One Month Down, 19 More to Go!

Holy heck.  This is the time when I give myself a big swift “I told you so!”  Remember how at the beginning of Sept, I was whining that they were just doing one big long winded orientation and how I wanted to get into the swing of things?  Well, I’m missing the days of orientation right now.  So how has school been?  Busy, very very busy!  And it doesn’t help that I’m recovering from a cold I got 2 weeks ago.  Stupid colds, even when they come at a convenient time, they’re never convenient.  I guess I should count my lucky stars that my cold came right before a 4 day weekend (they gave us the 22nd and 23rd off for “reading days.”)  I had the best of intentions to get everything I needed to done for that week, plus get ahead.  Well, I was just able to get what I needed to done.  Forget getting ahead though.  Add to that the fact that I started working that weekend too, there was no way I was going to get ahead.

Oh, right.  Did I mention I got a job?  I came out here with the intention of focusing on school and only school, but I kinda was offered the ideal job working right here at my residence.  The job is receptionist/security.  And for those of you who are thinking that it’s hard to imagine me with a baton chasing thugs away, no, it’s not THAT kind of security.  (Or maybe you COULD picture me with a baton?)  Basically I hang out and make sure no one is doing anything they shouldn’t, and then lock up at the end of the day.  Mostly, it involves me being cheery to people, all the while studying.  I don’t have to work too many shifts, and it’s an extra $10.25/hr in my pocket that I wasn’t getting before.  Which I’m hoping will be enough to get me home for Christmas.  Well, maybe I’m being unrealistic there.  I’m hoping it’s enough spending money for the occasional treat once in a blue moon.  (Though I do still plan to come home for Christmas, hopefully.)

And onto more exciting news (not that me being sick and getting a job is boring… What do you mean it’s boring?  Sheesh, tough crowd) I started my first real day of clinical today!  Until the end of the month, I’ll be in the maternity ward, including postpartum care, neonatal ICU, and labor and delivery (and we’re told the chances of seeing a vaginal birth or caesarean section are pretty good!  I’m so excited!!).  Today I spent my first day in postpartum care, helping my nurse preceptor take care of 5 different patients, mothers and babies.  Well… I guess I didn’t really help THAT much… mostly I followed her around and asked questions, all the while trying to absorb every little bit of information that I could.  And all the while realizing how much information I had yet to learn.  Though I suppose I shouldn’t beat myself up too much if it turns out I don’t know everything.  One thing I learned today is that doctors, nurses, and generally speaking, no one, has all the answers.  Wait a minute, that sounds like one of those obvious little tidbits of life.  What I mean is that, things you would think certain professions should know, they actually don’t know. 

Anyway, enough about what I DIDN’T learn, here’s some really cool things I DID learn:  I learned that, the best practices that we are taught in class actually aren’t always possible.  For instance, you try counting a baby’s respirations for a full minute after you have unswaddled them and they are now mad at you and fidgeting.  It turns out it’s easier to do it with your stethoscope while you are assessing their pulse.  They seem not to mind their stethoscope.  Watching their little covered bellies move up and down for breath isn’t so easy.

I also learned that, while we all should be performing hand hygiene before entering and leaving a room (among other times), it’s not really possible when you have a baby in your hands.  “Sorry ma’am, I didn’t want to get your baby sick, so I went to get some hand sanitizer with your baby in my arms, and I accidentally dropped it while I was nicely rubbing the sanitizer into my palms.  But don’t worry, your baby’s fontanels are still soft and moveable, so that little dent in their skull should resolve itself in time.”  Mothers are feisty. I have every belief that they could all kick my ass.  I’m told that child birth is the most difficult thing that most women will ever do in their lives.  Hey mothers out there, is that true?
 
Possibly the coolest thing I did today was give a baby its first bath :-)  Oh, come on!  You know that’s cool!!  Anyway, I guess it’s not quite as hard as I thought it would be.  For some reason, the thought of holding slippery babies right after birth with wet gloves didn’t bode well with me.  But there are ways to hold them that makes it pretty tough for them to slip out of your hands.  I’m just not entirely sure I’ve got those ways entirely figured out yet.  I did, however, manage to get my baby clean.  (Wait a minute, not MY baby, but someone else’s baby who I now am calling my own.  I think working with babies does that to me.)  I guess I had it easy though.  My baby was pretty clean to start with, and he took his first bath rather well.

