Monica's Blog

March 15, 2010 Worf, “Death to the opposition!”

I would like to start off by apologizing to my readers for the lack of blogs recently.
I’m sorry and from this moment on I promise to do my best in updating you on everything that goes on in my extremely unpredictable, yet satisfying, university student life!

However, there is an excuse for this lack of blogging and it can be summed up in one moderately evil word...... MIDTERMS! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, midterms were my opposition and I’m happy to report that I successfully executed each one! I can tell you it was a long and arduous battle, with much time lost to a sea of readings, never to return. Alas, it was a sacrifice that had to be made for the sake of keeping up the sacred Grade Point Average that I hold dear.

But enough talk about battles fought long ago; let us reminisce about happier times!

As you may recall from my last blog, I had mentioned that I was in a musical that showed on March 5th and 6th in the music building. The show was called Musical Mayhem and it was fantastic! Much fun and laughter was to be had by cast, crew, and audience members! We all agreed that it was a terrific way to bring Musical Mayhem to a close, as the founding members are graduating this year and Musical Mayhem won’t run next year.

Moving on from bitter-sweet to just plain SWEET!
Some friends and I picked out our rooms for next year because we’ll be living in Clark residence together. As we were talking about how much fun it’ll be living together, we starting listing some things we would bring to make our Clark unit the best one ever!! Get ready for this. We decided that our unit will be the Retro Unit! We plan on decking out the living room with ‘90’s inspired technology; which will include:
-          A used VCR
-          Various cassette tapes (most of which will probably be Disney movies and my Star Trek original series movies)
-          A used television (which may or may not include those giant knobs used to change the channel)
-          An SNES (a.k.a. A Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
-          And, quite possibly, at least one bean bag chair!

As strange as it sounds, I have never been more excited for a new school year to start as I am right now! Just the thought of living in the Retro Unit has the geek in me squealing like a 5 year old girl playing in an inflatable bouncy castle! :D
I think I’ll end this entry here, on what I consider a high note. Rest assured there will be another update this week, considering that St. Patrick’s Day is on Wednesday! Huzzah! I love looking at what people wear on St. Pat’s, it’s almost as amusing as Halloween costumes. As always, if there are any comments or questions, you can send them to me at mc_bones@live.com . Have a good week everyone!

~Monica

Feb. 26, 2010 Picard, “Make It So.”

Time just goes by so quickly; its speed is almost unnatural. Just last week I was enjoying Reading Week. I spent the entire week with my brain turned off and sleep mode turned on. I made a sloth look productive! To be fair, I really did need that break if only because I’m still not use to living in a city. I needed time at home in the country, where I could see nothing but fields for miles! I know that sounds boring to a lot of people, but to me it will always be home.

This past week has been filled with books; more specifically notebooks. Page after page filled with class notes demanding to be read and memorized. In other words, my time has been spent studying for midterms. It wasn’t so bad because this semester I was able to part of a study group for a couple classes. Having other people to study with made the process a little more bearable. I completed 2 midterms yesterday and 1 before Reading Week even started. I feel pretty confident about 2 out of 3 of those midterms, but hopefully I didn’t do as bad as I think I did on that 3rd midterm.

No more dwelling on about midterms. Let us move onto a more amusing topic: Musical Mayhem! With each passing day, Musical Mayhem’s debut draws nearer. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Musical Mayhem, it’s a small theatre group that I joined and it’s similar to a glee club. We take songs from various musicals, revamp them a little, add our own choreography, and perform a show once a year! It’s a guaranteed fun time! If anyone is interested in seeing the show, Musical Mayhem in on March 5th at 8pm and March 6th at 6pm. For more information, feel free to email me (the same email address that will be at the end of this entry).

I do believe those are all the updates I have! I hope everyone had a good Reading Week! As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can send them to mc_bones@live.com. Good luck with midterms and have a fantastic weekend!

~Monica

Feb. 1, 2010 “I’m a Doctor, Not an Escalator”

Hello, again! Well, you probably guessed by the title that I am hurt once again. I have, unfortunately, experienced recurring pain in my shoulder from my past injury. As a result, I have had to quit the cheerleading team for the rest of the year. I’m not going to lie, it sucks having to give up something that I love to do. I have been in a funk all weekend because I didn’t expect to feel this upset about having to leave the cheerleading team in order to focus on strengthening and rehabilitating my shoulder muscles. The one good thing I can salvage from this set-back is that I plan to try out for the team again in September.

