School begins!

This past week I was finally able to calm my back to school nerves. It was nice to get it out of the way actually. When I anticipate something for a long time, I often reach the point of wanting to just 'get it over with'! I was like that with moving too. We talked, planned, prepared, answered questions, explored various options and packed billions of boxes. When it finally came time to move, I actually felt a huge sense of relief. It was kind of the same with school. On Tuesday and Wednesday I had orientation sessions. The first was just a chance to meet faculty and students in IDS and the second was for all new students in the faculty of grad studies. Both helped me to ease into things around Dal. Since then I've had two classes: one for Gender and Development and the other for Development and the Philosophy of Social Science. It is refreshing to be back in my field and thinking about development again. However, I wasn't exactly thinking it was fantastic as I ploughed through the readings for philosophy last evening. Oh how my brain has forgotten academic-speak! Those readings are heavy. Still nice to use my brain again though! I really love the campus too. It is quite beautiful and old and I like spending time there.

Here is my back to school picture!

As I mentioned in my last post, I started one more sewing project to help ease back into the swing of things. Here are a few shots of the chitenge placemats I've been working on.  There is a different chitenge on each side so it is reversible!  Actually, we've been working on it together, because Matthew helped with pinning and drawing on the pencil lines for me to machine quilt it. We had a mini assembly line going. So fun!

Here they are without binding. (I'll post some more once they are complete.)

This is a shot of one of my favourite chitenges. I think it is beautiful! 

Don't you want to come for supper and eat supper on one of these?! 

Milestones

Today I have been on this earth for 28 years. That sounds quite old to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sensitive about my age or afraid of becoming old. Quite the contrary in fact: I can never remember how old I am! When people ask me "How old are you?" or worse, "How old is your husband?" I have a moment of panic, because I do not know the answer! I've even been known to say the wrong age just to give an answer. Of course, I don't realize that I've said the wrong age until it is usually too late to correct myself or too embarrassing. Isn't that strange? How can somebody not know their age? I think this is why I am always surprised when I do pause to consider my age and I think, "How did I get to be that old?" I am not disappointed by it though, because I think I have wanted to be "grown up" my whole life. Yet I am learning that "being grown up" is a strange thing.  I keep waiting to "feel" grown up but I rarely do.  I am beginning to think that such a feeling will never come, because every stage of life is new and one must continually figure out each chapter as it comes along.

I think I must mark milestones in life by markers other than age, such as where I was living, what hair cut I had, what my favourite clothes were, who I was with, what I was reading or studying, etc.  I don't know why but its the way it is. Until I was about 25, I was always inclined to say that I was 19. Which may indicate that 19 was a big year for me, and it indeed it was: I was living in Zambia, had long hair, wore chitenge skirts/tank tops/pata-pata shoes (flip flops) and a jean jacket nearly every day, had the sweetest tan of my life, and experienced some of the most influential events and formed some of the best relationships of my life. It was a life-changing year. A game changer.

Now, life certainly did not stop at 19. I have continued to have amazing experiences, meet fantastic people, and I began to share my life with my best friend 4 years ago.  I have many markers of time since then: working at Procurity, living at home, living with my roomies, dating Matthew, going to Estonia, studying CERTESL, going to Zambia with Matthew and Alisha, starting University, being engaged, getting married, both of us being full-time students, Emmanuelle being born, graduating, Matthew graduating, and soon starting an MA. And there are several smaller indicators of time under each of those markers. Time is amazing to me: memories can feel so far and near all at once.

I am thankful for the many experiences I've had so far. I live an extremely blessed life. I am particularly blessed to go through it all with Matthew. Sharing memories with another person adds a certain richness to life. So, here is to hoping that the next year is full of many more wonderful experiences, relationships, and memories. Also, it would be nice if my memory could start to take notice of my age and remember that I am, indeed, 28. That would ease the panic I feel every time I'm asked the dreaded age question.  They do say that wisdom comes with age, so perhaps I will have gained enough wisdom over the past 28 years that I will finally start to remember it!

The calm before the storm

The last while has been lovely in many ways. We have had absolutely no schedule and no responsibility. That is refreshing. We have enjoyed staying up late watching random movies, some from home and some borrowed from the public library. Sleeping late has become the regular schedule. We've had time to read, bake, cook some delicious meals, walk to the harbour, become familiar with our 'regular stops' in the city (like grocery stores), and experiment taking the bus to a few different places. Rest is good.

Of course, this can't go on forever. Real life will start next week for me as I begin grad school with a couple of Orientation Week activities and then my very first class on Friday. The following week will be full and I'll even get to go to the first session of the undergrad class that I will be a teaching assistant for; it is called International Development and Activism. Should be right up my alley!

The other day my idleness caught up with me though. (If you didn't know, I don't really 'do' life at a slow pace.) I started to feel anxious about Matthew not having a job and then started to worry about school and not knowing where on earth I had to go for my classes. I decided that I won't allow worry to ruin my rest. So I headed downstairs and ran on the treadmill for a bit to get some endorphins pumping through my body. Then I came upstairs, cleaned up and pulled out my sewing stuff. I had just enough time for one last creative project before classes start and I started to make chitenge placemats. (Even though we don't have a table in our dining room yet, they will be useful eventually!) It felt so good to pull out material and start ironing, starching, and cutting. Yesterday I even found my way to a fabric store and got some solid material to use as the border. Last night Matthew helped me to pin on some borders. Today, the sewing begins! I don't know what it is about a project like this, but it is so inspiring and motivating. I just love it! And they are going to be so nice. I'll post pics in the next couple days.