EXAM!!! X_X

Apparently I set the record for the entire history of the course (all of two terms)as the student who took the longest time writing the exam! ^^;;

The true or false, of course, was my downfall. There were two questions there that I was totally clueless about and therefore guessed. Knowing my skill/luck in these matters, I probably got both of them wrong. *sigh*

I wasn't particularly happy with my essay answers either. As "essays" they lacked clear theses, and they were rambling rather than concise.

Also, we were supposed to use information from the class as well as "real life examples", and I'm not sure I really managed to pull in stuff from the class. Well, I know I used stuff that came up in a class discussion in one of the essays, but the other one... It's tougher in that regard (using class-specific information) because I do have a pretty solid hockey background/knowledge, so I have a hard time differentiating between prior knowledge and class stuff.

Oh, and let's not forget the debacle with my second essay! I was writing away, and I had like four or five pages and was about to finish up when I re-read the essay question and realized that I had only answered about half of the question!!! @_@ In my defense, there were like five questions rolled into one, and at least two distinct topics within them, so it wasn't set up for a fast/easy answer. But yeah, it was already 9pm by the time I realized my mistake, and everyone else had already left!!! Phil was walking back and force, and although he reassuured me that it wasn't impatience with me, but boredom that drove him, I've got to admit, it did make me feel bad for taking so long! Besides, I was pretty tired of writing by that point myself.

Anyway, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself now that the class is over!!! I have a feeling work is going to be a real drag without the promise of the next class or the memories of the previous one to keep me revved up!

HHOF Trip

Well, I've got to admit, that this trip wasn't the most exciting thing for me. I mean, I've been to the Hall at least seven times (five of those times occurring this summer), so it wasn't as if there was anything new for me to see. Still, it was kind of nice to go up to the Great Hall to take a "team photo" with everyone in the class and the Stanley Cup.

It was cool to hear about the history of the Hall as well, although I'd known at least a little bit about it from some random readings beforehand.

Watching The Stanley Cup Odyssey was also a good thing because it provided a pretty good refresher on some of the things we'd talked about in some of the early classes. Also, the film seemed to get better with repeated viewing--i.e. I appreciated it more this time than I did at the premiere. The music was still far too dramatic in some scenes, though. =P

Anyway, it's definitely a sign of how much I love this course that I was willing to make the commute (a little under 2 hours, round trip) downtown for less than two hours of class--and almost an hour of which I'd already seen (The Stanley Cup Odyssey) before.

I guess it would've been nice for me to hang around and to get to know my classmates a little better, but I was pretty tired and as much as I love the Hall, I preferred to get home earlier.

I Love Stories!!

This was a fairly fun (of course, the class is always fun!), light class. The lecture was mostly a bunch of interesting anecdotes, and the video... Well, we saw a video of Foster Hewitt commentating for a game in Russia between the Bruins and the Grizzlies--live bears!! ^^;; These bears had actually been trained to skate and to somewhat hold the stick and hit the puck. It was amusing, I'll admit, but also rather sad to see the types of things people do to animals for entertainment.

Brian McFarlane was an excellent guest. It felt like he could've just gone on forever with his stories! Unfortunately, I didn't really take notes, so I can't really remember much of what he actually said, but I do know that whatever it was, it was entertaining!

Anne Klisanich is just a lovely lady. The way she spoke about her brother, Bill Barilko was very touching. It was also great to see how red she could make Kevin by praising him and his upcoming Barilko book! =P

What Makes a Champion

Well, class started off with a great discussion about our favourite hockey players, why we like them, and also, what makes a champion--both teamwise and player wise. It wasn't exactly earth shattering, I suppose, but it was fun to find out what qualities other people admire in hockey players. Actually, it was pretty interesting because size seemed to be something the guys mentioned a lot; they admired players because they were great in spite of their "smaller" or relatively small size, or they admired players who were surprisingly speedy and graceful despite their size. It wasn't really something that the girls mentioned, though. Maybe it's because a lot of the guys came from hockey backgrounds, so playing hockey really drove home the size factor, whereas  for us girls without the playing experience, it's not something that really registers. Anyway, as I said, it was a fun discussion.
 