There was one not so happy thing I experienced, but I think it was a tremendous learning experience.  I saw how the system doesn’t always work.  My nurse preceptor had a patient who was 3 days post c section.  Last night, she was visiting her baby in the NICU when she felt pain and lightheaded.  She was escorted back to her room, where the pain continued to grow, and her blood pressure continued to rise.  By this morning, she couldn’t be touched, she was in tears, and her BP was through the roof.  This woman clearly had something wrong with her beyond post-operative gas and she needed something done.  Knowing that the doctor was to be in soon, my preceptor and I let the nurses on the ward know to watch for the doctor because we needed to speak with him about our patient.  We left to continue our rounds, and maybe 20 mins later when we returned to the nurses’ station, we found out the doctor had come and gone, and yes, he was told that we wanted to talk with him, but evidently he never made the effort, because we had seen neither hide nor hair of him.  We went to talk to the patient to find out what the doctor had told her.  According to her, he said, “We wont discharge you until you’re comfortable.”  Really.  That’s it.  How the heck does that actually help anyone?  He had left us no instructions for how to help this lady.  It took 2 phone calls to the doctor to get anything done.  The first, he told us to increase her BP meds.  Thankfully, during the second, he agreed that maybe we should do some tests to try and figure out what this is.  I hope to inquire about her progress tomorrow.  It’s unlikely that I will be with her again, as we will be changing nurse preceptors.   But it just goes to show the lack of communication there often is between healthcare professionals.  Ironic that I started my Interprofessional Education today (a program designed to make sure these things don’t happen and that healthcare professionals work together to better patient health).

With both the good and the bad in mind, I still had an amazing time today :-) But enough for now.  I have to get around to studying for my first midterm and my third quiz which I have next week.  And the week after that doesn’t look any better, with another quiz, a midterm, a paper, and a presentation… Damn.  Remind me, why do we put ourselves through school again?  Oh, right.  So we can find a career we will be happy in for the rest of our lives.  As tough as this is (no, really.  I’ve been spoiled these last few years by allowing myself to sleep 8 hours most nights and earning money I could spend on whatever hobbies I like.  Apparently I had forgotten how all-encompassing school is.)  this is an investment which will benefit me for the rest of my life.  The more I learn about nursing as a career, the more I think I really made the right choice for myself.  Anyway, it’s back to the books for me.

Happy almost-turkey day everyone!

The First Week of Classes

Well, that was fun.  I’m now starting to get a sense of the work load I should be expecting over the next several months.  While I will be busy, I don’t think it’ll be as intimidating as some people make it out to be.  So what fun and exciting things did I do this week?  Well, I had class Mon – Fri, so don’t expect any tales of my wonderful adventures exploring this great vast city of Toronto.  Instead, you’ll get an internal monologue of the cool and not so cool things I’ve learned.  

I’ve technically only got 3 classes this semester, but their 3 fairly busy classes.  One of them is an introduction to the basic skills nurses must have (i.e basic hygiene, assessing vital signs, wound care, respiratory care and all those basic but fundamental skills).  We had our first lab for that class where we got to practice properly washing our hands, where I am proud to say, I did a thorough job (yay me).  We then learned a few aseptic techniques, like donning sterile gloves, and preparing an aseptic field.  And the good news there, I only dropped my tweezers on the floor once.  And I’m sure the thought has popped into someone’s mind, so I’m going to address it here:  No, the 5 second rule does NOT apply when dealing with sterile fields, or anything that’s supposed to be sterile, for that matter.  Oh, and in my defense, though I might have been the first person to drop my tweezers, I wasn’t the last.  

