Canadian Adventures Part 1
Hello again everyone! I have been in Canada since August 10th, and things have finally settled down enough that I have time to recap my adventures! If you read my tweets, you probably have an idea of what's been going on, but if not here's a recap.
My adventure started the morning of August 10th. I originally had a 7:00 am flight to Chicago with a flight to Edmonton that would have gotten me here a little before 1 MST. At 5 am (after we were nearly to the airport), I got a text from Orbitz that my flight had been delayed for two hours. By the time I got to the airport, that extended to three. I was going to miss my connection, so after waiting nearly an hour in line at United's desk, I was on a new flight routed through Toronto, to get me to Edmonton closer to 5pm MST. The only seat on the second flight (the four hour one) however, was first class! Needless to say I didn't mind the delay, and had an amazing time in my first-ever first class experience. The in-flight meal was amazing; cocktails, wine with dinner, really good beef, and cookies and ice cream for dessert! (Economy has food for sale, but they don't get meals on such a short flight.) I'm now spoiled for flying back and forth. After getting into Edmonton and catching the shuttle to campus, I met one of the RAs who gave me the key to my apartment. Well, it was supposed to be for my apartment, but there was another Jillian moving in the same day, and he gave me her keys by mistake, so I spent the night in a studio apartment that wasn't mine.
The next day I got the apartment mix-up straightened out and moved into my actual apartment, a two-bedroom on the third floor of the Graduate Residence. The apartment is great, very spacious (especially compared to my Yokohama apartment), but the place is really hot. I'll be happy for the insulation when it finally gets cold, but right now it sucks. Anyway, I met my roommate, Audrey, from Montreal. I'm not sure how I feel about her yet since I really haven't had a chance to talk to her. She's a PhD student in the Geology department, and she's always in her room or out during the day. When she comes back she never says hello or anything; the only reason I know she's alive is when I hear her in the kitchen. I don't know, I guess it could be worse? (I could have that loud party roommate?) We're getting along fine for the moment, and she's fairly neat, so we shouldn't have too many problems. She's already mentioned that she probably will only live here for the next year and then move, so I may only have to deal with this for a year and get a new roommate next year. We'lll see how it goes.
That first full day of Edmonton I got to explore campus a bit. I finally met my advisor in person (previously we've only talked over email or skype) and he is amazing! He showed me all over the East Asian Studies department (we have an entire floor of a building. At Bryn Mawr EAST was shoved in a small corner, so this is amazing.) Since I was the first grad student to arrive, I got first dibs on my desk in the Grad Office (big corner seat :D) and got oo'ed and awe'ed over by the administrative staff and other professors. Our head administrative staff lady is AMAZING and has given me such amazing advice since I've gotten here, and she's just super friendly and nice. I'm really excited to get to know everyone and meet the rest of my cohort when they finally arrive!
Campus itself is different to say the least. Bryn Mawr is super tiny compared to Alberta. I've only been on part of campus so far; I'm planning to take the tour of campus during International Student Orientation next week, which should help. But I have located the important things, like the giant Rutherford Library (one of five or six libraries on campus???), the HUB mall (a dorm and mall on campus), and the campus bookstore. (It is the size of a small department store. Holy shit.) I'll be taking pictures of campus next week when more people show up.
I'll continue with the Taira Conference in Banff in my next post~
My adventure started the morning of August 10th. I originally had a 7:00 am flight to Chicago with a flight to Edmonton that would have gotten me here a little before 1 MST. At 5 am (after we were nearly to the airport), I got a text from Orbitz that my flight had been delayed for two hours. By the time I got to the airport, that extended to three. I was going to miss my connection, so after waiting nearly an hour in line at United's desk, I was on a new flight routed through Toronto, to get me to Edmonton closer to 5pm MST. The only seat on the second flight (the four hour one) however, was first class! Needless to say I didn't mind the delay, and had an amazing time in my first-ever first class experience. The in-flight meal was amazing; cocktails, wine with dinner, really good beef, and cookies and ice cream for dessert! (Economy has food for sale, but they don't get meals on such a short flight.) I'm now spoiled for flying back and forth. After getting into Edmonton and catching the shuttle to campus, I met one of the RAs who gave me the key to my apartment. Well, it was supposed to be for my apartment, but there was another Jillian moving in the same day, and he gave me her keys by mistake, so I spent the night in a studio apartment that wasn't mine.
The next day I got the apartment mix-up straightened out and moved into my actual apartment, a two-bedroom on the third floor of the Graduate Residence. The apartment is great, very spacious (especially compared to my Yokohama apartment), but the place is really hot. I'll be happy for the insulation when it finally gets cold, but right now it sucks. Anyway, I met my roommate, Audrey, from Montreal. I'm not sure how I feel about her yet since I really haven't had a chance to talk to her. She's a PhD student in the Geology department, and she's always in her room or out during the day. When she comes back she never says hello or anything; the only reason I know she's alive is when I hear her in the kitchen. I don't know, I guess it could be worse? (I could have that loud party roommate?) We're getting along fine for the moment, and she's fairly neat, so we shouldn't have too many problems. She's already mentioned that she probably will only live here for the next year and then move, so I may only have to deal with this for a year and get a new roommate next year. We'lll see how it goes.
That first full day of Edmonton I got to explore campus a bit. I finally met my advisor in person (previously we've only talked over email or skype) and he is amazing! He showed me all over the East Asian Studies department (we have an entire floor of a building. At Bryn Mawr EAST was shoved in a small corner, so this is amazing.) Since I was the first grad student to arrive, I got first dibs on my desk in the Grad Office (big corner seat :D) and got oo'ed and awe'ed over by the administrative staff and other professors. Our head administrative staff lady is AMAZING and has given me such amazing advice since I've gotten here, and she's just super friendly and nice. I'm really excited to get to know everyone and meet the rest of my cohort when they finally arrive!
Campus itself is different to say the least. Bryn Mawr is super tiny compared to Alberta. I've only been on part of campus so far; I'm planning to take the tour of campus during International Student Orientation next week, which should help. But I have located the important things, like the giant Rutherford Library (one of five or six libraries on campus???), the HUB mall (a dorm and mall on campus), and the campus bookstore. (It is the size of a small department store. Holy shit.) I'll be taking pictures of campus next week when more people show up.
I'll continue with the Taira Conference in Banff in my next post~