International Students @ Concordia

Tick-Tock

I can't believe that its been almost a month and a half since my last blog posting. Time seriously just  flew by. It was only a few weeks ago tha I was complaining that everyone left me and that I was bored and alone in Montreal, again.

Things most certainly picked up...work at the Concordia Student Union (your union!) has become so crazy and stressful that the mere thought of the weekend feels like a retreat away back to some semblance of sanity. I know it sounds dramatic but trust me, this is the epitome of Concordia student life and advocacy and with people coming at you in every single direction, its pretty easy to lose focus. Thankfully, I am working with a fantastic team thats always there to help if ever theres anything anyone needs help with. Instant relief.

One thing I am super excited about is CSU Orientation '08. If you're a returning student then you know what I mean...and if you're new in town then get ready for two weeks of crazy fun. The things we have planned are sure to cater to everyones interests and I can't wait for September 2nd to come around!

With this being August 15th (it's my birthday tomorrow btw, just saying) that means everyone is flying into town looking for apartments, finding out where everything on campus and around Montreal is, trying to figure everything out...don't forget that there are A LOT of people who would love to answer your questions within the University. If you feel overwhelmed, just take it all in. Its all part of being a new student therefore, for some of you, this is the only time in your life you're going to get to experience this :)

Summer In the City

It's been a while since I've 'blogged' about my experiences here. It's not from a lack of interest, its purely due to the fact that everyone has left the country and I'm left all alone stuck in my new office working.

One thing that sucks about being an international student who doesn't get to go home during the summer is that...you start to notice the fact that EVERYONE goes home for the summer. Of course you have the few random people who do stay behind (where are you people anyways?), but on the most part its annoying that so many great festivals happen and so few people to enjoy them with.

It's always at this point that I remember that making friends actually from Montreal is a wise choice as they don't often have a fun destination to head back to once Winter semester says its goodbyes.

On a much happier note, it seems that every store in downtown Montreal has decided to go on a massive sale frenzy...which automatically means loads of new clothes for Elie. Yipee.

Anyways, just thought I'd check in on ya, feel free to contact me if any newbies in town have any questions!

Talkin' 'bout My G-G-Generation

I just wanted to share with you a small hilarious incident that happened to me yesterday while waiting for the 24 bus.

Here I was standing innocently at the end of the line of scattered people all dressed similarly to me. They were all young as well and weren't doing anything exceptionally interesting except waiting for the bus. Out of nowhere, a gentleman who seemed to be in his mid-60s walked by us and just as he passed me at the end of the line whispered "Damn, crazy generation!" under his breathe.

I have no problems with people expressing themselves  and I think it's quite funny that he did it so openly. Sure, it was disrespectful...but when someone acts in such a stereotypical fashion all I could do was crack a smile. A very,very big one.

Aaahh, spring!

Just wanted to make a note of the fact that every year, there is one day where the residents of the lovely city of Montreal all decide to venture out into the city streets dressed in...dare I say it?...shorts and tank tops, flip flops and gladiator sandals to enjoy the blessed and long awaited first day of spring.

I made the mistake of thinking that I was going to have a nice calm stroll downtown on Sunday, only to find myself stuck in a herd of tourists, crazy shoppers, and just about everyone else in between. I think its hilarious how people come out like prisoners who were just released from a year in jail. Oh well, might as well enjoy it I say.

Today's Moral: Just when we think that we've just about had enough of the rain, snow, and windy days of Montreal, spring graces us with its presence and all the grey and depressing months we spent huddled at home are a distant memory. Thats why we tend to spend every possible moment enjoying the sun and cool breeze since four months from now, we'll be seeing orange leaves on the street again.

Mount Concordia

Sorry, sorry, sorry for not posting up in a little while. Catching up schoolwork after the campaign ended as well as getting my life back on track was quite the ordeal. Thankfully, we won the election so I will be at Concordia for one more year working at the Concordia Student Union! This would make it my sixth year at this university...can you tell I have mild attachement issues?

