The semester is rolling by! We are approaching the 4th week which means that I have about 11 weeks until I graduate! Wow, writing that feels really wierd. Its pretty surreal to imagine the changes that will be taking place in my life after that point.
As I think I mentioned in previous posts, I am thinking of grad school for the coming fall. This would keep me in the academic world and give many more opportunites for interesting experiences. I submitted two of these applications yesterday to U of Ottawa and U of Waterloo (after some hectic days waiting for reference letters to arrive in the mail and then discovering that our service had been stopped due to icy stairs)....anyhow...it feels good to have them sent off. I also recently added a school to my list of desirables - York's Glendon College.
For the longest time I told myself that I didn't want to go back to Toronto, but am now thinking that Glendon is my #1 choice! Being in Toronto would let me be close to my family, especially my sis Kim with her soon to be daughter (my niece!!!!!)..I also feel that there are people in Toronto that I could be happy with as a social network. This is really important for me, and is something that Waterloo and Ottawa don't have.
I still haven't heard anything about the job with Dfait, but am still hopeful that they will get back to me for an interview. I am also looking into internships. I applied for the Ontario Government Internship program and am looking into one with EDC as well.....why all government stuff? I don't know....i'm going to be a pencil pusher!!!! ahhh, my worst dream realized...lol....
I've also been entertaining thoughts of travel in the summer. Specifically I was thinking about going down to South America to learn Spanish and maybe volunteer on a project. This would obviously require some financial resources, so I have to figure that out first....
Some ideas bouncing around.....an exciting time for sure!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Getting Settled into another semester...
So the first week of my winter semester is finished. The first impressions of my courses are really good. Much better than last semester. Whereas last semester I was working on finishing the last of my required commerce courses, stuff like intro to finance, cost accounting, etc, this semester's courses are more up my alley. I am doing a really interesting course entitled "Globalization and Sustainable Development" where we will be exploring all sorts of interesting issues like biotech, peak oil, and new imperialism..
Another course I am doing is International Business Law. This seems really cool too. The teacher has invited a Montreal tech company to be the subject of our main project. Essentially, each group will act as consultants to the firm in their decision to build a new facility abroad. The winning team will be given a prize of some form, making it a competitive endeavour. I got myself into a good group, so hopefully we will win!
My other two courses are also internationally related, if not so interesting. One is a 200-level geography course and the other an international political economy course. I think you can see a general theme in my studies this semester :)
I will also be continuing my work on the Sustainable Business conference. I'm working with a number of the working groups (marketing, getting speakers and logistics). This will allow me to work with a lot of interesting people.
So, good things are going on this semester. I am excited!
Another course I am doing is International Business Law. This seems really cool too. The teacher has invited a Montreal tech company to be the subject of our main project. Essentially, each group will act as consultants to the firm in their decision to build a new facility abroad. The winning team will be given a prize of some form, making it a competitive endeavour. I got myself into a good group, so hopefully we will win!
My other two courses are also internationally related, if not so interesting. One is a 200-level geography course and the other an international political economy course. I think you can see a general theme in my studies this semester :)
I will also be continuing my work on the Sustainable Business conference. I'm working with a number of the working groups (marketing, getting speakers and logistics). This will allow me to work with a lot of interesting people.
So, good things are going on this semester. I am excited!
Monday, January 7, 2008
Back from a long hiatus
So, its been awhile since i've written here. Its been 4 months since I returned to Canada, to Montreal, and I guess I kinda let things here take over, leading me to neglect certain things.
It's January now. One year ago I was writing this blog in Copenhagen and France. Now, Montreal, starting my last semester at Concordia university. Its a pretty exciting thought actually, to know that this phase in my life will be over in the near future. Exciting and scary, because I don't really know what I'll be doing 5 months from now...
As many of you know, I've applied for a job with the Department of Foreign Affairs. I wrote a series of tests, which I think I've done pretty well on and am now awaiting word from the department as to whether I've made it past the first round.
Although I am really eager and hopeful that this job will come through, I am planning for the eventuality that it doesn't work. I've begun preparing a few applications for grad school, at the University of Ottawa and the University of Waterloo for studies related to International Affairs and Public Policy.
