In class, I was stretching my back, like the big lean back and stretch thing. Graham just looked at me strangely. Then he said, "I know. You remind me of my labrador." I didn't know how to take that, so I made a weird face at him. He replied, "That's a good thing. I love my labrador." Um, ok, Graham...
One of the papers talked about structural violence in the Dominican Republic and how it relates to Haitians who can't get passports or visas. This lead to a discussion during the break about how hard it is to get permanent residency for us. Most of the class consists of international students and the MPH and MCHAM (Masters of Cultural Health and Medicine; the other people taking this class) programs are only a year, so we don't qualify for one of the visas that you can if you are here studying for at least two years. (Karemah is lucky and did another degree here, so it'll be two years for her.) Anyway, we had a long discussion about how that sucks for us because we basically need to find a sponsor to get a job but we need to get a job to find a sponsor. And of course no job wants to have to sponsor you for a visa because that takes time and money when they could just hire an Aussie. Oh the joys of being an immigrant!
Also, the other American in the class asked me if I registered for an absentee ballot. I told him that I'm a bad American because I didn't. Then I realised that really that makes me pretty average. At least I voted in the presidential election in 2008 and for the Michigan gubernatorial election in 2010. That has to count for something! Right?
After class, I went back to my flat for a little bit. Janice and I were going over to Toad because Bec was cooking dinner for us! I just watched How I Met Your Mother while I waited. I went over to Bec's place around 6:30. We were having a make your own pizza night. Of course I just had pepperoni. Janice was a little late because she was helping Soo with her computer.
We ate dinner and talked for quite a while about different things. Mostly I remember us talking about blood. In the medical sense, as in blood types and Janice's health story. I won't go into details about her story since it's not my story to tell. Also, Bec burned her pizza and had to scrape off the burnt bottom and it was funny. Also, Janice was complaining that the "lady in the purple coat" hasn't been to class in a while and Janice was missing purple. Then Bec was offended because she was wearing purple today. Janice said that it just wasn't the same! We talked until about 10, when I came back home. Now I just have to try to get a few things done before going to bed.
The decorations around Bec's block (which is like the shared area for the rooms around her) are these e-cards. I really liked this one. It's kind of true, so I decided to take a picture and post it on my blog.
Random side notes:
- This is my 100th post!!!
- Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day.
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