The dismal science.

[moireach]

Tuesdays and Thursdays I wake up early, put on a couple pairs of tights, and walk up the street to take the bus downtown to the two (2) econ classes I'm taking as prerequisites in case I somehow actually manage to get into graduate school.

What makes me feel hella old in this situation is not the undergrads wearing leggings as pants, looking at

Comments

[daygloparker]

Yes! Quiz clicker! I only know of the existence of these things due to my former employment in a campus bookstore! Seriously, it is definite Star Trek action going on. At Rutgers, because some of the intro undergrad lectures are HUGE, prof sometimes use them to take attendance.

PARIS!! I'm going at the end of April - are we going to miss the window on me hitting you up for restaurant/cafe recs and/or passing you by on a bicycle while shouting, "Bonjour!!" I mean. I could still totally do that second one...?

[moireach]

Oh man I probably won't get there til the beginning of May or veeeeery end of April because these professors won't let me take my stupid exams early! What dates will you be there?? Perhaps it is I who will be asking you for cafe recs!

[twirls]

I have refused to take classes which were theoretically required because they required an iClicker. I DO NOT KNOW WHY I HATE THEM I KNOW ONLY THAT WE ARE ANCIENT ENEMIES.

That is a terrifically French apartment! I am so excited on your behalf.

[moireach]

Apparently at this school, professors in different departments use different brands of flickers that won't work with each other's systems, so sometimes students have to buy a bunch of different kinds. I would have a meltdown!

[elapses]

Ughhh my university is iClicker CENTRAL, I swear every class with more than 35 people enrolled uses them and that has been the way of things since... before I got here, I guess. I was briefly enamored but as a pre-med freshman who had to take a floppity gen-edish science classes, I got sick of them so fast. Like, I get why professors love to have the ability to take attendance but... it's a giant lecture class. I'm not sure I buy that mandatory attendance should be necessary for those. Especially when half the class is just sitting there for the clicker points but more watching Glee on hulu than actually listening. I have taken so many classes where they were used, and only two where they were used well. (Also when I was a Chemistry TA, we were supposed to bust kids who would bring their friends' clickers and click in for them, because it was considered the same level of cheating as bringing notes into an exam. So: you fail the course and face potential expulsion. Whaaaaaaaat

[moireach]

Haha, I had to have an intervention with myself before we finalized the apartment deal: was it really as great as I thought, or do I just really like the colors blue and orange together??

Yikes, talk about a total overreaction in terms of academic morality! One of my profs actually uses the clickers in cool ways -- she'll throw a question up on the screen and everyone has to scramble to get an answer in (for extra credit) and it's a great way to illustrate whatever she's talking about and get people to actually work out a problem themselves. The other guy so far just uses them for 20 question quizzes, which take FOR-EV-ER to download into the clicker and push the whole class off schedule, so .... ugh.

[myr_soleil]

Paris! I rented an apartment in the 1st arrondissement for our honeymoon. I was all I NEED TO BE RIGHT IN THE CENTER, buuuuut actually the 1st arrondissement is sort of sucky. I would have preferred 5th or 6th. Anyway, 19 is cool! It seems to be near Père-Lachaise and especially Montmartre. Although, I got to tell you, 6th floor walk-up = the worst. That's what we had, too, and it made going out for croissants in the morning kind of terrifying. But of course you're not there for touristing, so I'm sure you'll be fine with only getting out of the house once or twice a day, haha. (Plus, our apartment was so tiny, we had to put the dining table away in order to move around. Yours is much better!)

& We actually call "anthrax" anthrax too! Boring, I know. But maybe they're different down in Paris-city.

[moireach]

So awesome! Yeah, if it were for a shorter time I would totally have been in closer, but I figured maybe a more neighborhoody area would be better in the longer term. It's actually the 15th, so on the left bank and near Montparnasse.... we had strong leads on apartments in both the 17th and 16th, but they both seemed so far away from things. I'm hoping the six flights of stairs mean once I'm out for the day I stay out and do exciting things!

Haha, that makes more sense for the anthrax. My French professor had someone at the CDC do a presentation on it so it's her new favorite piece of trivia, and my dictionary actually confirmed it! Weird weird.

[myr_soleil]

Haha, what, how did I read that 5 as a 9? Sorry about that! 15th is awesome, I love the left bank. Check out the Parc Georges Brassens, I love Brassens. And you will clearly do exciting things - I know we spent more time in cafés instead of going back up home, and isn't that what Paris is all about? I hope you'll tell us some of your adventures, I'd love to read all about it.

Intriguing! I checked an online etymology dictionnary and indeed, "anthrax" and "charbon" can be synonyms. But I definitely remember hearing the word "anthrax" a lot a few years ago (I don't know if you heard about that - people sending anthrax in the mail or whatever?). Wikipedia seems to tell me that in French "anthrax" is an illness that can also be called "maladie du charbon". Confusing! I think you're safe if you tell people that anthrax = charbon, haha.

[herself_nyc]

When are you going to be in Paris? I'll be there for 2 weeks mid-April.

[moireach]

May 1 (ish) through July 15, so I'll just miss you! How fun, two weeks is a great length of time to be there.