Farewell First Year!

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad!

Unlike my last post, this quote is not entirely relevant to my mood or to this post but here is the reasoning behind its inclusion: throughout the past year, when I found a quote that I liked, I wrote it on a pink sticky note and hung it somewhere in my room. Today, I had to take all of those sticky notes down – all a part of the packing up process. This was one of the quotes that I found and hung up and it is the last one hanging on my wall right now. Tomorrow, my dad is driving out to Lennoxville to help me move into my house for next year and then on Saturday, I will be heading home for the summer! It`s hard to believe that I will have 4 months of no school but I am excited to start working and to have some time to relax before heading up to Wenonah for the summer. 

So as of approximately 3:00pm Wednesday, I, Erica Zucker, am officially done my first year of university! And what a great year it has been! Admittedly, there were some definite ups and downs but they were all a part of my entire experience and the only reason that I would not do it all over again is that I know each year to come is going be just as great, if not greater! So for the final time, as I sit in the Abbott TV room watching Mean Girls all by my lonesome, here is a look back on my last week as a Bishop`s freshman:

Me on my last day of first year!

The weather this past week was absolutely beautiful, meaning none of us wanted to be cooped up inside studying, so we had to constantly remind ourselves that we still had exams to study for. On Thursday, Elizabeth and I went to the mall to make some exchanges and as Elizabeth put it, to “say goodbye to the Carrefour.” Friday morning, I had a study session for my biology class and wow was the session packed....just kidding, there were maybe ten of us. 

On Saturday, Elizabeth and I walked into town to participate in the Lennoxville Community Clean Day. Originally, we had signed up to help paint over graffiti at Pizzaville but when we arrived, there was nobody with the supplies, so instead we helped literally clean up the town by helping pick up garbage in the streets. Since a lot of the mess is created by students, it felt nice to be able to give back to the community that puts up with all of us! And as an added incentive, we got free coffee and muffins at the end! After that, we had a history study party in Dewies to prepare for our exam on Monday, followed by a late night of studying. 

And now for the memory I wish I could erase from my mind, but I will share it with you anyway. Our friend Gaby finished her exams last Friday and was set to leave the following Sunday so we thought it would be fun to go out for breakfast/brunch on Sunday morning before she left. However, the bus times were not ideal on Sunday and when we called for a taxi, there were no van cabs available so Gaby asked her mom to give us a lift. We had to put four of us on the back bench of the car, which is risky, but we had been doing it all year so we were hoping to get lucky one more time. As we turned on to the street that the restaurant was on, all of a sudden we heard the siren. Approximately half an hour later, Jocelyn, Hannah, Elizabeth and me were the proud owners of $120 tickets for not correctly wearing our seatbelts and Gaby’s mom got one for overcrowding the car. Needless to say, the morning did not go as planned and I am tensing up just writing this and thinking about the ticket. We didn’t even end up going for brunch! So lesson learned - wear your seatbelts and follow the rules because it will cost you!!!

So after our not so fun Sunday morning, I spent most of the day studying trying to forget about what happened earlier in the day and focus on my exams.  For my history exam, we were allowed to bring in one cue card with information on it and on Monday morning, all of my friends in the class were in Dewies together making their cards! To an outside observer, it would have looked like a competition to see who could print the smallest to put the most information on their card. The exam ended up going really well, for me at least; I was sitting at the front of the exam hall and I didn’t notice that I was one of the last people in the exam until I stood up to leave. Following the exam, I found out my friends had gone out in the afternoon to buy water guns and as a result, were wreaking havoc all over campus. They even brought them into Dewies and were spraying our RAs!

Hannah and her super soaker!

 Tuesday, my bio friends and I had a 5 hour long study party together to ensure we would be 100% ready for our exam the next day. On bio study breaks, I would try to cram more French vocabulary into my mind, using my 200+ homemade flashcards. In the early evening, Elizabeth, Jocelyn and I walked up to our house for next year (Hannah got a drive) and we choose bedrooms and took some measurements. The boys who live in the house right now thought that we were making huge renovations plans, but really we were just trying to get an idea of the available space. Dividing up rooms went really smoothly and I think that everyone is happy with their room assignment. I got the room that I wanted, which was really nice. The only bad thing that came from our visit was hearing from the boys that “hydro is going to kill us” as they said that the two cold months cost them $800 this year, which is kind of scary. We will just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. 

Wednesday, I wrote my two exams and all of my friends finished up theirs as well! After my French exam, I helped Hannah do a bit of packing and then met her lovely parents, Malcolm and Nancy, who had driven all the way here from Nova Scotia to pick up Hannah. They helped her (and Jocelyn) take some stuff over to the house and then they left for the night while we celebrated being finished! We had originally planned to have a large sleepover in the basement but ended up going our separate ways after an exhausting night. Hannah, however, was stuck in our bog as she had already checked out and given back her keys! We then had to wake up super early to eat breakfast and say goodbye because her parents wanted to hit the road asap. I will admit, that yes, I did try to get into Hannah’s car and go back to the East Coast, but with limited space, it came down to a choice between me and the mini-fridge and somehow the fridge beat me for the spot! So that was the first goodbye of the day. I spent the rest of the day packing up my room, with a brief stop for some hors-d’oeuvres in Dewies with Jocelyn and her mom (that’s right, they were serving hors-d’oeuvres everyone) and then said goodbye to our friends heading to the airport/Ottawa/Gatineau. Jocelyn and Elizabeth left at 4:30 and all of a sudden my life became very lonely. Luckily, I had Vicki, Matt and the cast of Glee to keep me company. 

Vicki and me after our bio exam!

 So now all that is left for me to do is move my stuff to the house, give my room a good cleaning and officially check out of residence! I have to say, I think I truly lucked out when it came to residence rooms – I had a room with a lot of space, nice furniture, hardwood floors, a nice sink and cabinet, and a bathroom, all on the first floor and connected to the room of the best bogmate a girl could ask for! The fact that it is all over is still sinking in and I really can’t say exactly when it will hit me. But right now, I am just super excited to show my dad my room and my campus and to see my friend Natasha in Montreal on Saturday! I have had a truly unforgettable year and I am looking forward to documenting it all in a soon-to-come Bishop’s scrapbook! Who knows – maybe I will have to print some excerpts from this blog to put in it! Thank you to everyone who helped make this school year one of my best yet – whether it was here at Bishop’s, at home or elsewhere. And please stay tuned for a special post coming in the near future with a recap of all the things I learned/experienced this year!

All my love, Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxo