Last Day of COMM270

Some really pretty pictures of Queensu in the winter in this post :) I've never loved the Queensu campus this much till winter. 

In the summer, people often formed queues outside the food truck. This food truck sells the usual north american bad food, fries, hotdogs, burgers and stuff. On the opposite side, another food truck serves halal food and there's falalfel, fries, vegetarian burger and all sorts of stuff. People sometimes eat along the benchs along the sidewalk outside the John Deutsch University Centre (JDUC) to people watch.

In the winter its quite different. Except during the times when people move from class to class, the streets are really empty. Sometimes I even wonder if there are people in the food truck cos all their windows are closed. But it is still in operation, you just need to tap on the window and they'll pop their heads out :) More people are holding onto coffee cups and everyone just wants to get off Kingston's windy cold streets.

Where most of my classes were

While everyone's walks by with their hands in their coats walking as fast as they possibly can without slipping on the ice, a curious asian girl walks onto what used to be grass to take a closer look at the trees. The trees are so pretty aren't they? Some branches were encased in ice, some branches were covered in snow. The ice surrounding the branches made each branch look bigger than it actually is and upon closer inspection, they are so clear, so prettily translucent it a dream.

Benches on the Street very quickly covered with last night's snow

That's the 'damage' a night long of snow can do. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to remove snow every single day! Friends who live on Markland Street told me that if you don't clear the snow and ice off the pavement outside your house, and someone falls as a result, you are responsible for the fall. :O yep just something interesting to share.

I go like "WOW we lost them benches overnight?!" Then I think about how I got to school and the roads were clear. Its amazing how Canadians manage the snow. I can understand how snow can generate alot of jobs. Thank to these people who take care of the snow, we can get to school on time and walk safely :)

In the Snow

This is snow that's rather firm already. Its quite fun to step into those huge dumps of snow when you get off the bus :) Hehe. you step out and just sink right in :) Fun fun! Thanks to my boots (Geox!), my feet survived all that fun :D

The fence reminds me of Narnia 

The Stauffer Library 

The Stauffer Library is NTU's equivalent of Lee Wee Nam Library or NUS's equivalent of Central Library. :) But unlike both these libraries, Stauffer doesn't have much food options around, unless you consider a muffin and coffee as a meal. You can cross over to the Sport Centre but there isn't much to eat there too. I love sandwiches! But they can be so unappetizing especially in the cold weather. I'd rather go back to hall and just heat up a can of Campbell soup and drink milo :D

Anyway! This is the last of teaching weeks in Kingston and the final lesson for COMM270 Business Communications in North America. I'm an Engineering student from NTU so I took the chance to map this course to my year 4 core module Professional Communication. :) Was a really enjoyable class because its a class for exchange students and the group is just so diverse. Students are also very vocal so we learn many new things from students of other countries. Really interesting.

My Prof, Prof Martha also made the lessons very engaging while at the same time equipping us with skills necessary for resume writing, and stuff. More importantly, she respects the cultures each student comes from and is always very eager to find out more. A really sweet lady :) 

International Classmates

Groupmates & my Prof, taken in Fall

I've always been one of the taller people in class but apparently not here. haha. Getting used to the average height around here. Unfortunately, they ran off rather fast after lesson so I was only able to get a photo with Bertrand the quirky guy in our group. :)

With Bertrand

With Manon

I sometimes have my lunch at the JDUC international student centre because there's a friendly microwave over there and a hot water dispenser. Since I live alone in hall, I have lotsa leftovers which becomes lunch/dinner for the next day. On days where I can't find the time to go back to hall, I'd have no choice but to eat alone in JDUC and catch up with the world stalking everyone else's facebook. 

All the other tables were filled with Japanese students who were on exchange together and whom all took the same module, english language. It was hard to befriend them because there were so many groupies. I just decided to mind my own business and I think they were used to seeing me sit alone they never bothered. One day, a girl asked if she could sit with me. I recognized her, she was from COMM270 as well! This girl was Manon :)

We got to know each other better during that coincidental lunch hour :) The university she came from was the one my elder sis went on exchange to while she was in Paris. We talked about how Paris is a beautiful city, about how Canada has a lack of good Camembert cheese and on and on :) Its nice how people from different countries can come together just because you are alone out there and just very willing to share your experiences and gain different insights.  

With Prof Martha :)

I gave my prof a bottle of Kaya spread when I returned to Kingston after a short trip back to Sg, which she loved! Made me proud as a Singaporean. Toast is everywhere in Singapore, some people don't even have toast cos its perceived as 'commoner's food', i mean like "why eat toast when there's french toast". But simple food like that has significant cultural meanings and is still something that brings the elderly at the coffeeshop together. There are many things we are blessed with and take for granted. You'd start to realise that when you're overseas. 

Val sculpting ice :)

After saying goodbye to our classmates, we headed out of the building together. Val was sculpting all sorts of shapes with the ice but it was terribly cold and I didn't bring gloves out so, no way was i gonna touch that :O. Xianyao had some other class so he left. Charles was supposed to go downtown to buy some stuff to cook but he said he was tired so he went back to Markland first.

That leaves the 3 of us girls, Val, Georgie and I to get the groceries. Was so fun with just the two of them! All the time in Kingston we never had a girls outing or anything like that. Took a bus down to Princess and bought some necessities, eggs milk etc whatever cookies were on offer etc. Even went to play with nail polish :D Could never do this with the guys around. 

We went to Dollarama and got some of that cheap brownie mix that tastes awesome! $3 for a box of brownie mix is luxury! (We didn't buy the even cheaper box of another brand) We always eat this brownie. :) Its so easy to prepared and its so cheap! $3 shared amongst 6 people is $0.50 each :O So cheap OMG.

Brownie! And yes, they served it on the same plate we had pasta on -.- This always becomes a discussion at the table because its my pet peeve to serve dessert on the plate you had your main on! I dislike the idea of using the same fork you used to eat spaghetti to eat brownie but this is worse cos the entire brownie is sitting on the savoury olive oil and whatever's left from dinner. :/ Oh well, but I got used to it :) Not too against it and I don't wanna take another dish out cos they never let me do the dishes I'd feel bad making them wash another.

After Dinner Activity

Snow angel!! BRRR. So cold. I think this was after we played Beer Pong and these guys lost YAY!! They had to do the snow angel as forfeit :) Ah. Even though we always complain whenever we need to leave the comfort of Markland to go outside in the cold, I think we all secretly enjoyed being out in the cold :)

Oh winter, you're missed. Christmas is approaching and its not the same without you!