’ type, but I decided I may as well go. Despite my own awkwardness I danced and after a couple of songs I was actually enjoying it. The dance floor was about 100000 degrees Celcus so I was sweating like a pig but I still must of danced for a solid 2 hours. After that I headed back to the room where I found the door open, but no Rafik. I went next door to investigate and there was my neighbor passed out in his bed, with Refik and Jacqueline (from across the hall) sitting in the room. I asked them what happened and the explained to me that Jason (neighbor) got really drunk and puked all over the bathroom. Rafik had come back to our room (after being in Ottawa) and went in the bathroom to go pee and found Jason passed out in his vomit. They had security to to check for Alcohol poisoning, but he wasn’t at that point. After the stories were over I stayed up talking to people on the floor and eventually went to bed at 3:00am, another day, and a bit done.

Pics:

Jason (taken by Rafik)

More Scenery (old pic)

High school memories (made pic at end of high school)

Day 4, even more

2006-09-07T15:11:00.000-05:00

Hello to everyone again, I didn’t have my camera yesterday so all you'll have to go on is words and pics taken before and after.

Alright so yesterday (Wednesday) started bright and early at 7:30 for academic orientation. I "jumped" out of bed and in 30 mins I was showered dressed and on my way to a complementary breakfast. I arrived in an open court yard called the "Academic Quad" where there was a 30 mile line up for breakfast. I decided since I had a ton of meals left for the week I would go to the cafeteria. I had a bagel and fruit there and then headed back to the Quad. When I arrived we were lining up for shirts for our faculties. By the time I got to the end of the line all of the Public Affairs shirts were gone so they gave me a BA and social sciences shirt instead. I was then led to a gymnasium where there were speeches being given by the president of Carleton, the dean, a history professor, and more importantly Stephen Lewis. I'm sure most of you know who he is but for those of you who don’t he is the UN Secretary General's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. He is an exceptional Canadian Citizen named "Canadian of the Year" by Maclean's Magazine. His speech was passionate and inspiring. He stressed the joy of being in such an intellectually enriched place as university and the thrill of being able to debate the issues of the day. He also talked to us about these issues; AID's in Africa, the war on Terror and global worming. He also stressed that we could make a difference, and I think that is what was most exiting to me. Mr. Lewis has done incredible things and I think he will act as a big inspiration for me in the years to come.

After the speeches were over I went to the Public Affairs and Policy Management specific orientation. They talked about the resources and classes at Kroeger College (the unique part of the University that holds my faculty). I think I will have a better grasp on it when I finish my first class in it (Monday). After that I went to another speech Mr. Lewis was giving (not just for first year BA students this time). After the speech was done I bought a book entitled
“Race Against Time”. It is a compilation of a number of his speeches about AIDS in Africa. At the time he was doing a book signing so I now have a signed copy.

After that was over I headed back to the Academic Quad where there were booths for a number of clubs. I signed up for information (via email) to the debate club, toastmasters club, AIDS awareness club, the Carleton Music Association, the UN club, CUSA (Carleton University Student Association). I'll try to fit classes around these clubs, but if I get to busy I'll just have to stop going to class. (Just kidding mom.)

After that I headed back to the dorm room to relax and listen to music. After much relaxing I was invited by some people on my dorm to go to downtown Ottawa. We took the bus and walked around parliament and then went to the Rideau Shopping center. Rafik was among the group of people I was with and he bought an Ali poster and a Beatles poster for the room before heading off with some people he knew who lived in Ottawa. I then continued to wander with the rest of our floor people and by luck found a bus stop with Carleton bus. On the bus we met up with some Criminology first years who got on the bus on the wrong side the road and had ridden the entire route (hours..) to get back to the University. Fortunately we were back at the University in 20 mins and we headed back to our rooms. With the knowledge that I had no class until 6:00pm the next day I headed out in search of parties at other dorms with a group of people from our dorm. Alas no parties were found but I met some nice drunk and sober people. After that we headed back to our dorm and talked until about 2 am then I went to bed.

Pics:

Stephen Lewis Book

Scenic Pic From Ottawa

Amazing Race Ottawa

BA and Social Science shirt

Rafik getting a bed time story Leah

The Madness Continues.. Continued

2006-09-05T23:11:00.000-05:00

Alright, this is the completion of Tues, as best I remeber.

I went to parking lot 7 at 5:00pm and got on some busses to go into Ottawa, to a beatufially seanic point to eat burgers and watch the sunset until 7:30pm.

Pic's of scenario around dinner

At 7:30 they anocened the first clue for the "Amazing race Ottawa". That resulted in us all running to parlement (the answer to the first clue). basically there was a huge number of first years runing through the streets of Ottawa. After runing around the Paralament and then behind it to the librbary then down spark street then to a park... we eventually arived at the busses that would take us away from down town Ottawa.

Night out on the town:

From Ottawa we were driven to IKEA. At IKEA we had a cheer off against a local Colledge and then got to shop in the store, which was staying open for us the students. I bought a lamp, some trays for stuff and some Mugs. I also enjoyed 2 hotdogs and a cup of pop for less than a bottle of pop from a machine.

