Bicycles!
Hello everyone, long time no update! I'm in a very good mood (endorphins from cycling around doing errands for a chunk of the day along a beautiful canal lined with trees with green, orange and golden leaves) so I thought I'd list some of the stuff that I was stressed about but more importantly am really happy about.
First, the negativity:
-Frantically trying to finish proposals for two rather important scholarships for next year, the OGS and the SSHRC. For the purposes of these applications, I have to have a ridiculously specific topic and I have to make it sound as if I've this immense body of research already completed and in fact the paper's already complete in my head and I just need to spend a few dozen hours writing it all down. It also has to be clear, concise (one's a two pager, the OGS is actually just a single page), and, most importantly, interesting and compelling enough for the governments of Ontario and Canada to give me money to pursue them. I'm doing my very best, but it's stressful nonetheless.
-Presentations! In fact, it was mostly a group presentation last week... and while it was super stressful at the time (as I also had rough drafts of proposals due, research, readings, etc.) I'm glad I did it last week and got it over and done with. I just can't do anything like that later in the term. Luckily for me, I think that now that that's over and done with, I just have to keep up with the readings each week, hand in my research paper proposal on time, and do the actual paper. Solid.
-Spending Thanksgiving alone. (Heads up: Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in early October: the 8th, this year.) Originally a friend and I had planned on spending it together. She's from Alberta too, and is doing the first year of her PHD in history at the University of Toronto... but we discovered last week that trains/bus tickets were either sold out, or had doubled in price for the long weekend, or both, and so neither of us could afford to come and see the other. :( This left me feeling kind of alone and unloved and it came at a time when I was feeling extra stressed, which didn't make for a good evening. Plus, it seemed that everyone in town either was spending Thanksgiving with their family in town or a few hours away, or already had plans with significant others. Luckily, I was speaking with a few people in my department the other day and an acquaintance of mine mentioned that all of her roommates had left for the weekend and she was just going to spend it baking and doing homework and she just so happened to have a frozen chicken in her freezer, so now we're going to spend an afternoon cooking together and studying. :) I'm not going to be alone for Thanksgiving! \o/ I am ridiculously grateful for this. Much love and stuffing to you all!
Now, the positivity:
-Ottawa is a beautiful city at this time of year! I have been doing a lot of cycling around, especially along the canal, which is absolutely gorgeous with all of the trees changing colour. The weather is still fairly mild (when it's not raining), and I just recently (yesterday) biked across town to the Mountain Equipment Co-op to get a bike light and a fantastic set of saddlebags which means that I feel way more free while cycling instead of loading my backpack down with groceries and having bags slung across the handlebars. It's so much fun.
-I'm feeling healthy! I'm getting tons of exercise just by doing errands, running up and down stairs: my office on campus and all of my classes save one are on the fourth, fifth or sixth floors of buildings. I've also joined a dodgeball team (just for fun) and I'm going to start going to free yoga sessions as offered by the Grad Students Association. I need to get a scale or something, because it just hit me today that I think I have lost a bit of weight around my belly, which is what I want. I mean, I'm not chunky or anything (I'm curvy, more than anything else, to be honest) but I've had a bit of a belly for the past few years and I think I'd just feel better about myself if I lost about 10 lbs over the course of sixth months or so. I think I'm on my way!
-I've got a research assistant position! Apparently, because the Library and Archives of Canada are located in Ottawa, occasionally researchers who need access to them but don't have the time/can't afford to keep flying/driving/teleporting to Ottawa will hire students already in the city to do research for them at a distance. I met with the researcher today before he went back to his city, and I'll be beginning next week... it'll be a much needed source of income this semester. I'm not on the verge of going to the soup kitchen or anything, but because I've chosen to have the cost of one semester's tuition taken out of my TA pay for this semester, my salary is only covering the cost of my rent this month (not quite, actually) and so I'm dipping into my savings for groceries, etc. But no longer! (Hopefully.) I'm still waiting on the scholarships that I know are to be paid to me this semester, but I don't know when... Anyway, this position will also give me much needed experience for my CV when it comes to applying for internships next summer.
-There are so many awesome lectures going on on campus! I've heard a director of the Louvre and of the Grand Palais in Paris speak on the inner workings and future projects of French art museums, and I've attended the first of the Shannon series of lectures which was completely and absolutely fascinating and I'm pretty much going to attend every single one short of being waylaid by zombies or what have you.
-Attending campus events in general have been super fun. I've gotten free bus tours of the city, gotten a boat ride on the Ottawa River, and gotten so much free food... (the way to a poor starving student's heart, of course.)
-Field trips! Apparently grown ups can have fun outside of class too. I've already visited the Canadian Museum of Civilization (behind the scenes!) with a class, gone on a walking/bus tour of the city that focussed on local history and the development of Ottawa's landscape, and next week I'm going out of town with class to visit a local museum at Pinhey's Point. I don't know what to expect, but I'm very excited. :) I'm learning practical history!
Anyway, I had best get some work done: marking (I'm an authority figure!), reading, research, proposal writing... Oh, yes, and one final thing: I have discovered the awesomeness that is internet radio. iTunes has a bunch listed, including "Abacus.fm Vintage Jazz" which has jazz, big band, and swing dance songs from the 1920s-1940s, and makes awesome studying (and dancing!) music. :)