Click here to see the little site that I put together! 🙂

Obviously, there isn’t much right now since I’m not there yet, but in a couple of weeks’ time, there will be plenty. For now, check out the pics of the apartment! 😀

Well well well! Things are moving along quite nicely on many fronts:

– classes are over!
– assignments are done!
– project is done!
– two delicious meals are coming up (ribs that I’m going to make on Tuesday, and tenderloin a la John on Wednesday)!
– the New York subsite is well underway!

That last point requires a bit more clarification. In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to work on a separate part of the site for my term in New York. Well, I did indeed work on it last night and tonight. Thanks to my awesome Software Engineering skills, I have my design complete and the skeleton of my site finished.

In addition to using some new design techniques that haven’t been seen on this site, I also ventured into the land of tableless layouts. (That’s nerdspeak for using a very elegant but unconventional way to create pages.) Everything would have been well and good a few hours after I started, but I devoted almost an entire day to solving a problem that Internet Explorer was giving me. I know, I’m a perfectionist.

So far, I am very happy with my progress and I hope to have something up by Wednesday (which is pretty much the last day of freedom that I’m giving myself). All I really need to do is get content up there, and that should be pretty easy to do now that the majority of the code is done.

Yep, I’m a dork.

I do apologize for the lapse in writing; I’ve been fairly preoccupied with school (5 assignments, 1 project in 5 days.. ouch!) and socializing but things are clearing up a little bit now!

My last day of classes is tomorrow, a whole one day earlier than what it said on the academic calendar! The plan is to relax for a couple of days, then buckle down for an intense period of exams:

07/31: Linear Algebra 2
08/02: Combinatorics
08/05: Managerial Accounting
08/09: Business Systems Analysis
08/10: Corporate Finance
08/12: Statistics for Business

While, on paper, it may look bad, the schedule itself is about as good as I could have gotten; I have a lot of time to study for Managerial Accounting (and I will definitely need it), and the two exams back-to-back are ones that I should be able to handle.

And, with the completion of those exams, I hope to put the longest term of my academic career behind me. I’m really surprised by my work ethic this term: I usually put assignments off until I’m under the gun, and my attendance at lectures had been spotty at best. This time around, I’ve been getting assignments done reasonably well in advance, and I’ve attended over 90% of my classes! Who would have thought that going to class would facilitate the completion of my assignments?!

Hopefully, this work ethic will continue next term as I head to New York. That’s happening around August 23, and let me tell you that the date feels awfully soon. People tell me that it’s going to be such an amazing experience and how it’ll be incredible on my resume and la la la, but I think I’m a little skeptical.

The reality is that I will be working long, hard days, and most nights will be spent doing some unexciting things. It is really only on weekends that I can do anything noteworthy, and I do intend on taking in some of the sights, sounds, and flavours of the city. But, I have to remember that New York is a city for rich people and I’m just a poor student.

Heck, I went into debt so that I could go to New York (as there were a lot of costs up front — insurance, flight, rental deposit, etc.), and it is not cheap to stay down there. When it all comes out of the wash, I will probably keep less than what I made last term. So for those of you who are thinking that I’m going to go out to fancy bars and hit up Broadway every night, do think again.

That, of course, is not to say that I won’t do things to enjoy myself down there. Already, a few of my friends are thinking of making trips there, so I will certainly have to be a good host and do some awesome stuff with them. And I hope that I’ll be brave enough to explore the city on my own. 🙂

In the meantime, I am working on a separate part of my site that will capture my experiences there. Stay tuned!