R.I.P. Glasses

My glasses are broken. I believe the technical term is 'fucked'. As you can see, the bit that keeps them on my face has broken off.

I am suitably unimpressed.

Most disgusting drink ever.

There is coffee in my tea.

What the fucking fuck?

I asked for a chai latte. Chai tea with frothy milk. I saw you put the chai in. I saw you put the milk in. I don't know what button you were meant to press on the machine but somehow or other you have put coffee in my fucking tea.

Goddamnit, it's cold outside and I was looking forward to that. I'm not going to come back and shout at you because it is cold and my room is warm.

Grrrrrr.

It other news, I got my travel Shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots everybody!

Fire!

Ok, so I'm finally back in my room having been barred from it for the last hour. As I was going to dinner, the fire alarm went off. I carried on walking and got myself some burritos and pilaf. Mmm. I then went to the Vanier Vibe meeting where Michelle gave me my t-shirt for free to say thank you for my work :D (Mum, note: that's a smiley face.) After the meeting I went into the main bit of the commons block and it was full of Tec residents. It turns out the alarm had gone off a second time and that we weren't allowed in until the firemen had made sure everything was ok. Heard a rumour it was caused by someone burning incense. We shall see. The sprinklers in my room didn't go off so all was good. Whilst waiting to be let back in, Martin gave me gum and Tom gave me little minty chocolates that look like Minstels and taste like After Eights. Nom.

Lulz

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/DUBdUsQumj0am0nB?cmpid=ey_fb_self

Bahahaha

Snow and Ice

I've been fairly slack about this, I know. I'm still umm-ing and ahh-ing over whether or not to go to class tonight. The weather has been firmly stuck in the minus figures for a few days now. If I haven't spoken to you and told you, we have snow. Vancouver rarely has snow and we're currently about 10 degrees less than we should be at this time of year - yay! According the weather site, by the time I get to class it should be -9 and by the time I leave, it should be -10 :S lots of black ice for me, yay! I might see what it's like when I go for dinner and make my decision based on that, but on the basis that I am in my room with the heating on wearing snow boots, longjohns, jeans, a thermal top, t-shirt and a hoodie and I'm still chilly, it's not boding well. At least I'm not in Calgary, those poor mofos enjoyed a high of -23 today! It's set to drop to -28 this evening. Sod that. EDIT: Just popped to the bathroom, which has no heating. Holy mother loving Christ was it cold in there. On the plus side, the paper towel dispenser is working again...

What have I been up to?

Well, Friday night I bought some wish cranes before I went to Pride where Martin and I manned (perhaps an ironic choice of words?) the drinks table for an hour. Our very lovely RA Haitham turned up too and amused us greatly with his mildly drunken antics. However, nothing could be funnier than the man who complained to us that the bar staff had refused to serve him because he was too drunk. He asked us which society this was for and was rather shocked and surprised when I told him it was gay pride. Apparently the drag queens (it was drag night) weren't a clue for him. There was melting-as-soon-as-it-hits-the-ground type snow when I arrived at Pride but when I left, we had snow. And lots of it. In hindsight, the hill I decided to do a snowroll down may have actually been a staircase. My bad. When we made it back to Vanier, there was a rather large snowball fight. During said fight, I removed my glasses and put them in my bag. At some point, presumably when I took my keys out, my glasses fell out of my bag...

...don't worry! They were a bit bent but I found them and dug them out of the ice on Saturday afternoon and took them to an opticians where they were fixed for free :D following this, I went ice skating at the UBC rink (why yes, we have an ice rink on campus. This is Canada, after all!) I went skating with Michelle and her residents Drew and Camille. I realised I didn't know what size my feet are in Canadian sizes so I tried a 5. This turned out to be far too small so I went to ask them for a 6. Unfortunately, the only had a 6 in hockeys. I was rather impressed though, both the hockeys and the figures were in pretty good nick for death wellies. I didn't stack it. I've still got it :D

