Potlucks and Hats!

Howdy folks and happy last week of February! Try not to fall off your seats in regards to the fact that this post is coming within a week of the last one. On a side note, I started writing this at 10pm but Elizabeth and I got distracted by Oscars videos, so sorry for the delay. In case you were wondering, we went through the Vogue's "Who's Wearing What" Photo Gallery and watched NPH's opening number. Oh and looked at all the pictures of Lady Gaga in her Oscars dress in cleaning product ads. While I personally liked the dress, I think I would have gone for a different style of gloves. (PS Do not tell my Psych of Women prof about the last 4 sentences).

Moving on, it was a pretty busy week for me here in Lennoxville, mainly because I was hard at work planning my honours society potluck. By that I mean I was constantly stalking our online event page to see if anyone new had RSVPed or added a food item. Since it was a small guest list, there wasn't too much activity. None the less, it was fun to plan and while it got a bit tedious sending out so many messages and emails, we were happy to have many members in attendance. 

Also last week, I participated in 3 psych studies for 3 different research assistants in the Fuchsia Sirois Research Centre. My Psych of Women prof is giving out bonus marks for anyone who participates in research studies, up to a max of 4% (1% per study). 2 of the studies I did last week used deception, in which they tricked me into thinking they were testing one thing but really measured something else. I signed confidentiality contracts so I will not reveal too much, but in one study I was tricked into eating M&Ms while watching a video about streams and in the second, I was interrupted playing with Scrabble tiles. For those of you who don't know, I take word games very seriously (ask my high school boyfriend about our Scrabble games where I played for both of us), so I was not impressed with that. But I earned 3 of my 4 bonus marks and booked my fourth study for after the break. I'll let you know what I'm tricked into doing next. 

On Wednesday, I went to the Golden Key Linked In Workshop led by a faculty member from the Williams School of Business. We did the session in a computer lab so were able to work on our profiles while the session was going on. I am happy to report that I am now up to 41 connections, including 2 of the presenters from the conference I went to in Montreal, and am a member of 4 different groups. You can check out my profile here: ca.linkedin.com/in/ericazucker 

Thursday was a really hectic day that got off to not the greatest start but improved as the day went on. I got up early to make dinner in the slow cooker for the first time, but ended up cutting my hand really badly (good thing I've had all my shots) which made me about 15 minutes late leaving for the psych study. The study then took longer than I thought, so I was late leaving for French, slipped and fell while walking there and was 20 minutes late to class. I then lost my gym bag  so had to go on a little search for that, so I could actually go the gym. The afternoon was significantly better, during which I attended a cocktail reception put on by the School of Education to welcome Melanie Stonebanks into her new role as Director of Practice Teaching. While there, I got talking to a retired teacher who gave me some really great ideas and resources for teaching. If she is ever my supervisor, teaching social justice will definitely be a part of every lesson I teach. Oh and as a follow-up, the slow cooker chicken meal ended up being delicious! 

A few weeks ago, my friend Gaby asked if I would go to the gym with her to show her how to use the different machines. Being as the gym sometimes feel like my second home, I was more than happy to channel my inner Jillian Michaels and spend Friday morning at the gym with Gaby trying out all the new equipment. It ended up being advantageous for both of us, as I tried out many of the machines I had not used yet, and working out is always more fun if you have a buddy. I hope I didn't make Jocelyn too jealous though, as we have been struggling to find time to go together. We will have to try harder after Reading Week. 

Following my morning with Gaby, I locked myself in the library for the afternoon (#studentlife) in an attempt to write two papers. I have always struggled with creative writing, especially with writing fictional stories and I am currently struggling to write a narrative piece in French. The goal was to have draft one complete on Friday, but I left the library with less progress than I had made before going. For my second paper, I am writing a reflection on the topic of the changing attitudes towards women in and following times of war, and I left the library with a paper on pretty much the history of women's contributions - not exactly what my psych prof is looking for. To take a break from my "hard" work, I went bowling with the bowling club that night and had the amazing opportunity to witness my friend Tim score his highest score yet - 230 points! To put that in comparison, my highest score was 104. And that was a complete fluke. However, I must say that I improved drastically since my first appearance at the club and even won one game! And I don't even think the boys in my lane let me win! (I could just be dreaming, so if anyone knows the truth, do not let me know). 

Saturday was another day of work, with a lot more progress made than on Friday. It was also a beautiful day, so I was finally able to get out running again. It was a little slippery on the sidewalks so had to risk my life and run on the road, closer than was comfortable to the Quebec drivers, but I got my 10km in for the first time in a while. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing into my face on the way home, which was not the most enjoyable experience, but I was happy to be outdoors regardless. 

