With the holidays comes compassion...

In the busy-ness of the Christmas season, it's easy to get stressed out and irritable. The cold weather is here, the economy's in the toilet, and everyone's rushing around in a panic because there are only x shopping days left till the 25th. Well today, in the midst of the holiday madness, while walking through Toronto's snootiest neighbourhood -Yorkville- I witnessed a very upscale, well dressed middle aged lady give a giant bag of warm clothes to a homeless man. Faith in humanity restored.

More wacky college fun

My anatomy professor treated us to her rendition of this song about cows the other day during lecture. I believe it's an Arrogant Worms song (thank you Google!):

I am cow, hear me moo
I weigh twice as much as you
And I look good on the barbecue
Yogurt, curd, cream cheese and butter
Made from liquid from my udder
I am cow, I am cow, hear me moo (moo)

I am cow, eating grass
Methane gas comes out my ass
And out my muzzle when I belch
Oh, the ozone layer is thinner
From the outcome of my dinner
I am cow, I am cow, I've got gas

I am cow, here I stand
Far and wide upon this land
And I am living everywhere
From B.C. to Newfoundland
You can squeeze my teats by hand
I am cow, I am cow, I am cow!
I am cow, I am cow, I am cow!

Public Transit

One of my biggest expenses since going back to school has been transportation. I buy these lovely GTA Weekly Passes for $47 that allow me unlimited transportation on TTC, GO, Brampton Transit, Mississauga Transit, and York Region routes. Then I trek out to school each day - first via TTC to Finch Station, where I hop on the York Region Transit 88 route bus and enjoy the one hour ride to the boonies. Who knew that these little passes even existed? Not bad. Although if they made them in monthly form, and lots cheaper, that would be even better.

Still waiting for my mom to buy her new car so I can snap up her '99 Protege and cut two hours of commuting outta my day for good... but riding the bus does makes for some good studying time.

Meh.

"Meh" was officially added to the Collins English Dictionary this week. It's now officially defined as “an expression of utter boredom or an indication of how little you care for an idea”. After years in my vocabulary, I'm pretty stoked that the good people at Collins are giving it the recognition it deserves. "Meh" has finally, officially, become a real word. How bout that?

Happy Elevator & Escalator Safety Awareness Week!

Join me in celebrating Elevator and Escalator Safety Awareness Week! (Yes, really. They have a week dedicated to everything!) May your travels on elevators and escalators be safe ones, folks.

Social Dynamics

In the Veterinary Technician Program Class of 2010 at Seneca there are 97 students. 94 of them are women, ages ranging from eighteen to probably about forty, with the majority being in the eighteen to twenty three group. From the third day, I began to realize what a problem this could be. Because girls, together, can be mean. Remember high school? Yeah. So this is kinda similar.

Most of these girls are from small town Ontario - Kitchener, Cambridge, Aurora. These are the horse/large animal people, usually. Live on a farm, work at local stables, have been riding since childhood. Other girls are from GTA suburbs like Mississauga, Newmarket, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, & Markham. Lots of them work in clinics already and cop a bit of a "I know everything there is to know about working in a vet clinic" attitude. Some have exotic/pocket pets at home like ferrets, snakes, rats and talk about them constantly. A few people came into this program with a few friends, but most people - me included - entered it not knowing anyone. And, similar to high school, girls seem to make friends with other girls by deciding who they don't like and banding together against that person. Bonding over how annoying they are, which includes everything from how they speak, what they say, how they dress, how they walk & who they hang out with. If you join in the bashing, you've made a friend. It's pretty ruthless.

And this is not to say that there aren't some truly annoying people in the program. Absolutely there are. But so what? That's life. You won't like everyone you meet. Must every second be about talking about how much we don't like them? I have managed to make a few friends of the non-bitchy variety. I'm not really there to make friends, although in college one needs to have a few friends handy, since nearly everything is about "group work".

Two of my friends are immigrants to Canada and at the older end of the age range spectrum. Patricia is from Brazil. Most of her family still lives there. She lives in Etobicoke with her husband and her jack russell terrier. She works part time at a Dollarama, for $8.75 an hour. She takes public transit two and half hours one way to get to school...and I thought my commute was bad. Everyone in her Kennel Duty group thinks she is stupid and can't speak English and therefore, they hate her. Patricia is probably smarter than they are, and although she speaks with an accent, her English is just fine. She's the nicest lady, ever, and the fact that she's being bullied by rich early twenty-something students whose mommies and daddies are paying for their schooling, transportation, and living expenses makes me crazy. When Patricia and I bonded over the social weirdness that is our program this year, on a long bus ride home, I thought she was going to cry because she was so grateful that someone else understood and shared her feelings.

