Category Archives: Class

Where I am right now.

2 Replies

Madi Smith singing Vitus

Last weekend was Folk Fest, which is when everyone from the school and the community gets together to show off their artistic ability. I did a reading, but that’s not what this post is about. What this post is about is the sheer amount of artistic ability everyone was showing off, and the artistic passion. LOTS of song-writers, and visual artists, and photographers, and crafters; it was fabulous. And what was especially fabulous was the place the art was coming from.

Cause you create art out of your whole life, right? What stirs you, fascinates you, what you think is important and what you just can’t get out of your head. So there were songs about local history. And there were pictures of travel to Europe and Asia. And comics about relationships, and ethical jewelry made out of leather and guitar strings, and it was AWESOME. I have a picture up above of Madi playing guitar and kick drum while singing a song about St. Vitus’s Dance, which I think is a wonderful depiction of SSU in one sentence/image.

Creating art about things out of the ordinary, and thinking outside of the box is really why I wanted to go back to university. I wanted to be able to take history and culture and language and make awesome things with them. And now I’ve found myself in a small artistic intellectual christian community which is close to the ocean, where that’s what people do. Success? I think so. :D

I am still working through (“asking fondly,” as Milton says), my self and my faith. Most of the time I have no idea if I believe in God or Truth or anything, especially when my emotions are bound and determined to sabotage me. But If I believe in God, and If I believe that God has a beneficent plan for me, and If I believe he wants me to follow all the things that fastinate me and fill me with joy to find that plan, I think God wants me to be here.

So even when I’m panicking over my inadequacy and failure, (more often than not), I need to cling to that knowledge. Where am I? I’m in the right place for right now.

“You’re from the East Coast, aren’t you?”

5 Replies
One of the things I had been rather loud about, while at Augustine, was donating blood. And Moon Unit had promised, back in the day, that she would go with me and donate next time I did. Of course, shortly after the promising I moved back to Newfoundland, so she seemingly escaped from that pledge. 
And then I came to visit! *evil laughter* 
I even made the appointments for us, and dragged Moon Unit along with me. We drove to a park-and-ride, and then rode the bus across town to the national headquarters. This was Moon Unit’s first donation, so she was a bit- not nervous, but tense. Something about needles and blood and the smells of a hospital tends to do that to people. I don’t know why… *pretends she wasn’t flinching at small noises the whole time herself* 
So we filled out the detailed questionaries. Those always amuse me, in a perverse way. Mostly because I answer no to all the questions about health issues, travel, and especially relationships. I’m just not a high risk individual!
And then we got to sit in big cushy laz-e-boy chairs, while they stuck needles in our arms. Don’t you wish you were there? I got hooked up a little before Moon Unit, but then I kept clotting up, so the nurses were doing a lot of hovering. “Just squeeze this ball here, every ten seconds, okay? Keep the arm still. *adjusts needle* Keep squeezing…” 
During the delicate operation of adjusting the needle again, one of the nurses spent some time staring at my chest. And, carefully not meeting my eyes, said the following. 
“I saw your shirt, and first I thought it said “I heart Baby Seals.” And I thought, that’s nice, that’s nice, Seals are cute. But then I looked again, and I saw there was a club there.” She paused. “You’re from the East Coast, aren’t you?” 

And I laughed and said I was, and she went to deal with Moon Unit, who was bleeding beautifully. In fact, Moon Unit finished her donation about five minutes before I was done, and stood by my chair until the nurses decided they were not going to get a full donation out of me, and pulled the needle out.
Then we headed on to get refreshments! Free tea and cookies, what is not to love? So I was trying to figure out the coffee machine, when from behind me I hear Moon Unit say dreamily, “I’m just gonna.. sit down.. here.” Looking around quickly proved that she was about the colour of a sheet of paper, and listing to the right. The volunteers and nurses quickly had her sit down and put her head between her knees, and then rushed over a stretcher, and wheeled her away behind a curtain, and took her blood pressure, and fed her juice, and fanned her, and generally Moon Unit was the centre of attention. Meanwhile, I drank tea, and juice, and ate my way through the basket of cookies. I’m such a considerate friend. 
At any rate, they eventually let her out, and I made her eat some more cookies. Then we decided to take our free mugs and get out of the hospital-smelling atmosphere. To the mall! Moon Unit magically had some more bus tickets, so that was good. Though while waiting for the bus we were both tired enough that we just sat down by the sidewalk- and found later that we’d been sitting in a collection of broken glass. You know the pebbles of safety glass that get everywhere after a windshield is broken? Apparently someone had had a windshield broken right about where we chose to sit down. But we only realized this later, observant girls. 
It was right about that time that we started joking that I had been having all the attention on me, so Moon Unit had to faint to get the attention on her. We just want attention! 
And then I started feeling stomach sick. Tempting fate much? Oops….  Maybe we just need to eat. That sound about right! So when we got to the mall we reconvene at the food court. We decide on Thai food and root beer, and head off in separate directions to get said food and drink. 
Standing in line in front of the heat lamps, Moon Unit almost falls over. “I’m.. just… gonna sit down… over here. Call me when it’s ready!” *she escapes the evil line and sits down* And then she comes back to the table, and finds me lying across two chairs, eyes closed. 
Moon unit: “Are you okay?”
Me: “Fine…”
Moon Unit: “Do you want to eat-”
Me: “No!”