The best part of the night was definitely our guest, though: Mike Cammalleri from the LA Kings!!! ^__^ He's a really nice guy, very open, down to earth. Definitely he's joined my list of "admired" players. One of the cool things I found out--only after the class, though--is that apparently he just called Kevin up one day, mentioned that he'd heard of the class and asked if he could come by and be a guest or something! How cool is that? It's just so awesome that he was interested in the class and took the initiative to come and be a part of it.
 
I'm going to digress a bit, and throw in some funny personal things related to him and the LA Kings. Well, I've "liked" (as opposed to disliking or feeling indifferent towards) the Kings since they defeated the Vancouver Canucks in the final game of the 2002-2003 season because they allowed the Avs to get their 10th straight division title. =P I've also got an LA Kings hat, because when I bought my Nordiques jersey from someone online, he decided to throw in the hat! (And this was the summer after the 2002-03 season, so I had already started "liking" the Kings.)
 
Then tonight when I told Steph that Mike Cammalleri was a guest in our class, she was like, oh yeah, he's got a pretty high rating in NHL 2004. His potential rating is really good, and everyime I play LA (in NHL 2004), he scores! LOL So that just added to my general feelings of admiration for Mr. Cammalleri. ^_^
 
Anyway, back to the class tonight, I think the reason I can safely add him to my "admired" list is not just because he's a nice guy, but because he's got a lot of the characteristics I admire in players. He's a really dedicated, hard working player. I mean, he mentioned how, knowing that he might have some difficulties because of his size, he made it a point to train hard and strengthen himself. After his first training camp with the Kings, he was apparently the third strongest guy on the team, which is quite an accomplishment. I really admire players who work hard.
 
Plus I thought it was cool that he's already thought ahead to the end of his career--he's hoping to establish a real estate company or something, and to maybe even play on some golf tours. I think that's a really great example for young people who look up to professional athletes. I wonder if, as a result of his having planned a bit for the end of his career, he maybe appreciates the fact that he is playing in the NHL right now a bit more. I mean, if he's thought ahead, he probably recognizes that his time in the NHL is limited, so I'd think that's enable him to appreciate the opportunity he has and has had more. *shrug*
 
What else to say? There was way too much! The anecdotes that he related were just great--often amusing, always reflective of his great love for the game. I think one of the coolest things he said was: "I don't feel small on the ice." As a spectator, and as a player as well, you hear so much about how being small is such a disadvantage and everything, so it really seems like a huge kind of stigma that has to be dealt with, but then there he was, saying that he didn't feel smaller than anyone else on the ice. I can't explain it (as usual) but that's just a really neat concept for me.
 
Did I mention that he's very approachable? Well, he is, and as a result I felt a lot less embarrassed than usual to ask for an autograph (in my notebook! =P) and a photo. ^_^ Thank goodness I started bringing my camera to every class!
 

 
I just love the way he signed! "Your friend" exclamation mark! =D What a great guy!

(Oh, and he made such an impression on me, I just joined the Michael Cammalleri Fanlisting!)

International Hockey

Well, this was a topic that I really didn't know much about, which is a little ironic considering that international hockey was what what got me interested in hockey in the first place. I mean, sure it was NHL hockey that really grabbed me by the throat and made hockey into a fullblown obsession, but my earliest interest(s) in hockey came from international hockey.

In grade 10 history, the second most interesting topic for me (after the Avro Arrow) was probably the '72 Summit Series. Even though it didn't develop into any sort of deeper interest in hockey at the time, I was fascinated by the idea of hockey having the power to unify a nation, of forming our national identity. Certainly I was interested enough to tape the first episode of Powerplay when it began airing that year. I think I even watched it regularly for a couple of episodes, which is saying a lot considering that after grade eight I basically stopped following any tv shows.

