Learning French

So... Since I've decided to stay in Montreal permanently (or at least semi-permanently) I've been big on trying to learn French.  This has been difficult - Full time grad school isn't exactly a conducive environment to learning another language.  But I've found ways to try and improve.  I took some French conversation courses (just finished my Level 3 - I'm officially an intermediate!) and I try and hold basic conversations with others learning the language (those fluent are still a bit intimidating to me... people speak so quickly!!).

My last language teacher really emphasized that using the language will help you improve. Even if your grammar isn't 100%. Even if your spelling is insane. It's better than nothing. As long as you're taught the grammar at some point, it all sort of "comes together", but I think the attitude that is necessary is that "something" is better than nothing. So I'm going to try and write some of my blog in French.  A few caveats:

1. I will be writing in French from my BRAIN. The only thing I will use a dictionary for is words/verbs if I don't know them.
2. The spelling will probably be atrocious.  The accents? Probably non-existent.  I only have French spell-check on Word. So I may write on word first... but I may not.
3. I'll probably sound like a five year old child. Don't judge.

Parce que si Steven Harper peut parler français, je peux aussi.  

Aujourd'hui, j'écoutais a Radio-Canada et j'ai écoute un article sur Stephen Harper.  Il est un con - Canada est pour vente et les citoyens du Canada ne peuvent  pas l'arrêter. L'achat de Nexen est très mal. Quel dommage. Bien que je devrais écrire un essai sur l'information alphabétisation, je suis très fatiguée.  J'ai un mal de tète.

 A bientôt, Blogger fans! 

Library Crisis Part 2

Well the seasons change, and the people change, and the good times come, but the good times go...

Ladies and gentlemen... A word.

I hate library science.

There, I said it. Worst. Discipline ever. Well, not entirely.  Academically, I find this area to be fascinating. But since I have decided against doing a doctorate (ever - I'd like to be employed someday), a "fascinating area of research" doesn't cut it any more.  I need to find a job. A job where I may not want to die every day of my life.

I came to this conclusion in the summer. I was working in my field and realizing that I hate most aspects of it. Since this realization, I've begun a quest to see what it is I *really* want to do with my life (or at least a good portion of it - apparently career changing is pretty common now).

Firstly, I switched my course selection around to reflect my changing interests. I dropped my research study, but retained my qualitative methods class. This is my new (relatively speaking, I started this blog post in August... and it's not being published until the end of November. Shame.) class schedule:

Fall 2012
Information Literacy
Web Design
Metadata
Qualitative and Ethnographic Methods

Winter 2013
Database Design
Communities of Practice
Digital Curation
Intellectual Capital

The fact I decided to stick it out and finish the MLIS is questionable in itself.  But, I figured I was halfway done, and an unfinished Masters is worse than an irrelevant Masters.

So back to my career strategy. I talked to everyone I knew with an interesting job. I accosted university recruiters, career recruiters... anyone I felt had an interesting position.  At first I felt like I should go into Public Relations and communications.  I'd just do my MA in communications (with a thesis so I could get funding) and call it a life.  Although there are aspects of communications that appeal to me, I just don't think it's a good fit overall.  I wanted an area that had a lot of different job descriptions (and a lot of available work in general for that matter).  I wanted something that combined working with people and my current skill set (research, education, information management, sales).  It turns out Human Resources is a golden ticket field in that sense.

Now I'm not saying traditional human resources is for me - My interest is labour relations. I've been interested in it since high school (I even won a scholarship based on my interest in becoming a labour lawyer).  But once I got into Canadian history and found something I was "good at" and I enjoyed, this idea of going into a career related to labour relations slipped away.  It probably didn't help that I went to UBC - the only industrial relations/human resources courses available are through the management faculty. No thanks.

It's an interesting crossroads.  A scary one too.  But I've decided to take the jump and switch fields. This has become something of a nightmare for a variety of reasons. Let's start!

1) Conventional wisdom tells us that we should never go down, always go up.  This is true for qualifications as well.  Since I already have a B.A., and will soon have an M.L.I.S., it would be best for me to look for a Masters programme to gain the education I need for a career switch.  This isn't as easy as it sounds. There are four schools in Canada with dedicated Industrial Relations/Human Resources/Employment Relations programs at the Masters level: Toronto, York, Queens, Memorial.  After looking at some of the course lists, it's become apparent that I don't have the background in order to do this program and not fail the crap out of it. I don't have a statistics course. I don't have any economics background. I wasn't even sure what organizational behaviour really was until I started my research this year.  This is why three out of the four schools have pretty hefty pre-reqs to their programs including organizational behaviour, intro labour-management, micro and macro economics as well as statistics. So that leaves Queens being the only school with no pre-reqs.

