"no such thing as a setting sun"

Aside from the giant stack of readings that remain unread and the position paper that needs to be converted into APA formatting, my Monday is drawing to a close. A visit to the post office this morning to send the blow-up flamingo to the second destination of his cross-Canada journey. A few hours spent in the Killam library, a trip to the writing centre, three meals in the Howe Hall cafeteria and things are starting to become routine.

Marking the end of Joseph's stay in Halifax. It's been a slice buddy, safe travels.

I asked my roommate today, "Does it feel to you like we've been here for 15 days?" In my mind, I've been here in Halifax for a few months, at least. By no means is this home to me, yet, but it is beginning to feel comfortable.

This weekend was spent clapping and jiving and fist pumping on the grass of the Quad as we enjoyed the sounds of Paper Lions, Yukon Blonde, Jeremy Fisher and Shad. How refreshing is it to attend a music festival composed entirely of Canadian artists? Some of them I enjoyed more than others... and as I told my friend as we migrated back to residence after Shad, "I did more fist-pumping tonight than I ever needed to do." None the less, music and a whole whack of university students on a Friday or Saturday night is a recipe for a good time. I thoroughly enjoyed dancing with my friends during Paper Lions, and even more-so enjoyed hearing Jeremy Fisher's voice of an angel, watching him strum on the guitar so seamlessly (despite string breaking mid-opening-song), listening to the stories from his bike-tour travels, and observing him play that harmonica like no-one else I've seen before... all this while a clear blue sky lingers overhead, while the sun beats down upon my back and the light breeze keeps the air feeling crisp. Although rap is not my genre of choice, I could appreciate, without question, the lyrics spewing out of Shad's mouth:

"It's funny how words like consciousness and positive music
can somehow start to feel hollow.
it's become too synonymous.
We're polishing soft collagen lips, on the face of grace politics,
Well you can't be everything to everyone, so lemme be anything to anyone. 
The world turns and their's clouds sometimes but there's no such thing as a setting sun.
It always keeps shining."

Paper Lions

Jeremy Fisher

Sunday morning consisted of the standard weekend brunch with my beloved, hungover floor-mates, and then up the four flights of stairs to throw on my runners and pull on a sports bra. At 1 o'clock, Doug, Monique and I (team Blue Shoes), participated in Dalhousie's first ever "Terry's Cause on Campus". Essentially, a Terry Fox run on a university campus. The atmosphere was unbelievable; from the warm up Zumba dance to the cool down yoga, and the 5k run in between. Any event put on to raise money or awareness for such a horrible disease is sure to bring out the best of people. High fives from the Dal cross country team as they marked the route and encouraged runners, and finished off with a giant hug from the Tiger as I reached the finish line. If only the atmosphere all around us, at every moment, could be at par with that of a cancer research fundraiser, what a wonderful world we'd inhabit!

Someone asked me today if I missed Vancouver. The short answer is yes; I miss the mountains, I miss my family, I miss the hiking trails, I miss my friends. Then again, when I return back home in a short few months from now, I'm sure I'll be able to say that I miss Halifax just the same.

I apologize for the lack of sunshine, clear blue skies and wind against your faces; but please do enjoy Jeremy Fisher as much as I did that evening at Dalfest.