:3

Haha ^_^ 

I am gonna just update this in paint every time 

Instructors are NPCs who give you quests. Quests are everything they ask you to do (homework, quiz, assignment, etc.) As a reward your skills level up. These characters are NOT related to the real instructors. I just painted what first came to mind/pen and I was not thinking about real instructors while doing it :3

~Scions of Technology~

I had real fun this evening! I am an ex-hardcore MMORPG player and I often experience flashbacks from the game Lineage II and sometimes my mind just requires to play games!!!! I see students on campus playing games in their break times and I might think yeah, why not. It’s BREAK right. But again you only got 8 freaking hours and lot of things to do!

And just to keep myself away from games I decided to view my studying as a game :3 I called it Scions of Technology and my character is an elf magician. As long as 1 month has passed, it’s 2 level already. She has skills to write and skills in Math, Programming…. etc. Maybe one day I will make a real game and help  gamers in their studies haha. reality is soo boring 

I tried not to put much time in painting.  I really enjoy to paint so maybe I will improve my graphics every weekend :3 

explaining bars:

Grading System

Programming:

Accounting:

Communications:

Information Systems:

Math:

Here is the schedule for my section. 

I just want to count how much time I have each day, (for better time management maybe?)

Monday - Wednesday - 6 hours of classes + 2 hours road +8 hours sleep= 16 hours. 8 hours left for eating, showering,cleaning,studying,groceries,cooking,talking, etc. 

Thursday - 5 hours of classes + 2 hours road +8 hours sleep= 15 hours. 9 hours left for other things.

Friday - 4 hours of classes + 2 hours road +8 hours sleep= 14 hours. 10 hours  for other things.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

I didn’t count the break time between classes as “busy” hours because actually you use those breaks for studying, eating, gym, whatever. 

But still these 8-9 hours in the first 4 days of the  week are not enough. You should sacrifice something. And me, as many other students sacrifice sleep. I also sacrifice brushing my hair, breakfast, and cleaning my boots from mud. haha

My goal would be not sacrificing those things. Especially sleep, because it directly affects my studying. For example, I lost mark in Accounting assignment, because I incorrectly rewrote the numbers. I also didn’t notice the second part of the assignment in Programming and just never submitted it, etc..

Maybe if I do some homework and assignments in the weekend it will save me during the week? Usually, I am doing everything in the last moment. But I need to relax in the weekends :3

How to contact me

 Tumblr don’t gives me much options for feedback. So, I thought to put my email address here so if you wanna contact me, you don’t have to register here (sorry Tumblr  :3)

rrcstudent@outlook.com 

I put it in blog description too. Feel free to write me :)

is BIT boring?

I think the answer to this question is - it depends on your approach.

Personally for me, I have difficulties to follow Accounting and Communication classes. Usually I end up chatting online with friends from my home country or doing whatever.

And once I assumed that those classes are boring  - it was no way back. I also bought a Statistics book from other student last week, it was the last book I needed. I put an advertisement on kijiji that I needed books in the beginning of the term and someone replied only now. It turned out this student also applied to BIT program first, but then switched to other program because BIT was boring and not interesting. And I agreed with him and we both made that face when you hate some food  hahaha

But I know that it is a wrong approach and it will not bring any good. Actually, Communication gives you 10% in professionalism and I think staying focused during class is included in professionalism.

As the bright side, Communications let us put some creativity in our work and it perfectly works for me (it stopped being boring). The task was to write a business letter. We had to create a fictitious gas station company, and a fictitious children’s organization. And it changed everything.  I put my heart in this letter haha

We also had to draw a relationship between Hardware, Kernel, Utilities, and Application in the Information Systems class. So yeah we are not much worse than art programs  ^_^

Books you actually need So far, (the end of 4th week) you only need books in Math and just textbook in Accounting. You don’t need workbook. The accounting exercises are written in the text book, and there are only templates in workbook. You can do the same template in Excel or Word. The instructor also sends you these templates so really no need in workbook.You definitely need a book in Math. Just a reminder that this book (7th edition) is the same as “Math for Information Technology” published by RRC (this information is correct for 2015 Winter term, so if you read it in the future double check it). Btw, Lena found this book on Amazon.ca just for 6$+7$ shipping. It’s already gone and now the best deal is for 12$ +7$ shipping. They don’t have deals like these in the beginning of the term. The prices were 50-60$ in January. And you don’t need this book: Excellence in Business Communications. I bought the previous edition of the book, but actually I don’t need it at all. There is course content as powerpoint presentations available for all students, and those presentations are everything you need for quizzes and assignments. So, you only need two books plus Lyryx for Math and for Accounting. Lyryx for both will be 68$, and Lyryx labs are 10% of total grades.

