What a great birthday!

Last friday was my birthday. To help me celebrate the occasion, Ashley came down from Ottawa for the day. It was great fun.

The day started well with some nice, and long overdue, sunshine and mild temperatures. Then, when I got to school, I discovered that the department was giving out free lunch because they have food left over from a seminar that morning. After hanging out in the office for a bit, Ashley arrived and we went for a walk to show her around Queen's. A few hours later, a whole bunch of us went over to the grad club for a few beers and some birthday cheer. Around 6 we started getting hungry so we went downtown to a pan-asian (yeah... I know) restaurant and had some dinner. I had the penang curry which was quite good, although not particularly authentic. After dinner, we all split up to go home and get ready to go out. I went back to my place with Ashley where we ran into my roommate, Tomek, who was looking for something to do. We invited him out and soon we were all on our way to the ale house for a big night.

Last weekend was also the weekend that Queen's was hosting the national championships of debate. A few people that Ashley and I knew from UBC, like Mike and Spencer, were there taking part. The cool thing was that the debate social that night was also at the ale house so, in addition to all of the econ people I had invited out, there were also the debate people. I spent most of the night going between the econ guys upstairs, the debators in the front, and the dance floor, getting progressively drunker along the way. The whole thing was perfect because I knew so many people there, and everyone was buying me drinks. After the bar closed there was a bit of an adventure through A&P which is conveniently located across the street and open 24 horus. At one point, Daniel, the German exchange student, climbed into the cheese fridge and closed the door behind him. Very funny stuff...

Half of the next day was spent recovering with Ashley and Tomek as we prepared and ate a pancake and egg breakfast. In the afternoon, after Ashley went home, I went to catch the last two rounds of the debate tournament. Unfortnuately, I got there a bit late and was only able to judge the final round, but I did get to see the round before that in an infomal capacity. The round was Spencer running a GBLT equity case. I was not particularly amused.

Thankfully for the last round I was able to judge the DFL (dead fucking last) bracket. This is a good thing because judging a good room was pretty much out of the question and judging a merely mediocre room can be quite dry. The DFL room, on the other hand, is usually funny because the teams that are in it are either so bad as to be funny, or are not taking the whole thing seriously. In this case, there was a mix of both. I had the momentus task of adjudicating an epic debate over the relative merits of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles versus the Power Rangers. After carefully listening to all of the arguments, and some deep post-round reflection, I decided that the side arguing for the Power Rangers had carried the day, even though that was the opposite to my own personal views. It was a deeply moving, spiritual experience.

Friday was also my last day of playing tetris until exams. I was unable to regain the high score, or even come close for that matter. Now that I am on a break, this stops mattering and I can concentrate on other things, such as school work.

There is only one week of classes left and it is somewhat scary. On the one hand, I feel much better than I did a week ago in that I know exactly what I must do for the next three or so weeks so that I can be successful on my finals, but on the other hand the thought of writing exams is always a bit nerve wracking. Additionally, I have to prepare to present my preliminary results for my panel data class. Ordinarily, this would not be a problem, but I can only work on the data in the data centre in the basement of the library, and, due to the professor's time constraints, I can not go in today. This means that Monday will be very busy.

昨天我上了这个学习的最后一个汉语课。虽然我的口语还没有去年呢么流利，但是我学了很多新的汉子而单词。现在期末考试快来了所以我要比较中看我的经济学课程。

In the remaining time I have here in university, I must make the most of it. Be a student, enjoy my freedom, learn for the sake of learning, and acheive the results of which I am capable. Even if my job in Ottawa will be good, it is unlikely that it will be anything like going to school...

In the spirit of posting more often, I will put up a new post tonight despite the low quality.

It was a good weekend. I guess it started a bit early with poker with the MA guys on Thursday. Friday started a bit late but was still fairly productive, taking in a lecture by a prof from Washington university and then later cracking the macro book for the first time in a little while. Saturday was St. Patrick's day, the drinking holiday. At around 3:30 I went out to the toucan to meet up with the MA guys. It was all the usual suspects and at around 7 Juan, who had dropped out of the program in November, showed up. It was cool to see him because he was always a fun guy to have around. At around 9:30 Ewan got kicked out of the bar for throwing a beer at Greg so we went to find a bar that would let us throw drinks at eachother. At shoeless we had some food and a few more rounds as I tried to get Leo drunk. Then, around midnight or 1 am just as I was about to go home, Marcel and Celeste dragged me to Ale House, as usual... I stayed there until late then I went to A&P across the street to do some grocery shopping before going home to sleep. Today I had another late start but made it to the library for a few hours going through derivatives and some Chinese lessons. Tonight I had dinner with Sarah which went well. I think that we can be friends and that there won't be too much wierdness at nats.

