Midterms, or at least the micro and quant ones, are over... well, finance is still to come, but I am not as worried.
Midterms have been a humbling experience. I have studied harder for these midterms than anyother set of midterms that I have ever taken, and I still feel like I have performed worse on them than any other set. The standards are definately much higher here, and so is the competition from the other students. Of course, this environment is a great one for learning, and I know that these high standards and the peer pressure from my classmates has pushed me to work even harder. Maybe I will need to study even harder for finals...
My dad came to visit this weekend. The timing was not great as it was right before a midterm, but we had a good visit. We tried to go to Cambodiana, which is supposed to be the best Cambodian restaurant in town (I don't know why there are so many Cambodian restaurants here...) but it was closed at 8:30. We tried another place down the street and it was also closing... Kingston is still pretty lame. When we finally found a place for dinner, my father talked again about how he finds the political culture in America completely repulsive. This is nothing new from him... although as the Bush presidency continues, his distain becomes more acute. Apart from that he is in good spirits. I wish he would try to excercise more and get his weight down, or perhaps travel a bit less for the sake of his health... Hopefully once he starts to spend more time in Vancouver he will do this.
My life here has become routine. I guess it always happens, but I will describe my routine hear for fear of forgetting it if I do not.
I wake up at around 10, go downstairs and make some breakfast, usually pasta, or now that I have a rice cooker, stir-fry. Then I either take a shower and go to class on days when I have class at 11:30, or I read or go online for an hour before taking my shower on the days when I start later. I then walk the 10 minutes or so to class. Classes usually consist of sitting in a relatively crowded room and franticly taking notes for fear of missing something. Often, I don't understand what I am writing when I am writing it, but I copy it anyway because I know I will have to understand it at some point. After class I will usually go back to the office to work on assignments, study or just hang out if I don't need to do either of the first two. If the pressure is really on, I will go to the library where there are fewer distractions and I can work more efficiently. When I am done for the day, which can be at any time from around 7 to midnight or later, I walk home and cook myself another big meal which I eat while watching cartoons on TV. Around 12 or 1, I will go upstairs and check my email and see if there is anyone online to talk to. Then, I go to bed between 1 and 3 and wake up the next day to do it all again.
For the last two and a half weeks, because of midterms and assignments, this has been my schedual pretty much seven days a week. It is actually a pretty good schedual as it allows me to sleep in while getting all of the work done that needs to get done. On the downside, since my mornings are a right off and I am not done until late, I don't have much time to run errands such as laundry or grocery shopping. These are usually done on weekends, or when they really need to be done. Also, on some nights, usually after a midterm or an assignment, I will go out for a beer with my classmates to celebrate and relax. I am really happy that I am with a good group of people that I like hanging out with.
On the work front, I have not made much progress since school has gotten busy. I am still wating for my interview next month. Lately I have been thinking that even if I don't get that job, that I might continue looking for work in Hong Kong. I am not yet sure of how to do that, but I think that it is probably the place where being a white guy who has an MA in econ and speaks Mandarin. Of course, Toronto is always the default option, but now that I have missed the campus recruiting for all of the major banks, I am not sure how I would go about finding the right job.
Today is nice... no school, no homework... tomorrow it is back to the grindstone...
Midterms have been a humbling experience. I have studied harder for these midterms than anyother set of midterms that I have ever taken, and I still feel like I have performed worse on them than any other set. The standards are definately much higher here, and so is the competition from the other students. Of course, this environment is a great one for learning, and I know that these high standards and the peer pressure from my classmates has pushed me to work even harder. Maybe I will need to study even harder for finals...
My dad came to visit this weekend. The timing was not great as it was right before a midterm, but we had a good visit. We tried to go to Cambodiana, which is supposed to be the best Cambodian restaurant in town (I don't know why there are so many Cambodian restaurants here...) but it was closed at 8:30. We tried another place down the street and it was also closing... Kingston is still pretty lame. When we finally found a place for dinner, my father talked again about how he finds the political culture in America completely repulsive. This is nothing new from him... although as the Bush presidency continues, his distain becomes more acute. Apart from that he is in good spirits. I wish he would try to excercise more and get his weight down, or perhaps travel a bit less for the sake of his health... Hopefully once he starts to spend more time in Vancouver he will do this.
My life here has become routine. I guess it always happens, but I will describe my routine hear for fear of forgetting it if I do not.
I wake up at around 10, go downstairs and make some breakfast, usually pasta, or now that I have a rice cooker, stir-fry. Then I either take a shower and go to class on days when I have class at 11:30, or I read or go online for an hour before taking my shower on the days when I start later. I then walk the 10 minutes or so to class. Classes usually consist of sitting in a relatively crowded room and franticly taking notes for fear of missing something. Often, I don't understand what I am writing when I am writing it, but I copy it anyway because I know I will have to understand it at some point. After class I will usually go back to the office to work on assignments, study or just hang out if I don't need to do either of the first two. If the pressure is really on, I will go to the library where there are fewer distractions and I can work more efficiently. When I am done for the day, which can be at any time from around 7 to midnight or later, I walk home and cook myself another big meal which I eat while watching cartoons on TV. Around 12 or 1, I will go upstairs and check my email and see if there is anyone online to talk to. Then, I go to bed between 1 and 3 and wake up the next day to do it all again.
For the last two and a half weeks, because of midterms and assignments, this has been my schedual pretty much seven days a week. It is actually a pretty good schedual as it allows me to sleep in while getting all of the work done that needs to get done. On the downside, since my mornings are a right off and I am not done until late, I don't have much time to run errands such as laundry or grocery shopping. These are usually done on weekends, or when they really need to be done. Also, on some nights, usually after a midterm or an assignment, I will go out for a beer with my classmates to celebrate and relax. I am really happy that I am with a good group of people that I like hanging out with.
On the work front, I have not made much progress since school has gotten busy. I am still wating for my interview next month. Lately I have been thinking that even if I don't get that job, that I might continue looking for work in Hong Kong. I am not yet sure of how to do that, but I think that it is probably the place where being a white guy who has an MA in econ and speaks Mandarin. Of course, Toronto is always the default option, but now that I have missed the campus recruiting for all of the major banks, I am not sure how I would go about finding the right job.
Today is nice... no school, no homework... tomorrow it is back to the grindstone...
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