When I have kids, I will be unable to resist calling them "chicken". I don't know why, but it is stuck in my brain as an affectionate name for small things. I've found myself referring to the cat that way, and I know I will be powerless in the face of five-year-olds.

Tomorrow will be the first day this semester that I go to class without having done all of the reading. I have done 3/4ths of it, but she is crazy and assigns a buttload of reading AND an assignment, and when we protest and ask which of the readings we can leave out, she says "Oh... but they're all really important..." Somehow I think the assignment is even MORE important.

I had lunch with one of my profs today, and it was very very good. She told me that she dropped out of school after her first year of her PhD because she doubted whether or not she really wanted to be a prof, and after a year of working elsewhere, went back because she really missed academia. However, she said that she would advise everyone to take that distance and really make sure you want to do it. It was nice to hear, because if I ever do become a prof, it won't be because I jumped into grad school right away. I don't know what I'm doing next year, but it's not that. I need a break, and she says that's okay. Given that she's someone I respect, admire, and have fun with, that means a lot. It's nice to hear someone say that even though I would be good at it, if I'm not really sure about it, it's better to take some time and have that crisis now rather than in the middle of a PhD.

The cat has decided that I am Good People. She's slept on my bed the last two nights (and days!), and has done a lot of rolling around and purring.

I've seen two people from back home this week. Ran into Darren (son of my childhood pastor) coming out of the subway a few days ago, and I saw (but didn't talk to) a kid who I think used to go to the Sally Ann when I was there... I'm still having trouble placing him. It's a little odd running into people from so long ago. I always have that bit of wondering in the back of my mind, How much do you know? Do you know I'm not Christian anymore? Will you be offended, confused, or accepting? Have you moved away from it too? It's funny to see people from home here not just because of that, but also because this is the CITY. I saw a guy from high school in a bank in Chinatown around New Year's, and it's just so odd, because in my mind, he is from Greenbush, a little town that might have a stop sign, and yet, here he is!

It seems like such a different world here. Every day, on my travels through the subway, I see people walking by and I think, black, Asian, brown, white, not sure, geez, this place is like a bank commercial! except that it's not a commercial, this is just life here. I feel like an immigrant myself, an immigrant from rural Ontario where there aren't many minorities to speak of, not in terms of colour or language or religion or political views. Sometimes I forget that I didn't always have all of this, that it would have been impossible for the polling station to be in a synagogue in my hometown because we don't HAVE synagogues. That my parents had never tried Indian food until they came up last month, and that there won't be public transit when I go home to visit. That there aren't kumquats available. That "Chinese" food is the only real ethnic fare offered, and it's not even the good stuff.

It took a while to adjust to life in Toronto, but I like it so much. People ask me if I'm going to move when I'm done school, but how could I?