Miluje te, Praha!

Hi everyone,

my post's title means (roughly) "I love you, Prague." And I do love Prague. You all know that. And so therefore, you might be interested to know that I'm going back to Prague for reading week! Yaaaaaay! Things just fell into place last week, and it's so amazing. I'm incredibly, incredibly excited. There aren't words. :) Right now I'm working on making some arrangements with friends; I'm hoping they'll allow me to sleep on their floor for a few nights. Once more details are ironed out, I'll share them with you.

I had a really good weekend - hope you all did, too. Friday night I spent with Al. We watched some of Dylan Moran's stand-up comedy, and then the first season of Black Books and laughed ourselves silly. We also had some girly talk... and I didn't get home til 2. Very tired on Saturday!

Saturday was Chris' tea party, at which I cooked the samosas and discovered the amazingness of vegan chocolate cake from Cafe Mosaics. It was so, so delicious. I want one for my birthday! Chris had his usual selection of fabulous people there, and it was fun to chat with everyone. Allan and I left at about 6.30 to go to the Edmonton Rush game. I'd never seen lacrosse before, but I'm now totally hooked. It's very fast-paced and fun to watch, and the crowd really gets into it. I'm definitely looking forward to going to another game.

I went to church this morning and just about froze on my way there. I crept through the doors just in the nick of time, and went to sit with Allan who joined me this morning. I think that my Knox peeps were looking at us curiously and thinking "hmm... wonder who Elizabeth has with her this morning?" ;) Last week Megs had a male friend with her, so she and I discussed setting up a system where we bring a different man each week, just to give our very quiet church something interesting to chat about! :D

So that was my weekend! I'm off to do some reading (which may or may not be school related) and to go to bed. I can't believe that tomorrow's Monday already....

Elizabeth

Pedantic, Dogmatic and Didactic

Hi all.

Today was... loooooooooong. Can I just say that having to be at school from 8.30 - 18.20 is a bit much, even for me? Luckily my hockey game was cancelled/forfeited (due to weather) so I got to just come home right after.

It was hard to get up this morning, as I stayed to watch Allan curl last night (he curls at the same place I play tennis, half an hour after my lesson finishes), and ended up getting home after 11. Too late for me. But luckily enough my first class was interesting enough to actually hold my attention. It was the class that just us thesis kiddos take, and it's tag-team taught by the only two men in our department. We went around the circle, each explaining our thesis, and I of course had to go first. whee!

Our other classes were also good. We were quite concerned that the late one (15.30 - 18.20) was going to be pedantic, dogmatic and didactic, but it wasn't! It's taught by a woman who is clearly an incredible clinician, and it was very cool to hear her case studies that she used to support her argument for client/family-centred treatment. More on that another day, when I'm not so wiped.

As I rode home on the train, 2 girls not in the thesis class were asking me about it. I told them about having to go first in the sharing portion, and one of the girls said "well that's typical. You're the person everyone looks at when there's an awkward silence." I was quite taken aback! Compared to others in my class (and I KNOW that a ton of you aren't going to believe this, but it's true) I say very little. But as I thought about it I realized that the few times I do speak up are generally when it's gone silent because no one wants to attempt an answer.

I asked Megs about this in an IM conversation, and she said "You are good at dispelling awkwardness. It's something I really appreciate about you, actually." Another aback-taking! But as I thought about it, I felt like something clicked. It's true - I do speak up to try and dispell tense situations. I'm not afraid to look like a bit of a goof by taking the risk and trying to answer a question that I don't really know the answer to. Sometimes I end up looking like an idiot (like yesterday... I answered "median" but meant to say "mode." "Median" was the right answer, so Dr. H was congratulating me, but I had to stop him and say "I actually meant mode, so I clearly don't know what I'm talking about." Everyone had a laugh, and we moved on.) and sometimes I end up getting it right, and feel quite chuffed. :)

I've now had each of my new classes once, and I kind of feel like vomiting when I look at my organization stuff. My calendar is stuffed with fun things like "3 midterms in 2 days" and a bajillion assignments (we didn't have very many of those last semester). Add to that a thesis, a research assistantship, an ESL student, a co-presidency, a hockey team, and a social life... well, it's going to be hectic. So advance apologies for the weeks where I up and disappear on you.

I now have two funny stories for you, oddly both about Allan.

First: I wanted to bring him a small present from the States, so I picked up a king-size Almond Joy. I love Almond Joys, and you can't get them in Canada, so I figured I'd share the joy.

"I hope you like coconut," I said with a smile.

"I'm allergic to coconut," he replied.

Laughing, I replied "Very funny. Seriously, do you like coconut?"

"Seriously, Ela - I'm allergic. I told you that before!!"

The boy. Is allergic. To his present. And I KNEW that!! Uh huh. Only me. I am the only girl who would bring back a gift made of the ONE THING he's allergic to. I emailed mum, and asked her to bring some Paydays back with her. If he winds up being allergic to peanuts, I'm calling the whole thing off...


Second: We were discussing random Christmas related things, and gifts came up.

"I got new orthotics" he said "since I've got such flat arches."

"Interesting" I replied. "The lady who made my orthotics back when I was in junior high said I had the highest arches she'd ever seen."

There was a short pause.

"Is one of your arches higher than the other?" he queried.

"That's a weird question - I don't think so.... Why do you ask?"

