Saturday, October 27, 2007

Drama Week

So after an exciting weekend, I had an interesting week at school.

The course we're doing now is Measurement and Analysis. So this week was dedicated to Statistics...great! (hope you smell the sarcasm). Our teacher is not a trained statistician and it was evident, but she's a nice-enough person so initially we were ok with. But then things got to a point where she was unsure about stuff and that confused the class more...but we still hanging in. One incident was a matter of who's right/who's wrong and the class was not overly happy- she said something in class that skewed our thinking along a certain line, but then on a graded assignment, she marked us down for our alleged misunderstanding.

On top of that, we got back our papers for another assignment in the same course and the grades were atrocious! The worse part is the feedback was lacking substance, and included areas that we thought were irrelevant. My paper, for eg, contained comments that x is available from a particular website, but as luck would have it, said site has been down for weeks! I aint sure how exactly I'm supposed to access info from such sites... or that it was overly important. On top of that, some people who went to him were told they could extend their paper beyond the stipulated 3 pages (but in the context of them not being able to fit all they thought they need to on the 3 pages), yet some of us were not privy to that info since it wasn't communicated to the entire class by the lecturer. So, with my suggestion, the majority of the class went to the programme coordinator and voiced our concern. So, on Monday of next week, we'll be meeting with the person responsible and sort things out.

To add to all that, a friend's/classmate's mom died on Thursday night. She's coping well so far. She's even opted to remain in the programme without much time-off. But I do hope to be there for her when she needs me.

A new friend (through a friend) had offered to take me on a tour of the island today. I postponed it, so hopefully we can go in two weeks. I thought that was really nice of him. He's a fellow J'can as well. Hopefully I can get to meet his gf as well because she did the same master's programme few years ago (dif. specialisation though).

Hopefully this weekend and the week coming will be good- great even.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Weekend of advenures!

The weekend started on Friday. I went to school way earlier than I wanted, but I met with a classmate and we went to town. I needed a calculator and a dictionary, and she needed a dress and groceries. It rained earlier in the morning, but we decided we would chance going. Fortunately it held up. I got my calculator and dictionary and ad hoc stuff. Had chinese food for the first time as well (simply edible...not spectacular).

In the evening, our class (most of us) went to lyme with some students from a foreign university (McGill I think). It turned out to be a "working" lyme, because we split in groups and discussed different topics. The topic of my group was water resource management. It was cool though.

A small group of us left there and went to a play put on by JaSAC (J'can Student Association at Cave Hill). It was in true J'can style- started about two hours late with an intermission that was supposed to be 10 min but turned into 30 min. and music that was not censured some of the times. Apart from that, it was was not overly bad. One may say it was enjoyable since we laughed a lot. I had to play translator to two of my Trini friends who couldn't understand some of the "bun" or "suss" or "autaclasp" language. It was rather odd for me but amusing at the same time.

I got home about 1 a.m.

I woke up way to early again because today is our "stress buster" and said a few prayers for God to hold the rain... and He did! I went to school to meet my ride, and we went to Pricemart to get food and stuff. We bought a cake and pizza to take to the beach for the 8 of us to share. We kayaked first, which was really cool and lot's of fun. I did the doubles first because I wasn't sure how strong I'd be to manage on my own. There were 3 singles though, and a canoe. We had informal races and all. After that, we got our snorkelling gear and went to do just that! It was wonderful...not quite the experience of the first time I went snorkelling in Portland by Navy Island with the colourful reefs and fishes, but good none-the-less. We saw "shipwrecks" and fishes and a small amount of developing corals. I, of course, wore a life jacket because I aint so confident a swimmer and once I don't have it I know I'll panic. I started out with flippers but they were rather uncomfortable and restrictive and heavy, so I took them off. Oh, and I got to be the captain of the boat to the "snorkel site".