My timing for a recurring injury could not come at a worse time. I have two written assignments due, a quiz, and a midterm this week and they are all for different classes. Not only am I disappointed and upset about my shoulder, but I have never felt less motivated to do my academic work. I guess this is my challenge for the year. I will just have to get over disappointments and carry on. (How terribly British did that just sound? LoL). Who knows, maybe this is for the best. Perhaps my grades will dramatically improve! My parents would just be ecstatic if that ever happened! I’ll definitely try my best.

Hark! Not all is lost, for a friend of mine informed me yesterday that she plans to visit me this coming weekend! I’m really excited for her visit, since we don’t get the chance to hang out much anymore. It’s kind of hard to spend time with each other when I’m here in Windsor and she’s working in Stratford. Granted, it could be worse. I could have gone to a school that’s 8 hours away instead of 3 ½! It will be so nice to just be able to talk and see each other for a couple of days. I think looking forward to her visit will help me get through the week.

Wait a second; I almost forgot to mention that I went to the job fair last week. It was interesting to see what kinds of businesses were there because, as a student (fated as I am to being eternally in debt) I am curious to see what opportunities there are in the job market. I wasn’t qualified for many of the jobs being offered, but I did submit my resume to two kids’ summer camps! I am anxious to see if I am going to be offered a position because my dream summer job is to work at a camp! I love the outdoors so much, that the idea of living outside for an entire summer is overwhelming!

Speaking of living accommodations, I applied to live in residence again next year. A friend of mine and I decided to apply to Clark next year because we like the idea of living on campus, having more freedom to cook our own food, and Clark just seemed like the next logical step toward living in a house environment. We’re still working on a few details, but I think Clark will live up to the potential that I saw in it during the Residence Tours.

After re-reading this entry, I have come to this conclusion: that is all. For now, at least! If any of my readers have any questions or comments, I would like to hear from you mc_bones@live.com

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
- Douglas Adams

~Monica

Jan. 23, 2010 Worf, “Captain, I must protest. I am NOT a Merry Man!”

Hello, all! So today is obviously not the Monday after my birthday, but it is the first day that I have enough free time to write a decent blog entry. I think I was getting too ahead of myself when I promised an entry after my birthday to sum up how it went. One can only guess why I wasn’t in any shape to write the day after my birthday! ;-) LoL!

In order to save time, I’ll just say that my birthday was incredible! My grandparents surprised me by driving down to Windsor – a 3 hour drive, I might add – to have lunch and supper with me! It was fantastic! My grandma even brought me a ton of her homemade cookies and made me a teddy bear (dubbed Lancer Bear because he’s made up of the university’s school colours and has a ribbon on his neck that says “Lancers”). If you ask if I feel old, I can tell you that I don’t! I mean, who else would get a homemade teddy bear for their 22nd birthday? However; that’s not when my birthday celebrations ended. My older brother, a bunch of my friends, and I went out to a karaoke bar and had ourselves a good time indeed! I don’t think I have ever seen so many people singing “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey at one time! It was FANTASTIC! :D

Now you may be wondering why I chose that particular title for this entry, when I clearly enjoyed my birthday so much. Well, I shall enlighten you. This week of classes was going by just like any other that is, until, I walked into my sociology class on Thursday. As some of you may know, I was born and raised on a farm, so you can imagine that I am quite used to various smells that most other peoples’ noses would take offense to. Barn smells, fresh manure, that sort of thing. Well, my nose takes offense to human body odour, and, I’m sorry to report, my sociology classroom that day was rife with the smell.

Well I don’t know who or what the cause of that incredibly horrid smell was, but I was NOT a happy camper during that class. Body odour is one of my biggest pet peeves because it can be controlled and some people just don’t care enough to control it. It just bugged me so much that, as soon as the class was over, I ran outside for fresh air! Sorry for the mental image, but I’m done ranting about that now.

Moving on.

