The past few weeks
Jul. 12th, 2015 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimviewBecause I've been virtually silent here; time to update on things of late.
So, June? Mostly reading shit for thesis stuff. Nothing too exciting there, really; hanging around Sydney (Cape Breton, not Australia), working away, and... that was about it.
A couple of small hikes around the island, though, which were cool - trails mostly on the northeast end, out by Louisbourg.
Mostly, though, June was uneventful.
The "mostly" comes in due to heading back to Halifax for 10 days, June 27-July 8th.
Saturday June 27th
Drove back to Halifax, which was good. Went to a friend's birthday party thing, which was mostly good; met some new people, had a few drinks, saw a bunch of friends, etc. All good, if a bit draining. Then it got weird on my way out.
Why did it get weird? Because, the second I walked out the door to say goodbye and head home, the friend whose birthday it was turned to me and said (and I quote) "Hey, good to see you, you should go now." And patted me on the arm patronisingly. Now, my natural reaction to something like that is to be somewhat affronted but laugh it off (especially as she was stupidly drunk), but she kept pressuring it, and eventually leaned in to "whisper" (at normal talking volume) that she needed to have a private conversation with the other two people there. Which is a fucking shitty way of asking for privacy.
If she had just straight up said, when I came out, "Hey, it was good to see you! I need to talk to these guys for a bit, but we'll catch up soon, okay? Have a good night!" I'd have had zero problem with just saying good night right there and walking off. But instead she had to make it super fucking awkward and weird, so now - two weeks later - how she did it is still bothering me. (Though I've told her so, so I'm not exactly bottling this up. It's just leftover annoyance.)
Pretty much uneventful. Did a bit of thesis-related work, hung out with friends. 'Bout it.
Canada Day
Wandered Halifax and enjoyed the free music and stuff going on in the afternoon, blew a whole bunch of money at Strange Adventures (Halifax's best comics shop), and then hung out reading comics until the evening, when I went over to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while. Had some beers, sat in the drizzling rain on their porch until it got chilly, then sat inside and chatted until 10:30 or so; walked home, watched a bit of Netflix, and fell asleep. All in all, pretty relaxed - and therefore successful - Canada Day.
The Thursday and Friday of that week were also uneventful; just thesis readings all day.
Went for an awesome hike on the Saturday with a couple of friends through Duncan's Cove, just outside Halifax. About two and a half hours on a trail "meant" to take 3-4 (most of Nova Scotia's trail times are rated for family groups, not three people in their early-mid 20s). Great weather for it, too; was about 24 C and windy, so kept us fairly cool throughout. Hell of a place - some great rocky shores, heath above it to hike through, cliffs, and a few old World Wars-era bunkers that were used to spot Axis ships that might be preparing to harass Allied merchant or naval vessels. (Halifax was, and is, a very important port.)
Sunday was spent going to the Farmer's Market with those same friends, then grabbing some beers with them at a waterfront beer garden/patio. Everyone went home by mid-afternoon, then we met up again for frozen yogurt at 9 PM, just as dusk was settling in. Then we played Carcassonne until half past midnight. Sunday was a very very good day.
Monday - uneventful.
Tuesday
First visit out to Wolfville, where I met with the prof who was in charge of my directed reading course, got a great lunch, and a tour of Acadia University's (beautiful) campus. Neat little town, there - farms and shops right on the Bay of Fundy. Beautiful place, and a great way to spend an afternoon.
Got back to Halifax for dinner, then went to see Jurassic World (a second time) with the friends I was hanging out with on Sunday. Still a good, but not great, film. It mostly makes me want to re-watch the first Jurassic Park film.
Wednesday
Drove back to Cape Breton under awesome cloudy skies. It was pretty, and the temperatures weren't so warm as to make 4 hours in the car unpleasant. Got here, did a reading or two, made sandwiches for dinner, and lounged around the house.
Thursday/Friday
Thesis shit, woooooo. Set up a meeting for Monday (tomorrow) with supervisors, so that should be interesting.
Oh, I also started and finished Sense8 over those two days. I'll post about that at some point. In general, it was subpar, despite a lot of things that SHOULD have made it good. It really, really failed to deliver.
Saturday
Rib Fest! In retrospect, ordering a full chunk of corn bread, a pulled pork sandwich, and four ribs to myself was probably a bit much. Delicious, but I basically fell into a food coma about two hours after finishing eating. (This may have also been somewhat dehydration-driven. Not sure, as I was drinking a lot of water, but yeah.)
That night, went out to a party with my landlords and an acquaintance they introduced me to, met a whole bunch of Cape Breton folks (most of them, like myself, transplants from elsewhere in the country), listened to (and sang) some songs in the backyard, and generally had a good time. Needed a night like that, I think. Simple meeting people and hanging out.
Today
Slept right up until the start of a Student Society meeting I had to call into (I was up! barely), then sat there through the video call and chimed in occasionally. Nothing terribly relevant there, except the general consensus among all of us to be happy to hand Student Society duties to the new year's students come October.
This evening, though, was great. Drove down to Port Hawkesbury for their weekly summer concert series, and thus got to see Sarah Harmer play for free. Right on the waterfront of the town, with a couple of windmills in the distance on the Nova Scotian mainland. It was great. Definitely worth the hour and a half drive there and back (as in, three hours total) for the hour and a half or so that she played.
Plus, I got to see a good chunk of Cape Breton at dusk today - and Cape Breton at dusk is ridiculously pretty. (And listened to The Strombo Show the whole way back, which I haven't gotten to do in a while, so that was great. I need to start making a habit of tuning in to Strombo every week again.)