2) Conventional wisdom tells us that graduate programs in Canada that aren't MBAs are all roughly the same price.  *cue psychotic laughter*.  The one year program at Queens is $20000. Not to mention you'd have to live in Kingston (ie. Toronto prices).  The two year program at U of T or York will run you about $35000 when all is said and done.  Memorial's one year program? Roughly $6500.

I don't think you have to be a genius to figure out that this is a little out of my price range.  Even if the best thing in the world happens and I receive graduate funding, that's only $10000.  My maximum student loan for  a one year program is $10880. MATH TIME. That's $20880 of possible funding.  I should mention that I can't get a line of credit when I have a maximum student loan. Oh goody. I can pay my tuition AND live in a cardboard box. Isn't life swell? Queens also has a terrible work study program where students are only allowed to make $400 a month. Kingston's job market is pretty tight, so finding part-time work elsewhere could be a challenge.

My only feasible option is Memorial. They want a boatload of prereqs and work experience. Because hey, let's get to point number 3....

3) Conventional wisdom is often wrong.  Take a quick look on a job site for "HR" even "Senior HR management".  Every employer wants a BA industrial relations, nothing more. A masters in this field essentially says that you're interested in government, research or policy work.  If not having a masters is ever an issue for upward movement in my career, well, I HAVE ONE (and for the sake of argument, I'll say it's in knowledge management - that's relevant, right?)

Perhaps having a Masters will actually tip me off the scale into the  "overqualified" land that I've heard so much about.

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So what now?

Well, I have an almost finished Queens application.  I'll finish it for the sake of finishing it and see what they'll offer me.

HOWEVER...

I'm reapplying to McGill. In an undergraduate program.  My pride is gone.

McGill offers a faculty program in industrial relations.  54 credits of IR, Sociology, and Economics (with a sprinkle of courses from other faculties).  I could finish in four semesters. A second BA. My brain just shuttered a little.  I like to think of it as getting a second major rather than another degree. It makes it sound a little less screwed up.

It's funny how this has become Plan A.  But my Plan B is pretty good too.

Plan B is sort of contingent on Plan A.  Plan A involves actually getting into McGill.  Plan B involves finishing prereqs to go to Memorial.

Then there is Plan C...
Get a job. Get residency. I could go back to McGill afterwards and get cheaper tuition.  This isn't a bad plan either.  I could still take a course or two part time and most jobs in my field are temporary mat. leave positions anyways.  I could also find a job in admin, which would be good experience too.  I planned on taking French all summer regardless, so I'll fall into the category of "good enough".

McGill often offers the Intro Labour Relations class in the summer at night.  I might give that a whirl and see if I'm not completely off my rocker before committing to another degree.

So much to ponder...

Stupid careers.

End of Semester Update

Hello loyal followers, internet creeps and Facebook friends!

It is finally winding down... The semester from hell. Yes, it has been the semester from hell. Classes are now over, but final assignments are still pending for almost every class (I just finished my Preservation Management paper yesterday, so that class is officially over).  My groups have been pretty good for the most part, but I gotta give mad shout outs to my GLIS 620 group who seem to be so on top of it. You guys know who you are.

Summer is almost here in Montreal and I'm really excited! I have tickets to some amazing shows (Planet Smashers/ Big D and the Kids Table, Rev. Horton Heat/Real McKenzies/the Brains and POUZZA fest) that are sure to make my *early* summer awesome.  I'll also be working at the archives over the summer, so that should be a great learning experience as well.  There are some downsides to my summer though: My friends won't be here and I'll have to do a lot of work on my research (I'm hoping to submit ethics this summer, so a lot of work).  All of my courses have now been approved (see #14 below)... so I finally have a timetable that I'm excited to share! I think overall my schedule is really good and there are a lot of things I'm excited to take.

Fall 2012
Metadata and Access
Special Topics - Usability
Research
Qualitative and Ethnographic Methods (Taken through the Education faculty)

Winter 2013
Library and Archive History
Database Design
Special Topics - Digital Curation
Research

Life lessons!

