Wasn't That a Party?

Hello everyone who has read my blog over the past years. My mother directed me to write in here one last time and document the St. Francis Xavier graduation experience. (X-perience?) So here it is: Graduation, STFX style.

So firstly, if you haven't graduated from STFX yet and are supposed to, DO attend all the events available. Even the church thing. It was pretty cool, although I'm not allowed to talk about it because it was SUPER TOP SECRET! (Kidding, but there were some definite 'cult' vibes going on.)
On grad weekend, the town of Antigonish takes the chip off it's shoulder for a little while and says:
...yeah, it might be that they're just happy to see us go, but I like to think that they are just being nice. Nishers are a polite bunch.

The Ceremony took place in the Keating Millennium Centre. It wasn't as swanky as it had been during the X-ring ceremony, but at least everyone was allowed in this time.
Before we (the graduates) entered the room, there was about an hour of practice walking. I suppose it says a lot about having an Arts of Business degree when the people giving you said degree don't even trust your ability to walk in a line.
There I am, getting my degree. I wish I had something nice to say about how all the hard work was worth it or whatever, but I actually still feel like I'm going back next year. It hasn't all really set in yet. Our Dean of Arts, Stephen Baldner is the man at the podium, Bishop Leahy is behind me, and Sean Riley (STFX President, in case you're not from the maritimes) is the man shaking my hand.
During the ceremony there were some great speeches, like the one from Sean Riley or our class speaker, Dan Coles' speech. Also memorable was the bizarrely earnest request from the Alumni representative to 'test the network'. I swear that we're the real-life Stonecutters. Can the network find me a job?
Me and my degree. Aside from my name and the name of my program, it's entirely in Latin, which means that it theoretically could say "we know you stayed up until 5AM writing last-minute papers and you kinda don't deserve this." It's also now in a frame at my mom's house. Apparently she bought it on some sort of installment plan. But it was just as cool as you think it would be to hold a real university degree with my name on it that I earned.

Here's 'the gang' all happy about getting their degrees and whatnot. Those in brown hoods are the slackers who took Business degrees. (Kidding...they're both quite hardworking and employable.) From the left are Ali, Marc, Jon, Glenn, Jamie, Nick, Me, Lauren and Grant.
I chose this picture out of the 5,000 others that my father took because we're all laughing. This is how everyone looks in most of my memories anyway. Jon's geeky chuckle, Nick's full-out laughing face with teeth and everything, Jamie's squinty laugh...Grant's obviously making a smartass comment...yep- everything is as it should be.
Anyway, most of us headed out from there to the Poli-sci social held on the 5th floor of Nicholson Hall tower. My family went there briefly, then headed out to the infamous Lobster Dinner!

Here are Katie and Tori, subtly informing everyone in the meal hall that we are tourists from Ontario. And that myspace pictures never go out of style.
Anyway, I give the lobster dinner a thumbs down, as it was filled with mostly nouveau-riche families from away. Which is cool, I guess, but not very maritime-y. And since a lot of my friends and experience here has been very Nova Scotian, I didn't really know anyone there and was a little out of place. But it was all worth it to see my dad attempt to eat the lobster. Hasn't quite mastered the art yet.

And then there was the afterparty...

It started with the Gala featuring Signal Hill. We hadn't ever had the opportunity to see Signal Hill at St.FX, so it was a lucky coincidence that they agreed to FINALLY play at our school for my graduation. I thought to myself "wow...I wish they could have played at every single event since I started at X." Oh well.
They were amazing though, despite an awkward moment at the beginning when the lead singer attempted a singalong when there were only two people in the main audience. He just laughed and said "too soon?". Jon and I got to dance to Sonny's Dream, as usual. Towards the end of the night, as they started to break out the classics, we began the long-standing tradition of singing in a circle. Jamie did his singing fist-pump to make it official.
...he takes singing VERY seriously. And of course, what would a STFX grad night be without Sean Riley rockin' out acoustically with the band?
No one enjoyed this more than my mother.

Afterwards, at about 2AM, they had a party for the students only, then a sunrise breakfast around 4AM. It was a fitting end to the four years, since I basically lived off of SUB breakfasts. The details of these two events are sketchy, however.

All I know is that I woke up at 11AMish and my lovely family had packed up most of my house for me. It was a really great four years, and I wish I had documented more of it, for my own entertainment. Anyway, I suppose it's on to the next big adventure.

Me and Jon, acting like we're actually friends. : ) 

Jon, Sam, Me 

Laser Pics 

Everyone at halloween 

It's Been a Long Time

Hey Everyone...

...she said sheepishly, noticing that she had neglected to inform everyone of what had been going on lately.
Well, here's the deal. It gets way too complicated at some point during my term to actually write in here and keep up with everything else. SO, I'll just give you the highlights:

1) Halloween was fun.
2) Christmas ball was better than last year, and yet I ended up having less fun. (and I am a size or two bigger than I was in grade 12?)
3) Papers took a lot out of me.
4) Tito and I went to Halifax...It was really fun, I miss Ashley
5) I held a policy conference.
6) Drunk Drunk Drunk
7) Liberal Liberal Liberals
8) Exam time is here!

And that was the last couple months in a nutshell. A very small nutshell...pistachio, maybe.
Anywho, I'm studying for Canadian Economic Policy and Problems, if anyone cares.

Love, Nat

P.S. Sam and I found our apartment for next year...it's very nice and above the Snow Queen. Too close to Greco? Probably.

Profs Say the Darndest things...

So, first of all, I will point out that this picture was taken in the Inn (our school's bar) on Cowboy and Cowgirl night. I know, Sam and I don't look terribly country, but we did know all the words to the songs...take that, posers.

Now, today's subject is: kooky things that profs say.

