The Final Countdown

A lot has happened over the past couple days, all building up to tomorrow, when we have our last class of our undergraduate degree. On Thursday evening we had our last SSC event, a dinner at Pazzo Pizzeria. We had 21 people show up, which was awesome (and I'm fairly certain our largest event ever). Marissa had made photo booth props for people to take pictures with. Luckily there wasn't many other people in the restaurant, so we were free to be silly and take a bunch of pictures against (fun fact alert) the oldest wall in Stratford. It was nice to have a sit down dinner with people as a bit of a send off.
Friday began on a high note when Mara's mom bought coffee and muffins for the entire class as a celebratory parting gift. For lunch, a lot of the graduating class went to the Parlour Inn for a GBDA send off that the GBDA Society had organized. There was some small lunch items, which enticed most of the people who went. But they also got a handful of professors that we'd had over the years to say a few words. It was kind of sweet to hear what they had to say.
Saturday was the GBDA gala. I'd never been to one before, so I was excited. A bunch of us got ready together at a friend's house. It was at Fed Hall in Waterloo, so we had a shuttle bus to take those of us living in Stratford to main campus. The theme was space/gala-xy. It was a little slow getting started because people showed up fashionably late, but eventually there were lots of people dancing. Unfortunately the DJ was repeating a lot of songs so for those of us that had been there the whole time it was getting repetitive. They had a photo booth with the popular giant letter balloons, which was pretty cool. Overall an enjoyable evening. There wasn't a ton of fourth year students there, ironically it was most of the people living in Stratford. It was also nice to see people all dressed up.
Today was Stratford's Annual Swan Parade, where the city officially welcomes spring by releasing the swans back into the river (they have a shelter that they live in during the winter). Another fun fact: the swans belong to the Queen. It's ridiculous how many people show up for this parade which lasts about 10mins. Last year they had 5000 people show up. I don't know if there was 5000 people there today, but it was certainly up there. There's lot of other things going on as well; there's a kids comedy act, colouring booths, and a long line of food trucks with even longer lines of people waiting to buy food. I spent the duration of the parade in a tree which gave me a much better view of everything than those who were on the ground. They had great weather for it. It's currently 14 degrees out and sunny. They couldn't have asked for anything better. I'm writing this on my rooftop patio, it's so nice out!
You can see pictures on Facebook in the near future.