Saturday night, we hosted our much anticipated HAT PARTY for Jocelyn's 21st birthday! The theme was exactly what it sounds like - every guest was required to wear a hat. 90% of guests understood this, and it was a lot of fun to see what everyone pulled out of their closets. I wore Elizabeth's Statue of Liberty crown from Reading Week last year, Hannah wore a Tilley hat with a flamingo taped on top, Elizabeth wore a belly dancer's hat, Sarah wore a Madeline hat and Jocelyn wore a crown. There was a wide range of headwear, from toques to visors to sombreros to an Oktoberfest Hat but the overall grand prize winners were the boys from the Penthouse. They brought a garbage bag full of every hat they owned and rotated through them throughout the night. My personal favourite was Taylor's alligator hat - the A+ Bishop's Gaiter. 

Today was very relaxed, but was also the day I had been looking forward to for about two weeks now. As a side story, after my grand success with the slow cooker on Thursday, I decided to use it to make my meatballs for the potluck; however, I guess I inspired my housemates to also start using the slow cooker because when I went downstairs to make breakfast, Hannah was starting to load her dinner into it! Luckily, we have a small, individual sized slow cooker that I was able to use, so crisis averted. I then took Hannah skating in the new rink and we went to watch the a cappella women's choir showcase, which was the honours thesis project of a music student. It was really, really good, though (unfortunately0 nothing like Pitch Perfect. 

I then came home to shower, pick up my meatballs and head over to the Golden Key Potluck. It was held at our faculty advisor's house, Dr. Michele Murray, Dean of Arts and Science. She is married to another religion professor and they live just up the road from me with an adorable golden labrador. The dinner started at 6, and we had a great turn out, about 20 chapter members, including 4 chapter officers (myself included). Everyone brought a delicious food item - homemade hummus, devilled eggs, maple glazed sweet potatoes, salads, etc. I brought honey garlic slow cooker meatballs (Thank you Pinterest) which were a huge hit (based on the empty bowl I brought home). Dr. Murray made a fantastic vegetarian lasagna as a main course. There was also a great dessert spread, with golden brownies, tiramisu, and chocolate peanut butter cups made by Gaby, which Dr. Murray thought were made by a professional. Definitely check out Gaby's blog in the coming weeks for the recipe! In addition to delicious food, the company was fantastic as well - this was our first real social event since I have been a member of the club. It was a great chance to socialise with other chapter members, two of whom are my close friends Gaby and Sarah, and also a great chance to chat with my other officers outside of our weekly meetings. And Dr. Murray and her husband were incredibly sweet, making their dog do tricks and ensuring everyone's wine glass was always filled to the brim. It was also a great opportunity to promote our next upcoming event - afternoon tea with Principal Goldbloom! 

As I sit here in my food coma, I cannot quite believe that Reading Week is in just one week. As of last Wednesday, I have less than two months left of third year. While I am really sad to not be spending this Reading Week with any of my housemates, I am looking forward to going to Buffalo and Collingwood with Vicki and then spending a weekend in Kingston. I am incredibly excited to see my family, though I will be very jealous watching them pack to go away for their March breaks. Hopefully there will be some traveling for me in the near future, as the travel bug is biting and I have been "homesick" for France a lot in the past week. However, despite the biting cold, the piles of homework and the other daily student struggles, there is no place I'd rather be than 27 Rue William-Paige living with the best friends a girl could ask for. And a rat who can be cute sometimes. 

That's all from me for now! Have a great week everyone! 

All my love, 

Erica xoxoxoxoxoxo

Frozen February!

Good evening everyone! I know that it is late, but I have been meaning to write forever and just have not been able to sit myself down and do it, so here goes. It is crazy to think that in exactly two months today I will be finished my third year of university (my exams end on Saturday, April 18th) - quite literally, where has the time gone? I still feel like I am settling back into Bishop's, when in reality, we are half way through the semester already. While I certainly miss being in France, and get extremely jealous when I see photos of friends currently on exchange, it has been nice being back with my friends, my housemates, my clubs, etc. So without further adieu, here is a look back at some of the things that have been keeping me busy during this cold, cold semester:

In terms of academics, after my last blog post, I finalised my timetable. My classes for this semester include: Linguistic Diversity, Psychology of Women, Rudiments of Music Theory, French Written Communication and Real-World Translation. Since I am on my "gap year" as it is called for out of province students in Quebec, I have been able to take elective courses and courses to finish my French minor, which I am on track to complete, providing everything goes well with my credit transfer. It has been really great taking courses outside of my discipline and my two French courses are helping me preserve the French skills I worked so hard to attain last semester. Also, you may remember the Tandem speaking program I did in France, where I spoke in 1-hour sessions with French speaking students - well, I was able to find a student here who was looking to do a similar language exchange, so we have been meeting 2-3 times per week to talk and help each other out. Her name is Camille, and she comes from Antibes, France and has been studying Marketing here for the past two years. So far, it is going really well and I am incredibly thankful to have the chance to speak French on a regular basis! 

