University fees

As a co-op student in Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, I am obliged to pay co-op fees over eight academic terms. In any given term, the co-op fee is the same for all co-op students regardless of where they are in first year, fourth year, or anywhere in between. This term's co-op fee is listed as $609. It seemed like a large sum, and I decided to look back at my previous statements to see how much the fee used to be. Here is what I have paid:

Fall 2006: $510.00
Winter 2007: $510.00
Fall 2007: $535.00
Spring 2008: $560.00
Winter 2009: $560.00
Fall 2009: $587.00
Winter 2010: $587.00
Spring 2010: $609.00

I'd completely forgotten that the termly co-op fee was so much lower when I started university. Roughly a 20% increase in 4 years (19.41% to be more accurate), it just didn't make sense. Yes, the Illustrative Life Table that the SOA provides for its exams assumes an annual interest rate of 6%, but surely that can't even be close to reality! I decided to do a little bit of math.

I vaguely remembered hearing somewhere that the annual inflation rate can range from 2-3% per annum. Assuming the high end, 3%, the fee should have gone up by 12.55% over 4 years. In this case, the co-op fee should be $574 now.

Then I went to the inflation calculator provided by the Bank of Canada.

To my surprise, the answer turned out to be a mere $545.96. Round that up to $546, and there's a $63 difference between the expected and actual fees. Co-op fees don't seem to fall under any of "food, shelter, furniture, clothing, transportation, and recreation", but the hefty increases still go unexplained. Where is the extra money going? Updating the system at the heart of the co-op program?


While discussing these numbers with S, it hit me that I could do the same thing with tuition fees, too. I decided to look at the 1A Co-op Mathematics tuition for Canadian citizens and permanent residents, assuming a 5-course workload. The U of Waterloo registrar's office website has fee schedules dating back to Fall 2007, and anything before that I gathered from my own statements from first year, as well as a friend's statement.

A grand total of 19.30% increase over 4 years, averaging 4.5% a year. Heck, GICs only yield a fraction of that interest these days.

Even with my salary slowly increasing with each co-operative work term, it's no surprise I felt more and more strapped for cash as the years went by. At this rate, "one of these days, we'll catch up to the US tuition," to quote J. One of these days may just be when we are parents of soon-to-be university students....

What is your take on your tuition "inflation"?



Addendum: It seems that Statistics Canada agrees with my findings.

Nine Years Later

It has already been nine years since four planes were hijacked in an unimaginable terrorist act against the United States of America, two of which crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York City. While it has constantly been a sensitive issue, the added news of a mosque to be built in the vicinity of Ground Zero has called for even more uproar in the community.

On September 11, 2010, both those who support the idea of the mosque and those who object spilled out to the streets to voice their opinions.


1. Church Street, between Murray Street and Park Place

There was a pen set up for protesters, media, and anyone else who wished to ask questions or just watch. Outside the pen, police were urging people not to block the sidewalk, and either continue walking or go inside the pen.

The man with the flag believes that "it is not about religion, it is not about politics - it is about understanding." The man with the Bible disagrees; he believes that this is God telling us we need to repent.


This 17-year-old New York native is fine with political arguments any day but today. For her, today is September 11; it should be about the 3,000+ people who died in 9/11 nine years ago. She still remembers how it was that day, though she was only eight years old.

She was interrupted by someone that disagreed with her, who then accused her of not voting. She was too young to vote, and still is, for another few months from today.

"You have no rights! You're Islam."
The girl in the picture above is actually Jewish, not Islam. The man responded with a "Shalom". He is also Jewish.

"Jesus is the word. He is the answer."
This man was a Hindu, until "there was a bomb." He believes that if we do not convert, we will be killed. He also believes that we should "put a Conservative president up and get rid of all the liberals."

To this man, this is not a protest. He is appealing to people to repent and turn to God.

There was a discussion between a passer-by and an anti-abortion activist. It was the passer-by's first time in the area since 9/11, and while he respected the activist's rights, he believed that conversations involving abortion should be taken to other streets. The activist, however, held a different stance: "There are people here, there is media, therefore we speak here today."

The former Hindu man was still in the vicinity, arguing with the young NY native, when this man happened to be walking by. He had two questions: "So how many Christians were on the plane? Are you even American?"