Last night a few friends and I watched a movie called Paranormal Activity. All I can say is that I am NEVER going to watch that movie again! I was totally creeped out! Now I can understand why my brother warned me not to watch it. Except, here, I was thinking “How bad can this movie be if I’m watching it with a group of people?” Bad idea! For anyone who has seen that movie, when you hear footsteps from the film and then hear some outside in the hall, it makes you jump 10 feet in the air! Why do scary movies have to be so scary? LoL! It was still a fun night, even if I couldn’t get to sleep right away because I kept “hearing things”. :D

That’s all the latest and greatest for now! As always, if you have any questions or comments you can send them to mc_bones@live.com . I will be happy to hear from you!

“If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them” – Isaac Asimov

~Monica

Jan. 15, 2010 “Live Long and Prosper.”

Well, gang, I’m back! I know I haven’t blogged since last year, but it’s only because I’ve been trying to get used to my new schedule for this semester. Speaking of classes, I have my very first three hour lecture this semester! *insert sarcasm* Yippee! I have often heard the first lecture of such a class is known as “the mistake” and I didn’t know what that meant until last Wednesday. I discovered that it meant if you decided to use paper and pen to take notes then your hand would revolt against you and become cramped in an incredibly awkward shape! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that I am going to bring my laptop to that class from now on! :D

Loads of other things are happening, too! For instance, I came back to Windsor early from holidays in order to cheerlead at the men’s and ladies basketball games against Western. I’m proud to say that Windsor won both games! Go Lancers!

Oops! I almost forgot to tell you about my New Years! It didn’t go as planned (which was a downer, I’m not going to lie), but I did get to spend it with my parents and family friends. I think that was a nice alternative. A week after that, my brothers went snowboarding for their Christmas/birthday presents and, unfortunately, I was unable to go because I was already back in Windsor. From various emails they sent me, it sounds like tons of fun was had (even though bruises were accumulated!).

Since we’re on the topic of birthdays, my 22nd birthday is tomorrow! I’m so excited because my older brother is coming down to visit me and some people and I are going to a karaoke bar! Yea, that’s right, I said a karaoke bar! I think we’ll have lots of fun there and I can’t wait! :D

I will now follow the lead of my fellow bloggers and leave you with an email address where I welcome all your comments about my blogs from September to the present! I look forward to hearing some feedback and any questions my readers may have! mc_bones@live.com

That’s all the news I have, for now. I’ll have another entry up on Monday, but until then I hope everyone has a good weekend!

~Monica

Dec. 31, 2009 “It’s Life, Jim, But Not As We Know It.”

Hello All! Yes, I’m back! I realize this blog entry is long overdue, but I just lost track of time. I feel like the last semester just flew by and that final exams were just a nightmare that never really happened; but that’s only due to the fact that I don’t have all of my final marks yet. Speaking of final exams, I think that I did far better on them than the midterms. I learned from my mediocre study habits during midterms and I vowed to do a much better job at studying for finals. Still, I’ll just have to wait for my marks to see if my confidence is warranted or, as Luke Skywalker would say “Your overconfidence is your undoing.” LoL!

So you may be wondering what I have been doing since the end of semester one. Well, as the title of this entry suggests, life during the holidays is not what I know it to be during school time! I suddenly find myself with a lot of time on my hands, but with little ambition to do anything. In other words, I have my “lazy” on! I think it is best to compare my holiday self to that of a cat. All I have been doing is eating, sleeping, and annoying my parents! Oh, how I’ve missed home! Ha ha ha! Seriously though, it’s nice to be home again. The Christmas holidays are my favourite because I get to see extended family on Christmas and Boxing Day.

On another note, there is snow here at home!! FINALLY! Proper snow! Oh, how I’ve missed the snow! If you recall an earlier entry of mine, I was suffering from lack-of-snow-itis. I received temporary relief from that ailment when I went home just before final exams; however, this is a different kind of snow. This snow is the “better wear snow pants and decent boots or your pants will be soaked before you know it” kind of snow! I’m going to miss it when I go back to Windsor, but my sources tell me that some snow has fallen there, so it won’t be too bad. I’ll learn to get over it! LoL!

