To pick up
where I last left off…
We made it
down to Vegas and checked into the Luxor (which people told us was no good but
we liked it) and hit the town. It was so long ago now that I can’t really
remember the order we did anything in but since we were there for so long we
got to do a lot. We went to two different Cirque Du Soleil shows (Mystere &
KA), went to Freemont St., shopped like crazy, gambled like crazy, rode rides,
went on a city tour, went to the circus, checked out pretty much every hotel
and casino, hung out by the pool, went to the M&M’s store and went on a big
bar crawl. Brit got lit up during the bar crawl and the next day was pretty
much a write off of just lounging by the pool which I didn’t mind! The Cirque
shows were absolutely ridiculous and if you haven’t seen one I really suggest
you go and have your mind blown. We met up with a couple from Australia when we
were on the bar crawl and spent a few days hanging with them at their hotel and
going to the pool and gambling the night away. We played for hours on one game
that was a table with plastic horses on a track, you bet on which horse you
thought was going to win. It was pretty hilarious seeing grown people hammering
the table and shouting at a few tiny plastic horses. One of the main things we
wanted to do when we were there was to see the Grand Canyon and I definitely
screwed that one up. We had planned on booking a trip to it before we got there
but I figured it would be cheaper once we got there. During our time there we
got caught up doing other things and when we went to book the tour near the end
they were full and we wouldn’t have time to go the next day so it got nixed
from our trip…bummer, sorry Brit!
While we
were in Vegas I got some good news from a couple schools. I got accepted to the
law programs at both UVIC and TRU! I was both happy, scared, nervous and sad
all at the same time. Happy that I achieved it but very worried about actually
have to go back to school and potentially having to work for the rest of my
life as a lawyer, ugh.
The
acceptances to those schools came with a catch though. Since I am part First
nations the acceptance letters told me I had to go to Saskatoon over the summer
to complete the Program of Legal Studies for Native People (PLSNP). It was a
pre-requisite that I pass this course which was actually first year property
law over the course of 10 weeks through May and June.
So when I
got back from vacation I got to tell my employers I’d be leaving soon! Not only
did I take a vacation very soon after starting working there but then I turned
around and bailed on them pretty much immediately after I got back ha! I worked
a couple more weeks at DeMara then finished and had to pack my bags for
Saskatoon.
I should
mention that when I got my acceptance to UVIC I had lots of time to apply of
the PLSNP but never did because I was still on the fence about going to law
school. When I got accepted to TRU though I was more into it as I wouldn’t have
to move away again for school, especially to Victoria which I moved away from
after 1 year my first time living there. Problem was, my acceptance to TRU was
after the deadline for applying to the PLSNP. I had to email back and forth,
get references sorted out and get my transcripts and application package in
ASAP if I wanted to get in. It was a super stressful time but it all got sorted
out. However, I had applied to live in the dorms on campus and never heard
anything back, despite emailing them numerous times.
When it
came time to leave Brit took me to the airport and after our goodbyes I was off
to Saskatoon without even knowing if I would have a place to live. Thankfully,
my boy Tyler Flood was living there and said I could stay with him for the
first few days.
So upon
arrival he picked me up and I spent the first couple nights before the program
started sleeping on his couch. Once the program started I got set up in the
dorms there and moved my gear from Tyler’s over to the dorms. Dorm room was
nice, they were brand new and had a large cooking area/living room, 4 bedrooms
and 2 bathrooms. I was expecting much less. I also lucked out the first few
weeks and didn’t have a roommate so I had the whole place to myself.
Originally, I thought this program was going to be a hassle for me just because
I had to move to Saskatoon for 10 weeks and didn’t really think about the
classes themselves as being anything more than attendance and handing in some
assignments. How wrong I was. It was actually a first year law course crammed
into a couple months with numerous assignments, presentations and tests. We
were at school usually from 8:30-4:30 and had tons of reading every night that
I had very little free time to even go to the gym, let alone go out and check
out Saskatoon or hang with Tyler. I slugged through it though with much struggle
and some very real fear that I was going to fail. While I was there I got an
acceptance notice from UBC that I got into their law program as well and I didn’t
need to pass the PLSNP as a condition to get in. So that took some pressure off
me, but I still wanted to pass because I for damn sure didn’t want to do property
law all over again. The 10 weeks seemed super slow for me, especially
considering it was over summer and all my friends back at home were having
loads of fun. I made it through though and caught my flight back home after
what was probably the worst couple months I’d had up until that point.
