Video Blog Number 6!
Posted by Tom on October 27, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Subscribe to the comments for this post7 Meals of Turkey Since our Last Post
Posted by Candice on October 17, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Today’s transit was relatively painless. No screaming children, no delays, no lost luggage. We made it back to Toronto from our trip home to Pasadena relatively unharmed.
Our week was full of dancing, friends, family (yea for grandparent visits) and turkey. Lots of turkey. My mom should have a blog, then she could tell you about the turkey. . .
While significantly less productive than originally intended (ie. no school or wedding or fitness work got done), the week was a good reminder of what our priorities really are as we made special efforts to spend time with the people we love. Leaving was difficult. I may or may not have cried 1/2 the way to Halifax. There are a lot of things I like about living in Toronto, but I certainly wish my family and friends were closer.
Oddly enough though I turned my back for a second at the baggage claim in Toronto and Tom had already met and made friends with somebody from Newfoundland.
They’re be more to come in the next few days, but we just wanted everyone to know we made it.
Three posts in one day?
Posted by Candice on October 8, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Tom and I were in separate rooms vowing to do homework. He came out for tea and I said “Be proud of me. I made a blog post.”
He replied, “I made a blog post?”
I answered, “No, I made a blog post.”
He said, “I made a blog post.”
So, we both made blog posts without the other knowing. Great minds think alike, but it means you have to read slightly redundant posts. Luckily, mine is funny - to keep you entertained - and his has pictures to distract you from the bad grammar for visual stimulation. Please read them both.
So, grape puree is not such a great idea either. . .
Posted by Candice on October 8, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Yeah, what can you do with concord grape puree? We have about a litre of it in the freezer. I think I’m going to add it to some apple puree to make “grape leather” (we’ve had relatively good success with apple/berry leather) but nonetheless the grapes have been an interesting adventure.
Life, on the other hand, has not been that interesting. I’ve spent most of the past two weeks working on those PhD scholarship applications. It’s difficult to talk about what I plan on spending the next four years of my life doing when I don’t even have this degree finished yet. I’m not even sure I want to do a PhD. However, I am spitefully trying to prove those naysayers wrong by getting ridiculous amounts of funding and keeping my options open for next year. I handed the applications in today, now I just have to wait until May to hear the results. Seriously. May.
Tom and I also struggled through a sugar/sweetener-free week last week for a little immune and mental boost. However, the spectre of public transit prevailed and I ended up with a head cold. I’m feeling better now, just in time to get on the germ and infection party bus (otherwise known as an airplane) to . . .
Go home for a week!
That’s right, we’ve barely settled back into Toronto life and we are heading back. Although I’ll still have tons of work to do it’s a great way to break up the fall. I can’t wait!
Here we go, Here we go, Here we go.
Posted by Tom on October 8, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Somewhere along the way we said we would update more often. Hm.
It seems that a lot of the craziness of the first few weeks of school has past, and now we’re back into some sort of routine. That is, until we fly home in less than two days. Which we’re both super pumped for. Just knowing over the past few weeks that we’d be heading home to rejuvenate for a week in October made everything way easier. Not that things were difficult. Coming back to a place that was already “yours” was way easier than having to move again (a la last September). And only doing three courses makes things a little bit easier, and makes it easier for me to participate in non-class related things (ie. school doesn’t get in the way of my education as much).
Since I’m (hopefully) graduating in April, I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about graduate schools. The easy part (deciding that I want to go) is done, so I’ve been trying to find out information about a bunch of different programs at a couple different schools. One of the biggest problems is narrowing down the field I want to look at. I’ve been a little fed up with studying math for a little while now, so I know it’s time for a change to something different. I had an awesome time at my summer job (er… month long surprise job?) at the Environmental Policy Institute at Grenfell so I’ve considered some sort of Environmental Studies program. Urban Planning and Post-Secondary Studies have been in the mix for a while as well. There are a couple schools that I’ve been looking at for each program, but I haven’t figured much else out. I’ll fill you in when something, like a decision, happens.
Currently, I’m most looking forward to going home. I have tomorrow off so I’ll be heading downtown to pick up some last minute things and perhaps eat some spicy food… or some raw food… or sushi… which in some respects could fall under the raw category. Either way, if you’re in Newfoundland, see you in a few days!
Yes, I tried to make a grape pie.
Posted by Candice on September 30, 2009 at 9:45 pm
As an update from our video blog, my eye has healed just fine. I spent a few days with blurred vision but eventually healed. Since then my life has been a non-stop flurry of appointments, followed by meetings, followed by workshops, followed by assignments, followed by work (followed by cooking, cleaning, teeth brushing, etc.). The back to school rush hasn’t seemed to settle quite yet! Right now I’m just continually working for the next deadline, which is not ideal, but I just keep reminding myself that it’s all worth it.
However, while this post was going to be about a (mis)adventure I had in making a grape pie, something interesting happened yesterday that I feel the need to blog about.
Even though I have yet to complete this degree I am already thinking about the next one and the deadlines for applying for the big scholarships are fast approaching. I went to a workshop yesterday morning designed to help students with their applications. Basically, each scholarship requires that you write a one or two page proposed project including as much detail about the project and yourself as possible. This workshop broke students up in to small groups who, along with a faculty member, read each others proposals and provided feedback.
I had been warned that it would happen at some point, but it still caught me off guard. When it came time to discuss my proposal there were a few excellent suggestions and criticisms (which will improve my paper so much) but there was also this unsettling discrimination against dance research. While it would be difficult to explain exactly what things were said and how they were framed, some of the particularly frustrating comments included things like, “I don’t think they’re going to want to fund a dance school” (keeping in mind my project has nothing to do with dance schools); and “You don’t have the background to call this a social science project” (keeping in mind that I’m not just a dancer. I have a degree in social science and have focused my master’s research on doing social science fieldwork and writing).
