the return of the beast
I’m back!
I think I quit LJing in February for two reasons. One of them was that I was just so stressed out with school that my entries would have been very, very boring. They would mostly have sounded like “oh dear god, I have X number of pages to write before this date but first I have to read eight books and type up my notes and organize them and I have a meeting with my thesis supervisor and he’s going to shake his head gravely at me when he sees how little I have done and I’m never ever going to graduate from university”. Well, to put an end to the suspense, I did graduate from university. It was painful, but I somehow managed to submit 130 pages of essay in the last six days of term (spread out over 4 large essays, including a 45 page honours thesis on faith based international NGOs, and a 35 page independent paper on the relationship between traditional and mondern medicine and medical practitioners in Ghana). It was insane, but I did pretty well and they gave me a degree (first class honours in anthropology and international development with a minor in African studies). The best part about graduation was they let me keep the hat.
The second reason has to do with my boyfriend, mike (as previously mentioned, and pictured looking kind of grungy and homeless in a previous entry). He was in toronto and I was in montreal, but we spent a lot of time on the phone every day (I have the phone bills to prove it!) and even though I was initially worried that was going to make it difficult to get work done, having that outlet of someone to talk to and relax with, and tell about things that happened and things I was worried about and things I was excited about each day was exactly what I needed. And he’s excellent. But I think I pretty much talked the guy’s ear off to the point that he became my livejournal substitute. Surprisingly, he still likes me!
And he’s seeing more of me than ever. A month and a half ago I packed up, said my farewells to montreal, and moved back to Toronto… and in to an apartment with him! It’s a bit of a grungy little place, but I’m pretty happy here. It’s my first time living in Toronto without living with my parents, s o that’s pretty exciting, and I’m also taking my first shot at financial independence. It’s been rocky (I’ve been buying a lot of groceries on visa towards the end of the month) but I think I’ll survive.
At the moment, I have the stupidest job ever. Visa is changing their logo
And my job is to go around from store to store, let businesses know, and give them new window stickers. Actually. It pays pretty decently, so that’s ok, but it’s a pain in the ass. At the end of june I start work at spiral garden, the same arts daycamp at a centre for disabilities that I work at every year.
It’s going to be pretty different this year - they just built a new building for the centre we’re affiliated with, and this summer they’re relandscaping the grounds, so we’re going to have to run our program indoors, and on a much smaller scale. All the same, I’m sure it will be fun - the kids are fantastic, and I work with the most amazing people - so I’m very much looking forward to that.
This summer, for the first time, a lot of my highschool friends are far from Toronto. Teresa’s in BC, Rosemary’s in Ottawa, Stef’s in montreal, Joce is in Peru, and even my darling Becca has gone away and left me, to go backpacking in Europe. She’s going to have an amazing time though, especially thanks to the fantastic haircut I gave her before she left:
The worst part about these people being away is that they are the best social initiators among my friends, so I need to start doing a better job of calling the people who didn’t go away. In the meantime, my social life is not especially active, but I’m pretty happy all the same. And I think I really am going to start writing here again.
love emily
I think I quit LJing in February for two reasons. One of them was that I was just so stressed out with school that my entries would have been very, very boring. They would mostly have sounded like “oh dear god, I have X number of pages to write before this date but first I have to read eight books and type up my notes and organize them and I have a meeting with my thesis supervisor and he’s going to shake his head gravely at me when he sees how little I have done and I’m never ever going to graduate from university”. Well, to put an end to the suspense, I did graduate from university. It was painful, but I somehow managed to submit 130 pages of essay in the last six days of term (spread out over 4 large essays, including a 45 page honours thesis on faith based international NGOs, and a 35 page independent paper on the relationship between traditional and mondern medicine and medical practitioners in Ghana). It was insane, but I did pretty well and they gave me a degree (first class honours in anthropology and international development with a minor in African studies). The best part about graduation was they let me keep the hat.
The second reason has to do with my boyfriend, mike (as previously mentioned, and pictured looking kind of grungy and homeless in a previous entry). He was in toronto and I was in montreal, but we spent a lot of time on the phone every day (I have the phone bills to prove it!) and even though I was initially worried that was going to make it difficult to get work done, having that outlet of someone to talk to and relax with, and tell about things that happened and things I was worried about and things I was excited about each day was exactly what I needed. And he’s excellent. But I think I pretty much talked the guy’s ear off to the point that he became my livejournal substitute. Surprisingly, he still likes me!
And he’s seeing more of me than ever. A month and a half ago I packed up, said my farewells to montreal, and moved back to Toronto… and in to an apartment with him! It’s a bit of a grungy little place, but I’m pretty happy here. It’s my first time living in Toronto without living with my parents, s o that’s pretty exciting, and I’m also taking my first shot at financial independence. It’s been rocky (I’ve been buying a lot of groceries on visa towards the end of the month) but I think I’ll survive.
At the moment, I have the stupidest job ever. Visa is changing their logo
And my job is to go around from store to store, let businesses know, and give them new window stickers. Actually. It pays pretty decently, so that’s ok, but it’s a pain in the ass. At the end of june I start work at spiral garden, the same arts daycamp at a centre for disabilities that I work at every year.
It’s going to be pretty different this year - they just built a new building for the centre we’re affiliated with, and this summer they’re relandscaping the grounds, so we’re going to have to run our program indoors, and on a much smaller scale. All the same, I’m sure it will be fun - the kids are fantastic, and I work with the most amazing people - so I’m very much looking forward to that.
This summer, for the first time, a lot of my highschool friends are far from Toronto. Teresa’s in BC, Rosemary’s in Ottawa, Stef’s in montreal, Joce is in Peru, and even my darling Becca has gone away and left me, to go backpacking in Europe. She’s going to have an amazing time though, especially thanks to the fantastic haircut I gave her before she left:
The worst part about these people being away is that they are the best social initiators among my friends, so I need to start doing a better job of calling the people who didn’t go away. In the meantime, my social life is not especially active, but I’m pretty happy all the same. And I think I really am going to start writing here again.
love emily