Exam goodness

Egads! I had my final exam (in international studies) yesterday and I forgot to mention possibly the funniest exam story EVER in my entire academic career!

So the professor managed to arrive 5 minutes before the exam began. He started handing out the exam papers and booklets. First off, he didn't hand out enough papers so my row didn't get any exams. No problem, hand goes up, I get a paper, life is good.

I begin to read said paper. Dear god! It's talking about pollution in a factory in Ontario. I'm totally freaking out - I can't think of anything this has to do with International Studies! I then tried to peek at the girl's paper beside then I realized her exam sheet and mine don't look alike. I raised my hand and when the prof approached, I asked him if I had the right exam.

He starts giggling hysterically and snatches it out of my hand. Apparently he had given me the exam for his Business Ethics class. Oh my god - I had never been so terrified in my life! LOL And apparently the girl beside me only received half the exam paper instead of the entire thing.

Anyways, after the exam, I ended up going to the mall, bought a random book (from the romance section!), came home and FLAKED OUT. It was amazingly wonderful. (The flaking, not the book.) Later that night, after Tao had written his own final exam, we ended up going out for a couple of drinks at Caesar Martini's. That's a pretty swank place. I liked it a lot! And then today, he and I went for dim sum at Cameron's Seafood Restaurant. I am now so full that I feel like bursting!

Complete!

Yeah baby! I'm done exams, I've got a place to live next term, and my prof has apparently just tossed my reference letter into the mail! Life is GOOD!

Axl Rose you are not

Dear Bryan,

I'm pretty sure you're aware that blasting your music past midnight is a no-no. It's very distracting. What's even more distracting is you singing along to the music. Your musical talent is disgustingly lacking and your voice sounds like a 3 year old with a cold.

Regards, your upstairs housemate,
Maureen

Mmm. 3am McDonald's.

A big thanks goes out to Victoria for inviting me out last night. She rounded up a bunch of her friends and we all went to Revolution for a night of dancing. Even nicer - she (well, her friend at least) got 3 of us in there for free on the guest list. Woot.

The night was fun. I had a good time hanging with the girls - with the exception of Victoria, I only knew one other girl, and I had only met her a few days ago at my Canadian government exam. I have to admit though, I'm not a huge fan of Revolution. I like people watching there, but otherwise the music kind of bites. The people were for the most part in a great mood and were really funny. There were two fights though. We ended up leaving the club at around 2:45am. I think that's the latest I've been up in a few months!

So what do 6 hyped up girls do at 3 in the morning? Go to McDonald's of course! LOL - trying to get our ordering done was a task in itself. But the time we got to the ordering speaker thingie, Victoria was laughing so hard she couldn't speak, so Venus had to take over. Even then it was a painful process. Venus apologized to the guy through the speaker, "Sorry, we're a little crazy in here" and we got the reply, "Yeah, it sounds like it."

With 6 of us illegally smushed into a 5 person car, we needed to find some place to eat our food. (Only the drive thru was open, not the restaurant part itself.) While arguing over where to go eat, two of the girls had to go to the washroom so we stopped at a Tim Horton's. We began arguing over whether we could eat our McDonald's in the Tim Horton's... Well, apparently the two girls who went to use the washroom asked the staff there if we could do it... Then next thing I know, we're eating McDonald's take out, in a Tim Horton's at 3am. Too funny.

My feet have the plague!

Ewww. Stacy and I went to look at an apartment yesterday. There were two apartments - one upstairs and one downstairs. Ewww. I don't think they've cleaned either at all since September.

There were dustbunnies lining the upstairs hall that threatened to swallow me whole. And I'm pretty sure that when I ventured into the downstairs bathroom, the toilet tried to reach out and grab me. Seriously! There was MOLD growing in it. MOLD! Not just dirt... Actual mold. It was revolting.

Stacy and I ended up fleeing upstairs ahead of the landlady. I laughed because we were both scraping the crap off our feet before putting on our shoes.

