hey there,

just a heads up – this isn’t a question, so feel free to continue on your merry way if you’re not up for some casual reading. if you’ve got nothing better to do (like myself), then please, read on.

so, it’s getting close to the holidays, and that may or may not excite you. it might make you cringe in weary anticipation. you might be one of those people who thinks Christmas has been secularized and commercialized past the point of no return, and that the overcrowded malls and five-year-olds asking for a new iPhone for Christmas are the last straw in a year full of disappointments. fair enough.

or maybe the holidays are really rough because you’ve lost someone or you’re being forced to spend time with a family that is unsupportive or abusive. if this is the case, then i’m incredibly sorry for you, and hopefully i can help make the holidays a bit more bearable.

either way, i’d like to give you a list of AWESOME THINGS about the holidays to remind you that the holiday season isn’t just for despising.

1. holiday food. this time of year is the only time when people are shoving warm and chocolatey food at you left, right and centre. i mean, they’re being so forceful about it that it would be almost RUDE to decline, don’t you think? so go ahead. buy that apple pie. and the vanilla ice-cream. and the starbucks pumpkin-spice-cinnamon-nutmeg-reindeer-snowflake-happiness latte for the ride home. why not? it’s the spirit of the season!

2. i know winter sucks, but snow doesn’t. and i also know there’s this kind of 180 degree turn that happens sometime in adolescence when, one day, snow stops being for playing and becomes a background for romantic activities, but you don’t have to be engaged in a romantic relationship to enjoy the snow! you can take pretty pictures of the snow, you can watch it fall out the window snuggled up in your house (or studio or library or residence or whatever), you can shake branches of snow onto your friend’s head (never stops being funny), AND snowmen are always appropriate.

3. driving (or walking) around your neighbourhood and looking at the ridiculous light displays on different houses is super-fun. doing this with friends is great because you can take lots of crazy pictures together, but it’s nice to go around on your own and enjoy it by yourself, too.

4. radio stations start playing christmas music around this time, which is awesome because you either a) like christmas music or b) hate christmas music, in which case you can sing along to it in really bad warbles and have a whale of a time making fun of all these second-rate artists’ holiday albums.

5. shopping spree. you deserve a few presents of your own, don’t you? if you bought something for your annoying coworkers, then you sure as heck should buy something for yourself. and if you want to avoid the christmas present shopping madness, i’d recommend shopping in boutique stores instead of malls, or staying home and shopping online.

6. school’s out. need i say more?

7. lots of really cute holiday-themed books come out around this time of year, and even if you’re being forced to spend christmas at your mom’s house and she won’t stop bugging you about your future, you can always bring a novel along with you that’ll make you feel all warm and fuzzy (i’d recommend David Sedaris’ Holidays on Ice?and Let It Snow).

finally (and this is when i get all lame and my gooey, sentimental interior oozes out of my cynical outer shell), whether or not you care about the birth of Christ or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or ?Hogmanay, this is the time of year when everyone’s just a little more cheerful. it’s the time of bonuses and family and even if you don’t have those, they exist in the world and so there’s just a bit more kindness in the world too, i think.

plus, you may not have part of your biological family with you, you may be spending christmas far from home, but you have an adoptive family, and that’s your friends, and if you don’t have those either, then it’s this university, and this city, which will never abandon you and will always keep on pulsing and giving and welcoming you. and you’ll always have me, ready to answer all your questions and sass you as much as my gif folder will physically allow.

and most importantly, you’ll have yourself, and i think that’s what the holidays should really be about: appreciating yourself, and all the amazing things you’ve done, and revelling in the fact that you’re alive and kicking. so good on you.

have an awesome holiday season.

aska

hey there,

so aska sometimes likes to recommend books (here’s the most recent summer reading list) for holiday times. you know, those times when you’re not too busy reading strange and archaic novels or two-tonne textbooks for class and actually have a chance to read something you want to read. since there’s another little break coming up, i thought i’d recommend some of my FESTIVE FAVOURITES for reading over the holidays.

