March Madness: BU Edition

Hello everyone - Happy April and Happy Good Friday! Today's post comes to you from every basic white girls favourite place - Starbucks Café. Since we all mourned a little the day the Sherbrooke Starbucks shut down, this therefore means that I am no longer in Lennoxville and have had to get my latte fix elsewhere, which today is taking place at the newest Starbucks in Ancaster (where my sister's best friend is currently working). I originally planned to come here to work, as I have several final projects to finish up before the end of the semester, but my solo study date turned into coffee with my mom, writing one paper and now this! So without further adieu, here is a little update of my "exciting" life. 

It is incredible how fast March went by! I mean, it feels like just yesterday I was home for Reading Week but that was already three weeks ago. And in two weeks from now, I will officially be done third year. I really don't know if I am ready for that yet. And I am definitely not ready to come to terms with the fact that I only have one year left living with my housemates. Speaking of my housemates, the weekend after St. Patrick's Day, we welcomed the St. FX debate team to the newly established Hotel WP for the U4 Up for Debate event. We had three guests, Paul, Ryley and Hannah who stayed with us Friday and Saturday night. Here is a little recap of the weekend:

Volunteering at the Open House with Hannah the Gaiter! 

Gaby achieving her dream of driving the campus golf cart! Thanks for the ride! 

The team arrived Friday night and we all went to a dinner in the Cleghorn room as an opening to the weekend events. Following the dinner, there was the Presidents Debate, in which there were three rounds of debate, one of which featured our principal Michael Goldbloom and CBC report Ian Hanomansing. Ian is a Mount Allison alumni, which is one of the U4 schools, and his son is in first year at BU. The debates were hilarious and a great kick-off to the weekend. Following that, we went to the first annual BU Bowling Open, put on by the Bowling Club. It was a huge success! There were 8 teams of 5 who registered and came out to play. My team was myself, Jocelyn, and three of our guy friends. Unofficially, I named our team "Started from the Bottom" because we were definitely the underdogs going in but ended up placing second, missing first by only 4 points! I think we all had the best bowling rounds of our lives. 

Saturday, our billets had their debate tournament and we met up with them to watch the U4 Symposium, a series of Tedx-inspired talks, featuring professors and students from the U4 universities. The Bishop's prof talked about the new beer brewing lab opening up on campus, which should be opening in the near future. Following the symposium, there was another dinner in the Cleghorn room and this time, each table had to come up with a potential initiative for the U4 league. My table definitely had the best idea, which was that we should set up live streaming for guest lectures that happen on our campuses, such as when Chris Hadfield came. Other suggestions included inter-university exchanges for students and profs, and team-taught online courses. Following dinner, there was an event called Front Page Challenge, modelled after an old tv show. There was a panel of experts who had to guess a series of mystery guests through asking yes or no questions. Mystery guests included Hubert Lacroix (CBC President and Ian Hanomansing's boss) and Leader of the Opposition Thomas Mulcair. Following the event, we took our billets out for the true BU student nightlife experience: we started with a party at our house, drinks at the Lion, a friend's birthday party, a quick stop at Mullies and then dancing at the Gait. The only thing missing was a trip through the McDonalds Drive-Thru! 

Happy 21st Birthday Robert! 

We said goodbye to our billets Sunday morning, after a very difficult time getting out of bed and a Dewies breakfast. Our one billet had bought two large cases of beer, so I offered to carry one to the bus for him. Who do we encounter as we are approaching the bus? None other than our principal, who just looked at me, laughed and asked if we had shown our billets "a good time." Yes, Mr. Goldbloom, we definitely did. After that it was back to bed, a bit of homework and then time for skating!

The following week was Research Week at BU. I had never really participated in it before, but decided to change that this year, as I definitely see myself doing academic research in the future. I took part in the research scavenger hunt: for this, Monday morning I received a list of clues that related to all  different research being done by profs on campus and had until Thursday morning to answer them, for the chance of winning $200. Monday there was an opening reception in the library, and the grand opening of the new BU Repository. Tuesday, I went to a series of flash talks over my lunch break, in which profs who are doing research on education and pedagogy discussed their initiatives. This was probably my favourite activity. One prof talked about a course on disability in society in which students are paired up with a buddy with a disability in order to better understand their lives and experiences. I talked to her later and she gave me permission to take it in the fall! Another prof talked about creating a new course for pre-service elementary teachers that talks about incorporating movement into math education, which sounds really interesting. And another one talked about Universal Design in the university classroom, a way of making classroom learning more interactional. That night, I went to Research Idol, in which students had 5 minutes to discuss their research work. A biology student was the overall winner. Following that, Vicki and I went to Trivia Night for the first time, which was a lot of fun. Our friends Olivia and Rob were hosting and it was BU themed. We played 6 rounds of 10 questions and our team won the "Where was this photo taken?" round. 

Supporting the Grad Appreciation Week memory board at Trivia Night!

Wednesday, there was a student poster competition. My friends Kevin, Elizabeth and Matthew all had posters in the contest, so I stopped by to support them and check out the other posters. That night, I went to the synchro team soirée at coach Julie's house for a group discussion about the dress for next season. We are skating to the soundtrack from the Hunger Games, so spent the night looking at pictures of the different costumes Katniss wears and coming up with a design for the dress. Once we had some ideas, we skyped the dressmaker currently on vacation in Mexico. It looks like the dress will be black, grey, orange and gold, most likely sleeveless, with a Mockingjay pin on the chest. Further details to come. 

