Canadian Adventures Part 2
Thank you spastic Edmonton weather for giving me a bad cold. After several days of mid 40s, we are now back up the 70s, and I feel like crap. I was hoping the sniffling the last few days was only allergies, but yesterday I started feeling like shit and got a slight fever. Feeling better today, but still planning on taking it easy.
Since I'm stuck in my room for the moment, time to go back and talk about the adventures thus far in Canada. Gonna try to keep this short since I'm now three weeks behind.
August 12th-16th: Taira Conference in Banff!
I don't think I can express how amazing this trip was. I rode down to Banff in my advisor's car with one of the girls who works for the Prince Takamoto Centre. (Think UAlberta's Japan foundation.) It was about 5 hours to get down there. (Fairly simple drive; just go straight south to Calgary and turn right.) The one thing I learned about Alberta: it is extremely flat and full of cows. Beef is the cheapest meat you can get around here, and once you drive around and see all the cows walking around, you know why. After getting to Banff, I was dropped off at the hostel in town I was staying at, then wandered through town up to the Banff Centre. This is a huge theatre/performance/conference space, and also includes a couple hotels. We had a lovely meet and greet dinner the first night, and not only did I get to meet a ton of professors whose names I recognized (ie most of the people I cited in my thesis), but I also got to meet the other PreModernist student in my department!
The next three days of the conference were a blast. Our keynote speaker was from Japan and gave his presentation in Japanese, but thanks to IUC, I was able to follow most of it. (I actually got kudos from my prof for accomplishing that; academic Japanese is hard.) Even though I wasn't able to finish reading all the papers before getting to the conference, I was able to follow and enjoy all the presentations that the professors gave, and ended up with a large reading list of things to look up in the future. In addition to the presentations, the centre provided tons of food. (Buffet breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then they brought in snacks during the presentations? I felt like a hobbit.) I ended up skipping dinner the one night since I just couldn't bear to eat anything else.
Aside from the conference itself, I enjoyed walking around the town of Banff, and looking at all the mountains. I went with my advisor and a few other professors to the hot springs the one day (not Japanese-style, so we all had swimsuits). The night I skipped out on dinner I went to see "The Help." (Highly recommended if you're into that sort of film.) The hostel itself wasn't bad (can't complain for how cheap it was), though one night there were drunk girls coming in at 2am in my room.
August 17-22: Mom Visited!
After driving back to Edmonton on the 16th, my mom flew in from Philly on the 17th. By the time she reached Edmonton she was completely exhausted, but I had to make an effort to keep her awake to adjust to the time difference. (Even though it's only two hours, it still takes a little while to get used to.) We spent a couple days shopping for everything in my apartment, including an Ikea bookshelf, dishes, sheets, a rug, and lamps. My apartment still looks a little bare (since the walls aren't completely covered by posters), but it is definitely getting there. Aside from shopping, I took mom around campus, introduced her to my department, and adventured around Edmonton. We had a fantastic time, and I'm so glad that she was able to come up and see where I'm living, especially since she didn't get to visit me in Japan.
And the rest~
For the week after Mom left, I didn't have much to do. I started building the course website for the class I'm TAing, but generally just hung around campus. This past week was exciting however, as I had Graduate and International Orientation. I've started to make some friends, including a couple Chinese students who came over for a dinner-making party. (Traditional Chinese food for dinner with American brownies? Best!) Classes start on Wednesday, and Tuesday I have orientations and meetings in my department all day. I'm excited to finally get started, and very glad that I took the time to come early. I couldn't imagine moving in just this past weekend (my original move-in date) and jumping into everything immediately.
Curling up with my book and some movies for the rest of the day. Hopefully I'll feel well enough to go to the Sundae Sunday event my building is hosting tonight to meet some more people. (And you know, get free ice cream.) Ja~
Since I'm stuck in my room for the moment, time to go back and talk about the adventures thus far in Canada. Gonna try to keep this short since I'm now three weeks behind.
August 12th-16th: Taira Conference in Banff!
I don't think I can express how amazing this trip was. I rode down to Banff in my advisor's car with one of the girls who works for the Prince Takamoto Centre. (Think UAlberta's Japan foundation.) It was about 5 hours to get down there. (Fairly simple drive; just go straight south to Calgary and turn right.) The one thing I learned about Alberta: it is extremely flat and full of cows. Beef is the cheapest meat you can get around here, and once you drive around and see all the cows walking around, you know why. After getting to Banff, I was dropped off at the hostel in town I was staying at, then wandered through town up to the Banff Centre. This is a huge theatre/performance/conference space, and also includes a couple hotels. We had a lovely meet and greet dinner the first night, and not only did I get to meet a ton of professors whose names I recognized (ie most of the people I cited in my thesis), but I also got to meet the other PreModernist student in my department!
The next three days of the conference were a blast. Our keynote speaker was from Japan and gave his presentation in Japanese, but thanks to IUC, I was able to follow most of it. (I actually got kudos from my prof for accomplishing that; academic Japanese is hard.) Even though I wasn't able to finish reading all the papers before getting to the conference, I was able to follow and enjoy all the presentations that the professors gave, and ended up with a large reading list of things to look up in the future. In addition to the presentations, the centre provided tons of food. (Buffet breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then they brought in snacks during the presentations? I felt like a hobbit.) I ended up skipping dinner the one night since I just couldn't bear to eat anything else.
Aside from the conference itself, I enjoyed walking around the town of Banff, and looking at all the mountains. I went with my advisor and a few other professors to the hot springs the one day (not Japanese-style, so we all had swimsuits). The night I skipped out on dinner I went to see "The Help." (Highly recommended if you're into that sort of film.) The hostel itself wasn't bad (can't complain for how cheap it was), though one night there were drunk girls coming in at 2am in my room.
August 17-22: Mom Visited!
After driving back to Edmonton on the 16th, my mom flew in from Philly on the 17th. By the time she reached Edmonton she was completely exhausted, but I had to make an effort to keep her awake to adjust to the time difference. (Even though it's only two hours, it still takes a little while to get used to.) We spent a couple days shopping for everything in my apartment, including an Ikea bookshelf, dishes, sheets, a rug, and lamps. My apartment still looks a little bare (since the walls aren't completely covered by posters), but it is definitely getting there. Aside from shopping, I took mom around campus, introduced her to my department, and adventured around Edmonton. We had a fantastic time, and I'm so glad that she was able to come up and see where I'm living, especially since she didn't get to visit me in Japan.
And the rest~
For the week after Mom left, I didn't have much to do. I started building the course website for the class I'm TAing, but generally just hung around campus. This past week was exciting however, as I had Graduate and International Orientation. I've started to make some friends, including a couple Chinese students who came over for a dinner-making party. (Traditional Chinese food for dinner with American brownies? Best!) Classes start on Wednesday, and Tuesday I have orientations and meetings in my department all day. I'm excited to finally get started, and very glad that I took the time to come early. I couldn't imagine moving in just this past weekend (my original move-in date) and jumping into everything immediately.
Curling up with my book and some movies for the rest of the day. Hopefully I'll feel well enough to go to the Sundae Sunday event my building is hosting tonight to meet some more people. (And you know, get free ice cream.) Ja~