Rainy Weather & Classes

August is apparently the worst month of the year, weather wise, and given the pounding rain today I am inclined to agree. Although the rain is not as continuous as it is in Vancouver (there are periods of sun every so often) when it does rain you get soaked through in a few seconds. Of course it never fails that on a Monday after a big weekend of hiking, with classes being cancelled last minutes, feeling tired, hungry and frustrated, while rain pounds down it takes half an hour for the bus to arrive! I have continued on with the English classes taking Postmodernism with a seminar on science fiction and am very excited about it. Unfortunately it is at eight in morning four days a week (not my strongest time) but the material just seems too good to pass up. Currently we're studying Margaret Atwood's Surfacing: Represent! I decided to push the Semester Study Abroad card as far as I could and am in a Honours Linguistics course studying language variation. In an even more absurdly unlikely turn of events I was allowed into a post-graduate Architecture course looking at third world architecture! I did explain very clearly that I know absolutely nothing about architecture but they seemed to feel that I will be fine... After one reading and one class I have a vague suspicion that I am very familiar with everything we are discussing except the jargon used. We'll see what happens. Hopefully classes are a little more challenging/interesting this term than they were last term.

The new international students seem to be settling in comfortably and, while I know many of them, I am not as involved with that scene this term. Instead I am solidifying many of the friendships with locals that I started last term, especially since I will know three South Africans in Vancouver come January! Due to a fairly full schedule I think I am seeing even less of my new roommates than my old but they are quite nice when I do see them: one Brit (26/28ish) and one Yank (20). Finally, despite having mixed feelings about it last term I could resist another trip to Mozambique to go diving. This time I was invited as staff so the cost will be significantly less if not 'free'. I am responsible for recruiting (probably why I was invited is because I know a large number of the international students) and keeping them happy (ie. off Nick and Sean's back) throughout the trip. We'll see how it goes this time around...