Sunday was the Canucks game. I got to the game and went to take a photo and realised that I'd left my batteries in the charger. Doh. However, Rebecca and Alannah remembered theirs so I can show you one of their pics. One of the girls who was meant to come with us left it too late and didn't make it to the game :| The Canucks lost (as did the Ducks :() but it was really worth going to. Very much a sensory overload. I'm going to look at going to Anaheim to see the Ducks when I'm in LA. I bought myself a Canucks top. I don't have a photo of it. The v-neck comes down a bit lower than I expected so I may take to wearing a tank top underneath it, not that anybody is likely to see anything I'm wearing under my ski coat these days :D

Yesterday I got a message from Jack. This deserves its own paragraph because it's not a very frequent occurrence. He's not been having a great time of late, which makes me ungeng (don't ask. He'll understand if he's reading this.) Witchers on the other hand have many exciting things ahead of them. They are due to be recording an album over Easter which will be released by NrOne Records, so they are frantically attempting to write enough new songs for this to work. Now may be a good time to remind a certain Mr Kavanagh that he once promised to write me a song in 3/4. They have also been having video production meetings (I've heard a rumour that the video will be for 'Stars' which is funny because I had an idea for a video for 'Stars' and I can't remember if I told any of the boys or not. If it involves a beach at night then I most definitely did and they are thieving gits :P) I've also heard rumours about small UK tours and a Witchers/Gravedale High show. I seem to missing all the good shit. On the up side, by the time I get back they might have more band privileges that hopefully Jack will let me abuse. I'd like to think one of them would reward my band loyalty. Plus ones and free drinks are ALWAYS good.

Today I handed in my second symbolism essay. I had some printing issues but hopefully JXC won't mind. After class I then went to Tim Hortons and got a hot chocolate and a triple chocolate doughnut, before waiting for one of my lecturers for 15 minutes before deciding I really didn't want to spend any more time waiting for her to turn up to her scheduled office hours. I then went and had a mooch around the Nitobe Memorial Garden.

I think this is all. Now to add photos!

EDIT: The images were taking ages to upload so I went for dinner. Based on that, I now give you Today's Top 5 WTF?! Moments

1) Watching a girl in stilettos with no tights on walking over the ice outside Buchanan (the arts building.)

2) Guys in purple morphsuits running through the cafeteria, throwing leaflets at us and shouting about the AUS No Pants Dance on Friday.

3) The following conversation:

Me: Could I have a slice of two cheese, please?

Cafe Staff: Is it a bit cold outside?

Me: Just a tad...

4) Watching students trying to skateboard through the snow.

5) Overhearing people saying that this is the worst winter for 25 years.

British Columbians seem to be taking on a very British pastime - discussing the weather. I had a chat with the ladies in Hubbard's about it. We're all agreed, it's damned cold for here (I can't really say damned cold, look at Calgary!) According to here, the coldest Vancouver has ever gotten was -14.5.

With regards to the pictures, I have many more. During the exam period I will spend a free day uploading everything to a flickr account or similar and I'll upload people photos to Facey B.

I'm forever drinking bubbles

Today has been a fairly relaxed day. We continued watching Antichrist in scan. lit. today and we have about 10 minutes left to watch on Fri. To be fair, our lecturer has warned us before the really nasty crap has happened so if we wanted to look away, we could. I sat and watched it all (I would.) The bit that I thought would weird me out the most actually wasn't the one that did. The girl who I was next to (this is going to sound really bad. She's always really chatty with me but I don't know her name :S) didn't watch the bad parts and still got fairly freaked out. As we were leaving, she asked me if I wanted to get a cookie. I said I had a lesson to go to but she seemed pretty weirded out so I thought I'd better. We ended up getting bubble tea, which turns out to be really nice. After tea and hugs she seemed better so I walked her to her class. As it turns out, mine was cancelled so my little adventure was fine. I think it's always good to stick around with someone when they've seen something a bit fucked up. Hence why I stayed up 'til about 5am talking to Inigo and drinking champagne with him after the bridge incident.