My other class addresses all that fluffy emotional interpersonal skills stuff that nurses must have.  It looks like it’ll deal with all the ethical stuff centered around nursing.  Sadly, I’ve already taken two different health care philosophy courses, one specifically was for nurses.  While the obvious reaction would be “hurrah, I should ace this course with very little work,” I’m still going to have to do all the readings and all the essays.  How annoying.  I should have taken something more fun in my undergrad.  Oh well…

My final class is on child bearing, then later on will switch to geriatrics.  And guess what, I get to start my clinical in the maternity ward in less than 2 weeks!  Fingers crossed, I’m really hoping to see a vaginal birth.  If I have to, I’ll settle for a caesarian section.  As long as I get to see one or the other, I’ll be happy.  But more on that when and if it actually happens.  A lot of people seem most excited about being on the maternity ward; I must admit, I’m equally excited to work in geriatrics.  The down side of clinical: I’m commuting to North York General, about a 45 min public transit excursion away.  I guess this means I’ll be getting up early for my 7 AM clinicals… thank God there’s a Starbucks on the way.  Anyway, I can’t complain about a class that let us watch Monty Python and used it as a valid argument on what the labor and delivery process used to be like (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcHdF1eHhgc). 

Okay, so I suppose it wasn’t an overall intense first week.  We seemed to be very gently eased into the content we need to learn.  But I will say that the multitude of readings I’ve had to do for all 3 courses was intense.  Some of the articles were interesting and seemed useful, others had me considering jabbing a needle in my eye to try to stay awake.    What could possibly be so painful you might ask?  Well, imagine a 20 page article on the what constitutes “private time” and “public time.”  And the lesson from that article: Don’t call people at 3 AM, unless it’s an emergency…  I guess the good news about having to read that article is that I hated it so much, I seem to remember it well.  Go figure.  But I wont dwell on that particular article, because there really were a couple interesting articles I had to read.

All in all, things are going well.  I’m still terribly annoyed by my internet situation though.  I suppose I should elaborate that I did finally get internet in my dorm, however it’s through the UofT, which only allows you to download/upload 2G per week.  2G!!!!  WTF!!  That’s barely enough for me to get my school work done :-S  Let alone the fact that, half of the reason I bought a laptop was so that I could continue to have a life by staying current on my favorite TV shows and using Skype, Facebook, Twitter, and all of that to stay in touch with people.  One might just say I should go and get my own internet, but as it turns out, as far as internet is concerned, Ontario is like living in a 3rd world country.  They have tiered internet, so if you want unlimited high speed internet, you pay an arm and a leg.  Most people have to settle with the slower version.  They might as well just go back to dial up :-(  I’m ranting because I used up my 2G for this week while I was in the middle of Skyping with my sister when my internet cut out.  Plus because it’s crappy quality, the image keeps cutting in and out.  If ever there was any doubt about whether I should return to BC after getting my RN, thanks to the internet here, that doubt is gone.

Goodbye Last Weekend Ever...

I suspect that’s a wrap for my unlimited freedom in Toronto.  As of tomorrow school starts!  Yay!  (Oh, I know I sound too enthusiastic for my own good.  I’m certain I’ll be looking back at this in a few weeks and shaking my head.)  But I had such a nice weekend, that I suppose it’s only fair I get back to the books.

Yesterday, Chandra and I checked out the distillery.  You’re probably wondering why on earth I would want to spend my day at a distillery.  (Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not a drunkard.  Or at least not usually.)  Let me just clarify that, while they do still brew alcohol in parts of the area (or at least I think they do), that’s not really what it is.  The distillery is a charming arts and crafts community centered in a 200 year old area, which started off as a distillery.  The buildings are old and boarded up in areas, but most of it is filled with really cute little shops.  I was extremely conflicted.  As a tourist and someone who appreciates art and handmade crafts and clothes, my mind was yelling, “Buy buy buy!!”  As a student who is now in debt to the government, the conservative part of my mind was yelling “Resist… unless you really need it!”  Which part of me won?  Both, I suppose.  I ended up buying a really cute bracelet, which I didn’t really need but it was too cute to pass up, and a button up scarf which I will need for winter.  (I was a little perplexed when I saw them, but they’re really quite adorable. I think they might be a Toronto thing, but when you see them, you’ll realize how awesome they are.)

