Warning: I took almost no pictures this week so I am sorry to all the visual learners out there!
Good evening friends! I hope that you all had a good week back to school and work and that this weekend has left you well-rested for another great week! I myself cannot quite believe that I have only been back here for one week - it feels like so much longer since I was in Ancaster. Maybe that's because my time here has been split between being super busy one day and then a couch potato the next. Anyway, it is great to be back and I am happy that all of my housemates have (finally) made it home and I am super excited for the semester ahead.
Alright, so I left off last week with RA training just beginning. After a very tame first day, training was kicked into high gear on Monday. First, we had breakfast all together in the dining hall (good for me as my fridge was still very empty). After that, we had the much anticipated "Behind Closed Doors" session. For this, the senior RAs and team coordinators, along with our bosses, were divided up into 3 different residence rooms. Outside each door, there was a scenario posted which described what the RA was walking into. We traveled around in groups of 5 and had to read the scenario and then elect one person to go into the room and deal with what was going on. The scenarios ranged from a highly intoxicated student to suicidal students. For mine, I walked in on someone having an allergic reaction. Despite the situation being pretend, I was still very stressed and it took me a minute to put two and two together and go find the resident's Epi-Pen. Eventually, my camp counselor training kicked in and I was able to deal with the situation and everyone applauded my first act as a duty helper.
After BCD, we had lunch together and then had a session with the BU Ombudsman, Dr. Malley. I had no idea this job even existed so it was informative for me as a student, not just for my residence job. After that, the RAs met in their individual committees (for example. the Events Committee which I was a part of last year) and so I gave some input to the dining committee. My suggestion for milk frothers around campus in order to make lattes was not well received but my suggestion to have country theme days during the Olympics was taken into consideration. Following that, I took a break from training and went to the gym and then went for a team dinner in Mackinnon with the other Mack RAs. Amanda the TC made us all pasta and salad and cookies for dessert. It was delicious! It was also really nice to have some time to get to know the team I will be working with. On the team, there is TC Amanda, Sr. RA Amanda, and RAs Rob, Sam and of course, Vicki (and now Duty Helper Erica). Once dinner was finished and we were all socialized out, I snuck into the common room to watch the second half of the Bachelor (perks of the job) before heading home to greet my recently-arrived housemates, Hannah and Jocelyn. Yay for no more empty house!!
I did not have any training on Tuesday, so I was able to have my first sleep-in of the break (much needed). I then did a much needed grocery run and made the trek to the gym for a swim. It was a pretty laid back day but I was invited to the new student dinner at Dewies that night as a part of the Rez Life team so back to campus I headed. The dinner was for new students, exchange students, Rez Life employees and SRC members, in order to make the new students feel welcomed on campus. I sat with a new student Vicky from China, a friend from my residence last Jay, one of my profs Sunny and an RA Tony. Jay was telling me how he is planning to start a BU Chinese Student Association and he invited me to be a member. After dinner, I did my first shadow round of Mack with Amanda and then went on the new students bowling trip.
My friend Jason, who is also the VP Student Affairs was coordinating the bowling trip and as a member of the Rez Life team I was able to go, as there was space left on the bus. We went to one of the 8 bowling alleys in Sherbrooke and were divided into teams of new students, old students, SRC members, etc. I bowled with Jay and 3 new students - Katherine, a recent CEGEP graduate, Marina, a student from Thailand, and Clément, an exchange student from France. After one round, the 4 of them went to play pool so I joined Jason's group and bowled with him, 3 CEGEP graduates and Ayah, an exchange student from Germany. Since we had two lanes, we played one round where you bowled with your left hand on one lane and right hand on the other. The left hand lane ended with the higher score and yet none of us were left handed! We bowled until 11:30pm and then headed back to BU. Upon return, I headed back home and was happy to find that Elizabeth had made it back to school!
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| Our new house hangout spot |
Wednesday was an even lazier day as I had absolutely no plans or commitments. I spent majority of the day on the couch with Elizabeth knitting and watching Pretty Little Liars on Netflix. I went to the gym in the afternoon and then stopped in Mack afterwards to see Vicki, who was also with Sam. I came home and made my first meal of the semester - cranberry pork tenderloin - from a recipe taken from the Hamilton Spectator (see my Pinterest board). Following dinner, Jocelyn and I streamed the Bachelor and watched the season premiere. Hannah joined us for a bit but eventually couldn't watch anymore. Although I had seen half of the episode, it was much better with Jocelyn as we are both huge fans. Needless to say, we are excited to watch Juan Pablo on his journey to find love.
Thursday was the first day of classes!!! I woke up and did a living room workout, which Hannah and Elizabeth caught a few glimpses of. They particularly liked that I was using soup cans as hand weights, so that gave them a good laugh. I had two classes that afternoon - The Reading Process and Psychology of Child Development. Both classes left me feeling pretty overwhelmed as they have a lot of work involved but I guess I will just have to be very on task this semester. On a side note, I am very excited to raise a virtual child for Child Development (an online program we get to do)! We get to name our child and make parenting decisions for it - I can't wait! After my classes, I went over to my friend Gaby's house for tea and muffins (unfortunately, I had a wipeout on the ice on the sidewalks on the way there). Elizabeth and another friend Stephanie were also there, so we spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on each other's lives. We then headed home for dinner and brought Gaby with us. After watching a few episodes of Pretty Little Liars, Elizabeth and Hannah went out for the night, Gaby went home and Jocelyn and I finally spent longer than 20 minutes in each other's presence and had a much needed catch-up session. She had been super busy with her new job at Paterson so it was our first time being home together, so it was nice to finally see and talk to her.
