Friday, January 12, 2007

The First Week

So it's the start of my last year in university. Time has surely gone by very very fast. I can still vividly remember when I first moved to Ottawa -- freaking out yet excited at the same time. I felt very welcomed and loved my floormates and residence experience. So much so that I decided to return to Marchand the following year and met more awesome people. Anyway, let's not reminisce about university life just yet, as I still have 12 months to go. So let's recap how my courses are going and what I expect out of it.

Honours Seminar in Cdn Politics: A lot of reading. I'm a little nervous about this course. It's not the content that's hard because I have a passion and interest for Canadian Politics, but it's the amount of work! Ahhh...I hope I can handle it. We had our first real lecture/discussion today and it was interesting. I even made a very good point that the prof seemed to be 'wowed' by it. Expected mark: B+

Contemporary Canada: A second-year history course. Very easy. Learning how Canada has evolved/developed since the Depression. I only have one reading per class and its pretty straight forward. Compliments my interest in Canadian history and politics very well. I look forward to attending this course. Expected mark: A

Le parlementarisme au Canada: Studying the workings of Parliament, the Constitution, and issues behind representation in the House of Commons and Senate. Another scary class. Haven't had a real taste of it yet, but the professor has designed the course to be like a seminar, so there's going to be lots of readings and discussions. Ahhh...discussion des evenements et problemes politiques en francais ne sont pas mon forte! At least the readings are mostly in English except for a few articles. Hahaha. Great! Lots of writing as well. Expected mark: B+

Perfectionnement de l'expression orale en francais langue seconde II: A third-year (but the very last of FLS courses) course. Learning on how to improve my speaking abilities/oral communication en francais. Should be a fun and interesting class. Lots of people though -- 30 students! My prof seems very perky. Anyway, got several presentations to do in that. We also have to put together a francophone music folder. Woot! I've always wanted to do something like that. I already have an artist in mind (no, it's not Celine Dion or Roch Voisine). No readings and very little homework. Expected mark: A

Canadian Federalism: Another one of those fourth-year courses that could be made into a seminar, but the prof decided against it due to the number of students. Should be interesting. Average amount of readings but lots of writing to do as well. Haven't had a real lecture yet so we'll see how it goes. Compliments my interest in Canadian Politics. Expected mark: B+

So there you go....those are all the courses I'm taking this semester. It's going to be tough, especially since I'm also working part-time at DND as well. But with good time management skills and lots of prayer, I know I'll pull through. Maybe I'll go a little crazy come April, but at least I still made it through right?

Anyway, work has been going fine. Was just doing some catching up this week since I was gone for 2 weeks. The only thing I like about going to work is that it takes my mind off of school for a bit. I don't have to think about readings and assignments. It's like a whole other world there. My big boss sat down with me and discussed future employment opportunities at DND. I told him that I've already made my decision to leave DND for my last co-op work term (hoping for a position with DFAIT, CIC, or PCH) and he said that he would have done the same thing as well if he were in my shoes. But he said that no matter what, that if I was ever interested in working for DND (not in my capacity at the moment but in another section like ADM(Policy)), then I should let him know and he would speak with HR and let me know of any openings either in Toronto or Ottawa. He said that he's only ever done that with one other student and he now has a really good job. He told me that I should not hesitate to contact him, even when I'm gone, and that if I wanted to work a few hours from Sept-Dec to earn a few bucks, I would be welcomed back. OMG. What great opportunity. I never expected this when I first came to DND. It would be really really awesome if I could get a job with ADM(Policy) or for the Minister's Office. Wowzers! Ok, let's not get too far ahead of myself here. Still have school to finish! So on that note, I should end here and do some readings. Boo.

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