Let's recap the last week!

And so I'm done another semester of university. Time sure does fly when you're having fun (or not that much fun) and you're learning a lot of information that you probably won't even need at your job.

Anyway, so now I'm home for 20 days! Loooooooooonnnngggg Christmas holidays, which is good because I can rest up and head into work for four months, stress-free and relaxed. If you didn't notice my exam schedule that I posted to the right, I completed 2 exams, 2 take-homes, 1 group research project, and 1 20-page research paper in 3 days. Yes...all that in three days. Boy, was I stressed. For the past week, I would go to bed thinking what I would have to accomplish in the next day in order to hand everything in on time and study for the exams. I thought I wouldn't get everything done (especially the 20-pager) but I did. I just hope my marks didn't fall down the wayside. I'll find out in about a month how great (or poorly) I did.

At first, I absolutely loved my exam schedule because I was done so early. But then, I hated it with a passion and hope that it will never happen again because I literally had no life for one week. Everyday was spent writing writing and writing. For essays, I like to write out, by hand, a rough copy because I can get most of my ideas that way. I wrote soo much (I overwrote for my 20-pager -- turned out to be 25 pages and for the US Politics one too) that I developed carpel-tunnel-syndrome-like symptoms in my right wrist and forearm. I had difficulty typing one of my exams, that my roommate, Sarah offered to help me type up one them. How sweet was that. I have to owe her something nice. My other roommate, Amanda, helped me edit my US Politics take-home, and Danielle offered (but more like has to) to clean the bathroom while I'm gone. My roommates are awesome. We get a long very well. The pain lasted for about two days. I tried to avoid writing, but I couldn't because I had to. I had no choice. I honestly thought I had carpel-tunnel syndrome because everytime I moved my wrist to hit to the 'shift' or 'enter' keys, my wrist would kill. But since Danielle is in Human Kinetics, she told me the pain from the wrist and forearm is probably from holding my wrist in the same position for a long period of time. The pain from the forearm was probably because my muscles weren't used to all that writing. After stressing over for the Comparative Politics exam, I stayed up until 1:30am to finish the 20-pager. Slept for 7 hours and woke up and was at it again, this time to finish the Research Techniques take-home and then stressed over why my Research group sucks and had to re-edit the ENTIRE project 30 minutes before it was due. Thank God I live on campus. After handing those things in, I came back and was at it for my US Politics exam and tried to figure out how I would finish typing, editing AND study for the final exam. The ever real breaks from studying I got over the past week or so was for eating, washroom, and shower purposes. Other than that, I was either starting at a computer screen or starting at a piece of paper. Oh what a life I live!

In between those study periods, I did manage to go visit my place of employment -- National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ), but more precisely, the CFSU(O) -- I think it means Canadian Forces Support Unit (Ottawa) where I will be working in the Safety Office. I handle mostly the civilian side of things, but I still get to interact with some military personnel. Those cadet years will now come in handy! "Yes sir!" "Yes Sergeant" "No Master Corporal!". My manager seems pretty nice. And the department head (I think) seems happy to have hired me and to see me again (I met both of them during the interview). They ranked me as their first choice for co-op student so I guess now I have to prove to them my worth. I had to do my security clearance and do some paperwork for my phone line, e-mail account, security pass, etc. I'm very excited to begin working there. wOOt! It should be an interesting four months of sitting in a cubicle (no windows!) and entering training data into the database and updating stuff. They're still not too sure what I'll really be doing, but they know that I will be inputting stuff into the computer. So yeah. Oh yeah, even though I live within walking distance to work (15 minutes), I will purchase the new OCTranspo semestered (4 months) bus pass because 1) I really have no interest in walking in -40 weather come January and February 2) I can use the bus pass to go everywhere in the city 3) I can finally go explore the city and the bus/O-Train system! So yes, I will be hopping on a bus every morning and take it literally two stops -- Campus -- Laurier -- Mackenzie King. Oh..did I mention my working hours are from 8-4 (*gasp*)?. That's soooo early! It means I have to wake up everyday at like 6:30 in order to get ready. I had the option of either 7:30-3:30 or 8-4. I picked the latter one because I really have no interest in waking up when the sun is not even out.

Well, yeah...that was my week. Now I have to go shovel the snow!