Hello!
I only have two more days, one final, about three loads of laundry, and a couple hours of packing left before I go home! I can't believe how quickly this semester has gone.
My finals were very spread out, and involved more outside-of-class work than in-class work. I had my climate science final on Saturday, which was the one I was most worried about. I spent all of Thursday, Friday, and most of Saturday studying for it. I feel good about it, and am relieved that the class is over- it was very interesting, but was very work-intensive.
I ended up electing to do my Spanish final, which was optional. I had a big internal debate about whether it would actually make a difference with my grade, but ended up decided it was worth taking a shot- if nothing else, it would make sure I had a firmer grasp on the material. It was an outside of class, written final, so I went downtown on Sunday and wrote it in a coffee shop. We got to choose between three selections by authors we've read this semester, and I ended up writing mine on a poem by Quevedo. It was open book, but I ended up writing mostly from what I already knew about him and the time period- which was a lot, thanks to this class.
I didn't have an IA final, but we did have a final short paper that is due tomorrow. I wrote it on Thursday in order to get it out of the way, so I'm all done with that class too.
Now I just have my environmental studies final left. Instead of a test, we have to come up with a proposal for a research project we may want to do someday. We are sharing them with each other tonight. I'm actually really excited about mine- it's looking at how peoples' perceptions of an area affect their opinions regarding land use change in that area. I want to situate it in Patagonia, where dams may be installed in order to create energy. There's a lot of backlash against it (but also significant support), and I want to look at how someone's perception of Patagonia relates to how they feel about the dams being installed. Our proposals don't have to be a project we're actually planning on doing, but I wanted to put a lot of thought into mine since I'm planning on doing some kind of research in Chile while I'm (hopefully) there in the spring of 2015. We'll see how it goes tonight!
Reading days were a flurry of studying in the library, the basement of Olin (one of the academic buildings), my room, my friends' rooms, lounges, the Bon, the Trail Room, downtown, the library again- the longer I've been in college, the more I've realized that I need a change of scenery pretty often in order to stay focused while I'm studying. Highlights of reading days (and free time during finals) included:
-Dogs in Watzek: the library brought in therapy dogs for a couple hours in order to soothe students. They were really cute. And furry.
-Videogames in Watzek: the library also set up a GameCube with Mario Kart.
-Cat camera in Watzek: they also set up a live stream of kittens playing. They know how to calm college students down!
-The fog: there's been some really intense fog here for the last few days. Campus is on top of a hill, and the fog has mostly stayed up here- I went downtown a few days ago, and for a walk in Tryon yesterday, and when you go down the hill the fog disappears. But it's very pretty!
-Ordering Chinese food for my room: apparently you can order Chinese food to be delivered to you! For some reason I assumed you could just do that with pizza, but I was wrong. I got excited when I found this out, and ordered some.
Overall, it's been a good last week. Now, to go home, see my family and pets, eat lots of food, play in the snow, and relax! I'll try to update at least once during break. Happy holidays to everyone! Please, email me if you have any questions (rekidder@lclark.edu). I'll respond!
-Rebecca
I only have two more days, one final, about three loads of laundry, and a couple hours of packing left before I go home! I can't believe how quickly this semester has gone.
My finals were very spread out, and involved more outside-of-class work than in-class work. I had my climate science final on Saturday, which was the one I was most worried about. I spent all of Thursday, Friday, and most of Saturday studying for it. I feel good about it, and am relieved that the class is over- it was very interesting, but was very work-intensive.
I ended up electing to do my Spanish final, which was optional. I had a big internal debate about whether it would actually make a difference with my grade, but ended up decided it was worth taking a shot- if nothing else, it would make sure I had a firmer grasp on the material. It was an outside of class, written final, so I went downtown on Sunday and wrote it in a coffee shop. We got to choose between three selections by authors we've read this semester, and I ended up writing mine on a poem by Quevedo. It was open book, but I ended up writing mostly from what I already knew about him and the time period- which was a lot, thanks to this class.
I didn't have an IA final, but we did have a final short paper that is due tomorrow. I wrote it on Thursday in order to get it out of the way, so I'm all done with that class too.
Now I just have my environmental studies final left. Instead of a test, we have to come up with a proposal for a research project we may want to do someday. We are sharing them with each other tonight. I'm actually really excited about mine- it's looking at how peoples' perceptions of an area affect their opinions regarding land use change in that area. I want to situate it in Patagonia, where dams may be installed in order to create energy. There's a lot of backlash against it (but also significant support), and I want to look at how someone's perception of Patagonia relates to how they feel about the dams being installed. Our proposals don't have to be a project we're actually planning on doing, but I wanted to put a lot of thought into mine since I'm planning on doing some kind of research in Chile while I'm (hopefully) there in the spring of 2015. We'll see how it goes tonight!
Reading days were a flurry of studying in the library, the basement of Olin (one of the academic buildings), my room, my friends' rooms, lounges, the Bon, the Trail Room, downtown, the library again- the longer I've been in college, the more I've realized that I need a change of scenery pretty often in order to stay focused while I'm studying. Highlights of reading days (and free time during finals) included:
-Dogs in Watzek: the library brought in therapy dogs for a couple hours in order to soothe students. They were really cute. And furry.
 |
| One of the dogs. I couldn't get a clear picture because I was so excited. |
-Cat camera in Watzek: they also set up a live stream of kittens playing. They know how to calm college students down!
-The fog: there's been some really intense fog here for the last few days. Campus is on top of a hill, and the fog has mostly stayed up here- I went downtown a few days ago, and for a walk in Tryon yesterday, and when you go down the hill the fog disappears. But it's very pretty!
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| The fog on campus. |
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| The fog on campus at night (and the view from my room!) |
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| The fog in Tryon. So pretty! |
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| So exciting! |
-Rebecca