A break
So, as you may know, my away message lately has been "furniture!!!!" I've been working on my furniture paper for the past two days and have been doing a very good job of not getting work done. It's not that long; it only needs to be seven to nine pages, but it has been impossible for me to focus. I've been having a lot of trouble with trying to come up with a thesis for the paper, since we actually need to have one. I think the main reason why I've been having so much trouble is because my idea of a thesis is an argument that you have to prove, but my professor's idea is more like an observation. However, I'm now almost on page four, so I'm about halfway finished. The paper is due tomorrow at 5 pm, so I should be able to finish in time. The problem is that I am having way too much trouble concentrating -- which is why I'm typing in this.
For our furniture final (which is the paper), we need to select a piece of furniture and write an analytical paper about it. I've chosen a Dunlap chest-on-chest:
This chest is pretty big, which you can sort of see from the picture. I know it's much taller than me; maybe it's eight feet tall or so? It's also worth a lot; although the valuation is blacked out on the furniture file sheet, I can read it easily, and it says $25,000. This was back in the seventies, so this chest is probably worth something like $200,000. Yes this chest is worth a decent house, or, if you prefer, a Yale education plus a nice car.
Once I get done with this paper, I'll be done for the rest of school. I have no finals, other than that paper, so I get to spend several days here at Yale just doing nothing, laughing at people who have finals on Saturday (a friend next door), or finals on Sunday (my roommate and suitemate).
I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but I've decided to drop my math class. I talked with the professor, and it's likely I would have gotten a D- or so. My GPA would have been under a 3.0, whereas without that class, it would be around a 3.7, which is pretty good for a Yale GPA. (The average is something like a 3.5.) I had to drop the class before December 2, which is the day before the start of reading period (reading period is where they give you a week to study for finals, which begin this Saturday), and I was really, really nervous about talking to the professor and my Dean, but things went well. I had never really met the Dean before, but he was easy to talk to, and now when I see Dean McKinley, I can say hi to him without feeling awkward. I decided to talk with my professor by email, since I really didn't want to see him (I had met him personally only once before) when I could be failing the class. And besides, Dunham Lab is a bit far away. So that's that. Math was my only final, which would have been next Wednesday. Since I bought my plane ticket a long time ago, I can't change it, and so now I have several days of just doing nothing while at Yale.
It turns out everyone in my suite will be leaving before me. Everyone else is leaving on the 14th; I don't leave until the 15th. However, a floormate is leaving on Tuesday. And I get stuck at Yale... as if that's bad. One particularly nice thing about Yale is that I don't lose my breakfast swipe if I transfer it to the law school, which I believe I've talked about before. So right now I have a small stockpile of two Nantucket Nectars lemonades, five cartons of orange juice, and something like five Nutter Butters, which happen to be the best thing on earth. Home would be nice, but I'll be there for three weeks, much better than the five days I stayed for Thanksgiving. And then once I get home, I'll be excited to go back to Yale, since spring semester starts when I get back, which means taking new classes, which means fun. At least I hope so.
I talked in an earlier entry about which classes I was going to take. I will likely be sticking with that (intro to linguistics, historical linguistics, Chinese, history, and astronomy), barring any unfortuante experiences while shopping for classes. I hope the professors are all good, because I don't want to have to rework my schedule. One unfortunate thing with my new schedule is that I will have to reschedule my Chinese tutorial. I hope I can still get my current tutor. Another problem is that I will have to take a different section of Chinese, because my current one conflicts with intro to linguistics. I'll have to take Chinese at 9:30, which sucks because I was so planning on sleeping in late. But on some days I'll have a one-hour break until my next class after Chinese, which means I can eat breakfast or whatever (or just skip breakfast and get stuff at the law school). Taking Chinese at 9:30 also means that I won't be able to see Mark Wilson, the only other freshman in my class, in Chinese (there actually don't seem to be as many freshman as I thought in Chinese), but he's moving to an 11:30 section, and we'll be taking intro to linguistics together, and my CASA brother is also taking intro to linguistics. The worst problem of all: Not only will I have four finals (and hence lots and lots of midterms!), but my last final isn't until May 8, the day before the last day of school, which means I won't be able to get out early at all. My suitemate Jeff will be able to leave on May 3.
Speaking about leaving, I'll have to leave extremely early on Thursday. I think I'll need to leave New Haven at around 7:30 am, which means I'll need to wake up before seven. I'll then arrive at around 9:15 or so in New York. I want to go to Chinatown, which will take about fifteen minutes, and then I need to take the subway to a street in Queens, where I'll then take a bus to LaGuardia. The subway ride will take about half an hour, and the the bus will take maybe fifteen minutes. Add in about half an hour for waiting for the subway and bus, and I should be able to arrive at the airport at around 11:00. My flight leaves at 1:00 pm. If I don't go to Chinatown, it would actually be pretty easy. I would just need to get off at the Harlem station instead of Grand Central, and then the bus goes straight from the Harlem station to LaGuardia. I may end up doing that when I come back; I get back at 8:03 pm, but it says the plane is only about 30% on time. I then need to pick up my luggage, so I might not be able to leave the airport until 8:30, optimistically speaking. My train leaves Grand Central at 9:07. If I take the subway to Grand Central, I probably won't have enough time, but if I take the bus to Harlem, I should make it on the train on time. I'll then make it back to New Haven at around 11:00 or so.
