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!