Scott's "A Tale of Two Cities" - Chapter Eight: To Work, or Not to Work: That is the Question.
As the title of this chapter may suggest, over the past two weeks (and much to my chagrin!) I have actually had to do some school work. This entry will cover a rather long period of time, from May 22 to June 1, but will likely be short because much of that time was spent doing the day-to-day activities normally associated with being in school. I know you probably don't care, but this blog is as much for me to remember what I've done as it for you to read about it.
But just bear with me, because the next couple of chapters are going to be really good.
Monday (May 22) morning I had the marketing presentation which I had been preparing for in the last chapter. At the time I had my concerns about it, but in the feedback I received a couple of days ago, our professor said we did exactly what he wanted, and he was happy that we had stayed so on-topic. Bonus!
That afternoon I relaxed and took a very enjoyable nap. In the evening I went to the pub with my friends Jenny Kooren (who I know from Ancaster) and Fiona. It was a fairly quiet night at the pub, so we decided to play a game (they have cards and a variety of board games there), and we settled on Scrabble. It turns out that Fiona is some kind of professional scrabble player, and things got pretty intense.
On Tuesday (May 23) I had my first finance class. The class is ridiculously small (6 people!) and the prof is a really nice guy. We started off by watching a movie about the devaluation of the British pound in the early 90s that forced the UK out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (which was the lead-in to the adoption of the Euro). After that, he divided us into two teams of three, and gave us our first assignment. The assignment was to research and present information to the class about a couple of other currency crises (my team did the Russian Rouble Crisis and the East Asian Financial Crisis)... and it was due the next day. So, I spent most of the night working on that.
On Wednesay (May 24) we made our presentation in Finance, and that went really well. I had class pretty much all day, until 9pm, at which point I headed over to the pub for what was billed as "card game night." I was Jonesing for some euchre, and I taught a couple of my friends to play. We managed to find some others who knew the game, and we had a lot of fun.
Thursday (May 25) I had class all afternoon. My roommate Jim left for Amsterdam that evening, and I spent most of the night hanging out with my friends here, and chatting with people back home. Because of the time difference, I find most of my friends back home are only online to chat with fairly late at night here.
Friday (May 26) was supposed to be my big report-writing day - the final project in my marketing course, was a 3000-word marketing report due on May 29th. My topic was how to sell Hershey's chocolate in Italy and Iceland; it was an in-depth extension of the consumer profiles we had developed in our earlier marketing presentation. Since I had nothing going on that day and no roommate to distract me, I was planning to be ridiculously productive. Instead, I did absolutely nothing important: I went to the Asda (British Wal-Mart), watched a couple of movies, and then went back to the pub that night.
I woke up on Saturday (May 27), ready to make up for the time I'd wasted on Friday. Instead I took a long lunch in the cafeteria with a couple of friends, watched another movie, and finally settled in to start writing just after dinner. By midnight I hadn't gotten very far, which did not bode well - the next day I was supposed to go on an all-day field trip to Portsmouth. That night I made the decision that I was going to have to skip my field trip in order to get the paper finished; it was a heart-wrenching decision, since Portsmouth (the main UK Naval Base, and site of the Royal Navy Museum) was the one place I decided I absolutely *had* to visit while I was in the UK. I figured missing out was suitable punishment, though, for my ridiculous procrastination.
On Sunday (May 28) I woke up early, since the field trip was scheduled to leave the castle very early in the morning and I had decided to keep to that schedule. I had breakfast with my friends who were going on the field trip, and then returned to residence to get working on my paper. I won't bore you with details, but I finally finished it around 4am Monday morning.
After getting to sleep early Monday (May 29) morning, I slept in until noon, then woke up to do a final edit of my report. When I was satisfied with it, I submitted it via email to my professors, and then took a wonderful nap. That evening I went back to the pub.
Tuesday (May 30) was a fairly non-descript Tuesday. I had 4.5 hours straight of Finance, which is a bit much for anyone to handle. That night I went back to the pub (can you see a pattern developing here?). No, I haven't become an alcoholic; going to the pub is pretty much the only thing to do around here, and it's the natural place for people to congregate. And congregate they do. I played a couple of games of darts with my friend Maureen, and then Maureen and I took on my roommate Jim and my friend Jenny Kooren in several games of foosball. It was an absolute slaughter: I think they beat us five times in a row. Suffice it to say, we were getting pretty rowdy towards the end. So, we decided to mix things up, with Jim and I facing off against the girls. Again, my team lost, earning me the dubious distinction of the worst foosball player ever. It was fun night.
In class on Wednesday (May 31) our finance professor gave us another surprise group assignment, to be presented the next day in class. This time, each group of three had to read a chapter of the textbook - in my case, about accounting (or translation) exposure to exchange rate fluctuations - and then teach the other group the lesson. So, I spent most of Wednesday night working on my section of our presentation. If anybody is interested in learning about such exposure, just let me know.
Thursday (June 1) we had our presentation in class. Ours went a little long - one of my group members had developed an in-class exercise that ended up taking over an hour - but it seemed to turn out okay. That evening I did some laundry and packed my bag for our weekend trip to the continent. After organizing myself, I went to bed fairly early, since our buses were leaving for Calais at 7.00 am.
