Completed my Info Session

Well, I did my info session, and I feel that I did pretty well.

I've put this blog on a setting where only "approved people" can read it. I hope that means that my followers can. I'll remove the setting after a decision in regard to my acceptance has been made.

Got three homework assignments back. 100%  on all three of them, each worth 10% of my final grade for that course. Got an assignment back in Psyche, only 84%. And I feel like my Sociology and Psyche midterms are gonna drop me.

Visiting the Old Dojo

I went to visit my old dojo the other day. It's something I've been meaning to do for awhile, but just never got around to. By chance, there weren't any of my old buddies when I went there, except for the head sensei. It was good catching up with him and learning about the progress of the various people since I stopped training.

Hey, guess what? Justin Trudeau sent me an email the other day:

Did you catch the debate today, Gryphon? I hope I made you proud to be a part of this campaign.

These debates are about you and millions of other Canadians -- and what we're working for together. 

This morning I set a goal of ensuring 70% of Canadians get a post-secondary education-- your contribution to our campaign is the first step to getting us there. 

If you believe we can get this done together, donate $5 or more right now.

Thanks, 

Justin

Check that out. We're on a first-name basis, and he's even trying to bum me for a fiver. I guess we're pretty tight, now. Its probably because I sat in the front row. He probably thought I was a pretty cool guy. He even knows I'm bilingual, or I assume he does, because he sent me a French translation, too. Us bilinguals gotta stick together.

Got back my marks for two more assignments. 100% on both of them! Yeah! I had some confidence in them, though. Im more worried about my Sociology exam.

But so far, these are the grades I've gotten:

100%
80%
90%
100%
100%
100%

So I'm currently meeting my goal of getting over 90%.

Pot-au-Feu

So you know how my Mom asked me if I'd had anything culturally-specific when I was in Quebec, and I said no? (She mentioned this in an email). Yeah, well, I was wrong.

My second host mother's specialty dish was something called Pot-au-Feu. It's a French (I think more traditionally France French) dish consisting of beef and other meats of choice, along with vegetables such as carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, and onion, stewed in a pot.

I think Pot-au-Feu means "Pot of fire" in French. More literally, it means "Pot-to-fire" which I guess also kind of makes sense.

Here's an image:

Oddly, my family called it "couscous", which is why I didn't immediately recognize it as an exotic dish. In Mali, we had this grainy substance that was also called "couscous". My Counterpart called the Quebec dish "Couscous Arabic" and the grainy stuff "Couscous Malian". Confusing to me, because they seem like completely different dishes.

Here's a pic of "Couscous Malian"

The Pot-au-Feu was served with the couscous grain, but it wasn't the main focus, so I don't know why both the Quebecois and the Malians would put the most emphasis on it.

Reading Week

Well, I got someone to fill out my volunteer forms. I now have all the requirements for my info session. I also have letters of recommendation from all three of my Katimavik supervisors, my CWY supervisor, both my Katimavik work supervisors, and a guidance counsellor from high school. I'm also bringing my W2W, Katimavik and CWY certificates, and I'm bringing three more certificates that I earned in W2W (but not the one that expired).

I'm home for reading week. I was excited that in college we get an extra break. But then I realized that reading week is just Spring Break with a new name and place, I think, a month early.

Haircut Pics

I got requested to send some pics of my new haircut, so here's some before and after images.

Before

 After

As you can see, I did like a teenage girl on Facebook and took a shot of myself in the mirror.  Don't know how those girls do it.  Look into the camera and you're looking down. Look at the mirror and your gaze is never level. Probably just practice. This was the best pic I came out with.

The person who cut my hair was the same age as me, and she went to the same highschool as me.Knew a bunch of people I know.  Pretty cool.

So almost everyone transferred to the March info session for SSW, leaving mine the only slot not filled. Procrastinators.

I might turn this blog temporarily private during their selection process. Don't  want to risk them looking me up and thinking that I'm the kinda guy that slathers his info all over the web.

Haircut

I got  my hair cut last weekend. Soon after, I bumped my head. First thing I thought was that if I hadn't cut my hair, the blow would have been cushioned. Then I started worrying about internal bleeding. I thought this because my head felt different, which, in retrospect, was because of the haircut.

You know how  Billy Mays died from internal bleeding after getting hit on the head? He felt fine, went to sleep, and died. So I was thinking that if I just didn't sleep, I wouldn't die. Didn't  pan out. I decided that if I just took naps but avoided going into REM sleep, then maybe I could avoid dying. Started getting headaches, which I attributed to bleeding. Finally passed out and woke up the next day feeling fresh. Turns out the headaches came from sleep deprivation.

Got my beard trimmed, too. I never had it professionally done before. Looks good. Went over real well with my colleagues. Fives months without cutting my hair, and I'd been growing out my beard with minimal trimming for a few months. Went from full mountain man to something that'll look professional for my SSW interview.

Spent an extra $5 for the beard trim, meaning this is the most I've ever spent on my hair ($20). Was listening to the girls talking about their hair, and the prices they pay are disturbing. The lowest I heard was $60, and the highest was $250! I don't play with those numbers, yo.

Saw Justin Trudeau

Today, Justin Trudeau came to our school.  Remember me talking about that boxing match between politicians a ways back? Yeah, well, the guy that won, the smaller one, who was debating in favour of Katimavik, spoke in The Sanctuary. If you'll recall, The Sanctuary is that second, classier cafeteria we have that serves beer on Tuesday mornings.

I somehow got pushed to the front of the crowd, so I was up-front-and-centre. If his speech got televised, I bet you I'm in it, predominantly in the background. There were a lot of cameras, but I guess that doesn't necessarily  mean it will be televised. There are probably cameras everywhere he goes.

I was literally a foot and a half  away from him for most of his speech. I made an effort to make an educated guess on this.

Also, randomly, today I also heard of his boxing opponent, Brazeau, getting charged for sexual and physical assault. He may lose his position as Senator.

I have been accepted into two Social Service Worker programs, still waiting on the other three. The ones I've been accepted into are both in Toronto. I've got my info session on this coming 27th for my first choice. They added another slot, so I could put it off to March, but I don't feel like it. However, in Psyche today, we learned that Long Term vs. Short Term memory causes people to have a better shot at getting hired if they are the first or last to be interviewed. And since the first info session was yesterday, and the last one is March, that puts mine right in the middle. Wondering if I should transfer to the other session. On the other hand, my teachers have also said that the sooner you do it, the better your chances, so I don't know...