A-Z Challenge: H is for Hill

Day 8 of A-Z is brought to you by the letter 'H'.

For me and my "All Things Grad School" theme, H is for Hill, more specifically the one massive hill that the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Fredericton, New Brunswick (where I will be spending 20 months come September working on my MA) is right smack dab in the middle of. The picture below is a panoramic view of the campus.

The area of the city where the campuses of UNB and St. Thomas University are located is actually referred to as "The Hill".

While I haven't been to Fredericton yet, the way I understand the city's basic layout is as follows:

• The bottom of The Hill hosts Fredericton's downtown core, home to all of the lovely features I mentioned in F is for Fredericton, art galleries, museums, theatres (for plays, not films), the legislative buildings, and much more. I anticipate spending a lot of time at the bottom of The Hill.
• The top of The Hill hosts Fredericton's uptown, home to shopping malls and numerous other big box retail outlets. I doubt I will spend much time at the top of The Hill.

Close to Fredericton's downtown is Odell Park which borders the Fredericton Botanic Gardens. The hilly geography of the park makes it ideal for hiking, jogging, and cross-country skiing. Despite the fact that I will realistically be spending nearly all of my time inside buried under metaphorical hills of books, I do plan to get outside and enjoy the real thing from time to time. 

A lot of UNB Fredericton's majestic beauty is attributed to it's location on The Hill and I can't wait to call The Hill, home.

Random Acts of Kindness (Days 61-69)

Finally, my last bulk-post! Day 70 (tomorrow) will mark the start of my commitment to not only do random acts of kindness daily, but also to blog about them daily! Excited, aren't you?!

DAY 61
Monday, April 23 - I signed up online to be a lifetime organ donor.
I've always filled out the organ donation card that accompanies my drivers license. This year, Transplant Manitoba initiated an online registry making it even simpler. Seriously, though, what do we need with our innards when we're dead and gone?!

DAY 62 
Tuesday, April 24 - I made a donation to my cousin's Jump Rope for Heart activity and took down outdated posters around campus.
My 8-9-10-year old cousin (shoot, I can't remember how old he is now) is participating in the Heart & Stroke Foundation's Jump Rope for Heart with his school. I used to take part in the activities put on by my elementary school and I'm always game for supporting a charitable cause especially when it's combined with the promotion of physical activity. I have a few, ok, maybe more than a few, pet peeves and one of them is outdated posters. For my sake and the people who inevitably end up taking them down, I took down every outdated poster I saw today and recycled it.

DAY 63 
Wednesday, April 25 - I posted an Administrative Professional's Day photo on facebook and tagged all of my fellow admin pros.
Today was, obviously, Administrative Professional's Day. Unfortunately, Administrative Professionals tend to be the only ones who actually know about the day meant to celebrate their efforts.

DAY 64
Thursday, April 26 - I rolled coins to deposit in our WUSC account.
When I say coins, I mean a massive amount of coins, mostly pennies, but some nickels, dimes, quarters, loonies, and twonies too. Disgusting money germ hands all in the name of charity!

DAY 65
Friday, April 27 - I attended a friend's thesis defence & wrote a poetic tribute for one of my professors. 
Johnson's creative writing poetry thesis was superb, even the part where everyone started talking about poop. As for the poetic tribute to my professor, Di Brandt is one of the most brilliant and passionate minds I have ever met. For the celebration of her retirement as the Canada Research Chair in Creative Writing and her nomination to Professor Emireta I compiled snippets from a number of poems I had written for her classes and put them together as a tribute to her.

DAY 66
Saturday, April 28 - I arrived at Di's party early to help out & read the poetic tribute for her. 
Without being asked, I came to the party a half hour early to see if the party planners needed any assistance setting up. I was placed on door duty to welcome the party guests and direct them upstairs to the proper room. It was my pleasure. After only a tiny bit of fretting over the content of my poetry, I sought out advice and presented loudly and proudly my, let's call it earthy, poetry.

DAY 67
Sunday, April 29 - I helped clean up after the party & took a new friend to Guys and Dolls. 
Because I was the only person who had key card access to the building, I received a call around noon asking if I would come and help with the clean up by letting everyone into the building. Of course, me being me, I couldn't just show up, unlock the door, and leave; I had to help with the entire clean up. That's just me; it's what I do. I planned to go to Guys and Dolls, the theatrical musical, not the movie, alone, but after getting an unexpected acceptance of the invitation to join me, I bought a ticket for a friend and had some company.

DAY 68
Monday, April 30 - I stayed late at work to allow a student to complete her exam.
My work day finishes at 4:30 p.m., but today, I stayed until 5:00 so that a student wasn't rushed to complete her final exam.

DAY 69
Tuesday, May 1 - I deposited money to the WUSC account, did final edits on World Fair Trade Day promotional materials and promoted Fair Trade and Healthy Brandon in Motion on facebook.
I might as well end my mulit-day blog posts with a bang! The coin I rolled on Day 64 finally got deposited today. On Day 51, I mentioned that I had planned World Fair Trade Day in conjunction with Ten Thousand Villages. I finally received an editable poster and coupon and so edited to my heart's content today. Fair Trade Canada is winding up to World Fair Trade Day by doing a fortnight of promotions. I registered our World Fair Trade Day event and shared the Take a Step for Fair Trade video to inspire others to do the same. For the month of May, Healthy Brandon in Motion is doing a series of give aways to promote physical activity. I'm planning on taking part in the initiatives or creating a healthy, in motion activity of my own every day this month. Today I went for a long power walk after the rain storm. The smell of the fresh air was divine.

