Where Have I Been?!

So where has CanadianPrep been disappearing to each time posts stop appearing?  Well since September my life has been all about :

COMMERCE KIDS:

Commerce Kids is the volunteering organization for which I am co-chair (co-president).  It's part of the Commerce Society (the student government for the business school), and we send Commerce students out into local elementary schools to volunteer either in the classroom or on the playgrounds.  I've been volunteering since I was a Freshman, and have been part of the committee since my Sophomore year.  I was so excited to get the co-chair position, but holy moly is it ever a lot of work!

Since September I have built a website, created marketing materials, created a new budget and strategy for the year, recruited 125 new volunteers and coordinated police checks and interviews for them, met with principals of the schools, and so much more!  Thankfully volunteering started this week, so the tough part is over for this semester.

ART HISTORY:

This was from an alligator collection in Winter Park, FL, and I loved this one in particular.  This pretty well explains my life lately, all art history all the time. I graduated with my Bachelor of Commerce degree last year, but decided to go for a Bachelor of Art in Art History as well.  As such,  I'm completing my Honors BA this year, so I'm taking 5 art history courses this semester and 6 next.  Soooo much studying!

Seurat

I'm taking a course about Impressionism (my favorite!). 

Manet

My favorite course reminds me very much of Mona Lisa Smile. There are only about 18 of us, and we sit around a table discussing Art History theories and as a discipline.  It requires a weekly reading analysis, which is very time-consuming because many of the readings are quite dense. I think it's just so incredible though that we have such thought-provoking discussions.  It's much better than being simply talked at and required to memorize hundreds of works.

I took this picture my Junior year when I was on exchange on Poland (but on a trip to Greece of course).  I love that my Classical Architecture course references so many buildings and elements that I saw in person while on my trip.  I can now identify those columns as belonging to the Ionic Order due to the curls on the capitals and the base at the bottom.  I will never be able to look at a column again and be able to stop myself from analyzing it!

The two-minute Louvre

I was so excited to get into this course.  It analyzes how tourism has influenced various forms of art and commodified various cultures.  

Ontario Hall

This is where the Art History and Fine Arts Departments are housed.  It's also the site of my last class for the semester, Art Conservation.  It's another class that I'm really starting to enjoy.  We spend half the class in a lecture, and the second half going on a field trip around campus to view special collections.  So far I've seen a rare book collection (with books as old as the 14th Century), been in the vault of our art gallery (sooo cool!), and seen rare documents such as an Indian peace treaty. It's a very hands-on course.  We get to actually touch the works we're analyzing and have to write a report this term about how best to conserve and protect a particular work.  I chose to do my conservation report on a rare book from the 15th Century. I LOVE vintage books, so I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to really analyze such an old book.

So if I ever disappear again, I truly do apologize.  Just know that it's not for a lack of appreciation for my followers (because I really do appreciate y'all), just a super busy workload.  And I'll always come back!

xoxo,