1. Let It Snow, by Maureen Johnson, John Green and Lauren Myracle

I reread this book every Christmas. It’s kind of a tradition of mine. I read it for the first time when I was 14 and it is just the sweetest, kindest, most genuine book about the holidays and all the craziness that surrounds them that i have ever read. it features three novelets by Maureen Johnson (of Suite Scarlett and Twitter fame), John Green (of you-probably-don’t-need-me-to-tell-you fame) and Lauren Myracle (who writes lots of really great books for 9-12 readers when she is not busy warming your frozen heart). just trust me and read it.

2. Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris

This book is by David Sedaris and includes a story about being a commercial elf. That sentence should be enough for you. Get it here.

3. The Legend of Holly Claus, by Brittney Ryan

Okay, now I didn’t remember what this book was called because I read it when I was like, eight, or something. however, for the sake of THIS VERY POST, i’ve managed to track down the title. if you’re interested, you can see it here.

this book has the expansiveness and coherence of magical systems of the Harry Potter books, except – you’re not ready – it’s about Santa Claus’ DAUGHTER. isn’t that cool? she’s a girl who was born with a frozen heart and so she always has to stay in the North Pole (to keep her heart frozen, obviously), but then she ESCAPES and has all these adventures and has to defeat Jack Frost…ah, man. it’s awesome. it’s for a younger audience, but it’s still a really great story. i recommend it, even if you’re all grown up now and feel like you don’t have time for silly kids’ stories. it’s a good one.

4. The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg

Alright, now listen here. I read this book when I was at the tender age of 5-ish, and I loved it. it has beautiful illustrations, a heartwarming story about believing in Christmas, it’s about staying up late on Christmas Eve, which is every Christmas-celebrating kid’s dream, and, importantly, it has a wicked train.

then the film industry got a hold of it and turned it into this super-creepy movie with disappearing homeless dudes, scary talking dolls and a train conductor constantly bordering on catatonic. i still like the movie, but if you saw the movie and it scared you off the book, please reconsider reading it. it’s both a great story and a beautiful piece of art, even if you’re not a little kid. so that’s my pitch for the polar express. read it and we can share in my childhood together.

5. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

if nothing else, you can read this book just to be able to say that you’ve read Dickens. It’s about the only book by him that doesn’t require a major lifestyle shift for about six months. And it’s great – even after all these years, it’s still great.

alrighty, so i hope at least one of those piqued your interest. if not, i hope you have a great holiday season regardless. also if you have any holiday reads to recommend, i would love you forever if you shared them in the comments or tweeted them @askastudentuoft, because i am always looking for new books to spend money i don’t have on 😀

aska

hey there,

i hope your exams and essays and general school mania are all going smashingly. or at least that you’re staying afloat.

this is just a PSA to let you know that aska will be out of commission starting tomorrow. i will be back when school resumes. so please, keep sending in your questions via e-mail or tweet, but just know that i won’t be able to reply until January, so if your question requires an answer before then, go bug your registrar or enrolment services about it. they will be open until December 20th because they are OFFICIAL UOFT buildings, unlike me. i’m not official. i don’t have a building.

anyway, on this sad day of parting, i’d just like to give you some advice for exams before i gtfo:

1. remember to study. seriously, i don’t know why so many of y’all need reminding about that. if you’d like to read up on my study tips, they’re right here. i sometimes get good marks, so, you know…might be worth it…

2. remember to breathe. no matter what happens, you can always recover from it, you can always move past it, and it’s never the end of your life/future/career. trust me. if you happen to fail, don’t think about it as failing, think about it as evolving into your next, improved self. and no, that was NOT a pokemon reference.

3. remember to shower. we’ve all skipped a day and not showered over exams, and that’s understandable. sometimes you have to pull that all-nighter and write your exam smelling like a wet dog. but once you’ve gone three days without it, you’ll start to bother even yourself. like, geez, dude. seriously. showers don’t need to take all that long.

on that note, good luck with all your school shenanigans and happy holidays! there may be a few posts here between now and january (assuming my foray into scheduled posts works out as planned), so keep an eye out. i’ll see all you crazies in the new year 😉

xoxo,

aska

your regular broadcasting of anxious student questions has been interrupted to bring you this IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

are you a first-year or grade 12 student? are you so worried about university that you don’t even know what to ask, you just feel like breaking down into tears? is the prospect of university driving up your heart rate at an alarming speed?

