Day Twenty-Nine: ouchies!

 

Had the second half of my self defence course today (www.rad-systems.com) and what a great day it was! Well aside from hurting my ankle … but I’ll get onto that.

 

We started off this morning with a review of the strikes and positions we had learnt and then moved into learning about kicks. After that we went on to how to get away from grasping, choking, what to do if you end up on the floor and so many other different things, all useful and all really interesting. It was a bit tiring learning them as we practiced the moves and then either did it on each other (such as the choking) or against a pad (with the kicks).

 

For lunch I had ordered a packed meal from the canteen, which I’d collected last night, and it was really tasty. I had a salad, a wrap, some cookies, a fruit bowl and a cereal bar … mmmmm. After lunch we reviewed everything we had learned and then went onto a simulation project.

 

Rick, one of the instructors dressed up in a huge padded red suit and we had to put pads on our knees, elbows and hands, as well as a helmet. We then simulated different attack scenes and took it in turns to fight the “attacker” off. I tell you what, it’s scary. When he comes up and grabs you, your heart races and instinct kicks in. Plus all the added moves really helped our confidence.

 

The suit Rick wore was a red version of this suit (Picture from the RAD website, see above for the link):

 

The first situation was walking by each other and he grabbed our arm. As it was the first one, I was so shocked … I didn’t know what to expect, but watching it back after I reckon II dealt with it quite well. I used the Hammer Fist I’d learnt and pummelled down on his arm (he reacted as if we had hurt him … because with the suit he couldn’t really feel it).

 

The second situation was at an imaginary cash point. He came up and grabbed us from behind. Well this was funny … I was using elbow strikes into him and actually made him lose balance and we fell over, this gave me a chance to get away, but as I stood up to run, I didn’t get up properly … I got to the safe zone, but fell straight back over! It was interesting though. My heart was pounding!

 

The last scenario was the best. We had to stand there with our eyes closed, so we didn’t know what was going to happen. He grabbed both my wrists. I tried kicking, but for some reason couldn’t actually kick him. So I tried to pull my arms free, by this point my heart is racing, we know it’s not true, but in the moment you kind of forget … I managed to pull my left arm free with a move we were taught and then I landed a punch right in his face. It actually hurt him … he fell backwards, the force sent me backwards and I went down awkward on my left ankle (the good one) hurting it.

 

Rick said his head was ringing … apparently my left arm is stronger than I thought … so I got given an ice pack and then we all sat down to watch the situations back on the projector, luckily I hit him hard at the end.

 

It’s only when you watched the videos back that you see how good you did, it’s empowering to see that you managed to apply the skills you learnt and get out of a situation that occurred.

So anyone that wants to attack me … watch out, I’ll beat you butt to the floor and then some before I get away

 

Obviously now I’m feeling shattered and so this evening is a relaxing one … full of Solitaire, Hearts and Freecell. Sounds good! Nighty night.

Day Twenty-Eight: wonder when I’ll give up counting …

 

So so day really. Got really annoyed with o2 this morning as they basically said I couldn’t do anything about my phone while out of the country and they’ll sort it when I’m back home. So ner to them. Looking at getting a contract phone when I’m back anyways (if I can get a credit card and shove that on there to get a credit rating … big if) so I may just change networks again and transfer my phone number over.

 

Anyways my day … I went to town today. I decided to gowindow shopping and get off campus. I wanted to go explore town more, but I didn’t have too long as I had a self defence course this afternoon (the RAD programme, it’s today and tomorrow and is a Rape Aggression Defence programme).

 

The trip to town was great. I wandered out of my warm halls into the snow (as it was snowing, not just the snow on the floor) and went to wait for the yellow school buses for a shuttle to town. It dropped us off right in the middle of the Ottawa University campus … so I had to ask directions from several people to find my way to the Rideau Centre (as it was snowing, this is where I’d decided to go) and one guy I asked commented on my accent … It’s weird to have so many comments on it. It’s just the way I speak, seriously, nothing special at all.

 

 

When I eventually found the Rideau Centre I noticed a sign for Nicholas Street, where the hotel Alex has booked in March is, so I went and found it. I went into the foyer and it looks really nice inside, so should be a good few days. After exploring I went back to the shopping centre and decided on the best route round it, the layout is kind of like Bluewater in that the walkways are triangular in respect to one another, but at ends there are square-ish areas, that you miss off if you just follow the triangle. Sounds weird I know, but it makes sense in my head (doesn’t it always).

