back to school

i have been in this screen numerous times this evening, trying to figure out what to say. at one point i was all ready to get started, but then the boys came home and turned on "that 70's show" and i got out of the mood. i like to blog when it is quiet and when i am alone.

well i'll say a bit about school. i think i will do alright this semester. the two classes i'm most excited about are History of the Developing World and Global Health and Community (CHEP for short, don't ask me why). The CHEP class is through the College of Medicine and it's a fourth year class that is half med students and half international studies' students, so it makes for a really interesting mix. the class is gonna be more work than i've ever done but i've also never done fourth year classes, so perhaps this is the norm? i guess so. in our second class we already had mini presentations on particular diseases... guess what i had to do? diarrhea. oh yes, it was fabulous. once i got over my own silliness with the word diarrhea and started to learn about how many children in developing countries die from it and other related causes like dehydration, it really wasn't funny anymore. for this class we also have to volunteer at a community organization, so me and 3 other people in my class are working for Good Food Boxes, which packs healthy food and distributes it through Saskatoon. really it promotes healthy eating. should be alright, i like the people i'm working with so that is a good thing.

i'm thinking about applying for an overseas internship this summer. i've started the application process for two CIDA (canadian international development agency) sponsered internships, once in Ethiopia and another in Gambia. i would really love to go anywhere... lately i've been leaning towards Haiti, but that scared my mom a little bit. she said i couldn't go but i told her she can't tell me no anymore. we'll see how it works out. these internships get a lot of applications and only a few get picked, so the chances are slim.

i took a biotechnology class for one day (i've since dropped it) but i did learn one funny thing. scientists are currently working towards putting the hepatitis B vaccine in carrots. yeah, so instead of getting a needle, one day you might just have to eat 10 carrots. don't ask me any questions about this, i have just given you the extent of my knowledge on the hepatitis B/carrot issue. i just thought it would be handy because it would prevent other students just like myself from fainting in grade 6 after your hepatitis needle. eat a carrot, save face. why didn't i go into marketing?

my other classes are geography - environment, population and human. my minor is human geography. i am in my third year university and i have just recently figured out what human geography infact is. basically its the study of human interaction and their effects on what goes on in this earth. that's pretty broad. what i've just said is everything that happens can be put into the catagory of "human geography." wow am i ever going to be smart when i graduate, i am literally going to have to learn everything.

that's a very overwhelming statement.

we had a guest lecturer in one of my class last week and he was awesome. he totally made me realize that i do love what i am learning and that i need to keep at it. people who want to do everything end up doing a whole lot of nothing, right? i'm learning about stuff that i am passionate about, but i get easily frustrated because there are no clear-cut jobs out there that are looking for ME. i think when the time comes i will find what i am looking for with this. sometimes i feel dumb when people ask me what i'm taking and then the "oh so what are you going to do with that???" question and i have to answer "Um i don't know... save Africa?" i'll find something, but in the meantime i have to work hard and educate myself so that i can save africa, or at least one little african girl or boy.

i hope someone else needed that pep talk besides myself.