Today was the last day of classes in my semester here. I now have a week of mostly slack time before the Great Exam Marathon next Thursday, following which I’ve got a few weeks of vacation, during which I plan to, well, vacate. I’m not feeling the tremendous sense of liberation that I have often done at the end of term, maybe because I’ve been teaching nothing but cool stuff (or at least, what I consider cool stuff) for well over a month at this point.
(“Mostly” slack time? Yes. I’m looking to have drafts of two papers out to co-authors by this time tomorrow; I’ve got final exams to set, assignments to grade, and various other errands related to my classes to complete; and I’ve got to work out the syllabi for next semester’s classes. And that last should be done soon, since I’m getting requests from people who need approval from their graduate committees to get the class to count for their degrees. None of this has the same relentlessness that a regular teaching schedule has, and so I can be fairly flexible about what I do when. Still, it’s not the vacation yet by any means.)
In other news, Elections Canada is one of the most efficient government organizations I’ve come across. The government was brought down last Monday; this Monday just past, I received my absentee-voting kit in the mail. I still don’t have any candidates to vote for yet — none are officially declared in what passes for my home riding — but I have my ballot. Yay me.