13. Don't procrastinate.  Yes, I know this sounds insane (and I'm just coming down from a fairly productive day all in all), but it's true.  The more you can just sit down and accomplish, the better you'll feel.  I think I'm going to take a stab at my 647 revisions tonight (although that will probably require a drink in hand).

14. People generally mean well.  I've been really agitated at the processes at SIS (School of Information Studies) in terms of getting courses approved and the whole idea of "coding" for departmental approval.  For UBC friends, this process includes a meeting with your academic advisor to choose classes that are pertinent to your life goals, then your advisor has to email the administrative coordinator with the courses you'd like to be "approved" for.  This would normally be a non-issue, but to take any sort of "special" courses, it's absolute madness and NO ONE TOLD ME I NEEDED PHYSICAL COPIES OF EVERYTHING. Ugh. The crazy amount of backtracking necessary made me want to throw up.  I got angry - I blamed everyone at SIS for this. I figured everyone was out to screw me.  Then the apologies started to flow in from all directions.  I realized that I'm asking them for a favour, not something I'm necessarily entitled to. I also realized that it will work out. People are trying to make this work for me. People mean well.

Kony 2012 and a very bad proposal

Lately life has been extremely busy and I'm out more than I'm home.  In a way that has been nice; I miss the rapidity of my undergraduate life.  However, I've slumped so far into doing nothing a lot of the time that I'm really starting to miss a lot of my alone time and TV time.

So in the little spare time that I do have, I often check Facebook or watch an episode of some god awful TV show on Netflix.  Lately, Facebook has been taken over by this "Kony 2012" craze.  I'd like to elaborate on many of the comments that I have left (potentially on your) walls and get my friends thinking theoretically, practically and conceptually about what the Kony 2012 campaign is trying to accomplish.  I'd like to acknowledge that I appreciate the spirit of the video and I appreciate the want of people to get informed about issues happening all over the globe.  That being said, the Kony 2012 campaign has also brought up some serious concerns that I feel cannot all be addressed on one photo comment.

1) If I could compare the Kony 2012 campaign to anything, it would be raging hormones.  Except replace hormones with early post-colonialism.  The constant personalization, the use of "we", and the comparisons to conditions in North America makes it a fairly traditional "white man's burden" or "white guilt" type of video (thus, as far as I'm concerned, the film's intention is not to inform but rather to make you buy into an idea).  World Vision is probably the worst I can think of for using this technique to keep their business charity running. Essentially, it makes you think about all the wrong that white people have done, or all the things that white people could have done to alleviate certain negative situations in the former colonies (especially Africa). Middle-class people tend to be pretty lazy, but they have such high amounts of guilt that they feel the need to donate to these causes they know nothing about to make themselves feel like they are making a difference in the world.  I also hate how it is implied that "we" have to save these people. It's a shame that this attitude and mindset is still so prevalent.  If you're big into discourse analysis, I'd love your take on the post-colonial aspects of the Kony 2012 video.

2) The video does not contextualize the situation in Uganda.  Dude. Just... Look up something on Ugandan history. The implied support for President Museveni throughout the video makes me nauseous.  The Ugandan military has also used child soldiers in the past against the LRA and other neighbouring countries, such as the DRC. A major problem in the North American psyche is that we always have to look for a good guy and a bad guy and this video makes no exception to this (possibly for the sake of clarity, again proving that this video has no intention of informing).

3) The video implies support for American military intervention in Uganda.  Did you support Iraq? Probably not. But hey, the Americans were there to get Saddam, yes? Ruthless dictator, killed lots of people, yes?  So why the hell would you support a mission in Uganda when the principles will be identical to that of Iraq (except there is no monetary gain from being in Uganda aside from the "war is profitable" principle).

I'm not saying you should agree with me, but I want you to do is think about it. De-construct it for all of you post-modernists out there.

ON A CHEERIER NOTE:

Proposal writing is failing miserably. Nothing on paper yet. Blrrhh.

Wheeeeee!

After a very up and down week (pros: got a great job for the summer and potentially all next year, got a meeting with a potential supervisor for my research project, did "alright" on my archives paper, did well on my preservation paper.  cons: did terribly on my management paper for something that I couldn't have possibly caught, roommate problems, general busyness) I felt the need to finally update my blog!