Then of course my current passion began with the 2002 Olympics. I watched almost all of the men's games, some of the women's, and made it a point to watch both the men's and women's gold medal games. If I hadn't watched Olympic hockey, who knows if I would've bothered to watch the playoff games that ultimately got me hooked on hockey for life!

So yes, considering my own hockey history, it's a little sad that I know so little about international hockey. I mean, who knew that until just two years ago, German and English (in 2002 it was changed to be only English) were the official languages of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

Anyway, the guests this week told a lot of great stories about their experiences in international hockey. Darren had a particularly amusing anecdote about how at his first team dinner (with a Helsinki, Finland team) everyone was really reserved and no one talked to him until after they'd all had some alcohol, and after that, they were all talking to him and even hitting on his wife--who was seven months pregnant at the time! =P

But yeah, he made some good points about how difficult it is to adjust when you first start playing hockey in a foreign land. I mean, the coaches didn't give him any instructions and no one really talked to him when he first joined the team, so he just had to follow along with what everyone else was doing on the ice and stuff. How difficult that must've been! And he made the point that it works in reverse too--that it's not an easy thing for European players to come over here to play in the NHL. I guess that's something I've always known, but it never really hit me until he shared his own experience with the loneliness and isolation of playing in a different country.

Another comment that he made that I found insightful that it's mental and emotional fortitude more than anything else that determines whether or not a European player will make it in the NHL. It makes sense, when you think about it, but I think the reason most people don't think about it is because of our Canadian/North American bias. We tend to think that Canadian players are just heads above any other players because hockey is "Canada's game." For all that we pride ourselves on Canadians being humble (an oxymoron if ever there was one), we're really quite conceited when it comes to hockey.

After My Own Heart

This week was really a topic dear to my heart, hockey in popular culture! So Kevin and Phil started off the class talking about hockey music, movies, books, stamps and various collectibles, which was cool! I learned that Jean Claude Van Damme was in a hockey movie ("Sudden Death" 1995), and that Keanu Reeves played a goalie in another one ("Youngblood" 1986). Really got to get myself copies of those! Oh, and John Wayne was even in a hockey movie in 1931 called "Idol of the Crowds" and apparently he really couldn't skate and was crashing into the boards all the time! LOL

So yes, lots of interesting things! Oh, I also learned that Phil collects hockey stamps! His collection's pretty neat, I mean, even countries that you wouldn't think of as playing hockey (and sometimes actually don't play hockey) like Tchad or Guyana have hockey stamps! Really, who knew?

The guests were fun too. Rey Sandre had a lot of interesting insights on the way collecting hockey stuff (cards, memorabilia, etc.) has changed. It was kind of ironic actually, because he brought up the issue of card companies chopping up jerseys or goalie pads and stuff to make cards, and what that means from a museum's (like the HHOF)point of view, and then I talked to Kevin later about bringing by my Kaberle cards so he could get a better look at them, and of course I've got jersey cards! Not only do I have them, I really like to get jersey cards! Not to mention I've got that Terry Sawchuk jersey card, which is kind of different from having a modern/current player's jersey card, because players nowadays know about the collectors market and kind of help it by wearing multiple jerseys for special games (think of Lemiuex or Gretzky on his retirement night) but in the old days, players had to make their stuff last, so memorabilia from "legends" is a lot more scarce! ^^;; It's a tough issue for me, as a collector.