And that is it, that's all for the l-o-n-g blog posts that no one is likely reading. One-a-day from now on!

Random Acts of Kindness (Days 41-50)

This challenge really wasn't supposed to go past Day 40, but I couldn't resist. It feels great to actually take stock of the nice things I do for people. What's even better is when I hear that I've inspired others to do kind things as well.

WARNING: DAY 49 contains a profanity! :o

DAY 41
Tuesday, April 3 - I put cards with uplifting messages in them on random people's windshields & put money into an expired parking meter. 
The cards said: "Smile, it looks good on you!", "Don't Worry, Be Happy!", "Do more of what makes you happy!", and "Smile and the world will smile with you!". Each of the cards also said "40-Day Random Acts of Kindness - Day 41." Hopefully, I saved the other person from a parking ticket.

DAY 42
Wednesday, April 4 - I attended an LGBTT* awareness workshop, shared posts on facebook for Refugee Rights Day and SAARA Smile Awards & voted for the SAARA Smile Awards.
The workshop was put on by the President's Office at BU. I really learned a lot and had my mind opened to a few new ways of looking at LGBTT* issues. If you know me, you know that the plight of refugees is kind of my thing. Awareness is the key! As I mentioned before, I submitted a video to the SAARA Awards contest, but didn't win. The smaller Smile Awards ($500) were chosen by votes from the public. People are do amazingly kind things every day - take notice! Here are the first round winners!

DAY 43
Thursday, April 5 - I returned a stray shopping care to a store & gave Mom an Easter gift.
I've done the shopping cart thing before, but sometimes a duplicate opportunity presents itself and must be taken. I also bought my Mom a Phalaenopsis Orchid for Easter.

DAY 44
Friday, April 6 - I put flowers on strangers' graves & gave my Baba an Easter gift. 
Whenever I head home to Gilbert Plains, I try to remember to get flowers to freshen up the grave sites of my deceased family members. This time I bought a few extra flowers and placed them on random graves in the cemetery. My Baba also got a Phalaenopsis Orchid for Easter.

DAY 45
Saturday, April 7 - I joined and shared Stop Teen Suicide on facebook & spent some time looking into different non-profit groups to become involved with. 
I'm really just one of those people who enjoys finding great causes to support and advocate for.

DAY 46
Sunday, April 8 - I cleaned up the kitchen after Easter lunch.
Baba cooked, Mom and I cleaned, and I took the leftovers back to Brandon!

DAY 47
Monday, April 9 - I edited a friend's paper, committed to taking part in Sneak it in Week & gave a donation to two professors competing in Pie Your Prof.
Editing is what I do best; honestly if I charged everyone who I edited a paper for, I'd be relatively wealthy. I think this one was for Abraham, but I really can't be sure. Sneak it in Week was an initiative to get people active despite their busy schedules. The basis for the idea is that ten short minutes of physical activity is better than none. Everyday this week, I made sure I spent at least ten minutes, usually more, doing physical activity. Pie Your Prof was run by the university BUZS (Brandon University Zoology Students) to raise funds for the Food Bank. I gave $5 to the two Psychology Profs pitted against one another. In total, the group raised a little over $4500.

DAY 48
Tuesday, April 10 - I shared my Easter goodies with a somewhat unsuspecting acquaintance & edited two papers for a friend. 
Yesterday I mentioned to Glenys that I had borscht and Easter bread from being home on the weekend. She was jealous so I brought in some of my goodies to share with her. I mean, honestly, I can get my hands on that Ukrainian goodness whenever I want so sharing really wasn't a big deal. Editing, remember, it's what I do. This time I know it was for Immaculate.

DAY 49
Wednesday, April 11 - I contributed some 'art' to Angry Arts Week & bought a round of drinks for my classmates after our English exam. 
This little blurb is taken from the Angry Arts Week event that took place at BU: "In the 1960s, there was an event of art and protest fused together called Angry Arts Week that took place in New York. People were angry for a number of things such as war, and they expressed this anger through art which was a powerful agent in social change. Anger is a very valid emotion and people have a tendency to grin and bear it which fixes nothing". I should have taken a picture of my 'art', but I didn't. It was red letters outlined in black that said, "Why can't people just be fucking nicer to other people!" Today was also the last English exam of my undergraduate honours degree. I was a little drunk to write it and a little drunker afterwards. Drinks on me!

DAY 50
Thursday, April 12 - I went above and beyond at work to help out the other Office Assistants, made a point while shopping to compliment the service I received and thank those that assisted me & made an extra special card for a friend's birthday. 
Shirley and Maureen were both away from the office today and there were some important (according to the Dean's Office) invitations that needed to be delivered before Tuesday. Rather than leave it for them to do first thing when they returned Monday, I borrowed a key and delivered the invitations to all of the faculty members' mailboxes. I decided I needed some shopping therapy after work today so I made sure to thank the sales associates that were especially helpful. At La Senza I specifically told the manager (at least I think she was the manager) that one of her associates did a really great job. As for Ang's card, I always get these super thoughtful gifts from Ang and, to be honest, I kind of feel like a deadbeat friend sometimes. I put some extra effort into her card this year so she'd know, at least a bit more than usual, how much I appreciate her friendship.

**EXTRA SPECIAL BREAKING KINDNESS NEWS - Remember how I just said that I get the most thoughtful gifts from Ang? Ya, she did it again. For no reason at all, she gave me an Inspiration Jar, which is pretty much the coolest gift ever. Once I get caught up with this blog, I'll start picking a quote out of the jar everyday and themeing my days/random acts of kindness around the quotes. Can't wait!**