I've realized something. I've been totally spoiled by school. And not in the way you might expect - I got used to the workload in junior and senior year, which was tough (junior year more so), but at the same time, I was actually learning things. And now I'm stuck in first-year science, taking courses that hold no interest for me, in the branch of science I normally love. And it's driving me crazy, because I know I'm better than this. I was getting A's in second-year university biology courses last year. I may actually go by Science Advising and try to talk them into giving me credit for said second-year course, instead of a first-year course that doesn't actually exist, here or there.

Thank god for Chem, I guess. I do feel like we're actually learning things there, particularly in the lab - the prof explains what we're doing and, more importantly, why, and then kind of leaves us to it, unlike all the metaphorical hand-holding going on in my Bio lab (seriously, the graph I just had to draw up? Hurts my soul. Deeply). I'd start sucking up to profs in hopes of gaining real knowledge, but all the people in Bio I'm dealing with right now are Zoology, not Microbio or Cell Bio.

I totally keep meaning to post here, and then keep totally forgetting, or falling into the 'oh, I'll do it later', and then not sort of thing. Anyway. Good news! I have a job! With similar hours and pay as my old one, but more fun. Not sure how much I'll post about it, though, because it'd be less interesting from an outside perspective, and they're all very big on confidentiality, so most of the really unusual and interesting things I'm not allowed to talk about. But we have criminal record checks and our own radio codes, and it's all very offical-sounding XD;

I also managed to get out of the physics class I may have complained about at some point - it was so painfully, frustratingly easy, so I went and got an exemption from the first-year physics coordinator. She wasn't terribly happy about it, but she gave it to me. Now I have to do really well in 101 just to prove her wrong. And my schedule no longer sucks - that was my eight am, and one of my two days that went until five.

On a slightly more cryptic, personal note - I told her last night. As I expected, it doesn't change anything, really, but I feel better having said something. More than I expected to, actually.

Canadian cell phone plans are so ridiculously bad compared to the US. I had T-Mobile's cheapass plan - $20, 100 anytime minutes and 500 weekend minutes, no roaming or extra long distance fees in the US, and voicemail. The last two bits, from my understanding, are pretty standard in the US, at least.

Not so in Canada. Want to call somewhere out of your area code? Extra thirty cents a minute. Or you could get no extra long distance charges, but pay thirty bucks for one hundred minutes. Total. For the whole month. And as far as I can tell, voice mail is extra.

I need a phone, but this is ridiculous. And yeah, I know, landline is an option, but that unfortunately requires being in the dorm to use, which defeats half the purpose of getting a phone - being able to get in touch with people on the go (the other reason is to have an incoming number people can call - otherwise I'd just use phone cards for four years).

Someone totally needs to write Dante/Virgil in the form of an epic poem. Possibly with sex as a stand-in for war XD; I'd do it myself except I'm absolute crap with meter. Bonus points if it's in terza rima!

(It struck me this morning in English that I possibly know a bit too much about epic poetry, at least for an eighteen-year-old. I blame Dante.)

Just checking in to let people know I am not dead - currently at house Viko, stealing Amber's bedroom. Delicous alcoholic drinks were had, video games were played, and I managed not to get horribly lost on the buses getting here. So yes, good plan.

Aaaand I owe people (and by 'people' largely mean Jo and CoM folks) RP stuff, and have more class-babble, and really really need to scan the beautiful drawing of Ally that Mara did for me (and mail Mara's stuff to her~), but, uh... gonna have to wait until later when I am back at rez and it's not three am. Also there is fic-fluff to be shared.

I need more friends on campus. Preferably ones without a million other friends so I don't feel like a perpetual third wheel. Because exploring Vancouver would be way more fun with someone else.

Also, my Chem prof is also very British, and while less funny than my Bio prof, still awesome.

And someone was playing rock music down the hall at eight am this morning. Not good rock music, either - this was Shinedown or some crap like that (Sorry Jon, but it is crap).

Off to explore by myself, I suppose. No way in hell I'm staying here all afternoon.

