A space to reflect on the university experience and the wider educational journey of life and love.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Kale Chips = AMAZING.

So for our weekly Sunday dinners, we had kale chips as a side dish yesterday!  It was seriously delish.  I think you will very much enjoy not only the health benefits (kale is a wonder food!) but also the melt in your mouth scrum-diddly-umptiousness.

Ingredients:
- Bunch of Kale
- Salt, pepper, chili flakes if you like it hot
- Optional curry powder (I used Moroccan)
- 1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar or other kind of vinegar
- 1 tbsp olive oil

How to:


1. Wash and rip leaves off kale, leaving out the stalk and the rough parts near the center.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Place kale in a baking tray, preferably only one layer, and mix with olive oil and vinegar.

3.  Bake in oven for approx 15-20 minute, until crispy.

4.  Season to taste.  You may also like to include lime juice, lemon, or anything your imagination desires!

(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Sunday night dinners are my favorite, they are a time to bond, a time to enjoy wholesome home-cooked food, a time to relax, a time to laugh, a time to be with friends, a time to try something new, a time to put away the books while taking out the dishes.  I am finding that I am a pretty decent cook!

Oh university traditions.


Thursday, October 27, 2011

Is First Year the Worst Year?

Maybe I am blogging far too frequently.  Anyways.  Wondering your opinion on the first year at university being the most difficult?  Does it get better?  Please say yes!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

A Sacred Place


I think Sikh temples everywhere are, essentially, the same. You are bound to find some kid or probably several, wailing for attention from the bottom of their lungs. You will probably see women in brightly coloured suits gossiping. Most likely there will be some old woman hobbling around demanding things. You will see covered heads, and the aroma of wafting spices will greet you like an old friend. You will taste tradition and you will sit at a table, just like the Gurus imagined, beggar and king together.

Underneath those vivid colours swirling in paths of social spheres, or those deep hushed voices, or the kids screaming, you find something more. It will not seem apparent at first, because the Gurdwara is a place of chaos. But in chaos there is the most creation. Disorganization does not mean confusion. Look deeper. You will see devotion. You will see community. You will see love.

Languages merge at this crossroads of culture. In the cloakroom people will hug and greet in English or Punjabi. Young women may wear lululemon pants and scarves on their heads, or they might be dressed in the traditional salwaar kameez and know all the words to familiar prayers. We will talk about how annoying Indian parents can be about dating, or we will talk about God. There are screens up for translation, but tonight there is only a picture of the Golden Temple all lit up by Diwali fireworks. There is no need for translation in the universal language of Light.

Tonight I stood outside of that sacred place that I have been coming to since I was a baby. I stood outside on a cold Autumn night, surrounded by brown faces that were unfamiliar. I stood staring with them, up into the sky, watching as the Heavens exploded into brilliance. Lights burst into amazing displays, firecrackers make little babies cry, and sparklers and candles light up the darkness. I watch a three year old curly headed Indo-Canadian girl holding a sparkler and marvelling at the world. And in that moment, there is no other way to describe it, I felt like I belonged. I was at home.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

More Poetry on the Moment (unedited)

Marley is telling me to get up and stand up.
Sometimes I just want to curl into a tiny ball and wait for a rescue.
I want to be that damsel in distress, and wallow in salty tear bathwater.
And then I think of all those brave women out there
Who would die for the chance to curl into a ball in my world
Would die to be able to attend lectures I can choose to skip
Would die for a chance to open my books and read and read and read and read and read and read and read


Then all of a sudden I wake up from this trance and I dance
For them. I dance in this privileged place.  I open up the clouds and let the rain pour
And as the earth cries with me I can feel her chocolate smooth skin
 Holding my hand, and I glance at her ripped dress.
Her bed lacking a pillow.  I glimpse at my own bed with seven.
And for each of these blessings that somehow  were sent to me
I send a wish that life will send her a parcel of luck, of hope, of love.
I pray she will be treasured and not exploited.  That she gets the chance
To make her dreams come alive, that she is treated fairly, that she has enough
To eat.  Somewhere warm to sleep.  I pray that she gets to live and be a child.

