First day on-call

Need to try and get some sleep so I will write this entry tomorrow when I have time

Okay Better late than never, So my Friday started off we me getting up early and having a relaxing morning before my 11:30 class. At about 10 I decided to check my email and realized that I had received an email from Russ Dawson, a professor of mine from last semester, and he was informing me on a possible research opportunity that I had actually email his associate/friend/my former prof Erin. They did research on mountain bluebirds and tree swallows in a reclaimed mine site in the summer, and the control site and the test sites were at different elevations, and now there is a question regarding whether or not elevation was an influential factor and if it was, in what way. The actual research part that I would be doing is rather dull, repetitive and will likely be boring, but it is lab experience. I would be sifting through the nests for parasites. The extra awesome part is that there is a possibility that I'll be able to get some money out of it, as I can apply for an undergraduate research award which would get me $1500 for the semester, and there is a possibility that I would be able to write a manuscript and maybe get something published before I graduate which would be amazing. Upon finding this out, I rushed down to the school to see if Russ was in his office and he was so we chatted, I agreed to do the work and therefore had to start work on the undergraduate research award application as they are due september 16th, so I need to get that done this weekend. After meeting with Russ I went to my Society and Space Tutorial and it was only 8 minutes, all we did was pick seminar topics, and I picked the first one to get it out of the way as I wont have time later in the semester to do it, I'm doing it with another guy in my seminar, and hopefully we can do a decent job. After my 8 minutes of class I submitted and paid the fee for my application to graduate, so I am all set :) Kind of exciting. After that I was back in res, trying to be as productive as I could, I found the application I needed to fill out and started to do so, Then Katie and I went outside to enjoy the sun. That didnt last too long before Katie left to go get Kris, as it was backyard BBQ and he was coming up to party it up :) Katie and Kris arrived and brought me a screamer, which was delicious. We then had a disney song ID contest and ate food, and then Liz and Jeremy showed up as they were going to the BBQ too! Oh and I forgot to mention in this time I also went to the mailroom to get my package from my daddy that had finally arrived, so I now have my teddy bear, which is awesome :), and i picked up the on call phone. Liz went up to see Fabris and on her way back saw a large group of people partying outside of neyoh, so obviously as I was on call it was my problem, so I called Krista as she was on Call too and she met me and we went out there and broke it up and I was grateful to have Krista as I dont think I could have handled a group that large on my own. We met up with Lee and did rounds at 6:30, and things werent too bad, some dumped alcohol, but not much. After that we broke apart until 9, and in the time I did geography notes and watched tv. Katie, Kris, Liz and Jeremy went to the BBQ to go see Kingsfoil, which is Frankie Muniz's band, and Katie and Kris ended up meeting him and he is so short, like 5ft. At 9, we did rounds again, and there wasnt anything bad, a few lock outs and then we did door checks which involved mostly cooperative people, but some were a little too drunk and thus were not thrilled by the door checks At 11 we did rounds again and at 12 we did them again, and luckily res was quiet as most people had gone downtown which I was okay with. I went to bed around 1, and sleot horribly worried that the phone would ring, but lucky for me, no calls. Night!

A more productive day.

This morning I was up early at 7:30, even though I didnt have class until 9:30, but I was meeting up with a girl to sell a textbook to her. It was a sweet I got rid of one textbook, and made some money, and speaking of money, my student loan came in today, and I paid up all my fees for the semester, and I still have lots left which is always a nice feeling After selling my text I had to go to the library to set up my library account, which I hadnt done since first year and it was a bit awkward. The librarian thought that I had taken two years off when in fact I just hadnt taken out a book in two years. I am a bad student, here's hoping I will be better this year. I also had to ask how I go about taking out books that profs have put on reserve, turns out it is easier that I thought it would be After all my morning tasks I still had about and hour before my class, and I spent it working on my pamphlet on Tips for a successful semester which I hope to get out Next week some time. At 9:30, I had my first wildlife Ecology class, and it was alright. I didnt have the note package yet, which was unfortunate but I survived. I think the labs for the class are going to be very neat, we get to track radio collars, and watch a necropsy of an ungulate and carnivore, and we get to shoot a dart gun etc. Should be a blast. After that I plant Ecology. and I was stoked to find out that It doesnt have a final and less stoked to find out that we had to conduct our own experiment and we have to do it in groups, and I am not a fan of group work, as everyone knows. But I think I will be able to get through it. After class I went to buy the notes package that I was missing and had to stand in a giant line in the book store, but while standing in line I did manage to sell another one of my textbooks, which was a bonus of standing in line. After that It was back to rez to do my dishes and then I went to the gym, yay me!. I worked pretty hard and I am hoping to go back tomorrow after my class, after the gym, I was trying to figure out if I could borrow the Nissan leaf this weekend to help out with Krista's SPCA event that is happening on Sunday, but things are still a little up in the air. The rest of my evening was spent hanging out with various combinations of Katie, Liz and Kris and watching planet earth. I stayed up way past my bed time last night so I hope I can get to bed early tonight Night!

