mount allison university

Over my last four years at Mt. Allison University I’ve taken a variety of courses, of all which has made me grow as a person, and of course as a student. I would like to now, reflect on each of these years, outlining what courses I took. It’s been a long road, but now it’s done!

First Year:

Classics 1641: Classical Mythology: The Hero’s Quest (Leslie Shumka)
Computer Science 1611: A Survey of Computer’s and it’s Applications (Art Miller)
French 1700: Intermediate French (Christina Ionescu)
History 1601: The New Nations in North America (Penny Bryden)
Music 1101: Materials of Music I (Ian Crutchley)
Music 1111: Materials of Music II (Ian Crutchley)
Physics 1001: Astronomy (Brian Hawkes)
Political Science 1000: Introduction to Political Science

Second Year:

French 2401: Langue et lectures (Christina Ionescu)
French 2501: Introduction à la Composition (Christina Ionescu)
French 2601: Introduction à l’Analyse Littéraire (Christina Ionescu)
German 2351: German Culture and History 1870 to the Present (Rainer Hempel)
Lingusitics 2001: Introduction to the Study of Language (Wendy Burnett)
Music 1201: Music History and Literature I (Elizabeth Wells)
Music 1211: Music History and Literature II (Gayle h. Martin)
Music 2101: Materials of Music III (Gary Tucker)
Music 2111: Materials of Music IV (Gary Tucker)
Music 3421: Introduction to Instrumental Conducting (Jana Starling)

Third Year (à Strasbourg):

L’Expression Écrite (Maryse Sauvaget)
L’Expression Orale (Alain Stumpert)
La Composition Orale (Alain Stumpert)
La Composition Orale (Rachel Théolade)
La Composition Écrite (Laure Clémens)
La Clarité Orale (Alain Stumpert)
La Déversité Lingusitique (Jean-Paul Meyer)
La Phonétique (Jean-Pierre Zerling)
L’Histoire du Monde (Jean-Philippe Grille)
Les Institutions Politiques Françaises (Marc Miesse)
Les Institutions Éuropéennes (Witold Raczka)
La Littérature du XIXè Siècle (Laurence Schmoll)
La Philosophie Française (Pierre Schoettel)

Fourth Year:

French 3411: La Révolution Française (Johanna Danciu)
French 3501: L’Époque de Romantisme (Valérie Narayana)
French 3601: Le Début du Vingtième Siècle (Mark Lee)
French 3811: Texte et Image (Christina Ionescu)
French 3851: La Représentation des Femmes à Travers des Siècles (Monika Boehringer)
French 3861: Les Portraits de la Littérature Québecoise (Kirsty Bell)
French 4001: Stylistique (Monika Boehringer)
French 4011: Techniques de la Traduction (Valérie Narayana)
Music 3301: Vocal Methods (Helen Pridmore)
Music 3311: Elementary Methods (Nancy Vogan)
Music 4311: Secondary Methods (Nancy Vogan)
Music 4669: Choral Society (Gayle h. Martin)

Let’s review my lovely reality, as it’s been in the last few weeks, without leaving any ambiguities.

I have 20 hours of courses this semester, broken down as follows:

According to our lovely Academic Calendar, at least three hours should be consecrated to doing work for every one hour in class. Let’s do the maths.

Let’s not look at how many hours there are in a week:

Now let’s look at some hypothetical sleep patterns:

Now let’s look at the daily break-down of hours, not including shower, food preperation, eating, and sleep:

Logically this means that for 3 out of the 5 school days there are not sufficient hours in the day to do everything and sleep at a minimally-recommended length of time. Now let’s look at the required 8hrs of sleep that I need to function correctly:

After intrepreting these results I feel as though it’s impossible to complete things, while still leaving room to breath, relax, eat, or anything else for that matter. And this is why I’m uncontactable during the beginning of the week, my friends. If I were in contact with a sharp object other than my nail-file, then I’d be impaling myself with it as we speak.

Simply speaking: It’s impossible for me to do well, or to complete that which is expected of me. What the heck am I supposed to do?