The next couple of chapters will cover a very busy weekend that incorporates my first taste of Continental Europe - our overnight school trip to Calais and Boulogne-Sur-Mer in France, and my trip with some friends to Brussels in Belgium.
But just bear with me, because the next couple of chapters are going to be really good.
Monday (May 22) morning I had the marketing presentation which I had been preparing for in the last chapter. At the time I had my concerns about it, but in the feedback I received a couple of days ago, our professor said we did exactly what he wanted, and he was happy that we had stayed so on-topic. Bonus!
That afternoon I relaxed and took a very enjoyable nap. In the evening I went to the pub with my friends Jenny Kooren (who I know from Ancaster) and Fiona. It was a fairly quiet night at the pub, so we decided to play a game (they have cards and a variety of board games there), and we settled on Scrabble. It turns out that Fiona is some kind of professional scrabble player, and things got pretty intense.
On Tuesday (May 23) I had my first finance class. The class is ridiculously small (6 people!) and the prof is a really nice guy. We started off by watching a movie about the devaluation of the British pound in the early 90s that forced the UK out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (which was the lead-in to the adoption of the Euro). After that, he divided us into two teams of three, and gave us our first assignment. The assignment was to research and present information to the class about a couple of other currency crises (my team did the Russian Rouble Crisis and the East Asian Financial Crisis)... and it was due the next day. So, I spent most of the night working on that.
On Wednesay (May 24) we made our presentation in Finance, and that went really well. I had class pretty much all day, until 9pm, at which point I headed over to the pub for what was billed as "card game night." I was Jonesing for some euchre, and I taught a couple of my friends to play. We managed to find some others who knew the game, and we had a lot of fun.
Thursday (May 25) I had class all afternoon. My roommate Jim left for Amsterdam that evening, and I spent most of the night hanging out with my friends here, and chatting with people back home. Because of the time difference, I find most of my friends back home are only online to chat with fairly late at night here.
Friday (May 26) was supposed to be my big report-writing day - the final project in my marketing course, was a 3000-word marketing report due on May 29th. My topic was how to sell Hershey's chocolate in Italy and Iceland; it was an in-depth extension of the consumer profiles we had developed in our earlier marketing presentation. Since I had nothing going on that day and no roommate to distract me, I was planning to be ridiculously productive. Instead, I did absolutely nothing important: I went to the Asda (British Wal-Mart), watched a couple of movies, and then went back to the pub that night.
I woke up on Saturday (May 27), ready to make up for the time I'd wasted on Friday. Instead I took a long lunch in the cafeteria with a couple of friends, watched another movie, and finally settled in to start writing just after dinner. By midnight I hadn't gotten very far, which did not bode well - the next day I was supposed to go on an all-day field trip to Portsmouth. That night I made the decision that I was going to have to skip my field trip in order to get the paper finished; it was a heart-wrenching decision, since Portsmouth (the main UK Naval Base, and site of the Royal Navy Museum) was the one place I decided I absolutely *had* to visit while I was in the UK. I figured missing out was suitable punishment, though, for my ridiculous procrastination.
On Sunday (May 28) I woke up early, since the field trip was scheduled to leave the castle very early in the morning and I had decided to keep to that schedule. I had breakfast with my friends who were going on the field trip, and then returned to residence to get working on my paper. I won't bore you with details, but I finally finished it around 4am Monday morning.
After getting to sleep early Monday (May 29) morning, I slept in until noon, then woke up to do a final edit of my report. When I was satisfied with it, I submitted it via email to my professors, and then took a wonderful nap. That evening I went back to the pub.
Tuesday (May 30) was a fairly non-descript Tuesday. I had 4.5 hours straight of Finance, which is a bit much for anyone to handle. That night I went back to the pub (can you see a pattern developing here?). No, I haven't become an alcoholic; going to the pub is pretty much the only thing to do around here, and it's the natural place for people to congregate. And congregate they do. I played a couple of games of darts with my friend Maureen, and then Maureen and I took on my roommate Jim and my friend Jenny Kooren in several games of foosball. It was an absolute slaughter: I think they beat us five times in a row. Suffice it to say, we were getting pretty rowdy towards the end. So, we decided to mix things up, with Jim and I facing off against the girls. Again, my team lost, earning me the dubious distinction of the worst foosball player ever. It was fun night.
In class on Wednesday (May 31) our finance professor gave us another surprise group assignment, to be presented the next day in class. This time, each group of three had to read a chapter of the textbook - in my case, about accounting (or translation) exposure to exchange rate fluctuations - and then teach the other group the lesson. So, I spent most of Wednesday night working on my section of our presentation. If anybody is interested in learning about such exposure, just let me know.
Thursday (June 1) we had our presentation in class. Ours went a little long - one of my group members had developed an in-class exercise that ended up taking over an hour - but it seemed to turn out okay. That evening I did some laundry and packed my bag for our weekend trip to the continent. After organizing myself, I went to bed fairly early, since our buses were leaving for Calais at 7.00 am.
The next couple of chapters will cover a very busy weekend that incorporates my first taste of Continental Europe - our overnight school trip to Calais and Boulogne-Sur-Mer in France, and my trip with some friends to Brussels in Belgium.
posted by Scoops at 5:18 a.m.
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