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Whoop, whoop, I am set up for school! Dad spotted me a bit of money to cover tuition until my Christmas bonus comes in on Friday (I hope), and I got all my tea gear in my locker, if not my tea – sugar, spoons, filterbags, wee travel mug. I went to SBUX tonight to test the hopeful hypothesis that they will give me hot water for free after the Market closes as long as I don’t need a cup, and this hypothesis has so far proved correct. Yes.

So I’m finally getting around to my sample of this that I’ve had floating around since…it came out. Yeah, that long. I let this steep longer than I meant to, but it seems none the worse for wear.

And ooooh pineapple!

I’m such a fan of pineapple-flavoured stuff. Not so much the actual pineapple, because I have difficulty with the texture. But juice and flavouring, that I can do.

This one just has an awesome balance of flavours, to me. There are some people who seem to like the base to be stronger than the flavour in a flavoured tea. I don’t quite understand that; if I wanted only tea flavour, I’d drink a straight tea. And I do drink straight teas, but I generally want a strong flavour in a flavoured tea…and a base which is not weak, but which takes to the background and meshes well with the flavour.

That is the balance I’m getting here. The oolong is nice, but I’m more aware of the pineapple. Pretty much exactly what I want when I picked up something called “Pineapple Oolong.” It’s very bright, and the bit of floral I get at the back of the sip is actually working with the other flavours. That’s nice, because floral notes sometimes make me rather queasy. Then again, that may only be when they are added to the tea and not natural to it.

There also seems to be another fruit in here. From the description, I’m guessing it’s apricot? It comes out a little more as the tea cools. I bet this would be amazing iced!

I want to give this a couple more shots, as well as try it iced, but I think this might end up being a cupboard keeper.

Very nice, anyway. And very relaxing, which I need just now. I had my first Women’s Studies class today, and I really don’t know about the prof… I was about 3-4 minutes late because the building the class is in is numbered in a really confusing way, and I went down the wrong hallway at first. She did not give me a chance to sign the attendance sheet. Um, okay? If this were even the second class, I would accept that, but geez, people coming late because they couldn’t find the room is something that HAPPENS on the first day!

And then she rushed through her PowerPoint slides and didn’t give us more than a few seconds per slide to write anything down – some slides she didn’t even show because she got so caught up TALKING, which I guess must be the only way to communicate! And her written notes suck – no complete sentences, because she’s one of those types that puts up the barest sketch of notes and then “fills in” during class.

ADHD makes my working auditory memory virtually non-existent, so I depend on clear written notes, and the shitty notes she gave us aren’t even on the student Blackboard, so apparently she’s also one of those types who withholds written material to blackmail people into coming to class. So now I have a few pages full of half-finished sentences, and the barest idea of what we discussed in class because I can no longer really remember it. In a few days, I will have no memory of anything she said at all.

I came to the library stressed almost to the point of tears, but the tea is helping immensely. I am definitely never going to her class from now on without tea in hand. And maybe a discreet voice recorder. But mostly tea.

Preparation
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Alphakitty

Ugh, I hate professors who use powerpoint but don’t upload the slides. Like they couldn’t take the extra 5 minutes to do that!

Bonnie

I’d have trouble with my disability also but I’m up front. I tell the instructor…I have blah blah disability and this is what I have to do to accommodate it. Then I ask for any feedback suggestions to help me do well and leave it at that. They’ve now been informed of my recorder or whatever I’m going to need and I’ve enlisted them as agents of my success.

Bonnie

Oh, forgot…I was a special ed major in the 1970’s at San Jose State University.

Claire

I second Bonnie’s comment. I don’t know how University works in Canada, but in the U.S. you have a right to accommodation. I am very hard of hearing due to an old work injury (getting tested soon for a hearing aid, since it’s not getting better as I get older), and I have a right to sit near the front, and if need be I could also request notes. I would definitely check in with the Professor and possibly disability services if your campus has that.