Even though Christmas holidays are half over, I still have a lot of stuff to do! Tonight is New Year’s Eve, and then both of my brothers’ birthdays are coming up. Also, shortly after semester two begins, my birthday arrives! I have no idea how my parents stayed sane when I was growing up! That kind of agenda over holidays is absolutely crazy!

Well, I’m off to see what tonight has in store for me! See you all next year!

~Monica

Dec. 7, 2009 *Raise Eyebrow* “Fascinating”

After spending a few months in Windsor, several curiosities have come to my attention. They range from simple things; like the appropriate time to cross the street to more complex behaviours; such as etiquette in the classroom. However, the oddity I have found the most fascinating is observing how many people have already deemed the weather as “absurdly cold”.

I understand that many people at the university are exchange students from warmer climates, but I’m mainly talking about the students that have lived in Windsor (or a colder part of the world) for a few years. Being the outdoors person that I am, I find Windsor to be slightly above normal temperatures. In fact, as I have mentioned before, I found myself suffering from lack-of-snow-itis. Luckily, I found the cure for my ailment. I went home for the weekend, where I knew snow had already started falling.

Going home for the weekend was a nice break from all the tension that surrounds the university right now due to finals. It was the first time that I spent the entire weekend with my family in a long time and it was just the best place for me to be. To describe my weekend in one word, I would say it was serene. It was the perfect mindset to begin the week with because I don’t feel weighted down with all the stress that comes with studying for final exams. Also, I think studying with Beatles music playing softly in the background is working out for the best! I feel calm, while retaining knowledge! Yay!

Well better get back to studying; those exams won’t write themselves............... Or will they? Mmmm, better not take that chance. I’ll check in with you all later, if only to see if I can continue to retain my sanity. We all know what happened during midterms. ;-)

~Monica

Nov. 23, 2009 “I’m a doctor, not a brick layer!”

Well, I did it again! I managed to injure myself once more. This time my injury is not so minor, and it’s been recommended to me that I take a break from cheerleading for a while until my shoulder can completely heal. Since I was never really good at listening; I’m just going to settle for taking it slow, rather than completely quit a team that I love being on.

So that’s the bad news, and now for some good news! For the good news, we must travel back in time to Halloween night. *insert time travel montage of your choice*.

Alright, now remember how I said I would have to wait and see how many people would like my Star Trek uniform costume? Turns out, a lot of people thought it was the cat’s meow! (yes, I realize I sounded extremely old fashioned right there, but I love it!). In fact, there was a guy dressed up as Spock! It made me so proud to know that we sci-fi geeks aren’t afraid to show just how nerdy we really are! It brings a tear to my eyes! *sniff*

Well, it looks like I’m all done here in the past. Let’s fast-forward back to the present time. *Insert time travel montage of your choice*.

I have noticed something strange in the atmosphere lately. It’s that odd sensation one gets when Halloween has passed, but it’s not quite the Christmas season. Or so I thought. I was taken aback when I skipped into the front entrance of Alumni Hall and saw Christmas decorations everywhere!! The lobby is definitely decorated to the nines. Nothing was left out! Garlands are hanging everywhere, wreathes are placed in front of the information desk, and there’s even a tiny Christmas tree decorated with mini candy canes! Upon entering the lobby I felt as if I had invaded Santa’s workshop. You would think that since November is nearing its end that I shouldn’t be surprised by the sudden onslaught of Christmas decorations. Unfortunately, I was unprepared for the extravagant decorating. This is because of the weather.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s NOT the Christmas season until there is snow on the ground! I just feel lost between seasons, and it will only get better when I go home and see lots of snow. Yes, I am snow obsessed and I know it!

I know that sounded like a rant there. It kind of was, but only because the decorations were so unexpected! The only way I can sum it up would be to say, “it was like, BAM!”. LoL!
Well, until next time, when I discuss the horrors of final exams! *insert scream*

~Monica

Nov. 18, 2009 Chekov, “Warp Factor 6, Sir!”

