midterm season
yesterday i had the first of many many midterms. the subject of the hour was ECON, the victim was me.
we have a really charismatic teacher for econ. he's a legend here, you know, one of those beloved/despised types. his name is sunil k. gulati. maybe you've heard of him also, because he happens to be president of ussf (united states soccer federation) in addition to his professorly duties. one of the things people like him for is that he takes about 100 of his 400-student principles of economics class out for lunch/dinner at the faculty house in groups of ten.
of course i signed up, but, as slots were rapidly disappearing, the only time i could get was on the day of the midterm. specifically, one hour before the midterm. even better, this is a one-midterm class so you only get one shot.
so lunch. there was a lot of silence, and tension, since our minds were elsewhere. but--there were memorable moments:
* i told him i may or may not major in econ, depending on how well i did on the midterm. he said no.
* i asked him if he'd found a new coach for the men's national team (as bruce arena was fired a few months back after our poor world cup showing)--not yet, he says, but in the coming weeks. the team is due to start training in january.
* i asked him what he thought about muhammad yunus winning the nobel peace prize for microlending. he says it's great and more or less endorses it. (as a microlending supporter, maybe i should have gone to tufts)
* he asked us how much we studied for the midterm. 10 hours? 20 hours? the general consensus falls around 10. later, a friend and i privately admit to each other that the real total is maybe 2 or 3 at best. not because we didn't want to study more... but it's prime midterm season.
that was fun. the midterm, not so much. i needed to go to the bathroom really badly, so i tried to finish my test as quickly as possible so as to get the hell out of there. my policy on tests is, you know it or you don't, on some tests, thinking about it too much will only make you second-guess right answers. this was one of those.
no more this week, but three the next. still haven't quite gotten the hang of this "school" thing but i'm working on it. other than having the sniffles, i'm doing okay.
come visit!
we have a really charismatic teacher for econ. he's a legend here, you know, one of those beloved/despised types. his name is sunil k. gulati. maybe you've heard of him also, because he happens to be president of ussf (united states soccer federation) in addition to his professorly duties. one of the things people like him for is that he takes about 100 of his 400-student principles of economics class out for lunch/dinner at the faculty house in groups of ten.
of course i signed up, but, as slots were rapidly disappearing, the only time i could get was on the day of the midterm. specifically, one hour before the midterm. even better, this is a one-midterm class so you only get one shot.
so lunch. there was a lot of silence, and tension, since our minds were elsewhere. but--there were memorable moments:
* i told him i may or may not major in econ, depending on how well i did on the midterm. he said no.
* i asked him if he'd found a new coach for the men's national team (as bruce arena was fired a few months back after our poor world cup showing)--not yet, he says, but in the coming weeks. the team is due to start training in january.
* i asked him what he thought about muhammad yunus winning the nobel peace prize for microlending. he says it's great and more or less endorses it. (as a microlending supporter, maybe i should have gone to tufts)
* he asked us how much we studied for the midterm. 10 hours? 20 hours? the general consensus falls around 10. later, a friend and i privately admit to each other that the real total is maybe 2 or 3 at best. not because we didn't want to study more... but it's prime midterm season.
that was fun. the midterm, not so much. i needed to go to the bathroom really badly, so i tried to finish my test as quickly as possible so as to get the hell out of there. my policy on tests is, you know it or you don't, on some tests, thinking about it too much will only make you second-guess right answers. this was one of those.
no more this week, but three the next. still haven't quite gotten the hang of this "school" thing but i'm working on it. other than having the sniffles, i'm doing okay.
come visit!