On the plus side, when we mentioned our err, disgust, with the common areas, the landlady agreed and mentioned maybe something could be worked out. Unfortunately I received an email from her husband today and all he's offering is a $50/month discount if one of us cleaned the common area, or $25/month off if both of us cleaned. This would be a sweet deal, but the apartments are already overpriced. And I don't want to be in charge of cleaning up after such pigs. Plus I saw a bong in the basement downstairs - that's not a smell I want to live with. :S

Oh happy day!

Today was my Canadian Government and Politics exam. I did terribly on it. Luckily, I wasn't the only one. I discussed the exam with a few of my friends, and eavesdropped on other students - we were all surprised by the exam. How so? Well, the midterm in that class was insanely hard - I've honestly never had such a difficult midterm (and a multiple-choice one at that) in my life. Therefore, we were all expecting something similar for the final.

Alas, twas not meant to be. Instead, the questions were ridiculously easy (list these, list those)... Unfortunately I hadn't really studied for that kind of test, or studied hard at all (see? I'm taking SOME responsibility for this). And then there was a final essay question. I don't think I've ever written an essay with absolutely no substance behind it. There were lots of pretty words, but no meaning to them. I actually read the essay question first, muttered, "Oh shit" out loud, then went back to the fill in the blanks questions.

I don't know if this exam was difficult in itself, or whether I've just been spoiled by all the other profs. Normally professors will focus on either the textbook, or their lecture notes for the content of their tests. This prof though expects us to know both (hence the stupid question regarding the Privy Council - it was mentioned in like, ONE paragraph in the entire 400 page textbook. How would I know to memorize that one small section???). While one part of me is like, "Yeah, it's fair of him to demand that," the other part of me is like, "This isn't like all the other classes I've ever taken?! What the hell?!" So there's pros and cons to his style... I just wish there had been more tests and whatnot, so we'd get a better feel for what he wanted in his essays, etc.

Anyways, I exited the exam feeling like shit because of the piss poor job I did on it. Then I remembered that I needed to pick up my marked paper for the same class. We had written this paper back in November and it was only returned today. I entered the classroom that the papers were in, grabbed mine, and left again because I didn't want the prof to see my reaction or talk to me when I looked at my paper.

Out in the hallway, I ignored any comments he had written on my paper (a book review), and skipped straight to the marking sheet. 95%. Eh? No. Something must be wrong. So I flip back through the paper trying to find comments. Nothing is written except for a request for an example at one of my arguments. I honestly could not believe that I got a 95% on my paper. I was so convinced that something was wrong, that I actually went back into the classroom and asked the professor to confirm that the mark was right. LOL. He assured me that it was and sent me on my merry way. I STILL can't believe it! This paper is worth 40% of my final grade! (Which is fantastic considering how poorly I did on the final exam.)

The most amusing thing about this paper is that I essentially wrote it the day it was due. And I was in one of those headspaces where I could only stare at my computer screen in dismay. I had NO idea what to write. I remember that I was so frustrated that I just began to type up random crap. I deliberately avoided discussing two whole chapters because I had no clue as to what the author was talking about in them.

So yay me! And, since I'm so damned pleased with myself, here's the essay I just talked about. (Minus its cover page and works cited page.)

♪ Why'd you have to go make things so complicated?♪

Jill - I totally stole those music notes from your blog. :) And the song title idea... Mwahahahaaa.

Anyways, regarding my laptop, I ended up calling HP and they sent me a box for my laptop so I could send it into them for servicing. Amusingly, they spelled my name wrong on the box. Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Maureen Darrow now.

That's not the point though. Nor is there really a point. I just felt like sharing this with you guys. Since I'm going back home soon, my parents and I figured it would be best if I just had my laptop shipped back to Owen Sound instead of Waterloo. At first I was just going to slap on a big sign to my laptop saying "When fixed, send this laptop to this address blah blah blah."

Luckily I figured I'd phone HP to make sure this wouldn't cause any problems. Gah. 20 minutes later (10 of which was spent listening to some terribly cheesy/funny hold music), and now they're sending me a new box with my old and new address on it yada yada yada. I think the guy also attempted to slap me on the wrist for the havoc I created on his "logistics team" but I couldn't understand him. Neener.

So it looks like I'll have the net for a few days more. This isn't good for my studying plans...

Must... Not... DESTROY!

