The Library in a Blizzard

The morning attacked us with an unexpected blizzard. Seriously, within a half hour, the whole VIU campus was covered with an inch-thick layer of snow. We spent most of that time sheltered within the walls of the Arts & Humanities building, attending Professor Daniel Burgoyne’s class on English Romantic Literature. Today, we discussed Keats’ poem, “The Fall of Hyperion”, which was kind of tough, but I think we did manage to glean some kind of coherent meaning out of it, so it was good.

The Library in the Blizzard.

Later, we moved to the library again – what a surprise! We had another lovely, productive session with our research, and then decided to go home to prepare for our presentation, which is going to take place tomorrow. We spent the afternoon and evening making sure that nothing was amiss with our PowerPoint file and rehearsing our speeches.

More book-devouring...

We began the day with a beautiful sunrise seen from the VIU campus. That’s the second Canadian university situated in a picturesque environs – it makes us supremely jealous! :P Not to mention the wild rabbits hopping about the parking lot. If only Sosnowiec was a bit prettier…

Another Shot of the VIU Campus.

The first class of the day was taught by Laura Cranmer, whom we met a couple of days earlier at the Colloquium. It was a lecture on Aboriginal Communities, and it opened with a prayer in the Kwakwala language, which we didn’t expect, so it came as a bit of a surprise. The classes in the First Nations program here at VIU are very hands on – usually there is a First Nations Elder assisting the lecturer and providing his or her knowledge for the benefit of the students. This particular class was a discussion of Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach, a novel by an Aboriginal author, addressing contentious issues of the First Nation communities in Canada, among them the trauma of residential schools.

A View from Sugarloaf Mountain Park Situated Not Far From Where We Live.

Afterwards, we spent some more time at the library, salivating over countless books, but we only had a couple of hours before we had to go to another class, this one about theoretical approach to first nations studies. Turns out the group had already moved on from the theoretical part and onto the practical, and they were working on their final projects. The lecturer was very accommodating, though, and she showed us a lot of examples of performance art created by Aboriginal authors.

Bookworming

One Tiny Part of the VIU Campus.

Today we braved the buses in Nanaimo. It wasn’t a very good day for it, because the weather was frightful – it was raining and the wind was so strong that it almost broke our umbrellas. :P So, fighting hostile elements, we managed to arrive at VIU, where we were to take one of ProfessorDaniel Burgoyne’s class. The thing was, we had thought we would be discussing Keats’ “The Fall of Hyperion”, so we had spent half of last night trudging through the opaque poem, but, as it turned out, we were doing William Hone’s “The Political House That Jack Built” instead. Fortunately, we didn’t need to read that one beforehand, and Keats has been moved up to Wednesday, so all our hard work deciphering his words hasn’t been for naught! ;)

View from the Library.

After the class we headed for the library. It took us some time to figure out the shelving system, but after that, we were on a roll. It’s safe to say that “so many books, so little time” doesn’t quite cover the sheer magnitude of our enthusiasm. :P It’s such a shame that our research trip is so short, because limiting yourself when so many things interest you is such hard work. Still, the three hours spent browsing the Nanaimo Campus Library were time extremely well-spent. :)

And the Library Viewed from the Outside. :)

Colloquium

We went to the Vancouver Island University campus today – it’s much smaller than UBC, but it’s situated on a hill and we’re told that when the weather permits it, there are some lovely views out there, which we didn’t get to see yet, because of the rain. ;) Not many sunny days out here in Nanaimo, apparently. We spent two hours walking around and then sitting in the cafeteria, composing our class schedule for next week.

Before the Colloquium.

At ten we went to the Malaspina Theatre Department, where we attended an Art and Humanities colloquium. Eliza Gardiner and Laura Cranmer delivered a presentation on “The Power of theatre in Indigenous Communities”. The talk was extremely interesting, as it strove to compare the Potlatch with Ancient Greek theatre. It was also very emotionally demanding of Laura Cranmer, who spoke of her family’s experience with the Potlatch for the very first time in public.

Laura Cranmer (left) and Eliza Gardiner (right) Preparing for the Presentation.

After the colloquium we were introduced to many members of VIU faculty, and then we had a lovely lunch with Laura Cranmer and Eliza Gardiner, during which we talked a lot about Poland and Canada’s history and experiences. In the evening we had an international family dinner and lots of Canadian, English, Polish, Columbian and Burmese anecdotes were exchanged over wine and rice pudding. :)