Lately

I’m midway through Week 2 of Spring quarter and I can say that things are, well, different. A complete change in pace from my last five quarters in the INFO program. So, what have I been up to?

Banana Cream Pudding

Jules made banana cream pudding using Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies and I can’t stop eating it. It makes a great breakfast, pre-dinner snack, post-dinner snack, before I go to sleep-snack. Needless to say, it’s nearly gone now. I have such a soft spot for sweet mushy desserts.

ECON Classes

Besides eating banana cream pudding, I’m taking the following courses this quarter:

• ECON 471 – International Trade
  An intermediate course in the theory of international trade, using microeconomic analysis, focusing on distributional impacts of free trade. Put simply: economists lub lub luuv free trade. It’s a pretty insightful class thus far and goes really well with my other courses. If only it were macro instead of micro…ah, was so close at having all my ECON courses being such.
• ECON 406 – Economic Growth
  Exploration of growth theory through economic models and cross-country datasets. Basically the course focuses on exploring why some countries are rich and others are poor and what determines growth and development in economies. This class is jam-packed with fun facts. And the Solow model on repeat.
• ECON 409 / POL S 409 – Politics and the Economy
  Study of the interrelationship of politics and economics, focusing on the experience of industrialized democracies. Topics include globalization (see ECON 471), economic inequality (see ECON 406), the welfare state, voting behavior. We read a lot. Besides the 100+ pages of policital science and economics papers we read each week, the course is a seminar consisting of POL S and and ECON majors. This course is probably the most interesting thus far. I had always wanted to take at least one political science course at UW before I graduated, but had thought that there wasn’t room in my schedule. This course hits the spot; it does a fine job of crash coursing POL S basics and combines it with my ECON interests. It’s interesting to be in a cross-disciplinary course where because of everyone’s different backgrounds, the basics of each discipline have to be laid out before discussion to ensure that everyone’s on the same page (i.e. “So when Fed raises interest rates…” or “The medium voter theorem is..”) Makes me wonder how I’d explain Informatics fundamentals (“Information is…”) .

Besides their correlation, the difference with this set of ECON classes, relative to the previous courses I’ve taken, is their focus on international economies. While the POL S class can use a lot of examples from the US at times, it does a lot of analyzing of different forms of government and banking systems in other countries. It’s interesting to have a courseload whose subjects are so deeply interwoven.

Leisure Time
So these two weeks have been pretty chill, to say the least. Class is no longer immediately followed by hours in the lab or in group meetings. My roommate is weirded out by coming home to me laying on the futon watching the History Channel, haha. Actually no, I’m not a total bum. Seriously cannot watch TV for longer than an hour without feeling postively ansy. I’ve been seeing a lot more of friends I haven’t gotten to hang out much with over the last couple months.

Yesterday for example I was done with class at 12:30 so I went downtown. Did some shopping, had lunch with Dean at the waterfront, did more shopping, visited Val at Starbucks, did more shopping, went home and studied. Figure I might as well enjoy it while I can! That is, before the papers, homework, and exams kick in.

Adventures in the Kitchen
I’ve been eating out a lot less. Usually can get through the day on snacks and then at night I’ve been actually cooking my meals. Two nights ago I had cod and rice! Last night I made an Indian chicken dish! Yup, I feel accomplished.

I think that covers it. I signed up for a Capoeria class on Tuesday nights with the Experimental College if anyone else is interested in taking it with me. Have been feeling the need to move more. Zum, zum, zum, é gafanhoto…