andiamo

The following entry is the introduction to RW in italia: my new blog home for the next 2 months. Please add it to your bookmarks :)

I finally felt like my preparations were under control. Months of work, weeks of planning, and a good number of days searching, buying, packing, forgetting, and remembering, led to this day. Not the day of departure, but the day of relaxation. The day of enjoying Vancouver one last time before I leave for 2 entire months. Summer, late to arrive, was in full swing, and the sun was setting. In good company, I walked the sea wall, watching crowds of fellow beachgoers lounge and laugh and watch the beach performers. The water perfectly reflected the glowing clouds above, edges brushed a vibrant pink, setting them apart from the saturated blue sky and lush green trees. I couldn’t remember the last time the world was so colourful, and I could barely make time to blink.

atonement

Let's start this off by saying I wanted to cry. I needed a good teary-eyed cinema experience, as I hadn't had one in a while. So. Picked him up, made our way into Coquitlam for some eats, and headed back to the theatre to buy our tickets and wet our cheeks. Error one: He beat me to the fastpay machine, which subsequently charged him before developing a printer error. No worries, we'll sort it out after the film. Error two: The film Atonement must now use it's namesake in repaying the emotional disappointment I experienced. Error three: The manager was kind enough to refund us for the earlier printer error in the form of 2 movie vouchers, but my guilt-ridden self felt like I was scamming him to give us free stuff. When really all he did was repay the tickets we doubly paid for.

passenger seat

Here's my new plan: I'm going to revert back to the original, "don't ask, don't tell" approach with my family. You have all learned by now that my younger sister and I have had a few talks about the contents of this blog, and their impact on our lives, and she has become one of it's readers. How regular of a reader? Perhaps we'll soon see, if she responds to the new rboLife plan v3.0.

viaggio

The genitori are in Hawaii for a little over a week to take advantage of last-minute cheap airfare, and to get in one last vacation before dad starts his new job (yeah, 60+ and just got a new job; long, long story). That's nice for them. They called tonight to let me know they got to the condo and the views are amazing, and then mom made sure to hold the phone towards the ocean so I could hear the waves crashing. That was just cruel. But here I am now, home alone for 9 days... it's so nice.

part deux

This morning I met with the academic advisor to discuss possibilities. She was very helpful, and I'm definately glad I spent the time to see her. We went over the courses I've taken, and looked into other programs up at the main campus. Turns out, depending on what I transfer into (if I transfer anywhere) I could have as many as 54 of 60 transferrable credits... which means I'd only be a few courses behind other students who started in that program at the same time as I started in mine. This is always good, cause then I wouldn't have to be stuck with some of my younger sis' friends in classes... I could actually be in most with folks my own age and maturity.

shadow waltz

I'm not doing well today. It could be because I'm still drained from the nonstop projecting the last half of last week, and the seemingly wasted day I had yesterday after class. Most likely, I'm back to wanting to get away from this school. It's different this time, however. It's not just the usual "i'm tired of computers and teamwork and want to learn about brains," it's just... different.

maybe later

i don't want to be here.

i really don't.

it's more than just.. the work,
i just have 0 interest in all but 1 course - I cannot take any others than the ones I am in if I want to get the degree, it's all planned out for us beforehand - and don't want to waste more of my life here.

september

It's been September for quite a few days now, and of course that means school has started. I was lucky to be able to schedule my classes into 2 days this semester. Both days, Thursday and Friday, I have classes from 10am to 1pm (along with an 8:30 class every other Friday). There is of course another online class, as well as all the online coursework for the other classes, but these are the only times I need to be on campus. I think it will work out quite nicely. At this school the main homework due dates are weekend nights (meaning weekends are far from days off). That's the best thing about this schedule - I can have a real weekend again; only it consists of Monday and Tuesday.

edutainment

I had a few long talks with the mom and then the dad a couple days ago about my university education. I don't like where it's going, and a big part of me wants to drop what I've learned and run off to study things so entirely unrelated. Who needs computer design and multimedia when there are subjects like sociology, philosophy, music, archeology, even mid eastern religious studies would be something more to my liking at this point. I want to understand where we came from culturally, to get a better idea as to who we are right now. The unfortunate part about it is I have already spent 2 years of my 4 year degree at this school, and it's not like I can just leave it for a while and return. My graduating class is the last class to have access to the program as SFU is restructuring everything (even trying to register for the fall semester was next to impossible; no where are we given a list of courses that still exist that we are to take)

top of the world

My dad received a phone call today, amongst all the wedding business. He talked for a few minutes, and ended up telling the person on the phone that he has a son whom he might wish to speak with instead. After snapping at me (loud enough I'm sure the receiver picked it up,) and telling me to get the phone upstairs saying its EA, I go up and grab the phone. We talk for a bit, he describes his reason for calling and more talking, then he concludes saying he'll mail something for tomorrow or so.

Needless to say I'm still quite confused, and not sure if this is infact going anywhere, mainly because he knows only my adress and phone number, and that I work at mcdonalds and own a pc and psx. It was sure more comfortable than the previous phone conversation I had with an employer.