Two exams done, one more to go. Things are actually going quite well. Although I can't say anything for sure at this point, I think I did pretty well on both the finance and micro exams. I now doubt very much that I have failed either of those classes. The preparation for these exams has been far more intense than anything I have ever done before. I can't help but think about how much I could learn if I studied like this all the time. On friday I have my last exam, econometrics. It might be the hardest one of all... but I have three days to prepare, on top of the four days I put in last week. I am not scared.

This last week has been spent pretty much entirely in the library. There, I like to sit at the big shared tables near the window. I find that it gives me more motivation to study, or at least that the public shame of goofing off prevents me from doing so. What has surprised me most about the library is that most people are not there do get work done. Most people bring their laptops and spend their time on facebook and MSN, having their notes open as an alibi. Seeing this, I never bring my own laptop for fear of distraction.

I am very much looking forward to going back to Vancouver on Saturday. There are so many people that I am looking forward to seeing, so much Vancouver I am looking forward to experiencing. I am still thinking about debate worlds that will be going on from the 27th to the 3rd. Of course it is far too late to register as a debator, but I am still hesitating as to whether I should try to sign up as a judge. I think on balance I don't want to spend all of my time on some debate event, but I hope I can still get out to a few socials anyway... maybe I should try to contact some people...

Well... I should get started on econometrics... as fun as that will be...

Ok, one week later and I have not played any video games, I have been drinking less, although still a bit, and I get up early on some days... but that one still needs some work.

Last night was the Christmas party and it was good times. I wore the dinner jacket my grandfather gave to me and I think I was looking pretty sharp. I think I should probably have it altered though, because he was a bit bigger around the waist when he had it made than I am right now. The party was good because almost everyone showed up and we all had a good time socialising and avoiding discussion of the coming exams. There were about 130 people there, including probably about 45 MAs. It was a good chance to talk to some of the people I don't talk to very much and of course to talk some more to the people I usually hang out with. A good buffet dinner was served and there was an expensive cash bar so no one got really drunk.

After dinner, we all crowded into one room for the annual skits. We, the MA's went first. We did an award show theme where we handed out awards to our various professors for the funny things they do in class. Evan was the award show host and he did a good job of putting it all together and had a very funny impression of Katsumi. The first award was for Natalia, the PhD student who did the math/stat review. The skit did a bit off a Top gun theme, but with enough of the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket to make it funny and potentially offensive to Natalia. Next up was me accepting an award as Frank Milne for the most self citations in lecture. I put on an Australian accent and went through a bunch of his jokes that he told in class. In the end I was killed by a singray with an MBA... a bit of a joke on his disdain for MBAs and of course the untimely death of the Crocodile Hunter earlier this year. The last skit was Irfan as Sumon. He parodied the times in class when music started playing from the other room. It was funny because he started dancing and then some back up dancers came up and danced with him. I think only our MA class and Sumon himself would understand why that was funny. The PhD and faculty skits were much more professional, and also quite funny. It turned out that everyone parodied Frank Milne, and I think he liked that.

Apart from that, I am still getting ready for exams. I have my finance exam on Friday and I am still not ready. He has given us the exact questions that will be on the exam, but they are quite hard and I will need to spend some serious time between now and then learning them. Also, I have to mark 30 term papers. There is no rush for them, but they do have to get done and I don't think it will be so easy. The problem with most of them that I have read is that they have enough material for a 5 page essay but they stretch it out to 12 pages because they have to. This means that there is a fair amount of repetition and it makes the papers less fun to read.

Well, I should stop wasting time and get on that...