Spring

How do I know it is spring?

a) Tempature is rising, snow is melting, birds are singing etc.

b) I get completely disoriented and bad things happen.

Now, I will not go for a). I guess I have to stay longer in Montreal to adjust my definition of spring. In my book, 8 °C is still winter (and besides, I haven't heard any bird singing yet!)

So, that leaves me with b)

O.K., let me see what happened the last 7 days:

1. I lost my cell 1 week ago. (I had also lost my cell last year and yes, what a coincidence, it was the beginning of spring!)
2. I lost my bus pass this Saturday
3. For the last three days I am under a serious cold. It started with a soar throat and reached its peak today when I developed a high fever. And last but (certainly) not least:
4. This morning (and being sick) I had to deal with a small flud that threatened my apartment. For a yet undetermined reason, the drain in my bathtub could not acommodate the amount of water and as a result, my bathroom turned to a raging river that threatened everything in its path. (By the way this would never happen, if there was a drain in the bathroom floor as it is a common practice in Europe!!)

3 and 4 were the reasons I skipped class today, however I got to school anyway, because I had this REALLY important meeting with my supervisor about my MA paper. (I guess some things are MORE important). Considering the coughing, the fever, the headache and the fatigue, the meeting went really well. What's the catch? I have about one month to complete a) my MA paper and b) a term paper.

After the meeting, I joined Raph and Jill for a late lunch at Carlo's and Pepe's (a sick guy has to eat after all, doesn't he?) and my day ended with attending a rather interesting meeting of Arts Graduate Students (since I was already downtown, why not go there anyway?).

Isn't spring lovely?

Happy Easter

To all that celebrate today, a Happy and Blessed Easter

A semi-productive Monday

Le me see...What did I do today?
Well, I woke up at 11.00 am (I actually woke up at 6.00, I guess my sleep cycle is determined by the sun) but after thinking that was too early for me I went to sleep again). At around 13.40 I got to school and I spent most of my time at the computer lab checking e-mails and talking to Raph and Gustavo.

Then I got to the library where I copied some papers and borrowed a book about clitics (a topic I know nothing about (could somebody tell me why do languages have clitics in the first place?) that will help me with a project I am working on. The main issue is the following:In the acquisition of Greek, children, contrary to other languages, do not generally omit clitics and of course the problem is why. I hope in the 200 pages that I will have to read till the end of the week, an answer (i.e., a convincing one) will reveal itself...

After becoming disappointed and a bit stressed, I got back to the department and went with Gustavo for dinner to some Italian restaurant (I do not remember the name, but it is at Sherbrooke close to the the corner of McGill College. ) The food was good but what was better was the discussion I had with Gustavo about sin (yes, the thing that gets you into trouble!!) and mainly what is sin, and why is there in the first place? (Why doesn't God wipe it out, since it is a bad thing after all, isn't it?)

I have to be honest; though I have some ideas about the first part (what is sin), the second part is tricky. And if you think "free will" and stuff like that, you might address a part of the question but not the whole. What I told Gustavo is that I really do not know why there is sin in the world (why God allows it to happen in the first place) or why generally there is so much evil. I am not sure that there is a satisfying answer to these questions. You can always resort to the belief that "God works in mysterious ways" or that "everything falls under a divine plan, that we at the present moment are unable to comprehend", but still the questions remain.
All that I can think right now is what St.Paul says in Corinthians 1 (13:9-10) "For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when which is perfect has come,then what is in part will be done away" and (13:12) "for now we see in the mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."
I know that many of you will not find that satisfying at all (I am not sure that it works for me 100%), but if I could try to give the "take home message" just in two phrases, I would say that God is love and whatever nasty happens in our lives (our misfortunes, our failures, our "sins") if He allows it to happen, there must be a reason and it must be a good one, for He really loves us and believes in each one of us. Otherwise, what would be the point?

Lazy Saturday

I cannot believe how lazy I can be some times. I woke up late (11.oo am), posted my Friday's experience on my blog and then spent my whole day cooking and cleaning my apartment. (while I should be studying this time).

You see, during the week, me and my friend Panayotis have made plans to go to the movies at Saturday evening. So I called him later today (Saturday) but he and his girlfriend hadn't decided yet on what movie they would like to watch. Furthermore, a common friend, Antonis, would come over their house later on, so we all agreed to meet at their place in order to decide what to do.

Well, what we did was actually ordering some take out food and playing Gran Tourismo 4 in PS2!! By the way, this is a great game, great graphics (in some cases you cannot distinguish it from the real thing) and it has a good variety of cars. Anyway, I have to try really hard no to get addicted to this thing, although Antonis keeps on telling me that I should get one. (Well, may be after the end of the semester!!).
Overall, it was a very competitive and enjoyable evening with good company, great food (Nora, my friend's girlfriend made a really yummy desert based on nuts, I tell you, this girl knows how to cook!!), excellent company and, of course PS2. I actually won some races but lost the most...

At around 00.30 we called the night off and me and Antonis got the metro back home. I just hope that Sunday will turn out a more productive day...