She was rather pale at the time too. I took this particular picture to show how much better she was looking, now that she had some colour back in her face. And then I looked at it and went whatttt???? That’s less pale???? *cough*
Then we decided that the attention seeking was getting out of control, so we should just take the bus home before we were hit by a bus or set ourselves on fire, or something. Moon Unit ate the Pad Thai, and I drank the Root Beer, and we headed for the bus stop. *sigh* I made it about a hundred yards before I had to run for a garbage can to throw up in. Fortunately for the mall staff I was NOT actually sick, I just attempted to cough up a lung, and then collapsed on a bench.  (See picture there. / )
At that was when Moon Unit called her dad and asked him to drive us to where we’d left the car. It was very exciting. 
Some people can ride the bus to places, or give blood, without incident. Lesson of the day: we are not those people.

“How did you get here?” “I took a bus, a shuttle and two planes, and caught a ride with Moon Unit’s parents.”

1 Reply

On Friday night, after arriving safely in Ottawa, Moon Unit and I hung out at mocked and stalked the College and met this year’s crop of insane students, as well as several alumni from previous years. And then Moon Unit and I kept each other awake for far too long, talking and laughing. 
And then Saturday was the grad! In traditional form, most of the class came over to the College early to be nervous and offer adjectives for the Valedictorian’s speech. So we hung out drank tea, talked about papers and vegetables, and were companionable for a little, and then walked over to the church where the service was taking place. 
Ruth enjoys the tea and scones.
Em and TTGH are amused.
Em and TTGH are serious. 
We reconvened in the sunny living room once the boys started to arrive.
Moon Unit and TTGH are companionable. 
The service was quite similar to last year’s, only this time I sat on the other side of the church, and I didn’t get a piece of paper with Latin on it. *dejected* But I got to wear a lovely black robe again!  Here is a pic of the graduating class, and a view of the church. It’s a high Anglican church, in case that’s not obvious from the candles, iconography, and general decor. 
After the service was the dinner, where according to tradition, the Alumni help serve the food and clean up. Which, given the hilarious and hardworking people who are Augustine Alumni, is actually oodles of fun. And it continued to be fun, despite the fact that the dishwashing took approximately two to three hours. After about 90 minutes time ceased to exist in the normal fashion. I just know that it was light when we got there, and dark and raining when we left. I was rather tired as well, so that might contribute to the haziness of my memory of that afternoon. :D The professors didn’t know that I was coming either, so I had some fun moments when they did double-takes at me. 
And then we went back to the college and hung out drank tea, ate cake, and took pictures. I offer you a selection of the best pictures, for your eternal edification. 


There was a moment when, for unknown reasons, my hat started being passed around the room. And my camera was following it, taking pictures.

Write more later!

*stares*

4 Replies

I’ve successfully traveled overseas, using two different flights, AND I still have all my baggage. I even got in early. How about that West Jet, eh? The whole process of passing from one airport to another, in fact, was startlingly uneventful. I’m afraid this makes for poor blog entries, but I think I’ll defer my complains, for now. :D  

And then I got to Ottawa, and Moonunit and Rose was there too meet me at the airport! With Moonunit’s parents, and a sign with my name on it! It was totally the most exciting day of my ENTIRE LIFE!!!! *pauses* Well, maybe not, but it was pretty awesome. I would have run down the escalator (and caught my skirt and tripped and spent the next little while in the hospital), only there was someone in front of me. So I had to wait while the whole escalator moved the whole length of the whole baggage claim. And then I attacked Moonunit, and she attacked me, and Rose watched- it was very exiting. Oh, and Moonunit’s parent’s took pictures! So I guess I need to get a copy of those. 