Anyway, Darrin Pfeiffer was a pretty entertaining guest as well. Apparently the real title of his "Wayne Gretzky song" is "The Only Man I'd Ever Have Sex With." =P Isn't that crazy? Apparently Gretzky's wife really loves the song. Oh, but when he (Darrin) actually met Gretzky and he introduced himself, he was reassuring Gretzky that he wasn't a crazy stalker or anything, and he just thought it was a funny song, and wouldn't really want to have sex with him or anything (well, maybe). I mean, he didn't want to have his hero afraid of him! LOL

Oh, and Darrin's a McDonald's hockey card collector too! It was great because he was talking about how he'd try to find that nice manager who'd let him buy like 20 packs without getting food first, and how he'd buy like a hundred packs and end up with stack of doubles just to get that one card, and I could totally understand! ^_^

A Bunch of Nice Guys

This week's guests were some really nice guys! We had: Rob Delmundo who runs the www.tmlfans.ca site; John Shannon, who was with CBC for a long time, and is now with Leafs TV; and Mike Ulmer, a writer with the Toronto Star. As usual they were all really passionate about hockey, but I think the great thing about these guests in particular was that they talked more--how do I put it?--intellectually about the game. It's hard to explain, but Mr. Shannon and Mr. Ulmer especially reminded me of Ken Dryden, and the way he talks about hockey. You know, not just as a fan, but as someone who's thought about the game at a deeper level.

Anyway, there was some pretty good discussion going on this class, which was cool. I even finally worked up the nerve to ask a couple of questions! And they weren't completely idiotic either! =P Okay, I think the first time I actually asked a guest a question was last week, but this time was more memorable for me, for some reason.

So yeah, both questions were directed to Mr. Shannon: 1) What has the fan reaction been to the news that Leafs TV will be carrying 12 Leafs games next season? 2) From a tv producer's perspective, what type of rule changes would you like to see?

For the first question, well apparently he got a whole bunch of nasty emails and two death threats (okay, so the death threats were an exaggeration), but he emailed everyone back personally to explain his position. It's kind of silly for people to complain about having to pay for Leafs games, since they're already doing so! I mean, to get TSN (which carries most of the weeknight games) you have to pay for cable anyway! The only hockey you can get without paying extra cable costs is Saturday nights and the playoffs from CBC. Actually, it's funny because he was saying Leafs TV would cost like $2/game, which would be $24, and that's actually cheaper than Leafs TV is right now! When I got it for the pre-season games, I think it cost $2.95! =P

His answer to my second question was pretty interesting, actually. He said that it was the tv producers who had to change/improve for it to view better on tv, not the game itself! He was saying how producers need to learn hockey better so that they can know when to place commercials (like when they're going back for an icing call) and interrupt the flow of the game less. That was pretty neat to hear, especially from a tv producer! I mean, usually what you hear is either that hockey simply doesn't televise well, or the game needs to be changed to better suit television audiences.

Well, I'll end off here with a couple of little quotes from our guests:

"Sports is guys' soap opera"

"Hockey is the original reality tv."

"A hockey player's ethos is: 1) don't complain; 2) fight through it; 3) do as you're told."

Back-tracking a little

Well, I said I was going to post again about the content of the class, but I was so exhausted for the entire week, I didn't actually do so! ^^;; Unfortunately, since I was, as I said, tired during the class, my notes and my memories of the class aren't that great--not a good thing for this blog, nor for the test I have next week! ^^;;

Anyway, the class was about "the business of hockey", which included marketing and merchandising, although Kevin's lecture, from my notes anyway, was mainly about the history and workings of the NHLPA. It was pretty interesting because I was partway through Bruce Dowbiggins' book "Money Players" at the time, so the lecture reinforced what I'd read, as well as adding some details I was unaware of. I didn't know, for example, that when Eagleson negotiated Bobby Orr's last contract, he didn't tell Orr that the Bruins had offered him a share of the team to thank him for all his years with the team. It's really sad, because Orr thought he wasn't wanted and signed with the Blackhawks (the owner, Bill Wiertz(?) just happened to be one of Eagleson's cronies) instead.

Our guests were basically from the marketing/merchandising side of things, and it was especially neat for me because they were all doing things I've wished I could do: Hersh Borenstein runs the collectible store Frozen Pond, and Kerry Goulet and Jens Castens founded Premier Hockey, which is producing a magazine, as well as running training camps, etc. Okay, so maybe I've never been interested in training camps, being the lazy, unathletic person that I am, but I've always thought it'd be cool to own a collectibles/card store (although I was thinking more along the cards line, like Untouchables), and if I had any talent for articles or publishing, I would've loved to write or edit for a magazine.