Fridays at Church

After holding my conference (where only 11/39 people showed up) and spending some time in the department studying and talking to Raph, at around 17.20 I left for St. George Antiochian Church (It is close to Jean Talon Metro). It is customary in the Orthodox Church, during the Lenten period, every Friday to celebrate the Salutations to the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary).

Salutations is in fact the Akathist Hymn, a big poem composed at around the 6th and 7th century A.D. commemorating the intervention of the Virgin Mary to protect Constantinople (Instabul) from the attack of the Persian army. It was named Akathist (in Greek, Akathistos= the one that does not sit) because traditionally people sung it standing up. The Akathist is divided in 4 parts (staseis) each one sung during the first 4 Fridays of Lent. A combination of the service of the Small Compline and one of the "staseis" of the Akathist gives us the service of the Salutations (in Greek Chairetismoi), named after the initial word of each verse of the poem that is "Chaire" (="hail" or "Rejoice"). The Friday before the 5th Sunday of Lent, the whole Akathist is sung. Generally, the service of the Akathist is one of the most beautiful in the Orthodox Church, an astonishing combination of word and melody.

The service started at 7.00 pm but before (at 6.00 pm) there was a Lenten dinner offered, absolutely fabulous. There was tabuli, rice, hummus, stuffed vegetables, grapes, strawberries, a truly full meal (Yes, I know what you think, No meat ??). The service ended at around 8.30 and then I got back home.

The truth is that I missed our nice gatherings with the guys from the department at TH; I hope you had a wonderful time eating pizza and playing scrabble.

And for the record, (in case I am found guilty of inconsistency) the reason I held my conference yesterday and didn't go on strike (a just cause worth fighting for, if you ask me) was that me going on strike yesterday would have an impact not on me directly (I could be asked to make up for it, that is true), but mainly on other people that would really like to see their midterms and to find out what they did wrong. You may agree or disagree with this view, but honestly this is what I believe.

Wake me up!!

I just cannot believe how difficult has become for be to get up in the morning. For the last two days I have problems waking up earlier than 11.00 am. No matter when I slept the night before, when my alarm rings (and I usually set it for 9.00) I have a terrible headache, I cannot even open my eyes (not even mention getting up from bed (that is completely impossible),and generally I feel like a zombie. (Could somebody turn the lights on? Thank you!!).
Maybe I am just tired, or it is spring (well its not -20 anymore so that is a change), the only problem is that I have a lot of work to do (2 papers, one of them is my Masters research one) and being sleepy all the time does not help at all.

Back on line

After a long weekend filled with formating and reformating my hard drive (the first time was successful also but my computer got infected with some malicious programs (adware and viruses, yes, I hadn't installed my anti-virus program yet but what were the chances of getting infected while running Windows update?) Anyway, I reformatted my hard drive, reinstalled all the applications and it is a miracle, it works!!.So, no more complaints and I am back to business. (However, for now on I will back-up more often).

In other news, yesterday I held a memory service for my mother (It is customary in The Orthodox Church to have a memory service 40 days after the day one passes away). To be honest that got me a bit depressed (I guess it will still take me a while to fully accept what happened) but later on we went out with some of my friends from the church and that really helped a lot. Thank you guys!!

As for today, I just finished some of my grading of a mid term exam, and officially filed my application for the PhD program starting this fall. I had to write a letter of purpose again, and that was a good chance to remind myself what I really love about linguistics (and yes, what I want to do with my life). So, if everything goes well, I am going to be here for some time more. (O.K., I know, it is a shock but you get used to me at the end!!)

Now I am heading to the gym to get some workout and (hopefully) to lose a pound or two. Perhaps, Great Lent that started today (i.e., no meat or dairy until Easter, Orthodox Easter this year is May 1st) may help a bit. To be honest, I don't know if I will really keep to that (I might need the proteins), but even if I don't make it all the way through, true fasting in end is all about exercising some control over your needs, considering the needs of others and generally becoming a better person.

Getting back to computer issues

The problem and... the solution!!!

Computer Issues

I cannot believe how much time I devote to my laptop and its Windows XP related problems! Six days ago the computer just crashed and since I didn't want to lose any data (Yes, I should back-up more often), I decided to execute (I picked this word intentionally) the Repair option. Well, that was a BAD move... You can say that what was executed at the end was my whole configuration.
So, for the last 6 days I 've been talking for hours to Microsoft technicians (somewhere in India I suppose, something to thank globalization for..) trying to solve issues with my Internet connection, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, (need I go on?) In fact, yesterday, (following the completely ungrounded suggestion there was a problem with my ISP) I had been talking with a Bell technician from 1.50-3.40 am only to find out that there is no ISP problem in the first place.
Yes, I know: FORMAT, FORMAT, FORMAT, this IS the solution, but I really do not want to go over all this procedure again. I guess this is inevitable though.
Anyway, I guess I will do that during the weekend, but just as a final thought...

Don't you ever (ever? be honest!!) miss the time it was just pen and paper?

My First Entry

It is official!!!. My blog is open to the public....