Étudiante Immersion 2013

With Final Exams quickly approaching I took advantage of this beautiful weekend to go skiing at Mont. Tremblant with some of my friends! It was nice to get away from all the studying and just have fun. 

Mont. Tremblant est dans Québec, environ 2 heures de l'université, et en Québec tout les gens parle en français alors, j'avais un chance hors de l'université pour parlé français! Je suis vraiment heureux que j'ai continue dans le programme d'immersion, c'était vraiment facile pour moi de comprendre et pour parlé avec les autres qui était sur le même télésiège.

7:30 am :

Alarm goes off.

All you want to do is hit snooze and fall right back to sleep but you don't because you know that you have to get ready for Biology at 8:30 

Shower and get ready for the day

8:20 am :

Realize what time it is and rush to class

8:25 am :

Arrive to class

Search and find a seat

Prepare for lecture to start

9:50 am :

You are dismissed from class

Rush to next class, Anatomy, that starts at 10 am 

9:58 am :

Arrive at next class

Again prepare for lecture to start

11:20 am :

You are dismissed from class

You realize you are very hungry

Meet some friends for lunch

12:30 pm :

Go to FSS building

Do readings and studying

5:30 pm : 

Go to dinner with some of your floor mates

6:50 pm :

Prepare and leave for Psychology that starts at 7 

7:00 pm:

Find a seat beside your friend

Prepare yourself for the three hour lecture ahead of you

9:50 pm :

You are dismissed from class

Return to room

Complete any readings you weren't able to get completed in the afternoon

11:30 pm : 

Go to bed

Do your readings!

In high school you are given a textbook but you are never really asked to read it from from front to back like a novel. Here in university it is a must that you read all the chapters that your proff. has assigned because most likely your midterms and exams are based on the information in the textbook. 

If you only rely on the proff's notes you are really only learning and studying part of what you should be. It takes a lot of time to read page after page in a textbook but it really does help and it really is 100% necessary. 

I find that is very helpful to do the readings before the class because when the proff. goes over the material in class you will actually understand what he is talking about and it is much easier to study later on.

Do your readings. Do your readings. Do your readings. Do your readings.

Sleep is for the weak.

Before I came to university my cousin, who had just graduated from uni, told me to get ready for not sleeping very much. Thing is probably the truest thing I have ever heard!

University is a lot of things you must learn in a very short period of time therefore sometimes sleep is just not an option. When it gets closer to midterms it is very usual that I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning studying and completing assignments yet still have to get up for classes in the morning. You got to do what you got to do. During exam you get minimal sleep because you really don't have much time to cram and memorize everything you have learned over the past few months. 

I am not saying that you should never sleep in uni you will crash and that would definitely not be good. But you will be tired most of the time, don't worry your body will adjust !

Freshman Fifteen is NOT a myth.

I always heard of people talking about this thing called "freshman fifteen" where in your freshman year of uni you would gain fifteen pounds but I never actually thought it was a real thing... 

I am on a meal plan so to eat all I have to do is go to the caf and grab something to eat. In the first few weeks I realized that I was eat a lot of bread and starchy things along with a lot of junk food. This is not good and I realized that I needed to change my eating habits. Therefore, when I go to the caf now instead of eating pasta for the third day in a row I could choose something a little healthier like sushi or a salad.

Take Chances.

University is a fresh new start so why not take chances? University is much funner when you take a little risk because you will learn that it pays off in the end and that you had fun!

In university you can be whatever you want and I guarantee whatever you choose to be there will be someone out there that is the exact same as you. You will never get judged in university for doing something you love so just let loose and do what you please. Uni is so diverse that there is literally all kinds of personalities therefore there is no opportunity for judgment or anything of that sort.

The Francophones can speak english too. 

When I enrolled in french classes I was horrified that the francophones would make fun of my accent or I wouldn't be able to understand them. This could not be further than the truth. 

When I walked into my first french class I sat down and this one girl came and sat next to me and my heart was racing because I knew she was going to talk to me and my french was definitely not as good as hers. But she started speaking to me in english! I was shocked. She was taking all of her classes in french yet still spoke perfectly good english I didn't think people did that..! 