Today is the closest I'll probably ever kill Bryan. Thank God - well, Bryan had better thank God, that Agnes woke me up before he did.

I was woken up by Agnes' moving around in the kitchen around 8:30. Less than 15 minutes after I dragged my butt out of bed, music starts BLASTING from downstairs. I can hear the lyrics, and feel the thump of the bass through the floor. How fucking rude do you have to be to play your music so loudly before 9am?!?!

A pleasant day indeed

Hoorah! I managed to guilt my mom and dad into coming to visit me this Saturday. ("I miss you guys!") Suckers. Little did they know, I did it all for free lunch and help with Christmas shopping. LOL. Just joking.

We had a terrific time together. My dad was dropped off at Chapters as usual. My mom felt guilty about leaving him there all day, but Melanie pointed out, "John? Bored by being at Chapters all day? Hell, he's probably so happy he's doing snow angels!" This was greatly amusing.

We girls ended up tromping down to Fairview Mall do try to get all of our shopping for the people living up North done. Since Mel had hurt her knee and was on crutches, mom and I got her a wheelchair for our shopping expedition. Wow! I think I need to go shopping with people in wheelchairs more often. I was pushing Mel around and we had people constantly leaping out of the way in the aisles. It was fantastic! This was espcially amazing since it's Christmas time and a Saturday - the mall was busier than normal and we still had great luck.

There were only two times when we had issues. Once, a couple of teenie-boppers accidentally hit Mel's leg causing her to yelp and her leg to spasm. You could tell the girls felt bad, but what could they do? The second time was my own fault. I wheeled Mel into the elevator and while I was trying to manoeuvre her inside it, I accidentally knocked her foot on the wall. Whoops. She forgave me though, so life was good.

Possibly the most shocking part of the day was dinner. My mom actually suggested we go to Cameron's Seafood Restaurant again! My mom did! My mom! Holy crap! I swear my jaw nearly hit the ground. Despite my surprise, I jumped on the chance. We met up with Scott at the restaurant and had another amazing meal. (My sibling wasn't too keen on the chinese brocoli though.) I had a great conversation with our waitress - I had ordered our rice in Cantonese (at my dad's badgering), only to find out our waitress spoke Mandarin. So we chatted for a few minutes. She was very impressed, and I was very pleased with her being impressed. :)

Afterwards my parents took me grocery shopping quickly and then we returned to my house. I had been excited to go back home, because Bryan had been gone the night before and I assumed he was gone all weekend. Alas, twas not meant to be. In fact, not only was he home, but his friend had moved in too. Damn. So now I'm crabbed out and keep catching myself deliberately finding reasons to be annoyed with them. Not that they've done anything (well, Bryan did blast his music for awhile, but that's nothing new). In fact, the house is a lot prettier now that the new guy had moved in. He's got all kinds of shiny cookware, garbage can, etc. I'm a little shocked - first of all, I can't believe Bryan has a friend who's so tidy, and secondly, how the hell can a student afford all this stuff? Dad? Never complain about moving me around ever again - this guy brought a huge TV, a couch, microwave, plates, etc, etc, etc. Egads!

Anyways, Agnes returned home and she brought me a gift! The recipe for her mom's apple cake! It's funny to read the recipe because it's translated from Polish, and her mom makes it from memory without measuring stuff. So when I read "1 cup of flour," she means 1 coffee mug of flour. :) (She even included that little explanation on the side of the recipe. LOL) I can't wait to try to make this baby! I seemed to be anxious to bake anything, because I ended up also baking a quick batch of shortbread cookies. They are very tasty.

Gnawing on rubber

Before I forget, I MUST recount this story.

I believe I mentioned it already, but to recap, I went to the dentist several weeks ago and found out that I've been grinding my teeth a lot in my sleep. The dentist suggested I get a mouthguard or retainer thingie to wear at night so I wouldn't damage my teeth anymore.

I finally ended up buying a mouthguard and accidentally melted it partially during the forming process. (One side is slightly lumpier than the other, but it serves its purpose despite its flaws.)

