(no subject)
Chris and I managed to snag tickets to see Alice in Chains in Seattle on November 24. We already have our hotel booked. I'm excited beyond belief. The fanclub pre-sale tickets sold out in 15 seconds, but the regular tickets went on sale on Ticketmaster 5 days later and I actually got a pair, due to an allstar performance with the "refresh" button and some killer reflexes. That show sold out SO FAST. The new singer is clearly no Layne Staley, and I bet I'll cry a little from sadness, but he's still really really good. It will be bittersweet to see Jerry. I keep fantasizing about potential special guests. It IS Seattle, hometown to the greatest music of all time (and home to AIC). Then the next day we're going to go up the space needle and perhaps go on a ferry ride.
I'm coming home for three weeks at Christmas. That will be good. I'm going to be working at HMV again for some extra spending money, and to feel productive. My students' exam is on the 11th and I have a 72 hour turnaround time, so I'm coming home on the 14th. It will be weird to not go Christmas carolling this year. Rach and I are going to go to the Vancouver Symphony's "Sing-a-long Traditional Christmas" and drink some Bailey's beforehand to try to capture the spirit. :)
There are some really great people in my program. There is a bunch of us that have gotten pretty tight, we went out two weeks ago and we're going out tonight. We decided we have to regularly schedule stress-relief because things are insane with school. Two weeks ago was the one and only time we have gone out, it's a lot busier than everyone expects.
Unfortunately, I don't really like my program at all. It just feels pointless now. I've decided that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a revolving cycle of academia, teaching English students how to be English professors, and writing articles that only English people will read. I started having serious doubts in the summer, and being in school really crystallized those feelings. I don't want to spend my life not achieving anything outside of the academy, do you know what I mean? It's hard to articulate.
I'm writing my LSATs this summer with Krystin! I've started studying for them already. That will be cool. I'm going to take some grad courses next year while I wait for Chris to finish up his MPP in April, and then I think I'll apply to law school. I'm applying for an English PhD as well, so then I'll have lots of options. I'm applying to Ottawa and York for Law, and then Carleton and UofT for English, but I'm really leaning more toward a law degree, and then working in government. I can be a bureaucrat. Chris and I might end up doing the same thing, just taking vastly different paths to get there. It would rule to be going to law school with Krystin, too. She has dreams of us opening a Kempton and Kempton firm, which would be too awesome. :P I'm taking a non-English grad course next semester in the Urban Studies MA program, it's called "Representations of the City in Culture" and I'm really looking forward to it. I saw Mike Heikkinen last weekend and we had a great talk about law school and all that stuff, and it was excellent to see him and hear that he's doing so well. And it was great to see Ryan Marchand too, he was introduced to Chris for the first time.
Chris has a co-op placement from May to August this summer, and we're not really sure where he'll end up. There are no really good opportunities in Van for him because he wants to work with the feds. He'll hopefully either end up in Ottawa for the summer, or potentially at FEDNOR in Thunder Bay. That would be cool because he could live at home rent-free, but lame because it's hard to go back home after you've lived away from it.
Here is my new favourite bread recipe. I've made this a few times already this week. It's delish:
Beer Bread
3 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
3 or 4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp italian seasoning (or whatever you want it to taste like, it's great with tarragon)
1 beer
1/4 c. margarine, melted
Preheat oven to 375 (or less, depending on how hot your oven runs). Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and add in beer. Mix well. Press into a loaf pan, then drizzle with melted margarine (and you can sprinkle some brown sugar on the top too if you want a sweeter crust). Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
It's seriously so easy and great tasting. I love to make hearty soups and stews, and so i love an easy and tasty bread recipe.
My landlord makes homemade beer, and he gave us 30 bottles for 25 dollars. And each bottle is 500 ml (he uses old Grolsch bottles with the pop top metal thing). It's great! Beer here is really quite expensive. When I asked for anything that was $24 for 24, the guy in the liquor store looked at me like I had two heads. That concept doesn't exist here. Ontario has the best liquor and beer stores in the country... that's what everyone from Ontario in the program reminisces about.
