Wherefore art mine time-management skills?

The work, it comes.


It was inevitable, I guess, that eventually I’d have to do some sort of academic work. Except now, I’m starting to feel like I’m being buried under a pile of essays. When am I supposed to have time to watch episodes of House when I have to write about 20th century feminist poetry??


This past week has been mostly spent psyching myself up to hide away and write for a week non-stop. This strategy has worked for me in the past; I just hope it still does here. Thankfully, only one out of three of the essays (although they must all be handed in) actually count towards my grade.


Last Saturday, my friend Marcie and I had a great time watching the England vs. South Africa championship rugby match at an Australian bar called Walkabout. We had an awesome time, mostly because we were able to watch it in a private area that another exchange student named Chris had the brilliant idea of booking. It was only 50 pounds and, having invited 75 of his closest friends to join him, he may even have made a profit! J . I got to meet a friend of Marcie’s from Seattle named Megan, too:


It was a great atmosphere, even though England lost. There were no raucous celebrations afterwards, sadly, although we spotted a few joyous South Africans here and there as we walked home.


Last night Matt and I teamed up to go see a band called The Touch at the HiFi Club here in Leeds. We were looking to take in a good show, but this group really blew us away...we had such an amazing time. We also got to meet the band afterwards, mostly due to Matt’s ability to talk to ANYONE. He also randomly introduced himself (and me) to one of the opening bands, which was fantastic, as I was able to interview them for my column.


I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m writing a series of music reviews from Leeds for The Gazette, Western’s student newspaper. I’m thrilled to say that my very first article EVER was just published on Wednesday. Not wanting to put the cart before the horse, I waited until the article actually appeared before talking about it...but I’m so excited that it’s happening, and on a bi-weekly basis as well! The Gazette has an online version, and you can click here to read my article, if you so desire!


Tomorrow we’re going to see a production of The History Boys at the Grand and on Sunday, we Canadians are whipping up some Nanaimo bars to compete in Bodington’s annual International Cooking Cook-off. I know we’ll win. Who can resist the chocolatey custard-y goodness of a Nanaimo bar?? We’ll just have to trust Wikipedia’s recipe, that’s all. And also sabotage the Italians.


p.s. I tried to post pictures today, but for some reason Blogger's not allowing it. I'll be sure to post them next time!

how is it already Oct. 20th?

So much has happened in the week since my last blog post—I knew when I decided to do this blog that, despite my best intentions, at some point I’d start paring them down and consolidating all my news ... BUT, I now vow to keep more of them coming, at smaller intervals!

Because most of my classes are Monday and Tuesday, on Wednesday I had a chance to relax a bit, and my friend Bjorn and I decided to go catch the Happy Mondays and The Sunshine Underground show at the university’s Refectory:

Happy Mondays has been around forever since getting big in the 80s, so there were quite a few forty-somethings in the crowd enjoying themselves...The Sunshine Underground, on the other hand, has only been around for a couple of years, but they were AMAZING. I had known about them before I came to Leeds so I knew I wanted to see them live, but they really blew me away. I can’t wait to see them again soon; they’re from Leeds so I hope they play way more gigs here. Sadly, the Decemberists concert I was anticipating so much that was supposed to happen Saturday got cancelled at the last minute because of one of the band members being sick. There’s currently no rescheduled show, unfortunately, so I’ll have to try my luck later this year. Hopefully they come back!

On Thursday I got to try something new—OperaNorth put on a sort of Introduction to Opera night for students, where you pay 10 pounds and receive a pre-show talk, two drinks, and a ticket to that night’s performance of Falstaff. It was my very first opera, and I loved it. The production in itself was very well done, and Falstaff the opera is rightly famous for being so entertaining. This version was sung in English, thankfully, so that helped our understanding quite a bit! Here’s the lovely cover art of the playbill:

On Friday we were supposed to go out and enjoy Light Night, an annual event in Leeds that’s full of free activities and shows on the city streets. It’s Leeds’ 800th birthday this year, so Light Night is bigger than ever; but at the last minute, tired from the last two nights, we decided to stay home. But we heard great things ... hopefully there are more events to commemorate Leeds’ bday!

Saturday my friend Eleanore and I caught the England vs. France rugby match at a bar in Headingley (a suburb of Leeds proper that’s mostly student-inhabited). If you’ve never been in a relatively cosy English pub with a couple hundred rowdy English rugger fans, you’re missing out. It could be compared to being in a Canadian sports bar when Canada’s in the gold medal hockey game, but with more singing and more pints of Guinness involved. I was a bit torn at who to cheer for: England seemed the logical choice, given my surroundings, but because Eleanore’s from France, I cheered for the French too ;). It was a really cool thing to see England win though- if you saw the game, you saw how last-minute the win was; needless to say, this tension led to a massive outpouring of English patriotism after the match, although, I must report, no hooligans/shenanigans to be seen. I'm actually a little disappointed about that. We'll have to see what happens after tonight's final between England and South Africa...

Sunday (sorry, my week was busy, alright? ;)), I met with my friend Marcie from home and 10 other North American girls to plan our trip to Barcelona on Nov. 9th... we’re getting so pumped to go! We’re staying for the weekend and coming back (hopefully) in time for classes on Monday. And did I mention that our flight cost us ONE PENNY each?? I love RyanAir. Sunday was also Bjorn’s birthday, so a few of us went out to see Die Falscher, a German film about Jewish prisoners being forced to make counterfeit British currency during WWII. Bit of a depressing birthday movie, I have to say, but interesting enough. It’s kind of nice to watch something that’s A) Not on your laptop and B) Not found on YouTube.

