Cars Suck

After helping Heather with her car shopping on Saturday, I realize once again how incredibly expensive cars are. Even if you go for cheapo ghetto car, you have to use it almost daily to justify having it. I did some quick calculations last night out of curiosity and realized that if I rented a car EVERY weekend of the year, it would be the equivalent of a lease of about $151CAD/month - now THAT'S a cheap car! However, if it is your only way to get to your workplace, you’re pretty stuck.

Convenience is expensive!

What ever happens, I realize how lucky I am.

There’s no arguing it; I am in a crappy situation in the sense that the two exams that I am shortly writing one day after the other will determine the course of my life for the next couple years. If I do not achieve the ridiculously high grades arbitrarily pulled from a hat by the department of Mechanical Engineering, they no longer wish for me to attend their school.

With that said, I realized tonight that I am very happy that I took the decision to give it a try. Over the past couple of months, not only have I buried myself in some books and learned a whole bunch about tensor calculus and other *exciting* things, I have had many positives come of it. Firstly, I have had the chance to live with some fantastic housemates that are not only a lot of fun, but have been extremely patient with my Ontarian French. They have gently corrected my faults such that I am far more proficient now than when I arrived in September. Secondly, I have also met some great people through the McGill Cycling team. We strange spandex clad creatures are hard to come by and I am really lucky to have been able to train with them over this fall. I have also met some really interesting people through my classes. Although it sucks struggling through a class where the average is 40%, the toil has made a group of us bond and I have come to know some very cool people from all parts of the globe.

No matter what the outcome of the next couple of weeks is, I am happy to have spent this time in Montreal.

With that said, I am still working my a** off!

There’s a problem I’ve never had before. There was a smokin’ party chez us last night where my housemates and I all invited our friends from school. Some friends of mine showed up, but only one of which had English as her first language. Her French is coming along and she can understand French, but understandibly the speaking and understanding really fast drunken French is a little tougher.

All conversations in the party were in French since I’d say the population was about 80% from France and 10% French areas of Canada. Whenever she joined a conversation (which happens often at a party), we all sort of stared at each other wondering which language to speak; effectively having to make a choice as to who we were going to exclude from the conversation.

I don't like discluding people like that.

Why do people smoke?

I guess my teamwork is coming along.

I was once an individual racer who had trouble adopting the team mentality necessary for Adventure Racing. I learned this weekend at the Queen’s Hammer Dash ‘n Burn off-road duathlon that I am on the road to the opposite.

On my final lap of the bike leg, I was just in front of a McGill teammate who I know is a stronger runner. I decided to ease up to get him in my draft and pull him into the transition so that on the final trail run he could reel in someone else in front of us from another team. Although the strategy ended up not working, it still felt kind of strange to reflect upon my new-found team-oriented instinct. This was certainly an idea that a pre-AR Andrew would have never conjured.

Overall, McGill did very well with a 3, 4, 5, 6th place in the Men’s Vet Long Course (I ended up 5th, yay for my first du!), 3rd in Women’s Vet Long Course and other great finishes.

Good work team!

A student surrounded in Christmas decos and music in Loblaws brings on opposing emotions; the joy of impending rejoice and vacation quickly followed by the deep emptiness felt where much knowledge must be crammed prior to said celebration.

Here comes the crunch!

In a world where problems seem to amass to insurmountable heights and individuals believe they have been unfairly stricken with what they are forced to face, we pause to remember why we are allowed to allow such *relatively* trivial details consume the entirety of our consciousness. Relative to what? Relative to the problem of having your life dangling from a shoestring. Relative to opening your eyes each morning wondering who in the room will not do the same the following morning. Relative to the fatal irony of having to take a stranger’s life simply to prevent him from taking yours all the while knowing that the same thought is going through his mind. Relative to the suffering and feelings of guilt that last a lifetime for those who manage to survive. Relative to having the images of your closest comrades imitate the most gruesome R rated movies every time you close your eyes. Relative to the suffering of the loved ones of every one of those that were not fortunate enough to survive. Relative to the realities of war.

Why did these brave men and women endure such hardships? They fought so that none others would have to endure what they did. They fought to ensure freedom for their successors. They defended peace in our land and fought to end conflict in another land. They did NOT fight to aggress and create conflict Mr. Bush…oops, that’s another issue.

Remember and give thanks often; just do it for a little longer on November 11th. Thanks again Grandad!

Why individuals in our society feel jubilation for something as trivial as having their picture somewhere public, I have no idea. But I’m not going to question for now!

Check out the Maclean’s Universities website and you’ll see the results of being in the right place at the right time. I think that the greatest thing is that I’m sitting in a McGill University library wearing a University of Waterloo (1st overall!) shirt.

It’s too bad I’m ugly, nice picture otherwise!

Okay, now I’m really back on the wagon with my new format! Since I was out of the web logging routine when this happened, I think it’s fair that I get to comment:

Question: What is scariest?

a) flying through the air after your bike hit a huge rock and anticipating what you are about to land on.
b) the split second that begins when you realize that someone is in the process of running a red light and the collision between their car and your bike is inevitable and ends with the collision itself.
c) the fact that a small group of extremist individuals can rig an election of one of the most powerful nations on the planet and successfully pursue a personal agenda not representative of the majority of the nation’s while making transparent excuses as to why such actions are taken.
d) the fact that a democratic nation can voluntarily elect said leader again because he claims that he will rid the world of other extremists.
e) the irony of d)