First Day of my Last Year

It has begun, my last year of my degree started today, and strangely enough 2/3 classes that I had today were Geography, not Biology. I was up at 7:30, even though I didnt have class until 10, I had a relaxing morning,ate breakfast, took a shower etc. etc, I finally went down to the school just after 9:30 because I was hoping to be able to sell a textbook that I have, sadly it resulted in me just lugging the text around unnecessarily. My First class was geography of Canada, with a prof who has not ever taught before, but he seems like a cool guy, and the course seems like it will be an okay class, though it will take some time for sure, hopefully I can stay on top of things. After that I had yet another geography class, which is now called Society and Space, but it was formerly Social Geography, it's a Jim Windsor class, who is like the most famous of all the geography profs. The class seems okay, though I am worried about the term paper, as I am not used to writing papers in which I express feelings, it should be interesting to do. I had one more class, and it was my first Biology class of the semester, It was population and community Ecology and just before the class started I got a bunch of frantic texts about the popcorn machine that had not been returned yet and apparently someone else had rented it and they needed it by 2, but I was in class until 2:20, so I freaked out a bit and then got Katie to bring it down for me, because she is awesome. My class was okay, it was a bit dull, but hopefully it will be more interesting as time goes on and if I dont have to deal with the stress of popcorn machines. After class it was back to Rez, to find Katie and Liz hanging out in our room and Liz was making soup, that may have boiled over. Liz left to go to her Cello lesson, and Katie and I went to go pick up Kris and then we went to the mall. I ended up buying some tissue paper and a mini stapler, and spent a total of 6$. Liz ended up meeting up with us because sadly she got the time wrong for her Cello lesson and missed it :( We wandered a bit and then left the mall and went back to Rez, and I made dinner, which consisted of Turkey Sausages, an egg and toast, oh and strawberries, and the possibly some ice cream and then maybe some goldfish crackers....today has not been a good day in terms of me eating well. Liz went to her next class, and Katie and I hung out and then went and dropped off some forms to all the residents on our floor, and while we were doing that Liz came back Oh I also managed to fix a stove for some residents, go me! After that Liz, Katie and I , well actually just Liz and I because Katie got a phone call from her mom, ate cake ( I know more bad eating :( ) Adam came over for a visit which is nice, he lives in Keyoh now, so visits will be less frequent which makes me sad. I miss third floor and I miss having Adam on the same floor as me :( I'm still feeling kind of lonesome, and I am not sure as to why, I hope that as I get more into my classes and going to the gym and such that it will become less apparent. I'll probably go to bed in the next hour or so. Night!

Orientation Day

Today was Orientation and lucky for me, I only volunteered for an hour to give tour in the afternoon so I had the rest of my day to myself which resulted in me being rather bored. I got up around 9, and had breakfast and then watched Miss Congeniality, and Liz came over to visit, Katie had spent the night at Kris' and didn't come home until lunch time. Her and Liz hung out while I went down to the school to give tours, I gave one tour with Blake and it went well. It was quick and to the point and I hope that it was helpful to those who were in our group, it was a little hard to give the tour though because there was so much going on in the school and it was so loud that I can only imagine how hard it would have been for people to hear what we were saying. After the one tour I went back up to Rez to meet up with Katie and Liz and we went down to Save-On to buy some groceries, and I only spent around $20, but then we went into shoppers and I spent another 6 on things I really didnt need, like ice cream, But it was such a good deal that I was unable to resist. Shoppers is bad for that After that it was back up rez, and we were just relaxing and then sadly Katie had to deal with a incident with a resident's mother, and mother's dont make things easier, but I think it has been sorted out to the best of anyone's ability and that is all I will say on that. At around 5, we were all going to go have dinner at Red Robin. There were 7 of us: Me, Katie, Kris, Liz, Elsa (Kaie's Sister), Jessy and Kyla (Kris' sisters) and it was good time, I ate a little too much and today I spent more than I would have liked, but that's okay After dinner we went to CNC to play Settlers, but Kyla didnt come, so there's was only 6 of us and it was a pretty long game and I actually managed to win, I was so proud, and I had a weird strategy that occurred accidentally. I'm so happy. Then it was back to rez, and I will be in bed soon, resting up for the first day of classes tomorrow. Should be good :) Night!