About BIT students

Sorry Dan I couldn’t answer your question earlier :3 

So our group is divided into 4 sections. And we are 12 students in my section. There are 3 girls: one from Korea, one local, and me. The rest are boys. I think 3 or 4 of them are locals, one is from Philippines, one from China, and one from India. There is also one student who only attends programming class, and I know nothing about him (I am actually shy to talk to people :D). Everyone is fluent in English.

So, our section has Programming and Information System classes “alone”, and other three classes: Accounting, Communication, and Math - together with section 2 students. So we are about 25 students in those classes. There are three more girls, one local, one from India, and one from China.

I don’t know everyone’s age but I think me, with my 27 years, am the oldest among these 2 sections. Some of them just graduated high school, some of them are in their early twenties. But don’t think they are “children” or something… No, actually everyone is very mature and they all are awesome :3 

And also I was lucky to meet Lena and Wendy from sections 1-3. They are from Ukraine and China, I met them at the LINKS Seminar for International Students. I wish we had some classes together :3 Sometimes we meet on campus :D

Guys I went to the gym!!!! And now I am going on 4th floor with elevator hahahaha

Art students have so much more fun -_-

Oops and that’s what I received from our host. I am trying really hard though :(  

Don’t wanna go home today haha 

P.S. the reality is not as bad as it seems from this letter. Honestly -_- 

Hi blog we had mid term in math yesterday. Yeah that’s correct in the first day of 4th week you already have mid term exam in math because this class is only 2 credits worth and it will end in the beginning of March. Then we start Statistics for another 2 credits. 

Anyway, I was not ready in the morning and I also find out that deadline for the assignment in Business Communications is 4pm. Usually, if it’s said “deadline for this assignment is Jan 26” it means midnight (till 23:59). So I had to do this assignment quickly (it was writing an E-mail and explaining your approach) and go back to math. I didn’t have time to eat lunch, so I only ate half of my sandwich while studying and when I was going to the exam room, I saw a student sitting on the floor and eating his lunch very quickly. Haha so yeah 4th week you are finding yourself very busy.

Well, actually you will have time if you don’t have anything else to do.My husband started to work and it’s usually me who goes to buy groceries, cleans the house, cooks meal, etc. There is one girl in our group who has a child and I think she is very cool.

So it depends. If you have nothing else to do but studying you will have enough time. Otherwise forget the lunchtime! ^_^ 

I was asked to write about my group but I need to study now for the quiz in accounting that we have today, so I’ll write about my group later okay?

And that’s me on my path of shinobi :3

That’s what happens when you
Mix white sweaters and other stuff in washmashine. I like it :3

I have never seen this tree before:3 wish I had extra 19$ haha

Mmmmm the remains of my lunch became fluffy ^_^

College sent me a newsletter where there is a list of free activities in Winnipeg, also some non-free activities offered for free, also supporting students in learning, and finally the food bank - if you have financial troubles you can get some food, or if you have extra food - you can donate.

It’s just amazing! In my country, if you are a student you are meant to rip your face off every day, and it is meant to be normal. Studying is associating with discomfort and stress and it’s like you are in the war to receive education. And here they just really care about students and I just can’t stop to get excited about this.

someforeignletters:

Chiao-Ling Lo

Hi blog, I was just going from one class to another and just reached this illustration studio room. People were sitting and drawing it was so cool :3 Maybe I am in a wrong program :3 Or maybe it just seems romantic from outside, or maybe its just Friday :3 

And here is my first program! ^_^ Hurray!!!

