Here's the breakdown:
Monday
Econometrics Lab
10:00 - 11:00
Learning STATA, a data analysis program. Should be cool. Lots of computers and coding and things.
Environmental Economics
18:00 - 19:15
An interesting elective. Definitely interested in this sort of stuff. Seems like it will be a lot of cost-analysis and quantifying various effects of humans on the environment. Lots of resource management (water, oil mostly) as well as a bit of climate change economic policy analysis. My teacher is Turkish.
Tuesday
Contemporary Latin American Writers
10:30 - 11:45
Currently reading these Guatemalan short stories which are very cool. Addison and Ali, friends from Barcelona, are in this class with me. It's nice to have a Spanish refuge with them twice a week. Only drawback is the level of Spanish in the class. Even with regards to teachers, I was spoiled by awesome Spanish literature classes in Barcelona. BC is trying though, that's nice.
Econometrics
12:00 - 13:15
Arguably one of the hardest classes offered at BC, up there with organic chemistry, financial analysis, and various physics classes. Nothing too scary has happened yet. I'm hoping for a lot of math. If the scariness is due to math, I'll be fine. Economics in general should have higher math requirements (and also social science requirements!).
The Physics of Conventional and Alternative Energy
13:30 - 14:45
I finally have... a Jesuit teacher! For physics, no less. This class fits in very well with my economics class, actually. Currently we are going over petroleum and engines and efficiency and energy density and fuel mixtures and extraction techniques. Interesting stuff. This class also emphasizes the importance of water and oil and their finite supply.
Macroeconomic Theory
15:00 - 16:15
Very cool time to take this class. Basically we start off every day with a discussion of current events (Scotland, their currency, and monetary policy come up a lot) and what the macroeconomics of various situations are. The lectures themselves are not too stimulating, but our Turkish professor is very engaging and begins every class with a pump-up song (and lets us email him suggestions the night before class). Yes, that's right. A third of my classes are taught by Turks.
20th Century Tradition I
19:00 - 20:15
The best end to the day. Marty Cohen was my teacher all of sophomore year. He is a powerful and influential teacher, but in a gentle and profound way. We are reading The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil right now, and I really like it. It is a bit of a collection of ramblings, but they have some strange sort of loosely organized meaning strung through them all which hold it together.
Wednesday
Environmental Economics
18:00 - 19:15
Thursday
Contemporary Latin American Writers
10:30 - 11:45
Econometrics
12:00 - 13:15
The Physics of Conventional and Alternative Energy
13:30 - 14:45
Macroeconomic Theory
15:00 - 16:15
20th Century Tradition I
19:00 - 20:15
Friday
No class!
So that's the breakdown. Busy Tuesdays and Thursday, and lots of classes overall. As for other things going on, there is club soccer, undergraduate senate, writing columns for the school newspaper, and a potpourri of less scheduled involvement. The guys I am living with are an absolute pleasure. Lots of witty banter, board games, cookouts, tailgates, a wine and cheese night, a big party last Saturday, and in general a great time. It certainly is something, all this involvement. I have found that I maintain pretty even levels of stress regardless of the situation, but that strangely enough I get even less stressed when I have a lot of things I need to do. So the involvement is fun and oddly de-stressing. It keeps me busy, but doesn't rule my life. Boston College is not an easy school to get into, but it is an easy school to get into, in terms of involvement. Just last Friday I was walking around the activity fair in one of the quads, and wow, I thought, there is just so much to offer. This fair was a collection of hundreds of clubs presenting themselves to (mostly) the underclassmen. I threw my name down for a few, on the off-chance that one of the mass emails from a club's listserv catches my attention and fits into my schedule.
In more personal news, I banged my foot pretty badly last Sunday, so I will be taking this weekend of soccer off. We have our first home game on Sunday, which makes that less than enjoyable. The trainer is "pretty sure" it's not a fracture. However if the pain hasn't gone away by next Monday, I will be going to get an x-ray.
If anyone is interested in reading my first article for The Heights, here is the link: Heights Article
Barcelona reunion, with Tanja (top right) being the biggest surprise, visiting from Vienna, Austria.
We have purchased a hammock. I had a lovely nap on Wednesday afternoon.
Put up my Catalan flag (called a senyera) for Catalan national day.
These are photos from some friends in Barcelona. Wish I could have been there.
