Past few days
Where to start? Perhaps pleasant and then move to least pleasant?
My trip to Toronto was quite superb though entirely too short. It was a really neat experience getting to meet all the people on the CMS Student Committee (Studc) that I'd been corresponding and working with for the past year. It's much nicer to know who's on the receiving end of your emails other than mystery math student whose name you know, lol. And even with pictures on the web, quite a few of them looked nothing like I pictured. And one of them looked startlingly like me, especially in profile. IT was almost disturbing talking to her because I kept seeing myself. I showed my parents a picture of her and they thought it was me.
The meeting itself was very productive. And as I mentioned, more so by process of elimination than anything, I got bumped up to co-chair of the committee. It basically boiled down to: my term wasn't ending next meeting, I wasn't imminently about to start writing up a PhD thesis and I didn't have a 5 month old baby at home and hence I was the perfect candidate to take over as co-chair. Go figure right?
We went out on the first night to a place called Mr Greenjeans in the Eaton Centre which we had a heck of a time finding. We enlisted many locals to try to get us there. Quite amusing actually. And the next day we had our meeting, then visited the art gallery and went out for dinner at Montanas. And I was quite disappointed. Friday night I reallly wanted Apple Cobbler and they were out, Saturday I was waiting all day for a strawberry margarita and their machine was broken. I had no luck! Then Sunday I spent mostly in the hotel studying until I had to catch the airport shuttle. Now this shuttle was like a block from my hotel, but could I find it? Nooo.... and I was asking everyone where it was, even security guards and no one could tell me where this street was that was only two sets of lights east of where I was looking. Grr... that was a near disaster I tell you.
Then on the plane ride home I was ironically enough seated next to an economics prof at the U of W who I'd never met before. I recognized her face and she said she didn't recognize my face but recognized my voice from having her office just outside of Julies. And we talked almost the whole way home. She's a really fun lady and apparently invigilating my exam tomorrow too. Small world some times.
This morning I got to the university early and wrote my graph theory exam in the glass room by myself before the rest of the class. The exam went really well. I only couldn't get part b of one question so I project a 92%. It was was cute though before the test. My prof, who I also mark for, took me into his office and said he had something that would "warm my heart". He just finished marking the discrete math exams and they all seriously messed up a contrapostive. The question was something like:
If a2∩[b1,b2]=φ . and they wrote the contrapositive as: If a2>b2 then [a1,a2]U[b1,b2]/= φ . *sigh*
Apparently they've taken none of my comments to heart. Oh well, they all thought I was horrible and mean anyways :P
The funeral for my grandfather was this morning too. It was...a bit odd. His nephew gave the eulogy. It was suddenly impressed on my how much time he spent with his nieces and nephews and how little with his own children and grandchildren. They talked about how much he loves and adored kids. Yet he neever came to see us. It was a strange disconnect from the reality I knew and what was presented. It was also really nice to see some of my aunts and uncles that I don't normally see because of family feuding. And it seems like I may see more of them. But some rifts have been driven further. My cousins resorted to leaving petty comments in the guest book. The guest book! Atleast no one created a verbal scene at the church. Two of my aunts didn't come to the reception afterwards. And neither did the cousins who wrote in the guest book. It's really sad. It's times like this where you make a choice. You can realize that life's too short, accept your hurt, and then choose to forgive and move on and reach out for your family and those who you love. Or you can choose to burn bridges. But it's a choice and clearly one is much more constructive. And I wish people would learn that...
Wish me luck on my econ exam tomorrow. Two more to go and then two weeks of freedom, hooray!!!!
My trip to Toronto was quite superb though entirely too short. It was a really neat experience getting to meet all the people on the CMS Student Committee (Studc) that I'd been corresponding and working with for the past year. It's much nicer to know who's on the receiving end of your emails other than mystery math student whose name you know, lol. And even with pictures on the web, quite a few of them looked nothing like I pictured. And one of them looked startlingly like me, especially in profile. IT was almost disturbing talking to her because I kept seeing myself. I showed my parents a picture of her and they thought it was me.
The meeting itself was very productive. And as I mentioned, more so by process of elimination than anything, I got bumped up to co-chair of the committee. It basically boiled down to: my term wasn't ending next meeting, I wasn't imminently about to start writing up a PhD thesis and I didn't have a 5 month old baby at home and hence I was the perfect candidate to take over as co-chair. Go figure right?
We went out on the first night to a place called Mr Greenjeans in the Eaton Centre which we had a heck of a time finding. We enlisted many locals to try to get us there. Quite amusing actually. And the next day we had our meeting, then visited the art gallery and went out for dinner at Montanas. And I was quite disappointed. Friday night I reallly wanted Apple Cobbler and they were out, Saturday I was waiting all day for a strawberry margarita and their machine was broken. I had no luck! Then Sunday I spent mostly in the hotel studying until I had to catch the airport shuttle. Now this shuttle was like a block from my hotel, but could I find it? Nooo.... and I was asking everyone where it was, even security guards and no one could tell me where this street was that was only two sets of lights east of where I was looking. Grr... that was a near disaster I tell you.
Then on the plane ride home I was ironically enough seated next to an economics prof at the U of W who I'd never met before. I recognized her face and she said she didn't recognize my face but recognized my voice from having her office just outside of Julies. And we talked almost the whole way home. She's a really fun lady and apparently invigilating my exam tomorrow too. Small world some times.
This morning I got to the university early and wrote my graph theory exam in the glass room by myself before the rest of the class. The exam went really well. I only couldn't get part b of one question so I project a 92%. It was was cute though before the test. My prof, who I also mark for, took me into his office and said he had something that would "warm my heart". He just finished marking the discrete math exams and they all seriously messed up a contrapostive. The question was something like:
If a2∩[b1,b2]=φ . and they wrote the contrapositive as: If a2>b2 then [a1,a2]U[b1,b2]/= φ . *sigh*
Apparently they've taken none of my comments to heart. Oh well, they all thought I was horrible and mean anyways :P
The funeral for my grandfather was this morning too. It was...a bit odd. His nephew gave the eulogy. It was suddenly impressed on my how much time he spent with his nieces and nephews and how little with his own children and grandchildren. They talked about how much he loves and adored kids. Yet he neever came to see us. It was a strange disconnect from the reality I knew and what was presented. It was also really nice to see some of my aunts and uncles that I don't normally see because of family feuding. And it seems like I may see more of them. But some rifts have been driven further. My cousins resorted to leaving petty comments in the guest book. The guest book! Atleast no one created a verbal scene at the church. Two of my aunts didn't come to the reception afterwards. And neither did the cousins who wrote in the guest book. It's really sad. It's times like this where you make a choice. You can realize that life's too short, accept your hurt, and then choose to forgive and move on and reach out for your family and those who you love. Or you can choose to burn bridges. But it's a choice and clearly one is much more constructive. And I wish people would learn that...
Wish me luck on my econ exam tomorrow. Two more to go and then two weeks of freedom, hooray!!!!