Ah, the mutlitude of student experiences, culminated into one week to drive a person insane!
The Luncheon
I started my week on Monday with an English take home exam being slapped down on my desk, with a 48-hour deadline. "I can take it home!" I thought, happy as I reviewed over the incomprehensible Shakespeare questions. I stuffed the paper in my bag (hoping to symbolically bury the paper in my mind in order to enjoy my pre-planned luncheon, with no inhibitions).
A few friends and I had been planning to meet up for lunch in celebration of a legal competition we entered in February. We managed to meet up on Monday, a month after we initially planned it! Managing to organize the schedules between three U of T students and one York student was almost impossible!
We got the time and date down, but we still had to coordinate dietary concerns ... one of us is vegetarian, one of us only eats halal meat, another can't eat pork and the last one ... well, she's pretty easy going!
When I chose a restaurant, the criteria were based on something close to campus, decent price with lots of food, in which the atmosphere was condusive to talking.
We chose Thai Angels, located at 285 College Street, just past Spadina. Its about a 10 minute walk from College and St. George. When we walked down there, I was suprised at how dingy it looked. Graffiti was sprayed on the walls, individuals were sleeping on the ground and garbage everywhere. As we hit Spadina and I could see the red sign of the Thai Angels, I got a bit nervous ... if the restaurant inside was anything like the area around it outside, it was going to be a rather smelly experience.
Lucky for us, the restaurant was a pleasant surprise. It was small, maybe the size of a large tutorial room the in basement of Sid Smith, but with a much more cozy, modern look. The restaurant was deserted (which resulted in good service and a healthy discussion environment). The menu was broad, ranging from vegetarian and noodles, to seafood, along with chicken options and beef. I ordered a Pad Thai and the other foods on the table included mango chicken with rice, peanut cashew seafood with rice, and more noodles!
After lunch, we went to the Second Cup on Starbucks and pigged out on mocha cake and oreo cake ... mmm mmm! Phew, way to kill my diet!! 🙂
Monday was fabulous - four good friends getting together and enjoying a wonderful meal and dessert.
The Essay
Of course, by the time I got home at 9 p.m. on Monday after class I had to start that English assignment! I started my research, and by the time I went to bed, it was 2 a.m. Typical U of T student bedtime, nothing to be too worried about...
Yeah, right.
That english assignment drove me nuts! I spent all day researching and writing on Tuesday, and then I had class at 6. When I arrived back at Res around 9pm, I hadn't completed more than a decent outline (sound familiar?) and it took me from Tuesday night till 5AM Wednesday morning to finish writing it. Thats the thing about U of T, the assignments take FOREVER!
Teacher/T.A. Evaluations
This week, a lot of my professors handed out course evaluations, where students could grade the teacher and the T.A., and suggest helpful comments. In one of my courses, I was graded the T.A. VERY poorly, which is the the first time I've ever had to do so. I'm generally a lenient marker when it comes to evaluations, simply because I know that T.A.s and Profs work hard. But this T.A.! Man, it was brutal. There is generally an overall dissatisfaction from my whole tutorial, and it was a paradoxical experience having two sheets in front of me, grading (five being the highest and 1 being the lowest) a Professor (Fives and Fours) and a T.A. low (Ones, Twos). In one section, I started my own zero column! Eek!
The Sweaty Experience of Being Lost
Today I had to stop by Bahen to check up on an LSAT Prep meeting to make sure that it was running smoothly. I was at Bahen at 4:45pm for the meeting, and wandered around for 25 minutes looking frantically for the room. By five, I was frantically sweating, wondering if the building was warping into a crazy maze to permanently scar me for life. It was such an odd experience, probably what the typical new student feels when they come to this campus.
The Cheese Explosion v. The Critters
It isn't over! I went down to the kitchen late last night to make macaroni and cheese and I opened the macaroni packet to have cheese ... explode everywhere! The packet ripped the wrong way, and the cheese powder landed all over my clothes, on the floor, in the sink! When I bent down to clean up the powers, I saw a critter. A CRITTER! Ugh! I have an irrational fear of bugs...and it didn't help when I turned toward the sink and saw a dead spider on the side. Way to ruin an appetite!
So far, I've been lost in a building, covered in cheese, went out with friends, stayed up all night for an assignment and it's only been three days!
Enjoy your week friends!
- Fariya