This week’s been a tad quieter than last, but I did manage to get to a LUU Backstage stage management workshop on Thursday. It’s fantastic to get some thorough training on how to manage a show; I’ve never been really taught how to do it. Everything I’ve learned so far, as it is with most stage crew, has been learned on the job. The jobs for first semester’s shows got doled out too, and happily, I’m the asst. stage manager for the production of Honk! (click here if you'd like a summary) coming up at the end of November. Now I just have to figure out how to build a set ... ;). Also, last night we headed to Fruity Disco again and had a great time. The theme was Barbie/Barbarians... I didn't pull off the Barbie look, necessarily, but I think my friend Nick did Barbarian rather well:

Annnnd up next week: reading more Renaissance drama and starting my three essays that are due early November. That’s the plan, at least. I can’t say if that’s going to be easily derailed or not... but you know me. Stranger things have happened.

Also- CONGRATS on your grad, Richard!! I wish I could be there to help celebrate! My big brother’s got his BA :). Have an awesome day with everyone!

Oh, and I wanted to mention this too: there’s a show on CBC right now called Triple Sensation, where really talented young theatre performers compete to win a $150,000 scholarship from Chapters Indigo to study anywhere in the world. In FANTASTIC news, Anwyn Musico, who Richard, Bryan and I went to elementary and high school with, made the top ten last week! The finale’s on Sunday night on CBC at 8 pm. Just wanted to let you know so you can cheer for Anwyn too :). What an amazing opportunity. Here's the site: www.triplesensation.ca for more info!

And that’s it for the terribly long blog post. I’ll talk to you all soon!

Stars and Some Harvest Moon

Hello all!

I have to admit, the 1-month anniversary of my arrival in Europe came and went on Sep. 26th without me noticing. It feels like I’ve been here so much longer. Maybe because our time frame is shorter, I’ve allowed myself less time to adjust than I did in first year; thankfully, the honeymoon phase has lasted longer too, and I’m still loving everything about Leeds, the university, and the odd semi-transitory life we exchange students have started to build here. It’s always in the back of your mind that no, you can’t stay here permanently- I find myself buying course anthologies instead of individuals books, for instance, so that I can bring them more easily. And when buying clothes and just things, I’m consciously calculating what I have to leave behind here in order to fit it all in.

We envied the UK students on move-in day when their families all came to see them off and they all had cars full of boxes and bags; and then we realized something that you don’t know in first year: that you can bring all kinds of things from home, but it’s the items you collect here that you keep.

I had quite a busy week as well, so I’m sorry to not have updated before now! Stars put on a fantastic concert at the Brudenell Social Club on Tuesday:

That's Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, the two talented frontpeople of the band. My friend from home, Matt, and I went and caught the show, where we ran into my friend Lauren, a fellow Canadian from Vancouver:

It was a lot of fun and a great venue, although sadly, they didn’t play my favourite song of theirs, Calendar Girl. But I’m easily placated, and just listened to it when I got home :).

On Saturday, Johanna and I did our very first Otley Run, a Leeds Uni tradition that involves visiting every one of the 18 pubs (and having one drink at each) on Otley Road, which runs from the University steps right through to Bodington, in one looonnnnng night. Our group, the English Society, started at 6 pm, and we managed to visit 10 bars before midnight; shortly thereafter, we conceded defeat! Here we are at the Library Pub, right close to the end of the night:

A fun thing about the Run- every group that goes (and EVERY society, group, and team at Leeds does it) has a costume theme, and there were some inventive ones (although ours was simply to dress in black & white). Seeing the others, though, felt like Halloween came early (which apparently they do celebrate here, although not to the same extent as back home. Halloween, predictably, is used as an excuse to party).

And with thoughts of Halloween came thoughts of Thanksgiving. Sunday lunch at Bodington was, to our amazement, a full-on turkey dinner! Although we have to chalk it up to coincidence; all Brits know of the holiday and most understand the meaning behind it, but hardly anyone realizes that Canadians celebrate it on a different day. Explaining why our Thanksgiving is early was the most difficult question I’ve had to answer since being asked to explain why Quebec would want to separate. My knowledge of harvest season and Quebec’s provincial politics is apparently not up to par; I should have studied before I left!

So, despite the lack of background knowledge on our beloved holiday, nine or ten of us Canadians (and one Frenchwoman) ended up celebrating it Monday night at Taps, a worthy pub situated in the mostly student-inhabited area of Headingley. With nary a turkey item to be seen on the menu, we contented ourselves with chicken and white wine- all conveniently within a student budget.

And that’s been my week so far- up ahead, I’ve got some more salsa lessons (ooooh, watch out, Bryan and Lisa), the opera on Thursday, and Light Night on Friday, which is an evening full of free events in Leeds to help celebrate its 800th birthday. Also, on Saturday, I’m going to see The Decemberists at Leeds Met, the other uni here in the city. SO EXCITED to see them- they’re one of my favourite bands. However, I hope to write more before then!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying the abnormal temperatures back home... what I wouldn’t give for some sun over here! :)