Christmas has come and gone, the yearly parties have ended, and now all that's left of 2011 are a few measly days of December. Allegedly, the world is ending in 2012 so I guess we may as well make the best of that year in all aspects. On the 1st, we are going to my great-grandmother's house to celebrate with my dad's side of the family. A small gathering but it shall be a lot of fun as it's always fun to hang out with the multitude of cousins and their kids.
For Christmas Eve, we went to my uncle Albert and aunt Sonia's house. It was different than our usual Christmas parties for many reasons. Firstly, my aunt Sonia's family was mostly over, we were the only ones from Albert's side of the family that were there, which made it really awkward. And secondly, the food was not traditional quebecois food but latin American food, which was good too, I'm not complaining, but it was weird nonetheless. We helped Laura (Sonia's mom) make empanadas while we waited for the other guests to arrive. Basically, we stuff pork, peas, egg, raisins and an olive in little dough dumplings and bake them. It was hard work, I soon gave up and retired to the snack table to eat veggies. When Cindy and her kids arrived, my cousin Fany and I spent our time playing with Kaylee and Amber, mostly hide and go seek, and hot potato. It was fun. When dinner was finally served around 10 pm, my cousins, sisters and I played cards (Passe l'ace, it's our favourite game, but we didn't have nickels so we bet with pins lol) until they offered us a small gift - a scarf and mitten set each. Really sweet. Then we went home cos it was rather awkward. The reason why there weren't any other members of my mom's family present is because they fight quite a bit and they tend to not talk to each other for quite awhile when that happens, so...
anyway, moving on to my other Christmas. On Christmas day, we went over to my cousin Steve's house, where he and his girlfriend and their daughter Kaylee-Rose live. They live in my great-grandmother's former house which has been completely renovated to include a huge kitchen and 3 bedrooms on the second floor. Which works out great because baby #2 is on the way :). We'll find out on January 13 whether or not this baby is a boy or a girl. Partially hoping for a boy if only because Steve's brother Jesse has 4 kids and only one of them is a boy, so Sky needs some male cousins I think! Anyway. The usual suspects were all present, minus uncle Danny because he was ill and so was my sister Tarah. My cousin Jennifer couldn't make it cos she was in Miami, but otherwise everyone that's usually there was there. We had the usual Christmas dinner - tourtiere, ragout de pattes de cochon, pate aux patates, turkey, etc and it was delicious. Genevieve, Steve's girlfriend, actually made all the tourtieres this year and they were great! She even made all the desserts, including some chocolate-peanut butter-marshmallow squares that I snatched the recipe off of her cos they were so delicious. I spent most of my time talking with my cousin Kassandra and playing with the babies, checked out some photos from my cousin Terry's vacation to Mexico and sang some carols with my aunt Caroline. Our Christmas' are never too intense, we just have a great time together and that's all that matters :).
I look forward to New Years.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
6 - in which a panda finds new inspiration
So, since the last few depressing posts of Twitter vomit as well of confusion with grad school, I have mostly sorted out my future. Now all I have left to do is get to it, so to speak. I have decided to abandon a future as an academic historian in favour of a job that may grant me more working opportunities close to home - that of the academic librarian or archivist. You see, I can still be a historian if I want to, publishing books on the side and that sort of thing, so all is not lost.
I was looking into applying at the MLIS program of McGill University (Masters of Information and Library Sciences). It's a two year degree with four classes each term. Need to start harrassing professors for reference letters and all that jazz, sort of in the style of "hello professor I am aware we haven't spoken in years but I got an A in your class so can you write me a letter stating how amazing I am so I can get into grad school please?". How exciting, the profs must be so happy to receive such requests every year but then again they had to do it too so I'm sure they understand.
School-wise, I have inspiration again in the sense that if I don't get these papers done, I fail, as they are both worth 50% (well one of them is worth 70%). I completed a ten page draft on women and brewing industry in late medieval England and have still about 10 pages of notes to expand on, so I think I will hit the 20 page mark with no difficulty. As for the other paper, I am a little more apprehensive as I received a B- on the midterm despite thinking I understood the concepts. Perhaps this weekend shall be devoted to re-reading both books and writing the entire essay much as I did last weekend to produce a working draft. Hurray for 13 hour days! It's the best idea though, as that paper is 12 pages and is due the 13th. Getting it out of the way early would be best so I can study for my history of Africa exam the 16th as well as submit my final medieval paper the same day.
Hobby-wise, I completed a drawing for the first time in MONTHS and I am rather proud. I can't say what it is though as it's a secret gift for my lovely friend in Sweden. However, I find myself suffering from writer's block when pertaining to the wonderful land of online RPing that I do. I may have to drop the hobby until the 16th as I saw last night it kept me up until 2 am. Furthermore, RP itself has been annoying me more and more, it makes me stressed, and a lot of the people there cause drama for no reason which makes me even more stressed. I actually think a lot of my unhappiness this term has been because of RP, which is unfortunate as I quite enjoy the hobby usually, I don't know what's wrong exactly, but I may have a hunch.
Now, I am off to dry my hair and eat a snack then head for class, an entire evening of presentations, good-golly-gosh aren't I lucky. And mine is tomorrow. Faaaantastic. Well, a student must do it, grit your teeth and bear it! :)
I was looking into applying at the MLIS program of McGill University (Masters of Information and Library Sciences). It's a two year degree with four classes each term. Need to start harrassing professors for reference letters and all that jazz, sort of in the style of "hello professor I am aware we haven't spoken in years but I got an A in your class so can you write me a letter stating how amazing I am so I can get into grad school please?". How exciting, the profs must be so happy to receive such requests every year but then again they had to do it too so I'm sure they understand.
School-wise, I have inspiration again in the sense that if I don't get these papers done, I fail, as they are both worth 50% (well one of them is worth 70%). I completed a ten page draft on women and brewing industry in late medieval England and have still about 10 pages of notes to expand on, so I think I will hit the 20 page mark with no difficulty. As for the other paper, I am a little more apprehensive as I received a B- on the midterm despite thinking I understood the concepts. Perhaps this weekend shall be devoted to re-reading both books and writing the entire essay much as I did last weekend to produce a working draft. Hurray for 13 hour days! It's the best idea though, as that paper is 12 pages and is due the 13th. Getting it out of the way early would be best so I can study for my history of Africa exam the 16th as well as submit my final medieval paper the same day.
Hobby-wise, I completed a drawing for the first time in MONTHS and I am rather proud. I can't say what it is though as it's a secret gift for my lovely friend in Sweden. However, I find myself suffering from writer's block when pertaining to the wonderful land of online RPing that I do. I may have to drop the hobby until the 16th as I saw last night it kept me up until 2 am. Furthermore, RP itself has been annoying me more and more, it makes me stressed, and a lot of the people there cause drama for no reason which makes me even more stressed. I actually think a lot of my unhappiness this term has been because of RP, which is unfortunate as I quite enjoy the hobby usually, I don't know what's wrong exactly, but I may have a hunch.
Now, I am off to dry my hair and eat a snack then head for class, an entire evening of presentations, good-golly-gosh aren't I lucky. And mine is tomorrow. Faaaantastic. Well, a student must do it, grit your teeth and bear it! :)
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