 

Anyways while I was there I got some lovely star earrings from Claire’s and a Valentine’s Day card for Alex, as well as some little cards to write mum and Kim a letter each. Hopefully that’ll arrive much quicker than the parcel, which still hasn’t arrived back home. I headed back to Ottawa University for the shuttle at about 2ish, got lost and again had to ask for directions. It’s harder to ask a direction when it’s snowing though as everyone’s hiding in their hoods. But anyways, I managed it and got the shuttle back to campus in plenty of time for my self defence class.

 

The class was so interesting. At first we went through stats about rape and sexual harassment victims and that those who know the stuff we’re going to learn got away from the situation 71% of the time. Not bad odds really. I’m back in my room after class now, with some noodles (that I am eating with chopsticks I might add) from the Oasis bar as the canteen had closed by the time the class finished. O and here’s a picture of some buried bikes I saw on capus … suppose at least you know your bike is safe for the winter …

 

 

I’m not going out with the girls tonight as I have the second part of the course tomorrow between 10am and 4pm. But I am going to the pre-drinks, so I’ll update you tomorrow after my class. Night!

Day Twenty-Seven: exams and parties!

 

Up early for lecture today, Personality Pscyh, but I’m not a happy bunny. My WAP settings on my phone have somehow gone … well they haven’t been working properly and so I reset my phone and now the settings won’t go on at all. Really annoying because now I cannot send large messages for just 25p and it’s really bugging me. Without my phone I feel even less connected to home. At least with the picture messages I was able to contact Alex a bit more. Now I can’t even do that. I’ve sent an email to o2 and hopefully it’ll be sorted in a few days. If not then … well I dunno. I can’t really do anything.

 

After Personality I had an hour and a half before my TV class. So in that time I read through my notes for my exam this evening and then played Hearts and Freecell on the computer … they’re addictive! Afterwards in my TV class where we learnt about TV interviewing and prepared ourselves for our own interview. It was a really interesting class though.

 

I had enough time before my Forensics exam to fit in some more revision and then off I trotted to the class for the test at 6pm…

 

All that worrying … for nothing. We had an hour to answer 45 multiple choice questions and I had done in 30 minutes. Talk about making some of the questions obvious. But anyways, all done now.

 

And I went out to Ollie’s for some partying to get all that revision out of my system. It was a great night! Everyone’s impressed with my pictures and they’re really fun actually. Here’s a group shot of us all in the club:

 

 

I came home quite late and quite tipsy. Alex says I was pissed, but I was merry and tired … bad mix in the end. But it was a great night!

Day Twenty-Six: studying…

 

See 26 January because it’s pretty much the same. Except I revised, or at least I did try to, instead of writing an essay.

 

Night!

Day Twenty-Five: fire alarm number 4!

 

It was another day of study, so I haven’t got much to say at all. I was revising for my Forensics mid-term, which is on Thursday. I condensed 3 lectures worth of notes and reading into just 6 pages. I was well impressed. I was also distracted by the fire alarm for half an hour … bloody thing keeps going off and it was so loud. I was chatting to Alex at the time before he went to work and I left the speakers and the call running so he could hear the lovely siren, teehee.

 

Had Scouts tonight where we continued work on the Klondike Derby, which was also fun. Their splint work is hilarious as well. Now I’m off to the pub on campus (Ollie’s) with a few of the English lot. Actually looking forward to an evening out after working all day.

Day Twenty-Four: to keep mum happy hehe

 

I wrote an essay for my TV class comparing a CBC and a CTV newscast … and went to Pilates at 4.30 too, so not much to say. But I’ve posted to keep you happy mum.

Day Twenty-Three: skating and sleigh rides in the snow

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIM!

 

Woke up today to call Kim and wish her a happy birthday and here about her day and night when she went to Jaks.

 

I went to a Winter Street Party with Brent and his son Jonas yesterday near to where he lives. It was great! There were sleigh rides pulled by these gorgeous horses and then skating on the rinks made in the park. They were a little bit bumpy and I doubt I’ll ever be as good as I am on the rinks at home, but I am improving gradually.

 

 

While one our skates we went up to a little building … very hard to do in skates, but we managed it. And we had hot dogs and hot chocolate all free. They were tasty! After our short break to defrost we went back out the ice and skated around for a little bit more before watching the kids practice hockey … and make us look like terrible skaters. They made it all look so natural.

 

Once we started to get cold again we took our skates off and headed back to Brent’s house to defrost. We all chatted for ages before we decided to give me a tour of the town centre (as I haven’t seen it) before dinner. The buildings in town are beautiful, there’s a mix of new and old architecture which looks good together.

