I've been thinking. I find it totally relaxing to read about the minutiae of other people's lives (especially the blogs of authors I like). Maybe I'll do some of that here as well, just for shits and giggles, but first I have to update you regarding recent happenings.
All is well in the land of Shinseiko and Caspian, albeit a bit cold, windy and covered with ice and snow. Don't visit Canada in the wintertime unless you have fondness for these things.
I wake up early every weekday morning, shower, put my (already selected) lunch together and walk [in arctic temps] about two miles to my university, where I'm in class with some really awesome people from all over the world. We have a doctor from Saudi Arabia, three Canadians from other provinces, two Mexicans, one Venezuelan, one Kenyan, a lawyer from Jordan, one Ukranian, one Chinese, one Thai and one Taiwanese. That's 14 people total, including me, the only American. I think it's hilarious and irritating that I'm considered like the representative of the USA in this class. When people talk about the US, they will address me with the plural "you."
It is a superb program, probably one of the best French language programs in the world. After all McGill University is the 17th best university in the world. I spend my days laughing, acting silly, making up skits, conjugating verbs and babbling in pronunciation lab. I walk home facing west (I despise sunny days, because the light reflects blindingly from the snow and ice on the sidewalk and into my eyes) at 3, get home at 3:30, and start work at 4, working until 7. My clientele has changed a bit with the new hours; I have plenty of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese students. French students prefer to take their lessons in the early evenings on weekends, on which I also work, for six hours each day... Which means I don't have a single day off until the semester is over (I have a week of break between them). Hours of homework are completed by candlelight in the evening or on the weekends. I pretty much have no life right now. Luckily, that means that I don't spend much money either.
And yet, Felix (who has been stressed about work recently for reasons I can't disclose) wants to practice twice this week. I... Have been ultra irritated with him. With his simplicity and hyperactivity and unrelenting energy. It is difficult for me at this point in my life to have a friend like him for some reason. I feel like I am a child in his eyes, full of simple emotions and thoughts, in need of repetition, never learning, always making the same mistakes. Maybe it's true and things can be distilled like that, but I'm just not in the mood for it.
We also had a very sick kitty a couple of weeks ago. We came home from our friends' place and found Kiska unable to move on the floor of our bedroom. She had pooped and peed on herself. We rushed her to the emergency veterinarian at midnight on a Saturday, sure that she was going to die. I thought it was neurological and feared that the last memory of my little white cat would be the image of her struggling to move on the floor, crying in fear. Caspian held her to his chest and she just panted between cries, her face smushed up against him.
We discussed euthanasia that night for two hours in a stuffy exam room. I cried the most anguished tears of my life, over a little 8-pound creature. We couldn't afford any treatment, only hospitalization, with me a student again. We agreed that if she did not get better in two or three days, we would say goodbye.
Luckily, it turned out to be ideopathic vestibular disease, an uncommon but not unheard-of inner ear syndrome that strikes with a vengeance and usually corrects itself. Within two days, she was able to stand, eat and drink on her own, and we brought her home, where she joyfully reunited with her housemate. She has been playful, active and friendly ever since. $500 for those three days, which was part of my dance costume money. It looks like competition isn't in the near future.
The schedule above is how it will go for the next year or so, until I finish my Certificate of Proficiency. I've already started the job hunt, sending my CV to my career counselor for editing. Hopefully I will have a well-paying bilingual position lined up as soon as I have my certificate in hand!
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