Well, despite my best intentions, I didn’t get around to writing many letters this year. But I did have reasons! In case you don’t already know, here is the run-down for 2001:
In January I went back to the U of C. I took 4 courses, 3 computer science and 1 elective. One of the computer science courses was "Practical Software Engineering" and involved a huge group project. We were in groups of 13 and I ended up being a co-group leader in my development group, and a customer representative in my customer group. It’s all very confusing unless you actually go through it. It was an interesting and work-filled 4 months, and I ended up making some new friends out of it. On top of working on my assignments every single day, there was a transit strike that lasted from Feb-April, so I got to fight traffic every day, try to find parking, pay for parking, and give my car-less friends rides to or from school. It was challenging, to say the least.
I turned 21 in March, not that I really had much time to celebrate, since I had so many assignments due!
Over the summer, I got a job working at CIWA (Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association). One of my new friends from Computer Science was unable to maintain the database system that he had created since he had another (more lucrative) contract, so he told them that he would find someone to replace him to do the work. I ended up with a 9-week contract to fix their client database and upgrade it a bit. I did that, then they asked me to stay on longer, so I was there another 6 weeks, until school started back in September. I ended up covering reception, doing data entry, being personal typist and general tech girl while the network administrator wasn’t there, which was most of the time. I worked with about 60 women, 55 of whom did not speak English as their first language. It was certainly interesting!!
In September, Fall session started, and I went back to the University for my 4th year. Unfortunately, I am not taking a full course load… so I will be done in April 2003 if all goes well. If I end up doing an internship, graduation will end up being further away by at least a year! My sister, Shelley started her first year of University too, she is taking Engineering. It was strange seeing her, since we haven’t been at the same school since I was in Grade 6! Oh, and she got into a car accident, so once again, I am car-less. She’s fine, but the car is gone! :(
So, in the last semester (Fall), I took all electives, since I had 10 left to do. I took 3 first year courses, French, Geology and Religious Studies, and a 3rd year Software Engineering course. It was weird not having to program 24/7… I did do a little programming for the Software Engineering course though. In my French course, there was a registration glitch and there ended up being about 17 people in the lecture section, and 5 in my lab section. It was strange, it was like being back in high school where the teacher (prof) knows every student and you are not anonymous. I, of course, was the best student in my lecture section and everyone hated that. (What they didn’t know was that I haven’t been the best in the class since I was in high school!) I had forgotten so much of my French, even though I had taken 12 years of it, I had been away from it for 4 years. I’ll have to wait to see what kind of marks I got, since no one enters them over the holidays.
At church, I am still in the "young adult choir", called the Soul Singers. One of the other choirs, the Bel Cantos put out a cd, and we did 2 songs. We got to go to a recording studio and everything. We spent about 4 or 5 hours and we ended up with 2 songs that were each less than 3 minutes long! We recorded in June, but the cds were just ready the week before Christmas.
I also got roped into the Youth Group Advisory Committee. My friend Melanie is the youth group leader this year, and as part of the committee we get to help organize and chaperone youth events, so I got to chaperone the "Progressive Pizza Supper" night in November, and the "Wake-a-Bake-a-thon" in December. During the latter, 12 kids in Grades 7-12 baked cookies (60 dozen) and stayed awake all night (7pm-7am) to raise money for the Christmas family they were sponsoring. What a night! And may I suggest that Wake-a-thons are evil and to be avoided at all costs, especially when you are already sleep-deprived!!!
This year was the first year that we all have gone away for Christmas. We spent a week at my Grandma’s house- she lives in Victoria, BC. We flew out of Calgary on Dec. 23rd and came back Dec. 29th. We had most of my Mom’s family over at Grandma’s for Christmas Day, then Boxing Day we went over to my Uncle Don’s house with everyone and celebrated my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary. We ended up seeing more relatives in those 6 days than I have in my entire life! (It’s a good thing that you can pick your friends, ‘cuz some of my relatives are really strange!)
New Year’s Eve my parents had a Danish smorgasbord supper with some neighbours over, then we watched the countdown to midnight at home. New Year’s Day we had our annual Open House, with about 16 people over. We are going to be eating leftovers for weeks… but that is what the holiday season is all about, I guess. :)
Oh, I have of course forgotten to mention the outdoor activities this year. In June I went with a bunch of people from the church on a hike up Mount Yumnuska, after which we soaked in the hot springs in Banff. Then in August, I went with my friend Tyne and a bunch of her friends to spend the long weekend near the Lower Kananaskis Lake. It was very pretty at the lake, but I didn’t partake in all of the late-night drinking they did, so didn’t really have that great a time. In October, I went with Melanie (the youth group leader) on an overnight hiking trip to Ribbon Creek campground. It was 22 kms, in the snow. I don’t know what I was thinking! If you are interested in seeing pictures from any of these, I have them posted on my website. Right now, it is mostly just a photo album, but eventually I will make it all snazzy. http://www.oocities.org/trudydp/
I guess that is about it. The last year has gone by so quickly that I can hardly believe it. The Winter semester starts on January 9th, and goes until the end of April. That will be a lot of work, since I am taking 2 computer science courses and 2 software engineering courses… I will be doing a "Software Engineering Concentration", something new at the University that started in September.
I hope that you are happy and healthy in 2002, and that I hear from you soon. Take care,
Trudy
P.S. Sending an email to trudydp@yahoo.ca is the best way of getting a fast response from me!