This Week

Haven't had a lot of time to dream about Nepal this week, there are just 2 weeks left in the academic term to go. This means I have 1 group presentation and one individual presentation to give, 1 ten-page paper and 1 20-page paper to write, 1 biostatistics assignment and one stats quiz to live through (I admit it, I struggle with statistics), and one epidemiology exam to survive. If I get through all this, and somehow I will, I will have actually survived my first semester in a graduate level science program, which, if you knew me better, you would realize is hilarious. Although I am nearly the only one of my friends who did not attend art college (yet I have the degree in international development, I make my living as a photographer, and my best friend Julia who was Student President at art college wound up as a diplomat in Ottawa...), I am not especially science-y. Truthfully, I'm somewhere between artsy-fartsy and lab-geek, but closer to artsy on the continuum. Up until now I have been a "social scientist," as evidenced by my degrees in international development studies and sociology. I started university young and without a real plan, I would most likely do it differently if I could start over. For awhile I wanted to go to law school, but my older, cooler, magic mushroom-taking new-age hippy friends told me it would make me evil and talked me out of it. (It's their fault I became a vegetarian too - I was the victim of peer pressure at age 16 - they've all returned to carnivorous diets, I have remained true, but I would probably give it up if I could - my body wouldn't accept meat anymore, it's just been too long. But every now and then one of Michael's donairs smells really good.)

Two more weeks.