The Final Showdown: Finals at LC

   Hey Guys, I hope everyone has had a nice week. Here at LC we are in full finals mode. We finished classes on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were reading days. These are days that allow students to focus only on studying. I used my reading days to write a couple final essays and study for my Political science final. It was stressful, but I have found that being organized during these times makes the seemingly unmanageable work load manageable. Today, I am nearly through finals. I have one more final of Wednesday, and then I am done.

   On Friday, I had my final Inside-out Prison class. For those of you who have missed my earlier blogs, the inside-out class is an experimental program here at LC. I, along with fifteen other students, travel to Colombia River Correctional Facility and learn about the history of Crime and Punishment in the U.S together with Inmates. It is a very intense class, and the final day was very emotional. The inside students and the outside students are not allowed to communicate after the class, so there was an air of finality in our last meeting. We had a graduation with some selected speakers. Two inside and two outside students spoke. My favorite was a poem written by a man named Mister. It was very eloquent and I thought it really tied the class together.

   Yesterday, I had a lull in my finals schedule. I took the time to go downtown with my friends Scott and Kat. We all needed to get gifts for our family and friends. In Portland, there is a great place called Saturday Market. It is a collection of vendors that sell art, trinkets, and food. It is great for a poor college student like me because I can get a lot of great gifts for really cheap. I found a nice necklace for my sister. I also went to Powells book store and got my Mom and Dad a lot of cool books. I found a really nice gift for Madeline. She really likes big presents. So I got her the giant bear you can find in Costco. I am going to cover it with roses (also from Costco) as the most awesome gift ever. I am really excited for the semester to end. I think going home will be a nice break. Plus, this semester has been rigorous and I can't wait to have a break from school. Anyway, I hope you all have a great week. If you are taking finals, Good Luck!

Best,

Carter