On biz school, college, and University
I got back from a graduate winetasing and dinner just now. It's been some time, and thus seems fitting to touch on my relationship with the three entities that make up my educational experience. Some discussion on this trinity is part of any induction to the school, but I suspect no-one who has not attended the school can ever have a fair insight into what it really means.
I also suspect that being in my program biases things somewhat, since I notice a fairly regular crowd of people in my college, and I feel that I`m very much grasping nebuously at sociality when I attend these events. But I digress.
At its simplest, I would say that the business school is for all intents and purposes my university experience. Since I associate school primarily with classes, learning, and work, the building I spend most of my time in is the school aspect. Most of the people I know are there, and that is where I leave in the mornings to and returm home from in the evenings. I have taken to thinking of my room in the shared house owned by my college as `home`.
So what then of the other places? More simple is the university. At its simplest, it doesn`t really exist. I mean this in the sense that Canada, as a nation, doesn`t really exist. It is clearly a place, a set of values, some pomp and circumstance, and a sense of belonging. However, it is difficult to point to one thing, and say, this is what it is, without then being entangled in the fact that the provinces, regions, and cities, are what is in fact being talked about.
The college, then, is most hard to define. At best, I would describe them as extended family. You have the sense that you share a great deal in common, without necessarily actually feeling like you have much in common. You have ties of history, place, and circumstance, but in all cases of more relevance before you were here or after you`re gone, rather than when you`re actually here. It`s not as if I think there is absence because of this view, on the contrary, the sense is that things are as they should be, only you`re not as close as you would notionally appear to be.
In other news, I had the opportunity to practice some photography on Friday, there was a Diwali event organized by students at the school, which I would say was quite the success. I got maybe a handful of genuinely good pictures, amidst a sea of blurry mis-framed shots. I think I need to adjust my grip when I`m holding the camera in landscape mode, as I`m consistently rotated somewhat counter-clockwise, while the effect is much less pronounced when I`m shooting portrait.
I ducked out of that a bit early though, as I then met up with a friend visiting from out of town. It`s quite interesting when you have two formerly discrete aspects of your life collide. It`s a bit jarring, but really enforces the somewhat magical or surreal nature of my current environs.
At any rate, it is the start of week 5, and there`s a fair bit left to do...
I also suspect that being in my program biases things somewhat, since I notice a fairly regular crowd of people in my college, and I feel that I`m very much grasping nebuously at sociality when I attend these events. But I digress.
At its simplest, I would say that the business school is for all intents and purposes my university experience. Since I associate school primarily with classes, learning, and work, the building I spend most of my time in is the school aspect. Most of the people I know are there, and that is where I leave in the mornings to and returm home from in the evenings. I have taken to thinking of my room in the shared house owned by my college as `home`.
So what then of the other places? More simple is the university. At its simplest, it doesn`t really exist. I mean this in the sense that Canada, as a nation, doesn`t really exist. It is clearly a place, a set of values, some pomp and circumstance, and a sense of belonging. However, it is difficult to point to one thing, and say, this is what it is, without then being entangled in the fact that the provinces, regions, and cities, are what is in fact being talked about.
The college, then, is most hard to define. At best, I would describe them as extended family. You have the sense that you share a great deal in common, without necessarily actually feeling like you have much in common. You have ties of history, place, and circumstance, but in all cases of more relevance before you were here or after you`re gone, rather than when you`re actually here. It`s not as if I think there is absence because of this view, on the contrary, the sense is that things are as they should be, only you`re not as close as you would notionally appear to be.
In other news, I had the opportunity to practice some photography on Friday, there was a Diwali event organized by students at the school, which I would say was quite the success. I got maybe a handful of genuinely good pictures, amidst a sea of blurry mis-framed shots. I think I need to adjust my grip when I`m holding the camera in landscape mode, as I`m consistently rotated somewhat counter-clockwise, while the effect is much less pronounced when I`m shooting portrait.
I ducked out of that a bit early though, as I then met up with a friend visiting from out of town. It`s quite interesting when you have two formerly discrete aspects of your life collide. It`s a bit jarring, but really enforces the somewhat magical or surreal nature of my current environs.
At any rate, it is the start of week 5, and there`s a fair bit left to do...