Friday, June 10, 2011

Nothing to Envy

Small miracles sure add up.

.....Persuasive writing ended on the 3rd cuz the teacher is due and didn't want to deal with class on her due date. Presentations of our argument papers (What Are The Consequences Of Remote Sensing On National Security). No final at all!

.....Quantitative Reasoning suddenly changed today to presentations of the final chapters in the text in lieu of a final exam! The presentations (mine is on symmetry in mathematics) are on Monday.

.....History of Modern Korea is the only class that remains intense until the final next week. Thanks to the reprieve from the other two classes, I will actually have just enough time to write the final paper, memorize the final list of terms for a quiz Monday, and take the final (filling two blue books...) during finals week.
Today I finished reading Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick. Personal accounts of life in North Korea. Wow. So much suffering at the hands of a selfish evil dictator. Professor says most Americans don't even know much about Korea and frankly don't care. True that. I had no idea of the extent of the conditions. Sent me back to USSR / USA Cold War days and what I learned about then.

These were good reads as well. I have really enjoyed this class, I have to say. After the torture of Middle East history and geography classes, this has been a nice change and I actually found an interest in the subject.