There was some very impressive art there too.  If I had a place of my own, I would probably go crazy decorating the walls with art.  But of all the wonderful, gorgeous art that was there, I must give a nod to Cube Works.  (check them out at www.cubeworks.ca I also hope to have pictures up on FB soon).  All of their portraits were made with rubix cubes.  I can’t even solve a rubix cube, let alone configure a bunch of them in a pattern to actually resemble anything.  Can I just say to all my artsy friends, if you ever come to Toronto, you MUST go see the distillery!  It’s maybe a 20 min walk from Union station, so make time for it.  And to top off my time at the distillery, I tried black poppy seed (goma) sake ice cream.  It looked like sand, and it didn’t taste much better either.  But hey, now I can say I tried black poppy seed sake ice cream.  I bet none of you can say that :-P

Today was a little more relaxed.  As far as outings are concerned, Silvey, Chandra and I made sure to get out for a quick respite at the mall before this busy week starts. There we went to the Indigo, where we seemed to have difficulty NOT fixing all the books they had out of order.  And from there it was to the movies, where we caught an afternoon showing of “The Debt.”  (Good movie, btw.)  And on my way back to my dorm afterwards, I made the most amazing discovery.  I’ve been told that The Robards Library is shaped like a peacock, but every time I’ve approached it from the south side, I didn’t see what the heck they were talking about (I was starting to think it was some sort of obscure thing in the blueprint that wasn’t obvious to the naked eye.)  Well, as I was walking back from the movie, I approached the library from the north end and guess what, the Robards Library really DOES look like a peacock… Who on earth would pick a peacock to base the layout of their building on???  That’s just the most random thing… Unless it was unintentional.  In which case, that is the most bizarre fluke ever.  Note to self:  find out why they chose a peacock.

Other than that, my day has been spent preparing for tomorrow.  So, am I prepared?  Well, I’ve looked over all the messages that have been posted on Blackboard (for you TRU people, it’s basically the same thing as WebCT) and I know what I need to be ready for class tomorrow.  The trouble is, one of my teachers has asked that we have the course outline printed up, and try as I might, I can’t seem to find the bloody thing anywhere.  The closest I’ve found is a message that says the final version will be posted tomorrow morning.  Do you have any idea how annoying that is???  If you want me to bring something to class, post the darn thing!  (Or, it is always possible that it’s there and I just can’t find it, in which case, oops.)  But I’m going to be the good student, and wake up at the crack of dawn tomorrow so that I can walk to the library down the street before class and try to find it one last time.  If it’s not there, well, it’s just the course outline, how far behind can I get if I haven’t read over it before hand.  (I hope those don’t end up being my famous last words.)

Orientation Week

As it turned out, Wednesday’s orientation wasn’t all that exciting.  That’s not to say that I didn’t get anything out of it or didn’t enjoy it.  I think I’m just frothing at the bit and eager to start learning.  I’m even going to go as far as to say that I’m almost bored at times.  Wait a minute, I said *almost*!  I’d better make plans for this weekend though, or I might be changing my tune.  In a couple of weeks when I’m bogged down with work, you can all remind me of this and I’ll give myself a swift smack upside the head... Now where was I? Oh right, the mandatory faculty orientation…

It was great to finally get a chance to meet the people in my program.  Looking around, I would guess that there’s maybe about 150 people, give or take.  I imagine that might shrink soon if you take into consideration that people do tend to drop out.  Everyone I met seemed really nice.  I wish I could tell you’ve I’ve made lots of new bestest friends, but really, I barely even remember anyone’s name yet.  (Does that make me a horrible person?)  It was pleasant, but with no one knowing anyone at that point, conversation was limited to “Hi, this is my name, my educational history, and where I’m from.”   And that reminds me that I wanted to take a moment to thank my Cellular Molecular Microbial Biology degree for sounding so impressive.  I got a lot of ooohs and aaaahs from the crowd.  So raise your glasses to my CMMB degree.  Here’s to you for making me sound far smarter than I really am!  On top of that, people also seemed fairly impressed that I had traveled so far.  Nothing like being a foreigner with a fancy degree to make a girl feel special! 

In the dining hall, we mingled, we ate, and we got to check out stations about various clubs and organizations.  I would like to thank the Student Union station for baiting me with lots of free stuff.  Not only did I get a free planner, deck of cards, pens (thankfully, because as it turns out, all the blue pens I brought with me were OLD >:( and USELESS.  Arggg!!!), and free tickets to the art museum (hurrah!) but as it turns out, the information they had to offer was useful too, and I learned about some of the great things my tuition is going towards, like getting me even MORE FREE STUFF.

