First week recap, Bridesmaids, and a s'more cupcake

I have officially completed my first week of Graduate School!  I think I've already gone a bit funny in the head, sadly.  I'm reading an article called, "Information as Thing" and it's a bit of a torturous process.  It literally took me several hours to read four pages.  Maybe the fact that I was super tired and having a hard time focusing might have had something to do with it.  And then the author started talking about antelopes. Yes, antelopes.  What do antelopes have to do with library science, you may ask? I am still wondering.  The author used an analogy that if an antelope is in the wild, it is not a document, but if it is in a zoo being studied and researched, and we are learning from it, then it is a document.  He then proceeded to compare antelopes and ships.  I swear a PhD is just a license to write paragraph-long sentences that make up 20 pages of complete nonsense.  I find this especially frustrating as we are taught the importance of not being wordy and not padding our essays in undergrad.  But get to the doctoral level apparently, and it's the more words the better! Harumph.  Clearly I have already reached the status of cranky bitter grad student.  But you couldn't tell, right?  As further evidence:

On Wednesday a few friends and I went to see the movie Bridesmaids at the on-campus theatre.  Yep, there's a movie theatre on campus.  And two Tim Horton's in the SAME building.  Big schools do have their advantages I suppose.  Coming from a school with a total population of 2000 this is freaking amazing.   Anyways being the first week, and seeing as how the undergrads didn't start classes until Thursday, there were many people in the student centre for various frosh-related activities.  As we were walking out a frosh leader (I presume) said something along the lines of, "aww they're just coming out of a movie" in the most annoying "isn't that quaint? how sad and pathetic that they are not 18 and drunk out of their minds" voice.  For real.  As Jen and I said, we are (not) surprisingly ok with not being 18 and drunk out of minds during the first week of classes.  I'm too freaking old for that :P

One awesome thing about grad school: I don't feel (so) old anymore! In fact, I dare say I may be one of the younger ones! Or at least, many people are the same age as me.  Quite a few already have Master's degrees in fields such as history and literature, and there are several older people who are going back to school after being in the workforce for some time.  Oh and yesterday we got to play with yarn.  That totally makes up for the snowstorm of assignments that will be my life until December.  Right?

I also got cupcakes at this fancy cupcake place in the market on the way home as a treat for my roommate and I.  She just finished her first week of co-op.  I got a s'mores one for me and a milk & cookies one for her.  Pictures to follow, but we decided to wait until she gets home from dinner with a friend to eat them together  : )

Les boulangeries

In France I developped a daily (ok, sometimes three times a day) boulangerie habit.  A tarte aux framboise for breakfast eaten on the way to la fac (that's the university, fyi), a petit pain aux trois chocolats for a mid-afternoun snack (did I ever tell you about the time I stopped into my favourite bakery RIGHT AS THEY WERE COMING OUT OF THE OVEN?!?!), and a little something for dessert.  I was obsessed.  And the best part? I didn't gain a SINGLE pound the entire 3.5 months I lived there.  It. Was. Heaven.  Needless to say when I moved to Ontario and discovered a little French bakery located in an indoor market about 60 seconds from my apartment, I nearly cried.  At 2.25$ for a little macaron, I definitely cried.  But Oh. My. Lord.  I got a pistachio one and it just about melted in my mouth. Definitely not something I'll be getting very often :( Donations to the Poor Grad Student Macaron fund are currently being accepted :D Oh, and I asked if they ever had tarte aux framboises (my all time fav) and they said not usually, but I could order them.  For my birthday instead of cake? I think so.

If there's one thing worse than being a poor student...

it's being a poor grad student.  I received my "Notification of Assessment" from BC Student Loans today, and I'm approximately six thousand dollars short of what I need.  Did you know that the maximum given is the same for undergrad and grad students? Freaking ridiculous if you ask me.  FYI student loan geniuses, grad school is WAY MORE FREAKING EXPENSIVE THAN YOUR GARDEN VARIETY UNDERGRAD!!!!!!!!  I'm applying for positions at the library of one of the affiliate university colleges on campus.  They're looking for a few people for 6-10 hours a week.  I really REALLY did not want to work during grad school but hey, what's a poor student with a maxed out credit card who can't get a line of credit to do?  My boyfriend seems to think robbing a bank is a bad idea.  I say he is no fun.  What could possibly go wrong?

Holy lack of updating batman!