I need school to start

Today was not a super eventful day, the most exciting thing I did was get attacked by a popcorn machine, but I will get to that later. I tried to sleep in which resulted in me getting out of bed around 8, and having my usual tea and toast, and I chatted with Katie, and I started to realize how bored I am. I need things to do, I need a routine, I need the gym, and I hope that I can get into the swing of this soon. Classes start on Wednesday and I can hardly wait. I feel like all I do it eat and sit, and feel lonely :( After much over eating and feeling bored and lonesome, I decided to make some vegetarian chili, which turned out to be quite good. At around 2, Katie and I took the First Floors down to the school for Rez Orientation which is basically a bunch of different presentations that were given by the green RAs, student advising, the chaplaincy, The Academic skills center etc. I didnt really need to be there but I felt obligated to go. I did end up leaving early as I was concerned about my chili in the slow cooker. Luckily it was fine when I checked on it. After a chili check I was asking Morganne about the popcorn machine for the movie night that Levi and I were putting on tonight, and she was in need of help in finding the popcorn in Nugss, so I went down to help her and we found none and she ended up having to get someone to come up to the school to help us, his name was Matt (i think) and he picked up some popcorn on his way up as he was not sure if any was left. We then had the machine and the popcorn, all that we needed for the night. I went back up to Rez to have dinner and to be productive for awhile. I worked on a pamphlet that I am making on Tips for a successful semester and so far it is looking good, I only have 3 more sections to write out. At 7:30 I met up with Morganne to get the popcorn machine to where it needed to go, and levi met us down there and we had one hell of a time. The popcorn machine is kind of old, and none of us knew the proper way to do it or the best way to do it, so we kind of winged it, which resulted in much screaming and grease burns, I even had some spatter in my face which sucked, Levi burnt his hand a bit as did Morganne, but I guess we did entertain the residents who showed up before all the popcorn was made. After the making of the popcorn, without setting off the fire alarm we then had another issue and that was getting the projectors turned on. Levi called Jenn who was able to help us get the projectors going. But the issues were not over, we had sound trouble in the room that I was in, the sound on the dvd player to work and ended up just playing the movie through the computer which worked out to be okay and everyone was really nice about the technical difficulties that were being had. There was also a bigger turn out than I was expecting and I think they all enjoyed watching Megamind. The other movie that eneded up being shown was Zoolander, which is an awesome movie. I had planned on working on my pamphlet while watching the movie, but sadly I brought all I needed except for a pen so I had no choice but to enjoy the movie, poor me. After the movie I had the grueling task of cleaning the nasty popcorn maker, I'm sure Levi would have helped but he is on call and he had to do rounds and I couldnt stand the nasty butter smell and thus cleaned it. It was a challenge to clean and it is still not 100% clean but I am done trying to clean it for the night, I smell of artificial butter and salt, It's gross. All the more reason to dislike popcorn. I will go to bed soonish. Katie went to go hang out with Adam and Kris and Morganne etc, I was invited but needed to clean the machine. I think that Katie will be going to Kris' after which means a lonely night for me. here's hoping that I don't freak myself out. Tomorrow The plan is to give tours from 1-2 and to go shopping with Katie at some point, other than that it will be another boring day, with me not doing much but sitting on my butt eating things I shouldnt eat. Kristy and I started a "fitness" competition on September 1st and so far, I'm really not doing well I need to get my shit together. Soon I will be off to bed, I hope Rez is quiet enough for me to get a good night's sleep. Night!

Move in!!

Today has been a very long day.
I was up at 7, and had to meet up with all the RAs to get debriefed on how move in would go. I technically didn't have a shift from 8-10 but I ended up helping Katie and nikolina with signing in people and giving out keys and then eventually I drifted outside.