Now I’m at the College, where I’m staying for the next couple of days. The only thing is, I have no internet. No one knows what the password is for the College access, so I can’t log on. I have no idea when you’ll get this, if at all…

EDIT: Here, have some pictures.

Newfoundland, from the sky!

Killing time in Halifax.
Yes, those spots are on the window, you’re not just passing out. I thought it made a nice effect. And see, that’s the plane that brought me to Ottawa! Isn’t it shiny?

The lovely Ruth uses the borrowed internet-computer. It made the rounds…

Later, Moon Unit uses the same computer to send in her last assignment. Doesn’t she look harmless? :D

We’re graduates now, does this mean we have to be mature?

Leave a reply

The graduation! Third World’s parents came over and drove her, Moon Unit, and Myself over to the church at 3. Unfortunately, no one had sent out any kind of information email, so none of the students really knew quite what was going on. We were directed to put on our awesome robes, so we did, and then we went outside, and progressed up the aisle of the church, all in typical Augustine “act like you know what you’re doing and maybe no one will notice that your shoes don’t match” style. Then, as is traditional for graduation ceremonies, I hear, there were speeches, by Dr. Tingley and Texas in our case, and the presentation of certificates. It was my first graduation ceremony I’ve been in or attended, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but I think it was good. Moon Unit said we looked like a murder of crows, which was jolly.

Then we had an excellent dinner, and chatted away. None of my family was able to make it, so I sat with Third World’s family, which was also jolly. Come to think of it, my family would have taken up two tables all to ourselves, and there was NO room for more tables in that hall. Everything works out for some good! So, we chatted for, well, three hours. There were people, (mainly professors,) making the rounds of the hall and talking to each of the tables. The professors especially were saying really nice things about all the students.

All through the evening, there were good-byes going on. It tended to give the evening a rather surreal quality, at least for me. I tend to not really process the fact that I won’t see certain people again. Instead, I just enter an artificial state where I smile a lot, and am emotionally neutral. This was helped by the fact that a lot of people looked different, all dressed up. Moon Unit had her hair up, and Third World had her hair down and straight. I kept not recognizing them in my peripheral vision, and then belatedly realizing that it was my friends who were sitting and standing there.

Anyhow, after the meal was over, we went out and sang Karaoke. This had been decided upon by the elders of the class, and they were able to say, “everyone is coming, and it’s the last night!” Everyone came, and everyone, pretty much, sang. Though, some people, (us), had faulty directions and were looking on the wrong side of the street for a while. But we all go there in the end! Moon Unit sang Janis Joplin, and Third World sang Nickleback, and I, fool that I am, sang Train. Yes, I sang. *cringes at the memory* I have been told that I was on beat and on pitch, though, which retains for me the last vestiges of my dignity. And before you ask, I had drunk only root beer. :D

It was just the last night, and only my classmates were paying attention… I have decided that I am not a fan of bars. It was noisy, and there were people drinking alcohol, (fancy that), and people I didn’t know getting awfully cuddly. *shudders* My personal dislike of bars aside, it was a fun event. And, it was so noisy and impersonal that we couldn’t get too maudlin about parting, which was a plus.

Third World’s parents, who are lovely, were still driving us around, and they dropped Moon Unit and I off at the College, before returning with Third World to the hotel. They were flying back to Oregon at 8 the next morning, and so had to leave for the airport at 5 in the morning. So Moon Unit and I said good bye to Third World in the front yard, at 11:30 at night. I’m missing her a lot. Anyhow, I waved her out of sight down the street, as is my tradition for farewells; you wave until what you are bidding farewell is utterly out of sight. Moon Unit, who was Third World’s room mate (I have to use the past tense now, bah), didn’t want to sleep in the empty room, so she used Rach’s bed, as Rach had left earlier in the day.

Then Moon Unit packed up all her things the next morning, and she left in the afternoon. I waved her out of sight too. RM will be here till Wednesday, which is nice. Em is leaving today.

I’ve kept myself busy on the computer all day, but know I’m missing people already. Mainly because I know that we most likely won’t see each other again at the same time this side of heaven, and I have no idea when I’ll be able to see even a few of my lovely classmates. The missing will get worse, and then it will get better, I know this. We have the internet, and mail, and phone! yeah!

þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg. as that passed over, so will this

Also, I get to see my family the day after tomorrow, which is tremendously exciting! *cheers*

Crime and Punishment! It’s such a ~cuddly~ book!

