1/4 of a librarian!

That's me friends! In a heartwarming Christmas miracle, my cohort has survived first term.  There were many, many times we didn't think we would.  Among the skills we are learning to be Super Librarians we also became adept at coming up with countless metaphors for how much grad school crushes your soul.  Really, I never thought I had such a way with words until library school.  Turns out, library school and "fiery pits of hell" do indeed belong in the same sentence.

In relation to the above, if you value your life I suggest you never, ever, say to a library student the following: "you need a Master's degree to be a librarian? But all you do is check out books!" If you want to unleash a stress-induced, sleep-deprived rant and have your eyes clawed out, then by all means go ahead.  But the next person who says this to me is going to wish they'd never been born.  You really think we'd put ourselves through this hell if we didn't need to?!?!

But it's all water under the bridge now! I have officially been on vacation as of 12/10/11.  My last assignment/presentation were finished on 12/05/11 though so I have for all intents and purposes been on vacation as of that date.  Classes the last week were somewhat of a formality.  Attendance is mandatory in order to maintain our ALA accreditation and not have final exams.

With the exception of Research Methods and Statistics (a required course), next term is shaping up to be 10x better than this one.  I'm taking Introduction to Archives Administration, Children's Materials (birth-7 years): Evaluation and Use, and Descriptive Cataloguing.  I have no class on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.  Classes are three hours, once a week.  I wish they were twice a week like in undergrad.  I found it a lot easier to stay on top of things, and the material was more fresh in my mind.  Course selection was stressful (is anything not stressful in library school?).  I am trying to balance classes I think will make me more employable with ones I think will actually enjoy and will not make me rip my hair out.

I'm trying, as usual, to stuff all my favourite things about home into this break.  I'm doing some yoga, am going to see The Nutcracker, the Stanley Park Christmas train, and Fort Langley, and am trying to set up an exercise schedule with friends.  Even though I lost 10 pounds last term I am definitely not in shape.  It's dreadfully hard to get motivated to workout when you've lost weight rather than gained though.  Plus my brain is so fried from school all I'm good for this days is sitting on a couch curled up a nice toasty blanket.

Hope you are all enjoying your Decembers!

bisous,

LFB

Christmas!

Christmas Break so far has been nice and relaxing, just the way it should be! I got many wonderful gifts for Christmas, such as:

A tshirt from Plan Canada's Because I am a Girl campaign

The New Red Mitten from The Hudson's Bay Company

I bought this cardigan from Plum in charcoal grey with money I got for Christmas

I also got a long-sleeved black shrug to wear with the dress I got for my friend's January wedding, and a black jewelled clutch, also to wear with the dress (all from Plum).

Yesterday Mom and I went out to see if we could score some more Christmas bargains, and we found some great things at Pier 1! I got this beautiful sparkly silver Eiffel Tower ornaments, a box of mini different coloured disco ball ornaments, a sparkly fleur de lys ornament, and napkins that say, "Peace, Love, Shoes." 

I also needed a strapless bra to wear under the dress for the wedding, so we went to the La Vie en Rose outlet.  Everything was buy one get one free! I found a great strapless bra as well as a sparkley black one.  I got panties to match the sparkly bra and a second pair, because they were free anyways.

I wanted new nail polish for the wedding too, so we went to a salon in the same mall as the outlet, and I got this gorgeous shimmery gunmetal grey OPI polish, as well as a travel-sized Aveda hand lotion and brown Cargo mascara.  The mascara was 25% off and everything in the salon was 15% off on top of any previous discounts.  Score!

Today I went shopping with a friend because she had gotten a gift card to the mall.  She got some great things, and I found a 10$ ivory coloured slouchy tank to wear under my grey Plum cardigan.  

And now I'm on a spending diet :P