Someday we will float together on a cloud, dear one.
You and I will hold hands again in a world that is equal and we will cry
Once more.  Not for your loss or my gain or my loss and your gain.  We
will weep because at last it is apparent that no matter the colour of our
skin or where we come from or the way we pronounce love, our hearts
beat in time to a melody that fills me from my toes to fingertips.
As the sun rays bounce of your eyelids I will smile
And know that everything is going to be okay.



* For Rose and Sara

Monday, October 24, 2011

Low (Moods and Marks)

My french teacher in high school once told me getting university marks at first feels like a "slap in the face."  It actually feels more like a full on fist fight.  

I just received my marks back for my first two assignments.   Ladies and gentlemen - they were NOT a pretty sight!! Actually more like a crime scene, bloody and ugly.

I am one of those people who pretends not to take my grades too seriously (and usually I don't) but today I full on wept. WHO CRIES after a bad mark?  Well I do, apparently.

This sucks.  Today I don't like university or hard marking TAs.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Breathing's Just a Rhythm

Regina Spektor is a musical genius.  Her music resonates.

At the moment there is a lot going on for me and for those around me, school-wise and personally, so this song is for all those friends who are having a rough time.  Give it some time and we'll be okay!

Love love love....

This is a clip from Youtube of Regina at Glastonbury.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Wonderings


Did I mention I live with the best suite-mate ever? The lovely Camille...  We have already had so many great times together, in the less than 2 months we have been co-habitants of this beautiful space.   We have tea, we chat, we listen to music, we laugh, we dance.   It makes me wonder whether being roommates first, friends second ,is a better set up than choosing to live with friends you have known for a long time.

What makes roommates work?  I think it is a happy recipe of understanding, compassion, listening, patience, boundaries, flexibility.   We have started a tradition, Camille and I, with some close friends, of Sunday night dinners.  We cook different meals together and have some time to let go. 

At my old school, Pearson College, living with 3 other girls from 3 other continents (IN ONE ROOM) was a constant challenge and joy.  Pearson was often called a big educational experiment because it pushes us so far out of our comfort zones.   Of course that leads to some immense growth and learning.

Speaking of Pearson, we had the most amazing multi-faith spiritual centre.  It was built by students out of local wood, 10 years ago.   It has a fascinating design and it overlooks a brilliant blue bay and is nestled amidst arbutus trees and lovely evergreens.  Few places are so beautiful in which to ponder....and even though the spiritual centre here is not quite so spectacular, I had some great contemplative moments there.  As students many of us are at a crossroads in our journeys, spiritual or otherwise. Having a moment to reflect in whatever way fits for us is critical to developing some much needed peace.  Do you think our exam results would be different if we meditated on a positive mark beforehand? 
spiritual centre at Pearson College

On a completely different note, it was a rough day.   It all spurred from being reprimanded by a prof for writing too much on an assignment.   This may seem like a trivial thing.  What it triggered was a long time history of overachievement and the judgement that comes along with that.  Pearson sort of remedied all those feelings before, since it was a school made of overachievers.   What a weird complex that word carries....It makes it seem like a crime, overachieving.  As if we try to hard, pretend to know everything, that we are egotistical young people who are involved in everything, we do more because we feel inadequate.


I don’t know if any of that is true.   What I do know is this:  when I raise my hand I am aware of 150 and what they think of me.  I feel self-conscious about participating in class.   I feel like the annoying girl with her hand in the air.  I don’t feel like I fit in and I desperately miss the academic engagement that was so every day in my last school.  Maybe I have been spoiled (I mean, who gets to study marine science in a floating building with 9 other people?).  

Do we conform to what we think we should be or do we dance to the beat of our own drum?  Do we take the opportunity to discover our most true self or do we take the path of least resistance?  Why do people come to university, anyway?

Friday, October 14, 2011

What About School, Emmy?

So recently I was looking over my blog which is supposed to be about university - and realized I have posted very little about my actual academic life!  Maybe that says a lot about what I believe to be my "education" or maybe it just means I get easily side-tracked about other tidbits happening and forget my own title of blog.