After that came afternoon lectures.  But considering that they fed us and gave us coffee, no one seemed to mind.  I would like to say they gave me study material so that I could get ahead of the game, but they didn’t.  Just a really general program outline and a little bit about what to expect from the fall semester.  Then there were a bunch more lectures on services provided to students to keep us happy, healthy, and non-suicidal.  As you can see, it was a fairly uneventful orientation.  The most amusing thing was watching the organizers struggling with the fact that they were running ahead and were trying to shuffle people around while getting guest speakers who hadn’t arrived to get there right away.  There were a couple people who walked in with beads of sweat on their brow because they ran from the other end of campus.  After that, we broke out into smaller groups for lunch where we were able to talk in a more one on one environment.

Anyway, I’m even boring myself talking about it.  So let’s skip a head to Thurs, when I ACTUALLY got to learn something.  What exciting things did we learn on Thurs you wonder?  Well, I got my fitted for my N95 respirator.  So now if there should be any outbreaks, I can keep myself safe and keep the germs contained to the hospital.  I also learned how to properly wash my hands!  (I also learned that 70% of people DONT wash their hands.  Eww… Okay, which one of you isn’t washing your hands?  Really, that’s just gross.  Do you have any idea how disgusting that is? … but that percentage seems a little high to me.  Maybe these are just Ontario statistics.  In which case, what the hell 3rd world country have I moved to?)  And as a demonstration of how starved I am of school, right afterwards I came back to my dorm and wrote out the notes for it.  I hope it’s going to be on a test… I think I might be able to pass this one. 

But hold on, because Thursday got even cooler yet!  I got my stethoscope!  And guess what the first thing was that I did with it… Yup, I listened to my heart and lungs!  I also tried to see if I could hear my stomach, but no such luck on that one.  A CD of normal and abnormal heart and lung sounds came with my stethoscope, so I spent a significant amount of time listening to those too.  That’s not to say that I really know why fourth heart sounds are bad, or what mitral stenosis really is (though I think I have a bit of an idea about both of them.  I’m sure if I had easy access to the internet that would be different, but I won’t get myself started.  Hopefully everything will be set up in my dorm by Monday.) 

I bet you think that’s as good as Thursday could possibly have gotten, but wait, there’s more.  The UofT bookstore had a sale and I bought my first ever official UofT hoodie and long sleeve shirt.  You know what this means right?  Now I HAVE to pass my courses.  It would be terribly shameful if I bought the hoodie and then flunked out of UofT.  Then to top it all off, I would have the hoodie to remind me of it all.  So I guess the pressure is on now!

I guess I could say that yesterday’s student orientation topped off the week.  While I didn’t really learn much during that one either, that one was at least fun!  Though I am rather glad I wore my running shoes, because we did end up doing a lot of running.  What did we do, you ask?  Well, we started off the fun with a good old fashioned scavenger hunt across campus.  We got to play with IV’s, name medical equipment we’ve never seen before, find a book in the library (which might have been easier if the book was actually there), change a diaper on an adult (guess who ended up donning the diaper and playing the patient.  Yup, yours truly, and to prove it, there’s someone out there with a picture of it) and name all the parts of the circulatory system blood travels through, starting from the vena cava.  Thankfully, I remembered my anatomy courses well for that last one.  Then we ran back to the nursing building and actually managed to squeeze into third place (out of 10 groups).  But that wasn’t the end of the fun, after lunch, we had outdoor activities.  That was our final chance to earn more points and take the lead.  As it turns out, after a game of ultimate Frisbee, soccer baseball, a rally and a poster competition, we dropped from third.  Oh well, no pizza party for us.

And to end my week off, I attended my first ever baseball game.  We lost.  Whatever. It was fun.  Plus there is something to be said about those pants they wear… yum… Sorry, I swear I’ll keep it G rated from here on out.

So I guess this is it.  I’m now entering my very last ever weekend of freedom and I’m damn well going to enjoy it.  Laura, over and out.

My First Weekend in Toronto

Greetings from Toronto!

As you all can tell, I made it here alright.  The flight went well, even though it was a red eye and I barely had an opportunity to get any sleep.  The bright side of not sleeping is that I got halfway through Frankenstein.  (If you’re asking me, “Why, of all books, would you read Frankenstein?” It’s because I had previously read “This Dark Endeavour” and it was awesome… but look at me!  It seems I’m having difficulty leaving the bookworm part of me behind.)  I also had plenty of time to wonder how effective an airplane emergency exit is if it’s located right next to the propeller. 

