Homecoming I

Well, this weekend was Queen's Alumni Reunion a.k.a. Homecoming. Quite interesting to see all the original GPAs (Golden Party Armor) from the 70's.

Went to the football game on Saturday; Queen's Golden Gaels vs.Toronto Blues. Of course, the Gaels beat the tar, stuffing, feathers, snot, etc. out of the Blues ("Give up now! Give up now!") Final score: 60 something to 10. Ha! Other notable events from the game: purple engineers descending on field during half-time and rocking the goal posts, 50 something year old engineers crowdsurfing up the stands, naked purple streaker running across the field during play and into West Campus, getting to ewar my tam (over my ears of course) for the first time, the Queen's Band lining up with backs to audience, female members of band lifting up kilts, eclipsing of the sun by many moons, alumni parade, getting stepped on by half-drunk students about twelve times.

All in all, a fun weekend. Rented Almost Famous last night with Wendy, Hart and Mike the Engineer. Suffering from lack of sleep now as stayed up late beyond all reason to finish movie.

Went to cell group potluck tonight as no caf food on Sunday nights. Fun fun delicious chocolate cheesecake. Mmm...sugar high.

Goons

Ever since I started unviersity, i've been hearing a lot more swearing.

Whatever, it's their right, it's free speech, it's none of my concern. Sitting at lunch today at Ban Righ, I couldn't help but overhear the guy next to me boasting about "kicking open the f***ing doors of his f***ing school at night, and smashing the **** candy machines, stealing, like, half the s***, then pulling th f***ing fire alarm and watching f***ing eleven firetrucks and s*** pull up outside. S****!"

Yes, they're teens (so am I). No, they didn't offend anyone (possibly me). Maybe it's because I had a really stressful day. But this is university! I mean, act like an adult already. This is the time when you learn to teach yourself, do your laundry, cook your own meals, handle your own money, sometimes makeyour own money, and get yourself out of your own problems. It's not the time for you to giggle over being 'bad'. It's only thrilling to hear yourself cuss up to, oh, grade 8.

I know, I'm not the most mature person. In fact, I'm not very mature at all. But I know that university is time to grow up. To have fun, yes, but also to be responsible for your own actions. Like pulling the fire alarm at 2 am and costing the entire residence $800 dollars!

Screeeeeen my phoooone calls...

Sorry I'm not home right now
I'm walking on a spiderweb
So leave a message and I'll call you baaaack...

Hee.

Mmm...MSG...

Back in K-Town. The minuter my mother saw me, she started pinching me and saying I had lost weight. Then my grandma showed up and started doing the same thing. True enough, I weighed myself and found that I had lost 5 pounds in two weeks. Not fun. Not fun at all. So they bought me a whole box of instant noodles and forced me to take packets of instant soy milk along with me. Hamsters are so cute. Toasty (the new one) is feisty! Almost bit off my finger and then chewed up my pen. Boh-Boh is as wei-sik as ever, Dookie is cute and cuddly and black and stinky.

More greasepole jubilation when I got back last night: someone (probably the '04s) sewed/duct taped/stapled residence blankets together and made a massive banner proundly declaring "SCI '06 49 min." And then hung it off the unfinished new dorm building behind Chernoff. Hee.

Very strange how all the upper years mocked the engineering frosh before the pole. Lesson: in order to gain the respect of your elders, all you have to do is wallow around in a pool of mud and rip a Scottish be-pommed (i.e. with a pompom on top) from the top of a 25 foot high pole. Peasy as ie. No problem.

Vroom vroom.

Going home this weekend! Can't wait.

In only 5 hours, will be able to eat Chinese food, see my friends and family, take a shower without wearing flipflops, walk around the house barefoot, listen to the radio, watch tv, pick up much-needed clothes and cd's and play with three adorable hamsters.

Yes, three. Homing brought his girlfriend's hamster home with him, because she isn't supposed to have one anyway. Also, he was the one who bought it for her and he picked a vicous biting one. Hopefully it's more tame now. Gen also bought one a while ago; named it Dr. Diabolical. Hee.

Starting to actually feel like I'm at school (as opposed to extra-long session of boot camp or similar). Already have ridiculous sense of school pride (cha gheill!) and am lusting after the gear to go along with it (sweatshirt/rugby shirt/bum-pants, etc.)

