A Lot About Nothing

Had a less than appetizing lunch today at school.  I ordered a salami sandwich (on a bagel) with lettuce, tomato, swiss cheese and cucumber.  Looked delicious.  I got through the first half of it (even though the bagel didn’t seem as soft and chewy as I wanted it). I started to pick up the second half of the bagel, begin to take a bit out of it, only to notice a spot of mold on the bread! :(  Ewwwww…. I felt like I was going to upchuck my lunch right there.  While I processed what was probably halfway down my intestines, my housemate went back and got me a refund.  Let’s just say I won’t  be ordering anything there again.

After my moldy bagel experience, I headed home from school to get ready to watch my highly anticipated season premieres: Heroes and CSI: Miami.  Of course since I’m away from school and don’t have a PVR I had to flip between the two shows (hoping to fully watch them in their entirty later), mainly focussing on Heroes.  Then I realized that Prison Break was also airing in the same timeslot on Fox, so now I have to catch up on that as well (can you tell I watch too much TV?).

Anyways, the Heroes premiere was pretty good, but it left WAY more questions than answers after such a promising season finale.  Why was Nathan haunted by Linderman’s ‘ghost’?  Why was Mohinder dumb enough to inject himself with that power-inducing stuff (as much as I loved seeing him without his shirt on)? Why is there a chick who looks like Nikki who can freeze people with the force of liquid nitrogen?  Where is the REAL Nikki? What happened to Micah and Monica?  Where in the world is the Haitian?  How is it that Mrs. Petrelli Sylar’s biological mother? Why is Future Peter such a trouble-maker? Why did Hiro open that damn safe?

It was funny when Parkman thought he could read the turtle’s thoughts, and when Sylar commented on Claire’s question about him eating brains. :D  Can’t wait until next week!

While I was searching online for some type of adaptor that can allow me to hook up a coaxial cable to my new laptop, I noticed that the laptop I bought a couple weeks ago was on sale for $999.  I initially thought I had left my reciept for my laptop at home back in Toronto, but this morning I took a look in my wallet and saw it in one of the side pockets!  Happy that I’ll end up saving $150, I headed to the local Kingston Future Shop.

Now I was a bit worried about trying to take advantage of Future Shop’s price guarantee since technically I was on the 15th day of my laptop purchase, but it wasn’t a problem when the associate rang in the transaction.

Here comes the good part:  turns out my HP Pavilion laptop was actually cheaper in-store than it was on the website! It was coming up as $899.  That means I saved $250 off my original purchase price.  Not too bad, for a pretty cool laptop. :)  After seeing the good news on my receipt, I went to some of the surrounding shops and spent more money I didn’t have (I got the laptop on credit ).  I did purchase a really cute LeSportsac bag at Winners and some more supplies for school from Staples.

Oh, and if anyone knows where I can purchase an adaptor for DVI/HDMI to coaxial cable (or if such a thing exists) so that I can record my soap operas on my computer at home while I’m in class, please let me know.

Tonight a group of us from the Bachelor of Education program here at Queen’s met up for dinner at The Grizzly Grill.  I was famished since I hadn’t ate anything since noon, and it was almost 8pm.  Looking at the diverse menu I was stuck as what I would get as an appetizer (I decided on an Alberta Prime Rib for my main course, since I just got on the medium-rare train).  Initially I was going to order the crab & spinach dip.  But once our waitress came around I thought to myself, why not try something different?  So at the last minute I ordered the Louisiana Alligator (spicy, grilled skewer with Cajun aïoli and tomato corn salsa).

I have to say… alligator isn’t that bad.  It looked like chicken, but tasted more like a miraculous combination of pork and chicken.  Looks tender to the eyes (was probably due to whatever animal the alligator ate :P), but has a chewy texture… a bit like beef .  An interesting experience and I’m glad I took a chance and tried something different, because it was rather tasty.  But it’s not like I’ll be ordering this every time I go out… I’ll rather stick with my ‘normal’ meats of chicken, pork, beef and fish.

The dinner was a positive mark to the official day one of classes.  Got to meet some new people, which is always a plus.  I’m going to have to get used to the actual class structure though, since last week was so busy.  “Welcome Week” comprised of orientation classes, workshops and presentations.  Then after the ’school day’ we would attend nightly activites including a BBQ, wine & cheese night,  boat cruise of the Thousand Islands, and visiting a local pub.  I’m glad the early mornings and late nights are over though, so now I can start getting into a proper routine.

