February Reading Week in Canada

For the past week it has been Reading Week, classes resume on Monday and so as the week is coming to an end I thought I would do a blog post about it.

At one point I had been considering going off for a holiday over Reading Week, however in the end I decided not to. I decided that the best use of my Reading Week would be to really push myself to get ahead on my work load. Partially because I have a lot of work due over the course of March, I am naturally organised and I always like to be ahead in my work whenever possible. I also wanted to get some of my assignments done because in March I am going to be away over a weekend to staying overnight for a Comic Con.

I was actually very surprised to see just how many people left on Friday – the last day of class before Reading Week. Usually when I’m at Uni back in the UK a few people will leave for Reading Week but the majority of people tend to stay. The university also tends to run events throughout the week so that there’s something going on. But here in Canada the campus and residence has been pretty much deserted for the entire week. To be honest it has been weird seeing the campus so empty but it also has been pretty quiet which has given me a good working environment.

I haven’t just been doing work, I did go to Toronto on Monday and I did have a good day.

Also over the course of Reading Week I have decided to give up being vegetarian. I just missed eating meat a little too much. In fairness my New Year’s Resolution was only to try being vegetarian, I never intended to make it a lifelong commitment and I did manage to be completely vegetarian for a decent amount of time. I do plan to keep on cooking veggie meals, I’m just going to be having meat every so often. My plan now is to treat meat as more of a luxury item than an everyday foodstuff.

So in conclusion, I definitely had a productive Reading Week and even if it was maybe not the busiest I still had a good time.

Life Update – Mid-Terms and Snow

I know I have been a little bit too relaxed with posting regularly on my blog so far this year. To share how things are going at the moment and where I am right now in my life, I thought I would just do a quick Life Update post.

·         As of Monday I am now in the midst of Mid-Terms. This semester I have three mid-terms and I have already done the one that I was most worried about so it’s not too bad.

·         It has been snowing again. I talked more about Canadian winter in January here. To be honest at this point I am just getting a bit bored of winter, the constant cold is just getting tiring.

·         I am a vegetarian at the moment, I talked more about that in this post.

·         Academically things are going well, the classes I am taking this semester are all interesting. I have also been working on my proposal for my dissertation which should be really interesting.

·         To be honest, things have generally been a bit quieter this semester. I am still enjoying being in Canada to Study Abroad but it seems like there is not as much is happening as there was back in September and October.

Been Vegetarian for a Month

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2018 was to give being vegetarian a proper try. I’ve now been vegetarian for about a month and so I thought I’d write a blog post about how I’ve been finding it.

The last time I had meat was when I had a sausage and egg McMuffin for breakfast on the morning after I arrived back in Canada. I had literally no food in and so getting breakfast at McDonalds seemed like the best option.

I’ve noticed since I went vegetarian that I have been eating more cheese than I used to. It’s probably quite good for me that I’ve been getting more dairy into my diet than I used to. I have also become quite keen on using sweet potatoes and beans in my cooking.

Probably one question some people are wondering is, why did I suddenly decide to give being a vegetarian a try? Well I have been low-key contemplating it for quite a while and there’s various reasons. The main one being that I just don’t really feel comfortable eating meat and knowing about the intensity of factory farming meat production. Another reason was that I wanted to prove to myself that I actually could go vegetarian.

I thought one of the biggest challenges I was going to face was finding good veggie options when I’m eating out, I don’t eat out that often but I do usually grab lunch in the university food court a couple of times a week. However I have found eating good meals to not be a problem. And I can still have Poutine whilst I’m in Canada, I just have to ask for veggie gravy.

Generally I have found going vegetarian relatively easy. I would say that if you’ve ever considered giving being vegetarian a go as then you should give it a try as you’ll probably find it easier than you’re expecting.