So yeah, it was neat to hear about how they got started. Actually, I've been noticing a kind of trend in the guests' stories about how they got into their respective businesses: a lot of them seemed to just fall into it, or have positions open up while they were pursuing their passions. The Bauer Nike catalyst guy, for example, just happened to meet up with someone who remembered him from his days at a retail sports store (I'm assuming here that he worked in that retail store in the first place because he had a passion for sports), and Hersh said he just got to know people from his efforts selling cards, and one day ended up being asked to show Pavel Bure around for a day and therefore got the chance to get Bure to autograph a bunch of things for him, and voilà! Oh, and the trainer guy volunteered with the Canadian Hockey Federation (or whatever it was called before it went back to Hockey Canada) and got noticed when he offered to help carry some equipment to a team bus or something like that. Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I wonder if things really still work that way? I know a lot of stuff comes from connections and networking still, but I wonder if jobs really just open up that way without someone really looking of pushing for one?

I'd rather like to think it could still work that way, since I know one of my faults is that I'm not aggressive or opportunistic enough. Sure I make an effort (like going to the ACC job fair last summer and going through the screening, handing in a resumé etc.) but generally when I reach a closed door, I turn around and look for one that's open. ^^;; It's a flaw, I know, but so far I haven't been able to change that. Ah well, I've rather digressed from my topic, and I don't know if I can pick it back up again, so I'll stop here.

A Slightly Off Day

As usual it was an interesting class, but unfortunately I wasn't able to concentrate as well as I would've liked. ^^;; Guess my poor sleeping habits finally caught up with me!

I slept around 3am and woke up around 6am, so I guess I should've expected to be tired, but usually I perk up and am wide awake for class. Really, I just don't know what happened tonight! I felt SO bad, because I could feel my eyes drifting shut, and it's just so disrespectful to fall asleep in class! ^^;; It felt especially bad because I have so much respect for Kevin. *sigh* Just awful.

Anyway, when the break came I got up and tried to keep moving around, hoping it would wake me up! Thankfully it seemed to work.

But it's getting pretty late right now, so I'm going to have to reserve my comments on the actual content of the class for later!

Hockey is for Everyone...

...but it seems to be easier for some. Or, at least, that's the impression I got from our class this week. Since our topic was diversity, Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell, the president of the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) came into the class as our guest. (We were actually supposed to have another guest, but he never showed up, it seems.)

So I learned a lot about women's hockey in Canada, and it was the exact opposite of inspiring, I'm sad to say. Okay, so maybe that's not quite correct, the determination of these women and all the volunteers involved with the NWHL is inspiring, but Canada's treatment of our women hockey players is appalling.

There was quite a lot brought up in Mayor Fennell's talk, so please excuse me if I'm rather disjointed and confusing. From what I understand, the NWHL is governed by the Ontario Hockey Federation, which is under some other organization perhaps, but at any rate is ultimately under Hockey Canada. Under the OHF, the women are subject to the exact same rules as men's midget teams.

If just the concept of women's hockey being treated the same as men's midget hockey sounds strange to you, well the way in which this works out practically isn't going to disabuse you of that conception. The big rule that Mayor Fennell mentioned was the import restrictions. Apparently men's midget teams can only have one "import" per team. Now here's the best part, "import" players aren't just players from outside of Canada, they're also players transferring membership from another province! So if a girl was playing in Brampton and then moved to Quebec, she'd take up the Quebec team's import spot if she wanted to play there!

Anyway, apparently the NWHL tried to lobby to get an exemption from the import rule, so that they could move towards being more like the NHL, which brings in the best players from all over the world, but all they managed was a concession for two import players. Woohoo. (Excuse me if I'm getting my timeline wrong; it's possible that they were allowed two players some time before the request for the removal of the restriction was rejected.)

