The SSC

The Stratford Student Community, otherwise known as the SSC, is a club started by my friend Mara and run by Mara, Marissa, and myself. Basically, we plan events for university students living in Stratford since there's no university extra curriculars provided at the Stratford campus (well...there are, but they are few and far between). We do one event a week; things like pub night, potlucks, bowling, movie night, etc. Our events have been fairly successful so far, given the number of students living in Stratford (there can't be more than 40). 

We had a Thanksgiving Potluck last week and it was a lot of fun. There was a ton of food and a surprisingly good balance between sweet and savoury things (some students held a potluck last year and apparently it was about 95% dessert). Marissa and I hosted it at our apartment since nobody else volunteered to host. It was a bit squishy, but people really enjoyed it and asked us to do another one in the future. I also really enjoyed hosting. I keep thinking of ways we can have more people over. A handful of us have decided to have dinner together once a week, but just the way things have worked out, it hasn't actually happened yet. But this Monday! It will happen! We're having lasagna :)

Christmas Countdown

In case you don't follow me on other social media, I recently discovered that there are exactly 100 days between my birthday and Christmas. As I have a fondness of counting down the days to Christmas, I was A) happily surprised by the coincidence and B) shocked that it took me 21 years to figure that little connection out. (In case you were wondering, there are 71 days till Christmas.)
I don't have any exams this term, so I'm going to be done school on December 5th. I'll have almost exactly a month off, and I'm quite looking forward to it. I have many plans, most of which involve some form of creativity. I'm hoping to work on two quilts. My friend asked me to make a quilt out of t-shirts she doesn't want to throw out, but doesn't want to wear. The other is a quilt that I've been putting off for about 5 years, for a lady at church. That quilt will be much more time consuming and difficult than the t-shirt quilt (hence why I've been putting it off).
And of course, I'll continue my tradition of making a gingerbread house from scratch. I'm thinking of doing a gingerbread train this year. I feel like there's a lot of potential with things that you can put in the carriages of the train.
Back to reality, I had 6hrs of class today. This was particularly harsh because I usually have Fridays off. The timetable this week was messed up because of two 'reading week days'. I'm not feeling too stressed about schoolwork this term so far. It definitely helps that I'm only taking two courses. One course is worth 4 credits, so I have the workload of 5 courses. But only having to worry about assignments, groups, and due dates for two courses instead of five is making it easier.
I am hoping to get some 3D printing done this weekend. I'm currently printing 3D tiles for the board game Settlers of Catan. I've done one so far and it turned out really well, so I'm hoping to print one for each resource by the end of the term. I'm also tweaking a keychain I made last year. Interestingly enough, a friend asked if I would print some #GBDA keychains for her this weekend - she wants 6! I'm happy to do it, but you can only print one thing at a time and 3D printing is a long process (a Settlers of Catan tile takes ~3hrs). So we'll see how it goes. At least once you've started the printing, you don't have to do anything till it's done. I might be spending a lot of time on campus this weekend. But to be honest, I don't mind it. There's hardly ever anyone there on the weekend, so you basically have the building to yourself. And now that they have massive beanbag chairs, it can even be comfortable :) I'll set my laptop up and watch the last couple episodes of Stranger Things.
Until next time!

369. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
Ever since Emily went to New Zealand, I've been wanting to go! So New Zealand. #screwschool

GBDA X

Summer's Over?!

This marks the beginning of my last week as a User Experience Design Intern at D+H. I originally had a 12 week contract, but that was extended to 15 weeks (it could have been 16, but I asked for a week off so I could go up to camp for a week). I can’t really tell you about the projects I worked on, but I’ve really enjoyed the work I’ve been doing, and I’ll be sad to leave. Although, there is speak of me potentially working part time through the school year, which would be awesome (not to mention a foot in the door for when I’m looking for a job when I graduate).

This week may be a slow one. It’s hard to start working on projects when you only have 5 days left. Usually the things I work on don’t take too long, but I often follow projects along and help out when they need it. Hopefully I’m not sitting idle (and yet here I am, writing a blog post).

One thing that I am definitely going to miss is the desk set up I have here at D+H. I only ever sit in a hoteling station, but I’ve claimed this one as my own. I have two monitors (one being the laptop monitor), a keyboard, and a mouse. It’s great. I plug my laptop into a docking station and boom; I’m hooked up to everything. I am definitely going to want a desktop monitor for this upcoming school year now. My laptop screen just seems so small on its own.