It became the start of an argument between this man and another man that happened to be nearby, wearing a "Peace Thru Understanding" t-shirt. An excerpt from the argument:

A: I don't want to argue with you, sir. It's America. They have the right to build a mosque.
B: We should make exceptions to the Constitution.
A: So we should make exceptions to the Constitution?


2. Church Street, between Park Place and Barclay Street

One block south of the first pen, there was a similar pen set up. It was just as well occupied as the first.

This woman used the analogy of a plane destined to crash to describe why we should turn to Jesus Christ. She said that if we are on board an airplane, and the flight attendant tells us the plane will crash and that we should get out, we should get out with a parachute. She recommended that we "put on the parachute of Jesus Christ".

"I'm not trying to be religious, but if you confess, put your life in his hands... he will make a new life for you. [...] Isn't your soul more important than anything else?"

This man here, with his "Real Americans don't burn Qurans" sign, does not see a problem with this mosque. He believes that since these are not the same people behind 9/11, we should not blame them. He would also later add that there is no such thing as "the Muslims".

While the vast majority of people in the pen were either busy voicing their own opinions or jotting down what others had to say, this couple silently stood there with a little American flag.


This proud American woman was not afraid to make herself heard. She believes that "that mosque has got to go," otherwise we will always have to bow down to Muslims, and will get "killed for everything."

A man appeared, claiming to be knowledgeable about the Koran. A lengthy argument ensued, drawing in a fair amount of media attention.

Soon enough, this woman was inside the pen with everyone else. She proceeded to belt out a lengthy speech, part of which went as follows:
"Islam is not a religion. Islam is a militant supremacist movement! They want to kill everybody who's not Islam. Everybody. It's going to be worse than Hitler! It's going to make Hitler look like child's play. Open your eyes, America! [...] I'm not an Arab."

One reporter asked where she was from. She replied that she is from Brazil, but that it does not matter.

After the woman left, the argument about the nature of the Koran continued. One side believes that paranoia is what destroys people, not the Koran, and there are various interpretations of the book. According to the opposing side, Islam disguised as a religion is not religion, but rather hate, and while people have the freedom to believe in anything as long as it is peaceful, this book calls for murder. One of the pro-mosque protesters shouted out that "Context rules everything."

At that moment, a man in a red shirt happened to be nearby. He responded that "context isn't everything; grammatical structure is everything also."


This man was with a girl that may have been his daughter. He seemed like he had had many pictures taken with his placard today. He asked which newspaper I was from.


3. Pro-Mosque: Broadway, by the City Hall

These two men are on their way to the pro-mosque protest. Their banner says, "These aren't the Muslims you're looking for..."

The pro-mosque crowd covered a couple of blocks on Broadway next to the City Hall.

A mosque leader was among the speakers at this protest. He assured the attendees that they "are standing on a higher moral ground than everyone". He also added that Ground Zero belongs to all of us, and that our shared priority is to keep justice and peace.

A later speaker said that "Muslim is as diverse as any other religion; this is why [they're] here today", and emphasised the importance of religious freedom and equality.

These people were among the many protesters that were proud to share their opinions today.


4. Anti-Mosque: West Broadway

The anti-mosque protesters were waiting for their keynote speaker.

This man is being interviewed by the New York Post. He said that this is like bringing the Cordoba mosque here, and thinking about the issue this way will help clarify things.

This man is pre-mosque. When asked why he was here and not two blocks away (at the pro-mosque protest), he said he was "lost". He added that the people that are for a mosque are also from this nation, then left. The media left a large gap at the protest scene when they followed him out of the pen.

By the Amish Market, located just south of the protest site, a policewoman was heard saying, "I can't wait till all of this is over." Her colleague agreed.

I am Canadian. Get over it.

For those of you who don't know me well, I am Chinese by heritage. My parents are from mainland China, and as a random bit of trivia, my mom likes to mention that she grew up watching the Terracotta soldiers being unearthed. (Even more trivia…did you know that for the first time EVER, the Chinese government is letting some of the soldiers out of the country? They are hitting up Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary museums!)

Those of you who know me…will also know that I am “white”. In fact, I often get “whiter than most white people”, or “you are the whitest person I know”. In other words, I don’t act asian.

