The countdown begins in earnest

Rude awakening: 2:30 AM. (Miserable dicktards.)
Internet connectivity: Dial-up slow.
Days to departure: 41.

Booked my return flight today for Saturday, April 7. It's at a sensible hour, too, so I don't have to get up too early, nor do I get into YVR too late. I am genuinely excited, particularly since our seminar group (Group 5) has made good progress on our two assignments and we had our one and only exam for the term (in Innovation & Technology) yesterday. Progress! I now turn my attention more fully to my individual assignments, for which I've done the bulk of the research; now all I really need to do is sit down and write. Which for me is usually harder than it sounds, although much of that difficulty exists -- where else? -- in my head.

I am also hopeful that I can avoid paying the last portion of the rent, since it is due at the end of April and I shall be gone long before then. I'll find out soon enough as I have left word with the housing officer, but even if I can't it's a small price to pay for returning to civilization and peace of mind.

Had a good commiseration with Meagan at lunch today. Meagan is my next door neighbour to the east; she lives in room M. (Kate, my neighbour to the west, lives in K. And I live in L. Which makes it harder to remember than either of theirs, since it's not my initial, but I usually manage to find my way home OK. Although it makes me wonder what the L stands for.)

Meagan is very sharp; she can produce an insightful and instantaneous, post-modern political-economic critique -- on virtually any topic -- at the drop of a hat, as she did today. I have a lot of time for Meagan. We have a lot of values in common, not the least of which is our mutual respect for sleep -- hence our commiseration, following last night's hallway shoutfest. We are both finding it marginally easier to take, even though we both agree it's getting worse by the day, because we are both taking off like bats out of hell as soon as we can. She's going back to her native Washington, DC, whereas I am going to take a couple of days off to visit Scotland and Ireland before taking a direct flight back home.

Part of me actually wants to skip that and just go straight home, but I'd be remiss if I did not take this one last opportunity. It may be the last time I'm in this neck of the woods for quite a while, although I'm thinking of using some frequent flyer points to get me back here at least for the weekend of the graduation ceremony this fall (though I'm not sure exactly when it is). After all, this is kind of the culmination of a longstanding dream for me. So I'd like to celebrate it, officially. We'll see.