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blogUT and My City Lives bring you the Food Trucks!

As part of an ongoing video series, we here at blogUT partnered up with My City Lives to show you all the hot spots on the U of T campus. This month we bring you…(drum roll please)…the infamous St. George food trucks! Why? Because you know what? Restaurants are overrated. The trucks on St. George will change the way you eat…not necessarily for the better, but for cheap! And if you haven’t tried it yet, we promise you…you will soon!

My City Lives is an online platform that gives us the chance to capture and share our daily experiences around the city on video. Presented on an interactive map, these web stories show exactly where each video was filmed so you can learn more about the city based on the stories and experiences of your fellow citizens. To view the entire blogUT web series, click here.

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Life Outside the Classroom: Journalists for Human Rights

Journalists for Human Rights is a Toronto-based organization that works to spread and raise awareness of human rights violations, and to make people in marginalized communities aware of their rights. They work in post-conflict African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mobilizing the local media and training local journalists in these countries to more effectively report on human rights issues. It also aims to educate people who may not know what their rights are, how to protect their rights and the rights of others.

The U of T chapter of jhr remains one of the smaller campus groups, but despite this, the organization works hard to raise human rights awareness in the U of T community. Last year, jhr’s U of T Chapter held a documentary festival (known as the Human Rights DocFest) to showcase local talent while educating community members about rights violations that occur both domestically and internationally.

This year, they will continue to spread human rights awareness be creating and distributing monthly newsletters and podcasts within U of T while working with other Toronto-based school chapters to create a documentary. Anybody is welcome to contribute to any of those projects, and in fact, the student group is looking for submissions of photography, writing, or any form of media.

This Thursday, November the 25th, from 5 to 7pm in the North Dining Room at Hart House, the U of T jhr Chapter will be hosting a movie night. War/Dance will be featured, a film which tells the story of three Ugandan refugee children as they compete in a music competition and talk about the atrocities they witnessed. The screening is free and is a great way to educate yourself about human rights violations while learning more about the organization!

To learn how you can get involved, please visit www.jhr.ca or check out their Facebook fanpage.

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Going Abroad: Part II

So, you’ve read Going Abroad: Part I, you’ve thought about it and you’ve decided that you want to go abroad. So, how do you go about doing it?

First of all, do research. Think about what kind of courses you want to take abroad. Do the Woodsworth College Summer Abroad program suit your credit needs (you don’t need to be a Woodsworth College student to do their programs)? If so, please take a look at their application process on their website. The advantage of a Woodsworth program is that you travel with a group and there’s little paperwork to be done to get your transfer credits.

None of the courses at the Woodsworth program interest me. Does that mean I can’t go on an exchange?

No, you just have to do a little more research and paperwork but it’s all worth it.

How to proceed:

Step 1: Find a U of T exchange partner institution with programs and courses that interest you. You can do this through the ISXO website. If you’re unsure, try contacting your professors and see if they can suggest a few universities where you could study.

Step 2: Join the StudyAbroad portal group so you can get regular updates on deadlines, funding opportunities and other information.

Step 3: Get a nomination from the ISXO to study abroad. This is absolutely mandatory. You will NOT get credits from the institution if you are not nominated by the ISXO. To get a nomination, you will need 2 letters of reference (1 if you’re doing a summer exchange), a statement of interest, a resume and you will need to fill in a checklist and an online application on the ISXO website.

Just wondering, what do are they looking for in my statement of interest?

The statement of interest is just a way to find out what you want to study, why you want to study abroad and how that would complement your education. You should also show that you’re either a seasoned traveler and/or that you’re responsible and mature enough to go abroad alone. So any other experiences abroad should be mentioned here.

Step 4: Hand in your application to the ISXO. Please check the website to see which deadline applies to you.

Step 5: Wait for your application to process. You may or may not get called to do an interview.

If you’re accepted…

Step 6: You will have to register and participate in 2 mandatory meetings: a pre-departure meeting and a transfer credit info session. The ISXO will also inform you about the bit of paperwork you’re going to have to do to earn your credit during these sessions.

Enjoy studying abroad!

For more information, try going to the study abroad fair on Wednesday, November 10 from noon to 5PM at the Cumberland Room, 33 St. George St.

For people interested in going to East Asia, the East Asian Studies Student Union is holding an information session on studying in Asia on November 30th from 1PM to 4:30PM in the Cumberland Room in the Cumberland House at 33 St. George St. Drop in and out as you please. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.

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Tuesdays with Professor ________

Tuesdays with Professor ____ is a new blogUT series that spotlights the classes and professors at U of T that have made an impact on us. Every third Tuesday we’ll be posting up a blogger’s experience, as a parallel to the book “Tuesdays with Morrie.” It offers much more than just the typical review of the class, but an actual in-depth personal experience of those classes. These are not just any regular class — they are classes that have inspired and sparked a passion in each of us. (And yes, they actually exist!)

Tuesdays with Professor Cobb

As a fourth year student at U of T I can easily say I’ve had almost every type of professor you can imagine. But regardless of the number of professors, lectures and tests I’ve had to go through, one professor in particular always stood out for me. I want to truly express not only my gratitude but also this professor’s ability to spark something in me to become passionate about. In order to do this, I have to backtrack all the way to my first year.

When I was in first year, I heard all the horror stories about U of T. So being a total “noob” you can definitely say I was a bit afraid of what I was about to get myself into. The first day of school, I had my first class: ENG110Y1 – Narrative. Surprisingly, this class was one of the best that I’ve had in my entire U of T career.