IKEA ya..

I then headed back to my dorm where the same drunken redicoulsnes was occuring. That prity much brings me up to writting this post, and just like that another day was done.

Crazy people

Until Next time, have fun and never ask whats in a $0.50 hot dog

Look Ma' I made my bed

The Madness Continues

2006-09-05T14:24:00.000-05:00

A bunch of stuff has happened since my last post, unfortunately my memory is short so this might not be all of it.

After Ravenpalooza and creating this blog I went to sleep at around midnight. At 7:30 the next morning a bunch of the seniors in charge of frosh week "gently" woke us up by running down the halls screaming and beating on our doors.

After that pleasant wake up call I got to understand what sharing a bathroom with 4 other people is like. I waited for 45 min to have a shower, and by the time I was done my dad had shown up to take me to Montreal to see Trev and Ryan and my Grandma.

On the way we stopped for breakfast and I had bacon, eggs, butter soaked toast and hash browns. After that fine meal we headed off to visit Grandma. It was a good visit, but dad managed to time our arrival exactly for lunch time at the seniors home... but eventually grandma finished eating and we went to say ‘hi’. We drove around the Island and had coffee/muffin/bagel break at Tims.

We then visited Trev and Ryan's where I acquired a cinder block to use as a stand to raise up the height of my monitor (who ever said I don’t have class?). After a few beers and a lot of junk food dad and I headed back on the road to Ottawa. After a few minor directional problems we got back to Carleton and I had the pleasure of hauling the cinder block up to my third floor room.

After that was finished dad and I departed to go meet my mom's friend mi mi (don’t know how to spell). After a lengthy and very informative tour of town we headed to dinner at The Blue Cactus for wings, chips and a chimichanga. After that we walked around the town and stopped for a beaver tail which is basically deep fried dough in the shape of a beavers tail(very tasty) (based on what I've been eating today, my life insurance has gone up 200%).

I then headed back to residence and said my good byes to my dad (insert dad making "punting" motions here). I then proceeded to go upstairs to my room and fall asleep.

The following day (today) I was woken up equally as gently as the day before at 7:30 for frosh. This time I rolled over to get a 'couple minutes" more sleep... At 11:30 I rolled out of bead. After realizing that it was 11:30 I promptly yawned and had a shower. I explored the campus and walked along the Rideau Canal and then went back to my room to laze around until now (4 pm). All in all I think I have had a productive day so far, but I plan to meet up with the frosh group at 5:00 pm for "Amazing Race Ottawa". I'll report later with more info about what happens.

Pics:

Rafik AKA Roomate

The madness of the Basketball Game
(previous post)

The all-mighty Computer Set up
(including the cinder block stand)

Another Ravenpalooza Picture

My Shrine of Buddhism/
Full Metal Alchemist

First few days at school

2006-09-03T21:27:00.000-05:00

Hey family and friends, this blogs for you

I'll be writing about University and posting pictures to keep you all updated.

When u guys want to talk to me live just send me an email massage and either phone me (parents) or send a time in a email when we can talk on msn.

Im sure I could write 10000 words about all the things that have happened, but unfortunately I don’t have the time or patients to do so, so I'll keep it short and sweet.

Well university is great. I've moved into my room now and met my room mate Rafik, who is a really cool IT student here. He is originally from Ottawa but has lived in Texas for the last 2 years.

For the last few days I was up in North Bay visiting my Grandma Jane. I drove up with my dad and that was a lot of fun.

We got into Ottawa on Sat and unloaded a lot of stuff in the room. After attempting to unpack for a while we got mostly organized and headed out to the Best Western we were going to stay in.

Then we got up Sunday (today) and headed out to do some shopping. Little did I know that Dad was planing to take out a second mortgage on the house. We spent 370$ at the superstore (which we drove 20 km to find) on everyday things and bedding and such. We then precede to spend 500$ at Staples buying a new 19 inch Samsung monitor, new keyboard, sound system, security cables and some blank cd's. After that we precede back to the dorm to set up the system (to be shown photographically later), and after encountering a few minor problems (insert Dad muttering here) we finished and headed off to eat.

The food was AMAZING. Lots of selection and more importantly all you can eat. I think that deserves to be repeated: ALL YOU CAN EAT!!!! Anyway after lunch we went to the library to spend 500$ more on books. SOOO much to read... After hauling the 10 lbs of books back to the dorm, dad left and I remained to finish sorting out my room.

I continued to organize and such until 5 when I went to a "Revenpolooza" which is basically a giant pep rally for the basket ball game/ an intro for all the first year students. There is a dance on right now, I might go and check it out later but its almost 11 and that is past my bed time.

Well for the last little while there have been intoxicated people wandering around the dorms introducing them selves to one another. Its been a lot of fun so far and I should add to this all later.

Until then just remember it could be worse, you could have 170$ worth of economics reading material.

(done)