The pressure's on

When you are a college student (and pretty much anyone else in the world) you have a certain amount of pressure in your life. I was originally going to only focus on one type of pressure. But in the interest of full disclosure I'll share several sorts of the pressure I get at school.

1. Grad school applications: So you've spent the last three years figuring out what it is you want to do with your life? That's good. However the hardest part now is j through all the hoops to make it happen. I finished the on-line portion of the Alberta application a few days ago. But I am still far from done. I have to get letters of recommendation, write a statement of purpose, get transcripts from my schools, and recover the sacred Incan idol from the sun temple by the next harvest moon. One of those wasn't true, although I'm not telling which. Anyways today I hope to get my statement of purpose done. But first I want to read an article in a book which was written by the person who I hope to have be my advisor. A major part of this job will be schmoozing. And it's nice to have some schmooze fodder if you can get it.

2. Financial pressure: In Sweden grad students are paid employess of the state and get salaries and vacation days. That doesn't happen here. So far I've been searching for a job and all I've come up with is the non-paying one. It's a great job, don't get me wrong but a second great job, one which pays real money, may be better. I've looked around but still haven't found anything that fits my schedule and I am qualified for. To give you an idea of the strange lengths you have to go to to get a job here: last year I wanted a job and so looked on-line at library positions here on campus. They said to go to the library. So I went. There was nothing I could do. So I went again, and again. Finally there was an appropriate job. Success! They gave you a website to go to apply. So I went back. It was a website, through the MYUW webpage and it had all the library jobs posted but you had to jump through all those hoops to get there first. I guess it was to weed out all the non-athletic candidates who would rather toss the hoops or perhaps do a little hula dance with them instead.

3. Water pressure: Okay so it's more of a heat issue than a water pressure issue but there are two floor to ceiling pipes in my room. I learned the hard way my first few years that they get very hot during the day turning my room from a place to study to a sauna. Saunas are all right when you can get out and get in the cold pool. For a place to live it's a bit excessie. Even though we put insulation over them it still gets way too hot forcing me to open my windows, which I am trying to do less this year. Now I really shouldn't complain about bad temperatures too much seeing as how two weeks ago in Edmonton it was in the 90s and now it is below freezing and snowing during the warmest part of the day. Soon enough I'll be there and have a whole new set of issues to blog about.

And now the reason I started writing this blog in the first place

4. Pressure I am putting on my sister to get her to blog again: Yesterday I only had one class to go to. 1:00-2:20 and then I was done. I also had a punch card filled out for a free bowl of Pho. So I texted Chelsea and asked her if she had eaten yet and if she wanted to have lunch. I hadn't really seen her much this week so we took this chance to catch up a little. I can assure you all that I told her in no uncertain terms that she needs to blog again and that she has a lot to talk about. Hopefully this means that she wil start soon. She has been very busy though and hasn't even had a chance to check the blogs recently. She has been alerted though.

So there you have it. Apparently pressure plays a major part in the life of a student. And I have more to look forward to. At least I know which sort of pressure I'm choosing. One of the benefits of being in a relationship with a grad student is seeing how everything works before you start school yourself. So with that I shall end this edition of the Braunsey Blog. Hope you all have relatively pressure free days.