Sorry I haven't been updating. The semester has really gotten into it's heated point. I've got three major assignments due on the same day, and I've got a huge paper due in about two weeks. I've also got tests and minor assignments due almost every day. Today, I had to go into school, and tomorrow, I have a psych assignment due. All my downtime has been spent sleeping or destressing. I'm afraid that updating my blog registers as an "obligation" in my mind, so I don't usually do it during my downtime.
Here are my grades, currently:
English: 82%
Preparing for College: 100%
Socil Issues: 95%
Human Services: 92%
Psychology: 83%
That puts me at 89% overall. Anything above 80% is Honours, and anything above 90% is Presidential Honours. So close!!!
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Clarity on the Sweatlodge
So I have my English as a Second Language partners. I got two instead of one, and we'll be working in a group. As per my privacy policy, I will not go into further detail.
I spoke with the Ojibway elder again, today. Remember that cool post I made about my sweatlodge experience? It's probably my most frequently-referenced post. It's as edgy as I've ever dared to go publicly. A real fan-favourite from this blog, if it's possible to say that this blog has fan-favourites.
Yeah, well, I went over the same story with the Ojibway elder, and he made sense of the experience.Ready for it? I was on my man-period.
No, seriously! Men need to do the sweatlodge ceremony because we don't have our monthly spiritual cleansing, which happens to women in the form of menstruation.
So the sweatlodge makes up for that. When we enter the tent, we are climbing into Mother Earth's womb, and when we emerge, that is a spiritual rebirth.
I remember women doing the sweatlodge when I was in Chisasibi, and I remember them feeling that they benefited from it. There was even a female-specific ritual. I guess it's just not mandatory unless you're male.
Kind of weird to say that my moment of spiritual reawakening can be boiled down to having had a period. Props to you ladies who every month.
He explained about the hair-braiding thing. He said that the braid is made of three strands. One represents the body, one the mind, and one the spirit. Apart, they can be torn easily, but intertwined, they are strong. I said that that reminded me of the Cree belief that there are four aspects of the human being, which were the same, but with the inclusion of the emotional aspect. He turned and pointed to an emblem on the wall, a circle with four colours, and said that the four aspects are represented by it, the medicine wheel.
Had another metaphor for the medicine wheel of four human aspects. Said that if you imagined the wheel to be your life, and if you imagine it rolling along, than if you decrease the size of any of the four colours, than it makes an indent in the wheel, and you'll hit a bump with each rotation. Life's going to be a bumpy ride unless you balance your four aspects.
Aboriginal is a slightly offensive term. It's the most widely recognized, so they use it for their office, but they're trying to wean off it. It's because Aboriginal is a government-designated term, and it refers to bloodline but not culture. Nobody's going to get too mad at you for using it, but it's most pro to use the tribe name if you can, or there's a more general word they use, but I forget it... Inishnawa or something like that.
Oh yeah, and the word tribe is slightly, slightly offensive. Like, it's a proper term and has it's place, but it's overused and oftentimes there's a better term to use. You would usually want to say "Nation". Among the First Nations, they don't consider themselves Canadian. They believe they belong to many smaller nations that existed before we came along, and which still today exist, even if they're not recognized by everyone. You know how I was in "Cree Nation"? Yeah. Everyone has a nation. Ojibway nation, Blackfoot nation etc.
But the Inuit are a separate definition to First Nations, so I don't know about them.
I spoke with the Ojibway elder again, today. Remember that cool post I made about my sweatlodge experience? It's probably my most frequently-referenced post. It's as edgy as I've ever dared to go publicly. A real fan-favourite from this blog, if it's possible to say that this blog has fan-favourites.
Yeah, well, I went over the same story with the Ojibway elder, and he made sense of the experience.Ready for it? I was on my man-period.
No, seriously! Men need to do the sweatlodge ceremony because we don't have our monthly spiritual cleansing, which happens to women in the form of menstruation.
So the sweatlodge makes up for that. When we enter the tent, we are climbing into Mother Earth's womb, and when we emerge, that is a spiritual rebirth.
I remember women doing the sweatlodge when I was in Chisasibi, and I remember them feeling that they benefited from it. There was even a female-specific ritual. I guess it's just not mandatory unless you're male.