Leave a reply

I got my boxes mailed off today! And I had enough money! *collapses from relief* That was a really nervous point, but I got all THREE boxes off without incident. I am $104.50 poorer and a lot of stress lighter. :P

The graduation is tomorrow, and people’s families have been arriving all day. It’s starting to be quite exciting, what with reunions, and gowns arriving in the mail, and food preparation, and so on and so forth.

Third World’s parents arrived here yesterday, and they are really nice. *smiles at Third World’s parents* They kept including me, even to the point of inviting me and Moon Unit to breakfast at their hotel with Third World. Unfortunately Moon Unit was still at her sister’s house where she had been spending the night, but I got to go along. And then they drove me down to the Post Office! Really nice people.

It’s funny, how when I meet the parents of Moon Unit and Third World, they really remind me of my own parents. Just in how they are totally awesome, and happy, and have great relationships with each other. I’m seeing my own family on Tuesday! w00t!

I am now going to get off the computer, as I have spent the last two hours on here reading the news. Yeah! Hurrah for the time to read the news!

I passed! (the epic blog entry)

Leave a reply

WHEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [commence incoherent screaming of joy here]

In case you might have noticed, I was ever so slightly concerned about the possibility of my passing this year. Just slightly. Then we had the oral exam today, and learned the stats of who in the class passed. The verdict? Everyone made it. *punches the air*

Even the Scriptures exam, which as you also might have noticed I was rather concerned about, I passed. I got an 89. This is just wrong. I don’t understand that mark, at all. It was not a good exam. *shakes head vehemently* Not a good exam. But I am not going to try to argue a lower mark, rest assured! I just don’t understand. *is bewildered*

Moving on! Yes, the oral exam was today, and it was rather anti-climatic. I did not cover myself with glory, but neither did I go down in flames. This lack of combustion was chiefly because it was not really possible to ignite ones self, but the point remains! The dinner, on the other hand, was lovely. Em had made the famous braided sandwich rolls, and there were also veggies of joy, and cookies. Twas jolly.

Then the year books arrived, and we signed each other’s and chatted for something like a two hours. It was fun, and my first experience with signing yearbooks. All these experienced signers, and then Snazel biting her pen and trying to think of things to say that are amusing and representative. Not so much. I realized a bit more, when trying to think of things to say, how much I’m gonna miss everybody. I’ve really got used to all these people. *sigh* Grad in on Saturday afternoon, and then we’re scattering to all corners of the continent. West Coast, East Coast, Central, Prairies, South, Midwest; pretty much everywhere except The North or Southern California. *sigh*

But my little yearbook is jolly. *pats it*

We’ve also had our last class events, both official and unofficial, in the last week. The official one was when the class went out to Hal’s house for Community meal on Tuesday. Hal is the Office administrator for the College, and he’s been bringing his family by for community meal all year, which was very nice. It was oodles of fun, though I was tired early, as I had gotten up early to clean. We had done intensive deep cleaning of the house, which involved Moon Unit down on her hands and knees scrubbing the entry way for an HOUR, and general hilarity. We played a mix CD from one of Third World’s friends, very loudly. It was especially amusing when Swinger came in during Play that funky music.

Swinger : “I’d like to point out that there are no white boys in the house except for Peety and me, and we aren’t singing.”
Em: “We started it especially when we saw you coming up the walkway. *very bored* Dance, White boy, dance.”

Anyhow, what with the music and general hilarity, it was a fun cleaning morning. Then we headed out to Hal’s house in the evening. His kids were there, *happy* and we all hung out in the living room and the backyard. We had ribs, and salad, and pop, and marvelous mashed potatoes. It was delicious! Then those who were sports-inclined played soccer, and those we weren’t sat around and chatted. THEN, as evening fell, we had coffee, and unidentified berry-cake-pudding-trifle dessert, and CHOCOLATE CAKE OF GLORY. I called it that by accident after catching a glimpse of it in the kitchen, and the name was appropriate. It was four levels of marvelous dark chocolate cake, and iced with a ganache-ish icing. By then Moon Unit was a little loopy from exhaustion, and so was leaning on Swinger’s shoulder, and Third World and I were alternating leaning on each other and sitting on the ground , but we were leaving in someone else’s care, so we made unintelligent conversation for another two hours. Then we went home and slept like logs. *nods*