Can you imagine the life of an international player before that rule change? It was incredibly difficult, the way Mayor Fennell described it. I mean, you come from a different country, possibly not speaking much English, and the season isn't all that short, you aren't getting paid while you're here so you have to have some source of funds, and it's especially tough around the holidays because chances are you're not going to be able to afford to fly home. Can you imagine how lonely it would be?

And that brings up another point. Did you know, that until Mayor Fennell started up this league, women had to pay for everything? Their own equipment, travel expenses, etc.? I mean, just think, we've got our 1998 silver medal Olympians and they're having to find ways to work jobs or raise money to keep in training to play? I knew Canada had a really horrible system for dealing with the development of athletes, but I didn't realize that Hockey Canada invests $0 in the National Women's Hockey teams that train up our Olympians. It's totally ludicrous. Meanwhile they're paying the NHLers to play for the men's teams.

You know, before the NWHL got started, women hockey players basically had no where to develop? They came back from the Olympics and had to join rec leagues or something to keep in shape, there was nothing for them like men have in terms of a development program. And even now the women's program is fully funded by the communities of the NWHL teams. It absolutely boggles the mind.

I'm making a hash of it, I know--probably everything I've written up to now has been completely incomprehensible. My basic point is that women who want to play in elite levels of hockey have to make enormous sacrifices in order to play, and even though "Canada" is happy to take the credit for their international sucesses, really the people, apart from the players themselves and their families, who deserve all the credit are their communities which sponsored their training and expenses and such. Most of the women have full time jobs because they don't earn anything from playing hockey. Then you think about NHLers, even guys in the the minors, who haven't had to worry about paying for their equipment, travel expenses and theings like that (although thanks to the NWHL the women no longer have to worry about these things either), AND get paid to play, and the disparity is just so huge.

Sure part of that is due to the fact that women's hockey programs are pretty young, but at the same time, you've got to wonder why Hockey Canada and the OHF isn't acknowledging the special circumstances of women hockey players and instead is putting them at the same level as men's midget teams. Imagine that, our Olympic-calibre women hockey players are governed by the same rules as men's midget teams. You'd think someone would acknowledge some sort of difference in circumstances and needs and such, wouldn't you?

I recognize that I've got a very one-sided view of the story, but I'd say that hearing the other side wouldn't really do much to make the situation seem better. And I guess another thing I've come to see more of through not just this week's class, but throughout the course is how big a role politicking plays in hockey. I mean, it's nice to think of hockey as Canada's soul, an integral part of Canada's national identity, a unifying agent in an incredibly diverse country, but of course there's always the politics working behind the scenes, from the choice of music played in rinks during games to the claim to the title of the "birthplace of hockey."

Game Seven Class

Well, my question on the first day of class came back to haunt me. I asked what we would do if an elimination game of the Final was on a Monday night, and while Phil said that he would have to skip, Kevin never really answered at the time.

So we got our answer on Monday (June 7), which just happened to be GAME 7 of the Stanley Cup Final: class goes on as usual. I guess I wasn't really expecting anything else because, I mean, we had our first quiz already set for yesterday, and all the guests were confirmed and stuff, so what else could we do?

Kevin was great about it anyway, skipping the lecture part and going straight to the guests so we could leave early and catch the last period. I actually made it home just a few minutes after the start of the third.

Anyway, despite the fact that I was anxious as anything about the Final--I was watching my cell like a hawk, since Nathan was text messaging me updates--I really enjoyed the class. We had an extremely enthusiastic bunch of guests, and they really did provide an inside look at the workings of the NHL. What Jimmy Holmstrom, who's in charge of in-house entertainment at the ACC, had to saw was especially interesting. All the nitty gritty details about timing music for commercial breaks and such, and all the politics of music selection were things I had never really considered before.

