The end of the week.

Here I am. I still have a lot of work to do here, and all my deadlines are coming up fast. Wish me luck.

I wrote my English mid-term on Friday (crazy, yes? The mid-terms at UBC are in October. Do other universities have such early dates?) and I think I did okay. Hard to say at this point. I was the second person to finish, and I glanced at the first exam handed in. Someone analyzed the same poem as me, "The Silken Tent" by Robert Frost. However, this person's analysis focused on the "power of feminine strength" whereas I narrowed it down to a celebration of the self, and how faith relates to the self. You know how, if you read the paper just below yours when you hand things in, and you read their answers to reassure yourself? I did that. I wasn't reassured. My problem is that Frost uses the feminine pronoun once, in the first line and as the first word. Having such a small presence in the poem, the pronoun is relinquished of any prominence in the overall piece. Now I have something to think about.

After the mid-term I met up with the Poetry Society, a new club at the university. There was, like, two people there, but we went ahead with an ice-breaker. There was a brief overview of what the club will be doing - lectures on poets, poems or literary devices, then a workshop on members' poems who want feedback on their work, and possible involvement in poetry slams and open mike nights. Then there was a poetry trivia game, and I won by a whopping two points! The prize? Werther's Originals. Oh, yes. And, a strange coincidence. The other person at the ice-breaker was the same person who finished her exam first in my English class. Strange.

Last night Lisa and I attended a Sikh pre-wedding reception. Guggin, a classmate of Lisa's . . .okay, I don't know how to phrase this. There's just way too many possessives. Let's try it this way: Guggin: Lisa's classmate. Guggin's sister: the one getting married. We got a lift to Guggin's parent's house, courtesy of Lisa's folks. Yesterday was market day for their farm, so they were in town. When we got there we noticed a group hanging around in the front lawn, so we walked into house. We removed our shoes at the entrance, covered our heads with scarves provided in the foyer, and sat upstairs where the priest was reading from scripture. Apparently, the book is read in its entirety without stopping. It takes about two days. Of course, there's more than one priest at the house, and they read in shifts. Listeners are obliged to leave a small donation to the temple, so we gently placed our humble donations at the alter where the priest was reading. This was in the living room, which was as bright as day. A small, red canopy was strung over the priest, and the alter was draped in the same, bright red material. I was really curious to see the book, but I couldn't see it from where I was sitting. We then met up with Guggin and had some food downstairs. Food needs to be in the house twenty-four hours while the book is being read. So, we enjoyed some delicious dal and this cheese dessert (forgive me, I don't remember the name) that is very difficult to make. It was like a thin pudding, with small bits of cheese within it. The dessert was very creamy, and a sweetness reminiscent of condensed milk. Needless to say, with my love of condensed milk, this was one of the most exceptional desserts I've tasted in recent memory.

Lisa made crepes. I will eat them now.