Just before sitting down to write this entry I double, no make that, triple checked the date. The speed at which time has passed exceeds all reason! It just seems like it’s always go, go, go here, but I know that’s really not true. I simply choose to fill up my time between classes and readings with extracurricular activities; in the words of my best friend (who is in her 3rd year in Guelph) “You can’t just treat university like one giant classroom. You’ll go absolutely insane! Try and pick at least 1 club or team to join, that way you are guaranteed to have a little fun every day!”She was absolutely right! After my first few weeks in Windsor, I joined the Lancer’s Cheerleading Team and shortly after that, I also joined Musical Mayhem. These activities have kept me motivated, especially through midterms.

I have definitely changed a little since coming to Windsor. I have adopted a fast paced lifestyle, which I love, even if I do complain about it sometimes! I’m happy with how my life is going right now and if I had to start all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m in no way saying that my life is perfect and my grades are exactly where I want them. That would be a fantasy! My grades could be better and life is never perfect, but to say I would change any of my choices made in the recent past would be admitting that I regret something. I have no such regrets; my choices are leading me towards a future that promises to be anything but boring!

I’m really happy that I decided to take chances early on in the year. I put myself out there and met some incredible people. By making sure I stood out and having people notice me, I don’t feel as isolated now as I thought I might when I moved to the city. Being the country girl that I am, getting noticed wasn’t something that crossed my mind before. Where I live, everyone knows everyone. It’s just one of those naturally tight knit farming communities.

Speaking of home, the one thing that I didn’t anticipate when moving to Windsor was how much I would miss my family. I’m not just talking about my parents and brothers, when I say family I mean ALL of my family: my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. When I was working, before I applied for university, I would see my grandma every day and I realized that I really missed having that closeness that family brings when my grandma wrote me an email one week after school started. It’s always the little things that you miss when you first move away from home.

Ok, enough with the touchy feely stuff! To sum up, the past 2 months have been fantastic! (Anyone who knows Dr. Who, knows that “fantastic” is a much more powerful word than most people think). Like many other students, I am looking forward to Christmas break, but as soon as that’s done it’ll be back to the same warp speed that I have become accustomed to!

~Monica

Oct. 28, 2009 “KKKHHHHHHAAAAANNNNNN!!!!”

Hello all! Yes I am aware I have been lacking in updating my blog for a little while, but the reason for that is very simple. I have been locked up in my room studying non-stop for midterms. If you’re currently thinking “well that sounds boring”, let me tell you that it, in fact, was not boring at all! It was a wild, uncontrollable joyride of emotion. You don’t even realize how much of yourself goes into these intense studying stints until after you’re done the exam you crammed for.
After crawling out of the examination room and rubbing my eyes in order to get used to natural sunlight, I realized that I needed to socialize just a little in order to get out of the “creepy person who skulks between the library and residence room” persona that I had developed. Now that I’m slightly sane again, I think I’m going to lay a bombshell on everyone. All of my insanity happened over the course of only 48 hours! That’s right, not only did I study ahead of time, but I decided that a weekend of hard core studying would help me pass my midterms! Although I’m certain that I passed my midterms, I can only say that I DO NOT recommend the hardcore studying weekend. The studying that I did ahead of time was the information that I retained the best. Besides that, my studying weekend made those around me concerned for my sanity. Lessoned learned! That kind of studying will not be a repeat performance.
Subject change! Does everyone know what is happening this weekend? That’s right, it’s Halloween! Hurray! I love Halloween, it’s one of my favourite days of the year because it’s the only day where you can dress up as anything you want and get candy for free! Well, now that I’m older I’m the one giving out the candy; but that’s not stopping me from dressing up! Remember back to my earlier blogs and I mentioned that I’m a sci-fi geek? Well guess who found a Star Trek uniform costume at Zellers? You better believe it was me! Now at first I didn’t know what kind of costume I wanted, but when I came across the Star Trek costume (completely by accident) I thought “how often do you come across something this hilarious?” In other words, I had to get it because I think it’s funny. Though, I’ll just have to wait until Saturday to see how many other people appreciate it.
Well that’s all I have for now. I hope you found my studying experience story useful in planning better strategies for yourselves. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween and you can expect to see another entry next week!
Until then, “Live long and prosper” (LoL!)
~Monica

Oct. 5, 2009 “Damn it Jim, I’m a doctor not a physicist!”

