2013 review

I've been putting this off for the longest time because it's such a daunting task, and I'm bound to forget somethings that I should mention. Here goes.

To start off, revisiting my resolutions made last year, I seem to have followed them. Slept more, hoping for higher grades (I doubt), bought less and used more of things I already had. Nothing much really happened in the second semester of first year.

First year... I'm glad I met my Chestnut friends. Otherwise I'd know almost zero people outside my program haha. Fun times eating (discovered good places!) and hanging out with them. Living together increases the rate that you feel close to people haha. Unfortunately, since we all split up in second year, I haven't been able to see them as much as I want/should. Missed out on a lot of gatherings simply because I'm lazy and didn't want to walk 30min+. Is this fact likely to change? I doubt it haha, my laziness is rather overwhelming, though good weather in the coming months will be a motivator to venture outside.

The big change from first to second year, aside from increased academic difficulty (this will be addressed later) is the change from living on res to off-campus.
Firstly, finding a condo downtown during the summer is a fucking pain in the ass that I don't ever want to do again. This is mostly because there were 4 opinions (in actuality, my roommates were chill, their parents weren't) that had to align, which does not converge fast enough for the downtown condo market. The place we ended up with is alright at best. The unit was not in the greatest of conditions (landlord clearly did not clean enough), and there are a lot of unusable space. The good thing is that its conveniently served by the TTC and the kitchen is actually usable.
I quite like living with 3 guys as roommates. Perks of having my own washroom (y), though at the expense that I can't just change clothes in my room (well the living room). We also had little conflict for the drastic differences in lifestyles (or more like me and them, in terms of eating preferences, siblings, housing type, etc). There were initial problems with dividing up the housework, which became more of a problem as midterms approached, and then died down again. Though it does prove that clear communication is the most important factor is resolving these issues. It's also important to not play the zero-sum game.
That being said, I think I would fare better living alone. My personality is too much of an introvert's haha, can't stand being with people for prolonged periods of time. There were so many days (and every single morning) when I was just really tired and did not want to interact with anyone. Its also because I'm stubborn and don't want to adjust my lifestyle to others, especially in regards to food. I need my husband to have similar culinary preferences lol.
Overall, I definitely don't regret my current living situation. It's a valuable learning experience living with non-family members. I also appreciate the time I spend with my parents now that they're not around, this is probably the first feeling of being a "grown-up"?

While on the topic of food, I'm really happy to be the coordinator of Sky Garden. This is the closest I've gotten to work and play being the same. Super excited about the upcoming season, especially since we might be expanding into the GB quad (but ugh, lack of sunlight). Also super glad that I have access to freshly picked vegetables and fruits, they do taste infinity better than out of season, grocery store varieties.

Also in the summer was my study abroad trip to England. It's always something I've dreamed of doing, and consequently had high expectations of (also because Shad was so amazing). Unfortunately, it wasn't fulfilled and I now wish I found a job instead (though that would have excluded Sky Garden, so all is fair). It's really my fault that I didn't make the most of this opportunity, I should have gotten to know more of my classmates and went out more. It was a weird situation though, on one hand I don't fit in with the Chinese students, nor do I with the American ones. Of course I'm generalizing here, but it's not an understatement to say that the majority of them follow their stereotype exactly (though this could be because I didn't get to know them). So I mostly stuck with the few friends that I did make, and stayed in my room a lot of the time. The stuff I learned was useful for civ220, but I didn't end up getting a CS/HSS credit that I wanted. What I did get was gorgeous sunset photos though.

Okay, academics, what the life of a student revolves around. Second year is much harder, or rather, the way that school is hard has changed. First year is hard because it's a new routine, second year is hard because the stuff you're learning is actually hard. Though I'm sure next year I'll be, third year is hard, wth was I thinking last year. And unfortunately, the seasoned profs for 3 of my courses are on sabbatical this year and we have new instructors. It turned out well for solids, but construction could definitely be better.
Though to be fair, I worked less this year. For example, my exams "studying" was almost a half-half mix of doing questions and being on reddit. Oh yeah discovering subreddits is the one of the best things that happened. Unfortunately that also means my ability to concentrate on one task is greatly diminished. I'll forever wonder how I managed to study calc for 8 hours straight in grade 12.

Through everything, I'm thankful that my family, friends, and especially Dave are there. I generally don't like being dependent, but knowing that they're there is good enough :) It's been good.