Four Month crunch to the Light

Today marks an interesting stage of my education as I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Today, I arrived at school and handed in my final two papers for the last two modules that I will probably take in my Master’s course. I am aiming for a Distinction for my efforts of course but I suppose a Merit will do. I also paid for the last term which started this week. The way I see it, my time in school is coming to an end. With classes being over and papers handed in, some would say that I have it easy for the months to come. In some ways they would be right, but for some reason I don’t think so. 

Academically, there is only one thing left on my plate and that is the dissertation. I have four months to come up with 20,000 words and I must make sure not to quote or paraphrase too much so as not to be accused of plagiarising. I have never done something like that before. I have usually needed the external routine set by classes to keep me motivated and productive, but it seems that I will now have to make my own schedule for the next four months. If I stay indoors studying for four months straight, I will probably have a meltdown, so I need to properly balance time with friends and exercising. Overall, with a good plan, I do not see the paper being a problem. 

Where the anxiety truly lies is what comes next. Most people have the luxury of going home after their studies but I have no interest of going back to live with my parents. Within the same week, after I hand in my final thesis, I will be kicked out of the apartment I am currently living in to make room for the 2012-2013 students. I don’t have the funds or the job to really know where I will be and what I will do.

This means that, while I’m finishing my academic life, I need to be preparing for my working one. Preparing my CV, searching for jobs and applying for them is an undertaking in itself. As a foreigner, I also have visa issues to deal with. 

Thus, the next few months are entirely on me. How well I do in my thesis, what job I find and where I end up is no one’s responsibility but my own. I have to be out of here in September and officially begin a move away from my academic life. This is a large step that seemed to be crunched into a very short span of time. What to do?

Terrorist Threats

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved."

Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective" Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Three more escalation levels remain: "Crikey!", "I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend", and "The barbie is cancelled."

English Pronunciation

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.
After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité

Cameron's mistake

The UK's deficit is one of the worst in the EU; as bad as Greece's. The new treaty that David Cameron vetoed yesterday is designed to get countries on track on their spending. It was aimed at only the Eurozone but even the other 9 countries want in on it. In addition, in times of crisis when more money is needed and spending will be limited by the treaty the EU will provide help through the central bailout system. With the UK not being part of this system that means that the UK can spend as much as it wants and dig its hole deeper and if it is in trouble it won't get any money from the EU. With the UK's current economic situation it needs assistance to balance its finances and get itself back on track. This treaty wouldn't have cost the UK any money since it’s not part of the Eurozone. Simply, Cameron is worried that the current anti-Euro sentiment in the UK will split his party. People in the UK use the EU as a scapegoat because they don’t want to fess up to the problems that they face. The UK barely spends any money on the EU and receives enormous benefits.

UK October - Things are going smoothly

Hey guys here's a update on what's going on with me.

Things here are going really well in the UK. We got a place near the town center of Lancaster and it’s bigger than the one in Japan. Not as cheap though. But I couldn’t find a better deal since there are three universities in this town. The place is furnished and overall it’s great, except for the occasional slugs and the roof leaking. We had some guy come by and check it out, don’t know how far that got yet.

School started about three weeks ago. I’m taking four classes: Diplomacy, Conflict Transformation, International Relations Theory, and European Union. I'm overwhelmed with the reading and I’m worried about the final assignments. There is so much more reading than in Japan. All the papers for this term are due January 16th, so until then its work time.  Learning diplomacy is a lot like learning about the WWF. Everything is about show-boating and secret alliances and it’s all FAKE. But I’m meeting lots of people from all over. Mostly from Europe but there are some Canadians here too. Overall the students are really nice and always interested to tell and listen to stories. We just go down to a café or pub on campus (we have 8 pubs on campus) and chat. I even started a Facebook group for the postgraduates. The school unfortunately tries to rip you off every chance it gets: overcharging for late fees, paying for the gym, expensive cafeterias, expensive photocopies, etc.