Oops the screen is too small :3 It calculates Celsius to Farenheit.

^_O

Information Systems is getting interesting!

The second chapter is “Hardware” and we checked out the strongest computer in the world today:

Look at this ——————->Tianhe-2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just never thought about it… Just read the specifications: 3 120 000 cores!!!! what???? 1 024 000 GB RAM ?????? LOL I am just shocked :D 

Also, instructors try to prepare us for the quizzes and assignments, and that’s really sweet. For example, we had this quiz today in IS class, and before that we got 2 practice quizzes, we could do it over and over again until we get 10/10. There was also one assignment, and the actual quiz contained some questions from practice quizzes and from that assignment. The actual quiz was more detailed and difficult though, but at list we were prepared. “No alarms and no surprises”

That’s really nice I hope they will continue doing it for the following quizzes/assignments. 

And these break out rooms are even more awesome than The Learning Commons room. Here you can close the door and be for yourself and do whatever you want (well there’s a glass wall though..) but no one will disturb you or anything. I usually use these rooms to talk to my mom and friends via Skype video call, because early breaks between classes here are perfect time to communicate to people on the other side of our planet. However, these rooms are usually busy all the time, so you have to have some luck to get there :3

Campus on Friday is slightly empty

This is a magic room for students where you can sit and study whenever you want. And if you sit here in the evening Starbucks might offer you free brownies that were left unsold ;)

Hi that’s me hahaha

Review of classes in the beginning of term

So I just want to make a little review for all 5 classes. Like “first impressions” 

Okay first my background, because I think it is related with what I think about classes.

Well, as you might already guessed :p English is not my native language, and my Academic IELTS Score is: 

 Listening 7.5 Reading 8.0 Writing 6.5 Speaking 7.0 overall 7.5 

I have passed these exams:

CCNA, CCNP Routing.

And I got three years of working experience in IT field. I was network administrator plus I was doing support work plus some designing.. 

I am also familiar with Photoshop, Flash, Premiere…. 

————————————————————————————————————————-

Let’s begin:

First of all, I am worst in English. Everyone speaks fluently. Someone is from China, someone from Korea, Kongo, India - and they are all fluent. Well, I am not. But at least I understand everything instructors say except some specific terminology.

1. Business Math - Usually, teacher explains 2 topics, does an exercise with students, answers your questions if you got any, and then activates a Quiz. The Quiz is located in the electronic learning system https://learn.rrc.ca. Everyone has its own account there and you have to solve two or three problems before class ends. Usually you have 20-30 minutes for this. The tricky part is that if you use formula incorrectly, there will be an answer with what you got. So, you will think it’s correct as long as it’s in answers, but actually its not :3 

Some terminology in Business Math is brand new for me. I ask questions, but sometimes I just memorize the formula (write it down, or it’s on the board) and just put the numbers there. One day the quiz questions were formulated the way I couldn’t understand what to do. I had this problem because I didn’t understand what they were asking, I mean language problem. So I failed the quiz that day. These quizzes are 10% of overall grade.  

Sometimes topics are ran really quickly. I can’t follow the instructor. I mean I need some time to realize what’s going on, but they already switched to the next page. 

2. Accounting -  I have troubles here with terminology as well. I mean, I don’t know what it means even in my native language. And usually I can’t follow the instructor. I need to read the book afterwards. After we have finished chapter 1, we had a quiz in class. However, instructor told us the day before what there was going to be on the quiz, and after reading the book it was really easy. We also had to do one big exercise in Lyryx.

3. Communications for Business - We won’t have exams for this class, just quizzes and other assignments. So far this class is really easy and some topics are just very obvious. 

