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Goals-ish

One of my favourite lectures that I delivered to my first-year students last term was on goal-setting. “I love goals,” I told them, “Like, a lot. So today is going to be really exciting for me. And for you.” (But mostly me. It’s very hard trying to muster any sort of excitement over 5-year plans when your students are in Week 9/nearing finals and class is at the ‘early’ start time of 10 am. I digress.) Naturally, I was looking forward to considering my goals for the new year. When I set out to write my 2017 goals, I compiled an ambitious list of 17 things to get done by the year’s end, kind of like what I did in 2015. 15 in 2015 had the most delightful ring to it, and it didn’t seem impossible to create 17 goals for myself. And it wasn’t – by the end of December, I had 17 new things that I wanted to start/try/complete. I was ready to crush through my goals to prove that things are getting accomplished in 2017. (Side note: I sound very Vancouver saying “goal crushing.” I a...
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That time I finished my first term of grad school

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Hello, it’s me. The Canadian-in-America person in your life. You may be wondering where I’ve been for the past three months, if not writing this blog. I, too, have that same question, as I’m not entirely sure where the past term went. You read that correctly: I am finished with my first term of graduate school. Since mastering the one-way streets of Corvallis (haha – just kidding, that’s not going to happen), plenty has happened over the fall term. Next to managing to keep  two plants alive , my biggest news is that I absolutely love my program. I can say that safely now, having gotten all of my grades back. But in all seriousness, I love what I’m doing. My days are brimming with meetings, classes, students, programs, readings, coffee, impossibly cool people, sass, and a lot of excitement over the field I get to be a part of. I haven’t felt this way since I was a Residence Coordinator, so I think that’s a good indicator that I’m right where I need to be. So mu...
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That time I bought nail decals at the bookstore

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It’s practically mid-September, and that means two things: #birthdayweek is upon us. This can be noted in your calendar with a single, hand-drawn crown on September 20th. I have lived in America for an entire week! Great things have happened this week. My apartment is organized to the point that I can walk down the hallway without tripping over a displaced item. I discovered American Dream, a local pizza place that will offer to slather your pizza crust in melted garlic butter –  and what could be dreamier than that?  I paid less than $20 to fill my car’s entire tank with gas (and didn’t even have to pump it myself, since it’s illegal in Oregon to do so).  I finally have wi-fi in my apartment. But here are two even better things about my first week in Corvallis. One, I met my assistantship supervisor for the first time and learned more about my role as a graduate teaching assistant. A quick snapshot of my first month includes residence programming for first-year ...
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That time I moved to America

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I have MOVED! Despite writing that sentence, packing my life away into a moving truck, spending the entire weekend settling into a new apartment in a  different country  – this still doesn’t seem quite real. If you’ve spoken to me recently (read: any time this past summer), you know that the experience of moving from Canada to America has brought a wealth of learning moments. Like, being Canadian is a special category of ‘international students,’ and there are fun exceptions for Canadians entering America that are not mentioned anywhere online. Or, it will take numerous blood samples to prove you are flawlessly immune to Chicken Pox. Or, when trying to cross the border into your brand new country, you will be inevitably yelled at for taking all of your possessions with you to said country. If you can’t find any logic in that last sentence, it’s because there is no logic in that situation and yet it  actually happened . But in the 2 days I’ve spent in th...
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