Updates from Al

Well, well, well… the last couple of weeks have been quite an adventure, to say the least. To begin, I would like to formally announce that I’m looking for work in and around Montreal. I got the news last week that there just isn’t any money in the budget to maintain my position, so at the end of the fiscal year (May 31) I’ll be handing in my keys and bidding a fond farewell to my little office space. While this is hardly the sort of news I wanted to hear, I was only ever promised a year here so getting an extra 2 and a half months is actually pretty decent. So if any of my readers know of any jobs for Anglophones out there (and though I shouldn’t NEED to emphasize this, I will anyway: NO CALL CENTRES), please feel free to drop me a line.

The next blow to the ol’ ego came last night in the form of a rather thin envelope from McGill’s Department of History. Contained therein was notice that I had been rejected from the Masters program and that my interest in the “highly competitive” program was appreciated. Um, thanks for that, I think… so I guess that clears up any fears I had about how I was going to pay for the MA, huh? Oh well. The next challenge awaits, I guess.

So let’s try and end off on a positive note, shall we? Last night I had the final exam for the French to English Translation course I’ve been blasting through this term. It’s hard to believe that 12 weeks have gone by so quickly, but evidently it has. Now I don’t know if I just got handed something different from everyone else in the room or if my classmates are just far more cautious than I am, but I was done that exam in record time. Sure, I had to look up the occasional word, but otherwise the translation seemed to write itself. All told, in a 90 minute exam, I was done in 45 minutes—and that includes the time I spent re-writing my rough draft! So either I tanked it or I rocked that baby til the break of dawn. We’ll be getting the results back next week, so I guess I’ll find out then if I’m as clever as I believe I am at the moment. Maybe I’ll get lucky on the English to French exam after Easter? Anything’s possible, right? Til next time…

Deadlines, deadlines!

The next 24-48 hours will be particularly stressful for ol' Al. Not only do I have an assignment for my French-to-English translation course, but the deadline for my MA application is tomorrow. I've been polishing up my submissions as best I can, but I'm still missing one of my reference letters. I sent an e-mail yesterday to the professor in question, but as of right now, I haven't received a reply. With any luck, it'll magically appear in my mailbox before the deadline. After all, the Department Checklist clearly states that "only complete application packages will be processed." So, yeah. A wee bit worried. Sorry for the brevity of this entry, but I think I'll pace back and forth for a bit. Til next time...

News from the Front

Today has turned out to be a pretty good day (and I’m not even half way through it yet). Just after lunch, I received an e-mail from the folks responsible for creating the student e-mail accounts at McGill University. It looks like I’ve been accepted into Part-time and Continuing Studies for the Certificate in Translation (French to English) program that I had applied to earlier! Hurrah!

Now how does this fit into my grand scheme? Well, I’ve always been a bit of a worrier and since I can’t claim to have loads of job security at the moment, I thought I would take something that could add to my skill set. There’s bound to be a market for someone who can translate French to English in this province. Sure, I could have taken something a wee bit more practical, but what fun would that be? Besides, this also leads back into my explorations of Quebecois culture and would assist me in reading through primary sources should I succeed in my attempt to get into grad studies.

I’ve also recently joined a gym and have managed to get through 3 workouts so far. With any luck, I’ll manage to get back to a dainty 200 lbs sometime in the new year (I’m not going to hazard a guess as to how far through the new year it’ll be, though). So overall, I’ve got some pretty positive things happening. Lastly, voting begins tomorrow for the First Round of voting for the Canadian Blog Awards. Please feel free to show your support for ol’ Al B Here. Til next time…