"Oh... I was just wondering if there was a higher-archy."

*ba dum dum*

And that's all you get to hear about that.


I'm off to bed now!

Love,
E.

Revelling in my Boredom

So it's 6.30 on a Sunday night, and I'm totally bored out of my gourd. However. It's actually very enjoyable! This semester is stacking up to be craaaaaaazy so I'm enjoying what could be the last night where I sit at home with absolutely nothing to do. If only Sunday night TV were better....

In point of fact I've already got a to-do list going for the semester, and could be working on stuff for my thesis, but I decided to give myself the day off. Mostly because I'm feeling seriously brain-dead when it comes to my topic. So I'll come up with brilliant things on... Wednesday. Wednesday feels like a thesis day.

Tomorrow it's back to class (where'd the holiday go??), and I'm half looking forward to it and half dreading it. *sigh* Tomorrow I have Clinical Research Methods, Adult Language Disorders I and Language and Literacy. The clin prof is one of my thesis peeps, and he's very cool, so that should be good. And I'm all over the adult stuff, so I'm very interested in the adult lang. class. I'm less looking forward to the literacy class, but it could be cool, so I'll attempt to maintain an open mind.

Then it's home for sushi! Allan's meeting me at the LRT, and bringing me dinner. And that's all you get to hear about that. That will be followed by my tennis lesson. I hope I don't suck too much after a few weeks off! :D

Tuesday is a stupid busy day. I've got Motor Speech Disorders (v. cool), Child Language Disorders (not so cool), and my 'directed readings and research' class that all of us Thesis kids have to take. It's going to be small and therefore (hopefully) entertaining. The crappy bit is that I'll be at school from 8.30 til 6.30. They moved one of our classes from mid-afternoon to late-afternoon, leaving us with a 3 hr break and class til 6.30. I understand that sometimes things have to be moved, but this is very yucky. 3 hrs isn't quite enough time to make it worthwhile for me to go home. I'm hoping my English student will keep her lesson in that time slot, and then at least it's filled up. Anyhoo. Tuesday night is my first hockey game of the winter term, and it's at 11.43 in Dresden. Feel free to attend.

Megan and I made New Year's Resolutions together on New Year's Day. I've actually got nine of them, but I'm not going to tell you all of them, I promise. What I am going to tell you is this: Whilst Megs and I were shopping in Capitola (hello, Victoria's Secret!), we went into a Payless. The clerk there said that her resolution was to buy one new pair of shoes for each paycheque she earned. I have no comment on how responsible I feel this is. What I do have a comment on is the fact that this lady had a resolution that would actually be enjoyable to keep. What a thought!

Therefore, I made 2 resolutions that are actually fun ones. One is to entertain in my home once a month, so watch out for dinner party stories! And the other is to maintain my outside friendships. By 'outside' I mean non-speechies (those rare birds I so seldomly see!). I've got three or four quite good friends that I just don't see often enough, and I really want to hang onto and deepen those friendships. I hope that they're all Ok with nights of laying on the couch and chatting... I sense that's going to be about all the energy I've got. ;)

So that's where things are... back to school on the morrow!

Love,
Ela

PS - did you know that "education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence"? (It's a quote from Robert Frost.)

I want to break free...

Oh Queen. Nothing says "finals are ALMOST DONE" like belting out the titular chorus of this post. This afternoon, I'm guessing at about 3pm, the semester is FINALLY going to be over. These last two weeks have been exhausting and stressful (lots of stuff going on outside of school), and I actually curled up under my desk and cried yesterday morning. Then I realized that I was curled up under my desk crying, shook myself, took a firm grip on the shreds of my sanity, and got back to studying. ;)

Right before my anatomy exam yesterday I had to pop into the SLP office to sign my application form for graduate assistantship (teaching or research assistant positions). The admin assistant handed me my form, and said "Dr. R has expressed interest in you potentially TAing for her... would that be alright?" Would that be alright? WOULD THAT BE ALRIGHT? That would be AMAZING. I love Dr. R: she's an incredible teacher, a brilliant researcher, and a committee member for my thesis. I would TA, RA or slave for her - gladly! Now. Before my hopes (and potentially yours, depending on how much you care about me) get all up in the air - nothing is certain. I have no idea how the process works (for all I know this is like being short-listed for an interview, and I still have to actually get the position), and the only information I have right now is that the department will email us when the list of assistantships is put together. But I'll keep you posted.

I wrote my A&P exam right after that, and it didn't go very well. Dysphagia (disorders of swallowing) was alright, but embryology (the development of the foetus) was BRUTAL. Can I just say: If the term wasn't used IN CLASS, IN THE NOTES, or IN THE TEXT it shouldn't be on the final? (Ok - maybe it was in the text, I didn't read all of that....) Anyhoo, it was tough, I think I passed, but I don't really want to know just how badly I did.

Today I'm teaching at 10, having a thesis meeting at 12 (I'm semi prepared - yay!), and then writing my FINAL FINAL at 2. Then it's home to putter around briefly, and then off to get Allan - we're going down Candy Cane Lane tonight. And that's all you get to hear about that. ;)

And then it's CHRISTMAS BREAK! wOOt!! There shall be much lazing, and cleaning, and reading, and organizing, and sleeping, and napping... oh, it's going to be glorious.

Eek! I haven't packed my lunch yet. Off I go!

Ela