07.20.08

As for the personal life

Posted in Education, Life, Roleplay at 15:56 by krikkert

Still waiting for my letter of admission to the UiO Faculty of Law. They’re apparently still working on my case!

Today’s been pretty fulfilling. I’ve done a full-home vacuuming and gone over with soap and water (I am very glad I have a small home). I’ve cleaned. And now I’m preparing a few notes before me and my wife — bless her — are off to our weekly roleplaying game. We’re currently playing the What Follows in Shadow adventure in the Wheel of Time RPG setting, and I angle to send the characters headlong into the Prophecies of the Dragon series of adventure later. Mwahahaha… They’re in for a RIDE!

I’m also pondering how to most easily deal with my forgetfulness. Will I remember to look up appointments in an appointment book? Gah, if only my memory hadn’t started to fail on me.

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05.19.07

The study offer came in the mail.

Posted in Education, Life, Work at 23:21 by krikkert

I had nearly forgotten that I had even applied. But as it appears, they not only received my application, they even processed it. And sent me a reply. Saying that I had been accepted. For the last week or so, I’ve been tormented by whether to attend a public school, or the private school so gracious to extend me an offer.

I’ve signed and dated the offer, and returned it. This fall, I will be attending BI — or the BI Norwegian School of Management. It’ll be a Bachelor’s program in Economics and Business Law, and I’ll hopefully be extending that into a full-blown law degree. Hopefully.

Also, I’d like to request a few good wishes for my friend Shamini, who’s in a tight spot with regards to the National Higher Education Coordination Board due to some misinformation on their part.

Work’s been hectic this month. I don’t think I’ve had a day off since early April, around Easter. My paycheque also came in the mail — roughly equivalent to two months’ budget when living on government study grants. Money tastes so much sweeter when it’s earned. Sadly, it also leaves so much faster.

23:20, signing
~Christer

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09.16.06

Roughly a week has passed.

Posted in Education, Life at 21:48 by krikkert

A week has passed. And I’m still hanging in there. The first assignments have been received (Philosophy, due on 2. October), 800-1000 words on Plato’s allegory of the cave and how it is related to today’s society.

This morning was the Senate’s Welcoming Committee’s breakfast for the international students. Free food! And good conversation, as well. The Dean of Fine Arts is an interesting guy (and a Newfie). When the VP of the University spoke, he mentioned that a Lot of people within the administration were international students — the VP himself is Irish. And his associate VP is English. I didn’t get to take any pictures, because I forgot my camera. Silly Christer.

I saw Snakes on a Plane last night. I don’t think I’ll be flying anytime soon.

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09.07.06

My first day of school!

Posted in Education, Life at 03:57 by krikkert

Yep, Wednesday would be Christer’s official First Day of Classes. On the schedule for Wednesdays are the subjects of Political Science, Philosophy, and Liberal Education. PoliSci promised well for my first university experience — the professor, Dr. Paul Gecelovsky, was there before the students. He opened up by going through the course syllabus, I’ll describe that in another post. I muchly regret that there was only space in the back, because due to the construction work at the university there was quite a lot of noise. Must show up earlier for Friday’s class. The professor further specified that he hated lectures, and that he’d much rather have discussions. This promises well. Sadly, the 50 minutes allotted to this class went all too quickly. As a quick remark, I am deeply disturbed that in a class of 80 students, I was the only one who could answer the professor’s question about how we define an ‘ad hominem’.

Ten minutes later, it was time for Philosophy. According to Dr. Govier, the professor teaching the subject, we will be studying the foundations of western philosophy — from Socrates and Plato through Hume to Kant. The study of philosophy is about the ability to ask questions and dare to face said questions afterwards instead of running away from them. Very promising!

After this, I had allotted myself a nice hour of break. This was spent mostly in line to the Cash Office to ask why my tuition had been registered under the summer semester instead of the fall semester. This was apparently expected and would fix itself. Then I had lunch, a lovely salami and white cheddar sandwich, and proceeded to B660.
Liberal Education has proven to be the most interesting class by FAR. According to the instructor, Dr. MacKay, LibEd is basically a micro-University. It’s basically a ‘how to get the most out of university’. In addition, there is no final exam, and the assignments are all about exploring WebCT, the university’s online course system. I’m thinking ‘easy marks’. I should be able to score at least a 3.8 in this, and I need an average of 3.38 to get into the Faculty of Education (grades are from 1-4). I also got major brownie points for sitting there reading the book when the instructor arrived. His line to that was “Hey, we’re not going to use that book before November. Great of you to come prepared though!”

