DALHOUSIE -- home of Newcombe, and the Killer Cods (I, being one of them...)
copied from an email that I sent out, and at the wonderfully genious request of a friend, you know who you are, decided to back off my scientific rear, and start posting again to my livejournal:
Well, hello my dearies! I hope you all are passing your back-to-school weeks doing wonderful things, and spending exhorbitant amounts of money on liquor, as most of you are 19 and have just finished Frosh Week. Here in the windy maritimes, namely Halifax, things are fairing well, as you will soon read.
I will now proceed to bore you intensely with my account of the past week and couple of days, so if thou art brave and noble of heart, proceed with caution, otherwise, RUN AWAY! (enter killer rabbit).
After spending a very busy summer working at the Pen and downtown, and after missing a week, and a weekend of holiday with the fam, I finally left St. Catharines to spend a glorious week in Prince Edward Island. If you know me well, it isn't news that I go there once a year and absolutely love it. It's no wonder I chose the East Coast! Sidetrack: life on the East Coast is friendly, easy-going, with a heavy emphasis on seafood and local beer (but I don't know anything about that). My week in PEI was spend getting gloriously sunburnt, trying to forget about the past two months and avoiding the topic of leaving again for Dal in two weeks. Word of advice: don't spend an entire day in the sun, apply low spf sunscreen, and expect to NOT get burnt.
Afer a short week on my island, we left for home, only to be greeted with the reality that I had a short two weeks in which to do all of the shopping and packing required to last me for an entire year of university (or at least enough to last me until Thanksgiving, at which point in time, I will shop some more!). I'll skip the tears, laughter, and goodbye parties, and skip straight to Halifax.
The drive was surprisingly short, mainly because I slept most of the way, and drives always go faster when you aren't really eager to go where you're headed. My mom, dad and I arrived in Halifax on Sat. Aug. 30, with a minivan trunk and a rooftop carrier piled to bursting point with my stuff.
We drove past the campus the first day there, and having never seen it in person before, I was blown away. It is phenomenally gorgeous! The buildings are made of old stone, and covered in vines. Looks better than in the picture books! We had some dinner (Cafe Chianti -- check it out if you're in the area), watched Finding Nemo (in-room movies!), and didn't sleep.
Moving Day -- the dreaded breaded. Frosh Week gets started early at Dalhousie, from the point you pull up with your car, in fact. I am in Shirreff hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus, in the newest section called Newcombe House (email me if you want the address). Our house mascot is the Killer Cod (I love it! Kiss the Cod!). So, I am a killer cod girl -- go figure, considering I will have a degree in Marine Biology in 4 years or so.
My room is really spacious. I'm in a single room because 90% of the rooms in this building are single rooms. My room is even bigger than most of the other rooms on the floor, but not drastically so. It's defnitely liveable. I'm all decked out in the many pieces of IKEA stuff with the strangest names you have ever come across. My Benno, Malm, Brunkrissla and Oland fight together quite nicely. I have finally succeeded at putting up most of my photos, although the past couple of days have been humid, and they're curling away from the wall where I didn't stick-tack them up.
Classes are well underway. I'm in a program called DISP, which is the Dalhousie Integrated Science Program. It's really intense, and I may been sending frantic panic phone calls home soon. My textbooks are beautiful. You definitely get what you pay for. My mom said "only Katherine would think that books are beautiful." Biology seems really neat. There's a heavy concentration on marine life, so I'm gonna love it!! There's also a Dalhousie Association of Marine biology Students here, which I'm am definitely going to join if I can. I've learned about environmental science as well, and my plan is as follows: I am going to apply for the honours and co-op programs at the end of this year, and then am going to apply for a co-op in New Zealand, or Australia, take summer courses at an affiliated school in Bermuda, major in Marine Bio, and minor in Environmental Science (phew). Sounds ambitious, I know, but oh so exciting.
Frosh Week was a ball o' fun indeed. Many new friends I have, and some stories. We have a brother/sister house in the co-ed res, and had a party with them Saturday night. T'was very enjoyable. Our house won the cheer-off and the song competition during the week (yes, they cheer here. . .). I've determined that I'm in a very good place to live. We didn't do any particularly crazy frosh stuff, which made the transition a little easier for me. I don't think I could have handled a drill seargent for a frosh leader.
I'm now a freshman, and am off to class (oooo). Chemistry and Stats back to back -- 1.5 hour lectures. Blech. Yay learning about how to graph stuff! Yay for "this is a periodic table...!" Whatever, I'll deal with it. The field trips and guest lectures are what I'm looking forward to.