From 10-12 I was supposed to be stationed outside of neyoh and that was a tad dull, I socialize with Rez council and they were selling this years t-shirts and they are not too bad this year. I ate a lot of free food today

From 12-2 I didn't technically have a job so I played frisbee, and socialized and eventually drifted over to the BBQ and started my shift early on the grill and I became the grill master, I was the best a hot dogs and veggie burgers but for some reason I think my grill just didn't like beef burgers, they didn't cool well on my original grill but as time went by we shut off the one of the grills and worked on just one grill.
We had do much extra food, we froze 4 boxes of hot dogs and 3 of burgers, but we did cook all the veggies burgers.
I started my official BBQ shift at 4.
It was a good time, listening to music and dancing with BBQ tongs.
Things started to slow down after four o'clock

We spent a lot of time putting things down. And I was dying down a bit my head was killing me and the day was not over yet we still had the floor meeting.

At 7 Katie and I walked the first floors down to the school and gave them the low down on how things will work in res this year and our floor seems to be okay, they listened for the most part and asked questions and such and I think the meeting went well, I didn't say much but it is Katie's floor not mine and I don't want to step on any toes.

After the meeting I had to assist a resident that has locked himself out :( at this point I had lost Katie and ended up heading back down to the school with Fabris and Sam and we raided the food at the parent welcome, it was so good, I wish I could have taken all the leftovers home but they are quite strict about not taking the food home, even though the leftovers just get thrown away.
I may have stolen a wedge of cheese and frantically ran off with it, but I was good and I didn't take the plate.

I got back to my room, and my hands smell
Of smoked salmon from all of it that I ate at parent welcome (random fact)
I hung out with Katie and met kris' sisters jesse who is at unbc this year and lives in keyoh, she is tall like kris and seems friendly.

I plan on going to bed soon as I am tired and I still have a headache. I feel kind is bad for Katie as I know she is drained too and she is on call tonight and will probably be up multiple times to let late arrivals in :( poor Katie
At least tomorrow should be more relaxed than today.


Feeling a bit homesick, here's hoping that goes away

Night!

Can't believe it's been over a week

Today was a day off from training, I still got up relatively early at relaxed and had breakfast and chilled on the couch. Eventually Katie woke up and we hung out and she worked on stuff for the first floor bulletin board. At noon I wash a bunch of the RLTs T-Shirts, and Liz had come over and she brought us Starbucks, which was very nice of her. We then went a set up the first floor bulletin board all together and I switched the T-shirts into the dryer and learned that first floor dryers suck and that I will likely not be doing laundry on my floor as the machines suck more than usual and it is all the way at the end of the hallway. Liz had to leave just before two, and after she left Katie and I went to go put up the door decorations on the floor and we delivered the welcome messages along with little packages of goldfish, many of the first floor residents are already moved in, even though technically tomorrow is move in. The door decs look really good and I was glad that we were done by around 3, and then Katie and I took some time to clean up our room, as it was a tad messy, scraps of paper were everywhere and I was really glad to get it tidied up. After that Katie abandoned me to go visit Kris, and I just hung out by myself and watched tv for a bit. I also took the time to call my mom and my dad, but my dad didn't answer. I found out from my mom that my granny is out of the hospital, which was a nice thing to hear, she had been in the hospital with an infection and I know it was stressing my mom out, and was very relived to hear that she is out of the hospital and doing better. After that I made dinner, I cooked up potatoes and broccoli and some salmon with a ginger line sauce, and it was pretty delicious, and I have lots of leftovers, which is good. After that I painted my nails, and I was super anal about it, it was also super time consuming, and while they were drying I watched more TV, and when I thought that they were dry enough I went to go put away my leftovers, but sadly I mucked up my nails, which was sad, I hate when my nails get nicked and such. I think now that it has been like 3 hours they should be at the point where they should not be damaged super easily...I hope. Katie came back from Kris' at around 7ish, and at almost the exact same time my dad called me to let me know that he has mailed off my teddy bear, and was also sending me my proof of insurance so I can opt out of the student health and dental plan which will save me about $200, which is important. Katie and I then spent a bit of time planning out the floor meeting that has to be done tomorrow, and then Lindsey came over to visit and is still here, and we are catching up on life which is nice. I will be heading to bed soon, as tomorrow will be a long day and a busy day. Night!