After this, I wandered to student health services where I booked my next appointment and asked them about vaccines. They gave me the number for the travel clinic, so I'll ring them up, make an appointment, and then bankrupt myself. Pretty sure vaccines aren't covered by my insurance, but I'll wave my iMed at them anyhoo. They also sell mosquito nets and repellent. Booyah.

Following this, I went to Staples, where I got myself a new webcam (the other one was spazzing out and killing my laptop), a new usb cable for my MP3 player so I can now transfer music to it again, and some paperclips. On my way home I passed CopySmart who were advertising the fact that they do passport photos. Grr.

Speaking of which, my application made it to the embassy. I had an email from them asking me my immigration status in Canada, how long I was staying, and whether I was going back to the UK before I came to NZ :S Hopefully they'll decide I'm all good and give me a visa and my passport back.

I am meant to be interviewing Henry in a bit for the Vanier Vibe, so I am currently watching youtube videos of Alan Cumming as the emcee in Cabaret. Yum!

Harry Potter tomorrow night at midnight (argh!), Pride on Friday (Martin & I have volunteered to man the drinks table for an hour...this could end badly) and then going to the Canucks game on Sunday. Busy times!

EDIT: I forgot to post this before I went to interview him, so the interview is done. Now to transfer to my laptop, make an article out of it, and the possibly edit out the shit bits and upload it so that people may listen to it.

Retrospectively murdering Wallace Stevens

I wish I could. It's nothing personal, Wallace. I actually quite like your poetry and I think it's a shame that I'd never heard of you until I came here. However, two of my courses are teaching your works at the same time which means that I have a Wallace Stevens class every day, as well as two essays on you. Thus I am having an overdose of you and wouldn't mind going back in time and murdering you, though if I had a choice of murdering any poet of your generation, I'd probably take out Ezra Pound because A) He was nasty Nazi piece of shit and B) He inflicted T.S. Bloody Eliot on the world.

That said, if you don't mind coming back and explaining what the blind parakeet means, that'd be really helpful. So far I've found a critic who thinks it's God and a critic who thinks it's the sun. I don't think it's either. I think it's a critique of the American audience being blinded by the flashiness of prose and ignoring poetry, or it is just a blind parakeet.

Sorry Wallace.

Love, Rubber Duckie.

P.S. Did you know that I have a friend who named their son Eliot after T.S.?

Bleh

I should be working today but it's not going well. I had a list of what I wanted to accomplish each week and it hasn't really happened, so I think next week I'll have to do two essays instead of one. Worse weeks have happened.

There are currently three problems impeding my work:

1) NZ stuff. This should be fairly self-explanatory as to why it is causing problems.

2) I have two essays on the same poet basically asking me to write about the same thing. Except one is longer than the other and I don't think the department would be too impressed if I hand in the same essay for both classes, especially if they run it through Turnitin. With that in mind, I've asked one of the lecturers (ie the nicer, more lenient one) if I can write my essay on a different topic and I'm waiting for a response from him before I start writing this.

3) I decided I'd start writing the essay I'd planned to do next week. Then I realised I didn't have a fucking clue what they were on about. This is what happens when you change lecturers with one month of the course left. I will have to track her down and see if she can get it to make sense. I'll also try to make sure I teach her how to attach files to emails. Dear God, the woman is computer illiterate.

I'm going to try to fix one of my stories so that I can send off my creative writing application...

Hell mofoing yes!

I have my confirmation of study! Hallelujah! Praise be, testify, testify!

In other lol words, I can haz visa now.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

More Marks

I got a B- on my symbolism essay and an A- on my war presentation. Booyah?

In other news, apparently some of my classmates didn't realise that I'm British.

I also don't remember my own name. The prof. was giving back our symbolism essays and said 'Francesca.' There were a couple of awkward seconds before I remembered that was my name. I very rarely use that name so it was a bit unexpected when he used it.

And this brilliant conversation from last night:

Nicholas: Fran, by any chance do you like ducks?

Fran: Yes, what gave it away?

Nicholas: The earrings, the desktop background on your laptop...and the fact that you just said riduckulous.