I now must away, but I will update you again anon.
Well, hello my dearies! I hope you all are passing your back-to-school weeks doing wonderful things, and spending exhorbitant amounts of money on liquor, as most of you are 19 and have just finished Frosh Week. Here in the windy maritimes, namely Halifax, things are fairing well, as you will soon read.
I will now proceed to bore you intensely with my account of the past week and couple of days, so if thou art brave and noble of heart, proceed with caution, otherwise, RUN AWAY! (enter killer rabbit).
After spending a very busy summer working at the Pen and downtown, and after missing a week, and a weekend of holiday with the fam, I finally left St. Catharines to spend a glorious week in Prince Edward Island. If you know me well, it isn't news that I go there once a year and absolutely love it. It's no wonder I chose the East Coast! Sidetrack: life on the East Coast is friendly, easy-going, with a heavy emphasis on seafood and local beer (but I don't know anything about that). My week in PEI was spend getting gloriously sunburnt, trying to forget about the past two months and avoiding the topic of leaving again for Dal in two weeks. Word of advice: don't spend an entire day in the sun, apply low spf sunscreen, and expect to NOT get burnt.
Afer a short week on my island, we left for home, only to be greeted with the reality that I had a short two weeks in which to do all of the shopping and packing required to last me for an entire year of university (or at least enough to last me until Thanksgiving, at which point in time, I will shop some more!). I'll skip the tears, laughter, and goodbye parties, and skip straight to Halifax.
The drive was surprisingly short, mainly because I slept most of the way, and drives always go faster when you aren't really eager to go where you're headed. My mom, dad and I arrived in Halifax on Sat. Aug. 30, with a minivan trunk and a rooftop carrier piled to bursting point with my stuff.
We drove past the campus the first day there, and having never seen it in person before, I was blown away. It is phenomenally gorgeous! The buildings are made of old stone, and covered in vines. Looks better than in the picture books! We had some dinner (Cafe Chianti -- check it out if you're in the area), watched Finding Nemo (in-room movies!), and didn't sleep.
Moving Day -- the dreaded breaded. Frosh Week gets started early at Dalhousie, from the point you pull up with your car, in fact. I am in Shirreff hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus, in the newest section called Newcombe House (email me if you want the address). Our house mascot is the Killer Cod (I love it! Kiss the Cod!). So, I am a killer cod girl -- go figure, considering I will have a degree in Marine Biology in 4 years or so.
My room is really spacious. I'm in a single room because 90% of the rooms in this building are single rooms. My room is even bigger than most of the other rooms on the floor, but not drastically so. It's defnitely liveable. I'm all decked out in the many pieces of IKEA stuff with the strangest names you have ever come across. My Benno, Malm, Brunkrissla and Oland fight together quite nicely. I have finally succeeded at putting up most of my photos, although the past couple of days have been humid, and they're curling away from the wall where I didn't stick-tack them up.
Classes are well underway. I'm in a program called DISP, which is the Dalhousie Integrated Science Program. It's really intense, and I may been sending frantic panic phone calls home soon. My textbooks are beautiful. You definitely get what you pay for. My mom said "only Katherine would think that books are beautiful." Biology seems really neat. There's a heavy concentration on marine life, so I'm gonna love it!! There's also a Dalhousie Association of Marine biology Students here, which I'm am definitely going to join if I can. I've learned about environmental science as well, and my plan is as follows: I am going to apply for the honours and co-op programs at the end of this year, and then am going to apply for a co-op in New Zealand, or Australia, take summer courses at an affiliated school in Bermuda, major in Marine Bio, and minor in Environmental Science (phew). Sounds ambitious, I know, but oh so exciting.
Frosh Week was a ball o' fun indeed. Many new friends I have, and some stories. We have a brother/sister house in the co-ed res, and had a party with them Saturday night. T'was very enjoyable. Our house won the cheer-off and the song competition during the week (yes, they cheer here. . .). I've determined that I'm in a very good place to live. We didn't do any particularly crazy frosh stuff, which made the transition a little easier for me. I don't think I could have handled a drill seargent for a frosh leader.
I'm now a freshman, and am off to class (oooo). Chemistry and Stats back to back -- 1.5 hour lectures. Blech. Yay learning about how to graph stuff! Yay for "this is a periodic table...!" Whatever, I'll deal with it. The field trips and guest lectures are what I'm looking forward to.
I now must away, but I will update you again anon.