For me, ENG110 was more than an English class. It was an eye-opener. I had a charismatic professor — Professor Cobb — who (despite the fact that we were all first year students) gave us all a chance to study the “higher level” novels. I mean he did assign us Foucault, which at the time was like reading another language. But as my T.A. for that class told us, “He really gives you guys credit here because no one assigns a bunch of first years Foucault.”

Continue reading “Tuesdays with Professor ________”

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New Automatic Book Discharge System at Robarts

I happened to be standing around when they were doing demonstrations. The system as far as I know isn’t functional yet but will be soon. You put the book with the barcode up into the slot and the book is automatically discharged and it slides down the conveyor belt and into what I’m guessing is a book box on the other side. If the book doesn’t discharge, its get rejected and you try again.

I’m not sure what to think of this new-fangled gadget. As someone who has had to drop books off into the return box twice because the Robarts people didn’t discharge my books before putting them on the sorting shelf (I’ve had this happen to me 3 TIMES), I guess it’s a good thing. But considering that the checkout system at Robarts takes forever and is totally finicky (the old system was wayyyyyy better by the way) seeing that you spend half your time trying to get the slow and stupid machine to recognize your book after sliding it down the ramp gently, I’m not sure if this will mean a lot more frustrating minutes spent at what is the most frustrating (and ugly) library at U of T or just pure convenience. Time will tell. Thoughts?

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Hart House Orchestra

I am always on the lookout for free and fun events happening around campus. My hunt has led me to join the Facebook group of virtually every Student Union, it’s caused me to mark down every Varsity game and every free commuter pancake breakfast. Recently, however, I have discovered the gem that is the Hart House Orchestra. This past Thursday I went to go see a friend of mine perform; I was told that the event was free and to arrive early as the Grand Hall fills up fast. So, I entered the very formal and beautiful Great Hall about forty minutes early. . . only to find the room pretty much full already! I found a seat, and watched as the men in suit jackets and women dressed in varying degrees of “dressy-ness” funneled in to the room.

It was packed by the time eight o clock rolled around. And by packed, I mean people had pulled in their own chairs, people were crammed against walls—standing—and there were more people hovering in the entrance. The Orchestra finally started up with Tchaikovsky’s Slavonic March, Op. 31. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry, I’m more into rock music myself. You don’t need to know the song to enjoy it, and enjoy it I did! It was amazing! I felt like I had fallen into some other century, some other time when music meant hours upon hours of preparation to learn how to play something perfectly; it was a huge contrast to a lot of the music on my iPod, which a kindergartner could produce in about half an hour using the right computer.

The Hart House Orchestra really is an amazing, and relatively secretive, jewel of U of T. Alumni, students,  and faculty at U of T all comprise this magnificently talented group of 80-90 musicians that get together and perform.  Speaking as someone who enjoys most music, and loves concerts in general, this was an amazing experience, and my wallet enjoyed it as well.  I discovered a new love for Russian composers, and also for the Hart House Orchestra. If you are interested in having a fun musical night, check out their website for more information, and also for updates on their next concert. Or, just check out their Facebook group (which just so happens to have this amazing tagline: “Rockin’ the House Since 1976“).

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How Not to Piss People Off Via Email

I have sent and received a lot of emails in my life for work, school, and extracurricular activities (especially for blogUT-related things). Over this time, I have developed many email pet peeves that are not only annoying but waste everybody’s time. These do not only include chain mail type emails with subject lines such as “Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: reply to this or you will die tonight” but other smaller things that a lot people don’t seem to be aware of. I always reply politely of course, but I am grinding my teeth while doing so.

www.toothpastefordinner.com

If you are part of a student group, your primary means of communication is probably email. It is less time-consuming than having to constantly meet up, and you don’t have to worry about co-ordinating with each person’s schedule. You also probably use email to communicate with other classmates, say if you are working on an assignment together. Most importantly, you probably email TAs and professors to ask questions about courses or to request letters of recommendation for grad school (you know, if that’s important to you or something). Regardless of who you are trying to contact, you obviously never want to piss people off or waste their time, yet there is a chance that you inadvertently do so. Here is a list of things to watch out for:

Reply to the ENTIRE email. Some people tend to only respond to the last bit of a message, forgetting to address anything in the first bit. This is a huge waste of time for everyone, and incredibly irritating, because the recipient has to then send another email asking them the same questions yet again.

Check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation, dammit. This one is pretty obvious, but there are still people who seem to type up emails as if they were casually IM-ing with a friend. Doing this basically tells the other person that they aren’t important enough to you that you can’t take two minutes (or less) to read over your message before hitting Send. It is actually insulting, especially if the recipient is a professor or someone that you should be a little more respectful towards. On that same note…

For the love of God, check that you spelled the recipient’s name correctly, whether it be an organization or a person. We get messages all the time to “U of T Blog” and my (mental) response is “Do you not know who you’re writing to?”

Use BCC and CC correctly. Don’t hit Reply All if the people CC’ed and BCC’ed don’t need to read what you said. Conversely, make sure that everyone who does need to read your message (but doesn’t need to reply) gets CC’ed or BCC’ed.

Don’t send a new message as a reply to an old one just because you’re too lazy to look for the person’s email address and copy and paste it into a new email. You’re starting a new topic that doesn’t have anything to do with the one in the old email, which doesn’t make sense.

Use a proper email address. You are not sixteen years old anymore (unless you are a child prodigy attending university, but even if you are this applies). [email protected] is NOT a professional-looking email address. Use your @utoronto.ca address if anything.

If you liked this post, check out this rather hilarious webcomic entitled If you do this in an email, I hate you.