Today I went for a jog in a tank top and shorts, because it is plus 20 and sunny. It has been Vancouver's nicest fall ever, apparently. I'm not complaining! Rain is lame. I was listening to Alice in Chains and singing while I ran. It was excellent. There's a 10k I think I might sign up for in a few weeks. Running here is hard because I live on a giant hill. One part of the run is always pukishly hard.
ALright, this update was huge. Okay, time to go mark 35 mediocre essays. Hopefully everyone is enjoying what they're doing or planning a change.
I'm coming home for three weeks at Christmas. That will be good. I'm going to be working at HMV again for some extra spending money, and to feel productive. My students' exam is on the 11th and I have a 72 hour turnaround time, so I'm coming home on the 14th. It will be weird to not go Christmas carolling this year. Rach and I are going to go to the Vancouver Symphony's "Sing-a-long Traditional Christmas" and drink some Bailey's beforehand to try to capture the spirit. :)
There are some really great people in my program. There is a bunch of us that have gotten pretty tight, we went out two weeks ago and we're going out tonight. We decided we have to regularly schedule stress-relief because things are insane with school. Two weeks ago was the one and only time we have gone out, it's a lot busier than everyone expects.
Unfortunately, I don't really like my program at all. It just feels pointless now. I've decided that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a revolving cycle of academia, teaching English students how to be English professors, and writing articles that only English people will read. I started having serious doubts in the summer, and being in school really crystallized those feelings. I don't want to spend my life not achieving anything outside of the academy, do you know what I mean? It's hard to articulate.
I'm writing my LSATs this summer with Krystin! I've started studying for them already. That will be cool. I'm going to take some grad courses next year while I wait for Chris to finish up his MPP in April, and then I think I'll apply to law school. I'm applying for an English PhD as well, so then I'll have lots of options. I'm applying to Ottawa and York for Law, and then Carleton and UofT for English, but I'm really leaning more toward a law degree, and then working in government. I can be a bureaucrat. Chris and I might end up doing the same thing, just taking vastly different paths to get there. It would rule to be going to law school with Krystin, too. She has dreams of us opening a Kempton and Kempton firm, which would be too awesome. :P I'm taking a non-English grad course next semester in the Urban Studies MA program, it's called "Representations of the City in Culture" and I'm really looking forward to it. I saw Mike Heikkinen last weekend and we had a great talk about law school and all that stuff, and it was excellent to see him and hear that he's doing so well. And it was great to see Ryan Marchand too, he was introduced to Chris for the first time.
Chris has a co-op placement from May to August this summer, and we're not really sure where he'll end up. There are no really good opportunities in Van for him because he wants to work with the feds. He'll hopefully either end up in Ottawa for the summer, or potentially at FEDNOR in Thunder Bay. That would be cool because he could live at home rent-free, but lame because it's hard to go back home after you've lived away from it.
Here is my new favourite bread recipe. I've made this a few times already this week. It's delish:
Beer Bread
3 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
3 or 4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp italian seasoning (or whatever you want it to taste like, it's great with tarragon)
1 beer
1/4 c. margarine, melted
Preheat oven to 375 (or less, depending on how hot your oven runs). Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and add in beer. Mix well. Press into a loaf pan, then drizzle with melted margarine (and you can sprinkle some brown sugar on the top too if you want a sweeter crust). Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
It's seriously so easy and great tasting. I love to make hearty soups and stews, and so i love an easy and tasty bread recipe.
My landlord makes homemade beer, and he gave us 30 bottles for 25 dollars. And each bottle is 500 ml (he uses old Grolsch bottles with the pop top metal thing). It's great! Beer here is really quite expensive. When I asked for anything that was $24 for 24, the guy in the liquor store looked at me like I had two heads. That concept doesn't exist here. Ontario has the best liquor and beer stores in the country... that's what everyone from Ontario in the program reminisces about.
Today I went for a jog in a tank top and shorts, because it is plus 20 and sunny. It has been Vancouver's nicest fall ever, apparently. I'm not complaining! Rain is lame. I was listening to Alice in Chains and singing while I ran. It was excellent. There's a 10k I think I might sign up for in a few weeks. Running here is hard because I live on a giant hill. One part of the run is always pukishly hard.
ALright, this update was huge. Okay, time to go mark 35 mediocre essays. Hopefully everyone is enjoying what they're doing or planning a change.