I can't wait to start packing, especially bringing home all of my books. I'm actually really excited about that, being able to take my English, furniture, and math books home with me. Yes, packing is fun. And now, back to furniture....
For our furniture final (which is the paper), we need to select a piece of furniture and write an analytical paper about it. I've chosen a Dunlap chest-on-chest:
This chest is pretty big, which you can sort of see from the picture. I know it's much taller than me; maybe it's eight feet tall or so? It's also worth a lot; although the valuation is blacked out on the furniture file sheet, I can read it easily, and it says $25,000. This was back in the seventies, so this chest is probably worth something like $200,000. Yes this chest is worth a decent house, or, if you prefer, a Yale education plus a nice car.
Once I get done with this paper, I'll be done for the rest of school. I have no finals, other than that paper, so I get to spend several days here at Yale just doing nothing, laughing at people who have finals on Saturday (a friend next door), or finals on Sunday (my roommate and suitemate).
I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but I've decided to drop my math class. I talked with the professor, and it's likely I would have gotten a D- or so. My GPA would have been under a 3.0, whereas without that class, it would be around a 3.7, which is pretty good for a Yale GPA. (The average is something like a 3.5.) I had to drop the class before December 2, which is the day before the start of reading period (reading period is where they give you a week to study for finals, which begin this Saturday), and I was really, really nervous about talking to the professor and my Dean, but things went well. I had never really met the Dean before, but he was easy to talk to, and now when I see Dean McKinley, I can say hi to him without feeling awkward. I decided to talk with my professor by email, since I really didn't want to see him (I had met him personally only once before) when I could be failing the class. And besides, Dunham Lab is a bit far away. So that's that. Math was my only final, which would have been next Wednesday. Since I bought my plane ticket a long time ago, I can't change it, and so now I have several days of just doing nothing while at Yale.
It turns out everyone in my suite will be leaving before me. Everyone else is leaving on the 14th; I don't leave until the 15th. However, a floormate is leaving on Tuesday. And I get stuck at Yale... as if that's bad. One particularly nice thing about Yale is that I don't lose my breakfast swipe if I transfer it to the law school, which I believe I've talked about before. So right now I have a small stockpile of two Nantucket Nectars lemonades, five cartons of orange juice, and something like five Nutter Butters, which happen to be the best thing on earth. Home would be nice, but I'll be there for three weeks, much better than the five days I stayed for Thanksgiving. And then once I get home, I'll be excited to go back to Yale, since spring semester starts when I get back, which means taking new classes, which means fun. At least I hope so.
I talked in an earlier entry about which classes I was going to take. I will likely be sticking with that (intro to linguistics, historical linguistics, Chinese, history, and astronomy), barring any unfortuante experiences while shopping for classes. I hope the professors are all good, because I don't want to have to rework my schedule. One unfortunate thing with my new schedule is that I will have to reschedule my Chinese tutorial. I hope I can still get my current tutor. Another problem is that I will have to take a different section of Chinese, because my current one conflicts with intro to linguistics. I'll have to take Chinese at 9:30, which sucks because I was so planning on sleeping in late. But on some days I'll have a one-hour break until my next class after Chinese, which means I can eat breakfast or whatever (or just skip breakfast and get stuff at the law school). Taking Chinese at 9:30 also means that I won't be able to see Mark Wilson, the only other freshman in my class, in Chinese (there actually don't seem to be as many freshman as I thought in Chinese), but he's moving to an 11:30 section, and we'll be taking intro to linguistics together, and my CASA brother is also taking intro to linguistics. The worst problem of all: Not only will I have four finals (and hence lots and lots of midterms!), but my last final isn't until May 8, the day before the last day of school, which means I won't be able to get out early at all. My suitemate Jeff will be able to leave on May 3.
Speaking about leaving, I'll have to leave extremely early on Thursday. I think I'll need to leave New Haven at around 7:30 am, which means I'll need to wake up before seven. I'll then arrive at around 9:15 or so in New York. I want to go to Chinatown, which will take about fifteen minutes, and then I need to take the subway to a street in Queens, where I'll then take a bus to LaGuardia. The subway ride will take about half an hour, and the the bus will take maybe fifteen minutes. Add in about half an hour for waiting for the subway and bus, and I should be able to arrive at the airport at around 11:00. My flight leaves at 1:00 pm. If I don't go to Chinatown, it would actually be pretty easy. I would just need to get off at the Harlem station instead of Grand Central, and then the bus goes straight from the Harlem station to LaGuardia. I may end up doing that when I come back; I get back at 8:03 pm, but it says the plane is only about 30% on time. I then need to pick up my luggage, so I might not be able to leave the airport until 8:30, optimistically speaking. My train leaves Grand Central at 9:07. If I take the subway to Grand Central, I probably won't have enough time, but if I take the bus to Harlem, I should make it on the train on time. I'll then make it back to New Haven at around 11:00 or so.
I can't wait to start packing, especially bringing home all of my books. I'm actually really excited about that, being able to take my English, furniture, and math books home with me. Yes, packing is fun. And now, back to furniture....