Daniel Scott

You have the right to accommodation in Canada as well. I have never been to Disability Services before, and I didn’t want to use them to strongarm her, because fighting with your prof is never a good start to a class…

I think I will nicely email her first and explain, but I am not hopeful, TBH. Problem is that my ADHD documentation is long since lost if I have to go to Disability Services. My doctor might have a copy, I guess.

Uniquity

I don’t have a disability so I guess this comment isn’t really relevant but in my university experience (in NS, just a few years ago) it was not the norm for teachers to post slides except for science classes. I don’t know why science teachers always did it, actually. The expectation was for the student to make their own notes and attend all classes, and as you point out not posting slides or notes forces that. However, having a disability would change things, I would assume. Tricky. I hope you find a resolution one way or another, perhaps via a ‘studdy buddy’ or something?

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Alphakitty

Ugh, I hate professors who use powerpoint but don’t upload the slides. Like they couldn’t take the extra 5 minutes to do that!

Bonnie

I’d have trouble with my disability also but I’m up front. I tell the instructor…I have blah blah disability and this is what I have to do to accommodate it. Then I ask for any feedback suggestions to help me do well and leave it at that. They’ve now been informed of my recorder or whatever I’m going to need and I’ve enlisted them as agents of my success.

Bonnie

Oh, forgot…I was a special ed major in the 1970’s at San Jose State University.

Claire

I second Bonnie’s comment. I don’t know how University works in Canada, but in the U.S. you have a right to accommodation. I am very hard of hearing due to an old work injury (getting tested soon for a hearing aid, since it’s not getting better as I get older), and I have a right to sit near the front, and if need be I could also request notes. I would definitely check in with the Professor and possibly disability services if your campus has that.

Daniel Scott

You have the right to accommodation in Canada as well. I have never been to Disability Services before, and I didn’t want to use them to strongarm her, because fighting with your prof is never a good start to a class…

I think I will nicely email her first and explain, but I am not hopeful, TBH. Problem is that my ADHD documentation is long since lost if I have to go to Disability Services. My doctor might have a copy, I guess.

Uniquity

I don’t have a disability so I guess this comment isn’t really relevant but in my university experience (in NS, just a few years ago) it was not the norm for teachers to post slides except for science classes. I don’t know why science teachers always did it, actually. The expectation was for the student to make their own notes and attend all classes, and as you point out not posting slides or notes forces that. However, having a disability would change things, I would assume. Tricky. I hope you find a resolution one way or another, perhaps via a ‘studdy buddy’ or something?

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I’ve always been a tea drinker – I grew up drinking Tetley’s Orange Pekoe and their Chai, and considered myself to really like tea.

I’ve been working various retail jobs to put myself through higher education. One day at my store, a customer left a newly purchased bag of loose-leaf behind. We waited for three days for said customer to return, but they (likely not realizing where they had left their bag) did not return to claim the would-be brew. Too bad for them; lucky for me! I claimed the bag, took it home, and awkwardly made my first cup of loose-leaf tea with the only strainer we owned which was small enough.

I haven’t bothered with Tetley since. For the most part (and due to convenience), my patronage is limited to David’s Tea and Teavana. I also order from 52teas and Verdant Tea.

My rating system – hah, I don’t have a rating system. I rate teas a lot like Ebert rates movies. Everything’s relative.

I may often forget to mention it, but you can safely assume everything I drink is sweetened in one way or another – most rock sugar, or honey for green and white teas. I have not yet achieved drinking most tea clear. The few teas I drink unsweetened include milk oolong and genmaicha so far.

The guy in my avatar can be bought at Teaopia or here: http://www.jas-etea.com/products/Jingdezhen-%22Easy%22-Gaiwan-%22Blue-on-White-Phoenix%22-100ml.html

I currently work for Teavana. But I just work there, and my opinions about any of their teas are entirely my own and not meant to be reflective of the views of the company.

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