Happy Thanksgiving!
So, I was planning a big long post about a bunch of stuff. But after planning said post for a week, with additional things to mention piling up on top of it, I realized I just don't have time for a big long post. So here's the short short version:
-A week ago, on Wednesday, an intense wind & rain storm hit the Vancouver area, knocking out power at the campus for 2 days
-At the same time, I was attempting to finish up the coordination of a big grant application, and of course the power went out the day before the application was due
-I was also supposed to leave Thursday morning for a field trip to Seattle with the class I am TAing for
-Due to the power outage and storm, I stayed in Vancouver on Thursday to wrap up the grant application as best I could given that the power outage continued until Friday morning.
-Since I stayed through Thursday, Josh was able to join me in going down to Seattle on Friday
-The Seattle trip was awesome, including an excellent talk from one of the guys at worldchanging, a surprisingly drunken Friday night, and seeing an old friend on Saturday morning. More about this later.
-Saturday we returned to Vancouver to find that due to the storms, the water reservoirs had all overflowed and the water was now possibly contaminated and all tap water used for drinking, brushing teeth, doing dishes, etc, should be boiled for at least 1 minute before using. Fun! This lasted for 3 days for the reservoir serving our house and the campus; other parts of the city still have it in effect.
-Sunday night we had tickets to go see the Decemberists with a couple friends of ours. We got downtown to the venue to find a posted flyer announcing that the lead singer was sick and the concert would be rescheduled for for mid December. We consoled ourselves with pitchers of beer, crepes, and some excellent martinis
-When the school week began, it suddenly really and truly hit us that there's only two weeks of class left and holy shit we have papers to write. So that's what we're doing now. I have 2 in-class presentations to give next week, and then 3 papers due a week to a week and a half after that. Total anticipated word count: ~20,000. Shoot me now.
-In the last few days, I think I have nailed down solid topics for each of these papers, so I'm less stressed now than I was a few days ago.
-And finally, we celebrated American Thanksgiving at a little diner down the street that has a turkey + stuffing plate on its menu. I think our waitress was a little confused as to why we bother ordered turkey dinners, but oh well. We also splurged on a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie. Yum! It wasn't quite the family Thanksgiving we're used to, but it'll do.
And that, I swear, is the shortest version possible. See y'all in a few weeks, when term is over.
-A week ago, on Wednesday, an intense wind & rain storm hit the Vancouver area, knocking out power at the campus for 2 days
-At the same time, I was attempting to finish up the coordination of a big grant application, and of course the power went out the day before the application was due
-I was also supposed to leave Thursday morning for a field trip to Seattle with the class I am TAing for
-Due to the power outage and storm, I stayed in Vancouver on Thursday to wrap up the grant application as best I could given that the power outage continued until Friday morning.
-Since I stayed through Thursday, Josh was able to join me in going down to Seattle on Friday
-The Seattle trip was awesome, including an excellent talk from one of the guys at worldchanging, a surprisingly drunken Friday night, and seeing an old friend on Saturday morning. More about this later.
-Saturday we returned to Vancouver to find that due to the storms, the water reservoirs had all overflowed and the water was now possibly contaminated and all tap water used for drinking, brushing teeth, doing dishes, etc, should be boiled for at least 1 minute before using. Fun! This lasted for 3 days for the reservoir serving our house and the campus; other parts of the city still have it in effect.
-Sunday night we had tickets to go see the Decemberists with a couple friends of ours. We got downtown to the venue to find a posted flyer announcing that the lead singer was sick and the concert would be rescheduled for for mid December. We consoled ourselves with pitchers of beer, crepes, and some excellent martinis
-When the school week began, it suddenly really and truly hit us that there's only two weeks of class left and holy shit we have papers to write. So that's what we're doing now. I have 2 in-class presentations to give next week, and then 3 papers due a week to a week and a half after that. Total anticipated word count: ~20,000. Shoot me now.
-In the last few days, I think I have nailed down solid topics for each of these papers, so I'm less stressed now than I was a few days ago.
-And finally, we celebrated American Thanksgiving at a little diner down the street that has a turkey + stuffing plate on its menu. I think our waitress was a little confused as to why we bother ordered turkey dinners, but oh well. We also splurged on a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie. Yum! It wasn't quite the family Thanksgiving we're used to, but it'll do.
And that, I swear, is the shortest version possible. See y'all in a few weeks, when term is over.