Tried to save a dog today

Katie and I went to the shoppers near our apartment today to pick up some essentials (aka pringles) and on our way back came across a slim little black mutt with a gray muzzle. Cute little guy, friendly enough to sit there and want to be patted, and wandering around in front of the sketchy Dominion (aka Superstore a la co-op foods). Being the obsessive nice girls that we are, we're concerned and joined swiftly by a nice dollar store girl who feels the same way. We wander in and out of shops trying to find the owner, then give the city number on the dogs tag a call, since it was a busy street (think equivalent to the corner of Belvedere and Queen) and we didn't just want to leave him there. They tell us the dog's name (Posey) and give us a number to call. As we're calling, a crabby old lady hobbles out of the dollar store and proceeds to tell us not to bother, silly girls, he was just sitting out there waiting for her, he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. He's a good dog, and we shouldn't be calling the pound on him! We shoot each other looks of "Um, ok, just leave your dog untied and wandering the streets with no leash while you go to the dollar store" and head off into the sunset. Whatever, we just didn't want to leave the dog to get hit by a car, even if his owner was negligent. I'm slightly paranoid about that.

Happy ending to the story though, he went off home with his owner, not left on the side of the street, and we felt better about ourselves for having cared. And when cranky old lady's husband called us later (I'm assuming he had call display), he was very nice and thanked us profusely for having taken the time to care. Karma's a happy little dozer, and this is a strange little town, I'll take it where I can get it.

In other odd but amusing happenings, two girls were standing outside the University center with signs offering free hugs, and giving them away to pretty much everyone who came by. I took one and thanked her. Her name was Janice. When Mei came home, she was ecstatic about the whole thing, as she'd gotten hugged too. I guess in China, that would definitely never happen, and she immediately had to call home about it. It gave me a giggle.

Kitchen party Newfoundland style

Which, if you're wondering, is just like a kitchen party PEI style, with slightly more liquor, more of which ends up on the floor. Except with a much higher probability that I don't know a whole lot more of the people there. That's ok though, I made friends with the guy who's birthday it was who lived there. Apparently all that took was, "No, I don't know who that band is that you've got posters of all over your wall, but sure, put on something by them. Yes, seriously, otherwise I won't know what they sound like." He was tickled pink and so proud of his fav band. It was funny. Then I headed home when the majority of party goers continued on to the bar, since I'm super poor, and I feel ancient when I go to the student union bar at MUN. Really ancient. Like 5 years older than most people there. Ah well, that's what you get when you go back to school I guess. Next weekend I'll tackle Bitters, meet up with some more grad students. I also think I want to grab the bull by the horns and wrangle some kind of soiree together for the advanced diploma students over at the Marine institute, since there's only 40 of us and we're already getting clicky. It's an adventure. We shall see. Oh yeah, and maybe I'll try and catch up on all the work I should have done. Yeah, that would be good.

Sorry, I've been ill lately.

So now I understand why they call the cold the flu up here in NFL. Gross. I spent the better part of the weekend in bed, with my roommate Katie forcing extra strength neocitrine on me.

But I finally have internet in my room! And we have a tv in the living area, with a vcr, and my dvd player will work with it! Now all I need to do is turn them all off so that I can study. Oh yeah, that's what I'm doing up here!

Next week our wonderful department chair will be taking us down to Moncton for the water conference. I'm uber excited. I think I may even start looking around while I'm there for any possibilities for my future career!

I've gotten to do some sight seeing, went downtown with Katie to see the harbor and visit some of the "hippy" shops, a la Peakes Quay/lower Queen street style shops. I guess there's a real demand for colorful glass pipes and handmade jewelry in every port town. We visited the famous George Street, and had lunch in one of the pubs, where I had the fishcakes. Very nice, now I feel like I belong.

More to come when I don't feel so guilty about not studying!

The logic of this place is absolutely astounding.

I actually sat in class and laughed for about 5 minutes straight today, right in the middle of class. We all had a good chuckle. Here's why:

Me: Calling 3 different offices spanning two different provinces for the past 5 business days "hey, do you have my loan, I know the papers were filed, can I pay for school now?"

them: "No, it's not here, you didn't send it in early enough, you should have sent it in earlier so it could be processed on time, it's your own fault."

Me: "How can that be? It was passed in a week before the deadline, and the letter came saying it was processed? I know I've sent it in!"

Them: "no you're wrong, you have to be wrong, we don't just lose that kind of information"

Two days later, when my loan papers suddenly 'mysteriously' appear.

Me: "Thank you oh thank you soooo much! This is great. By the by, where exactly were they/how were they found?"

Them: "Well, you sent them in so early, it was assumed that it was for a previous year/from someone who would get it before school started, so we filed them away where we didn't have them visible. Perhaps you shouldn't have sent them in so early. We've had them here the whole time."

~

Next comes the arrival of my long awaited computer package, which I have to wait for a little yellow sheet to arrive in my mail box so I can traipse across campus and haul it back to my place. I check the box at 4:30, no paper. I go home, drink some milk, and just for kicks, go across campus to the housing department to see if maybe it had come in but my notice hadn't been sent over. It's now 5:05, and of course, housing is closed. At least I got to look at the ducks and run up 3 flights of stairs. I also get a rude indication of when the office hours are, and that I should have come by earlier. Mind you, we actually live in our apartments 24/7. You also have to be full time to be allowed to live in housing, which I am, my classes go from 9-5 everyday, I just got out early today. Housing services hours? Yep, they're 9-5 weekdays only. Craptascular planning. On my way home, I stop at my mail box, where, of course, my little yellow package notice is. It's now 5:10, and I may never get my package.

