Leaving Kingston Tomorrow. The end of a good year.
At least it is good in retrospect, but I guess there were some tough times going through it. The work was hard, I did not do as well as I had hoped in some things, and the town its self was not particularly interesting, but it was a good year. The last month especially has been great. As described in my last post, I fell into a very comfortable schedual and enjoyed what was pretty much a summer vacation.
Daniel left on Wednesday. He was an exchange student from Germany and we had become good friends. To celebrate his time here, we went out on Monday night and, at my insistance, got a bit crazy in our festivities. After numerous rounds of shots at the bar, we went back to Ewan's house for some drinking games. All I will say is that we did not get home until broad daylight on Tuesday. A very good sendoff for him and me aswell.
My thesis is almost done. By almost, I mean I am just missing some editing and formatting which I will do from Ottawa. I worked hard to get to this point, mostly in the days between getting my data out on Thursday and the big night on Monday. I am quite proud that I was able to pull it all together so well, and before almost everyone else in the program. Of course, just as necessity is the mother of invention, deadlines are the mother of timeliness.
The paper is an evaluation of Canada's immigration system. The stated goal of this system is to attract highly skilled immigrants to help fuel our economy. To this end, we value education, work experience, and language ability (in our official languages) as a measure of skill and, using a fairly simple formula, evaluate prospective immigrants accordingly. At the same time, we accept a large number of immigrants for primarily humanitarian reasons. These are largely refugees and close family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Looking at the time it took for members of these groups (and their component subgroups) to find jobs upon arrival in Canada and then looking at their earnings two years later, I found that the evidence shows that skilled immigrants are indeed more suited to the Canadian economy. In short, the policy is doing what it is supposed to do.
Tomorrow I am not just leaving Kingston, I am going to Ottawa. I am very much looking forward to this. On the one hand, it means that my student life is forever over. Even if I were to go back for further education, I would be a mature student (as opposed to now...). On the other hand, adulthood has to start eventually and I supposed that at 24 I have put it off for long enough. I will be independent and employed in the real world, something which I have not really done before.
Last week a small group of us took a day trip up to Ottawa to find a place. The ride its self was probably the most fun with van full of friends talking shit. In Ottawa, we looked at four places that Evan's mother had arranged for us. In the end, we decided on a duplex on Bay street in centretown, 0.7km away from the finance department. The location is great, we can walk everywhere, and the house its self is quite nice. I also think that it will be fun to live with Evan and Egor. It will keep the spirit of the QED alive and give us better opportunities to network.
The job should also be good. Last week, another girl doing an MA here got offered a spot in the program so I will not be alone. I am still not sure what I will be doing there, but whatever it is, I am sure it will be interesting. Of course, to top it off, I will be getting paid. The next time I blog I am sure I will have more to say about it.
At least it is good in retrospect, but I guess there were some tough times going through it. The work was hard, I did not do as well as I had hoped in some things, and the town its self was not particularly interesting, but it was a good year. The last month especially has been great. As described in my last post, I fell into a very comfortable schedual and enjoyed what was pretty much a summer vacation.
Daniel left on Wednesday. He was an exchange student from Germany and we had become good friends. To celebrate his time here, we went out on Monday night and, at my insistance, got a bit crazy in our festivities. After numerous rounds of shots at the bar, we went back to Ewan's house for some drinking games. All I will say is that we did not get home until broad daylight on Tuesday. A very good sendoff for him and me aswell.
My thesis is almost done. By almost, I mean I am just missing some editing and formatting which I will do from Ottawa. I worked hard to get to this point, mostly in the days between getting my data out on Thursday and the big night on Monday. I am quite proud that I was able to pull it all together so well, and before almost everyone else in the program. Of course, just as necessity is the mother of invention, deadlines are the mother of timeliness.
The paper is an evaluation of Canada's immigration system. The stated goal of this system is to attract highly skilled immigrants to help fuel our economy. To this end, we value education, work experience, and language ability (in our official languages) as a measure of skill and, using a fairly simple formula, evaluate prospective immigrants accordingly. At the same time, we accept a large number of immigrants for primarily humanitarian reasons. These are largely refugees and close family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Looking at the time it took for members of these groups (and their component subgroups) to find jobs upon arrival in Canada and then looking at their earnings two years later, I found that the evidence shows that skilled immigrants are indeed more suited to the Canadian economy. In short, the policy is doing what it is supposed to do.
Tomorrow I am not just leaving Kingston, I am going to Ottawa. I am very much looking forward to this. On the one hand, it means that my student life is forever over. Even if I were to go back for further education, I would be a mature student (as opposed to now...). On the other hand, adulthood has to start eventually and I supposed that at 24 I have put it off for long enough. I will be independent and employed in the real world, something which I have not really done before.
Last week a small group of us took a day trip up to Ottawa to find a place. The ride its self was probably the most fun with van full of friends talking shit. In Ottawa, we looked at four places that Evan's mother had arranged for us. In the end, we decided on a duplex on Bay street in centretown, 0.7km away from the finance department. The location is great, we can walk everywhere, and the house its self is quite nice. I also think that it will be fun to live with Evan and Egor. It will keep the spirit of the QED alive and give us better opportunities to network.
The job should also be good. Last week, another girl doing an MA here got offered a spot in the program so I will not be alone. I am still not sure what I will be doing there, but whatever it is, I am sure it will be interesting. Of course, to top it off, I will be getting paid. The next time I blog I am sure I will have more to say about it.
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