Life Lessons!

11.  Things generally don't turn out how you think they will - but that's okay.  In this last semester, I've had an up and down, twisty-turning thinking about what I want to do with my life (aaagain).  I've decided to try and put together a research proposal for next year that is turning into a nightmare. I've decided to take special topics classes next year. I've decided to take a research methods course through the sociology dept. next year.  Worst of all: I've decided to apply to Ph.D. programs next year.  By programs, I mean only one program and that is the Ph.D. LIS program at University of Toronto.  They have a great archives speciality and faculty that specializes in user interactions in archival contexts.  No other school in North America can offer me that (and trust me, I've tried to look at other schools to apply to and the only other I could apply to in Canada would be UBC, which is wrong for me).  I've also decided to apply for my M.A. in Public History at UWO.  That way, I would gain experience in building digital archival interfaces and exhibits while getting historical experience.  It would also open up more Ph.D. options for the future.

12. Just because you're doing poorly in certain classes doesn't make you dumb. In some ways, it makes you smarter.  I'm in a program that would rather give marks to format than to content, a fact I find really upsetting.  You could write the best paper in the world, but if it's not in APA (and completely correct in APA), you will lose mondo marks.  If your title page is not set up "correctly" or your abstract doesn't have it's own page, watch those marks disappear.  They say they're teaching us for the real world, but I really don't think anyone in the real world gives a shit about formatting unless you decide to continue in academia (even then, those types of things are caught by editors).

Until next time!

The Library Crisis

Factoid #3746: I'm terrible at keeping a blog.

Anyways, now that I have made some sad version of an apology to my 3 FOLLOWERS (Hay, I love you guys), it's time to update my life, lessons learned and fantastic recipes. Where to begin...

Life Lessons!

9.  Just because I go to "library school" doesn't mean I'm a "librarian". To many of you this isn't a life lesson at all, IT'S OBVIOUS. I don't take ANY (repeat - ANY) library courses. My course plan for this year:
Semester 1: Information and Society, Information System Design, Archival Principles & Practices and Records Management.
Semester 2: Information Agency Management, Research Principles, Preservation Management and Archival Arrangement & Description.
GEE FOLKS, what's missing!? It is absolutely infuriating to talk to people about what I'm in school for. Generally I'll say "Archival studies and records management", which garners a confusing nod from most people. Then, flustered, I try and simplify it further - "I'm doing a Master of Library and Information Studies, I study information in all forms - however, I specialize in information that is at a semi-active or inactive stage, generally contained in archives" OH GOD. PANDORA'S BOX. "so... YOU'RE A LIBRARIAN. YOU STUDY BOOKS THAT NO ONE READS, YES." From this point, it is necessary to give up. Forever. I have no idea how the Knowledge Management stream explains what they do to their family members.
The moral of this lesson: We should really stop calling it "library school". I mean, it's cool when you're talking about it with other people in "library school" (because they realize that there are those in library school who wish to become something other than librarians), but to the outside world, they think that it's crazy that you have to do a Master's degree to shelf a book. One... two... *EYE ROLL*. 

10. Acclimatizing sure is hard work! There are days in Montreal where I am still wandering around in a T-shirt. I still open all of the windows in my apartment during the day. I'm always warm, no matter what. The few times where I have felt like I'm dressing like everyone else in the city have been the nights where it dips to 0 or below 0. I'm wearing a coat! Just like everyone else... Not stripping in the streets looking like a crackhead.

Recipes!

I'm not sure if I've come up with anything amazing myself in the last 2 months. For serious. I've been stealing a lot of other peoples recipes, for sure. I have made an excellent mayo dip for fries/yam fries/potato wedges, but it's fairly obvious/simple:

INGREEGAMENTS:

Mayo, Chipotles (in a can, with adobo sauce), Lime Juice, Garlic.

Ensure that you put your chipotles through a food processor OR just chop it up really well. Make sure to add some adobo sauce to the mayo. Combine all those ingredients to taste. Tex-mex chipotle mayo! It is delish. 

All of my other recipes have been plays on my original quesadilla recipe. Pour example: Cheesy rice. The best. shit. ever.

INGREEGAMENTS:

Some type of flavoured parboiled rice of your choosing. My favourite so far has been Uncle Ben's tomato and basil. You'll need some butter to make it.