I don't want to give the impression that school and thoughts of my future are the only thing going on in my life (even if they may dominate my thoughts quite often). I am really enjoying my time here in Montreal. I'm living in a huge house with a bunch of really cool roommates. We are very diverse, studying everything from civil engineering to fine arts. We cook, watch movies and play scrabble together quite often. The house is just 10 minutes walk from my campus, so its quite ideal in terms of commuting time. It was really nice to come back to Montreal and have a place like this, with an instant group of friends and life partners.
I'm keeping busy with a bunch of other stuff too. Work part-time, volunteering organizing a sustainable business conference (http://sustainable.concordia.ca/ourinitiatives/sbc/).
I've also been keeping pretty active with winter sports and the gym. Right at the end of last semester, just before heading back to Toronto, my friend Clinton and his girlfriend Amanda came up for a day of snowboarding at Mont Tremblant. It just so happens that this coincided with a huge blizzard that dropped 40cms of snow during the day. I remember at one point, on the very last run of the day, being literally blown uphill by the power of the wind. Scary stuff! but intensely fun... :)
My christmas break was very nice. I hadn't had a lot of time to spend with my family and friends in Toronto after my return to Toronto from Europe, so three weeks in T.O. were definitely nice. My sister Kim is now pregnant, 5 months in, so it was really nice to see how she's doing. She seems to be handling it all pretty well, excited about the arrival of a new baby girl in 4 months. Her boyfriend Paul is also very excited, which assuages my fears of him not being there to help me out. My mom and other sister beth are also doing well.
I spent a lot of time going for dinners/lunches/ etc with friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. Although I spent a whole bunch of money that I didn't really have on all this revelry, it was definitely well worth it.
Anyhow, I feel im rambling, so ill end it here. I hope that I can keep this up in the next few months.
It's January now. One year ago I was writing this blog in Copenhagen and France. Now, Montreal, starting my last semester at Concordia university. Its a pretty exciting thought actually, to know that this phase in my life will be over in the near future. Exciting and scary, because I don't really know what I'll be doing 5 months from now...
As many of you know, I've applied for a job with the Department of Foreign Affairs. I wrote a series of tests, which I think I've done pretty well on and am now awaiting word from the department as to whether I've made it past the first round.
Although I am really eager and hopeful that this job will come through, I am planning for the eventuality that it doesn't work. I've begun preparing a few applications for grad school, at the University of Ottawa and the University of Waterloo for studies related to International Affairs and Public Policy.
I don't want to give the impression that school and thoughts of my future are the only thing going on in my life (even if they may dominate my thoughts quite often). I am really enjoying my time here in Montreal. I'm living in a huge house with a bunch of really cool roommates. We are very diverse, studying everything from civil engineering to fine arts. We cook, watch movies and play scrabble together quite often. The house is just 10 minutes walk from my campus, so its quite ideal in terms of commuting time. It was really nice to come back to Montreal and have a place like this, with an instant group of friends and life partners.
I'm keeping busy with a bunch of other stuff too. Work part-time, volunteering organizing a sustainable business conference (http://sustainable.concordia.ca/ourinitiatives/sbc/).
I've also been keeping pretty active with winter sports and the gym. Right at the end of last semester, just before heading back to Toronto, my friend Clinton and his girlfriend Amanda came up for a day of snowboarding at Mont Tremblant. It just so happens that this coincided with a huge blizzard that dropped 40cms of snow during the day. I remember at one point, on the very last run of the day, being literally blown uphill by the power of the wind. Scary stuff! but intensely fun... :)
My christmas break was very nice. I hadn't had a lot of time to spend with my family and friends in Toronto after my return to Toronto from Europe, so three weeks in T.O. were definitely nice. My sister Kim is now pregnant, 5 months in, so it was really nice to see how she's doing. She seems to be handling it all pretty well, excited about the arrival of a new baby girl in 4 months. Her boyfriend Paul is also very excited, which assuages my fears of him not being there to help me out. My mom and other sister beth are also doing well.
I spent a lot of time going for dinners/lunches/ etc with friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. Although I spent a whole bunch of money that I didn't really have on all this revelry, it was definitely well worth it.
Anyhow, I feel im rambling, so ill end it here. I hope that I can keep this up in the next few months.
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