Academian Rhapsody.doc

Ups and downs this week, friends - ups and downs!  Luckily the downs have been fleeting and the ups have been more frequent so all in all the week has figured out on the positive side.  A lot of the melancholic moments were related to school.  This was a product of a full week of lectures, readings, two postgraduate receptions, two plays, two meetings, two orientation sessions, and to top it all off a four page assignment due yesterday.  When's a boy to socialize??

As much as a busy schedule forces you to focus on the task at hand, having not felt totally settled into campus life (no debit card, no post key, and no mobile) the busy workload left no time to get out and take care of these essential items.  I take comfort in the fact that the weekly schedule will be less jam packed and once I've gotten my bases covered I can really focus on setting up a routine.  Already the weekend has provided a nice breather from the 'go-go-go' of the last ten days.

The other moment of uncertainty was a little more confidence shaking, but all it took was a little perspective to put my fears to rest.  I'm told the more you continue in higher education the more frequently you encounter the paranoia of being an "academic fraud".  These moments can apparently creep up on anyone who spends an extended amount of time in the ivory towers. I'll try to describe the feeling: You sit in a classroom with a small amount of students and a renown professor in the field in which you are studying and suddenly the fear that you don't belong in this distinguished a group starts to creep in.  Not only do you begin to doubt your abilities and confidence as other students quote concepts from Hegel and Spivak, but at the root of this paranoia is the fear that you'll be "found out". Thus, it was this feeling of utter inadequacy that began to overtake me as I sat in my lecture on Thursday listening to the opinions of my intelligent peers.  The saving grace for me was an awareness that this condition is a feature of postgraduate education. I also had to remind  myself that I have been an extremely eager and willing participant thus far.  In the inevitably competitive nature of programs like this, I realized that humbleness goes a long way. I'm not the smartest student here by a long shot, but a confidence in what I do have to contribute is all I need to get me through.

One of the more memorable moments of the week, that went a long way in killing any doubts I may have had about my place here, was the studio work we did yesterday afternoon.  After a week and a half of sitting around lecture tables and contributing to discussion, we finally got on our feet and played some trust exercises and ran around a little. Those who have taken any theatre or drama courses know how tedious these exercises can sometimes be, but with a group as diverse as ours (for the majority of students English is their second language) moving from the mental to the physical really leveled the playing field and broke down a lot of barriers. The feature of the program that really excites me is the Friday classes which are spent in a studio for the majority of the day.  The afternoons are meant for students only where we'll teach each other performance practices from our own countries so I'll be able to have an introduction to performance from around the world.  I've already starting planning just what I'd like to introduce to the group, but I'll blog about that close to.

*BREAK* from the academic!

THINGS I'VE LEARNED THIS WEEK:

1. A costume or theme party is called a "fancy dress party". I asked first if everyone had to wear a dress (I wouldn't go!) and second I asked if it meant "fancy clothes" (that I can do!)  Themes are attached - we're going to plan one for our course soon.

2. V-plates = V-card.  For those of you "in the know" on this one (um...Bronwyn?) plates - like license plates on the back of a car - is such a fitting image don't you think?

3. I can't listen to Bob Sinclair's 'Love Generation' anymore. I miss everyone back home too much. It reminds me of Cuba, Bonnie Jovi, and 'doing the hustle'.

4. Double decker bus rides are expensive.  But, the feeling on the top floor is unmatched.  Why would anyone sit on the bottom?!

5. There was an advert for a band on campus called "Kill Mary".  You'd have to have been to a party at 295 Alfred at Queen's to know this, but I want to tell them that Mary is already dead. May she R.I.P.

Balancing out this fleeting academic questioning (I assure you I feel totally comfortable now) was a really great week socially with the friends in the program and new ones made along the way.  I've gone out and about five of the last eight nights, even if only for one or two pints, so I think that's more than par for the course (An eagle, in fact!)

To close this weekend post I'd like to include a small excerpt from the assignment I wrote this past week.  Why? Because the assignment was the reason I was unable to blog the past three days so I consider it also be a form of blogging, and also because it'll give those of you interested in theatre some idea of what I'm up to.  Please, it's not dreadfully boring. 

The Formal :

"Finally, it is the pairing of the thematic elements, introduced through induction and this week’s lectures, with the modalities of scholarship, curation, and creative practice that serve to link and transform the concepts from initial theoretical frameworks to creative and personal products (be it in the form of an essay, exhibit, or performance) created in our research studio and also our culminating theses. It is the fusion of these elements that allow for each student to consider their own country’s performance practices in regards to the thematics of the course but also alongside a diversity of other cultural traditions."

The Informal - 

"In addition to new theoretical concepts, the most important thing I’ve realized this week is quite simple. It’s that I’ve never been surrounded by such a diverse and interesting group of young people as the one I am lucky enough to be a part of for the next 16 months. Canada is touted as one of the most multicultural countries in the world, and it is, but it’s here where I’ve felt like the real dialogue is beginning to take place. The title of Silvija’s lecture this week was “Seeing Better”. I found this to be a fitting lens with which to view the initial weeks of the MAIPR program: the familiarity of lectures and discussions were ‘made strange’ as it were by telematic and blog hookups along with the presence of a diversity of students and faculty from a multitude of different countries. This unfamiliarity resulted in a way of “seeing better” the goals and concepts of the course, each other’s diverse performance practices, the preconceived notions with which I may have arrived, and ultimately an understanding of each other as people. It is the promise of seeing each other and ourselves even better as we progress, which excites me the most."

Doc's Prescription of the Day: If you happen to find yourself in Toronto or Paris (ahem, Emily and Viktor) check out the innovative pieces sure to be featured in 'Nuit Blanche'. Unfortunately, none of the surrounding English towns have their own NB, so I am bussing out of the city tonight and checking out the nightlife of 'Leamington Spa' with some friends.  Top of the double decker, fo sho.