Welcome back!
I hate the holidays. To be more precise, I hate the end of holidays - and therefore it would be easier if they never happened. I do not function well without structure, and I’m frankly fairly pathetic at creating my own structure from a completely blank slate. Most of the Christmas break was spent in my underwear and/or pyjamas (nudity is unfortunately not an option, as I have a female roommate who would not appreciate it), watching pirated movies and television programmes, or playing five-year-old computer games with amazingly active mod communities.
It was relaxing, and I did enjoy it. On the other hand, I knew I was wasting time, I knew there was work I COULD have been doing, and that annoying nagging realization kept creeping up on me from time to time. More significantly, I was concerned that I would not be able to “get back into the swing of things” when classes started up. I needn’t have worried.
I wasn’t able to get out of bed before 2 PM throughout the holidays, unless it was a VERY special occasion. First day of class, I’m up at 7 AM, walking to the bus to catch the early free swim time before heading to class. Next day, same thing, except with the gym, then swimming in lunch break, and finally climbing in the evening (my hands are pathetically weak - quote of the night was my friend saying, “I’d forgotten how much fun it was to watch you fall [off the climbing wall].”). I have a relatively light term academically, with only five courses, but I chose to not take more courses so that I could concentrate on my work for the Mining Games when necessary. I slaughtered the last term (relative to my goals), got one mark that nobody should EVER get, and now my only worry is that with a lighter courseload and easier academic material I will slack off and squander the gains I made last semester (oddly enough, my worst mark was in the course everyone else found to be one of the easiest - that could be due to a higher curve, but it’s more likely due to my attitude that the easier something is, the less worth my time and effort it is).
Designing this Brochure is an interesting challenge. I have so far spent over 16 hours working on the freakin’ HEADER, creating eight drafts, and I’m STILL not completely satisfied. It does look far far better than the first draft though, so progress is being made. Designing content is the next challenge, but I am largely waiting for information like our final event schedule and event locations listing. In the meantime, following the complete collapse (or near enough) of all communication between committee members over the Christmas break, I have been reminded that I am responsible for creating the “Survival Guide” and for sending it out, probably by around January 21st. This is going to be interesting - I’ll probably use it to crack wise and soapbox about the various neighbourhoods of Vancouver.
The keys to “surviving” Vancouver, as far as I know, are as follows:
1) it’s wet.
2) when it’s not wet, it’s wetter.
3) the cyclists are surly and ignore the rules of the road.
4) don’t start fights on Granville.
5) the Downtown Eastside is safer than people think.
6) if Toronto dresses real bad and thinks it’s New York, Vancouver doesn’t bother with a dress code and thinks it’s trendy.
7) the best tourist attractions are free - the worst are the most expensive (with the possible exception of Science World).
you can buy pot anywhere.
9) nobody speaks a lick of French.
I hope everyone reading had a happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year! Best wishes for 2008!
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