Thursday, March 31, 2005


Yay Canadian Parliament Posted by Hello


Fun at the Ottawa Children's museum Posted by Hello

Ottawa & Rain

So it's about time I update my journal again!
I got to travel across this wonderful land that they call Canada again to the shinning city called OTTAWA! Yay! My friend Sarah felt sorry for all the non-Canuks at the residence and invited us (Kate, Charlotte and I) to spend Easter weekend at her place. And let me tell you, I'm grateful she did! Spending Easter aww awone at the residence would have been sad and creepy indeed :'(
So basically we all took off on friday mornin' on a train (funny story: I forgot my ticket and had to run back to the residence to get it... but I mad my train! HA!) and arrived in Ottawa in the early afternoon. Her mom was waiting for us at the train station, and she and Sarah spent the ride to Sarah's house pointing to various Important Buildings in Ottawa (as Charlotte and I not so discreetly fell asleep in the back seat... for some reason, we all kept on dozing off ALL THE TIME that weekend; Sarah's mom must have thought we were insane).
Sarah's house is really pretty, it looked like some forgotten wooden structure lost in the forest. We got to tramp in the snow, see the beaver ponds, and take lots of silly pictures! The next few days consisted mostly of sleeping, eating, and visiting museums. It was awesome. I got to carry a bar of gold worth a quarter million (I was going to run for it, but the security guard was giving the evil eye).
This week has been good-- really good, mostly due to the face that the SUN is out and that the temperature os consistently above 0 degrees. YAY! I went raincoat shopping with Kate, which was super exciting, and we got to wear them tonight because IT IS RAINING! That's right, folks. Actual liquid water. It boggles the mind!
On a random silly note, labbing for Western today was fun. I got to know the other people in the lab a little better, and we (Sonja, Helen and I) gave Andrej a hard time because girls are always calling for him. We all know he's the Research Playboy. We should make him an honourary name tag or something! Downside of labbing for Western: she's expecting me to come up with a protocol for dying the arabidopsis seeds for tomorrow ("so we can carry it out"), and frankly, I have no idea what I'm going to do!
Tootles folks!

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Kingston

Hey everyone!
Am I already getting lazy with updates? This could be a bad sign. Luckily, lots has happened, so I won't be completly lost as to what I should write about.
I've started working (*coughvolounteercough*) for my genetics professor Thursdays and Fridays. I was a little nervous on Thursday, but everything went well. Dr. Western was really nice, showed me around the lab, the Phytotron Room (which is really scary), bought me my own shiny notebook in the store (it's very exciting-- I got to write "Victoria Bond, Tamara Western's lab, March 2005" on it), and even took me to the biology graduate students' seminar. I got to sit down, and listen to the graduate student give presentations about what they're researching, why it's important, etc. etc. Funnily enough, the presentations tended to deteriorate into teachers bickering to each other (while defending their pet graduates) about which technique was better-- gene knock out or manipulation during embryogenesis... you get the idea. I'm pretty sure I was the youngest person by far, and didn't understand most of what was said, but Dr. Western did explain a few of the techniques that were mentioned repeatedly.
I'm not sure I want to do research. It's scary.
I also went to Kingston for the weekend, to go see my best friend Chantal. It was awesome! I got to walk around downtown, go to the spring markets, walk on lake Ontario, go see a play... I've been thinking about acting very New-Yorkish (*coughsnootycough*) and making Kingston my "country week-end get-away", for when I need a break from the Big City. (Chantal, don't kill me! I'm only kidding). But seriously, it was nice to relax, forget about ...everything for a while, and finaly see the stars at night. Living in a city is strange that way. I also got to see a play called "Meltdown" which was written by one of Chantal's teachers. It was... unsual. Very fun though, it told the story of Iquarus and Minos in certainly the most interesting way I have ever seen it (Imagine: Minos speaking to Posseidon using a gizmo called Godspeak, Iquarus being responsible for Serenity's pregnancy, and finally Iquarus performing a rap as he's flying to his doom).
Haha, on a side note, I have 17 hours of lab this week! My organic chemistry labs are over as of this week though, which is sad because they were fun in their own unsual way, largely thanks to my infamous lab partner Beata --but I did sign up for Psyc labs as extra credit. It's fun; they refer to me as "the experiment", and they don't inject anything in me, so I'm a happy girl ;).
OK, well it's time for me to treck up to Steward...