So, I am totally in the coolest faculty on campus. Seriously, nobody else has a mascot or their own student building, or undergrad society presidents running around covered in blue greasepaint with the society initials shaved into their head. Also, we get to blow stuff up - the Arts kids had signs saying that Arts was better because it's bigger (never mind that we took up nearly half the gym), and I felt like we should totally have had signs saying 'Science: We Blow Stuff Up'. And I met people in my Bio class who seem at least decently interesting, and got good tips on stuff from our group leader, who's a third year Microbio major who wants to go to med school for the _right_ reasons.

They did the academic procession of all the deans and head faculty to the Imperial Death March, which was pretty much the greatest thing ever. Apparently this is something of a tradition. And the tv on my floor gets House! Which means I'll only have to download Project Runway off the 'net.

But now I am dead from walking around and cheering, so as soon as my laundry is done, I'm crashing.

Unless things change drastically in the next couple of days, I am going to go crazy living here this year. It seems like I may have gotten stuck on a floor more inclined to partying and standing around talking loudly, in the halls that echo like crazy. There are all of two people (out of about twenty) I am at all inclined to actually like.

I went into the city for a while, which provided a bit of a respite. Wandered around the gay section of town, and chatted with one of the clerks in a club-wear store and got tips on where to buy cheap groceries. Bought cheap groceries, and then realized that it's kind of a pain to walk around with lots of groceries, so I came back here, to the noise.

...I think the promise of free food has lured everybody else out. Free food sounds good, but around here 'BBQ' apparently means 'overcooked hamburgers' (and just hamburgers - the cheese either disappears in the first five minutes, or doesn't exist to begin with), and I am sick of that.

Goddamn am I in a foul mood. I think I need to go kill things for a while.

I am so tired - spend the day running around, first trying to find Julie, and then going into Vancouver for a bit. Possibly also still adjusting to PST - I know I mentallly am with friends and stuff, going 'It's only one, where are people?', and then remembering for Winter and Mara it's four am, and for Jo it's three, and thus nobody else is around.

Also have managed to get a bit of a sunburn (my first of the year), but I have groceries! Although nothing to eat them off of, out of, or with, yet. And I have many things to do tomorrow, so I should probably get to bed.

Oh, and ResNet is acting all spazzy - my e-mail keeps timing out from this IP (I can connect via proxy), and AIM died on me (sorry Xandra, I'm not ignoring you, honest). If this keeps up, I'll be on MSN, though, so feel free to poke me there.

Checking in from Toronto, on my aunt and uncle's wireless network (which has a password even more ridiculously long than my own). Peaceful drive over through the width of New York - bit of rain, but nothing too bad. The secret to happy road trips is lots of good music, I think. Thankfully the border crossing went well - we didn't have to wait long, and the customs officer didn't bother looking through my stuff. I hope the airport security people don't decide to go through it either, just because I really don't know if I can get all the stuff I packed back in if they take it out. Our stop by Immigration also went over well - took all of fifteen minutes to get my study permit, and they didn't even look at a bunch of the forms and stuff we brought.

So my dad and I have kind of been hanging out and just chatting with the cousins - I haven't seen any of them in about five years now, so the youngest, who was probably 4'8" when I last saw him is now taller than me. Nice seeing them all again, though.

And I am sad that the only one of my OTPs that has enough decent fic is Remus/Sirius. I discovered that nobody else on LJ lists 'Clow/Yue' as an interest, and the Dante/Virgil fandom is...well, me, largely. And Jo, I guess. Hamlet/Horatio, Cain/Riff, Braska/Auron, Eva/Sparda, even Rufus/Tseng...there's barely any fanbase. And you'd think the fact that I ship Leon/anybody would keep me in fic, but...so much of the RE fic is terrible. Like...unreadably bad. I'd complain about the state of Dante-fic too (I ship Dante/almost everybody), except I'm fairly certain there's lots out there I just can't see.

This is possibly a sign that I should write more, and give some of these a boost. But after sleep...I'm about to crash, I think.