I ended up wearing the mouthguard that very night. When I woke up, I was like, "What the hell's in my mouth?" and proceeded to try to chomp it out whatever it was. That's when I clued into fact that it was my mouthguard... Yeah. Here I am, chewing on plastic at 8am in the morning. I was pretty amused by the situation.

Birthday Dinner

First of all, I must share with you a hilarious conversation that went on in my Canadian Government class today. :) We were discussing the pros and cons of the new Liberal leader. My class is 260 people, so the prof and student were having to yell over like 20 rows of chairs.

Prof: What are some of the pros and cons of Dion as a leader?
Student: He's a Frenchy!
Prof: You must be from Saskatchewan.
Student: No...
Prof: Oh, it sounded like you had a Saskatchewan accent.
Student: Actually I have a retainer.

We all burst out laughing and you could tell the prof was flabbergasted. It was hilarious. The girl actually got applause from the class for her quick reply. LOL

Anyways, it seems as though I may have killed my laptop's LCD monitor. Last night about one fifth of the screen decided to go slightly dim and nothing I've tried has rectified the situation. I'll try calling HP tomorrow and troubleshooting it with their IT support, but I've been asking for help on the HP forums and so far it seems as though the only solution is to send it in for servicing. Doh! I think this is a sign I shouldn't be playing games on it and should be studying instead. My parents will be pleased.

In other news, Saturday was mine, Agnes', and Rana's birthday bash. (Pictures can be found here.) It wasn't really much of a bash - all of Agnes' and my friends ended up bailing, so it was mainly Rana's friends. :) Oh well, we still had fun. We were supposed to go to Mongolian Grill for dinner, but there was a 40 minute wait, so we went to East Side Mario's instead. Afterwards we ventured over to Symposium for a couple of pre-clubbing drinks. I think I'm still partially blinded by all the photos that were taken! We ended up going to Revolution for dancing... That was my first time in Rev. I found it fun, but I wasn't too keen on most of the music. Overall I would describe the night as a success.

The name is Bond, James Bond.

I'm pleased with myself. I made homemade tea biscuits for the first time yesterday. Err, I guess I should say that I made the tea biscuits correctly for the first time. (The first time I tried making them, I accidentally used baking soda instead of baking powder... They were inedible.) I didn't know how much/little the dough would rise though, so my biscuits ended up being ridiculously tiny. (They look like little discs.) Oh well, now I know for next time.

I've had a pleasant few last days. Most of my classes are done now. I have two on Monday and then I'm done for the term. My final History seminar was especially fun. I was in charge of leading the discussion... Well, procrastination ended up striking and I didn't finish doing the readings for it till about an hour before the class began. :) We ended up having a good conversation though - we got on to a lot of tangents but that was good because it meant I didn't have to talk as much. :)

Yesterday Stacy and I went for some more apartment hunting. The one apartment seemed nice, but the roommates were totally not a good match for us. They were kind of ditzy and you could tell they'd party a lot. The second place was an absolute ghetto. I have low standards, but not THAT low! The first thing we saw upon walking into the apartment was a mountain of empty old pop cans (at least 100). Next! The final place we saw yesterday was really nice but too too expensive. Oh well.

Our plan had been to go see Casino Royale last night. Unfortunately the bus was about 15 minutes slow, so by the time we arrived at the theatre, the movie was sold out. We ended up bumming around the mall which was nice - neither of us get off campus as much as we should. I ended up phoning my pal Victoria and seeing if she wanted to come and see the 10 o'clock show with us. She agreed and then we went!

Casino Royale (the new James Bond flick) was so much better than I anticipated. I heard lots of good things about it, but I honestly did not expect it to be THAT good! There were NO gadgets in the movie, the dialogue was witty without wanting to roll your eyes, and the action sequences were (as one newspaper put it) "gritty!" Can you tell that I loved it?

I was especially amused by Victoria's reactions to the movie - she hadn't seen a James Bond movie before, and she has become a total convert to them. LOL. She was freaking out the entire time. But it was totally warranted. The film kicked ass!

Tonight's the "RAGNES Bash" - a bunch of us are headed out to Mongolian Grill for dinner and drinks to celebrate Agnes', Rana's, and my birthdays. (Our b-days were Nov 22, 29, and 24 respectively.) I intend to have a good time. :)