Oh how time flies. One minute you’re looking up at the place where you will spend the next 8 months of your life, and the next an entire month goes right past you without even giving you a head’s up! It’s insane to think that I’ve been here, at Windsor, for a month now because it doesn’t feel like I got an adjustment period to get used to things. I am by no means sinking in my school work, but in retrospect it almost seems like my parents threw me in the deep end of a pool to see what would happen. (I am in no way suggesting that my parents are sadists! LOL!)

Now, I promised in my last blog to talk about readings and I will not disappoint! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, bipeds of all kinds prepared to be amazed as you watch as time disappears before your very eyes; swallowed up by hours of required readings for class work and lectures! I’m lucky because I like reading and the classes that I’m taking are quite interesting, so the readings that I have to do aren’t painful in the least. However, I am aware that this won’t always be the case. There are times when you will have to read an essay or paper that you would rather run away from and pretend it never existed, but, alas, you can never have the good without the bad. Just take a deep breath, do the reading, and who knows, maybe you’ll find something interesting in that seemingly boring textbook. Hey, stranger things have happened!

You’re probably wondering about my blog title of choice. Well I’ve been laying low with a wrist injury (don’t worry, it’s nothing serious), but it did put a damper on my mood and subsequently I didn’t have the motivation or good humour to write a blog entry before now. Never fear, I’m in better spirits today having just impressed a doctor with my surprisingly not-broken wrist! Since I’m on the road to recovery, there isn’t much more to report on that and thus we move on.

I’m going to skip ahead a couple weeks and gaze into the future. What’s this I see? Midterms!! Say it isn’t so!! Yes people, midterms are upon us and so is study mode. Personally I have a plan all ready so I can maximize my studying and still have a minute or two for relaxation. That relaxation bit might be a slight exaggeration but necessary in order to emphasize just how much time I’m going to be putting into reviewing the materials from my classes. It is my first year, so I still feel a little inadequate for a university exam, but I try to focus on my work day by day so I don’t do a total freak out.

Well I’m going to end on the midterm thought just because I can’t think of a clever way to end this entry. So until next time, my faithful readers, I bid you adieu!
~Monica

Sept. 26, 2009 “To Seek Out New Life and New Civilizations.”

It has only just occurred to me this week how university is very much its own community. Between classes and various nights of intense readings, I have made it my mission to boldly go where so many have gone before! By that, I mean going out and socializing. To some people that may not seem like such a big deal, but it’s a huge deal for someone like me because I grew up in such a close knit community (everyone knows everyone sort of deal).

For most of the week I knew about the CJAM Open House to kick off their pledge drive and for that same amount of time I was debating on whether or not I should go. So many thoughts ran through my head on reasons not to go “I don’t know anyone”, “nobody wants to go with me”, “what if I make a fool of myself?” Then, just to defy all those negative thoughts, I dolled myself up (just for the fun of it) and marched down to the open house!

You know what happened when I got there? I introduced myself to the first person I saw and we started talking like we’ve known each other for years. That’s right, negative thoughts, I had fun! Just by putting myself out there for one night I met new people and became friends with a lot of them, and was educated on volunteer programs that CJAM offers.

Guess what that calls for? Tip Time! This is more like advice than an actual tip, but here we go. Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. It’s scary but it’s also the most exhilarating time of your life! You never know who you are going to meet or what is in store for you until you try something new.
I know I have spoken about socializing in my previous entry, but I think that finding a “support group” of people is important. If you have trouble in a class or with readings, chances are that someone else in your new support group of friends has had the same problem or is going through it too. It’s important to know that you’re not alone if you’re going through something that particularly challenging for you.

I think that’s enough for now. I don’t want to jump on to another subject and confuse people (or myself!). Remember to check in for my next entry “Falling Asleep During Readings” (Not Star Trek, I know, but equally as important!).
So until then, have a good one!
~Monica

Sept. 21, 2009 “The Undiscovered Country”

Looking up at the place that will be my home for the next 8 months I am both scared out of my mind and completely excited. Grabbing my luggage and cramming into an overcrowded elevator I impatiently await seeing my room and introducing myself to my roommate.

That is how the first few minutes of my university career started. Hello, my name is Monica. I am a mature first year Criminology major at the University of Windsor (obviously!). Being all of 21 years of age I’m considered to be “old” for a first year student. (This was kind of scary for me. “I’m not old!! I can’t be! I’m too young to be old! Ahhhhh!!!”)

