Today is Constitution Day
What did your school do for Constitution Day? Mine decided to have an event where at 12:15 pm, apparently the time the Constitution was signed, people read the Constitution, along with various other speeches about the Constitution. In addition, there was a guy dressed up as Benjamin Franklin handing out a copy of the Constitution to people. I got one of course.
This year, Yale started a bit later than most schools. The first day the dorms opened was August 30, and then school started September 6. Yale has a thing called "shopping period," where you can add and drop classes without having to register; the last day to register is tomorrow. I may have mentioned it already, but I've decided to double major in Economics and East Asian Studies. This semester, I'm taking 5.5 credits, which is 5 classes:
CHNS 150 M-F 11.30-12.20 Advanced Modern Chinese
ASTR 110 MW 2.30-3.45 Planets and Stars
ECON 116 TTh 1.00-2.15 Introductory Macroeconomics
MATH 118 TTh 9.00-10.15 Multivariable Calculus
HIST 315 MW 10.30-11.20 History of Traditional China to 1600
I continue to be amazed by the high price of textbooks. My econ book, which is maybe half an inch thick, costs $100+ new, while one book for my history class looks like a regular book you might find at a bookstore, except that it costs over fifty dollars. My astronomy class (which I'm taking as my science requirement) uses the same book as my astronomy class last year, so that saves me a hundred dollars.
I am also amazed by the fact that it's only the second full week of school, yet I already have lots of work. I have three problem sets due every week, each on different days, which is a big hassle, and then next week I have a paper due for my history class. Normally this wouldn't be too bad, but my Chinese class has lots of work spread out with no regular order. Some days I just have to listen to a dialogue and answer some multiple choice questions. Other days I have to turn in a 600 character essay, and then other days I have to learn 47 words, like today. For tomorrow, I only have about 35 words to learn. When you compare this to first year Chinese, where it was 6 characters a day, this is pretty crazy. Granted, out of those 47 new words, there are maybe only 10 or 15 new characters, but that's still a lot to memorize.
I'll get around to talking about China eventually....
This year, Yale started a bit later than most schools. The first day the dorms opened was August 30, and then school started September 6. Yale has a thing called "shopping period," where you can add and drop classes without having to register; the last day to register is tomorrow. I may have mentioned it already, but I've decided to double major in Economics and East Asian Studies. This semester, I'm taking 5.5 credits, which is 5 classes:
CHNS 150 M-F 11.30-12.20 Advanced Modern Chinese
ASTR 110 MW 2.30-3.45 Planets and Stars
ECON 116 TTh 1.00-2.15 Introductory Macroeconomics
MATH 118 TTh 9.00-10.15 Multivariable Calculus
HIST 315 MW 10.30-11.20 History of Traditional China to 1600
I continue to be amazed by the high price of textbooks. My econ book, which is maybe half an inch thick, costs $100+ new, while one book for my history class looks like a regular book you might find at a bookstore, except that it costs over fifty dollars. My astronomy class (which I'm taking as my science requirement) uses the same book as my astronomy class last year, so that saves me a hundred dollars.
I am also amazed by the fact that it's only the second full week of school, yet I already have lots of work. I have three problem sets due every week, each on different days, which is a big hassle, and then next week I have a paper due for my history class. Normally this wouldn't be too bad, but my Chinese class has lots of work spread out with no regular order. Some days I just have to listen to a dialogue and answer some multiple choice questions. Other days I have to turn in a 600 character essay, and then other days I have to learn 47 words, like today. For tomorrow, I only have about 35 words to learn. When you compare this to first year Chinese, where it was 6 characters a day, this is pretty crazy. Granted, out of those 47 new words, there are maybe only 10 or 15 new characters, but that's still a lot to memorize.
I'll get around to talking about China eventually....