In terms of academic clubs and associations, I am not nearly as busy as I was last year with campus involvement, but I am still a part of the Blog Project and the Knitting Club and have become a lot more involved with the Golden Key. I love my role as Webmaster and Newsletter Editor! We have also been busy planning events - we had a Happy Hour fundraiser last week where we raised almost $200 and we have a potluck with the Dean of Arts and Science coming up this weekend. We have a Linked In session tomorrow (my idea after the Business Bootcamp) and will be hosting a tea with the principal after reading week. We are really working hard to attain gold chapter status this year! You can check out our website (and read my bio) here : http://ubishops.goldenkey.org 

The Golden Key to My Heart Fundraiser

Winterfest: A few weekends after Bootcamp, the SRC put on our annual Winterfest, which was a whole weekend of fun activities. On the Thursday, there was an après-ski themed Happy Hour and a band that played later in the evening. Friday, there was a bus trip down to Jay Peaks, so Vicki and I went and spent the day on the slopes. It was an absolutely beautiful day for skiing and a great day to be outdoors! On the Saturday, the annual Rail Jam took place, which is when a large ski/board rail is set up in the Quad and there is a ski and boarding contest. Before we went down, we had some friends over for brunch and mimosas, an all around great way to start the day. We then spent the afternoon in the Quad, alternating between watching the rail jam and huddling under the outdoor heaters. One of the boys who lives across the street from us was snowboarding, so we cheered him on (Go Long Hair!) before heading out to watch our friends' hockey game. 

Chris Hadfield: On Tuesday, January 27th, Bishop's received a visit from Col. Chris Hadfield, as a part of our Donald Lecture Series. Bishop's graduate John Donald donates annually to enable speakers to be brought in for community lectures, and this year, the panel chose to bring in Hadfield. I was very fortunate that Elizabeth got a ticket for me to attend the lecture, though it was so popular that we were seating in the Gait, watching a live stream. What was neat though was that Hadfield came to the Gait before giving his lecture in Centennial to thank us all for coming and answer any questions we had. His talk was really great, but I must say that I would not want to be a younger sibling to him, as I would not want to be in his great big shadow! The man commanded the space station, speaks Russian, has written two books and can sing and play the guitar (which he demonstrated at the end). At the event, Principal Goldbloom announced that Mr. Donald has made a $3 million donation to fund the Donald Lecture Series into the future, so I cannot wait to find out who will be speaking at Bishop's next! 

Wenonah Dinner: Due to working at Disney, I did not get to spend much time at Camp Wenonah this summer, but it is always nice to have the chance to reconnect with members of the Camp family throughout the year. Bishop's now has 4 current Wenonah staff members on campus - myself and three guys, Gavin (4th year), Jared (4th year) and Chuck (1st year), so the 4 of us got together for dinner the last weekend in January. I was in charge of appetizers and vegetables and the boys made tacos and provided the wine. We had originally planned to go out, but this was a lot more fun (in my opinion). We talked about our roles next summer (myself as POLARIS Staff, Chuck as a counsellor, Jared as WCIT director and Gavin as Office Director), shared our insights on the upcoming season and all expressed our jealousy towards our boss who was touring New Zealand! It was a really great evening, and it was nice to have a little throwback to summer in the middle of winter, so I am hoping we have the chance to get together again before the end of the semester. And of course, we instagrammed a photo of us with the new hashtag #ItsASmallWenonahWorld!

Sports Centre Inauguration: On February 6th, the new John H. Price Sports Centre and Molson Arena were officially unveiled! I went down for the opening ceremony in the new arena, where Principal Goldbloom, the mayor, and a Federal Senator gave speeches and members of the Molson family took the first lap on the new rink. All of the Gaiter athletes were there, and many alumni and donors came up for the weekend for tours of the new facilities. After the ceremony, I tried out both the new gym and the arena and they are both really great! New equipment, more treadmills, new locker rooms, a warmer rink - there is even a food kiosk on the upper level! The facility is still under construction and we are still waiting on the pool to re-open but we are definitely moving in the right direction!