So all in all, the past week or so has been pretty great. The month or so before that... not so eventful. :P
So, June? Mostly reading shit for thesis stuff. Nothing too exciting there, really; hanging around Sydney (Cape Breton, not Australia), working away, and... that was about it.
A couple of small hikes around the island, though, which were cool - trails mostly on the northeast end, out by Louisbourg.
Mostly, though, June was uneventful.
The "mostly" comes in due to heading back to Halifax for 10 days, June 27-July 8th.
Saturday June 27th
Drove back to Halifax, which was good. Went to a friend's birthday party thing, which was mostly good; met some new people, had a few drinks, saw a bunch of friends, etc. All good, if a bit draining. Then it got weird on my way out.
Why did it get weird? Because, the second I walked out the door to say goodbye and head home, the friend whose birthday it was turned to me and said (and I quote) "Hey, good to see you, you should go now." And patted me on the arm patronisingly. Now, my natural reaction to something like that is to be somewhat affronted but laugh it off (especially as she was stupidly drunk), but she kept pressuring it, and eventually leaned in to "whisper" (at normal talking volume) that she needed to have a private conversation with the other two people there. Which is a fucking shitty way of asking for privacy.
If she had just straight up said, when I came out, "Hey, it was good to see you! I need to talk to these guys for a bit, but we'll catch up soon, okay? Have a good night!" I'd have had zero problem with just saying good night right there and walking off. But instead she had to make it super fucking awkward and weird, so now - two weeks later - how she did it is still bothering me. (Though I've told her so, so I'm not exactly bottling this up. It's just leftover annoyance.)
Pretty much uneventful. Did a bit of thesis-related work, hung out with friends. 'Bout it.
Canada Day
Wandered Halifax and enjoyed the free music and stuff going on in the afternoon, blew a whole bunch of money at Strange Adventures (Halifax's best comics shop), and then hung out reading comics until the evening, when I went over to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while. Had some beers, sat in the drizzling rain on their porch until it got chilly, then sat inside and chatted until 10:30 or so; walked home, watched a bit of Netflix, and fell asleep. All in all, pretty relaxed - and therefore successful - Canada Day.
The Thursday and Friday of that week were also uneventful; just thesis readings all day.
Went for an awesome hike on the Saturday with a couple of friends through Duncan's Cove, just outside Halifax. About two and a half hours on a trail "meant" to take 3-4 (most of Nova Scotia's trail times are rated for family groups, not three people in their early-mid 20s). Great weather for it, too; was about 24 C and windy, so kept us fairly cool throughout. Hell of a place - some great rocky shores, heath above it to hike through, cliffs, and a few old World Wars-era bunkers that were used to spot Axis ships that might be preparing to harass Allied merchant or naval vessels. (Halifax was, and is, a very important port.)
Sunday was spent going to the Farmer's Market with those same friends, then grabbing some beers with them at a waterfront beer garden/patio. Everyone went home by mid-afternoon, then we met up again for frozen yogurt at 9 PM, just as dusk was settling in. Then we played Carcassonne until half past midnight. Sunday was a very very good day.
Monday - uneventful.
Tuesday
First visit out to Wolfville, where I met with the prof who was in charge of my directed reading course, got a great lunch, and a tour of Acadia University's (beautiful) campus. Neat little town, there - farms and shops right on the Bay of Fundy. Beautiful place, and a great way to spend an afternoon.
Got back to Halifax for dinner, then went to see Jurassic World (a second time) with the friends I was hanging out with on Sunday. Still a good, but not great, film. It mostly makes me want to re-watch the first Jurassic Park film.
Wednesday
Drove back to Cape Breton under awesome cloudy skies. It was pretty, and the temperatures weren't so warm as to make 4 hours in the car unpleasant. Got here, did a reading or two, made sandwiches for dinner, and lounged around the house.
Thursday/Friday
Thesis shit, woooooo. Set up a meeting for Monday (tomorrow) with supervisors, so that should be interesting.
Oh, I also started and finished Sense8 over those two days. I'll post about that at some point. In general, it was subpar, despite a lot of things that SHOULD have made it good. It really, really failed to deliver.
Saturday
Rib Fest! In retrospect, ordering a full chunk of corn bread, a pulled pork sandwich, and four ribs to myself was probably a bit much. Delicious, but I basically fell into a food coma about two hours after finishing eating. (This may have also been somewhat dehydration-driven. Not sure, as I was drinking a lot of water, but yeah.)
That night, went out to a party with my landlords and an acquaintance they introduced me to, met a whole bunch of Cape Breton folks (most of them, like myself, transplants from elsewhere in the country), listened to (and sang) some songs in the backyard, and generally had a good time. Needed a night like that, I think. Simple meeting people and hanging out.
Today
Slept right up until the start of a Student Society meeting I had to call into (I was up! barely), then sat there through the video call and chimed in occasionally. Nothing terribly relevant there, except the general consensus among all of us to be happy to hand Student Society duties to the new year's students come October.
This evening, though, was great. Drove down to Port Hawkesbury for their weekly summer concert series, and thus got to see Sarah Harmer play for free. Right on the waterfront of the town, with a couple of windmills in the distance on the Nova Scotian mainland. It was great. Definitely worth the hour and a half drive there and back (as in, three hours total) for the hour and a half or so that she played.
Plus, I got to see a good chunk of Cape Breton at dusk today - and Cape Breton at dusk is ridiculously pretty. (And listened to The Strombo Show the whole way back, which I haven't gotten to do in a while, so that was great. I need to start making a habit of tuning in to Strombo every week again.)
So all in all, the past week or so has been pretty great. The month or so before that... not so eventful. :P