Thursday, there was a closing reception for Research Week, at which the winners of the poster competition and scavenger hunt were announced. Sadly, neither I nor Elizabeth won, but the food and wine spread was worth going for, despite the loss. My prof from second year, Dr. Haigh, won the Emerging Scholar Award, awarded to a professor who has been at BU for less than 5 years and is making great research progress. She is on maternity leave this semester, as she just had a baby boy in February, who was in attendance at the ceremony. Congratulations to the winners of all the different honours during Research Week 2015!

Thursday night was games night at 27 William Paige. We played Heads Up, Scattegories, Bananagrams and then returned to Heads Up - a truly wild night chez nous. If you have never played Heads Up, I highly recommend you do, as it has become a favourite for Elizabeth, Hannah and me. We recommend the Adult Supervision and Bad Behaviour decks, though we also recommend not playing them in your living room where your neighbours can see in the window. I went over to a friend's place later that night and we watched Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay - my first time seeing the movie in English!

Friday I left to go to Montreal for the weekend, a trip I had been planning since before reading week. It worked out perfectly that I was going to be able to see both Natasha, my best friend from high school and Anne, my roommate from my summer in Disney. I met up with Natasha upon arrival, and the first thing she recommended we do was go to Starbucks to celebrate the 20th birthday of the frappucino - she knows me so well! After that we went back to her swanky apartment, which is right downtown by the McGill campus. After catching up, we went out to dinner to a Mexican vegetarian restaurant, Lola Rosa. We shared the nachos and each had a hemp burger, which was surprisingly delicious. The restaurant was very small and intimate, and the cutest part was that there were drawers in the table in which previous diners had left little notes. We found a cootie catcher in our table aka a solid ten minutes of entertainment! We of course had to leave our own little note, which we wrote on the back of a package of gum!

After dinner, we went back to Natasha's apartment, where we drank wine and watched Pitch Perfect, and her friend Yasmina came to join us. We then went out on the town, which led to a series of events. We got to the first bar,  but I had forgotten my ID so we had to go back home and get it. Then, when we got back and got to the front of the line, you needed a reservation to get in. The next bar we tried was having a private event and the third one had a $10 cover. We then took a cab to a bar called Baldwin's, where we got a few drinks and socialised for bit. We then went back to the first bar, but reservations were still required so ended up going for $2 chow mien before calling it a night. Going out in Montreal really makes me appreciate Lennoxville, where drinks are no more than $5 and cabs are not required. Nonetheless, it was worth every penny to have a great night with Natasha in the city!

Saturday was a lazy day, and we hung out at Natasha's apartment before my friend Anne came to pick me up. Anne, her dad and I went to Costco (holla free samples) and then to their home, which is in St. Bruno, a suburb of Montreal. Her house was beautiful, and her family was so welcoming - I almost felt like I was back home with my family. She took me for a drive around town and we went to Second Cup for lattés, before heading home to make dinner. After dinner, two of her friends from her Cegep cheerleading team came over for drinks and then we all went downtown to a McGill Faculty of Education fundraiser. One of her sister's friends was our designated driver for the evening, which was a huge help. We went to a bar called Café Campus and had our own private section called Petit Campus for the fundraiser. After some sangria and dancing, we went to La Belle Provence for poutine before heading back to Saint Bruno and heading to bed. 

After a great breakfast with Anne's family Sunday morning, I caught a ride back to school and was home in time to go to the last synchro tryout for the season. At practice, two things happened. One, we had an evaluation, for which the two coaches watched us perform a solo footwork pattern and an exercise in lines and then gave us feedback on our performance. Two, the coach for the intermediate team was there and asked me if I was interested in trying out for the team. Unfortunately, I had to decline as I do not have the time nor the money to commit to competitive skating again, but it was a huge compliment to be asked. Regardless, I am really looking forward to skating with the team next year and cannot wait to be a part of the synchro world again!

Monday, I met up with Camille and went to knitting club, two of my favourite parts of any week. Tuesday, Elizabeth, Jocelyn and I went to a free yoga session in the campus art gallery. It was so relaxing I feel asleep during the final exercise...oops. Wednesday, I went to the final soirée at coach Julie's house, this time to discuss the music. It was a lot of fun to listen to all the different versions of songs from the movies and it was the first time I have ever been able to give an opinion on the music we skate to. The music will be cut and arranged sometime in June and ready to go for the start of the season in August. 

Thursday was the second day of the Sodexo Serve-athon, a campaign put on by the campus food provider to collect for the local food bank. For three cans each, we were able to have breakfast at Dewies. Three Dewies meals in one month - it's like I'm back in first year! Jocelyn and I both took advantage of the newly-added breakfast crepe bar (see pictures below). Delicious! I left for Montreal as soon as my classes finished for the day and got a ride to Ancaster with my friend's dad - so much better than the bus! 

So that sums up the second half of my month of March, which I have to admit was wonderful. April got off to a pretty great start, with my friend Elena winning tickets for us to the World Synchronized Skating Championships in Hamilton next weekend - thank you Hamilton Spectator! I will be traveling with the synchro team on their bus to come home again next weekend to cheer on the two Canadian teams, including some former teammates. My former coach Jennifer Beauchanp-Critchon was named Athlete Ambassador for the competition, so hopefully I will be able to say hello to her in between all of her job demands! I am home for Easter with my family this weekend, home again next weekend for the competition and then finish up exams the following weekend! Before I know it, I will be heading up to Clear Lake for the summer! So much to do, so little time! 

Have a great Easter weekend everyone! And happy first night of Passover! Eat some mini eggs!

All my love, 

Erica xoxoxoxo

PS Happy 19th Birthday to my twin cousins Jaye and Claire! Xx