Kind of weird to say that my moment of spiritual reawakening can be boiled down to having had a period. Props to you ladies who every month.
He explained about the hair-braiding thing. He said that the braid is made of three strands. One represents the body, one the mind, and one the spirit. Apart, they can be torn easily, but intertwined, they are strong. I said that that reminded me of the Cree belief that there are four aspects of the human being, which were the same, but with the inclusion of the emotional aspect. He turned and pointed to an emblem on the wall, a circle with four colours, and said that the four aspects are represented by it, the medicine wheel.
Had another metaphor for the medicine wheel of four human aspects. Said that if you imagined the wheel to be your life, and if you imagine it rolling along, than if you decrease the size of any of the four colours, than it makes an indent in the wheel, and you'll hit a bump with each rotation. Life's going to be a bumpy ride unless you balance your four aspects.
Aboriginal is a slightly offensive term. It's the most widely recognized, so they use it for their office, but they're trying to wean off it. It's because Aboriginal is a government-designated term, and it refers to bloodline but not culture. Nobody's going to get too mad at you for using it, but it's most pro to use the tribe name if you can, or there's a more general word they use, but I forget it... Inishnawa or something like that.
Oh yeah, and the word tribe is slightly, slightly offensive. Like, it's a proper term and has it's place, but it's overused and oftentimes there's a better term to use. You would usually want to say "Nation". Among the First Nations, they don't consider themselves Canadian. They believe they belong to many smaller nations that existed before we came along, and which still today exist, even if they're not recognized by everyone. You know how I was in "Cree Nation"? Yeah. Everyone has a nation. Ojibway nation, Blackfoot nation etc.
But the Inuit are a separate definition to First Nations, so I don't know about them.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Tuesday Mornings
There's a place inside my school called The Sanctuary. It's like a second cafeteria, except it's a little classier. It's got booths and tables like a restaurant's, but you still have to go to their kitchen area to get food. They serve beer here, too. It's kind of a novelty to drink beer inside of a school. There's a catch, though. They only serve beer on Tuesday mornings.
Isn't Tuesday morning the exact least appropriate time of the week to be drinking? For some reason, it feels even worse than Monday or Wednesday mornings.
The beer they serve is their own brew, too. That's right. I think my school has it's own brewery.
I only have one class on Tuesday, and it's at 1:00 pm. Needless to say, it's the least-attended class of the week. Besides being perfectly positioned to tempt people to drink before class, a lot of people who commute don't like to pay gas prices for just one class. We get maybe half the class attending every Tuesday.
At first I thought it was weird that if the school was going to serve alcohol, it would do it on Tuesday mornings, but then when I thought about it, I realized that the least-appropriate time of the week to drink is also the time when students are most likely to be cautious about their drinking.
Nobody's ever come to class with alcohol in their system. Or at least if they did, I didn't notice. Is it against the rules to be in class with alcohol in your system? I kind of assumed it was, but now that I think about it, I'm not sure.
The Tuesday morning drinking time is really popular. They're usually packed. Everybody seems to get a buzz off the novelty of drinking in a school.
Isn't Tuesday morning the exact least appropriate time of the week to be drinking? For some reason, it feels even worse than Monday or Wednesday mornings.
The beer they serve is their own brew, too. That's right. I think my school has it's own brewery.
I only have one class on Tuesday, and it's at 1:00 pm. Needless to say, it's the least-attended class of the week. Besides being perfectly positioned to tempt people to drink before class, a lot of people who commute don't like to pay gas prices for just one class. We get maybe half the class attending every Tuesday.
At first I thought it was weird that if the school was going to serve alcohol, it would do it on Tuesday mornings, but then when I thought about it, I realized that the least-appropriate time of the week to drink is also the time when students are most likely to be cautious about their drinking.
Nobody's ever come to class with alcohol in their system. Or at least if they did, I didn't notice. Is it against the rules to be in class with alcohol in your system? I kind of assumed it was, but now that I think about it, I'm not sure.