Here's a short blurb on how academic life is then.   I have my first midterm in less than 30 minutes and I love how I am writing a blog entry instead of cramming. It is for earth science and despite a bit of anxiety, I feel quite okay about it.  It’s just a piece of paper.  It’s just a piece of paper. 

My classes in general are quite spectacular.  I especially love English, Gender Studies, and Sociology.  We have really stimulating debates in sociology, fascinating discussions in both English and GWST and I love how everything overlaps!  Therefore I can sound smart by just repeating something one prof said to another!  Haha.

Well Autumn is surely in the air and the partying has died down a bit.  People are getting their heads down to work and I suppose that is a positive thing.   It’s all about the balance right?

Better go and do a last minute review.

Wish me luck!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Mountain Glory

Thanksgiving this year was a bit different and wonderfully special.  I trekked up to Lake Louise, Alberta with my dear friend Emily to a lodge way off the grid, on the edge of a pale perwinkle lake, nestled in the Rocky Mountains in the evergreen forest. 

 There is beauty in the night silence that lingers on your tongue.  There is a crispness to the air at 2000 meters.  There is a joy in the bouncy earth while hiking with friends.  There is a wonder to feeling like someone knows your soul.  There is a kindness when you realize  you are not alone, even if you are.  There is a comfort in the wind that howls unobstructed.  There is a freedom in the rocks under your shoes.  There is a love that is divine when you are somewhere beautiful with beautiful people.

Please send me more experiences like this.  Please grant me the peace to find this beauty again in places not nearly as spectacular. 
 










Thank you:
- for family
- for friends
- for beautiful experiences
- for amazing places
- for an education
- for a lovely place to live
- for books
- for music
- for skies and trees and butterflies
- for teachers
- for yoga
- for dancing and singing
- for unconditional love


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Poem on the Spur of a Moment, unedited.

Do you know that feeling?
Of settling stones in the pit of your stomach
And you wish it were like a cherry or a plum
and you could just
Eat the juicy fruit
And spit out the pit,
But instead it lands with a
Thud.

And greyness and darkness and blackness
And redness all seem to mix and mesh
That ugliness brown-grey-black results,
Right there in your stomach.
And feelings swirl in  a kaleidoscope
Of colours,
And you don't really know what they mean.

There's the magenta passion of lust
And the cool blue of detached melancholy
And the listless yellow of trying too hard to be happy
And the vibrant green of being alive.
We scribble over these precious
creations because we think it is bad to be sad.

We try furiously to paint another masterpiece
With a sword drenched in our own blood
Not realizing that paintings are made
With a gentle brush and caress
Instead of a violent stabbing.

So on this rainbow day in my cluttered room, I say
Marvel at the illuminated clouds
Because when it rains
You are are left with
Glistening sunshine
On your skin.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Thinking, Thinking

I've been thinking a lot recently.  And thinking kind of big - not in the same way as my sociology class - but more reflective, personal, and emotional. I was wondering what it means to be alive.  First of all, what do you think? 

This modern digital age urged me to go to my one trusted resource: good ole Google.   One of the first things that popped up  was someone else's blog titled " Erosophy:  The Interested, Embodied, Passionate Love of Wisdom"  and I thought I would quote this wise blogger:

"And in the midst of all of this I have realized that this sort of thing is exactly what life is about. Life isn't about picture-perfect family gatherings and smooth sailing all the way. Life is messy, life is painful, life is maddening, life weighs heavily, life is tenuous. And then life is also beautiful: the sound of my grandmother's snoring, the touch of her soft hand, the big bear hug from an uncle, the beautiful honesty and truthfulness that comes in a plea for help. This is what it means to be alive, beautifully, joyously, painfully alive." - http://erosophy.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-it-means-to-be-alive.html

Her comments remind me of the whole idea about our most difficult and chaotic times being the ones with the most potential.  Potential to break our old habits and jolt back to life.  The weird thing is, no matter how bizarre the event or circumstance, we don't necessarily HAVE to start seeing things differently.  Often we can just keep going as if it never happened.  We have the choice about how our experiences shape us.

Okay I think that is enough philosophy for today.