Yay School!
- September 30th, 2005
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So the main question on everyone’s mind is probably what I think about school now after working in San Clemente for the last eight months. I like it a lot. There are a few things I had forgotten about when I was gone. For example, I forgot how much time I spend walking outside. I was harshly reminded today as the cold wind blew during the rain. I guess it beats the heat they are having in San Clemente right now.
As for my classes, I am really enjoying them so far. We haven’t really had any homework, so I don’t think it is a fair estimation at this point, but I am sure you guys will be able to tell from my future postings.
Right now I am taking four classes. I will drop one of them by the end of this weekend, but I am not so sure which class I will drop right now. Before I get into that I will talk about the two classes I am taking right now.
The first class is Chinese Literature. I have enjoyed the readings we have done in the first couple days even though the first night we had to read a 24 page bibliography. I didn’t understand the point of it because we didn’t talk about it in class. I have enjoyed the lectures even though my professor is ancient and nervously shuffles his foot while lecturing from his chair. We are starting to study pre-Qin literature and we will continue throughout history as the quarter progresses. To give you an idea of how old some of the translated texts are, I will tell you that the Qin dynasty started when the Qin state came to power and unified China in 221 B.C. It amazes me that any sort of literature or form of writing still exists from that period. I am a little worried about this course because I think my knowledge of Chinese history is severely lacking as compared to the other students in the class.
The second class is where I get to use my left brain. Machine Organization and Assembly Language is a class I should have taken the first year in the department, but what can I say. I put it off for just a little bit. Actually I am quite glad that I am taking it now because I can appreciate it more now than I ever would have back then.
I still have not decided what the third class I am taking will be. I have a choice between taking a linguistics course on syntax or a class on 20th Century Korean literature and society. We are supposed to explore what identity is through this course. The linguistics course sounds really interesting from a programming languages standpoint. I had previously covered a very little about grammars in my discrete math class and this class would be another analytical course for my left brain, but it doesn’t seem so appealing after my Korean literature class this afternoon. Even though I don’t know much about Korea I was able to relate a few of the discussion points back to Chinese culture and my experiences, so I think it will be a fun course. Plus we get to watch some Margaret Cho stand up comedy next week.
I will decided by the end of tomorrow. I guess it comes down to how much reading and writing I want to do this quarter. I think it might be a nice breath of fresh air. What do you guys think?
Oh yeah. School is kind of lonely since most of my friends graduated already. I don’t find myself recognizing as many students anymore. I don’t get to stop in the middle of red square and have nice long conversations anymore. I might just lock myself up in some room somewhere and just read. Or maybe I could make some new friends.
sigh, i’m jealous. i wish i could start school…i miss the life of a college student. the crappy meals, the late nights, the long walks, the friends you meet, the people-watching on the quad, sniff sniff. enjoy it while you can sweetie. college as a twenty-something is completely different that it is for someone who’s 30 something. take the classes that interest you most…then take some required ones so that you can graduate. personally, i’d take the korean course. it sounds cooler than ling, but i think ling might be more applicable to your degree.
-sandra
i agree with sandra about the classes… the korean class sounds cooler. i think you should become a total college hermit and only come out for class. sit by yourself in the dark corners and sometimes growl at people when they come too close. hehe. just a suggestion.
Fuck school, get the fuck out as soon as you can and join me at Microsoft. With people like you, we CAN take over the world. Those bitches will be on their knees, LITERALLY.
When I hear things like this it makes me want to stay in school. It makes me worry about the quality of the workforce.
We should just make a kick ass distributed computing system.
I am not sure if I am envious or relieved I am not where you are right now. Hearing you talk about the familiar UW topics of red square and “Machine Org…blah blah” (What an awful name for that class!), I felt some pang of envy. I really liked going to the UW. But right when you mentioned the “cold wind”…a wave of relief came over me for not having to suffer the miserably cold Seattle winters (ok, maybe it’s called “mild” but that chilly dampness is much colder than 10 degrees below and dry as a bone). I also can imagine your sadness coming back and seeing it’s not the same as you left. I had a similar type of sadness the last night I left the UW. I knew that after that night, I’d never be able to come back and have it be “just like it was in the ‘ole days.” Anyways, as much as I liked the UW, I am finding CUHK is growing on me too. The campus, although it has WAY TOO MANY DAMN CLIFFS to climb, is still very beautiful. I got distracted in Japenese class when the teacher was teaching us “koko, soko, asoko” (here, there, over there) and pointed out the window “asoko wa doko desu ka?” (where is that over there?). I looked out the window and was awe-struck: emerald green mountains coming down to the turquoise water with high rise estates in the foreground. And I also still flashbacks to days at the UW: waking up late on Wednesday morning, wasting away half of the day on the computer (and now, with a laptop, i can do that lying in bed!), and then feeling really guilty about not working on my Friday homework. Oopps. But one thing CUHK doesn’t have is the CS ugrad lab. I miss all that collaboration (and maybe even some of that programming). …Oh! one more thing…I was just thinking a few days ago how much I miss second-hand bookstores (esp. ones with cats!). This last weekend Goldie and I accidently discovered an underground shopping mall near our house. We first were compelled to enter because of the cat we saw. And then we saw another, and another, and another… They led right to a small second-hand bookstore. I was overjoyed. We spent at least 30 minutes going through all the books. But on our way out, we realized that we were led astray, the cats were coming from nextdoor, another second-hand bookstore twice as big. I asked about linguistics books and was lead to a very large section with lots of books on Mandarin and Cantonese, of course. And it was right next to three baskets of cats, including two small kittens! Suffice to say, Goldie had to pretty much pull me out of there (although she also enjoyed watching the kitten play “soccer” with his small toy ball). Anyways, I hope you enjoy your last few months at the UW. I’m sure you’ll meet some new people to make up for us classmates that are gone.