Assorted vegetables: I use green peppers, sometimes red peppers, corn, carrot and onion. If you want spicy cheesy rice, add a hot pepper. 

Oil: A splash in the pan for frying.

Salsa of your choosing

Cheese: generally the key for cheesy rice. I use a medium cheddar, but any melting cheese works fine.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Make your rice as per the instructions on the back of the package. I usually make 1 cup of rice (which fills up pretty much the entire pot, just a warning).

2. Cut your veggies up to a fairly small "chop". Like you would for a salad. Heat your skillet (make sure it's fairly large) with the oil in it to medium heat. Add onion and any frozen vegetables you've decided to use (I always use frozen corn). I generally add carrot right away too since it takes so long to cook. After a few minutes add the remaining vegetables. Keep frying them while your rice is cooking. 3. When you think you've fried your vegetables enough, add some salsa! Enough to let it simmer until your rice is totally done.

4. When the rice is done, add it to the frying pan mixture and mix until the vegetables and mixed throughout. 

5. Put some of the rice on a plate and shred some cheese on that baby. Microwave for 40 seconds or until the cheese is melted. 

VOILA. It sounds disgusting but it is SO GOOD.

My Life: Currently dubbed "The Library Crisis"

Unlike most undergraduate programs, course selection and where you want to go with your career is paramount  to figure out while you're doing your graduate degree.  For a lot of people, this is not an issue. They've had time to live their lives, figure out what they don't want to do etc. However, for me it's a major issue. There are some days where I feel I would be happy being an archivist or a records manager. I quite like the work and I'm a natural classifer.

But some days I think that I'm destined for something a bit different. At first, I thought this meant that I should stay in academia: Finish my M.L.I.S. and head straight into a doctoral program. As the semester wears on, I'm not sure if I'm cut out for research at this level or in this discipline. I started to look at other options. Firstly, I considered finishing this degree and doing an M.A. in my previous discipline, history. I'm still considering this. I really miss my historical research and my research area was (and still is) extremely understudied. So I started looking into M.A. programs at UWO and USaskatchewan, which both have at least one Great Plains specialist. 

Other days, I think that I am cut out for research in this discipline, although not in what I originally intended to pursue. Although audio libraries and holdings are a big part of my "research soul", I'm more and more interested in records management and applied diplomatics (the basis for UBC's INTERPARES projects). I think this is also a nice segue into studying both history and archival studies concurrently within a PhD program. I also think the school that would be most apt to let me have this type of freedom is... *gulp*... UBC (my undergraduate alma mater).  The gulp is not for the school itself, more than it is for the worry of doing two degrees at the same school. However, my undergraduate degree and my potential PhD have relatively nothing in common, so it may not be an issue necessarily.

My last idea/combination of ideas was to graduate with my M.L.I.S. and work for a year or two on contract jobs and get an idea of how workplaces use the concepts I've learned within my graduate studies to fuel some creativity into my future research. A big complaint I've had since I've been here is that I'm not writing anything crazy or unique (something I was notorious for in my undergrad), because I really don't have the mindset to do so. A new discipline requires a whole new lit review process that can be intimidating and daunting (and really, I have a lot of assignments so time is a major consideration). Anyways, I feel strongly that some work experience would greatly benefit my academic research and experience and it may be a somewhat "refreshing" experience to be away from school for a while (by the time I'm finished my Masters, it will be 6 years, no break). And hey, if I fall in love with a career and decide that I don't need to go back and do my doctorate, so be it. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing.

However, this does not help me in picking my courses for next year. Doing a PhD right out of this degree requires a lot of research intensive work. So I would be doing a six-credit research project, 3 credits of statistics and 3 credits of advanced research methods. That would leave me with only 12 credits of electives; hardly enough to help me develop some of the professional skills I would like.
At this point I'm not even sure if I want to do a research project or if I want to save my research ideas for when I can better articulate them down the road, when I'm less stressed about this "library crisis" (as I've come to call it). Instead, perhaps I should do a 3 credit lit review. It's so hard to say. If I come up with anything golden over Xmas break, I may go my original path. We shall see.
STRESS AND A HALF.