It’s something that dance scholars seem to come up against all the time. Other academics don’t “get” that it is a legitimate topic to study (yet music, film, food, and sports are all okay). There are a lot of reasons why this barrier exists, and now is not the time to get into them, but the point is - it hurts. I do just as much reading, researching, and fieldwork as students in other programs and my work also involves actually moving and working with people who move. My work is not frivolous. Dance scholars don’t just sit around all day and write reviews of classical ballet. I am devoting my academic career to this topic because I really believe it is important. I am learning and discovering and advocating for new and exciting ways to challenge our world - through dance. Dance is not just people performing on stage. Dance is SO much more.
Obviously I didn’t get defensive or go into this rant at the session. It just wouldn’t have been worth it. So, luckily you got to “hear” it, for one because it was frustrating me, but also because I wonder how many people who actually know me don’t know what I do and think my research is frivolous. . . . I’d be happy to explain it to you some day. Just ask!
Video Blog Number 5!
Posted by Tom on September 18, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Quick warning: It’s about 12 minutes long. So… beware.
Some links that we mentioned in the video:
New Post!
Posted by Tom on September 12, 2009 at 11:40 am
New year. New, positive outlook. York: Not So Bad.
In an effort to make positive changes to our environments up here, one of the first things I did when we got back to Toronto was quit my job at Staples.
Yep, frig that place.
Funny thing is, the other night I ran into a (former) co-worker, who informed me that he had also just quit (and he’d been there for a couple years). He also informed me that a large group of other employees are also in the process of quitting.
I’m clearly a trendsetter.
I’m glad to not be going back there, and to be going back to my position with the students union here at York - something a little more my ’speed’. After working with the Environmental Policy Institute for a month while we were in Corner Brook, I realized a lot about how I like to work and the types of things I like to do. For example, I do not like to have someone watching over my shoulder all the time, but I do really enjoy working on projects that matter and that fit with my values. Sure, I got lots of hours with Staples (and I appreciate that), but just working for a paycheck isn’t worth it.
Anyway, now we’re back in class and attempting to find some sort of routine. I’m in two courses which seem dreadfully boring, but once I actually start working on them they might get a little better. One of them has a group partners project though, which I’m a little nervous about. Partly because I don’t really know anyone in the class, partly because most of the class is masters and Ph.D. students, and partly because nobody really speaks English very well. I’m sure I’ll be blogging about that when it rolls around. I’m also doing another (first year) course which seems somewhat interesting, and the first years haven’t been too annoying yet. I realized yesterday that most of these people are actually younger than Kimberly and Katheryn, and that totally weirded me out. Anyway, graduating is on the (finally) on the horizon… now just to figure out what lies beyond the horizon.
Living in Toronto: Year 2, Day 2
Posted by Candice on September 7, 2009 at 11:28 am
We made it back to Toronto safe and sound.
Saturday was crazy as we packed up all of our belongings for the 100th time this year. This has become a rather horrific fun event that involves round after round of Suitcase Tetris, Guess the Suitcase Weight, and Try Not to Die While Wrestling a 49.5 lb Suitcase Down the Stairs. However, the ordeal was worth it this time as we brought a stereo and our CD collections with us so we can finally have some music fun times. It’s a pretty big deal though. Once we find a CD rack we’ll have to debate over how the CDs get organised (I’m a fan of by genre, then by favourites) but then we will have to merge our CDs. This is scary. We must be pretty serious about each other.
Anyway, or flight was pretty uneventful. We ended up leaving Deer Lake later than expected but our flight from there to Montreal was very smooth. After a few tears and sookey faces as were taking off I decided to watch “The Proposal” and Tom watched a comedy special and kept laughing really loudly. This distracted me enough to make it to Montreal. Once there we had about 1/2 hour in the airport. Then, after boarding, we had about an hour sitting in the plane on the runway. This was less than fun. Eventually, just a little more tired and hungry, we did make it to Toronto, took a cab back to the apartment and went to bed.
It’s hard to believe that is was over a year ago that we moved here. It’s nice coming back and not having to learn everything about the school and the city the way we did last year. I remembered that there are some things that I like about the city: the food, the weather, the recycling. But, there are also things that I hate: ummm, it’s not Newfoundland.
We’re spending today getting geared up for a busy year, but are already looking forward to getting home again in October!
Tom tries on Wedding Rings
Posted by Tom on September 4, 2009 at 5:26 pm
So I tried on a wedding ring today.
holycrapholycrapholycrapholycrap
was my first instinct. Mostly because I couldn’t get the ring on over my large knuckles, and I was afraid if I pushed and got it on I wouldn’t be able to get it off and then they’d have to amputate my finger and once when I was younger I got a ring for being a ringbearer at a wedding and it had my initial on it and some years later I tried it on and it got stuck and it took me a really really long time and lots of slimy stuff to get it off and it was fairly unpleasant.
*and deep breath*
Then I tried another size (which was actually too big) and things went fine. But this made it all seem so real and that was really exciting. I mean, even through booking the venue, the caterer, and the reception venue it didn’t really click in. But looking at rings was real and official. It was wicked.
I got bored of them quickly (where are the rings with cameras and projectors and whistles and decoders in them?) but it was another of those “Yep, this is going to be wicked“ moments.
Our wedding is going to be wicked. Pretty much.