I do not speak Mandarin or Canto. I can’t read or write an asian language. I do not speak Engrish, or English with an accent. I do have a Chinese name, however, I can’t pronounce it, write it, or even recognize it in writing if someone showed it to me. I never had to go to Chinese school. I do not go to China once every two years. I do not know my relatives in China. In fact, I don’t even know how many relatives I have in China. The only time I went to China was when I was 5. I HATED it. I date a white guy, and no, my parents never tried to set me up with asian guys. I spent most of my life in Okotoks – for most of my life there, we were one of the only asian families in the entire community.

Is this unusual? I don’t think so…I am meeting more and more Canadian Born Chinese (CBCs) every day. I’m not alone!

Then why are there so many people who think I am some sort of alien?

Throughout my life, I’ve encountered people who express horror at my upbringing. “How can you not know how to speak mandarin?” “Where are your parents?” “Why didn’t your parents teach you?” “Why didn’t you go to Chinese school?” “You sound like a white person” “What a disgrace, dishonouring your heritage” “How can you ignore that you are Chinese?”

Why is it not obvious? My family chose to leave China – China didn’t do anything good for them. They chose to come to Canada, they chose to raise their kids as Canadian. Why is that so hard to understand? I’m not IGNORING the fact that I’m Chinese, my family has some habits and ways that can only be described as Chinese. However, my parents chose to embrace Canada and it’s ways and traditions, making our own little niche in this fantastic country.

I am Canadian. Chinese by heritage, but 100% Canadian, and it’s time people learnt to accept that.

-S

Life is knocking....shhh, ignore it.

First off, sorry for not posting sooner! It's amazing how the whole "oh I'll do it later" magically turns into 4 months later x.x

Anyways! Quick catching up. I just flew home to Alberta, before that I went camping for 4 days, then before that I just finished my last work term ever...that was basically my summer =P Now, surrounded by electronics, tea, moon cakes, and a cat who keeps pressing the 'd' and 's' keys on my laptop, I am back to blogging.

The ending of my last co-op term really got me thinking. In my case, it was the end of 31 months of work as an undergraduate student...that's 2.5 years of work experience! And here I am, one year of school left, and the full time job search stretching in front of me like a dismal fish.

I am among that percentage of students coming out of co-op who actually thought it was worth it. Yes, there were a lot of dark moments....CECS losing my papers, 5 PD courses, some .....interesting co-op terms and so forth, but in the end I got to do almost 2 whole years of work in fields that I am genuinely interested, and have met some fantastic people along the way. But now that that is over, it's time to focus on life.

It's actually kind of terrifying. Going into a co-op term, you always have that safety net - if the term is not going well, you know it's going to end in 4 or less months. Jobs in the real world? There is no end date...though I guess you could do some sort of contracting gig, and have contracts of a year or less at a time.

How do you make such a huge decision about your life? Do you follow the money, or do what you want to do? Ah hahaha, that is assuming you can even find a job in this interesting economy in the first place.

How long can you postpone the decision? Then again, if you put it off for too long...what if you miss opportunities on the way? Where do you go, how do you do it, when do you do it?

Oh life...go away. I'm on vacation until school starts.

-S

Body image, a personal account

There is the saying that goes, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It is expected that standards of beauty differ among individuals and cultures, and something that is beautiful to one may not be the case for the other. Though, regardless of what it looks like, the concept of beauty is one that cannot be ignored in the life of a female. The way I see it, standards of beauty are crucial when it comes to building a woman's self esteem from her earliest years.

When I was a very young kid growing up in England, I was taller than most kids of my age. I didn't think too much of it; I just liked being at the back of the line when lined up in order of height. The only time it annoyed me was when I couldn't get into the IKEA ball pit because I was too tall, despite that I was right in the recommended age range. And of course, I didn't know of the concept of fat or thin, except when there was an unusually fat kid in the school.

This was all about to change. The year I turned 9, I moved from England to South Korea. Twice a year, children's heights and weights are measured in order to keep track of their growth. Of course, the intention is all good. The problem lies in that when one child is being measured and weighed, everyone else in line can see the figures that show up on the machine. And while they can see that some children are taller than others, when it comes to weight, all that matters is the number that appears. I clearly remember being called "fat" in semester 2 of grade 3 - I was 147cm tall and weighed 38kg. At the age of 9, Korean children are used to seeing weights in the 20s range, and even as low as 18kg for the smaller children; naturally, I was dubbed "fat" from that day on.

