A new semester starts…
Yeah, I’m back in Lennoxville (Sherbrooke) for a new semester at Bishop’s University, just after a nice Christmas holiday. Exciting!
I’m starting to get back into the beat, and this is not counting the 850,000 meetings I have to attend all over campus in the next few weeks, whether it is the Conservative Students Association, the Bishop’s University Debating Society or some other student-planned activity…
Last semester went well, I didn’t get any grades below 70%, and averaged 80% for my five classes. I’m hoping to do even better this semester. I’m taking three politics courses, and two electives, just like last semester. I got to choose them all, like last semester, and only POL101 is required. Here’s my course list for Winter 2007:
1. HIS215 History of the U.S. until 1877
2. POL101 Introduction to Modern Governments
3. POL173 U.S. Government and Public Policy
4. POL245 American Foreign Policy
5. SPA102 Spanish II
So far, everything starts to be starting out well, except on the financial side of things. Residences and meal plans are so expensive here at Bishop’s that their cost actually more than offsets the benefits of the (too?) small tuition required of Québec residents to attend university in the province. And without student loans or bursaries and limited parent support, it’s harder than it looks. I’m reaching the bottom of my bank accounts at a hair-raising speed…
I’m probably going to try to find an off-campus job (those on campus do not give me enough hours to be worth keeping) and I’m moving the hell out of residence and with some friends (if it all goes as planned) as of this summer or next semester. The best thing would be to find a part-time job for now while I study (10-15 hours a week max) that could turn into a full time job once summer rolls around.
Any ideas?
I’ll keep you guys posted.
Good choice of courses. Keep up the history courses. Why not take an Economics or Human Geography course? Just to see how the ecology helps form the economic and political structure. You can’t grow wheat in the Arctic - so, that environment only supports a small population, without agriculture. A small population society will govern itself politically very differently than a large population.
The West rose to dominance in the world because its ‘biome’ (soil, water, climate) is the richest on the planet and is able to support a large and increasing population. The West, with its ‘growing population’ had to come up with innovative technology to support that population. Africa, the Middle East, Asia - didn’t have that situation. Check out the CIA world fact book on ‘arable lands’.
Don’t take any sociology courses! Ever!
(I used to teach there).
And by all means - move out of residence. Get a job at Mac’s. Good luck.
Comment by ET — January 10, 2007 @ 5:38 pm
@ET,
Thanks for your input. I love studying here at Bishop’s, the campus is very nice and the professors are great. I did take, as you suggested, Economics and Geography back in CEGEP two to three years ago. The Geography course turned out to be an Environmentalism course (see “I had a Jay Bennish teacher too…” -http://keepright.blogsome.com/2006/03/08/i-had-a-jay-bennish-teacher-too/) to know what I’m talking about.
Why shouldn’t I take sociology courses at Bishop’s? Did you mean only at Bishop’s or for the rest of my life? Because I did take a sociology course when I was in CEGEP and I enjoyed it.
I think it’s fascinating that you used to teach here. When did you teach here for the last time and what did you use to teach?
As for moving out of residence, don’t worry I got it covered. $883 a month is way too much for a room, a meal plan and Internet access in my opinion. We can’t move out just now as we signed a lease, but as soon as the semester is over (if I don’t get a summer job on campus, then it’ll be at the end of summer) my two friends and I will be getting our own apartment and splitting costs together. We’ve calculated pretty much everything and we’d save about half of what we pay right now if we moved off-campus. Besides, two of us have got our own cars so getting to class is not going to be a problem.
As for jobs, assuming that for you Mac’s meant the Couche-Tard/Esso convenience store just besides the CIBC bank in Lennoxville, well I’ll tell you that I used to work at a Couche-Tard (stayed there for 2 years) and I’m pretty tired of doing that kind of work. I’ll scope out something else, I recently heard the federal government is hiring students in the Sherbrooke area and that they pay well. Me being bilingual and having a great resume going for me, I don’t think I’ll have that much of a problem getting a job above minimum wage.
So, thanks again for the input ET, and I hope I’ll see you again around here!
Comment by Xavier R. Dubé — January 11, 2007 @ 12:28 pm