I had lofty ambitions, after being chastized by a friend for my lack of posting, to get right back into the swing of things. For good or for bad, I got used to not posting much this summer – a lack of Internet access in Kenya and on a boat will do that for you. No excuses! I am back on land and have free wireless at home and at every second coffee shop; there really is no excuse for me. I like to think that I am out of practice and need to get back into the habit of transcribing everyday occurrences for the general public to read. Because you are all interested in my eating habits and traveling adventures, right?

As I type this, I am sitting in a coffee shop on W 4th in Vancouver. Beside me is a stimulating Americano, my current poison of choice. I’m in Vancouver for the weekend to spend some time with good friends before school starts on Tuesday and to meet my boyfriend (HOLD ON, stop the train… boyfriend?!?… yes. More on that someday) as he returns tomorrow from a two and a half trip to the States.

Truth be told, I have had some interesting ideas for blogging lately; a rant on how my doctor prescribes medication, how my school begins next week, and so on. But, something else keeps coming up. Like school starting next week. I’ve been labouring under the false assumption for some time now that my course would begin when every other school in the country begins: after Labour Day. Last week, I discovered that no, it begins on September the first. Before school starts, I have six chapters from two different text books to read plus a multitude of online readings. Fortunately, I long ago mastered the art of the skim-read. I just assumed that everyone skim-read their text books, however a message from our prof for the first course indicates otherwise: “Because the work is intensive, and because you’re at a master’s level here, you won’t be able to read as you did in undergrad – reading every detail, preparing to memorize for exams. Here, you’ll have to read quickly, and you do that by skimming, stopping on what you don’t know – not reading & memorizing every detail, but rather grasping the gist of things so that you can apply it.” At least I already have practice.

So now that I am back at school, I suppose we can all look forward to more frequent posting as I sit for hours at a time at my computer and have the opportunity to practice my finest procrastination techniques. Until then, I am going to enjoy my last few days of “freedom” and get back to wandering W4th.