First day of grad school

After waiting for so long (four years or four days, depending when you started counting), I am finally back in school! Today's the first day for graduate students here at Trent. The day started with the orientation session with presenters from welcoming us to the school and CUPE people talking about our not over-working ourselves. After the BBQ lunch, there were four different workshops that helped us as new teaching assistants - what students expect from their TA's, effective marking, motivating a group of students, and dealing with difficult students. Each workshop had a different presenter (all from the faculty of arts) but I found all of them to be engaging and super interesting to listen to despite feeling exhausted. If all (or most) professors are like them here at Trent, then I believe this is an awesome place to be!

The orientation was held at the Peter Gzowski College which is also the First Peoples House of Learning, and there were many beautiful artworks on the walls.

And my favorite one was this one by a deceased local artist named Norman Knott. Tern, Heron, Loon, Bittern, and Geese.

While us graduate students were having our orientations, the undergraduate students (assigned to different colleges) were still getting to know one another and competing against other colleges for the bragging rights about being the best in school.

Head of the Trent, a popular(?) regatta (i.e. rowing race) held at Trent every year. Maybe I'll come and check it out next month.

A somewhat nice day

This Dingy Cutworm Moth (Feltia jaculifera) was found in my room just a few hours ago, probably attracted to the floor lamps next to the screened window. I took a few photos of it and then took it back outside. This moth is found all over North America and is considered a pest of apples, beans, clovers, corn, tobacco, and young soybean plants. Maybe I shouldn't brought it outside.