I’m excited to be going back to Stratford and seeing all of my school friends again. However, I’ve definitely become used to the work-stays-at-work life, and going back to having to do work outside of class will be an adjustment. I think the fall will be a very busy time. I have classes, I might be working part-time, I have to write a work report about my internship, and a professor at the Stratford campus is running an optional course called GBDA X. The idea is that it’s a course where we can decide what we’ll learn to an extent, he’ll give us projects and things to work on, and at the end of it, we’ll have something to add to our portfolio. It won’t count for marks or credits, but the hope is that it utilizes a bunch of the technology and resources that the Stratford campus has, like the 3D printer and Oculus Rift. I’m really interested in seeing what the professor comes up with.

I’m going to be commuting to Stratford for the first couple weeks of class. At first, I was really excited, because I love driving. Now, I’m thinking that this is not going to be the blue skies and sunshine I was imagining. Aaron and I will be spending some quality time together I’m sure. Him sitting in the basement playing video games, and me sitting at the kitchen counter doing homework and watching Netflix. But it should be good. We’re hoping to go see the London Airshow when it comes to town. And we’ll probably go out for dinner for my birthday, because the rest of the family won’t be around. This will be the first time I’ve been home for my birthday in a while. And then Mom and Dad decided to peace out. Alison will be in Toronto, so it’ll be me and Aaron.  

Hello Hello

Long time no see, my friends. Although I'm sure a lot of you followed my travel blog. As of right now, I'm in Mississauga for an internship with D+H. I've completed two weeks already, out of a 12 week contract. I have a feeling it will go by very quickly. I'm staying with the family of one of my friends from high school for the time that I'll be in Mississauga. I'm really grateful for that. I was thinking the other day that coming home to a family that is glad to have me staying with them is so much better than living in a basement apartment by myself. So that's a real blessing. And it's working out well. I'm getting the feel of how their family works and runs, and slotting myself in. I'm now vying for the spot of favourite child ;) I've helped garden, gone grocery shopping with them, and I hung out with Grandma which apparently wins me big points. It's a bit of a running joke now.
I don't know what I'm allowed to say about the work that I'm doing for D+H, but I'm sure it would be boring to write about regardless. But in general, I'm doing User Experience Design for them. What I will do, however, is tell you about some funny moments with my manager. He's a good guy, and seems interested in helping me learn and grow in my abilities. Let's call him G. G's going to be on 'vacation' next week (he's actually moving and renovating his house, so it's not really a vacation).

G: You know you can dress casual, right? Wear jeans or something.
Me: Yea, but I figured I'd keep appearances up for the first couple weeks. *pause* But next week when you're gone, it will all fall apart.

He laughed at that, so now I know I can make jokes like that. I've kind of been testing and observing to see what's acceptable. The people that I'm working with seem pretty laid back and friendly. Then later as he was leaving for the day, he popped his head into my cubicle and said "Dress casual tomorrow would ya? It's a Friday." Not one to disobey the boss, I wore jeans the next day. As G walks by my cubicle he says "Good morn- JEANS!" and continues to walk by. Never a dull moment with G.

Now that I've written it out, that's not actually that funny. I suppose the office just isn't a super exciting place to begin with that the little things seem funnier than they actually are. Oh well. I would talk more about what I'm up to, but I need to go to bed. More on another day.

ADVENTUREOVERTHERE

Hello fellow readers (all 3 of you). From now until further notice, I will be blogging at ADVENTUREOVERTHERE. So stop checking this blog and go check that one out.

I wished you the best of all this world could give

title from 'Jealous' by Labrinth 

I realize it's been a while, and I've probably lost most of you because of my own lack of posts. But better late than never.
I can't believe it's 2016 already. December flew by and in just 2 weeks I'll be off to England for my term abroad. I'll be starting a new blog to use during the time I'm away. I want lots of people to be able to read about my travels but not be able to see everything I've posted over the last several years. Once I get that started, I'll write all about my worries and panics that I'm having right now about moving across the world for 4 months. Maybe I'll make myself a hashtag.
Not much else going on here. I was successful in my 2015 New Years resolution of writing and mailing a letter each week. My last letter was a letter I wrote to future 50 year-old me. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to mail that to myself... I haven't set a specific resolution for this year. I'd like to in general live more spontaneously (which will probably happen most while I'm abroad). I have a 5 year question journal that I fill out every day, so that will also be something that I'm doing this year (and the next 4 after that).
My brother currently has a friend over and is watching the new Sherlock special that aired yesterday. I haven't watched it yet because my parents and I are going to see it in theatres next week. I have to avoid tumblr until then because I really don't want anything to be spoiled. I've been watching Once Upon A Time this fall and had a pretty big plot line revealed on tumblr so I'm very cautious now about not having anything spoiled. (I kid you not as I was typing this out I heard my brother and his friend both go "Wait, what? Wait, WHAT?!" and I freaked out a bit).
Once I've got my new blog up and running, I'll post a link to it here. Then this blog will be silent for 4 months (not that it's been shouting or anything over the past year).