So yes, it was a good class, and I'm glad I stuck around for it instead of skipping out early to watch more of the game. Funny thing, that. I mean, on Saturday I was willing to skip out on a wedding dinner--the dance part, anyway--to watch as much of game 6 as I possibly could, but I wasn't willing to skip out on class for GAME 7? The weird little quirks of mine, I guess.

Equipment Fun!

Tonight's class was pretty fun! We talked about changes in equipment, and our guests were the owner/founder of Sportstapes (a company that makes hockey tape) and a "catalyst" from Bauer Nike. So yeah, it was pretty cool.

The guy from Bauer Nike, Steve, brought in a bunch of equipment, and Kevin got someone from the class to try it on while Steve explained the modifications/innovations from the equipment. He also had a bunch of statistics on NHL market share (is that the right word?) for different equipment for different companies. It was interesting to see how exposure works, considering that a lot of times the companies the class would name for different products often only outfitted a small percentage of NHL players.

And I got people from the class actually signing up for the mailing list! Woohoo! ^_^ I just hope that we can use it well and actually start up some good discussions, etc. Anyway, time to sleep or I'm going to wake up late (and therefore be late) for work!

Hockey is Good for You!

I got the assignment yesterday, and I've already spent two nights researching for my HHOF Presents paper!! ^_^ It's so exciting! My topic is: "Through the years, various National Hockey League teams have undergone a series of metamorphoses with their sweaters, logo and/or colours. Select a team that has undergone such a visual facelift, trace the changes, and assess the impact of these changes on the team, its city and the NHL."

Surely you can all guess which team I'm doing? =P (The Canucks, just so you can be certain!) So far I've gone through two e-indexes, come up with 19 articles, Google'd my way to a couple of webpages, and have enlisted Steph to skim through some books available at the UBC library for me. ^_^ I'm also planning on contacting the (Canucks') Authentix store to see if I can get some sales figures for the various jersey/logo merchandise sales--heritage and current. And I'm trying to put together a survey (well, two short ones, actually) too, but I haven't had the chance to sit down and really think about it yet.

So anyway, the point of my subject line is that I really feel that this course, and hence hockey, is revitalizing my passion for learning! In first year I was so excited to go to class, to listen to lectures and to learn, but since then I've been growing more and more indifferent to my studies. This year, more than anything else, I just tried to "get through", which is not what I want from my university experience! Even though it's a lot of extra effort/hassle on my part, and on the part of my family (my dad's picking me up from class every week), I think it's worth it to feel this happy about learning again! And I've NEVER EVER started a project this immediately before, so that tells you something too!

First Day of Class

Woohoo! This HHOF Presents class feels like it's going to be a lot of fun! Our co-instructors are Kevin Shea (who co-wrote Ron Ellis' bio, "Over the Boards" along with several other books), and Phil Pritchard, the HHOF Vice-President, Hockey Operations and Curator, who also starred in the Mastercard Stanley Cup commercial! =P They're pretty fun! Plus we get guest speakers and video clips every week! Oh, and our last week of class we have a trip to the HHOF--nothing new to me, but it's still fun!

So yes, I'm really excited about this course, and I'm glad I took it! Even though I absolutely HATED the driving! The traffic was horrible! I left my house around 5:20pm and arrived at Seneca around 6:35pm. @_@ Coming home it only took me about 35min! Anyway, I suppose objectively it isn't that bad of a drive, but I really hate driving--it stresses me out! I started the class with a major headache thanks to the drive up, and I got home with another major headache thanks to the ride back. ^^;; On the bright side, I didn't get lost. Anyway, I'm really grateful that my dad is going to pick me up from class from now on, so I can just take the transit down instead! It'll take a bit longer to get there by transit, but it'll be a lot less stressful!

I'm off to Pennsylvania until Friday (family trip), and I'm so excited about the class, I'm even bringing books to prepare for next week's topic--the formation of the NHL, etc.--even though it's not necessary to read up beforehand! ^_^ SO exciting! Learning is fun once again!