Oh, I forgot to mention that Professor Tucker, (lit.) was there, as was Professor Tingley, (Philosophy, Art, and Trivium,) and their respective families. SO there were lots of little ones running around, which was fun, but in retrospect I didn’t have any in my lap, which is why it didn’t feel terribly homey. Not that it was bad- quite the opposite! But the fact that there were children running about didn’t seem as homelike as it might have been. Interesting. And Hal and co. live in a very nice version of suburbia. I am beginning to think that that I may have judged suburbia too hastily. Not all cities are like Southern California! There were trees, and the houses looked different, and the inhabitants seemed to know their neighbors. In fact, the atmosphere was closer to the PMQs, which were a terribly fun place when you were under the age of 10. Kids everywhere, and a back yard that went on for miles. Anyhow, looked like a nice place, and the construction of the houses where definitely nicer than the PMQs!

Then on Wedsday we watched Lord Of The Rings. All day. With only minor breaks of less than 10 minutes. Yes, we are awesome. Sue has the extended version, so we watched the entire trilogy back to back. As this post is already too long I will not bore you with unnessesry details, except to say that it was very cool, and I was there the WHOLE time, and I was the only one who did that. The others skipped out for a couple of pieces of time, but I was there!!!!!

And, Moon Unit, Third World, and I cleaned out the fridges this afternoon. It was epic and furry.

Quid vides. Nihil videmus.

Leave a reply

Oh! I can translate that sentence! I think…

Two exams down, five to go.

Latin was this morning, and I actually feel fairly secure about it. I didn’t ace it, for sure, but I was able to answer all the questions. I’m pretty sure I didn’t fail :P

Philosophy was then in the afternoon, and was good. I don’t think I aced that one either, but I was able to answer most of the questions, in a reasonably coherent manner, and I wrote a 9 page essay in an hour and a half. *big grin* That was actually rather amusing. Last time most everyone left the exam after an hour and 45 minutes, and I was in there writing alone for the last hour. This time, we were all in there up to the last five minutes, and people were coming out of the exam saying things like “I had more to say, but my hand gave out.” The essay was on A big idea you might talk to people about. A nice lot of room for writing there, eh? :D I think I wrote about a page and a half in the last 5 minutes, wherein I touched on utilitarianism, Hume, Post-modernism, and a two sentence conclusion. I also wrote the last four pages under the motivation of the tea that professor Tingley made for us. It was really nice; he noticed that a lot of the students had not eaten lunch, and made us a pot of tea. By the time I took a cup it had been steeping for almost two hours, so that it was very dark brown and had a smoky flavour. I added a spoonful of sugar, and was rejuvenated!

And then I came out of class, shaking slightly from focusing for that long, and found that Air Canada finally had sent me some money for losing my baggage. So I can ship my books and blankets back home, and still have some money left over to do fun stuff during marking week.

We’re going to the symphony tonight, should be fun.

Must let Rach’s Other Half have the computer to research his art pieces. *bows*

What’s going on? Well…

3 Replies

I’m back from the Weston Lecture, which was good, but not inspiring. As I am ideologically opposed to starting school work at 10:15 at night, it looks like I have the rest of the evening off! *cheers*

I haven’t been posting much lately, sorry. *shy* What’s been going on? I’m done with my ~interesting~ philosophy paper. How good is it? Well, it’s up to 10 pages… Let’s not probe deeper, shall we?

What else do I have to do…

  1. a 20 page philosophy reading
    1. Due Monday
    2. with a 12 question assignment
    3. (we received this on Thursday evening.)
  2. Art paper:
    1. 10 pages
    2. 11 pt
    3. double-spaced
    4. 1 in. margins
    5. I have the question, and now after philosophy I know better what I’m doing.
    6. Due next week
  3. Dr. Patrick’s “evolution pros and cons dialogue.”
    1. As many pages as you need, so at least 6, probably way more.
    2. Due in three weeks
  4. Read Martin Buber’s I and Thou for philosophy.
    1. It’s a whole book.
    2. Next week’s Philosophy
  5. Scriptures paper.
    1. Comparing 3 writers
    2. 10 pages
    3. on an appropriate subject
    4. I have NO IDEA!
    5. Due end of the month
  6. Literature paper.
    1. No comment, really
    2. Due first week in April
  7. Somewhere in here we have a Literature Presentation.
  8. Ongoing Latin Translations
  9. Ongoing Philosophy readings.
  10. Start revising for exams, which are in only four weeks.

And our professors ask us with straight faces what we’re doing in our social lives. *grins*

Sigh.

This makes me tired.