A fairly good recipe and some fairly strange news (oh, and life lessons)

So it's been about a week since I've posted anything in this blog. Mostly because not a whole lot has come up. I -did- however, start my program which has been a blast so far and I'm really enjoying my courses and meeting new people.
But I have to say, if you don't practice, you're going to lose skills. In this case, I say life skills. I'm normally not a *bad* cook (I don't set anything on fire, can time things OK, everything seems to taste like food and not death)... but lately I've been a mediocre cook in every sense of the word. HOWEVER, TODAY THAT HAS CHANGED AND I AM BACK TO MY FORMER BRILLIANCE. Anyways - does anyone enjoy Tex-mex food?

QUESADILLA RECIPE OF AWESOME

Iight, so you probably think a quesadilla is pretty wimpy shit when it comes to cooking, but there is an art to making a quesadilla that doesn't taste like stale soft tacos and overly fried chicken.

INGREEJAMENTS:
1) Soft taco shells, preferably some that are not a million years old. Take out one taco shell per quesadilla you would like to make.
2) Oil (Like canola but anything will work. Just don't use lard. That's gross.) I don't measure oil. I just throw some in a pan and hope for the best.
3) Chili Powder - Again, something I don't measure.
4) Salsa. You can use aaaaany type you like. I used President's choice mild cheap salsa and it was fantastique.
5) A variety of veggies. Howevs, this better include onion. I used onion and red and green peppers. OH AND I USED CORN. Riiight. So good.
6) Some sort of protein. I prefer chicken. Chicken is good.
7) Some sort of melting cheese.
8)) OPTIONAL THANGS: Sour Cream for dippin'. Pickled (or fresh) Jalapenos for an extra SPIIIIICY quesadilla.

INSTRUCTIONES:
1) Heat some oil in a pan, about mediumish. Medium high is probably okay too. Fry your chicken (probably best to cut it into strips or chunks first) till its almost done (all white in the middles). Add some salsa and any frozen veggies (like corn) you may have to the chicken so it all heats up into one lovely congealed mixture.
2) Take another pan and add some oil. Just a lil' bit. Throw your tortilla in there so it starts getting toasty and rub it around the pan so the oil sticks to it. Throw some chili powder on the tortilla (again, as much as you'd like really).
3) Start adding your crap. Put your fresh veggies and your onions on, then add some of that possibly now gelatinous chicken-salsa mix and top it with some cheese. Fold it into two like a calzone and press down with a flipper or something. Ideally, when the cheese melts, it will hold the two sides together, but if not, but careful when you flip it onto the other side or a plate or whatever since your junk might fall out and that would be sad. Actually not really, the innards of this particular quesadilla are delicious.
4) YOUR QUESADILLA IS READY TO BE CONSUMED.

Seriously, it was an excellent quesadilla. But in other news (and I'm going to say news, not necessarily life lesson style news), there is a pretty hardcore strike going on at my school right now (McGill University). All of the unionized administrative non-academic staff are on strike (and for pretty good reason, to be fair). But MAN do Quebecers know how to put on a strike. They've got megaphones and placards and chants. It's actually fantastic. That's how a good strike should be.  Anyone remember when the teachers in BC went on strike when we were in Grade 11? They just sat in lawn chairs and drank coffee for a week.

Okay, now to life lessons.

7. NEVER underestimate the weather in Montreal. Today the high was 26, which back home would be completely manageable, non-deathly heat. However, today was 26, but the humidity made it feel like 38. I LIVE IN A FLAT WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING. ;__; Now this isn't the end of the life lesson, no siree. I did all of my laundry last night since it was overflowing (I had ignored it for a while now) and it's still drying on the drying rack 24 HOURS LATER. It still isn't dry. Humidity sucks for pretty much everything (except my skin and lungs which seem to adore it).

8. ALWAYS underestimate Montreal transit. I've only had two classes so far and I've been late for both of them. Why? Well, the first class I had I decided to only take the Metro since I had time to kill. Well... The Metro was running extremely late because they had some sort of mechanical issue, so what I thought was me going to be extremely early for class turned into just the opposite. The second day I decided to take the bus since it was quite hot and the hill I have to walk up is extremely steep and horrible. Got to the bus stop no problem (from the Metro station) and the bus came perfectly on time but it was the travel - when we got to Sherbrooke and University, something had happened and traffic was clogged and there were ambulances and everything. So again, I went from being 20 minutes early to 10 minutes late because of this congestion and the driver wouldn't let the students off on Sherbrooke because it wasn't safe. :/ LIFE LESSON LEARNED WALKING TO SCHOOL FOREVER.