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| After a two hour written final exam, we headed over to C's place for sushi and a White Elephant gift exchange.
There were only five of us, so stealing the gifts was tricky. C joked that J had been studying all day and hadn't had her gift as of the night before, and J candidly admitted that she had gotten the gift from a gas station. The other four of us studiously avoided the "gas station" gift as we opened and stole the other gifts which were mostly some sort of cosmetic product like bath soaps or hand lotion.
The gift I'd opened had gotten stolen and only J's "gas station" gift was left. "Come on guys, it's not THAT bad," said J. I thought it would be bad form to steal the gift I'd brought despite its awesomeness, so I took a risk and chose J's gift. It turned out to be Harry & David caramel popcorn and... an assortment of scratch off lottery tickets! J said that she had seen an article in the Wall Street Journal (NY Times?) about a grandmother who bought lotto tickets as Christmas gifts for her kids and ended up winning a fortune. We joked about paying for tuition, and I noted that I would indeed have to pay taxes on any winnings XD
They all huddled eagerly around as I scratched my way through the array of tickets, and we all simultaneously murmured in disappointment each time the tickets lost. I won $9 back, and mulled that I had probably lost $7-8 in the gift exchange, but it was a small price to pay for the entertainment value.
We headed back, and it had started snowing outside. Only one final exam and one paper left, but I have the whole weekend to deal with those. I felt content despite the stress I'd been feeling over final exams and finding a summer internship. I thought to myself that as we had crowded around that box of lottery tickets and joked over the prospects of holding a million dollars in that box without knowing it, I had really felt a sense of anticipation. I had to admit, I was getting hopeful there, wouldn't it be great if a lotto ticket won and paid part of my hefty tuition? The tickets of course lost, but it suddenly occurred to me: in Christ, I have a sure bet. I don't have to wonder if I'm going to win - I have the assurance of eternal salvation. More than just a hope, but a promise of eternal life in heaven. A secure fate, a better gift than you'll find in any box. Merry Christmas!!
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16 (The Bible, New Testament)
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| - Saw a squirrel building a nest. (?) Was walking around campus with a friend, who pointed out that the squirrel was racing up a tree with a pretty big stick (a mini-tree branch, almost) between its teeth. XD Watched the squirrel reach its destination, a spot on the tree trunk ~15 feet off the ground where the tree branches separated into different directions, and carefully set the new stick on top of the other sticks that were gathered in the beginnings of a nest. Friend said, "Gotta wikipedia this when I get home." Commiserated with squirrel as its New Big Stick fell to the ground. (Friend: "That was the best stick, the one that dropped." *shakes head sadly* hahaa) Tried to get a picture of squirrel+nest, but it was a bad angle.
- Harold and Kumar style road trip/misadventure with Schmeredith and Boco the night before a career day at a large consumer products marketing company. GPS broken, navigating with googlemaps on smartphone, missed every single exit, took four hours to make a two hour trip. Ended up at the Windmill, (http://www.windmillhotdogs.com/) a Zagat-rated hamburger/hotdog chain. Talked about career, school, life, and boys. Good conversation, hence the missed exits. ^^;; Tiring but definitely one of the more memorable moments of my first year so far!!
- Midnight phone call. Friend getting married on the other side of the planet in a matter of months. Might have to drop everything and go to Asia in March =D
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| Today my Ethics professor started to get emotional in class while he gave us his goodbye speech. To be fair, a lot of people think it's questionable that there's a course on Ethics ("Does anyone really flunk?"). And just as I was starting to ask myself again why I'm here at bschool, considering the sheer amount of work/stress it involves and the giant rat race it is... I remembered that my professors are the most enthusiastic, passionate group of faculty I've ever worked with.
My Ethics professor's voice broke today as he gave his goodbye speech to us (his last class, since he's visiting). He spoke about how he gave up a high-paying salary in a legal career (he has a law degree) and went back to school instead to become a professor, because it was what he really wanted to do. ("My father said that if I went to law school I could do whatever I really wanted to do. And it turned out that what I really wanted to do was become a professor.") He thanked us for the opportunity to teach us, and told us that he had probably learned more from us than we had learned from him ("Here at Wharton, with some of the best students in the world!" he said, sounding kind of like an awestruck teen XD). He was unabashedly grateful for his experience here, and we gave him a long round of applause.
I am kind of notorious for crying in public so I identified with my professor, and I like to think that the public display of emotion boiled down to the fact that his genuine love for his work was so strong that it couldn't be hidden. He earnestly cares about teaching people to make ethical decisions that show consideration for others. The vast majority of my professors here are engaging, spirited, and humorous. They love the subjects they teach, and it shows. My accounting professor has said, "There is never a day where I dread coming to work. I love my job every day." My operations management professor showed a short film that he'd directed the other week. (Tomorrow the losing team from a class competition has to do a two minute choreographed dance!! Lol)
Round II: Fight!