I’m pondering whether to designate Philosophy as a Credit/Non-Credit class. Basically, if I should against all odds fare badly in that class, it won’t hurt my GPA unless I fail.

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08.30.06

My schedule!

Posted in Education, Life at 09:38 by krikkert

I’m sure you all want it badly. So, here goes:

I finally got Philosophy moved from a 15:05 slot to a more proper 10:00 slot. Hooray for me!

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07.07.06

The University got back to me today.

Posted in Education, Life at 22:38 by krikkert

Hi Christer:

I contacted Charlene and she advised that you should not worry about this “official transcript/unofficial transcript” matter as it is an administrative issue. Charlene also advised that you can still request your official transcripts be sent again when your school reopens as long as the University of Lethbridge receives them by November/December 2006.

(Charlene is the International Liaison Officer)

I’m very relieved. Now I only have to deal with Satan’s Educational Loan Fund. They should respond either tomorrow or Monday.. Tuesday at the latest..

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News update..

Posted in Education, Life at 02:03 by krikkert

I’m not very fond of the State Educational Loan Fund, nor the University at this time. Why?

The SELF got back to me regarding financing my education. They’ve hung up in the wording on the Offer of Admission — namely, “pre-B.A/B.Ed”. They don’t support precourses. It’s taken me one heck of a lot of time to hunt down webpages that document that the pre- prefix means that it’s a combined degree program, where you don’t get any grades before you’ve finished both. Hopefully they’ll accept the documentation.

As for the University, they’ve announced that my diploma doesn’t count as ‘official’ — apparently they think I sent it myself (even though it was sent by the school).. So I email them. I ask what constitutes an ‘official’ version, and I ask where we go from here. Their response is all about the first part of my email, and fails to answer the second part. I have notified them and requested an answer to the second part.

Unfortunately, if this doesn’t go through, I’ll have to cancel my admission. My school has closed over the summer and therefore cannot send another copy of my diploma.
Man, being so close that you can *smell* success and then failing really bites.

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06.07.06

My itinerary has been set.

Posted in Education, Life at 16:41 by krikkert

All times are in both local times and British time (unless in Britain).

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03.31.06

Today brought rejoicing spirit.

Posted in Driving, Education, Life at 17:37 by krikkert

Unfortunately, it also brought painful stuff. I wake up, and I immediatly found out that I had misplaced my law book — so I couldn’t take my law endterm today. It’ll have to be taken on collection day, on the other side of Easter. Didn’t particularly like telling my parents that, but they were surprisingly nice about it.
I got myself a driving lesson mid-day, so as not to waste the entire day. Was told I had a few more faults to work on before I can pass my test (basically only had two serious faults — too fast in a roundabout and almost mowed down a pedestrian biking into the road). My course in driving on slippery road will most likely be taken the week after Easter. I’m so close to my licence that I can smell it. Next lesson is on Monday.
I got my new passport today. I have mailed my application to the Canadian High Commission in London. Of course I forgot to include the bank draft, so I had to hurriedly write an email to them explaining the situation and saying that the bank draft is post haste being mailed in a separate envelope. I expect it’ll take two or three days before my reply is back, once they receive the bank draft.

It’s beginning to dawn on me that I’m beginning to fulfill all my life’s current goals: My driver’s licence is within sight. My application to the University of Lethbridge has been accepted. The SELF (State Educational Loan Fund) has promised me conditional educational scholarship (based on whether I graduate or not from Upper Secondary School). I’m graduating Upper Secondary School and as such finishing all mandatory education. Those were, and are, my goals in life. The only one unlisted in the “near-fulfilled” list is actually “find nice girl and settle down”.

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03.30.06

It’s that time of the year again.

Posted in Education, Life at 06:16 by krikkert

The teachers are on strike. This year, it’s because the state has decided to force “office hours” into schools. Basically, teachers have to spend 8-4 at school like other state functionaries. So the teachers are on strike.

If they keep striking, I won’t get any exams. This is Not Good. I’m not sure if I’ll be allowed to graduate without any, and I doubt University of Lethbridge will take me in without any.

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