Item A: a priori (which means something like 'taken before the fact' or something...I dunno)

All of my professors mention this, and all of them pronounce it differently. This makes me laugh.
Byrne: "Eh Pry-or-eye"
Grenier: "Ah pree-or-EE"
Harrison: "ah pry-OR-ee"

...at least they all agree on how the 'or' part SOUNDS.

Item B: Grenier's crazy french idioms.

Grenier is French, and sometimes directly translates idioms from french into english. Here are some favourites:

"By their eyeballs and ears"
"That is little soup" (def: not important)
a "robot portrait" of someone (def: a generalization)
"late-minute" (probably a mangled version of last-minute)

Item C: Brown's terrible analogies/random sentences.

Our teacher, Douglas Brown, has some VERY odd stories and analogies....and a lot of them don't make sense. Today he said that something was dangerous, "like drinking while drunk". Uh...I do that all the time. I'm definitely in trouble.

Other things I learned from Douggie Brown?
-America has 49 states...uh..no, wait...50.
-Politics is all about tents. Who's in them, who's not, how big yours is.
-On that note, size doesn't matter, and length doesn't either. (maybe he was talking about essays?)
-The bigger the cleaveage, the bigger the difference. (This one was delivered with a wink and a nudge, but I have no idea how it's innuendo at all...I mean, sure, cleavage is sexy, but that just makes no sense.)
-Acadians hid in the woods for most of Canadian history.

Item D: Frank Harrison's Self-Depricating/Everyone-depricating humour.
My british History of Political thought teacher is funny. I love his class. One day a kid had commented on his talking about death a lot, and he said something like:

"Of course I talk about death more...I'm closer to him, inn-I? (that's how he talks)
He stops by every night for tea and a nice chat"

He also turns all moments into whatever we were learning at the time. Like people coming in late being subject to DOXA, the realm of opinion. (It is their opinion that they were late for a good reason)
or one day he was bleeding through his shirt and he said "oh! pain! my atoms are colliding quite painfully! get me some drugs!" (We were talking about Epicureanism...the philosophy of maximizing your pleasure and minimizing your pain.)

Anyway, that's all for today. I will have something to say about my other two profs at some point, I'm sure. (the girls, interestingly)

-Nat

P.S. I don't know why Harrison was bleeding through his shirt. It was on the back of his forearm. Your guess is as good, and probably as scandalous as mine.

Inside the Mind of a Bored Student...

Well, Today I thought I'd Share with you what it's like to be Natalie in her most boring class. The sheet basicaly speaks for itself, but you're going to want to click on it to make it bigger. My favourite is the quote by Dr. Byrne in the bottom there...that was right out of nowhere.

A brief breakdown of how I take notes: When I'm bored, I doodle. For this particular class, Byrne handed out our essay outlines then proceeded to read it verbatim for like, half an hour. Hence the abundance of doodles in the top half, with some essay tips sprinkled in there for good measure. The margins, I use for doodling some more, and for things I think of that I want to write down but that aren't relevant to the class entirely. Then at the bottom is where she started to teach again...our topic is now the Euthryphro...or something.

Enjoy.
-Nat

Midterms: My Humps (Dedicated to Tito)

It's midterm time again, and I forgot how much any examination period at school really sucks. Like, REALLY REALLY sucks.

I have all my midterms in one week, so it's like this one week from hell where fire and brimstone (whatever that is...you'd think I'd have learned about it by osmosis from being here in religiousville USA, but no) flame down upon me, and ADD is my new best friend. Every time I sit down and try to learn anything I get antsy and distracted after about five minutes. Very productive, Natalie.

Today was probably my worst day, which is a comforting thought since it wasn't all that bad. I had my Violence midterm today, which I anticipate being my hardest, content-wise. I also presented my ECON presentation today with Marc, which wasn't that hard aside from Marc is like, super-brilliant and so I was like "holy crap, I have to actually DO some work." It reminded me of Colony to Nationhood. (I only hope that this one didn't "nearly kill" Marc. Anyway, we lost the debate. Effing public opinion...but we did impress the prof who liked our arguments. So, in conclusion I sold my soul for an A on an ECON project, by debating FOR two-tier health care. And God probably killed some kittens.

I have three more midterms coming up, but they shouldn't be all that hard...there's Econ, where the prof is pretty easy, History of Political Thought (which will be multiple choice...woo!) and Canadian Politics-the wild card of the bunch. It could be easy OR hard, I have no idea. BUT today was the hump day for me...got all the hard stuff over with. (Hence the "My Humps" dance in honour of that fact)

Anyway, that is all for now.
Aside to my mother: I'm doing well and eating real meals, have no fear.
Love Nat

P.S. If this sounds jumbled, my mind is fried, so I apologize.

The Story of: The Mull River Shuffle

Well, I'm just killing some time on campus, and I thought I'd write about something that has come up a lot lately. It's a song by the Rankin family called 'The Mull River Shuffle'.

If you haven't heard of the song, you have to read the lyrics before reading the rest of this...

Okay, so the people of Antigonish LOOOOVE this song. Like, with a passion. At the Christmas ball they played it twice, for goodness sakes. The people of Cape Breton (where I believe the Rankins are from) also love this song, but I only found that out today...

In the lounge these kids start talking about which of them actually likes the Mull River Shuffle the most. It gets heated, and it finally comes out that some of the kids actually KNOW, (like for real) the famed "Mister Macneil" and Old MacPhee.

THIS, my friends, blows my mind.

Like, I was excited when I stood on the corner of Hollis and Morris street in Halifax. (Which, incedentally, is kinda gross) These people know people from a song the likes of which Antigonish has never seen before.
It's legendary.

And I was Jealous.

That is all for today.