First off--the academics. This semester, I took History of Impressionism, American Political System, Probability and Statistical Inference, Chinese Identity in Paris (French 111S), and Challenges of Living an Ethical Life. I also took a half-credit course (also called a house course) taught my students and overseen by a professor, and mine was on Women and International Development. All my classes were outstanding, and I learned so much from them! My knowledge about ethics in different realms of life (mother-child in The Giving Tree, child psychology in Piaget, politics in Machiavelli's The Prince and Koestler's Darkness at Noon, philosophy in Plato's Apology and Aristotle's Crito, and more!) has definitely improved, and I feel completely confident in carrying on a conversation relating to any of the above mentioned topics. In my house course, I learned a lot about how women are treated in different countries and more about HIV/AIDS, tertiary education, gender equality, female genital mutilation, sex work, etc. It was simultaneously shocking and enlightening, and I definitely carried away with me a lot of the information. It definitely made me a lot more passionate about women's rights, as well. In my French class, I had the opportunity to analyze books written about China by Chinese authors in French, and it was interesting to see how my heritage related to a language I was so interested in, so that was definitely eye-opening, especially since I wasn't aware of a huge connection. In my statistics class, I definitely learned a lot of mathematical things, but one that actually popped into my mind (definitely nerdy, to say the least), was when I went in to Geek Squad to get a replacement battery for my laptop, and the worker there mentioned that with the three-year warranty, only one replacement was provided because HP was losing too much money. I instantly thought of expectations, sample sizes, and I knew that I could calculate how many batteries HP could offer in how many years to turn a profit. I was definitely ashamed and impressed with my immediate thoughts. And last but not least, my art history class. It was entirely enjoyable learning about Parisian society and about Impressionism as an artistic movement related to the political nature of the city (and the country) at the time. It even showed up in real life through a painting a saw while walking through the mall:
One that Gabby & I learned in class! Sorry about the poor quality--most of my pictures are cell phone pictures.
Second--Chronicle events! First off, on November 20, Caroline (my roommate & Chronicle photographer) and I flew to Atlanta to cover the Duke vs. Georgia Tech game. (Read the story here if you'd like!) Since Caroline's cousin works for CNN in Atlanta, we got to tour the building, so I took a couple pretty awesome pictures of the place!
And the rest of my Chronicle and winter break (and basketball!) adventures will come later! Time for bed for now. Happy holidays everyone!
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