I have been severely neglecting my blog, I'll admit.  A lack of comments gave me little desire to write.  I mean, if I didn't want comments I'd write in a private paper diary.  People have public blogs for a reason yo.  Anyways, my blog is going to be getting a re-do soon, and a new name-la future bibliothécaire.  It'll have more of a theme as well.  The name is french for "the future librarian"  Clever, right? See, that B.A. in French came in handy after all! I'll be talking about all things Grad School (specifically library school, obviously) related: classes, social life, being poor, living on a Grad Student budget (and we all thought we were poor as undergrads! HA.), my adventures in the kitchen, etc...

So what's been going on with me? I was offered and I accepted a well-paying job at a museum in my area, but then I was offered a position at a library right down the street from where my boyfriend, the wonderful S, lives.  It is most definitely not well-paying, but hello, I want to be a children's librarian and I will be working as the Summer Book Club Coordinator.  Needless to say it won't exactly pay the bills, which is a little scary considering I'm going back to school in the Fall and already know I did not get a place in Grad Student housing due to the lottery system in place at my school.  This means I will have to find a place off campus, and will probably need to have first and last months rent.  I have never lived off campus before so it's a little daunting.  That being said, the experience I'll get this summer will be invaluable.  My first day is tomorrow.  I'm a little nervous as my expertise is in heritage (I have mainly worked at museums for the past three summers) and I have never run a summer book club for kids before, but I think it will be fun! They said I could do a French story hour too if I wanted, seeing as I speak French and all.

Wish me luck!

Disneyworld recap!

Well kids, Disneyworld was all kinds of awesome.  You know what I noticed though? It's either parents with little kids ore really old people.  Like people in their 70's.  As three 20 something women we felt a little out of place haha.  Anyways we did all the Disney parks (Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot...am I forgetting any) and also a day at Universal Studios.  Hello Harry Potter! We all felt that Universal catered a little more to adults, as there were less cheesy shows and just in general it seemed "older."  There was this one ride at the Harry Potter park that was probably my favourite of all the parks; it was mostly a simulation one so it felt like you were playing quidditch, flying through the forbidden forest, etc...So cool! And they have the park set up like Hogsmeade, with all the stores: Olivander's, Honeydukes, Zonko's, Owl Post, etc...I tried a butterbeer and it was delicious! You could get it in slushy form or...just regualr liquid form I think.  We got slushy.  It tastes caramely, I guess would be the best way to describe it.  We rented a car for 2 days and for the first drove to Daytona Beach.  So much fun! I got a really painful sunburn though that made going on rides the next day a bit of a challenge.  I'm peeling now, it's really quite attractive.  Not really.  The second day we drove to Universal Studios.  We stayed at a Disney Resort so there was no shuttle service there and we were told a cab would be ridiculously expensive.  Guess what else there is in Orlando? A Coach outlet! Actually I had my eye on the Kate Spade outlet but it proved to not have very outlet-y prices.  As in everything was regularly priced but 30% off.  I don't know about you, but 30% off a 400$ bag is still too much money for me.  I found a bag at Coach that I really liked.  It was marked down to 169$ from almost 300$ something and there was an additional 30% off.  I ended up paying 125$.  That's more like it! Speaking of shopping, I picked up some great pieces at an outlet mall in New Hampshire, state of the no sales tax. There is an outlet mall not far from my friends house, and I snagged three pieces at the Banana Republic outlet for less than 70$! Is that a deal or what?! I've had my eye on a short-sleeved wrap top from there for ages and it is like 70$ alone! No thanks! I can see myself doing a lot of shopping at Banana Republic once I start work as a librarian.  And they even have petite sizes! Sadly I quite often have to hem petite pants as well, but at least I'm not wasting like two feet of fabric.

We flew into two nights ago and yesterday went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which I absolutely adore.  Now I'm staying at friend's place in New Hampshire until the 20th, when I meet my boyfriend in Ottawa.  I may go up to Montreal in a few days and stay there until the 20th instead...not quite sure yet.

Oh, and this was my flight!

Man tries to open emergency exit door

 The guy they arrested was sitting DIRECTLY behind me! When we landed no less than 8 police officers got on board to take this guy off.  Seemed like overkill to me, but from what I know about the US your law enforcement guys don't mess around! Crazyness!

Smooth Criminal on the cello?

Seriously, how epic is this?!

Maybe some day

Maybe some day I will wear something other than sweat pants and hoodies.

Maybe some day I will straighten my hair again instead of throwing it up in a pony tail with a Lululemon headband.

Maybe some day I will wear makeup on a daily basis once again

That day is after finals lol.