I decided to take part as a first year blogger because I read the blogs from last year and found them incredibly helpful. Not necessarily helpful in an academic sense, but more in a social sense. It helped me realize that I wouldn’t be the only person feeling overwhelmed and almost completely lost within my first few minutes of being on campus. (As indicated in my charming introduction! :D)

As you can probably tell from the title, I’m a little bit of sci-fi geek. Star Trek is most definitely a favourite show of mine! There will most likely be more Star Trek oriented titles in the future because, really, there are endless possibilities. (All Star Trek fans will agree with that!) With my sci-fi geekiness out there for all to see, you can probably understand why I thought that meeting new people might be hard. Not only am I already older than most people that I would meet, I’m also “normal” in the sense that I don’t go along with the crowd all that often. If you saw me during Welcome Week, you would know why! Even though I didn’t know ANYONE, I dove right into the activities. It just made me feel like I was at a summer camp (only for young adults instead of little kids!). It was the McDonald’s Play Place I never got to play in!

Speaking of Welcome Week, it was so awesome!! It was definitely the best place to meet people. Everyone was there just to have fun and make others feel welcome. (P.S. props to everyone who helped put on the events! I very much appreciate how much work went into that single week! Thank You!) There were events for people that were outgoing and for people who were more on the shy side. Everything from Boulder Dash to water tag, from the Toga Party to the Lance Loot Auction. Between these events, class orientations, and starting classes, I barely had enough time to sleep. (But that also might be due to the fact that I was simply ecstatic to finally be in university!).

Since university can’t be all fun and games we move onto classes. *Luke Skywalker: “NNNNNOOOOOO!!!!”*. Wait now, it’s not that bad! During my first couple of classes, I was incredibly nervous, but quickly learned that there’s really nothing to be scared of. My professors are very good at giving their lectures and after I started the readings, following these lectures wasn’t a problem.

Tip Time! The reason I couldn’t start my readings right away was because I ordered my books online. Good idea, but not when you don’t give them time to arrive at your house! So my books arrived at my home which is 3 hours away from Windsor AFTER I moved into res. In other words, the lesson here is if you are going to order your books online, that’s fine. Just allow for at least 1 week for the books to arrive. For me, lesson learned! Thank God my mom and dad had them sent to me or I would have had to wait until I went home for a visit! That calls for a LOL moment!

I think that does it for blog entry #1. I don’t think future entries will be this long! (at least, I hope not!) So until next time, “Live long and prosper” (remember, Star Trek geek!).
~Monica

Oct. 15, 2009 "The Voyage Home"

As I was doing dishes at home, a chore I had always thought mundane, I found myself oddly content because I realized just how much I missed being home. I had been looking forward to Thanksgiving for a couple of weeks because the thought of home cooking was greatly appealing (as most students know free food, especially home cooked food, is ALWAYS welcome!). But when I got home, it occurred to me that I was also looking forward to spending time with my family.

Yes, my Thanksgiving went well. It definitely met my expectations where food is concerned (as you are probably aware by now, food is very important to me! :D). Seeing some of my extended family was also a plus because I rarely got to see them while I lived at home, and now being away at school I’ll be seeing them even less.

So if my Thanksgiving weekend was going so well, why then did I decide to go back to Windsor in the middle of UWIN week? The answer is very simple. My past self knew that I would not get any of my readings done while I was at home because I would treat it like a vacation. Well, past self, you were right and I would like to thank you. When I was packing to go back to Windsor I noticed something very crucial; I only brought 1 text book with me. Nice foresight, if I do say so myself!

That’s a little tip right there. Know your study habits. I know that I can’t study at home because I fall into bad habits and that’s why I cut my "vacation" short. I know I already spoke about midterms in my last entry, so I won’t get into that again! (If only because I become faint at the thought of midterms! My ladylike constitution can’t handle such things! ;) Just kidding!)

Until next time, keep studying and stayed tuned in for my next entry (it’s sure to be fun for the whole family!):D

~Monica

Feb. 26, 2010 Picard, “Make It So.”

~Monica

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