on monday i bussed to the bissell centre for 9:00 for a meeting with bev, the volunteer coordinator. we talked for about 45 minutes, and i filled out some papers, and then i headed home. i'm pretty excited about volunteering there. i need to do 30-35 hours there for my CSL (community-service learning) class. becky and angie both work there, so it'll be good to see them more often and to work in that community. i went to cree from 2:00 until 3:00. in the evening, claire and jessica came over, and jenni joined us later, to watch "the science of sleep." jessica's never seen it, but the rest of us have, and totally love it. i guess it's kind of predictable that crafty, introverted girls would love it, but whatevs.
on tuesday i had NS 211 at 9:30. at 11:00, i had NS 390, where we gave group presentations on our groups' research proposals. the girls in my group are kind of shy, i think, so i did most of the presentation. it was really good, actually, because they are really good at researching and organizing stuff, and i'm pretty comfortable with oral presentations but not so good at those other things, so i think we're a really good group. afterwards a girl in my class said she was really impressed with my presenting skills, which made me feel really good about myself. when i was in guyana, a lot of the work my organization was focused on doing was helping the indigenous youth develop public speaking skills, so they would have the ability and the confidence to speak up for what was happening to their lands and their lifestyles. i wonder if that is a big issue for aboriginal people in canada. i know that most people in general have a major fear of public speaking, and that the only reason i am comfortable in speaking positions is because of years of 4-h. also, a couple of summers ago, the elder that i live with up on the reserve told me, "we need someone who will fight for us. no, we need someone who will speak for us." anyway, i am just curious if that is an issue for aboriginal communities, and if so, i wonder if i could help out some way to help people feel more comfortable public speaking. after NS 390, i went to sit in the little oasis in the agro-forestry building. it's amazing! it's this tiny little rainforest with cute birds and humid air. so nice. then i had cree and ecological anthropology. in between those classes i hung out with my friend courtney in hub. i also stopped at the library to pick up this video called "poisoning paradise," which i can hopefully use for my NS 390 class. that night, i did some spraypainting on my collage for ns 260 (contemporary aboriginal art).
i slept in on wednesday until about 10:30, which is fine, because i don't have any commitments on wednesday mornings. at noon i had cree, and then i had csl 300 from 1:00 until 4:00. then i bussed to whyte ave., and i stopped at the well of health naturopathic clinic to pick up a prescription before i met becky, jessica, and kaylin at steeps for crafting and hanging out. those girls are so great. i worked on knitting a mitten all evening. becky worked on knitting a sock, jessica was crocheting a scarf, and kaylin drew in her journal. at 8:30 jessica hosted an open mic. she opened it with a couple of songs. she is seriously amazing. i am mostly annoyed with musicians, but she is so... something. unpretentious, maybe? and her songs are so sweet. i told her that a few months ago, before we knew who each other was, and she told me recently that she was a little put off because "a trendy girl" (ie. me) had told her her songs were "cute." i felt the same way about being called "trendy." she didn't want to make "cute" music, as described by seemingly "trendy" girls, and i certainly didn't want to be called "trendy." but now that we know each other we understand what was happening. her songs weren't "cute" in the way that so many artists are making cute music right now (ie. the irritatingly predictable unpredictable anecdotes accompanied by a ukelele), but really sweet and understated. i never would have called her songs "cute" if they resembled that genre i just mentioned. hers are great. anyway, the next artist was a cute-songs-on-a-ukelele kind of girl, so kaylin and i left after her set. we walked to the lrt together, and kaylin said that the hangout had been really refreshing, like "an emotional bath." that's so good to hear. our hangouts do feel really healthy.
thursday nearly killed me. i had 8.5 hours of classes (NS 211, NS 390, cree, ecological anthropology (which i left early because i had a hard time keeping up with writing down the instructor's slides), and NS 260). i finished class at 9:00, and at 9:30, a guy named bob picked me up so we could go volunteer at argyll casino for the elementary school i sometimes work at. i worked in the countroom, like i had when i had to do volunteer hours for the rowing club. it's a pretty good deal, as far as volunteer hours go. you get to hang out in a warm room and eat whatever you want for free (i had a couple of chocolate bars and a bison stew), and you only have to do about 1.5 hours of work the whole time you're there. the downside is that you have to be there until at least 2:30 a.m. however, i used my free time to work on knitting my mitten. i got home around 2:45 a.m., and promptly went to bed.
13 years ago
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