Ottawa - Week 3

Another week has come and gone so fast. Doesn't it ever feel like we are just floating along the river of time, always forward, no matter how much we wish it not?

This week in Ottawa was quite interesting, because on Monday I handed in my first ever assignments to be graded! I hope that I did well enough to suit my current position. The day was relatively uneventful, other than the fact that in my second class we had a discussion that I could NOT follow. It's a Political Science course, and I have never taken one before, and they were talking about neo-liberalism, Marxism, etc.

On Tuesday, the whole program went to the Ottawa Citizen (a major newspaper in Ottawa) and we got a tour, saw how a newspaper was put together and met a LOT of people. It was exciting to see a real newsroom in action, and we got to sit in on story meetings where they discussed what would bee on the front page. Some of the people who talked to us though, were a bit pessimistic about getting jobs in the future and that you would have to work an insane amount and have no time for family.

On Wednesday, I had TA office hours again but no one came. It was fine by me, as I got quite a lot of work done :)

Thursday consisted of a course in the morning, and then I came home and did a lot of work.

Like Tuesday, Friday consisted of a field trip, but this time to the CBC in Ottawa. It was really informative, seeing how a TV/radio station works and meeting some of the people involved. Our tour guide was a reader of the news on the radio, and he was very nice and accommodating. We even got to sit in while he read the 10am news (being absolutely quiet, of course). We then had a Q&A session with some previous MJ graduates, which was very funny and informative and gave many of us back the hope that the Ottawa Citizen stole.
After CBC, which lasted the morning, we all went out for Chinese food and the service was SO slow, that no one really could have finished their lunch because we had to rush back to campus for our afternoon class! We were about an hour late, but it was ok because it was practically everyone in the class.
After class, the class split up into 2 camps: go out now or go out later. I went with the go out now people to a bar called Quinn's. There we drank, talked and had a joyous time. After a while, people got bored, so we all decided to make our way to another bar. I cannot recall the second bar's name, but it had a British theme. There we continued to part two of the drinking and chatting. After more time, we all got bored again and decided to venture to yet ANOTHER bar. Which we did, to a place called Hooley's (I think). There we drank and ate and talked, and finally the go out later people came and joined us. Then, we all went downstairs, where there was pool and a karaoke machine! Suffice it to say, we could not resist the siren song of karaoke.
The first people up were most of the guys from the program (myself included) singing "If I Had A Million Dollars" by the Barenaked Ladies. It was a LOT of fun, and the girls quickly followed suit with a song that currently eludes me. They were great!
Some girls from our program than sang "Don't Stop Belevin'" by Journey, and a group of us ran up to join them! Then there was more karaoke and dancing and general silliness, it was a GREAT TIME! After realizing that it was 1am, adn that I originally left the house at 7:45am, I finally departed for home. I took a cab ride with a very nice cabby who explained to me the reasons, in his opinion, of why India can never be a super-power.

We have come now to the end of this week, I hope you enjoyed reading about my misadventures in the nations capital! And keep in mind, I will continue to post blogs every weekend, as well as periodically throughout the week, so keep checkin'!