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the start of winter break means i've got a serious lack of commitments and all the time in the world to lounge around the house and walk about aimlessly. i wake up before the sun rises and fall asleep at 10 am sharp if not earlier every night and the one thing i have committed to is reaching my goodreads reading goal, which i'm still six books short of with only ten more days of the year to go. that said, i haven't been up to much other than reading. i finished reading 'the great gatsby' today and found it just alright, i guess. while fitzgerald's style of writing was entertaining and easy to read, i didn't think the story itself was all that. if anything my favourite thing about the book was the symbolism of dr. tj eckleberg's bespectacled eyes in the sky, gazing in on the dying american dream. i'll remember to give it a reread in a few years and see if i like it better then. at the moment, i've just started joan didion's 'slouching towards bethlehem,' on top of reading rashid khalidi's 'the hundred years war on palestine,' the latter of which i find quite informative and comprehensive.
on the 16th i woke up at 5 am and thought i might as well practice my french, so i tried to translate the lyrics of the françoise hardy song 'le temps de l'amour' from french to english. the result was clunky despite the fact that i've been regularly taking french classes for ~4 years as part of the curriculum. ideally i'd like to get my french to a C1 level at some point, even if it's not covered by the compulsory french classes we take.
the next day i woke up just as early. walked for hours, met two outdoor cats, went to a protest on the street and helped them harass a member of parliament. we headed to the mp's office while a troop tried to deliver letters inside the (predictably) locked building. the poem 'if i must die' by the late refaat alareer was read aloud, and printed versions were handed out to attendees to put up around the city. i stuck one to a pole on my walk back home.
the day after that, i went to the burnaby village museum, which featured several heritage buildings and exhibits showcasing parts of life in the 1800s. there was a post office, a bank, a pharmacy, and a smithy where an old man was making candy cane ornaments out of metal. here's a picture of a typewriter i saw in the post office.
today i went around trying to find a wallet i'd lost a few days ago, to no avail. i'm not as bummed about the money i had in there (which amounted to $40 at most) as i am about the wallet itself. it's a nice brown leather one that my mother bought me this summer. i really hope i find it eventually, cause i'd hate to lose it so soon.
on the 16th i woke up at 5 am and thought i might as well practice my french, so i tried to translate the lyrics of the françoise hardy song 'le temps de l'amour' from french to english. the result was clunky despite the fact that i've been regularly taking french classes for ~4 years as part of the curriculum. ideally i'd like to get my french to a C1 level at some point, even if it's not covered by the compulsory french classes we take.
the next day i woke up just as early. walked for hours, met two outdoor cats, went to a protest on the street and helped them harass a member of parliament. we headed to the mp's office while a troop tried to deliver letters inside the (predictably) locked building. the poem 'if i must die' by the late refaat alareer was read aloud, and printed versions were handed out to attendees to put up around the city. i stuck one to a pole on my walk back home.
the day after that, i went to the burnaby village museum, which featured several heritage buildings and exhibits showcasing parts of life in the 1800s. there was a post office, a bank, a pharmacy, and a smithy where an old man was making candy cane ornaments out of metal. here's a picture of a typewriter i saw in the post office.
today i went around trying to find a wallet i'd lost a few days ago, to no avail. i'm not as bummed about the money i had in there (which amounted to $40 at most) as i am about the wallet itself. it's a nice brown leather one that my mother bought me this summer. i really hope i find it eventually, cause i'd hate to lose it so soon.
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