Most of the leaves are now down on the ground leaving Edmonton in its current distressing gray tone. It seems appropriate somehow that this new washed out appearance should arrive just in time for Thanksgiving. A Thanksgiving which I plan on celebrating with some sort of soup or stew while hunkered over a textbook. And ponder, of course, over what I am giving thanks for. It's been an interesting year, and as all of them, bittersweet. But it must be said that I have made it for 5 years up here in this frozen wasteland, so what's another winter?
I am actively dreading my two midterms scheduled for late next week. Both advanced organic chemistry and environmental promise to be quite difficult, and I certainly do not look forward to writing them, though it will be nice to have them completely out of the way (at least until the second ones). Over the years I have come to the important realization that the first midterms really set the tone fo rthe whole semester. It may not be impossible to recover from a lousy first set, but you're faced with playing the wrong game until finals. That is, namely, trying to learn and get a nice A or B versus trying to figure out enough so that you don't fail the course. The former is far more pleasant...
In any case, we'll see how it all turns out. I have not done very well motivating myself into getting these vital tasks done so far, so I am really hoping to get back on top of matters as the week progresses.