Regardless, I arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed early Saturday morning at my dorm at Knox College.  How is my dorm?  It’s large and luxurious… I hope I didn’t actually fool anyone with that statement.  A more apt description is small and cozy, but really people!  It’s a dorm! What do you expect?  It’s clean, has a bed, desk, 2 small bookshelves, and a closet.  It’s all I need for the next two years.  Well, I do need to add something to my room to give it that “Laura Flair,” but I’m not sure what yet, and quite frankly, even if I did know what, I’m too damn broke to be able to afford it.  But I guess that’s the curse we students must bare.  I have access to a cafeteria with an all-you-can-eat-plan and if you’re worried that means that the food is crap, fear not, it’s delicious.  I’ve already dined on salad, fruit pizza, hotdogs, and various other snacks and desserts.  (Notice how I mentioned the healthy stuff first?)  As far as location goes, I’m a whopping 5 mins to my classes in one direction, and 5 mins to food in the other.  All other amenities, like library and transit and coffee, are also within a short walk.  So far, so good I think! ...  Except for the fact that I can’t seem to get the internet yet >:-( That’s a work in progress which I’m hoping will be fixed in a day or so.  Otherwise, I’ll have to wait for my dorm to get it next week.  Forget the jet lag – I’m dealing with that fairly well – it’s this stupid internet lag that is causing me grief.  Stupid internet and my reliance on it.  I hope nothing too exciting is happening in the world that I’m completely missing out of :-S  If the apocalypse happens, someone will have to phone me to inform me about it.

And the university itself?  It’s got a character all of its own.  First of all, it’s huge.  It took me around an hour and a half, if not longer, walking at a brisk pace yesterday to lap the perimeter of campus. Fortunately for me, I don’t really need to be at the one end, so everything I need is close at hand.  And the buildings are an intriguing combination of architectural accomplishments mixed in with historic buildings from all eras in Canadian history.  It’s a little baffling in some regards because, for instance, there’s one block that has a really old church on the corner, and then directly behind it is a modern high rise.  Hell, my street is another example.  I live in a gorgeous old building, and right across the street is the chemistry lab, and believe me, they aren’t in an old dingy building.  Right now I’m in the ever so impressive Robarts Library (impressive, except for the fact that I can’t get internet here either right now.  As Charlie Brown so put it: good grief), and once again, across the street are some gorgeous old buildings, one of which looks like a cute Victorian house.  Plus, I should also give a nod to Queen’s Park right smack dab in the middle of it all.  In other words, it’s a visually diverse university.  (Maybe I should take up jogging in the park . . .)

University life is in full bloom already.  Ever since I arrived, I’ve encountered people dressed in purple coveralls with every exposed inch of skin painted purple.  I believe they are engineering students. But don’t worry, there wont be a shortage of purple paint because it’s not all the engineers that are in purple, just the ones leading the festivities.  I know this because they’ve ever so conveniently got “I am your leedur” on the back of their coveralls.  Though I can’t help but notice how, even though the purple people are everywhere, there seems to be a complete absence of purple people eaters.  Obviously the ecologists didn’t have any part in these festivities.  Regardless, I do highly enjoy their gatherings on the street corners.  I was amused when a hippo bus drove by and they got it to honk for them.  (Tee hee.)  There also seems to be a lot of cheering and singing and chanting going on outside my window at almost any time of the day.  Don’t these people know this is the end of freedom as we know it and the beginning of life as a student?  You know what else is a word that starts with “S?” Slave. 

Actually, contrary to what you might think after that last statement, I’m really looking forward to school.  Provided I don’t flunk out or realize I’ve made a horrible career decision – which I don’t think either are a concern… probably – this is the beginning of life WITH A CAREER!  Careers are good.  I’ll have money to do stuff, like go up the CN Tower at full price.  Plus I was starting to feel the itch that change was required and it was time to move on in life.  So not only am I excited for this next stage of things, but it’s something that NEEDS to happen.