The word "fat" lingered in the back of my head for years to come. I was still a rather skinny child, though since I returned to Korea, I was rapidly gaining weight. By the time I had hit the age of 12, I was 167cm tall, weighing somewhere around 50kg. I was not made fun of--in fact, my female classmates did tell me I was "so skinny"--yet it was bugging me that I was gaining weight that fast. That "5" in "50" scared me. It didn't help that I was noticing classmates almost as tall as myself, but wearing jeans 1-2 sizes smaller. Unfortunately, things would not go in my favour from there.

A year later, I was at 169cm, weighing 57kg. I had jumped 2-3 sizes in just a year, and the jeans that were so big that I could fit two fists in and still have room left were now just right. And to make things worse, I was now at the very end of the Korean female clothing sizing scale. I'd see pretty clothes and ask if they had my size; it turned out that at least 80% of reputable Korean brands did not produce clothes in my size. It was demoralising. A lot of people still thought I was thin, as my wrists and ankles were still as bony as ever, but a little part of me died every time I went out shopping. So I survived a good 4 years primarily on very baggy clothing. I felt that my figure was something to be concealed until I could drop down a few sizes, almost good enough to look like a supermodel. I was just glad that baggy trousers weren't completely out of style yet, as they had been immensely popular in Korea around the turn of the century.

Soon after I turned 17, I found myself in a new land: Canada. During the first few weeks, all I did was stay at home and eat. As a result, I put on a whopping 5kg in just three weeks. Mother was not pleased. One day, she called me. "C, you're fat. Come here." There she was with a tape ruler in her hands. She proceeded to measure my waist. Then she told me to go to the gym at least 3 times a week so I could lose weight.

Luckily I did lose that excess weight fairly quickly. But that was not the only good thing to happen; I was delighted to find that in this country, I could actually go shopping without killing my self-esteem every time! Back in Korea, I could only shop at a few stores because I was too big for the rest of them, but here, I was welcome to shop anywhere I pleased. No more asking "Excuse me.... ur.... what size does this come up to?", but instead, rummaging through all the disorganised piles at Boxing Day sales to see if I could dig up something nice in my size.

Many years have passed since then. I will admit that I will never be 100% content with my figure, but I can say that I no longer feel like an inadequate excuse of a female human being, or a blob of fat made to accentuate the perceived beauty of others. It has been a long journey to reach this state of mind - I hope I will be able to maintain this for many more decades to come.

Items you should never put in your cabin baggage

With the ever-worsening baggage restrictions for flights, going through security can resemble hell rather closely at times. Drawing from my experiences, here's a list of items you should never put in your cabin baggage:

1. Items on the no-fly list

'Nuff said.

2. Dense metal plane-shaped objects

Security guards will turn on the laser beams in their eyes once their scanners show signs of suspicious metal objects. Said lasers become more intense when the metal is dense, and when the suspicious item happens to resemble a miniature plane, watch out. I knew the world was paranoid about planes smashing into skyscrapers, but I didn't know that just having a plane shaped object could buy suspicion.

And the true identity of the dense metal plane-shaped object I was caught with? A mini cross with a base to help it stay upright.

The item in question. Suspicious indeed...

3. Metal chopsticks

Born Korean, I prefer to eat with metal chopsticks rather than wooden ones. But of course, they're made of metal, and they're long and thin! A potential threat, you say? The guidebook available for security guards at Heathrow Airport doesn't list chopsticks as a potential threat. The guards' supervisor will even tell you the metal spoon that comes with the chopsticks is also good to go.

4. Invisible items

Watch out for these, especially if you're a skilled packer. Security guards will tell you that they're searching for "nothing [they] can tell you about". They will then proceed to empty out half of your well packed bag, and loosely stuff everything back in when they fail to find the suspicious object after going through all of the contents. Not surprising, considering it doesn't really exist...

Coming soon!

Hey,

So... long time no see, eh? I have been really busy with school, and sitting down to write something like a blog entry seemed like a huge commitment in terms of time and energy. So I never did... But I haven't forgotten, and I did read all of S and C's posts. And my own post will be coming soon - as soon as school is over (that's right, the American schools end later than the Canadian ones, I'm done in about 2.5 weeks now!).

Just letting you know that I'm still alive and well, and talk to you soon!