Wednesday 29 October 2014

Why I've never been so excited to come in second place!

You know, sometimes in life, the universe has a way of making things happen for you. In this particular instance, I was in need of a keychain.

This week is "Reading" Week - a concept most students have adopted to mean let's get trashed and forget about reading, school, and whatever responsibilities they'd ordinarily be fulfilling. Some go away, some stay put. Me...I've done little reading. This is, of course, against my traditional "let's write all my term papers now so I can just enjoy the rest of my semester and not be stressed later on" reading week custom. No, I've not been exploring the world around me, nor have I taken up drinking (some might say finally). No, my friends, I have been engaged in tutorials and presentations to Ban Ki Moon.

No, I don't mean this guy:
(www.un.org)
Nope, not this guy in the middle either:
(www.itv.com)
In fact, I'm talking about a presentation to a BKM impersonator. THIS Ban Ki Moon:
Photo Credit: Junefe Gilig Payot
More details to follow.

Now, I'm not complaining here, for the record. The tutorials over the last few days have involved learning from three South Africans representing Slum Dwellers International (SDI) about bottom-up urban poverty initiatives. It was incredible! We even had a sing-a-long during our final hour together! It's actually unfortunate they've returned home, because I'm pretty sure by this time next week, I'll have processed it all and have a million questions for them!

Okay, so let's get back to the point of this post - how I got my sweet new keychain!

Actual keychain in question.
There was a promise of prize, and an opportunity for me to speak in front of a crowd on a topic I have little knowledge of. That's right - I'm talking about the Student SDG Competition! I'm pretty sure I left out the story about how I experienced three fire alarms within the span of a week. Anyway, one of these instances happened during a lecture for my Poverty and Development class. Since we missed a good chunk of time in class, there was suggestion of a possible debate on the MDGs (that's Millennium Development Goals for those of you not in the know!). But see, they tricked us...they didn't say it would be over Reading Week! So this afternoon, the four groups piled into a lecture theatre and presented our case to a pretty well-known university professor who enthusiastically portrayed the role of Ban Ki Moon.

(Part of) The Early Bird Foundation.
Photo Credit: Junefe Gilig Payot

Team Logo
After we all presented, there was a wine reception before the announcement of the winner. First place would have been awesome, except all you got was a lousy pen that was likely to break just by looking at it the wrong way and a matching notebook. Pftt...who wants that? Not this girl. No, I had my eye on the second place prize...a keychain. Now, I know what you're probably thinking - it's just a keychain, why wouldn't you hope for the top prize and then a) trade a second place winner for their prize, or b) just go buy one! Well, I'm cheap...and I didn't want to risk not nabbing someone else's keychain! Oh, and in case you haven't figured it out...my group won second prize.

This girl...is one happy owner of a brand new key chain!


-the Orange Canadian

(Note: If I can get my hands on some pictures from either experience, I will post them. Until then, just imagine my over-tired glory!)


In case any of you are interested, here is the podcast of the Student Competition. Do I actually sound like that? Yikes!

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