Something else I have to celebrate about right now is that with all the running around, writing papers, and handing in projects...it suddenly struck me today as I handed in my last final exam to the invigilator that I am officially done with school this year. Now for a Concordia student to say that means we just climbed Mount Everest without a tent on an especially cold week.

Now I can entertain myself with the thought that every. single. person is either at the Library buried under their books or updating their Facebook statuses telling the world that they are very tired of writing papers and/or how many papers/exams they have left.

While I wait for everyone to finish up, I'm going to be spending the next three days serving coffee to students at the Library building as a form of giving them a break from academic torture. I'll probably need the coffee myself just looking at them with the bags under their eyes...yearning to be outside in the new spring weather ;)

Moral: Even when you're done with you're work, its great to take some time out of your day to help give back to your peers. Its a great way to engage your community...and fill up some of your time. So if you feel like you have some time on your hands, volunteer!

...and the moral is:

A lot can change over a few weeks.

In my last post, I was looking over my schedule and my impending graduation after five years here and it all seemed bleak and scary. I hope I didn't turn people off. I tend to over dramatize my thoughts sometimes (especially when compared to my cheerful fellow bloggers hehe!), but I AM a Creative Writing and Human Relations student after all. It's all about self-expression people! I also decided to add a 'Moral of todays post' at the end of each blog. Don't ask why. Just play along.

Being at the end of March, I was thinking back the other day that it was this time a little over five years ago that I was anxiously awaiting for my acceptance letter from Concordia to arrive. It was such a weird feeling to anticipate a letter that would dictate such a large aspect of my life. Thankfully, five years later, I can say that deciding to come here was one of the best decisions I made as a 16 year old highschool graduate (yes, I came to Concordia when I was just 16).

And here I am now. I doub't my 16 year old self would have forseen me doing this, but I decided a little while ago to postpone my graduation and run for a one year job/position at our Concordia Student Union(CSU) as VP Communications. I just finished two weeks of campaigning and it was amazing to take the time and talk to students and finding out what they need from our school. The beauty of university life is that it allows us to make decisions like these a little quicker than it would later on in our lives/careers. 

Moral of today's post: Anyone coming into Concordia for Fall 2008 or still in the first few years here, lets get one thing clear: make sure to keep in mind that the course you set our for yourselves when you initially started here is very likely to change and evolve just like you will. It would be best to just go along with the ride and see where it takes you. Its fun ;) 

March Madness

As all potential students will soon discover (and all current students fully understand), March is quite possibly the single most insane month of all of the academic year. You have year-long projects due, pages upon pages worth of essays to write, more readings than humanly possible, and big 'final events' of every single association on campus that you simply must attend.

A post concerning this topic would usually be more fitting perhaps a few weeks into the month but the sheer anticipation of all the workload is making me shudder. I have very often heard my colleages and friends claim it to be an obstacle course where the odds are rarely in your favour. And most of the time, it sure feels like one.

But one thing that we all tend to forget that the impending doom that is March is the epitome of student life in its entirety. It's always the case that in June or July, where everything has been handed in and all the events were attended, I always look back and oddly miss the chaos, the sleepless nights, and the constant testing of my patience (hehe!). It's such a unique experience, especially for people involved at school or really believe in volunteering their time for whatever cause it may be, to be able to balance both aspects of one's schedule, come out accomplishing so much and have your battle scars to prove it. In this case, the scars being the bags under your eyes or the empty cups of coffee in your sink, but to each his own ;) 

And with that, on the first Monday of the month, all I can say is...Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!*

Oh and I just wanted to second what my fellow blogger, Audrey, said about Marion Cottilard's Oscar win. Most deserving win of the night in my humble opinion.

*Quote taken from All About Eve. Quite possibly one of the best movies about Hollywood and ego's ever made.   

Limbo

I’m on my seventh day into Spring Break and everyone and their mother is in New York right now. I don’t get to go to go because I don’t have a VISA to the states. I think a trip down to the city that never sleeps would have given me exactly what I needed right now to shake away this bizarre lull that’s hanging over my head.