While I was
gone our cat Girb passed away which was very sad and I couldn’t be there for
Brit when she had to say goodbye to her little fuzzball. A few weeks later she
ended up getting a new cat to keep her company and picked up Pino! I didn’t get
to meet her till I got home so she was a few weeks older by then but Brit
brought her to the airport to show me when I arrived and she was so tiny, could
fit in the palm of my hand! When I got back there was about 2-3 weeks left of
summer and I debated getting a job for a couple weeks but figured by the time I
actually got one I’d maybe work a week and a half or so and then have to quit
so I decided to take the remaining summer time off (much to the chagrin of
Brit). A few days after getting back home I got the good news from Saskatoon
that I passed the course! So I had to decide now which school I wanted to go to
as I was currently holding spots in all of them. I eventually decided I didn’t
want to move away again for school so I nixed UBC and UVIC which was a decision
most people think I was crazy for since both those schools are more prestigious
and well established than TRU. Honestly though, Brit couldn’t move and I didn’t
want to do the long distance thing and I don’t think I would have made it
through school being so far from home again after doing it for years during my
undergrad and then experiencing it again in Saskatoon. I probably would have
ended up dropping out. So I made the decision to go to TRU instead and be able
to come visit on weekends or whenever I had some time off.
We went for
one weekend on a trip to Nelson for one of Brit’s friend’s wedding. We spent
the weekend in a nice golf resort/lodge and got to spend the weekend hanging
out in Nelson which is a place I’ve never really been before. The wedding was
nice despite the fact I only knew Brit and Joe there…
Over the
next couple weeks I just hung out with other friends who had some time off and
hit the beach a bunch. We also picked up another cat to give Pino some company.
His name is Toba and came from a Bengal breeder that Brit knows, he is very
lazy and smells bad a lot of the time. Closer to the end of summer my friend
Cory was getting married and he gave me the honour of being his best man. I had
never really been involved with a wedding before so I didn’t know what I had to
do (sorry for being a terrible best man Cory). Apparently I was supposed to
plan the bachelor party and needed to give a speech at the wedding. Cory
originally wanted to go camping for his party and we invited all our old
friends. Unfortunately, all our friends suck and bailed literally the day
before the planned party. So with some quick planning and inviting I got us
booked into a hotel in Whistler and booked bungee jumping for our group which
turned out to be myself, Cory, Connor, Tyler Flood and Dave Burroughs. Tyler
and Dave were some late additions that called up from the minors to join us in
the partying, glad they came along though. On the way to Whistler we had Cory
dressed up in some skimpy lingerie that we hoped he would wear the entire
weekend. He started off strong, wearing it to Scandia in the batting cages and
the go-karts, also wearing it at restaurants when we stopped for food. When we
got to Whistler though he wouldn’t wear it out to dinner or to the club, wimped
out big. We spent the night party at some club where Dave showed off his dance
moves on the stripper pole all night before leaving early due to the 3 drinkers
in the crew going to hard throughout the day and needing to be brought home.
In the
morning we hit up the bungee jump and Cory had the honor of going first in his
dress. It was a sight to behold. Everyone was acting tough before the jump but
when they saw it everyone got quite nervous for it. We all went through with no
one trying to back out of it. Since it was my second time I opted to go
backwards which is apparently scarier but I didn’t think so and wished I had gone
for the headfirst dive again.
The wedding
itself was very fun with all our friends there to show support for Cory and
Kara. I was super nervous for my speech but I think it went off quite well.
Kept it short and sweet. We had a good time all night and everyone went for a
midnight skinny dip/wrestle in the lake.
During the
last few weeks of summer I was trying to get things sorted out with TRU (they
were not honoring my property law credits from Saskatoon which they said they
would), and I had to find somewhere to live during the week in Kamloops. I eventually
got things sorted out with the school but after numerous excursions to check
places out in Kamloops I couldn’t find somewhere to live. Most places in my
price range were very far from the school and not on bus routes. Since I didn’t
have a car that was going to be a problem. I applied for the dorms but they
were already full and I even began to look at monthly rentals at some grungy
hotels. School eventually started and I still didn’t have a place to live. So
for the first week of school I was borrowing Brits car and driving back and
forth from Kamloops every day, lots of driving. The following week though I
ended up finding a place to stay that was near bus routes and I could actually
get to school so I moved all my stuff down that week and got into my first year
of law school.
That’s all
I’ve got for now so thanks again for reading! Next time I’ll be writing about
my first year in Law school and the time Brit and I spent island hopping in the
Philippines!
Dan