Another Hell Week is drawing to a close. Fair enough, because Q2 Finals are coming up next week. This past week I was behind on everything and I don't know why I get blindsided like this, but then I think to myself, it's because I can't work any harder than this. (Or because I don't want to work harder than this!) I am adamant about not sacrificing quality of life - I may have made the choice to come back to school, but I refuse to hate being here. Will always make time for extracurrics and miscellaneous fun/downtime. If you're the praying kind, please pray for my finals, and the wisdom to understand material that doesn't come naturally to me!!
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| The Charity Ball aka the prom XD Everyone at school goes. Was fun seeing everyone get all dolled up, but was crazy because of the alcohol involved. People do weird things, like make out with other members of Cohort. Talk about a weird morning after. I turned around and saw a girl who I had JUST been talking to now making out with a French dude, and part of me wanted to go all Gossip Girl and snap a picture for proof hahaaaa. A Totally Plastered Guy was dancing up on anyone and everyone (female), which I suppose was fair enough since his date was making out with the French dude!! ^^;;;;; This is the same guy who drunk dialed me early on in the school year, so I guess it's safe to say he's not going to remember any of it. Anyway. I think I would've had a better time without alcohol involved since people kept spilling drinks on the dance floor and getting too close for (my) comfort, but I guess my definition of fun is probably different...
The Charity Ball sold out of tickets hours before the event, and then all of a sudden there was a market for tickets. -___- People were talking about speculating in Charity Ball tickets and selling them for huge profits ("But it's supposed to be for charity!!" "...I'll split it with charity...") And then there were the people who wanted to go but had planned to buy their ticket at the door. Now what...? Do you... go hang out at a bar nearby in your tux? Or do you pretend to be someone else, since the door people aren't checking ID and they're going off a list of registered attendees? Who are you going to screw over by pretending to be them? "You're going to do that to [insert name here?]" "How would he ever find out who did it? Then he can show his ID, and get in for real since it's really him." For an Asian male, it's the perfect crime. It actually happened while I was standing in line -____- Someone discovered that someone else had used his name.
This is so Wharton. Scarce resources, lots of competition. There's never enough of anything to go around: textbooks always sell out which I think is really stupid, not enough spots for leadership venture trips to foreign countries, not enough spots in the Marketing Club's career treks to visit companies, not enough open courts available for signup in the Tennis Club, not enough lockers, not enough jobs to go around!! Eat or be eaten!! ...I guess if nothing else, my survival instincts are being honed lol Having a Smartphone is KEY - if you don't get the email that signups are now open, by the time you get the email and get to the signup website all the spots will be taken. I wish administration wouldn't over enroll (enrollment is 60 students more than last year, but with the same resources), but they claim there are no additional costs for having more students. True for them, NOT true for the students and faculty!!
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| Today I:
- Collected six potatos in my Japanese classroom. XD The Marketing class before us had somehow involved potatos in class, and carelessly left them behind on the tables with no plans for disposal. I squirrelled them away in my backpack and brought them home. Will make something potato-related later lol
- Was friendly to someone I thought was a merely a prospective student, and then he was like, "Is your name...Pauline?" and then I looked closer and discovered he was my old friend from TAC/TAF who I hadn't seen in five years visiting my Ethics class as a prospective student with a totally different haircut and glasses! lol I didn't recognize him out of context - what are the odds that he would visit my very class and sit in the row behind me!! (Like NOTHING in a million!!) The other week, a high school acquaintance who I hadn't seen in eight years sat in on my Operations class, and I wondered all through the class if it was actually him or just someone who looked really similar. I see people in random places a lot.
- Bought a Secret Santa gift for the foreign language program. Asked around, and I was told that my Secret Santa gift target is a Russian guy who speaks Chinese, has a five year old daughter, and likes conspiracy theories. Someone told me to get him something Communist-related. Me: "Oh? Why?" Gift advice giver: "Because he hates Communist stuff. hahahaha!!" ^^;; I couldn't think of anything to get him based on that criteria, so I got him a UPenn sweatband so he could look like a wrestler or a rapper. hahaha
- Kicked off the Battle of the Bands events. I'm one of three coordinators for this schoolwide-competition for student bands. We had a mixer today where musicians looking for other band members got to meet each other. Bassists are in high demand, apparently there's only one guy around and everyone is trying to recruit him lol. I was the only girl there. It was basically a big testosterone fest. The bar played Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" and I was like "Oh, who sings this song again?" and my two male co-organizers looked appalled. I told them that I'm more of the Kelly Clarkson type and they remained appalled. Anyway, we get to listen to mix tapes and audition bands later on in the spring, it's going to be great! hahaha!! Like being on "Making the Band" or something!!
- Am a total sucker for woodblock prints by Hokusai, 17th century Japanese artist. I didn't know it until I bought two notebooks and a sketchbook with various prints on them, plus an actual print for my wall.
Finals are again around the corner, but this is a marked improvement over Quarter 1, stress level-wise. For now at least.
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