The Tuesday morning drinking time is really popular. They're usually packed. Everybody seems to get a buzz off the novelty of drinking in a school.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Car Crash
I saw a car crash on the way to school today. All these cars stopped and this other car didn't even slow down. This was on the highway, too, so it was going pretty fast. I was right next to the collision, close enough that I might have been caught by flying wreckage. The car that crashed into the other car bounced back on collision and lost the whole of it's front, but the other one wasn't damaged at at all. It actually drove away without the driver getting out to check on things. The other students kept walking. Nobody stopped to help the person who'd crashed. All the other cars just drove around her and kept going. One student stopped to give assistance.I stopped only long enough to see that the girl was up and talking. I'm ashamed to say I made it to class on time.
That's the kind of thing that will haunt you. It would've been worth being late for one class so I could think to myself "I'm the kind of guy who helps out in a crisis." Even when I was walking away, I was thinking "Not worth it, man. Not worth it."
That's the kind of thing that will haunt you. It would've been worth being late for one class so I could think to myself "I'm the kind of guy who helps out in a crisis." Even when I was walking away, I was thinking "Not worth it, man. Not worth it."
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Ashley Nichols
We have a celebrity at our school. Her name is Ashley Nichols, and she is the Muaythai world champion boxer. She participated in a competition of 1000 participants from 108 countries, the largest competition ever to be held outside of the art's native land of Thailand. Not only did she win, but she beat the former champion, who was from Russia in the semi-finals, which led her to fight Germany in the finals.
She's also the Athlete of Cambridge two years in a row, and she is the North American champion at kickboxing. She's going to compete at the Ottawa Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu tournament,and she's been asked to represent Canada in kick boxing at the Pan Am Games in December.
I know of this because she is a former student in the program I'm taking right now. Her achievement was broadcasted over my program's online messaging system (it's called ANGEL, don't know why). I watched her fight, and I gotta say, she was FEROCIOUS! It was the championship match, and you could tell who was going to win before the match even started.
In her interview, she is so cool and calm, with so many perceptions of her opponents. Her fighting form was fiery, but her perceptions are cool.
I saw this girl get her picture taken with her trophy in front of the Aboriginal services office. I see her across the school. She doesn't seem to get the kind of celebrity focus you'd expect. I should ask her for her autograph.
She's also the Athlete of Cambridge two years in a row, and she is the North American champion at kickboxing. She's going to compete at the Ottawa Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu tournament,and she's been asked to represent Canada in kick boxing at the Pan Am Games in December.
I know of this because she is a former student in the program I'm taking right now. Her achievement was broadcasted over my program's online messaging system (it's called ANGEL, don't know why). I watched her fight, and I gotta say, she was FEROCIOUS! It was the championship match, and you could tell who was going to win before the match even started.
In her interview, she is so cool and calm, with so many perceptions of her opponents. Her fighting form was fiery, but her perceptions are cool.
I saw this girl get her picture taken with her trophy in front of the Aboriginal services office. I see her across the school. She doesn't seem to get the kind of celebrity focus you'd expect. I should ask her for her autograph.
Friday, October 19, 2012
ESL Conversationalist Interview
Yeah, I think I landed the English as a Second Language conversationalist position. The interviewer said that I was "Obviously a good conversationalist", she asked me if I could take on more than one client, and she asked me if I could continue working with them into next semester. She also recommended some other places in the school that I might consider volunteering at, and she asked me to look for more potential applicants. Oh, and I have training next week. So I've elevated past the interview stage. I'd have to screw up pretty bad to not get it at this point, I think.
The only place that I think I might not have done so hot in, was when she asked me how I would engage a client who wasn't talking much. I gave the standard of asking about their interests, their subject, their family. But then I said "I would ask them to teach me a little bit of their language, so that, if they were self-conscious about the way they sounded in English, they could hear me struggle with their language and it might make them more comfortable." She said that that "Sounds like a great icebreaker, but don't forget, the focus is for them to learn our language."
The only place that I think I might not have done so hot in, was when she asked me how I would engage a client who wasn't talking much. I gave the standard of asking about their interests, their subject, their family. But then I said "I would ask them to teach me a little bit of their language, so that, if they were self-conscious about the way they sounded in English, they could hear me struggle with their language and it might make them more comfortable." She said that that "Sounds like a great icebreaker, but don't forget, the focus is for them to learn our language."
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