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i'm going to pick cassandra up at the airport now! eee! so exciting to see her! there's snow forecast for today and top of 8, so it will be a proper canadian welcome. it has snowed lightly each day for the last three days. in march! very odd.

i hate airports, though. i'm bringing a stack of marking, so i can make the bright lights, low ceilings, horrible music, etc. just blend into the pain of finding nice, encouraging, productive things to say about excitingly mediocre essays. actually, i haven't found the marking that hard this time, as you can tell by my lack of posts whining about it. i'm marking a bunch of essays about children's literature (including "anne of green gables"), which is always fun, and makes me feel like i'm using my expertise a little. i'm also marking a stack of proposals where the students analyse a real-life situation they participate in for what identity it constructs for them. it's fascinating. i've learnt a lot about the customer service industry (worse here than australia, but still giving me waitressing flashbacks) and have become increasingly disturbed by the number of students self identifying as robots. i've also learnt a lot about topics as diverse as being an identical twin, hockey coaching, working a crisis line and receiving condolence cards after someone dies. i'm really looking forward to reading their final essays, actually. the writing has been a bit better, too, cos the students actually care about what they're writing about.

got another rejection (not going to america after all, which is probably a good thing, really), and have a week or so to decide on my offer in vancouver. i met with my potential supervisor last week for schmoozing and had my first starbucks coffee. don't hate me.

the negotiation process is also fascinating and disturbing. ask me over email.

(here's a flashback to my waitressing days. don't i look perky? don't be fooled. it's all for the camera. vta will tell you. . .)