Backtrackin' Part II
OK... so my last few weeks in Kingston were kinda... surreal. Let me tell a story that might illustrate this.
The scene is the day after I pulled the first of two all-nighters prior to turning in the first of two (so far) drafts of my Master's Essay. It's 11:00 a.m., and I've been awake since 8:00 a.m. the previous day. I have not eaten since before midnight the night before, when I supped on potato chips from the vending machine downstairs. So, I decide to go get a healthy lunch at the cafeteria prior to launching into the Final Ten Pages.
It was pouring with rain. This was a good thing... the short walk to the JDUC (John Deutsch University Centre) cafeteria woke me up, and once I'd had a lurvely bowl of soup and some bread I definitely had my third wind and was ready to work again. On the way back, I didn't take my glasses off. This resulted in very odd, shifting perspectives... the lenses, partially clear; the lenses, speckled with rain, and my surroundings distorted through them; and then, looking over the frames, the usual myopic pastelly blur I'm surrounded with when I go without my specs. One lens seemed to be repelling rain better than the other. Then I got back to Theo(logical Hall, where my office is). One lens wasn't repelling rain better... one lens had fallen out!
In other words... during my last week or two in Kingston, I felt like my perspective on my situation, and indeed, the reality of said situation, was constantly changing and shifting without my permission. I mean, what with the deadlines on the ME being pushed back and back and back, the fact that I didn't know whether or not I'd get that Epilepsy B.C. job on June 2nd, and was therefore trying to plan a trip to NYC in a very small window of opportunity, plus the usual packing/shipping/cleaning/organising/evaluating year/crying at inopportune moments due to nostalgia nonsense, it was all a bit complex.
Of course, it all got done. Doesn't it always?
Lowlight: returning, on afternoon after second all-nighter for second draft of ME, to find kitchen flooded. I had left a pan in the sink to soak, and accidentally left the tap on one single drip... drip after drip for thirty six hours will flood a kitchen, boys and girls. And I had to deal with it before I slept.
Highlights: Seeing Bend it Like Beckham! Planning my trip to NYC. Night out dancing with Suzie. We got all dolled up, Suzie in a short skirt showing off the long legs, me in the red corset top that accentuates my own, erm, assets, and headed out for Elixir (by way of a drink each at the Tango). Everyone was outside, no one using the dance floor, so... we danced anyway! For a good two hours, I think. Fun to let loose like that once in a bleeding while. Final highlight -- seeing Forough for the last time. She was rushedly packing and cleaning her apt because she was leaving for Iran that afternoon, but we had to go over my ME. So, because she couldn't possible carve out the time to come to the office, I went over to her apartment, where I found her with her scarf tied on top of her head, cleaning-lady-style, and a dusting cloth in her hand! ;) ("I have a relative coming to stay while I am gone, otherwise I would not bother, I would just close the door and leave!") As I was leaving, she said, "This is not Persian hospitality, my dear, I should have you stay and offer you some tea and something to eat! But I have just cleaned out my fridge..." Whereupon she opened the fridge, produced a fruit bowl, and had me take an apple! She also told me I was "a delight to work with" and made several other undeserved complimentary remarks. *blushes* And kissed me on both cheeks as I left. :)
Overall, although my time in Kingston was not always deleriously happy, I think it was useful. I know I wouldn't have gotten into any program on Middle Eastern Studies without more background than I had coming out of McGill, and Queen's very handily provided me with that. And as Forough said, it was fortunate that all the courses she happened to be teaching were in my line of interests -- Islam and Politics, Islam and Modernity. If we weren't studying different countries (she Iran, I Turkey) our interests would be almost identical! She even taught that course on Middle Eastern history that I audited, and I really needed that for background and context. And of course, last but not least, it was free... I really did dodge the debt bullet for a really long time, which makes biting it now a lot easier.
The scene is the day after I pulled the first of two all-nighters prior to turning in the first of two (so far) drafts of my Master's Essay. It's 11:00 a.m., and I've been awake since 8:00 a.m. the previous day. I have not eaten since before midnight the night before, when I supped on potato chips from the vending machine downstairs. So, I decide to go get a healthy lunch at the cafeteria prior to launching into the Final Ten Pages.
It was pouring with rain. This was a good thing... the short walk to the JDUC (John Deutsch University Centre) cafeteria woke me up, and once I'd had a lurvely bowl of soup and some bread I definitely had my third wind and was ready to work again. On the way back, I didn't take my glasses off. This resulted in very odd, shifting perspectives... the lenses, partially clear; the lenses, speckled with rain, and my surroundings distorted through them; and then, looking over the frames, the usual myopic pastelly blur I'm surrounded with when I go without my specs. One lens seemed to be repelling rain better than the other. Then I got back to Theo(logical Hall, where my office is). One lens wasn't repelling rain better... one lens had fallen out!
In other words... during my last week or two in Kingston, I felt like my perspective on my situation, and indeed, the reality of said situation, was constantly changing and shifting without my permission. I mean, what with the deadlines on the ME being pushed back and back and back, the fact that I didn't know whether or not I'd get that Epilepsy B.C. job on June 2nd, and was therefore trying to plan a trip to NYC in a very small window of opportunity, plus the usual packing/shipping/cleaning/organising/evaluating year/crying at inopportune moments due to nostalgia nonsense, it was all a bit complex.
Of course, it all got done. Doesn't it always?
Lowlight: returning, on afternoon after second all-nighter for second draft of ME, to find kitchen flooded. I had left a pan in the sink to soak, and accidentally left the tap on one single drip... drip after drip for thirty six hours will flood a kitchen, boys and girls. And I had to deal with it before I slept.
Highlights: Seeing Bend it Like Beckham! Planning my trip to NYC. Night out dancing with Suzie. We got all dolled up, Suzie in a short skirt showing off the long legs, me in the red corset top that accentuates my own, erm, assets, and headed out for Elixir (by way of a drink each at the Tango). Everyone was outside, no one using the dance floor, so... we danced anyway! For a good two hours, I think. Fun to let loose like that once in a bleeding while. Final highlight -- seeing Forough for the last time. She was rushedly packing and cleaning her apt because she was leaving for Iran that afternoon, but we had to go over my ME. So, because she couldn't possible carve out the time to come to the office, I went over to her apartment, where I found her with her scarf tied on top of her head, cleaning-lady-style, and a dusting cloth in her hand! ;) ("I have a relative coming to stay while I am gone, otherwise I would not bother, I would just close the door and leave!") As I was leaving, she said, "This is not Persian hospitality, my dear, I should have you stay and offer you some tea and something to eat! But I have just cleaned out my fridge..." Whereupon she opened the fridge, produced a fruit bowl, and had me take an apple! She also told me I was "a delight to work with" and made several other undeserved complimentary remarks. *blushes* And kissed me on both cheeks as I left. :)
Overall, although my time in Kingston was not always deleriously happy, I think it was useful. I know I wouldn't have gotten into any program on Middle Eastern Studies without more background than I had coming out of McGill, and Queen's very handily provided me with that. And as Forough said, it was fortunate that all the courses she happened to be teaching were in my line of interests -- Islam and Politics, Islam and Modernity. If we weren't studying different countries (she Iran, I Turkey) our interests would be almost identical! She even taught that course on Middle Eastern history that I audited, and I really needed that for background and context. And of course, last but not least, it was free... I really did dodge the debt bullet for a really long time, which makes biting it now a lot easier.