The Countdown Begins!

Three months til The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is released!!!

Time to start lining up!!

Someone will pay...

Whoever decided classes should begin at 8.30AM should be slapped with a trout.

Buh.

Ugh. Every Monday feels like the first day of school all over again. Very depressing.

Yesterday, I went to my first MATH 111 class. And I actually understood it. I might actually have to switch into CISC 101 as well. There's a programming exam to see what level of programming you're capable of, but it's scheduled after the last day for full refunds in switching courses. Bugger that. I know I'm not proficient in Java, so I'm switching now.

Went to Club's Night at Grant today. Joined even more clubs: Otaqu, Students Of Speculative Realms (hee hee...Ghostbusters laser tag), ASUS Movie Theater volunteering, Society for Python Admiration and Mimicry (a.k.a. SPAM), and picked up free tickets to the QCSA semi. Don't think I'll go to that one. Nothing to wear. Though I suspect M will drag me there my my ears.

Unfortunate, as ears do not need to be any longer. Pointy would be cool, though.. Heh. Live long and prosper! Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!

Cha Gheill! Cha Gheill! Cha Gheill!

Yes, Queen's is very, um, romantic.

Oil thigh na Banrighinn a'Banrighinn gu brath!
Oil thigh na Banrighinn a'Banrighinn gu brath!
Oil thigh na Banrighinn a'Banrighinn gu brath!

One more time!

Harry Pott-ah!

Just watched Harry Potter and the Philosophers's Stone in the common room with all my floormates. Also downloaded the trailer for the next movie and heard some rumors about future movies. Like, Sirius/Hagrid/Dumbledore/Harry dying. You know, cheerful things like that.

Gaah!

28 hits in one day?!

I think my blog is taking steroids. Shame one you!

Later...

No, no. Faith, creator of a kickass comic and future world ruler, mentioned this site in her livejournal. Spiffy.

The Pole

I really regret not buying tickets to the Greasepole event.

Why, what is this "Greasepole" that you speak of?

I'm glad you asked. Every year, the engineering frosh have to go through this ritual, retreiving an ArtSci tam nailed to the top of a flagpole, which was stolen from U of T (Ha! Ha ha ha!) years and years ago. Drive to secret location by their FRECs. Pile on top of each other and building a pyramid. Several times. Until the tam is ripped off.

So how was it this year?

Apparently this years eng frosh had the fastest time since 1985. Or thereabouts. You know, I really should've gone. Tickets were $5 each (I think), but I read that in Golden Words. Self explanatory.

You do realize you're talking to yourself.

Bugger off. I have work to do.

*starts humming Elvis*

Sigh. Why are my inner voices so geeky...

Weirdness of the Day...

Big, jockish floormate blasting "Never Again" by Nickelback, followed by "Don't Turn Off The Lights" by Enrique Iglesias, and "Just Like A Pill" by Pink.

It's like having KISS 92 right next door.

Go K-town, go K-town, go!

Alright 613!

Just went out with uglybrother (see: For Better or For Worse) and friends to dinner and short shopping trip. Ate at the Cafe India, fantastic chicken curry. Listened to discussion about CD release party, this Saturday, 7:30 PM at the Common Ground at the JDUC.

Hint, hint.

Nudge, nudge.

Wink, wink.

Just so you know, 613 is Kingston's area code, which, according to the comic strip linked to above, is also the same area code that Avalon (fictional town) has. Go K-town, home (perhaps) of the town of Avalon!

Expecting a fire alarm tonight, as it's the first Thursday (and therefore, Cocamo night) since school started. Blargh. Please no drunken antics, please...

A rush of stupidity to the head

Must go. Have class. No wait. I just keep thinking I do.

me dum.

Having now been to all my classes at least twice, I can officially say that I am a dumbass. Really. Everything I learned in calc and algeo in high school? Gone! Vanished! Eaten by the monster called summer vacation! The end.

What's worse is that there are always those smartiepants who ask complicated questions or overachieve overachieve overachieve. Constantly. My brain hurts... But I'm planning on switching into MATH 111 and 121 'cause they're more...user friendly. In the meantime, I'm stressing over textbooks and such. So expensive. I thinking university isn't so much a place to learn than a place to squeeze every penny from one's bank account.