DO NOT FEAR! you may or may not have noticed that i have added a NEW TAB to the askastudent blog called ‘Prospective Students.’ See it, right there at the top of the page? That is your go-to spot for all those university applicant questions, including old favourites such as:

Which college should I go to?

Which college should I go to?

Am I going to fail and ruin my entire life?

and,

Which college should I go to?

Just click on that tab or go here and read up for information and a 100% student perspective on all your nagging uoft questions. there are also gifs. i also added funny gifs. i am so down with the kids. lol. wtf. omg. i know your lingo.

think of this new page as an EXTENDED FAQ with more answers, more laughs and more nerve-calming than ever before. and please let me know if you VEHEMENTLY DISAGREE with anything i’ve said there, if you have something you’d like to add, or if you think i’m doing a good job. that might be nice, too.

ENJOY!

aska

We abandoned you in a moment of need.

But fear not!

Santa is gone and spring is apparently here. With a case of red bull at my side, your questions will be answered

love forever and always, through thick and thin and ’til death do us part,

aska

OH MAH GAWWWWD!!! ? We totally have a FB (Facebook) page ? 🙂 :):)

yo, so … like … add us

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Askastudent-U-of-T/124067117699286??

like us like us like us like us like us like us like us like us like us ?…. LIKE US

phew … too much caffeine

Happy Turkey Day Weekend

We’ve been gone for too … too long and are concerned you feel unloved. It’s not you … it’s us.

We don’t want our extended vacation to hinder out relationship. If we missed your question, ask it again!?Or if we didn’t miss your question and?our relationship is still thriving, ask away.

You know halloween is coming up and our Mr.Dressup box is just bursting at the hinges with ideas. And our summer escapades have made us even more brilliant with relationships. And obvisouly we are still heavenly creatures with school questions.

We love you. We miss you.

like our facebook page and twitter so we can be apart of your everyday lives.

I know, I know: you’ve missed Aska. You’ve been emailing in your questions, hoping desperately for a sassy (yet super informative) answer over the summer. The truth is, Aska?really needed a vacation.

But never fear! Aska is back, relaxed, tanned, and ready to tackle your toughest questions throughout the upcoming school year.

So stay tuned… and spread the word about askastudent! We’ve got exciting things in store.

We’re sad and lonely. We sit watching reruns of cheesy comedies, eating entire tubs of Ben and Jerry’s half baked ice cream.

Be our friend … or let us tweet you

Maybe we’ll tell you about the greatest party on campus, or how to seduce that babe/stud from your ENG304 course.
Or potentially necessary things like not forgetting to wear pants to your exams.

In any case ADD US!!
and you will be rewarded (insert winky face)

Facebook

Twitter

Peace!

I’ve come to the conclusion that my Halloween costume is bar far the coolest in all of Toronto …NAY THE WORLD.

Care to challenge me? Send in your ideas, photos … blah blah blah

I’ll post the greatest, most creative, most likely slightly promiscuous costumes on the site as the World Costume Champions. Maybe we’ll be able to find a June Carter to go with your Johnny Cash, or your slutty doctor a slutty nurse.

Muwhahah Happy Ghouling

The time has come!!!

All your rants about wanting to make a difference in the world and going to school in Toronto so you can get an all mighty job where you can control the world are about to come into play.

I’m going to refrain from the typical ‘you’re the youth of tomorrow’ and ‘the future depends on you’ rant and just say it straight. Vote.

Go here, get information, vote, drink in celebration or sorrow over the results of the election.

You never know that hot poli-sci babe you’ve been starring at might just be in front of you in line, and pending results of the election might let you vote on them (ok that’s not really sexual, but I’m sure your hormonal minds can make it)

lalala VOTE!

Hey everyone!

The time has finally come, Askastudent is now in your social network … yahoo

So …. HIT US UP!

Be our friend on facebook and we’ll tweet you some tweets on twitter