Friday, I got up and did some research for my exchange year, sending out various emails to all the different people that need to approve my participation. Jocelyn and I then went to the gym together before she headed off to work and I went to the mall. Jason had organized a bus trip to the mall for the new students and any students in residence but there was room on the bus so Hannah and I tagged along. My main motivation for going was to go to the new Starbucks in Target. I know, I know, I had only been here for 5 days and I was already in need of a shopping trip but I swear I didn't buy anything I didn't need. I restocked our tea cupboard at David's Tea, bought some yarn at the craft store and Hannah did some grocery shopping at the Super C. Right when we were about to go to Starbucks and wait around for the bus, I noticed that my mittens had fallen out of my pocket. We spent the next 20 minutes retracing our steps and were having absolutely no luck. When there was 10 minutes until departure, I sent Hannah to the bus and was heading off to keep looking when I passed by the customer service desk and saw my mittens on the desk!! Hallelujah! We power walked to Starbucks and I finally got my Chai Tea Latte and treated Hannah to a frappucino. All in all, a successful mall trip.
We got back to school around 4:30 and then headed home, me to do exchange research and Hannah to make dinner. It was my most successful research session by far. I have finally picked out a few potential school options - 1 in Tours, 1 in Lyon and 1 in Toulouse and I was able to email so details to my parents. Following a delicious lasagna dinner, Jocelyn, Hannah and I went with our friends Mike, Tim, Taylor, Spencer, Elliot and Kirsten to go, you guessed it, bowling. When was the last time I went bowling twice in 1 week? Answer: not since I was 8 years old and bowling birthday parties were all the rage. We went for the midnight bowling, where it was $45 per lane for unlimited bowling until 3am. We started out at 5 pin bowling and then moved over to 10 pin once two lanes were available. Apparently I left my bowling skills at home as I could not throw the ball straight for the life of me. Oh well, I guess I will have to cross pro bowler off my list of potential careers. We bowled until 1:30 in the morning and then headed home to bed.
Saturday I slept in, as that night was my first shift on duty so I needed to be well-rested. I got up and did some more exchange research, did some homework and then went to the gym. It was my lucky day there as TSN was playing the Canadian National Skating Championships so I stayed at the gym for much longer than I planned on just watching the skating. After coming home for a quick shower and a snack, I headed to campus for my first night of rounds. I met Amanda at 6:15, picked up my radio and RA duty bag and then went to Mack to get started. We didn't have to start until 7pm so I went to the Munch and Mingle event in the common room for some chips and root beer. And then the fun began. At 7pm, Amanda and I did a complete lap of the building, which took about 45 minutes because we stopped to talk to a lot of the residents. They were all really welcoming to me, so the night was off to a good start. Following the round, I wrote my first duty log, meaning I made some notes about what I saw during the round. I then ate my dinner, which I had brought in my lunch bag, and hung out with Vicki until my next round at 9pm. For the rest of the night, Amanda and I did rounds on the hour, wrote our logs and then watched Gilmore Girls until it was time to walk around again. It was a pretty tame night as people were coming and going from the building and many of them ended up at the Gait at the 2 Year's Eve party. I was said that I couldn't go but my friends never made it to the Gait so who knows if I would have either. Vicki hung out with Amanda and I until 1am and then Amanda's boyfriend came home and was with us until 2. Eventually, they both hit the hay and so it was just Amanda and I until 3:30. We handed our radios in at 3:45 and then I walked home to go to bed. I came home to find Jocelyn and Hannah asleep with the lights on, so I tucked them into bed before passing out for the night.
Due to my late night, I allowed myself a sleep in until noon. I haven't slept in that long in forever but it was much needed since I was up until 4:30. Once I was up and functioning, Hannah and I went public skating and were there from 1 until 2:45. There were so many people there! At one point, it was actually hard to skate around, but it cleared up as the afternoon wore on. Once skating was over, we came home and decided to dig out our garbage cans around back as the snow and ice were finally soft enough to shovel. Well, somewhat anyway. Our walkway up to our house is still covered in ice but we were able to get our garbage, recycling and compost bins out. We saw our neighbour and discovered that he is actually in one of Hannah's classes. Hopefully, the snow and ice will continue to melt so that we can dig a safe path to our front door. When we got back from skating, I finally saw Sarah, who had gotten in to the night before but was out before I woken up. She was supposed to get in yesterday afternoon but her plane to Montreal was unable to land so she was delayed in Toronto for 5 hours so had gotten in late that night. Finally, all the housemates are together again!
For the rest of today, I did laundry, made a grocery list and did an aerobic dance workout video in the living room with Jocelyn. Watch out Lennoxville because we've got some new moves for next weekend! I talked to my dad, did some homework and am now heading off to bed to rest up for practicum in the morning! I am beyond excited to see all of my students tomorrow and I hope that they are excited to see me! Also, I have two classes tomorrow afternoon and then knitting club starts up again tomorrow night. It is going to be a jam packed day and week, with a full week of classes, duty on Thursday night (another 4am night) and then Winterfest this upcoming weekend! LIfe at BU is picking right back up again and I can't wait for all the adventures I am sure to have this semester!
Have a wonderful week everyone!
All my love, Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
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