Meme: Getting to Know You

[hells_half_acre]

I've stolen this from borgmama1of5. It seems like a brilliant idea...

I know very little about most of the people on my friends list. Some
people I know relatively well. But here's a thought: why not take this
opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing
at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's
Thingy ...she likes money and cereal." I'd love it if everyone who's
friended me did this. (Yes, even you people who I know really well.)
Then post this in your own journal [only if you feel inclined]. In
return, ask me anything you'd like to know about me and I'll give you an
answer*.

*Providing it's answerable/suitable for public posting.


The truth is, there are a lot of you who have friended me over the past 4.5 years, some I've friended back and some I haven't. A lot of you are regular commenters regardless of whether I've friended you back or not, and I love you all very much....

But, um, I sometimes get you guys confused with each other, so I thought this would be a nice way for me to associate specific things with specific people, and maybe that'd help me a little.

Also, there's been some new people lately! Yay! So, I'd like to hear from you too. :)

Anyway, just thought I'd give this a try.

Comments

[beboots.livejournal.com]

No, it's not a problem! It'd be really easy to discover which university I'm at in Ottawa anyway as there are only like three Public History programs in Canada - I think one's in BC somewhere, but the other two are at Western and at Carleton (that's me!).

I chose this program for that exact reason, because I thought that it would be more practical. It kind of is? We get good theoretical backgrounds in research/archival theory, historiography, etc. Internships are a required part of my program, so you're getting practical experience, there's networking opportunities (aww yeah government jobs in Ottawa!), and so on. For one of my classes last semester we got to act as independent researchers for the Canadian Museum of Civilization for a temporary exhibition they'll be doing for the centenary of the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in 2014. Apparently my program is fairly well-regarded, but there are of course more practical almost trades-based courses in other cities on specific aspects of museum conservation and curation, like courses in how to preserve delicate/degrading artifacts and so on. So it's good for theoretical stuff - still more practically grounded than the regular history MAs - but we still need to get the practical experience and skills.

Yeah, I much prefer Canadian French, though the Breton accent from Brittany is quite lovely too. Quebecois - at least some versions of it - sound warmer and more friendly to me. I think you're totally right about the iambic pentameter thing. Apparently some France-French people have described Quebecois along the lines of "they sing as they talk". (I also find Parisian French to be inherently snobby sounding.)

Montreal is lovely! I have friends who are from there, and I've visited on two short occasions before. I think it's one of the truly "Canadian" cities, because it actually seems to sort of live up to the ideal of bilingualism/multiculturalism for everyone? That being said, it can still be super tricky to get around as a monolingual anglophone. But the food there is so good... >_>

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

It certainly does sound like a good program! I don't regret my regular history MA in the slightest, because I had a great experience getting it and I was able to study/research a topic that I'd always been really interested in... but that being said, I did wish that there was a more practical side to things too, so that when I applied for work after, I could say "see, I have experience doing suchandsuch and whosiwhatsi." I think it would have been easier for me to get work that way.

I agree about Parisian French. My best friend can mimic them pretty well, and it's horribly annoying. I much prefer the sing-song of Canadian French.

And yes, it was too tricky for me to find work in Monreal as a monolingual anglophone (or, well, I was bilingual, but sadly the second language was German, so it was just the same as being a monolingual anglophone.) The ironic thing was that I was perfectly willing to take French courses and learn French - I lived with a French-Canadian, and all my friends there spoke French and were willing to help me learn - but I needed a job to take the French courses and I needed the French courses to get a job - and in the end I just pronounced it all a failure and slunk off to the West in defeat.