Fran: Did I?!

Stephanie: I thought that's what you said!

Marks

I got a B-/B on the midterm I thought I'd completely cocked up and I got a C+ on my first poetry essay. Should be getting my first symbolism essay back tomorrow. I don't write well about poetry so I'm not too bothered if I don't do that well in those two modules, I kind of expect it.

What sarong?

Here is a picture of me wearing my sarong. Obviously when I'm in Fiji I won't be wearing it with jeans and a hoodie but you should get the gist.

I have finally finished booking up my travel shizzle.

Sex with your advisers and other occurrences

It's not what it sounds like. The equity committee (of which I am a member, I've just never gone) puts this on every year. 6 advisers, 3 of either gender, form a panel plus there are a couple of other knowledgeable people ie a nurse and someone from the sexual assault support team for when the advisers can't answer. All through the week a box has been left in the commonsblock for people to leave anonymous questions and these were then asked to the panel. It was funny and educational and I think when I return back to EA I shall try to persuade the powers that be to let me put on something similar, only calling it sex with your classmates (because who actually has anything to do with their resident tutors at UEA?) Any volunteers for the panel?

The most interesting thing I learned last night? The wellness centre in the student union building sells sex toys. Not something I've heard of at unis before lol.

In other news, yesterday I got an email from U. Vic. saying that my application had arrived and they should let me know within a week whether I've got a place.

Today I received an email back from Immigration NZ saying that I did indeed have to apply for a visa before I arrived. Shit. Funnily enough, I REALLY don't want to have to send my passport off in the post in a foreign country.

As of yesterday, I have been here 2 months. As of today, Paige is 21. I'm sure she's having fun in The Mischief right about now.

The eh- team

I believe I owe you an entry.

So, Friday I had my pre-1900 midterm, and I think it went horribly wrong. Oh well. Friday evening I went to the Pride Halloween party with Dan and Martin. This turned out to be epic fail as Martin was ill so I had to escort him home. It took forever and I ended up taking a tumble whilst trying to prevent him bombing straight for the stairs by Xwi7xwa library.

Saturday was my designated day of the cinema. I got to the bus loop a good 50 mins before the film was due to start and I still missed the beginning. WTF?! I got to the bus loop and saw the 17 leaving but there was a 4 there so I was happy but the driver was having a break so I walked to the other bus loop to see if the 84 was there and it wasn't so I went back and the 4 had gone. Eventually the 84 turned up at 3:30 and the film started at 3:50. When I got there, there was a bit of a queue but I got my ticket at bang on 4 and went in and the film had started and Lisbeth was talking to Dr Jonasson. Hmm. I can't say much about the film or else there's a danger that my mother will fly over here and push me off Grouse Mountain. All I'll say is, if you get annoyed when fairly important things are changed, this will annoy you.

Sunday I decided to go to the Museum of Anthropology where I saw many awesome things and took many not so awesome pictures (MUST GET FLICKR) I also bought my mother a massive book, and myself some jewellery and a sarong. You may well be thinking 'WTF?! You live in Canada. In the Winter. Why do you need a sarong?' Well, because I'm going to Fiji. In their Summer. And I want to visit Sri Siva Subramaniya temple, the largest Hindu temple in the Southern hemisphere, and for that I need to be covered up. After my trip to MOA, I went out for dinner at White Spot, where I suspect I ate something dodgy as I spent a fair amount of Monday expelling the diplomats (do you like my new euphemism?)

Nothing of note happened yesterday except for the fact that I attended the most pointless lesson ever.

Today I got my Scandinavian Lit. midterm back. I got an A-. Yay!

EDIT: Just submitted an online query to immigration NZ because apparently we British are allowed to stay for 6 months but I have no idea if I still need a visa/permit to study. In other news, I've been deleted by a couple of people who I thought were fairly good friends of mine and I don't think I've done anything to annoy them. Can't say it makes me feel any better over here, knowing that people I give a shit about apparently couldn't care less about me. Cheers.