 

I saw the art gallery buildings and was told that the turrets on top of it are an abstract version of the turrets on the Parliament buildings. I also learnt that all of the Parliament buildings burnt down except the library because someone closed the huge wooden doors, which were really thick and protected it. I even saw the inside of the foyer of the Chateau Laurier, a very posh hotel opposite the old train station in Ottawa. It was very very grand.

 

On the way back to the car we went through Byward Market and got my first beavertail. Tasty! Beavertail’s are a pastry treat, not actually the tail of a beaver, in case you were wondering.

 

Back at Brent’s we started to do dinner, we had haddock with a really nice topping and rice and vegetables. I never really had much fish, but started to eat it before I came away and it’s actually really nice. I don’t know why I never really liked it.

 

After dinner we chose to watch Roger Rabbit. And I of course showed them both the scene filmed in the amazing State Theatre in Grays … I love that building!

 

(pictures of The State courtesy of Peter Hammond)

 

Anyways back in my room now and feeling so tired even though it’s 10pm, had a lot of fresh air today! Night.

Day Twenty-Two: nothing much to report …

 

I went Kayaking … nuff said!

 

I also went along to the charity ball. I wasn’t going to, but I got back from kayaking and everyone was dressed up and I thought … yeah go on then. It was a good-ish night. I kept losing everyone, so I met a lot of random people! I left a bit early though, because I was tired and just wanted to get back … it was 2am.

 

Anyways not much to report … rest of the day was spent reading. O and I watched the Butterfly Effect on the TV here, weird but great film!

 

Night!

Day Twenty-One: reading, reading, reading

 

Well … not much to say today at all. No fire alarm last night, so I actually got a full nights sleep. I finally dragged my butt out of bed at about 10ish, and because I’d left all my washing to dry in my room over night, my window was full to the top with condensation. So to air out my room I opened the window for a bit. But when I went back to close it about an hour later … the water around the window where it opens had turned to ice! I had to close it to defrost the window. Not what I’d expected at all.

 

My day was basically filled with reading, I have a Forensics midterm on Thursday so my plan is to get the reading done asap so I can actually get round to revising the stuff, as well as doing an essay for TV which is due Thursday as well. Essays are different here, if I can say that without sounding weird … we’re not told how many words to write, we’re told how many pages to do. It’s all very different. My TV essay has to be four pages and my personality essay that is due 13th February has to be four to six pages. So I have a little bit of work to start doing. I definitely don’t want to get to the point where it’s all due at once.

 

Might as well get into good habits for study here that I can use in my final year back home … at least I hope so! So far I am … but it has only been 3 weeks.

 

Tonight I went out to dinner with Stuart’s mates again, we all went to a place called Mongolian Hotpot, which opened yesterday, and it was an unusual restaurant where you have to cook your own food. It was tasty! And you could try all sorts of food, but I can’t cook. At least they made it easier, they bring you a base of water with flavours in, which you use to cook. It’s a great idea and worked really well too.

 

 

But that’s about it for today … not much happened at all. Night!

Day Twenty: it’s all gravy

 

What a full day! Had a Personality Lecture this morning and he got quite far through them considering he rambles. But that was a good lecture. I then sat near a plug socket and recharged my lappy while working on Forensic Personality stuff. I did the bonus assignment, the one she told us to set an hour aside for … I did it in 12 minutes and got 100%! Yays to me.

 

TV class was at 11.30am and we edited our PSA and our group rocked. We hardly got any criticisms again, so that was great. It was a fun class too, working out all the edits and piecing the music together.

 

O and I seem to get told on a daily basis one of these:

“O my God I love your accent”

“Are you from Australia?” – makes me laugh

“Wow, England, nice accent”

And variations along those … it makes me laugh a little bit because I don’t see my accent as being an accent. It’s plain and boring … It’s so plain in fact that I don’t see it as an accent at all. But anyways, it’s a great conversation starter. And on 3 occasions today it actually happened.

 

After TV I had long enough to finish some notes, grab some dinner and head to Forensics, which wasn’t too bad. We watched the Stanford Prison Study film, which I’d seen in college, but it’s always good to refresh, that seems so long ago now. I have a Forensics mid term next week, so better do plenty of revision this week … fun!

 

I’m back in my room, with my fixed light and a warm bed to crawl into. I’ve done a load of washing tonight, so that’s nicely hung up and drying, Emily lent me her airer so it’s all piled on that and Brent’s old hangers.

 

I’m feeling a lot better today, don’t know if it’s because I had plenty of work to throw myself into, but it worked whatever it was. Although back home everyone’s getting ill, Kim wasn’t feeling well last week, now mum’s ill and Alex has come down with it too. Hope you all get better!

 

Anyways that’s all for today, night!