Monday, April 30, 2012

"Every mile is two in winter" ~George Herbert

When winter hit, I initially thought "well, this will be the last one you'll have to go through in it's entirety, so try to slow down and smell the roses a little". As the dark, cold, and windy days ticked over, that attitude was hard to maintain.


The snow came in dribbles and flurries in Ottawa in the weeks preceding Christmas. That is to say, there was no wonderful blanket of fluffy white snow covering the ground and the bare branches on which the hungry squirrels were still scampering. Thankfully, we left Ottawa and headed up to Saguenay right after our semester was done, a few days before Christmas. For those of you who don't know, that's Audrey's hometown and where almost the entirety of her family resides. Winter was well and truly established in Saguenay! Lot's of snow!














We spent most of our time eating! Time which wasn't spend doing the latter I spent running, whilst Audrey spent it on the couch, knitting! (I'm still yet to have received the pair of slippers she promised me.. maybe next Christmas?). We had a great time catching up with her family and enjoying the festive season. 


Alas, all good times come to an end. Our winter semester began far too soon, after only something like ten days off. Oh well. Back to school. The winter semester (Jan-Apr) this year felt like the longest four months of my life! Not only was I completely sick off winter, I was truly sick of uni. I 'escaped' by throwing myself into my training, running - metaphorically - as far away as possible from uni work. In good time, though, the semester came to an end. 


April was all-in-all a good month. The weather was decidedly shithouse however when classes ended on the 10th (or so) I had but 6 exams to nail for the rest of the month - that's it, that's all. 


Brilliant. No classes = More time to train (ps. April ended up being a +70hr training month, which is OK)


I did, though, try to work as much as I could, though rarely more than twice a week (14hrs/week). 


Exams came and went, all of which went quite well, I thought (read: pretty well considering I did squat all in terms of a solid preparation). Only 3 more classes to go and the B.A. is in the bag.


Audrey, in the meantime, was the busiest I had ever seen her throughout the last 6-8 weeks of the semester! She was juggling 3 demanding jobs, a research project, and a full course load. I have no idea how she did it! (I suspect caffiene and - what's that expression - blood, sweat, and tears had something to do with it).