After a while, we decide we should head back. It was cold too so I didn't have much problems with that. It was rather dif. to go into the boat, and on my way in I injured my right big toe- the nail broke and cut me. But no horrors. We headed back, had more pizza, had a really nice chocolate cake, and chilled a bit. Then some of us left. Went home, washed my hair and bathed, did school work (odd, but oh well), and then slept with my hair slightly wet (since I didn't blow-dry it- lost to much hair last time I combed through wet). I went to sleep way early; I think it was about 9 or so.

I woke up for church. Went to Salters COG. Service was ok. Went to Sunday sch after. Then afterwards I was invited to the Pastor's home for lunch (which turned out to be dinner). Spent a long time there but it was cool. I started to fall asleep after eating so I assumed they used that as the hint I should be home in my bed. But they are realy cool people.

I had a very good weekend! I hope to have more in the future and I'll definately make them part of my "adventures in Bim".

Monday, October 8, 2007

A Happy Birthday!

As far as I am concerned, my birthday celebrations started from Friday last week. Some of my classmates and I went to a place on the West coast roadside to buy food. There was an ice-cream place close to it, so we ended up buying ice-cream while we waited for the food to be ready. I had peppermint ice-cream. Wasn't bad.

On Saturday I washed and went on the road with a friend. I went grocery shopping after and boy that was a struggle! It was a long walk home with heavy bags, but exercise is good I'm told. I washed my hair, cooked mac and cheese (from scratch) and baked chicken. I was so proud of myself.

I woke up early for church on Sunday. The service was in St. Peters. The church was small but cozy and fairly cool. They welcomed us new-comers and sang Happy Birthday to me with a song I am yet to hear anywhere else (except the first COG I went two weeks ago). After church, I went to school and on the way I was invited by the Carringtons to a dinner on campus, so I accepted. It turned out to be a UWI AA dinner, and it was a nice little affair.

I was doing work on chatting online when my birthday rolled in at 12:01 am on Monday. I didn't stay up too long but I took the time to thank God. I woke up and got a few calls wishing me a good day. I received a card and money from my landlady (sweet and unexpected). I got a ride to school from a neighbour who was running late and had pity on me walking to the UWI bus in the sun under my umbrella.

I got to school with minutes to spare. Some of my classmates remembered and did the usual courtesies. They sang happy birthday to me when I got to classroom. (Feeling loved already). Class was short, so we had an early lunch. I was planning to buy lunch on-campus, but I walked with a new friend who decided (after seeing the food and what was not ready) that she would take me to a nice place to eat. Yay!

We left school and stopped for what was supposed to be 10 minutes but turned into 40 min. She was replacing her hub-caps and it demonstrated that Bim does have poor customer service and/or incompetent staff...and no less at a company that is in J'ca as well (go figure). So, slightly annoyed, we left there and went to the place.

The place we went was in Warren West centre. It's called The Coffee Bean. I treated myself to a wholewheat grilled chicken wrap with a mint chocolate frappe. And I enjoyed it! The company and atmosphere was nice also. We went back to school after that, and to my surprise, my classmates had a little surprise for me- a cake with my name on it! [Sniff] They sang happy birthday and I blew out the relighting candles (whoever invented those are mean, mean people) and cut the cake with a classmate.

I chilled a bit before I headed home. I had a slight headache so I slept and woke up and watched tv. Then went back to work with chatting (voice and word) in-between (I finally discovered g-chat with voice and skype).

I do say I had a good day. Even doing work was fun (I need to be checked out now...beginning to wonder about my mental state). I pray God will grant me many more and that I can enjoy each one more than the previous.

Thanks to all who helped to make my day special!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

First Flu

Today was day 3 of flu symptoms but the best day of the 3 I suppose. However, I feel most uncomfortable tonight.
Tried sleeping and couldn't.
Didn't sleep well last night- woke up with aches and pain that weren't from the flu.
Having what feels like gas pains.
Want to talk to friends from home but noone is online. Have work to do but having no motivation or drive to do it (forcing myself).
Tissue is stuffed in one nostril because I can't breath through it and somehow tissue makes it less annoying.

Sigh. I hope this makes me appreciate the better days a little more.