Money is tight though which is a pain. Currently waiting to see if I’ll get any scholarships but something may be coming from Japan. Most of the grocery shopping we do online since it comes with free delivery and you can compare different stores.

People here are really nice. Everyone is open to tell you things if you don't understand them. Most forgive me if I don’t understand their strange accent or if they use a word that I’ve never heard before. They sometimes treat me as the ignorant Canadian since I don’t know many things that they take as normal.  The rain comes and goes though which is a pain and it’s starting to get cold.

The good news is that most of the packages I sent from Japan arrived recently. Helene’s parents drove them up last weekend. Mostly everything arrived all right. The clothes smell really bad and needed to be washed again. The one thing I didn’t think of when I shipped the electronics was that Japan is 100v and the UK is 220v. So I’m currently looking into converters.

I’m thinking of going to Canada for Christmas. Currently looking into tickets. It seems that if I buy a ticket to Dublin on a low cost airline, fly to Halifax and take another low cost airline from Halifax to Ottawa, I shave half the cost. That’s what I did this summer with Dubai and it totally worked, if you don’t mind waiting around in airports.

Overall, I’m a little stressed right now. Not knowing how to organise myself is causing me to worry a lot. I’m trying to remain focused but it’s hard to concentrate right now. I want to go out and meet people and do well in school but right now those don’t seem compatible. Do you know what I mean?  

I sometimes miss Japan; the food, the house and the lifestyle and of course Ritsumeikan. Teaching English wasn’t so bad either. I miss my students.

On a brighter note, I love exploring a new country. The UK has so many things to offer; new food, beer, ways of life and people. Later in the month we’ll be going to Helene’s grandparent’s house in Southampton. Should be a great trip. They are lovely people.

Here’s a fun link I found if you’re a lord of the rings fan. http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/276793

Hit me back with some updates. I would love to know more about what you’re doing.

Cheers

MIKE

Jobs in America

John Smith started the day early having set his alarmclock 

(MADE IN JAPAN ) 

for 6 am .. While his coffeepot 

(MADE IN CHINA) 

was perking, he shaved with his electric razor 

(MADE IN HONG KONG)
He put on a dress shirt 

(MADE IN SRI LANKA), 

 designer jeans 

(MADE IN SINGAPORE)
and tennis shoes 

(MADE IN KOREA)
After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet  

(MADE IN INDIA)
he sat down with his calculator
(MADE IN MEXICO)
to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch
(MADE IN TAIWAN )
to the radio
(MADE IN INDIA)
he got in his car
(MADE IN GERMANY)
filled it with GAS
(MADE IN SAUDI ARABIA)
and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.
At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his Computer
(MADE IN MALAYSIA ),
John decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals
(MADE IN BRAZIL ),
poured himself a glass of wine
(MADE IN FRANCE ) and turned on his TV
(MADE IN INDONESIA ),  

and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA

Pyramid Hotel

Hey everyone. Yesterday I celebrated the gift of internet in the UK so it's time for some more updates. Above is a video from the Pyramid Hotel in Dubai. When I left Japan, I had a three day stopover in Dubai before I went to France. Helene's uncle and aunt live there and they took really good care of me. Dubai is small. You can drive through it in just a short time but there is so much to see. Besides "skyscrapers in the desert" the place can be described as "people who have too much money"

Unfortunately, I was there during Ramadan which meant no eating or drinking in public. That meant that in the daytime we had to stay indoors somewhere rather than enjoying the 50C heat. Once you're outside, you become thirsty in a matter of minutes. So not being able to drink made exploration difficult. The good news is that Dubai is very accommodating for foreigners, so certain restaurants and places will allow food. Just don't be flaunting it publicly. 

For the three days I was there, I saw a lot of malls. The above video is from the Pyramid mall/hotel. Very impressive. The mall had my eyes darting from one corner to the next. So many things you wouldn't see in normal circumstances. Just imagine a prestigious brand name like Prada and then you come across the Prada cafe. Strange no? This mall the Pyramid had an indoor aquarium that offers swimming with the fish/sharks.