 

4. Information Systems - Here we don’t have a book to follow, just the instructions from the teacher. Usually, he asks us to do some research in the internet, read some article, study about some concepts. For example project management systems, it’s issues, and things like that. Sometimes we work in groups. For example what profit has Amazon from its information system.We have to discuss it in small groups. And to be honest, this part is a little bit funny for me. My classmates are talking in the very formal and professional manner about business profits and things like that. And I am thinking come on we are young people let’s have some fun :D 

5. Programming - I didn’t have any experience in programming before and we haven’t started coding yet, but so far this is my favorite class!!!! It’s interesting and  it’s the only class related to IT (well, we were promised Information Systems will reach the IT soon). So, maybe that’s why I like it most.  I feel that other classes are useful. I will use it in my life and that’s cool but they are not interesting :3

So, that’s all folks! :D  

Just views from W215 :3

I think bunnies were jumping in our yard last night :3 it’s getting warmer animals are back! And I slept without pills!

Every morning at the bus stop this guy feels sorry for me hahaha

My laptop already died. Lol I just don’t know what to do now. It arrived five days ago and first day it became pretty hot on the keyboard. But I didn’t pay much attention. Then it was not hot anymore. Then on Saturday it was in the sleep mode and it shot down by itself. Well, I thought not a big deal and turn it on again but after 2 minutes it shot down and never turns on since that.

I called Lenovo and they said I either return it or they send technician. I don’t know what to do.

I was sleeping all day. 

this-is-eirikur:

rrcstudent:

After you got your books, you will find out that they are too heavy. Some people carry them in the small suitcase on the wheels. So you will definitely need a locker. And it’s better if you rent it as early as possible because on the third day of classes they only got fourth floor bottom lockers left. Actually, its really easy to get to the lockers of each floor, but upper lockers are of course better. You can rent the half locker like this for 20$ for 10 months (beware they charge you for 30$ and they return 10$ in the end). My coat + My vest + my snow pants + my sweater + my scarf + my food + my books fit here. But you can rent a locker that is double size than this for 27$ for 6 months. 

P.S. I got this sticker and gum on my locker I don’t know if it means something :3 

The sticker is an ad for Smoke’s Poutinerie. When it first opened they were posting stickers *everywhere*, it was pretty obnoxious. I didn’t know they were still posting them.

Oh okay thank you! I imagined  my locker’s previous owner was a rebellious punk :3 

Just small part of library on Friday :)

After you got your books, you will find out that they are too heavy. Some people carry them in the small suitcase on the wheels. So you will definitely need a locker. And it’s better if you rent it as early as possible because on the third day of classes they only got fourth floor bottom lockers left. Actually, its really easy to get to the lockers of each floor, but upper lockers are of course better. You can rent the half locker like this for 20$ for 10 months (beware they charge you for 30$ and they return 10$ in the end). My coat + My vest + my snow pants + my sweater + my scarf + my food + my books fit here. But you can rent a locker that is double size than this for 27$ for 6 months. 

P.S. I got this sticker and gum on my locker I don’t know if it means something :3 

Books and Calculator

So I bought all my books on kijiji.ca. Well, we don’t need Statistics yet, because Math goes first, so I bought everything except that one.

Many people put their advertisements on kijiji after the classes start, so just make sure to check it all the time. Also, it is a good idea to ask the teacher if you can buy previous version of the book (which will be cheaper). They usually know the differences between editions and will tell you how much you need the latest one. Also, I have heard the Excellence in Business Communication - book can be found online in pdf format. 

I asked our math teacher if I could not buy the calculator and just use the functions from some calculator software. She said we won’t have laptops on our exams so we better buy calculator. It is a good idea to check the calculator online. Amazon suddenly discounted it from 50$ to 34$, but it sold out quickly. You can also get it from ebay. But usually sellers are from USA and it will take lot of time for delivery. You might be lucky to find it on kijiji as well.

Lyryx is a web portal where Math and Accounting teachers put the assignments and you have some period of time to solve it (for example one week). I really love it because you can improve yourself. I mean, if you have done anything in the wrong way, it explains the correct way and lets you  solve the similar problem over and over again until you get all marks. It really helps you to understand some stuff.

This is for example a math lab 

If you buy used books from someone else, you have to buy lyryx separately. Its login.lyryx.com and for Accounting and Math I paid 68$. 

We don’t use another web portal Connect and Mybuscommlab. We only use Lyryx. 

Math book is a book published by Red River College, but actually it is the same book as Business Mathematics in Canada (we use 7th edition today). So you can buy that book and it will be all the same, just different pages.