Derrix is from China, where he was a full blown veterinarian. Which is quite different in China, in that they work mostly with production animals like swine and cattle. Veterinary clinics, as we know them here, are pretty much non-existant. Derrix has been in Canada for only 2 years - he's got a wife, and a daughter, and they live in the Victoria Park and Finch area. Derrix's English is pretty abysmal - he translates everything into Mandarin in order to understand. He misses test dates, and other important announcements, because they're said too fast for him to translate and write down. He relies heavily on other students to help fill him in, and explain assignments, terms and concepts. When he speaks, you have to ask him to repeat himself several times - simply because the pronunciation is off and his accent is so thick. But he's out there, and he's trying. I can only imagine how difficult it is for him. He handles the animals somewhat roughly, because that's what he's used to in China. He has no pets of his own - his family simply can't afford them. He barely understands the concept of animals as companions: once, while we were together in the school's computer lab and I showed him some photos I had online of Siris, he remarked that I must "have a deep feeling" for my dog, which I thought was really cute. What an adjustment for him, culturally. Many of my classmates are impatient with Derrix, because it takes him so long to understand what's being asked, and he needs so much help, and admittedly, it can be taxing. Sometimes I get the feeling I'm going to school for the both of us, he can be so high maintenance. But I admire what he's doing, and hey, the man needs help, and it's not like it's that hard to offer it. Sometimes I don't know what's wrong with people.

To be honest, I'm not sure if either Derrix or Patricia will survive the two years. Derrix, from an academic perspective - he's not doing too well on assignments and tests because of the language barrier and he may not pass the required courses to advance in the program. Which sucks, because concept-wise, the guy knows his shit. He just doesn't know it in English. Patricia, from an emotional standpoint, may end up dropping out, if she continues to be bullied and targetted by mean girls. Her confidence is low, and I hope she'll have the strength to continue and rise above the immaturity that runs so rampant when 94 young women are thrown into close quarters.

Survival of the fittest. High school redux. Me, I'm concentrating on the learning, and on being a decent human being. Doing well academically, staying out of the drama and amassing good karma along the way are my goals for the next couple of years, and I'm gonna try to stay focused.

Reading Break

I had forgotten about Reading Break... amazing. A week to myself to unwind, hang out with old friends, look for a car and a part time job, and oh yeah, study. So far so good. Except I haven't done much of anything but man, do I need this break.

In other news, I am licensed to drive! Trying to convince Momsy to sell me her wheels on the cheap, which would be amazing.

Trying to find a part time job that doesn't involve me going back to working retail. Because, ugh, I don't think I can do it. Looking for part-time reception or administrative work, because it pays a little more and I won't have to deal with the raging public at Christmas time...as much. Really wish I didn't have to work, because with school, studying, my one day a week at the dog school, volunteering with Toronto Cat Rescue, and uh, my own life, it's hard to fit it all in. But I needs the cashola.

Doing a charity walk tomorrow for Gulu, a small village in Uganda that has been affected by a 20 year war waged by the LRA. I'm really excited about it, although I hear it's supposed to rain. Walking 11km in the rain could be a little bit unpleasant, but I'm sure I'll make the best of it.

Back to skool on Monday!

Blog Resurrection!

Oh, hi!

It seems I've forgotten to post anything in here in, uh, months. Bad, I know. But it's not like I've been doing nothing - I just haven't been writing about any of it. So let's catch up, shall we?

I moved: I don't live in a basement anymore! Yay! I moved in with the boy, and we both seriously upgraded - we have the best apartment either of us has lived in, ever, in a great neighbourhood, with lots of parks nearby for The Mutters. Aaaand, there are no crackheads anywhere in the vicinity that we can tell, which is another plus. Although we do have a downstairs neighbour that royally sucks, and we do suspect our house may have a ghost (not a mean one, though.) So, all in all, good trade-up. Apartments are much more affordable when there are two of you.

I went to Uganda. Yep, I took a two week trip to Uganda to volunteer... and it was amazing. Softchoice is doing the corporate social responsibility thing, and each year employees can apply to sit on the Softchoice Cares Board - which is a group of employees who oversee the company's philanthropic efforts for the year. So I was on it for 2007-2008, and we raised over $200K to support causes relating to bridging the digital divide. We built a computer labs in Cambodia, Laos and Nepal. At the end of our term, we got to go volunteer abroad. It was one of the best things I've ever done. I wrote a blog about it that you can check out here.

I quit Softchoice...finally. Yep, almost right after getting back from Africa. I hated dealing with the corporate politics. I hated not being able to help people who needed help, because it wasn't my job. I hated building Project Dashboards and presenting at Steering Commitees and Balanced Scorecard Reviews. I hated pretending I cared about items that were Red or Yellow. I hated spoonfeeding people what they needed to do and then getting pissed off when they didn't do any of it. I hated that I rarely cared about achieving any of my project goals. So I decided I just wasn't going to do it anymore... which brings me to the next big crazy thing...

I am back in school. I'm doing a two year college program so I can be a Registered Veterinary Technician. Because I'm clearly not cut out for the corporate world. And just because I can succeed there, doesn't mean I should. Vet Techs make next to nothing. But all of them that I know are amazing people who love their jobs. And hopefully that will be me, when I graduate. I'm going to Seneca College, and it's crazy being back in school when you've been out of it for so long. It was a big scary decision, but the plunge has been taken. Gulp.

I'm going to be a driver. I'm taking driving lessons and have a road test booked. I need to be able to drive to school because the commute to King City on public transit is fucking killing me. I never thought it would happen, but it's going to. Just as gas prices are hitting an all time high, I am joining the driving population. Weird.

So, yeah. Not too much new over here. Heh. Except, oh, pretty much everything. (except that, I'm not engaged nor am I preggers or anything, which seems to be going on all around me.)

Writing the Uganda blog made me realize how much I missed the blogging thing. So... I am back, and looking forward to sharing my adventures as a thirty two year old student in the midst of a massive career change...plus the same old Andria crapola as usual.

New Fishies