There is just over one month until exams - probably my last set of exams ever. I have been a student for almost my entire life. I have to be sure to live the last of my student life to the fullest. Come July, there will be no more staying up until 2 on a Sunday to write a blog post... This week is also my last week of tetris until exams. I will have to catch up on everything that we have gone through this entire semester before I can even start preparing for exams in ernest. This is especially true for macro which looks to be a serious challenge. The Romer book is definately not getting any less dense...

My birthday is coming up on friday. Not sure what I am going to do yet. The debate tournament is having a party at the Ale house that night... I might invite some econ people to that and watch the two worlds collide... or maybe I will do something else. Ashley will be in town for the weekend and she is always up for a good time. There really is no avoiding it at this point, 24 is an adult. A young adult, to be sure, but definately an adult. The time has been passing so fast. I am reminded of some words of wisdom passed on to my by my uncle (father's cousin... is that an uncle or a cousin?)

Randy - "how old are you?"
me - "19"
Randy - "19 huh... it is going to be a long time until you are 21 and then a short fucking time until you are 50"

Maybe that is true. I am almost half way to 50 and every year does seem to pass more quickly than the last. I now have to think about how many years ago certain non-childhood events happened. I look at most of the undergrads here and think "I remember when"... Maybe I am just thinking this because school is almost done and I will start working soon... Maybe I am just rambling because it is late...

學而時習之，不亦說乎？有朋自遠方來，不亦樂乎？人不知而不慍，不亦君子乎？

The first verse from the Analects seems to describe the last month. Is it not a pleasure to learn and then put what you have learned into practice? Is it not a pleasure when friends come from far away? Is it not a gentleman who does not get upset when others to not recognise him?

I am studying, and it should be a pleasure. I know, it should be... but lately it has not been. I am going to need to turn it back into a pleasure soon. I have started making some progress on my 882 paper, even though with every line I write in stata I become more aware of how much more is left to do. This is my last semester of a learning journey that has consoumed almost my entire life and has taken me to no less than 15 schools and universities. It has been fun and I would like to think that I have learned a lot, but now it is time to put what I have learned into practice. I called the AETP coordinator yesterday and she said that everything was in order and that they would send out my letter of offer today. Of course I will only relax once I have singned it and sent it back, but I was very happy to hear that and excited to start my new career.

It was a great pleasure to see Vincent who came from far away. Of course it was also a great pleasure to see Jesse who I went a great distance to see. And likewise it was a pleasure to see Will. The New York trip was good. Unfortunately, this was the first time I have been there since my parents left so I had to stay in a hotel room. I didn't even visit Waterside. It was a bit wierd. As I always like to do in NYC apart from seeing old friends, I walked a lot, ate some decent food, did a bit of shopping, and hung out in the East Village. At the end I did not want to leave. It is tough to have a city that I love but I know I can not live there any time soon. I have devised a five year plan to make it back there, but anything can happen, and actually it is the contingency plan. My mother told me that life is long. My parents moved to New York in their fifties. We don't know what opportunities lie in the future...

I am not recognised by my professors, but I will try not to get upset. I got my midterm grades back for this semester, and while they are better than last semester, they are still nothing to be proud of. Graduate school, even though it is just an MA, has been a humbling experience for me. Coming here was a good thing, but now I know that I will never do a PhD. Hopefully working will be more rewarding and will give me more recognition.


I feel like I am starting to make real friends in the program. Of course, these are people that I have been hanging out with for six or so months now, but friendship takes a long time to build and that time gets longer as I get older. There are a lot of good guys, guys that I hope to keep in touch with, even if only through facebook and some beers when we go to eachother's cities. Without being around good people, the whole experience would be different and this year would be nothing other than an ordeal. On the other hand, the program is starting to feel pretty small. Groups, formed long ago, have pretty much been set in place and the whole thing is starting to feel a bit like high school. Debate, my other social context, is pretty much over anyway after next weekend and while I am friendly with many of those people, I don't think I have made more than one friend. At least I am not alone in this whole thing.

Moving to Ottawa this summer brings these issues up again. Ashley will be there, which is a big positive, and there will be some guys from my program coming in Septemeber, but I will have to go through the whole process of adjusting to a new city again. I am very grateful for the internet. For msn and for facebook which allow me to keep in touch with my friends who may not be anywhere near me.