Monday, March 14, 2005

Gasp.

I just realised that this week, I will go dancing four times, and that I will spend over fourteen hours doing laboratory work (sometimes a combination of both). This is crazy!

Saturday, March 12, 2005

SUS Appreciation Night

Well! Much as I should be studying for my midterm on monday (Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience, yum yum), I think last night was worth mentioning.
I was invited to go the Science Undergraduate Society's Appreciation Night. It was this big formal party hosted at the Molson Breweries (Molson is a rather foul beer brewed in Montreal)--very swanky! A friend had lent me this lovely black dress with pink frills along the bottom (thank you!); it was a perfect fit, and I expect I'll be stealing it alot more often to go swing dancing.
The venue was amazing. It consisted of two rooms: one was the actually brewery (or so they made us believe), with large copper containers, a bar with taps or every kind of beer that Molson brews (Dry, Tornardo, Bavardi, etc.), and bags and bags of popcorn scattered around. The second room was where the dinner actually took place; it was larger, with hardwood floors, big bay windows, and tables that were set with Molson plates, Molson cutlery, Molson glasses... very impressive. It turned out being an awesome night (what with the bottomless drinks, food, and popcorn!), and I wasn't even that lost, either.
Turns out I knew quite a few people at the party-- people I hadn't even known were involved! The only downside was that the entire time, people would ask me: "So, what did YOU do?", and I'd have to explain that I didn't do anything, that I'd been invited, and that I was worthless scum. It certainly motivated me to get involved, though. I aslo met heaps of really nice people, who I hope I'll remember (and will remember me). As much as I love meeting new people though, it just bugs me that I probably won't be keeping in touch with most of them. The only disadvantage to going to a HUGE school is the fact that I find it hard to get to really know someone. I'm afraid I may have ADHD, and am simply unable to SIT DOWN and get to know a person well... Not to mention that when you live in the ghetto, if you don't see someone for a week, everything moves so fast that you've most likely already become estranged.
Throughout the night, "awards" where given to different outstanding individuals and faculties, such as BUGS (Biochem), PULS (Physio), MBSU (Biology), CT (Computer Taskforce), etc. The awards themselves were Barbie dolls from the dollar store which had been stuck on plungers and spray painted gold. Slightly creepy, slightly nerdy, perfect for science. At the end, one award hadn't been given out. The poor doll was lying forlornly on the the table, headless (her head had been ripped off and combined to another doll's to make a two-headed award). Instead, she had been fitted with an erlenmeyer, and a mop of gold hair had been stuck on top of it. What else could I do? I gave the creepy chemistry doll a home, and she's now adorning my desk :-).
After the award show, the table were cleared and music began to play. All the university students, naturally, started ghetto dancing in suits and shimery dresses. It was good times, and I was convinced to stay much too late!
So in the end, I was left with: many new aquaintances, a creepy doll, a desire to get involved, free food and beer, a Molson glass, blisters on my feet, and really great memories.
I love McGill.

Monday, March 07, 2005

Oh week of insanity

So here I am in Steward biology (a broken down building all the way up the hill, which is ever so much fun to trudge to during a snow storm, such as the one currently raging outside), trying not to stress out about the interview I will be having with my professor in fifteen minutes.
Instead, I choose to stress out about everything else.
My checklist:
--Read (and learn) chapters 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12 of biopsychology for next tuesday
--Learn carboxylic acids, alcohols, esters, and god knows what else in organic chemistry II for thursday
--Write and prepare lab report for tomorow (heh)
--Don't slack off in all of the other classes I'm taking
--Find an apartment
--Find a job
--Decide if Med school really is worth it
--Get some sleep

That last one, I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit in my schedule. We shall see.
In other news, did anybody feel the earthquake on saturday? I know I didn't.

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Yay, first post!

So my friend Sarah has convinced me to try this blog thing out. I know that my sister is already quite addicted, and that it is a good way for our little family to keep in touch.
I figured I may as well sign up, even though I know that I will never update it and/or if I do, I will be quite mortified of my posts months from now.
So far, it's wasted a good 30 minutes of studying time (I am currently at the library), so I guess it's all good.
Enjoy!