Mount Allison, Acadia top Maclean’s list in undergrad category
CBC – 08/11/2007

Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., has tied with Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., for the number one spot in the primarily undergraduate category of Maclean’s magazine annual rankings.

Forty-seven universities were examined in the category.

St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., was third while the University of Northern British Columbia and Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., tied in the fourth spot.

The University of Victoria took the overall top place spot in the comprehensive category, up from its third place ranking in 2006.

Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., moved up two spots to second place while the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ont., in fell to third place.

Last year’s top-ranked university, the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ont., has been ranked fourth in the category for 2007.
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In the medical doctoral category, Montreal’s McGill University retained its first place holding while the Vancouver-based University of British Columbia and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., tied for second.

The University of Toronto placed fourth, slipping from the third spot last year and after holding the top spot in this category from 1994 to 2005.

Who knew that this would have happend? Actually it’s quite understandable to be expected. So that’s right everyone who reads this. Be jealous that I go to the best undergraduate university in the country and I’m graduating with the most well respected degree humanly possible; and that’s just about that.

[End of gloating ;)]

The story of my life consists of an infinate, and I mean infinate collection of dispiriting moments. As a culmination of the first day of the week, I’m taking a moment to reflect on this series of unfortunate events, but first before delving into details, a definition. I would define a dispiriting moment as the following:

An exertion of as much effort as possible, and still obtaining nothing.

Sounds simple enough, at least by my standards. And what you may ask is so dispiriting, and of course it’s a fair question. When I sign up for an intramural team, in order to play a sport that I may, or may not enjoy, it’s a commitment on my part to show up on scheduled games. Having a schedule put forth at the beginning eleviates scheduling problems and no-shows.

How is it that a team can play six games, and never, not even once, have a full team to play on a footie field? I just comprehend it at all; and it’s so sad for us that we have to have people from the opposing team play for us. To further compound this, some of the people that show up have absolutely no desire, or exert no effort.

Taking a moment and thinking non-selfishly for everyone this moment. How is that fair to a team, especially when a team sport is based on team spirit and a comittment. I have no patience for people who show up and then opt out, especially when we are short players, and then some people need rest. Not everyone is athletic; totally understandable. But I can say that not only was I at every single game, rain or shine, even when someone defaulted on us, and after exerting the highest level of effort; I still get nothing out of it due to lack of team involvement.

Granted there are some decent players on the team, and I’m by no means the best, or even in the middle of the group; but I’m growing more and more dispirited in life, in general, at the age of twenty-one. How pathetic is that?

Logically you can think of it as the following: weigh the pros and cons for outcomes, and base judgement upon that. So let’s weigh the pros… exercise, team spirt, fresh air, possibility of fun. And now the cons… loosing, lack of effort, defaulting, no fun, lost work time, lost study time, general time comittment.

And thus just after halftime of our game tonight it really hit me, that why am I even doing this, or anything for that matter, when I can’t accomplish anything that I set forth of myself. I don’t set the bar too high, I don’t aim for things that are un-obtainable. And thus even still having low expectations of some things, I still can’t achieve that which I set forward to myself.

Does anyone understand how dispiriting this is? To constantly put one hundred percent effort into something and never make an achievement. It’s my tennis career in a nutshell; the investing of infinate hours, money, and time; and like everything after awhile of being discouraged from every possible angle, it’s just not worth it anymore. And that’s painful, mentally, and emotioanlly.There’s nothing “cool” or “fun” about having a cheer “gracious in defeat” when you loose 1-11, 0-8, 0-7, 1-5, 0-3, 1-5, 0-10 constantly. Granted team improves as they go, and I did as well, but no matter how much I try, in all aspects of my life it’s never quite enough.

Riddle me that; and piss off if you’re offended, because I’m sick of doing my part and having others fall short. Live my life, and if you think that you can do better than I’ve achieved (or not), then you’re completely deluded. I hope you feel just as dispirited as I do, in reading this.