My classmates and I have decided to make all Friday evening happy hour. It will be grand.

Still livin it up.

Well, as much as I can be with no student loan yet or computer, but now at least I have a phone! I ended up breaking down and getting a NFL phone number, so my cell phone number is now changed. I can tell that you all desperately want to know my number so that you can all inundate me with phone calls, but I won't post it here, oh no. You'll have to email me for it. So there. But if you do e-mail me, I'll be happy to share it. And then you'll have to call me. Or leave me messages. I like messages. They make me happy.

My adventures continued today as I went to a movie by myself. I had some time to kill at the good mall before the bus came (like an hour) so while wandering around, I saw the movie theater and decided that I'd have to take my roomie up on her invite to go sometime. Then I thought about it, and realized that that's something I can do on my own too! So off I went. Really big theater. Well, only 12 theaters big, but ours certainly doesn't have blacklight minigolf, two arcades, 2 levels and a bar in it. Trust NFL to put a bar in a movie theater. Swank. In honor of the whole going back to university thing, I went to see Accepted. Funny movie. It wasn't amazing, but I didn't want to go to a sappy romance and miss people, or a chick flick and miss people. So comedy it was. The place was empty, so I sat and talked with one of the employees before the movie started, since she had nothing to do, as there was absolutely no one around, and she didn't want them to give her more work to do. Happy to be the aid of procrastination.

Here's some fun news: Joel Plasket is playing here tonight in the breezeway. Unfortunately for me, it was sold out before I even knew he was here. So needless to say, I'm here in the Pond's computer lab on a friday night with my new friend Linda (that's totally not her name, but she's from Bangladesh, so that's what she told me to call her).

Next on the docket, what to do on Saturday in St Johns' when you don't know anyone or where to go. . . . .

Ok, so here I am on the big ol rock!

I arrived with little fanfare over here in St. John's, although a half hour late. The flight wasn't terrible, but they really couldn't seem to get their act together over there in Halifax. First their computers were down (eek!) and then their baggage carrousels weren't working, which made me spend the entire flight over worried that my baggage wasn't going to make it. It did though, and I felt altogether mature and accomplished as I made my way out of the airport by my lonesome and flagged a cabbie to make it to MUN. Then I tried to track down my proctor so I could get my room keys. Ummmm, yeah, leaving a "gone, be back later, give my cell a ring" note on your door when people are schedule to come get their keys from you, not so impressive. Luckily I had my cell phone, so I could call the guy. Got to my room, only one person there, my Chinese nursing student roommate, who is cute, but after she said hello, smiled, and offered me a biscuit (cookie) she went directly into her room again and closed her door. I guess that's just her thing, she's a bit on the timid side.
My room: super tiny. It's basically twice as wide as a twin bed, and a bit on the end for the closet part. I suppose it's a good thing since I don't have much stuff, but it seems sooooo bare right now. I immediately felt like crying because my room is so cozy and roomy at home, and I left it behind. But I didn't, so I grabbed my bag, called a cab, and took off to walmart to spend way too much money on stuff like sheets and food. When I came home, I met my other two roommates, one from truro, the other from St Anthony, Nfl. I love my Nfl roommate, she's awesome! She's in arts and her dad's a fisherman, and she's sweet and talkative. The one from Truro, not so much. Barely a peep, heads off with her boyfriend into her room, and doesn't want to have any part of the conversation about splitting things like a microwave or tv. (Yeah, that's right, no microwave or tv. I may die.) See, she's done that before, she's in her fourth year and not into sharing, and if she needs any of that, she'll go to her boyfriends room. Ok, whatever lady. I head off to bed around 12, sooo glad that I brought my dvd player, and fall asleep before I'm halfway through one episode of family guy. Thank you Nathan.
I get up the next morning, and boot'er across campus to make it to the bus. I latch on to the first boy I see waiting outside the student center, and luckily for me, he's headed to the MI too. He advises me not to take the bus I was going to take, and I jump on the one he's going on. Nice guy, his friend jumps on at the next stop, and I feel like I'm not so alone in the world. Then we get off and go in opposite directions, and I feel totally alone again. Lots of guys running around in Navy uniforms, I felt tooootaly in the wrong place. Then I found out that it was because they had a little orientation meeting in the room just before we were scheduled to have ours, so I waited it out, then all the advanced diploma students went in. Sweet, there were like 40 of us altogether, and I immediately made a friend named Lhea. Unfortunately after the meeting, we split up into our respective degree groups, and she isn't taking water quality.
Get this, my big ol' group? Yeah, there's 4 of us all together. 4. That's it. All of my classes all year will just have four people in it. Rock. I totally can't get caught slacking. Then I found out that I'm a grad student!!! That's fun! I figured I had to be doing my masters or phd, but nope, I'm totally a grad student! So says MUN anyway, so I get the perks! We have our own lounge and computer lab, and other students don't get to use them,which is a waste, because they're kind of nice. But I also don't have to pay for printing, which is super awesome! Did the class thing, ate the lunch, talked about going to a water quality conference in NB, and then got my MUN student ID.
Then I hopped a bus and went to the Mall. Pretty sweet mall. Has absolutely everything. gap and AE included. Phew. I'm wiped. Now I'm off to explore more of the campus, including the pool!!!! Yay, more to come later! pics will be posted when I get my computer, and you'll get to meet my duck friends.