Went to KCCF's New Student Reception last night at the JDUC. Fun fun fun. Spent three hours in the caf at dinner the night before, talking and laughing with Wendy, Margaret and Mike the engineer from the neighbouring table. Fun fun fun. Tired.

PLOP.

.....

.....

.....

sigh

Frosh VII

Yeah, I know today isn't part of Frosh Week, but I figure, might as well make it an actual week of seven days.

Went to KCAC this morning. Barely made it onto the shuttle bus because my alarm clock was possessed and didn't go off at 8.30 like it was supposed to. Met an exchange student from Singapore at the service. Met a lot of Homing's friends and some FYNIRS. Went to Symposium for lunch, armed to the teeth with 2 for 1 breakfast coupons. Stuffed myself on three scarmbled eggs, hash browns, four slices of toast and a mug of coffee. Mmm...

Frosh VI

Today is Shinerama day! Basically, Shinerama is the day during frosh week where many Canadian universities spend the whole day fundraising for Cystic Fibrosis research. Woke up refreshed (relatively.) Went to the Shinerama forum where the head of the Canadian CF foundation spoke to us. Very sad, as he spoke about his daughter who has CF. Afterwards, we all crowded into Grant Hall and watched a presentation about Queen's traditions (hurrah for Scotland!) and received our tams. Mine has a red pom pom, as do all ArtSci tams. Then we all did the Oil Thigh song and dance and looked funny. ^_^

After lunch, met up with my group and headed off to Vic Park for Shinerama. Went to Wellington and Princess to shine shoes and sell raffle tickets. Unfortunately, no one really wears leather shoes in the summer, so we resorted to bribing people with songs and cheers. Got sprayed with a guy with a garden hose. Learned a new Queen's, um, song:

Spirit! Yeah, yeah we got spirit!
Yeah, we got drunk frosh, totally sloshed!
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer!

Gaels! Yeah, yeah, we got gaels!
Yeah, we got drunk gaels, totally whaled,
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer!

OCs! Yeah, yeah, we got OCs!
Yeah, we got drunk OCs, totally toasty!
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer!

Chairs! Yeah, yeah we got chairs!
Yeah, we got drunk chairs totally impaired!
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer!
We got spirit!

Apparently, Queen's reputation as a party school has prompted anti-milk groups to focus it's "Got beer?" campaign on our campus. Just what we need: more dunken frosh pulling firealarms when other not-so-drunk frosh want to sleep. Can you tell I'm bitter?

Soon, off to dinner and the ArtSci semiformal at Jock Harty, where I know no one and will probably end up dancing by myself for 3 minutes, then going back to res and sleeping early.

WET.

Postscript: Skipped out completely on the semi. Instead, I bumped into Mo at dinnertime. We (Mo, Alli, Hart, Alan and Aaron) decided to have a laundry party at Vic. Took the shuttle over to West Campus and helped Alan improvise his loft bed. Then went back to main campus and visited Mo's place (bunk beds!) Managed to fill up four washers and three dryers with our stuff. Slammed the engineers' oatmeal duds on tables, etc. to loosen caked mud and oatmeal, then dumped them all into one load. Needless to say, they were still dirty when they came out of the washer. Too bad the dryers don't really work; none of our shirts or pants came out dry. lot to hang up tonight.

Frosh V

Still running on inadequate amounts of sleep (lots of loud, drunken people hanging around the hall and res entrance.) This morning, the yearly sidewalk sale was held. Collected obscene amounts of club pamphlets and freebies. As I walked with some people from my home church (all Chinese), all the Asian clubs made a beeline for us. Since Asians are a minority here, they have a lot of clubs to make up for it: Queen's East Asian Club, Queen's Mandarin Taiwanese Club, Queen's Vietnamese Club, Queen's Chinese Scholars' Club, Asian Cooking Club, etc.

I was going to stick with my Gael Group all day, but bumped into a friend who hadn't registered for Frosh Week, so I mooched around the Sidewalk Sale with her all day instead. Got more pamphlets, a pair of Queen's bum pants (has "QUEEN'S" written on the seat), and a Queen's school agenda, just like the ones from high school.