Every day, I attempt to bucke down and tell myself that I’m definitely going to be finishing all the assignments, papers, and projects that my lovely professors gave me to hand in right as we get back to school next week. But alas, the powers of procrastination should never be underestimated. (Especially when the thought that there’s more than 60 hours left until school starts creeps its way as an opposing argument to actually doing work.)

Not helping matters whatsoever, I will in fact be graduating soon. Yipee. After four and a half years here at Concordia, I have a few concrete ideas (key word being ‘few’) on where I want to be ‘when I grow up’. You never really relate to people in this situation until you realize that you’ve pushed away this discussion with yourself to the last, final semester you have.

I guess I should just have more coffee and continue my highly productive day of lying around and listening to AOL radio (Indietronica in case you were wondering).

It'll come to me eventually I’m sure.

Open House/ Portes Ouvertes 3

3:16: ...so I was supposed to be here a lot earlier but for some reason, I wrote down the wrong timeslot in my trusty agenda. Oh well, I'm here now so lets not dwell on the past.

Its a little anxiety inducing being in this chair, almost like people walking by expect genius from my fingertips. I can see some friendly Open House volunteers staring at the screen as this is being typed. Self-conscious much?

3:34: I love Open House. Every year, we get this fresh, clean batch of inquisitive new students who know next to nothing about our University and are thankful for every little piece of information we can offer. I almost can't remember what it was like for me 5 years ago. Okay I'm lying. I can remember...I was terrified beyond belief. So many papers. So many requirements. All I wanted to do was run back home and rent a movie. Oh what 5 years does to a person.

3:46: This thing is winding down slowly. The end of fairs or exhibitions like these is always a very slow death. Lingering passerbys ask their final questions. The last of the free pens are snatched away. I love free things.

I think thats how I'm going to end this. Talk to you soon my dedicated and lovely readers.  Be strong and try not to curse the heavens because of the weather.

All that glitters...is actually gold

As difficult as it is to not sound cheesy or cliché but I have to proclaim that it has become increasingly difficult to make the trek back home. Already being terrified to fly, having my flight get canceled twice, missing my connecting flight and being delayed for ten hours in London, finally reaching Dubai and finding out that my suitcases did nor arrive with me...all the while being on a total of six anti anxiety pills.

But the more interesting difficulty comes in the form of actually being home. After living with my similarly minded siblings for four years in Montreal, it is always a fascinating and comedic struggle between the person I was and who I am now. But living away from home, especially when your home is Dubai, has provided me with the opportunity to stretch the boundaries of where my personality can take me and who I can become amid the halls of Concordia. And the beauty of seeing these changes in the eyes of those of who knew you is worth spending those fifteen hours in the airplane awaiting your mighty return back to the city that wants to be the next city that never sleeps.

The problem with being an international student is this precise situation. We spend years away from home formulating characters that give us leverage to think outside the box. Then we come back home and the box is there for us to crawl back into it. Within this box, we sit through awkward exchanges where we try to explain to each and every enthusiastic relative what exactly it is we study and why we didn’t decide to become doctors. Then there’s the customary subtle pry into our love lives and finally ends up with the comfortable and familiar discussion on the weather and just how difficult Montreal winter is.

There's also the amazing re-discovery of just how changed Dubai has become. Gripped with a constant need for advancement on the world stage and providing the most luxurious (everything you can think of!), the most appropriate description would be to compare the city to a Beverly Hills wife addicted to plastic surgery. Beautiful. Superficial. Continuously changing.

It can be funny and it can be frustrating. But without these time warped two weeks, we wouldn’t get the comfort of our mothers doing our laundry. We forget about re-applying for our study permits. Finding the cheapest and fastest lunch in between our 2:30 to 2:45 classes becomes a distant memory. What we end up with is perspective. Perspective on the people we were and the reasons we chose to pursue an education outside this comfortable environment and get the opportunity to get those extra hours of sleep. We recharge and remember that it’s the challenge and the experience that we were chasing in the first place. Concordia will still be there when we get back. For now, we may as well watch another few hours of sitcoms without the guilt of final exams looming in the back of our minds.