Anyway, since this is my first and last (for a while anyway) weekend of freedom in Toronto, I wasn’t going to spend it all unpacking and thinking about school.  Saturday, after hastily unpacking and setting my room in a generally satisfying fashion, I met up with Chandra in the afternoon.  We were both famished by the time we met up, and decided lunch was priority.  Fortunately, Chandra has been here a few weeks and knew of a super cute and busy little Chinese restaurant nearby called Mother’s Dumplings (or I think that’s what it’s called… I can’t use the internet to check.  Grrr).  We paid next to nothing, and yet got so much food I had two meals afterwards, which was quite convenient because the cafeteria which serves me didn’t open until Sun night.  After that, we met up with Silvey and made our first attempt to go up the CN tower.  Our attempt failed because we didn’t get there until 8:30 and realized it would take at least an hour and a half to see it, plus there was a lengthy line up.  Safety first made us consider doing it on Sunday when we could get there as early as possible, and afterwards see everyone home safely.  But we weren’t going to let a change of plans ruin our evening, so we went to BP for appies instead.

Sunday was another busy day.  I managed to squeeze in some shopping early that morning for stuff that I just couldn’t fit in my suitcase, but would need (hangers, hair product, slippers, paper, blah blah blah).  And then came the fun stuff, like checking out Kensington market.  I must admit, the market isn’t actually as big as I thought it would be and it only took maybe half an hour to casually stroll through it.  However, if I had money, I would go back because there were a lot of really cute casual clothes.  If I had to describe the overall feel of it, think hippy, but more modern.  It wasn’t like a big mall filled with trendy crap.  It was more earthy and fun.  And there was a car all spray painted in a very hippy fashion with “Community Vehicular Reclamation Project” written on the side and shrubbery growing out of it from all sides.  How fun is that! 

Having learned from yesterday, we made sure we had our tickets for the CN tower for 8 PM (why 8, because I had a $10 coupon that was good for after 8.  Hurray for cheap deals!  Otherwise it would have cost us $35.  Ouch).  The tower itself was kinda fun to ride up and the view from the top was nice,  though it would take a lot to get me to pay full price to do it.  Looking back, the coolest thing about the tower was probably the glass floor.  Yes, that’s right.  Someone had the brilliant idea of building a giant radio tower, and then putting a glass floor in one corner of it.  I found it a good test of if my survival instincts were in place.  As it turns out, they were.  I had to build up a lot of courage to step out onto the glass which overlooked the cement several hundred meters below me.  The survival instincts in the children next to me seemed lacking however; they thought it was lots of fun to jump and stomp on the glass as hard as they could.  Fortunately for them, human engineering has come a long way since the first wheel, and the glass was 5 times stronger than regulations require any floor to be.  Strong enough to hold 3 stomping children, or 14 hippos.  The hippos would be interesting to see, since the entire floor wasn’t big enough for 14 hippos, even if we stacked them on top of each other.  Maybe we could make that the next test of human ingenuity: how can we fit 14 hippos on the glass floor of the CN Tower.

Monday, I finished off my weekend by saving orphans in Japan.  How, you ask?  By eating sushi.  I call that a win win scenario!  I attended Genkijapan, an outdoor restaurant where all proceeds went to kids orphaned by the earthquake.  (If ever I was worried about not finding sushi where I am, it was all a waste of sweat, blood, and tears; there’s a huge cluster of sushi restaurants just south of me.)  After that, it was time to buckle down and explore my neighborhood a little better, after all, this is going to be home for a while now.  I’m thrilled to say that there’s several exciting museums located at the north end of the university, including the Royal Ontario Museum and a shoe museum.  (What?  I’m a woman.  What do you expect?!)  There’s also a whole bunch of designer shops on Bloor St.  Or maybe it was Bay St?  Whatever, I’m still learning!  Anyway, if ever I get an itch for Prada, Chanel, Gucci, Coach and all those other ones I can’t remember by name because they are way beyond my pay grade, I’ll know where to go.  Convenient as the local Prada store is, I inconveniently haven’t found a nearby grocery store yet.  Though one of the many really nice people I’ve met on my floor tells me there is one not far from where I was.  If nothing else and I get desperate, I know of both Zellers and a Loblaw off of one of the sub stations.

And that brings me to my long day today spent waiting in several lines to get all my student related stuff in order.  (And yet I still don’t have internet!!)  At this point, all I should have to do is show up to class dressed and with my head in tow.   Hence, in theory, I am ready for whatever orientation might throw at me tomorrow.  So bring it on!