So this weekend was Homecoming, and for all those who are European, Asian, African, South American, or Oceanic, that means that american “football” team plays at home and it’s a lot of spirit stuff. In other words, with the history that our football team has had, it means they loose and everyone gets drunk anyways. The upshot of all this is, that last year whilst I was in France the team actually won a few games, one of which was against St Francis Xavier University X-Men, and guess who the Mounties were playing this year for homecoming? (/rethorical question)

The long story short is that this weekend was crazy and with Homecoming, the Fall Fair, Fundraisers up the ying-yang, and Klezatory of the Performing Arts Series; I haven’t had time to do anything. On Friday night I headed down to the fall fair here in Sackville, and got harrassed by teenagers (damnit) and carnival folk in which people call “carnies” with admiration. The rides were sketchy, so I spent my money on fries and coton candy which was totally worth it. Met up there with Molly and Co., which was nice to see them all, even though they live a block away. So I walked home and did some reading and such since I had poop-loads.

Saturday came, and I knew that it would be a gong show, because of the football. Everyone was actually taking Homecoming really seriously this year because it’s the 10th Anniversary of them winning the title, so there were tons of alumni around and floating. Not to mention there were people face painted, and half naked, and with tons of loud cheering that made the game the best I’ve been to. Now, myself not understand the premise of football, nor how it works, and whilst sitting with a Canadian who had no idea what was going on, a Bahamian girl named Ayla who thought the sport was ridiculus, and a Bermudan girl who was on her mobile getting the rules explained to her so we would know what was going on. All in all, we don’t understand but the upshot (again with this saying) is that we won!!

I vowed to not graduate university before I saw the Mounties win a football game, and by golly it’s a sign. I’m graduating this year, they won homecoming, and I watched it from minute 0 to god only knows how long it lasted. I cheered them on, and heckled the other team a bit, and we were all on our feet for the final minute (which actually took like 5) cheering them on. Positive moments on the field after, were a result of me walking with the other international students around and talking with the players. A few of them actaully awknowldged my existance, and I congratulated them half-heartedly and got the impression that I was going to be harrassed sexually at the Pub later in the evening. Then I went to mean hall (wtf) and then home to get ready for the Hunton BBQ.

Barbecue was fun to be at, and I chuged down my bottle of wine before going over to 40 Union to see the, dump, compared to our house. And then I ran home, got changed (quite literally) and then ran back in order to go to the Pub. The lineup was huge, and there were lots of people that knew me (who knew I was so popular YEAH!). I talked with a guy from New Zealand who continusly claimed to have met me before (never happend) but I went along with it. I got the impression that I was being stalked, and once inside the pub, not only did I see 17 and 18 year olds galore, but my stalker… Octapus guy. It freaked me out so I froliked around before getting bodychecked and elbowed about a million times. Needless to say with my injuries I looked like I was just in a wrestling match with someone 50kg heavier.

I came home at about three, and struggled around into bed, bitter and tired from the days events. A homecoming celebration to be happy about; and I didn’t have to walk far to get home thankfully. The girls went to Aulac to get some food, but I was too tired since about ten at night, since I’m an old fogie now.

The fair is winding down, the Mounties are on a won game win-streak, and my male PMS week is rounding out. I can feel the hormones already becoming more naturalised and equally distributed. Things to look out for: don’t find yourself in my warpath, as I’ll take you down and you’ll be sorry that you even tried.

On a happier note, we lost at the footie match today about 10-0, and I had a few shots on net. I got bodyslamed by the 100kg goalkeeper, Belinda tripped me, body checked me, and sent me flying into one of those athletic flying rolls (who knew eh!), and then the British guy said “Sorry mate” to me after kicking me in the thigh. I was bitter, but it made me laugh all the same. I put so much damned effort into hustling and trying to get exercise and help the team, but we are frankly awful and nothing can help us.

1 2 3 Gracious in defeat; a bit condescending attitude proposed by Mark, but what’s to be expected from him when everything he says is condescending and rude; specifically to me. I guess since I’m not in PolySci I can’t ever be as intelligent as him, but at least I’m not socially awkward.