None the less all the francophones I have met speak very fluently in english. This does not mean that you can't speak in french with them, they really don't mind speaking in either language.

Francophones are people just like you!

You are a Number not a Person.

Some people may think this is absolutely ridiculous but really with classes that have more than 200 people in them it is impossible for the proff. to know your name therefore to them you are simply a number. 

In High school you are able to get to know your teacher and they are able to get to know you and your habits, which may affect the way you get graded. Where as in university everyone is simply a number and everyone is graded equally.

Self Discipline is a Must.

In university you have a lot of down time where you don't have any classes or anything to do at all. In this time it is very easy to just hangout with friends or look at Facebook for hours upon hours but this is definitely not what you should be doing. 

In university you and you alone are responsible for your success or your failure. Therefore in your down time it is your responsibility to be productive and study for that midterm coming up or catch up on some readings.

I find that it is very helpful if you schedule your time. I schedule the time I am going to study for certain classes but also the times I can relax and hangout with my friends or do anything non-school related. 

French Immersion classes require more work.

Compared to taking a class in english I have found that when I take classes in french, I have to be 100% alert and paying attention the whole time or else you'll miss important information. 

I am not saying that french immersion is harder than classes taken in english all I am saying is that classes taken in french require a little more time devoted to them. In French classes it takes me much longer to do the readings compared to my english readings. When reading in english I can skim the paragraph and still have a very good idea of what the main idea is. Where as in french if I was to skim the paragraph I would not have a clue what the main idea is. 

Don't get too Discouraged.

When you didn't get the grade you needed or you failed a midterm or the world just seems to be against you, it's okay to cry. In university it is very easy to get discouraged and down in the dumps but you have to keep your head up and look at the positive side of things. 

When you make a mistake, realize what you have done wrong and move on because you will not be able to focus on all that you need to accomplish with a poor attitude.

Don't take university TOO seriously. By this I do not mean forget your responsibilities and just party your time and money away (some do choose this route.. not recommended!). What I mean is that if you take things too seriously and get hung up on a bad grade for example, you will not be able be successful in improving that bad grade. 

University is Hard.

This seems very obvious but before coming to university I did not realize just how hard I was going to have to work just to maintain a passing grade in university.

In highschool I was able to study the night before the test and still pull off an 80% or higher. In university I have been studying two weeks before a midterm and getting just a passing grade. Trust me when I say this, university is very difficult compared to high school. 

Well I now have one semester of university under my belt and boy oh boy has it been an adventure! I made it and survived although at times I didn't think that was going to be possible.

J'ai appris tellement de choses dans ma premier semestre ici et je veut partagé tout que j'ai appris. Dans les prochaines jours je vais donné des exemples de choses qui ont choqué et surpris moi.

I am so very proud of all my fellow immersion students that are currently attending my former high school, St. Mary Secondary school. They all took part in this video for a chance to win a contest through the University of Ottawa, they did not win but I am still so proud and happy they did this!!

Its that time again... time of confusion, frustration and feeling overwhelmed. Things are starting to pick up again as midterms have started for the second time this semester and final exam are only a month away. 

Je sais quoi s'attendre pour les deuxième tours des examens de mi-sessions mais je suis encore stresser. Je sentis comme il n'y a pas assez de temps d'accomplies tout que je dois. Avec les examens finaux juste autour du coin je me sens complètement dépassés. Est-ce que je suis capable de tout faire? 

Midterms are a stressful time but I made it through the first set of midterms so I know I can do just as good on these midterms. I am not even going to think about final exams until I have finished all of my midterms!

Well reading week is over :( But as nice as it was to be home it is going to be nice to be back in Ottawa!

J'ai pris ces photo le jour avant mon départ la semaine dernière, Ottawa est un ville très belle j'aime beaucoup. J'ai réaliser que je suis chanceux d'être capable d'étudier dans une ville si beau qu'Ottawa. 

J'espère que tout le monde avais une bonne semaine à la maison! J'avais tout mes midterms avant le semaine d'étude alors j'était capable de relaxé, manger (un peut trop!), et avoir temps pour ma famille. C'était excitent de voir tous ma famille et mes amis et entendre tout leur histoire.