Today’s classes were interesting:  a couple of lectures (that I tried to stay awake for, even though I started classes at 11am), and my technological studies curriculum class.  The tech class was so much fun!  We had to design a couple of small frames/structures from wooden sticks, so we got to work with saws, glue, scissors, rulers, clamps, and sand paper… felt like I was in grade nine shop class again (well, actually that’s what the project was for: a typical grade nine project that we would eventually teach in the future)!  Ah… there’s nothing like peeling dried, white glue off your hands.

Kingston, so far is pretty nice.  The buses on the other hand could run more frequently, but I think I’m getting used to it.  Four more weeks and I’m back in Toronto for my practicum.

It’s that time of year again. The Canadian National Exhibition opened last Friday, and I finally made my way down there yesterday. Great crowd (esp. because of the Canada vs. Jamaica soccer/football game at BMO Field). Of course my first stop was the Food Building, since I was starving. Had a potato roti (no, I couldn’t afford the one with meat… lol), shared some fries & gravy with my friend and then we rolled out of there after we overate.

It’s a good thing the Olympic Exhibits are right outside the food building. After seeing some awesome trampoline work by some athletes, my friend and I tried wheelchair basketball which was a cool experience (check out my form ).

Then it was off to shop in the warehouse outlets housed in the Direct Energy Centre… got myself some nice deals at Stitches (can’t go wrong with $2.50 for a graphic T-shirt).

We missed a part of the Grand Illusion & Escape Artist show (featuring Kevin Ridgeway and Kristen Johnson), but we did manage to see her get submerged into a tank of water and escape from locked chains which was cool.

As the sun went down, we managed to sneak in a bit of the game by watching the giant screen just outside BMO Field (ended up in a tie game). Then it was time to call it a day.

I’ll probably be going again next week to get more Tiny Tom donuts.

I probably didn’t mention this in any of my previous posts as yet, but today marked my first day of Couchpotatoness AKA “I don’t have a job now because I’m going back to school to further my education”.

Yes, that’s right, I’ve said goodbye to a pretty decent job so that I could… *cue ominous music* TEACH HIGH SCHOOL. This wasn’t a rash, last-minute decision I made because I wanted a change of scenery and summers off. I actually had, what some would call, an epiphany while I was at my younger sister’s high school graduation last year. After seeing all the teachers make their speeches to the students, and seeing how positively the students reacted along with the bond they all seemed to share, it dawned on me: I’d make a pretty good teacher!

I’ve always had an aptitude for learning (yes, I even went to those “gifted” classes), and as I reflected on my years I noticed that through different experiences (whether it was helping my younger siblings, volunteering at summer camp, or training some of my co-workers) I’ve done a good job at sharing my knowledge with them and helping them to grow. Why not make this a profession?

Now, this isn’t a direct leap of career paths. At my now former job, I was a Web Producer (involving web & graphic design, videography and photography). My teaching stream will be Communication Technology (one of the 7 broad-based technologies in Technological Education programs) which involves the same thing. I honestly thought it was too late for me to start a teaching career in my field since I’ve been out of school for a while, but my 3 years experience at my last job actually helped my B.Ed application.

Communication Technology was my favourite course back when I was in high school (I still remember that “Sailor Moon” image I designed in Corel Draw back then). So after volunteering at my old high school for a while and sending my application in, I was pleasantly surprised when I got accepted to Queen’s University (tough loss for the other 2 I applied to). (Shout out to my former co-worker Sandeep for getting accepted to teacher’s college as well! ) For those of you applying for teacher’s college, don’t give up… things will work out for the best.

So, last week my boss (thanks girl!) and department got me this wonderful cupcake-cake (you know… the one that looks like a cake, but it’s actually a bunch of cupcakes smothered in icing so that you don’t have to worry about a knife and fork). It was delicious! Was all set to eat one last morsel when I came back from lunch, and to my surprise there was an empty platter on my desk! How 7 cupcakes disappeared from my desk in 30 minutes, I don’t know… not even a “thanks for the cupcakes I stole from your desk, Monique”. Never did find out who scarfed them down while I was gone… but don’t worry: karma’s on my side!

So, now I got a couple weeks to prepare for school (I even have an assignment due on day 2, so lots of reading to be done). What really sucks now is that I’m not covered by my benefits package anymore. Looks like my wisdom teeth are going to have to wait 10 months till I get hired and covered again (heaven knows I’m not shelling out my laptop funds on my teeth)!

Hi-ho, hi-ho… It’s off to Kingston I go. Of course, I’ll keep you all updated.