Fashion Show: On February 7th, we had our annual Fashion Show! Jocelyn, Hannah and I were the only ones in our house who went, but we met up with the other house of girls we spend most of our time with at the show. The Fashion Show is one of my favourite times of the year, mainly because it is our one chance to dress up and wear heels without looking out of place! We were fortunate the year that a friend let us store our belongings in her office in the SUB so we were able to wear sweatpants and boots to campus and then strip down before going into the show. I proudly wore the fur vest that my mom made and mailed to me, and I looked fantastic if I do say so myself. The show was a lot of fun, featuring brands from Hatley to Guess to local Eastern Township stores, and there was everything from pyjamas to bathing suits! For the first time this year, 2 shows were held - one for the community and one for students so I believe they raised over double what they have raised in the past, with all proceeds this year going to the Lennoxville Youth Centre. Following the show, we went to our friends' house for an "in-between party" before heading back to the Gait for the Fashion Show After Party. 

LCEEQ: Separate post about the conference I attended in Montreal coming soon! 

Ottawa: Last weekend, the History Association put on a trip to Ottawa, which I went on with my friend Vicki. I have always had the intention to visit the capital city during the school year but this was the first time in the past 2 and a half years that I have finally got around to doing it. The trip was full of interesting activities: On Friday, we visited the Canadian War Museum and the Department of External Affairs and then went out for dinner in Byward Market. Funny story -Vicki and I were walking around the market before dinner and walked by the restaurant Cacao 70, which I had visited in Montreal in first year and loved. We contemplated skipping the group dinner to eat there instead, but felt bad about bailing so returned. The next day, I found out that my stepbrother Trevor works there and had been working there that night! Oh well, I guess that means I will have to make another trip to Ottawa before he graduates/stops working there! Following dinner (not at Cacao 70), some of us went skating on the Rideau Canal, though it was so cold that we ended up stopping for beaver tails after about an hour. We then spent the night at the Ottawa Jail Hostel, a renovated prison in downtown. The hostel was really well themed: when we got our keys, we were told to go to our "cell" and the bar in the basement was called Mugshots. On Saturday, we had a tour of Parliament and got to see the House of Commons and the Senate. As well, in honour of Flag Day, the very first Canadian flag to every fly from the Peace Tower was on display. Following that, we walked around Parliament Hill and then went to the Diefenbaker, which was an underground bunker built as an emergency location for the government during the Cold War period. The Diefenbaker was the last stop on our trip before we boarded the bus back to Bishop's. 

Valentine's Day: Due to the Ottawa trip, I decided not to host my Red, White and Pink Party this year and instead opted to go on a date with my housemate Hannah. We had not made a reservation anywhere and took forever to decide where we wanted go, eventually deciding on Boston Pizza, mainly because I wanted a heart shaped pizza. I was really excited for our "date" because Hannah and I have not yet spent a lot of time together this semester, so we were both looking forward to catching up. The restaurant was not busy at all, so we were seated right away and placed our order to dinner. Much to my disappointment, when our pizza arrived it was NOT IN A HEART SHAPE! Apparently, they had "run out" of the heart shaped doughs. Luckily, the pizza was still delicious, so I got over my disappointment more or less. In true Valentine's fashion, we split a chocolate cake for dessert before coming home to play with Wiz and watch Valentine's Day. 

Jocelyn's Birthday: Finally, today (Tuesday) was Jocelyn's 21st birthday! Her boyfriend originally wanted her to sleep over at his place, but I was not in favour of that because it prevented me from my tradition of jumping into Jocelyn's bed the morning of her birthday. Nothing will ever top first year when I returned from my early morning run and surprised Jocelyn with her wake up, but nonetheless, this morning my alarm went off at 7:50 so I could sing to her before she left for class. I didn't see her much during the day, but I gave her her present in the evening - a fun tank top, a bag of Doritos, a bottle of wine and a Bachelor Drinking Game (which we intend to play this weekend before her birthday party). As I write this, Jocelyn and Hannah are in the USA, as Hannah's gift to Joce was taking her to get her first legal beer across the border. Unfortunately, Elizabeth and I were not old enough to participate in the festivities. Oh well, we will celebrate this weekend at the Hat Party! 

So there you have it folks, a quick recap of what I have been up to over the past month! Unfortunately, I was not able to get describe each and every detail to you and I probably forgot a few things so if I remember them in the future I will add them in! Oh - one exciting announcement is that i received a $1000 bursary for participating in exchange last semester! Add that to the scholarships I won last year and I'd say I did pretty well for myself these past few months. In just over a week from now, it will finally be my reading week, for which Vicki and I will be heading to Buffalo for my sister's cheerleading competition and then going up to my grandma's condo in Collingwood to ski for a few days. I will finish the week in Kingston with a visit to Queen's before returning to Bishop's for just over a month of school. During this time, I hope to be blogging more frequently, the first of which being a post on the amazing conference I attended last week! Stay tuned for that soon!

As for now, I need to get some sleep! Until next time! Thanks for reading!

All my love, 

Erica xoxoxoxoxo 

Oh, and I met Justin Trudeau!