Safety first then home time!

I don’t know how we did it but we managed to get up for 8am classes again. Kudos. After having that week off to sleep in I know that it was a challenge to get up for school again.

On Monday my class went to a school board meeting where we learnt about the property tax raise and what it means for homeowners in the Winnipeg School Division.

After it was done, at 8pm, a bunch of us went back to school to finish the article that was due at 8am. Our thoughts were, “Instead of worrying about handing it in in the morning why not finish it tonight and have a relaxing extra 30 minute sleep.” (The things we do to get an extra sleep in the morning I tell ya).

School that night was a nice little freak-out-while-eating-donuts-and-listening-to-music party.

As the time ticked along, one by one we started to finish our 400-450 words and leave to hand it in. But of course, to me, everything in the empty room was more entertaining than finishing the article. I finally buckled down around 9:50 to finish the piece by 10:45.

It was as good as it was going to get and I still had my sanity, so I called it a win. That is when it hit me. I am a tall blonde feeble girl with a laptop in hand about to walk 2 blocks to my car that is sitting alone in a parking lot off an alley at 11pm. Clearly I didn’t think this part through. So I called up SafeWalk.

And that is my tip for you guys this week.

CreComm can give you many late nights at the school. So if you are a tall blonde feeble girl or just want less anxiety than your already overflowing plate has provided, give SafeWalk a try.

No matter how foolish you feel about it SafeWalk is a program for a reason. There are creepy people out there and they like to come out at 11 at night.

In my experience it really helped, because on our way to my car we passed three ominous downtown characters. If I didn’t have the two guys there on each side of me acting as my temporary bodyguards my anxiety would have been through the roof as those characters eyed down my laptop.

The two gentlemen helped ease my worries about the Exchange District at night, and I felt like someone of importance.

As much as my friends laugh at me for being too paranoid about the situation, I chose to have a SafeWalk to my car for the first time and I am happy I did, and I encourage you to do the same if you feel the need.

It is better to be safe than sorry, right.

A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed

For Journalism class we just recently had to read the book A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed.

For those of you who don’t know, Nahlah Ayed is a foreign correspondent for CBC. She was born in Winnipeg but when she was six years old her mom and dad decided to get back in touch with their Palestine roots and moved their family to a refugee camp in Amman, Jordan.

Her book A Thousand Farewells profiles her life from those memories in the refugee camp to the challenges that come from being a foreign correspondent.

I just want to first quickly mention first how I normally do not read personal chronicle books unless I am invested in a that person in some way.

I prefer to watch documentaries or movie adaptations of non-fiction books, like Into the Wild. I am a very visual person and so reading this book was hard to do at times because I wasn’t invested in her story before reading (which is the only way I read non-fiction personal books).

Reading this book took a lot of time and was confusing because of the abundance of information that is thrown at you about the war and the people involved.

The Middle Eastern wars are not cut and dry as she mentions in her book. There is a lot of background to it.

For someone who hasn’t been following intently about the wars this book will seem confusing, and maybe it is because I am a visual person but I think the story could be well suited for a documentary. That way the facts and visual aspects can be integrated better.

That being said the stories that she has collected throughout her lifetime are completely unbelievable and are things you only hear on the TV but don’t think actually happen.

I really enjoyed how she told those stories without a filter. She would talk about all the things that posed as a challenge to her, like bombings outside of the place she was staying at to her, a mass grave site where people were looking for their love ones after a tragedy, and her cameraman getting beating by a mob in the streets.

Sharing these stories helps to show that even for journalists overseas the hazards of a war torn country is immanent. Her health even took a toll due to the “overwhelming stress” she internalized. A valid lesson and harsh realization for those who are wanting to be a journalist, like us CreCommers.

However, the structure of these stories is a little hard to follow at first. Ayed focus is on the wars that go on, and war grows and spreads, so she has to grow and move with it. Almost every chapter is in a new part of the Middle East, and the flow of the book is hard to get used to at first but as you continue you adapt to it.

After finishing the book I have had more admiration for oversea correspondents. I have always appreciated their initiative and this book solidifies that. They are immersing their lives but also risking their lives for the work that they love.

Countdown has ended!

I swear every day this week felt like Friday, and every day I woke up I was disappointed by the inevitable realization that it was in fact not Friday yet.

But today I woke up with no disappointment cause it is finally reading week!

Whatever you do with your reading week embrace it. It is a week full of empty hours that will be filled no matter how you intend them to be.

Remember: With great power comes great responsibility!

Want to catch up on your many much needed mental health days, awesome, that is my plan for the first couple days. If you choose to vacation in the mystical land that is the third floor Mac lab for the entire week, go for it.

The bast way though is to find a nice balance between work and personal life. It is just like the real world (I know weird eh?). If you work too hard all the time you will eventually hit a wall, and hit it hard. It is what a lot of people are experiencing right now with CreComm I find. We take in all the stress but don’t appreciate those moments of silence enough that allows us to breathe for a second.

Look at it this way. If you view school as a marathon coming at it with a sprinters point of view only works for the first bit.

The cross country running point of view has a long steady pace that allows them to pick up near the end. They appreciate their surroundings and have a foundation that will last them the eight month race.

Embrace those moments of silence and freedom this next week but balance it with some work as well.

Happy reading week y’all!!

Remember when there was a scheduled nap time? I miss that.

Sleep. What is sleep? They say you are supposed to get eight hours of it, but between the assignments or getting the cold… or maybe a mixture of both, who has time for that?

So here are some tips to get that energy back, and hey they are all in one place so you don’t have to waste anymore energy searching for them. Bonus!

1) Eat well

I know it sounds typical but honestly almost everything can be related back to what you put on your plate. Eating nuts, fish, and/or eggs can give you the protein you need to keep going for the day.

2) Tea Time

Green tea or chia tea it is plain and simple enough. Green tea is supposed to be better than coffee to keep you alert and with less the amount of caffeine.

3) Laugh

Laughter is the best medicine right? It makes sense if you look into the science behind it. It increases your heart rate which increases your blood flow. It also releases the happy happy joy joy chemicals in your body, they also go by the name of endorphins (one of the hand full of things I took from my time at UofW).

4) Move your butt!

It builds off of the increase of blood flow. Get up and move around for a bit. It will keep you alert and you’ll get a change of scenery as well.

5) Meditate

Breathe in and breathe out. Get all the excess thoughts out of your mind and rejuvenate your body. It gives you a peace of mind and increase your Alpha waves which help wake you up. When your Alpha waves are low that is when you feel sleepy. (This also is courtesy of  U of W knowledge). Now… ommm.

Some of my helpful sources for tip ideas:

http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Ozs-Beauty-School-13-Energy-Restoration-Tips_1/13

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20559973_last,00.html