Right now, some band is practicing and/or warming up outside, and they're audible from any point on campus. The bassist just played two lines from "My Sharona." Hee. I've decided to skip the concert. Rumor has it that Swollen Members is the main band taking the stage, so I'm not too interested. Instead, I'm going to a KCCF unofficial welcome get together at someone's house.

But if it turns out to be Big Sugar or similar, I'm really going to kick myself.

SLEEPY.

Postscript: KCCF welcome was great. 50 odd people crammed into one apartment, met a lot of frosh. Went to A&P after, was scandalised by their obviously inflated prices, and attempts to take advantage of cash-strapped students. Beat the system by buying only two cans of soup and a box of tissue (total: $2.98)

Frosh IV

Guess what? Another false fire alarm last night. Some numbnuts decided it would be a good idea... again. I should have expected it, though; it was Pub Night last night. Everytime it happens, I wake up and think it's a very large telephone in the hall.

Not much happened today, more "get to know Queen's" activities. Tried unsuccessfully to get coveralls for Frosh Olympics tomorrow (nothing in my size.) Walked around downtown and got freebies and spirit points. Here's one of our cheers:

I love you, you love me,
We are happy MIB's
With two great Gaels
And lots of great Frosh
This Frosh week you'll watch us MOSH!

Now, am sitting alone in my room, waiting for friends to go back to their room and unabandon me. Sniff.

EVEN MORE TIRED.

Frosh III

For the first time in a week, I was on my way to a good night's rest. Until the fire alarm attacked me and forced me out of bed at 3.30 AM, along with the other 799 residents of Vic Hall. Bloody hell!

When we were finally let back in at 4 AM, my roomie and I managed to squeeze in another three hours of sleep until we had to get up in time for the collect the frosh parade. At 9, we watched as the Con Eddies of 2006 were doused in a coat of talc powder by their silver painted Gaels. Joined my Gael group and got our frosh packages (including a t-shirt, that I managed to put on backwards.)

Went to Jock Harty again for a welcome meeting. Cheered for about 2 hours straight and then went to lunch. very bored and tired at this point, so when I bumped into a girl I met at the Playfair thingie, it didn't take much for me to leave my group and wander around campus with her. We walked over to the JDUC and bought junkfood. Checked out used books and purple engineering boys (she has her eye on a few.) After, went to her room and watched a movie on her laptop (Studio Ghibli) and ate a pile of chips.

At dinner, we decided we didn't want to go to Pub Night (a.k.a. get plastered.) Instead, we got dressed up and walked around the campus some more. Got back to rez and talked to Katie, who is back in town along with all the rest of the upper years.

TIRED.

Frosh II

More get-to-know-you activities. Playfair at Jock Harty Arena (i.e. sweathole, as no aircon) where we met and forgot names of about a hundred people. Went on a short campus tour and then lunch. Our floor decided to visit Leonard Hall for lunch. I think I'm going to get tired of caf food very quickly (within a month).

Free time for a couple of hours; talked with Mo and visited Alli on the engineering section. After an insanely early dinner, headed over to Grant Hall for Existere, a series a skits about life as a frosh.Very, um, candid. About everything: dorms, first impressions and sex.

Free time afterwards, including a concert by Bedouin Soundclash at Jock Harty. Since I didn't get any sleep last night, I was too tired to go. Instead sat in room like a lifeless zombie and ICQd. My LOTR poster (where the Fellowship is on the river) is getting a lot of admiration.

Homesick. :(

Frosh I

Got to Kingston at about 10 AM and lugged everything up. It turns out my roomie is my brother's high school english teacher's daughter. Spiffy. She's a Christian, too and also likes anime. What are the odds?

Learned the Queen's school cheer ("Oil thigh na something something something something bragh! Chagheil! Chageill! Chageill!") and the Vic Hall cheer (hooray for X-shaped buildings!) and met my floor. Organized all my junk and put up posters (LOTR & Totoro) and pictures (from grad, last day of school, at the mall, HK and at home). They showed two movies last night but was too damn tired to go out.

Mmm...cafeteria food.

Leavng home

One last post in Toronto before I go. *Sniffle* I already feel homesick. And paranoid that I'll forget to bring something. Bidding tearful farewell to the hamsters as I speak. Queen's, ho!